Monastic Tradition: Way of the Relaxed Fist

[Submortimer]

Way of the Relaxed fist

"The Art of Peace is the principal of nonresistance. Because it is non-resistant, it is victorious from the beginning. Those with evil intentions or contentious thoughts are instantly vanquished. The Art of Peace is invincible because it contends with nothing."
- Morihei Ueshiba

Lord Shen: How... how did you... how did you do it?
Po: I don't know. Elbows up; keep your shoulders loose...
Lord Shen: Not that. How did you find peace? I took away your parents. Everything. I scarred you for life.
Po: See, that's the thing, Shen. Scars heal.
Lord Shen: No, they don't, wounds heal.
Po: Oh yeah? What do scars do? They fade, I guess?
‐ Lord Shen and Po, Kung Fu Panda 2

“Empty your mind. Be formless, shapeless—like water.
If you put water into a cup, it becomes the cup.
If you put water into a bottle, it becomes the bottle.
You put it into a teapot, it becomes the teapot.
Now, water can flow or it can crash.
Be water, my friend.”
– Bruce Lee

Through full comprehension of the flow of ki, both in their own bodies and in those of their opponents, Monks of the Way of the Relaxed Fist fight with the belief that one should let their foe do all the work. All force, all energy, is ki, weather it is the fire breath of the dragon, the sword swing of the knight, or the arrow shot of the archer; all that must be done is to collect that spent energy and redirect it to a more noble purpose.
Though seemingly lazy and often viewed as sloppy, soft, or weak by other schools, Masters of the Relaxed Fist have been seen to best groups of opponents far too large for most to overcome, and best foes many times their own size: the stronger the opponent, the more likely it is that the Master will win.

Delay Damage
At 3rd level, a Relaxed Fist learns the basics of ki manipulation, and can re-direct damage dealt to them. When you are hit by a melee or ranged weapon attack which you can see that deals you damage, you may spend your reaction and a point of ki to ignore some of that damage, up to your level + your wisdom modifier. On a following turn, as an action, you may make a single melee attack against a creature or inanimate object, dealing additional force damage equal to the damage you ignored. You may store this damage for a number of rounds equal to your Wisdom modifier; if you do not discharge the damage in that amount of time, you take the full amount of damage. You may not delay the damage from another attack until you have discharged the damage from a previous attack.
At 11th level, you learn to swiftly redirect the damage you have taken into another (more than likely unwilling) target. When you use your Delay Damage ability, you may spend an additional point of Ki to immediately redirect that damage: If you are redirecting a Melee attack, you make an immediate melee attack against the target that hit you or another target within 5 feet of you; If you are redirecting a Ranged attack, you make an immediate ranged attack at any target within 100 ft./400ft. In each case, the attack deals your unarmed strike damage + the damage of the attack you redirected.

Naturally Resistant
At 6th level, your training grants you the ability to subconsciously redirect and slough off damage. You take 3 fewer points of all non-magical bludgeoning, piercing, or slashing damage.
At level 11, this ability becomes more powerful. You now take 5 fewer points of damage from all bludgeoning, piercing, or slashing damage.
This ability reduces your damage taken before you can choose to use Delay Damage.

Art of Peace
At 11th level, your mastery over your emotions and your calm state of mind are strong enough to even affect those around you. As an action, you may spend a point of Ki to cast Calm Emotions, with a saving throw DC of 8+your proficiency bonus + your wisdom modifier. In any situation you use this feature, targets affected by it have disadvantage on the saving throw is you have not attacked or acted aggressively towards anyone prior to using it.

Inhuman Reflexes
Your training has become so rote, so ingrained, that you can almost fight in your sleep; your body reacts to danger almost before you even know you're even IN danger. At 17th level, you no longer need to spend an additional point of Ki to redirect an attack (though you may choose not to do so), and Delay/Redirect Damage no longer uses your reaction. You may delay the damage from multiple attacks, provided you do not exceed your limit of Monk level + Wis mod.

Continuing my series of subclasses inspired by GitP regulars, here's one for Easy_Lee, who is very obviously a super chill version of Bruce Lee (or Rock Lee, take your pick).

The real goal here is a very passive, akido/taijiquan style of combat, where you turn the attackers energy back on them(or, more appropriately, into an object so no one gets hurt). A master of the Relaxed Fist should strive to stay out of combat as much as possible, and, when in combat, should strive to keep actual injury to a minimum.
A perfect example would be the fight scene in Kung Fu Hustle between the Landlord and the musicians, while the ranged version of this should look essentially like the cannonball scene from Kung Fu Panda 2.

[PoeticDwarf]

Sorry, but I don't think that this is balanced, at lv. 3 it's just strong with an uncanny dodge like feature + extra damage to enemies sometimes. At lv. 17 you're just OP, the open hand lv. 17 feature is very good, but most enemies already have legendary resistance and a very high CON save, this is every round like 45 damage ignored (if 2 attacks hit you) and you do that damage to enemies, EVERY ROUND.
5x your monk level is later 100, this means you ignore 100 damage / round and do that amount, 2x monk level is already too strong.

[Submortimer]

Sorry, but I don't think that this is balanced, at lv. 3 it's just strong with an uncanny dodge like feature + extra damage to enemies sometimes. At lv. 17 you're just OP, the open hand lv. 17 feature is very good, but most enemies already have legendary resistance and a very high CON save, this is every round like 45 damage ignored (if 2 attacks hit you) and you do that damage to enemies, EVERY ROUND.
5x your monk level is later 100, this means you ignore 100 damage / round and do that amount, 2x monk level is already too strong.

So, I think you're getting a little hung up on numbers.

As a baseline, a level 17 monk of any type can to 4d10+20 (avg 42) damage per turn by spending 1 ki point, and can do this for 17 rounds before having to rest. By comparison, this guy will be doing roughly the same damage, but will be burning through his ki MUCH faster, and up until 17th level won't be matching a standard monk in terms of power at all, just much harder to kill.

[Easy_Lee]

The concept's nice, but I have a few issues.

The level 3 ability is pretty complex, and might be a bit strong. I might simplify it to spending reaction +1 ki and making an attack roll against an adjacent target to try to redirect half the damage to that target. Only works on attacks you can see.

The level 6 ability is just a copy of a feat. It's not a feat monks could normally use, but still. It's also not clear how this interacts with redirect (before, or after?).

The level 11 ability seems a bit weak, considering shadow monks gain three spells at level 3 and open hand monks gain a very useful combat spell cast on them for free at the end of a rest. Elemental monks gain one spell as an archetype feature, but they have many to choose from. Calm Emotions seems to stand out in this build as well.

The last ability is too powerful since it basically means you'll be redirecting all of the damage you take from most foes. I might change it instead to: redirect damage doesn't consume your reaction.

[Gr7mm Bobb]

Idk why but that first ability feels so familiar. . .
Definitely far less complex then the rendition I threw up on the forums. I like the style, but feel that it should not consume a reaction, this is because of the built in limit of 1 set of damage turned aside before release must happen. The only issue then is how it interacts with/combos with catch arrow feature that monks get later anyway.

I the ranged attack that has 100/400 might as well say 400 with the disadvantage because that's what that second bracket is. But I also feel that this is something that you could just as easily say it has a range of 30/400. If you are worried about Sharpshooter playing shenanigans with this feature, just shift the wording a smidge.

The 6th level ability does feel very underwhelming, if anything I would allow it to shrug magical at higher levels.

11th level, more than just 1 spell. I don't quite know what to add yet.

Holy Cow, Buddha just ate his spinach. 5 times the level is intense, not to mention how wary I am of giving any kind of boost to action economy even when it is only for special caveated scenarios. I would honestly keep it at Level + Wis, remove the 1 attack stored limit and make it limited by pool, and allow them to use the stored energy as a bonus action.

Also minor nitpick, there are a handful of typo's that could use a spell checker.

[Submortimer]

Made a couple edits based on suggestions. The level 11 ability is kinda lackluster, but I need something in there that speaks to the "inner peace" bit of the class.

[Ninja_Prawn]

Made a couple edits based on suggestions. The level 11 ability is kinda lackluster, but I need something in there that speaks to the "inner peace" bit of the class.

What about the "dual wielding a rapier and a dagger" part of the class?



Edit: Sorry, forgot the colour.

[Submortimer]

You know, it took me some digging through Easy's post history to get that joke. Well done.

[Ninja_Prawn]

You know, it took me some digging through Easy's post history to get that joke. Well done.

Um... it was actually based on that custom avatar.

[Submortimer]

Um... it was actually based on that custom avatar.

Well that makes sense why I didn't see it. I usually browse the boards at work, so I shut off all the avatars and pictures. Kinda hard to sneakily look at gaming stuff if your boss sees a big ol' mind flayer on your screen

[Ninja_Prawn]

Well that makes sense why I didn't see it. I usually browse the boards at work, so I shut off all the avatars and pictures. Kinda hard to sneakily look at gaming stuff if your boss sees a big ol' mind flayer on your screen

Haha. I'm at work as I type, though I have the luxuries of a) being positioned such that not many people ever see my screen and b) having a workplace that is pretty relaxed about internet-procrastination and c) the fact that no one here has any idea what a mind flayer is!