Way of the Relic Guardian
Monks of the Way of the Relic Guardian worship ancient magical relics, which usually take the form of a small piece of wearable equipment. It is said that the relics they worship hold soul fragments of a creature so ancient and terribly powerful that even the gods fear it's wake. Relic Guardians are tasked with the care and protection of these relics; They study the spirit held within these objects and master their own in order to tap into it's powers. Their psyche must become flexible, sober and resilient enough to sustain the trance like psychic connexion with the relics and prevent them from going mad afterwards.
Tuning Meditation
You can unlock a relic's abilities as part of a short or long rest through a 10 minutes Meditation. To unlock a relic ability, it must be of your Monk level or lower.
Relic Guardian Tradition
This monastic tradition involves deep studies of relics, their history and the spirit they may hold. You gain proficiency in the nature, history and either the arcana or religion skills.
Additionally, you gain the ability to recognize relics. You have advantage on ability checks made to recognize or identify Relics.
Entrancing Relics
Starting at 3rd level, you've learned enough to attune your spirit to the relics, letting you unlock and access their hidden powers.
Relic Trance. As a bonus action, you can choose one relic you are carrying. The relic resonates with your psyche and you enter a Relic trance. For the duration of the trance, you have advantage on Wisdom saving throws and can use and benefit from the chosen relic's abilities you've unlocked through your Tuning Meditation. This trance lasts until you no longer carry the relic, you end the trance (no action required), you die or use this ability again.
Tempered Mind
At 6th level, the control over your mind grants you the ability to withstand and push past physical strain and limits. While in a Relic Trance, whenever you make a Constitution, Dexterity (Acrobatics) or Strength (Athletics) check, you can add one Martial Arts die to your roll.
Spiritual Touch
Starting at 11th level, your control over the relics' powers lets you briefly impose a light trance to those you consider worthy.
While you are in a Relic Trance, as an action, you can spend 1 Ki point to touch a willing creature within 5 feet and choose an unlocked passive feature of a relic you are carrying. The target can use the chosen feature once, without needing to spend Ki points. It mut do so before your Relic Trance ends or you use this feature again, otherwise the use is lost.
You can use this feature three times. You regain all expended uses when you finish a long rest.
Variant : Tuning risk
With this variant, you also must succeed on a Wisdom Saving throws against the relic abilitie's unlock DC to unlock it. Whenever you fail such a saving throw, your Tuning meditation fails and you suffer the according psychic damage, as shown in the table below. Once you've unlocked a relic ability, you can only access and benefit from it through your Entrancing Relics feature.
| Ability level | Damage on failed save |
|---|---|
| 3 | 2d4 |
| 6 | 2d6 |
| 17 | 2d8 |
When making a Relic Guardian...
When you make a Relic Guardian, you should also think about the context surrounding relics in the world. Do Relic Guardians make a secret society? are they part of a bigger one? Do they have their own culture? Are the relics known to the world? Do these monks have monasteries? How many and how do they interact with each other? Does every monk there have a relic? Do they instead roam the land? How did you encounter your master, and how was he living? How many relics do you know exist?
Also, you should try to flesh out what are the relics exactly, and maybe work with your DM to determine their exact place in the world, in it's cosmology and it's history. What form do the relics take; Beads on a bracelet? Masks? ? Are they craftable? By whom? How? Who knows about them? What is the creature who's spirit they hold? Is it linked to a god? Do other individuals worship it as well? Why was it's spirit split? When? How well is the creature known by the world? Can the creature who's soul they hold be awakened? How? How many exist? Are there many set of relics for different creatures? Do relics have sentience? How does that interact with you tapping into their powers? How many can you own?
Relics
Relic Set: Maskeraider Masks
This set of 3 masks are copies of three of the Primal Masks said to hold the spirit of a god's rejected child. These copies were made by Maskeraider Artisan Monks. The actual Primal masks grant enhanced versions of these abilities, but at a greater cost for the bearer.
Fool's Mask
Wearing this mask puts it's wearer in a state of constant, unjustified and intense foolishness and cowardice.
-
(Lvl 3) Dart mastery. - unlock DC: 12
You have the ability to materialize a Dart in the mouth hole of your mask and throw it as ranged weapon attack, without using your hands. Darts made in this way have a range of 60/100 and disappear immediately after they are used. They deal piecing damage and count as Unarmed Strikes for you. -
(Lvl 6) Resilient Escapist. (passive) - unlock DC: 15 Whenever you start your turn with 0 hit points and aren't dead, you can spend 1 Ki point to regain 1 hit point and
gain the benefits of the Disengage action until the end of your following turn. -
(Lvl 17) Fool's Speed. - unlock DC: 17
You can make use of your Ki to run past any obstacle. As an action, you can spend 3 Ki points to gain the benefits of the freedom of movement spell for 1 minute or until you are incapacitated.
Psycho's Mask
Wearing this mask puts it's wearer in a state of constant unjustified and febrile bloodlust and mental instability.
-
(Lvl 3) Legendary Hornwhips -unlock DC: 13
Once on your turn, you can pull or stow (no action required) either one or both of the Horns from the relic. They turn into a sword tipped retractable whips you are proficient with and have a 15-foot reach. They act as a prehensile extension of your hands while you hold them. They deal slashing damage and count as Unarmed Strikes for you. -
(Lv 6) Blinding Folly. (passive) - unlock DC: 16
On your turn, you can spend 1 Ki point to gain advantage on attack rolls until the start of your next turn. Whenever you attack while benefiting from this feature, you must choose your target at random from among the creatures you can see within your range. If a creature provokes your opportunity attack, you must make that attack if you're able to. -
(Lvl 17) Psychotic Frenzy. - unlock DC: 18
As an attack, you can pay 2 ki points for every 30 feet you wish to move, to a maximum of 60 feet; you perform inhumanly fast combos in a 20-foot radius sphere centered on you at the end of every 30 feet of movement. Every time, creatures in the area must succeed on a Dexterity saving throw against your Ki save DC or take 5 Martial arts die + your Dexterity modifier as magical slashing damage, or half as much on a successful save.
Bold's Mask
Wearing this cool looking mask puts it's wearer in a state of constant and intense calm, self-conceit and stoicism.
-
(Lvl 3) Unerrant Focus - unlock DC: 12
Whenever you target a creature with one of the unarmed strikes granted by your Flurry of Blows, it's attacks against you have disadvantage until the start of your next turn. -
(Lv 6) Placid Composure (passive) - unlock DC: 13
Whenever you make a Charisma or Wisdom check, you can spend 1 Ki point to gain advantage on the roll. -
(Lvl 17) Flowing Zephyr - unlock DC: 16
As an action, you can spend 4 ki points and choose a number of creatures up to your Wisdom modifier within 60 feet. You can make one melee weapon attack against each target. Additionally, each target takes 5d10 force damage, and you teleport to an unoccupied space you can see within 5 feet of one of the targets you hit or missed.
Making or Customizing Relics
If you choose to homebrew your own relics, be aware that not only do they add and potentially change the effects granted by features of this subclass, but they can potentially be used in tandem with one another. Therefore, not only should you try to keep their mechanics simple and seprate from one another, but you also shouldn't aim at making particularly powerful ones; especially if your monk will own many.
Ideally, each relic can stand alone and be viable for a whole campaign, but they are straight forward and linear in their use. In other words, this monk's versatility should come from the variety of relics it has at it's disposal; not from a relic in particular. Of course, it also depends on the direction you are taking with them.
Should you ever want to homebrew more relics, here is the base template:
Relic Name
Description
-
(Lvl 3) Ability name -unlock DC:- :
Ability description -
(Lvl 6) Ability name (passive) -unlock DC:- :
Ability description -
(Lvl 17) Ability name -unlock DC:- :
Ability description
More Tips...
You can customize your relics' mecanics further. Some ideas are:
- Make the relics linkable to the monk in a similar way to the warlock's Pact of the Blade, to overcome the hinder of carrying objects.
- For powerful relics, subject the player to enchantment spell effects or other risky drawbacks (madness, illusion spell effects...).
- Add a curse effect to a failed attempt of unlocking an ability.
- Add a lingering effect when the relic is removed.
- Make each relic have a single ability so they must be switched more often.
- Choose a relic format that lets you wear many at once so you don't have to switch through them.
- Add utility features (languages, proficiencies, etc.) to a relic or a relic set.
- Make benefits that scale with the number of a set's relics you have.
- Make a single relic that can hold many soul fragments (so may set of abilities) that you can acquire through meditation or visiting temples, monasteries or sacred places of legend. You could therefore switch which soul fragment you choose for your relic trance, instead of choosing a relic.