The Monk Masters of the Ways

by Abelcain

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The Masters of the Ways

The way of the monk is one of unyielding dedication towards the perfecting of one's martial prowess. With such loyalty and dedication of its members, over time every monastery developed its own unique fighting styles. These styles are closely guarded secrets- and to protect their martial knowledge, it became commonplace to imbue a monastery's greatest practitioner with a magic enchantment that embodies the power of their style. These practitioners are known far and wide as the masters of the ways. This list was inspired by Matt Colville's "The master of Ravens" Which you should definitely check out on Youtube.

Premise, Features, and Goals

Premise

The main premise here is to create a great narrative experience for a Monk PC you're DMing for, as well as creating a way to make up for the lack of magic item upgrades a monk player gets compared to other classes due to the lack of armor and weapons they use. Instead, the Monk player will have the chance to defeat powerful enemies in a one on one scenario in order to unlock new abilities.

These new abilities are acquired in the form of magic tattoos granted after defeating a rival master of a different monastery's style in single combat. The overall goal being to defeat every master and obtain all of the abilities. But be warned, while a win unlocks a new ability, a loss will grant all of the monk's mastery powers to the master who defeated them!

One might be a little hesitant about granting a ton of abilities to their monk players- especially some that appear quite powerful. Overall, a lot of these abilities are just fun, and have lateral or lower damage output than the base monk abilities. And with the monk's limited ki, the new abilities use the same resources- so having all of these abilities ends up giving a lot of unique combat choices and abilities without actually unbalancing things noticeably. Feel free to make adjustments and play around with it how you see fit.

Finally, I will leave specific stats out of the Master's list so you can run them at any level, but as a general guideline, adjust the HP and damage per round to something similar to whatever CR the monk could beat alone, but still tough enough to be satisfying.

List of Masters

1. The Master of Ravens

The Master of Ravens is a Hobgoblin Iron Shadow (base statblock found in Volo's Guide to Monsters). Unlike some of the other masters on this list, the Master of Ravens will actively seek out the monk PC rather than be found in a monastery. Perhaps one night while the Monk is on watch, he/she sees a glittering illusion out in the darkness. Upon turning back to the camp, the PC is shocked to see this devil-masked female Hobgoblin calmly sitting by the fire. She offers what is probably the first master challenge the Monk will face.

Prize: The Iron Shadow Once per turn you can teleport 30 feet before or after making an attack. You also learn the minor illusion cantrip and can cast silent image once per day for 1 ki point.

2. The Master of the Third Eye

The Master of the Third Eye is either an adjusted Githzerai Anarch or Githzerai Enlightened- both found in Mordenkainen's Tome of Foes (or a basic Githzerai Monk for something easier). These elite Gith soldiers are powerful Monks that developed strong psionic (telekinetic) powers!

Prize: Awakened Third Eye An eye tattoo on the Monk's forehead. This tattoo can cast an invisible mage hand at will, and for one ki point can use "Temporal Strike" as an action, adjusted to deal 2 martial arts dice of normal damage and one martial arts dice of psychic damage in addition to making the targeted enemy roll a wisdom saving throw. On a fail, the target disappears, getting thrown forward one round in combat and reappearing in the same spot on the Monk's next turn.

Or consider adding the Githzerai Anarch's gravity reversal ability. Its super cool, but its pretty situational.

3. The Master of Giant's Rage

The trek up the mountain to this Monastery will be perilous. A barrage of icy boulders are constantly being launched down on the path from above. The Master of Giant's Rage is most likely a Goliath Rune Knight- one that grows an additional size at the start of the challenge and fights unarmed. Rather than making attacks, this master will attempt to grapple the monk and shove them off the mountain top Sumo style.

Prize: Rune of the Giant's Rage You count as one size larger when determining how much you can push, pull, or carry. You may spend one ki point to throw an ally within 5 feet of you up to 20 feet. Or, you may spend 2 ki points to throw a grappled enemy up to 20 feet, dealing 2d6 damage plus an additional 1d4 bludgeoning damage to the enemy and one additional enemy if thrown into another creature.

4.The Master of Pestilence

The Master of Pestilence is a Grung slaver (Use any basic martial artist statblock but give it poison immunity and the Grung PC race's poison skin racial).

Normally, this racial is not an issue at all... but with both characters fighting as unarmed monks, every hit on every turn will make the PC monk roll a constitution poison save!

Prize: Pestilent Skin- This tattoo covers your body and is the speckled black and neon green of Grung skin. You gain poison resistance as well as the Grung's poisonous skin racial trait.

Note: That trait looks overpowered on paper, but with a DC of 12, it triggers so rarely its not even worth charging a ki point. Its just cool.

5. The Master of Abominations

The Master of Abominations is a Simic Hybrid who focuses on monstrous experiments to improve his combat prowess rather than dedication and training. Use a regular martial artist or monk statblock but give it an extra AC and set its range to 10 feet instead of 5.

Prize: Evolutionary Mark This tattoo has tentacles going down your arms as well as an additional animal representing the other choice of animal part picked by the Monk.

For one ki point you can summon a pair of tentacles above your arms for ten minutes. These appendages can attack as normal, but with an additional 5 feet of range. They can use your Strength, Dex, or Wisdom modifiers. In addition you may choose a level one Simic Hybrid animal part racial trait.

6. The Master of Tigers

Okay, this should really be "Master of Lions" because its the Leonin racial, but anybody who listens to the Wu-Tang Clan knows that Tiger Style is what makes Wu-Tang Clan nothing to F with.

This Master could use the Leonin iconoclast statblock, but its pretty much identical to any other basic monk/martial artist block anyway. Just give this master a bonus action leonin roar ability. Super straightforward.

Prize: Here me roar!- Once a day you may spend a ki point abd perform a bestial roar as a bonus action. All enemies within 10 feet of you must pass a wisdom saving throw or be scared of you until the end of your next turn. The save DC is 10+ your proficiency bonus + your constitution modifier.

7. The Masters of Planes

The Masters of Planes are a group of 4 Genasi Monks, each representing one of the four elemental planes. Their monastery is located on a cliff side overlooking a river in a sweltering desert.

All four of these Masters must be fought- either at the same time or one after another. If you choose to run them at the same time, make sure they are significantly lower CR than the monk to make up for the uneven action economy.

Prize: Attunement of the Planes The four elemental symbols are tattooed on your chest or back. You unlock the 1 and 2 ki point spells from the four element monk subclass. If you already know them, you can instead take the Genasi racial spells and cast the first level one for 1 ki point and the next level for 2.

8. The Master of Wonders

Not a Master at all! At some point after winning one or more master titles, a challenger will seek out the monk.

This challenger appears to fight unarmed, wearing a thick robe. However, after defeating this challenger its revealed that he was actually an armorer artificer in a hidden suit of power armor- trying to steal all of the mastery tattoos to use as magic infusions!

Prize: No tattoo, but perhaps you could strong arm him into giving up one of his replicated magic items?

9. The Master of Bats

The Master of Bats can be found among groups of Vampires or strong undead. Use the blood drinker vampire statblock from guildmasters guide to ravnika or the vampire spawn statblock from the MM.

Prize: Essence Transfer- When you land a killing blow you can spen a ki point and gain 1d8 temporary hp, or you can spend 1 hit die and 1 ki point to deal an additional 2d6 when making an attack.

10. The Master of the Dragon Turtle

The Master of the Dragon turtle can be found out on the open sea- his monastery may be a tower on the back of a floating Dragon Turtle, or a lighthouse tower on an island. He is a wise Tortle monk, and in addition to the normal Tortle racials, he has a Dragonborn breath weapon racial that does steam (fire) damage. He can also finish his flurry of blows with a powerful tail swipe that does a martial arts die of damage, and on a failed dex save can knock a target prone and fling them back 15 feet- then the Tortle also goes prone, gaining 3AC.

Prize: Dragon Turtle's Blessing- Can do the Dragon Turtle Master's breath attack once a day (same stats as dragonborn racial) and can change final attack each turn into a powerful kick that knocks target prone and 15 feet away for 2 ki points.

11. The Master of Answered Prayers

The Master of Answered Prayers can be found not in a monastery, but in a convent. She wears no armor but black robes and a nun habit. Her first attack each round is with a silver incense censer on a chain, she can take the dodge or disengage action as a bonus action every time she does a flurry of blows. Finally, for a ki point she can switch one of her attacks per turn into a 1d8+wisdom modifier healing touch.

Prize: Desperate Plea- Allows the monk to spend a ki point to heal a target for 1 martial art die instead of dealing damage, also gives you a bonus action dodge or disengage after you use a flurry of blows in a turn.

12. The Master of Soothing Words

The Master of Soothing Words does not train students in a monastery, nor does he hide away training in a tower night and day. This gentle Firbolg can rarely be found walking through nature, but can typically be found in city parks or even street corners spreading his philosophy to whoever will listen.

Being so easy to find, many Masters seek him out as their first challenge. Despite this, he remains undefeated- not due to his martial prowess, but due to his challenger's tendencies to withdraw their challenges and yield before the fights can begin.

The Master of Soothing Words has advantage on insight checks to determine the best way to figure out what a person needs to come to a peaceful resolution, advantage on persuasion checks to make that resolution happen, and if that fails, instead of attacking, the master can use calming touch. Calming touch requires a DC wisdom save, and on a fail the target is unable to attack or cast damaging spells for one minute unless attacked first.

Prize: Tranquility- A tattoo of a sunrise that matches your skin color perfectly. Though its not visible, it gives off a warming sensation that makes you feel safe and serene. You get advantage on insight and persuasion checks towards peaceful resolutions and can use "Calming Touch" for 2 ki points on the first round of combat.

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