Way of the Sacred Fists
Way of the Sacred Fists
Monks of the Way of the Sacred Fists are an off-shoot sect of the Way of the Open Hand. They have stepped closer to the religious origins of the monastery to study divine power, forgoing some of their martial training. Their techniques have changed, focusing more on control and manipulation rather than brute strength and empowering themselves. Because of the unique and narrow requirements of this tradition, many potential students are ejected during the first few months of training. Characters who take the Way of the Sacred Fists as a subclass must be Lawful Good, and have the Acolyte, Charlatan, Far Traveler, Hermit, Outlander, or Sage background.
Sacred Fist Technique
Starting when you choose this tradition at 3rd level, you can manipulate your enemy’s ki in minor ways when you harness your own. Whenever you hit a creature with one of the attacks granted by your Flurry of Blows, you can impose one of the following effects on that target:
- It must succeed on a Dexterity Saving Throw or be knocked prone.
- It must succeed on a Strength Saving Throw or drop an item it is holding (your choice).
Divine Spellcasting
Training in the Way of the Sacred Fists consists of many sessions of worship and supplication. By the end of which, the student must have convinced a Lawful Good god to name them as one of their chosen. If they haven’t, they are ejected from training. When you choose this tradition at 3rd level, you gain the Spellcasting ability. As a conduit for divine power, you can cast cleric spells. See Spells Rules for the general rules of spellcasting and the Spells Listing for the cleric spell list.
Cantrips
At 1st level, you know three cantrips of your choice from the cleric spell list. You learn additional cleric cantrips of your choice at higher levels, as shown in the Cantrips Known column of the Sacred Fists Spellcasting table.
Spell Slots
The Sacred Fists Spellcasting Table shows how many spell slots you have to cast your spells of 1st level and higher. To cast one of these spells, you must expend a slot of the spell’s level or higher. You regain all expended spell slots when you finish a long rest. For example, if you know the 1st-level spell cure wounds and have a 1st-level and a 2nd-level spell slot available, you can cast cure wounds using either slot.
Spells Known of 1st Level and Higher
You know four 1st-level spells of your choice from the cleric spell list. The Spells Known column of the Sacred Fists Spellcasting Table shows when you learn more cleric spells of your choice. Each of these spells must be of a level for which you have spell slots, as shown on the table. For instance, when you reach 11th level in this class, you can learn one new spell of 1st or 2nd level. Additionally, when you gain a level in this class, you can choose one of the cleric spells you know and replace it with another spell from the cleric spell list, which also must be of a level for which you have spell slots.
Spellcasting Ability
Wisdom is your spellcasting ability for your cleric spells. The power of your spells comes from your devotion to your deity. You use your Wisdom whenever a cleric spell refers to your spellcasting ability. In addition, you use your Wisdom modifier when setting the saving throw DC for a cleric spell you cast and when making an attack roll with one.
- Spell save DC = 8 + your proficiency bonus + your Wisdom modifier
- Spell attack modifier = your proficiency bonus + your Wisdom modifier
Spellcasting Focus
You do not require any object to focus your divine energy. Your body and your ki are enough to provide any spell’s material requirement that does not have a specified monetary value.
Sacred Fists Spellcasting Table
| Level | Cantrips Known | Spells Known | 1st Level Spell Slots | 2nd Level Spell Slots | 3rd Level Spell Slots |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 3rd | 3 | 4 | 2 | - | - |
| 7th | 3 | 5 | 3 | - | - |
| 11th | 3 | 7 | 4 | 2 | - |
| 15th | 4 | 8 | 4 | 3 | - |
| 19th | 4 | 10 | 4 | 3 | 2 |
Wholeness of Body
At 6th level, you gain the ability to heal yourself. As an action, you can regain hit points equal to three times your monk level. You must finish a long rest before you can use this feature again.
Improved Flurry of Blows
Starting at 11th level, whenever you use your Flurry of Blows feature, you can substitute a ranged attack with Darts or any light melee weapon with the Thrown property for any of your unarmed strikes granted by this feature. Such attacks do not benefit from your Sacred Fist Technique feature.
Quivering Palm
At 17th level, you gain the ability to set up lethal vibrations in someone’s body. When you hit a creature with an unarmed strike, you can spend 3 ki points to start these imperceptible vibrations, which last for a number of days equal to your monk level. The vibrations are harmless unless you use your action to end them. To do so, you and the target must be on the same plane of existence. When you use this action, the creature must make a Constitution saving throw. If it fails, it is reduced to 0 hit points. If it succeeds, it takes 10d10 necrotic damage. You can have only one creature under the effect of this feature at a time. You can choose to end the vibrations harmlessly without using an action.
Supernatural Self
At 20th level, your divine devotion and training in martial combat has reached supernatural levels. Your Dexterity and Wisdom Scores increase by 2. Your maximum for these scores is now 22.
Analysis Explained
Here is the reasoning behind this subclass
- According to his Deflect Missiles, Slow Fall and Wholeness of Body features, Hlam is a 20th level monk.
- However, his stats are way exaggerated, even for 20th level, and, at the same time, his proficiency bonus is only +5. I’m guessing it was smoothed out for his role as an NPC.
- I decided to roll that back a bit and consider him a full 20th level Monk who got his hands on, at least, one Manual of Quickness of Action and one Tome of Understanding.
- Despite the conflicting and obviously not balanced features, I tried to smooth it out as much as I could to fit the structure of standard Monk advancement, so I won’t have to build an entirely new class. Meaning, I assumed he will have a +6 proficiency bonus and that the Dexterity and Wisdom attributes were exaggerated and maybe enhanced by a Manual/Tome.
- According to his spell caster level, he is a quarter (1/4) caster. Which is a first for D&D 5E. I started him off at level 3 so it will be thematic and he won’t have to wait to level 20 to get his final caster level.
- The main assumption of the Monk class application is that the designers disregarded Ki in order to not overburden the GM. Ki would explain why his Multiattack is weird, his quick step and unarmed strike legendary actions as well as other things. In order to keep it to a simple monk, I assumed Ki exists and functions as normal.
Level by Level
- So, first two levels are as normal and level 3 changed, as his Open Hand Technique is different. He makes someone drop items and not pushing them and he has no ‘no reactions’ options. I considered his stun option as a replacement for stunning strike so I ignored it. Getting Cleric spells balances it out if not outpaces it. Deflect Missiles work as normal.
- Levels 4 and 5 are as normal and Level 6 grants the regular Wholeness of Body
- At level 7, evasion works as normal. However, according to Hlam’s stats, he dosen’t have Stillness of Mind but straight out immunity to Charmed and Frightened. I also assumed this was done for simplicity and ease of use and just left it as it is.
- Level 8, 9 and 10 are as normal. The unarmoured movement improvement isn’t mentioned in Hlam’s stat block but I’m not touching that. And Purity of Body is clearly evident from his stats.
- At level 11, there is no Tranquility. But he does get another spellcasting level and this is a good place to integrate his improved Flurry. Also, because I think it’s something monks should have been able to do from the beginning.
- Levels 12 and 13 are as normal. Level 14’s Diamond Soul is not evident in Hlam’s stats but, as a basic Monk feature, I believe it was left out to keep him simple so it stays.
- Level 15 and 16 as normal. Hlam’s Quivering Palm is different but I believe it was made this way to simplify his NPC stat block. So I kept it as is.
- At level 18, it seems that Empty Body was simplified into a kind of Hidden Step used as a Legendary action. I decided to leave it as is, as it’s a basic Monk feature.
- Level 19 is as normal. And level 20, just to explain his stats, and also because Monk’s Capstone is kind of disappointing, I added a Barbarian-like feature.
Copyright Notice
DUNGEONS & DRAGONS, D&D, Wizards of the Coast, Forgotten Realms, the dragon ampersand, Player’s Handbook, Monster Manual, Dungeon Master’s Guide, D&D Adventurers League, all other Wizards of the Coast product names, and their respective logos are trademarks of Wizards of the Coast in the USA and other countries.
©2018 Wizards of the Coast LLC, PO Box 707, Renton, WA 98057-0707, USA. Manufactured by Hasbro SA, Rue Emile-Boéchat 31, 2800 Delémont, CH. Represented by Hasbro Europe, 4 The Square, Stockley Park, Uxbridge, Middlesex, UB11 1ET, UK.
This work contains material that is copyright Wizards of the Coast and/or other authors. Such material is used with permission under the Community Content Agreement for Dungeon Masters Guild.
All other original material in this work is ©2018 by Eran Arbel and published under the Community Content Agreement for Dungeon Masters Guild. Printing of this document for personal use is allowed. All other rights reserved.