A Conduit is someone who is in touch with the ever flowing weave and has opened themselves and their body up to the wild and infinite possibilities it holds. But being a Way of the Conduit Monk comes with a price. When you let something as dangerous as pure magic into your body it takes your very life force to redirect its path and its illusive intentions. They do not generate this arcane energy, no, a Way of the Corporeal Conduit Monk simply takes what is already there and lets their body be the conductor.
Living Conduit
When you choose this tradition at 3rd level you have chosen to expose and give part of yourself to the pure power of the weave. If a creature is in contact with you, you may act as their spellcasting focus as their magical energy flows through you.
Also your physical body has become imbued and altered due to the close contact with the arcane:
- Magical Fortitude: Your maximum hit dice is permanently increased by 3 and you regain half your hit dice over a short rest and all over a long rest.
- Life Force Channeling: You may use your Constitution instead of Dexterity for your Unarmed Strikes and Unarmored Defense
- Instant Conversion: As a bonus action you can expend a number of your hit dice equal to your proficiency bonus, roll the dice, and restore hit points equal to the result.
Arcane Absorption
Also at 3rd level you are now open to the arcane and can be filled with magical energy. You gain the following benefits:
- When you take damage from a spell or magical attack you can use your reaction to utilize your bodies arcane absorption abilities to integrate some of the magical energy into your body. When you do so, the damage you take from the spell or magical attack is reduced by 1d10 + your Constitution modifier + your monk level. If you reduce the damage to 0, you regain a number of hit dice (Up to your maximum) equal to the level of the spell cast or you can immediately expel the arcane energy by spending 1 ki point to make an unarmed strike as part of the same reaction, adding your Constitution modifier to the attack roll and damage.
Corporeal Redirection
At 6th level when you become the target of a spell you now can tap deep into your corporeal connection to the weave and you can attempt to alter the trajectory of a spell. You now have these options when you are the target of a spell.
- Willing Redirection: Three times per short rest when a creature targets you with a spell, if both you and the creature casting the spell are willing, you can choose to expend 1 hit dice in order for another creature within 30 ft of you to be the target of the spell instead of you. If a spell is cast through you this way then you may roll your hit dice and add the result to either the amount of damage or the amount of healing done.
- Unwilling Redirection: Once per long rest if you are the target of a spell that only targets you then as a reaction your body can attempt to overpower the incoming spell effects and redirect the spell by force. You can expend up to as many hit dice as is equal to your Constitution modifier, roll the hit dice, and if the result is higher than DC 10 + the spells level you can choose to either end the spell or redirect it to another creature within 30 ft of you making them the target instead and you suffer a level of exhaustion.
Physical Weaving
Starting at 11th level by allowing magic to move through you your mind, body, and spirit have started to become interchangeable. You now can do the following:
- Healthy Constitution: When you are forced to roll a Constitution saving throw you can draw from your life force to help improve the result. Before you roll for the saving throw you can choose to expend a hit die, roll it, and add the result to the roll.
- Shared Concentration: If a creature within 5ft of you casts a spell that requires concentration, and both you and the creature casting the spell are willing, then you can spend 3 ki points in order to hold concentration on the spell instead. You follow the standard rules for maintaining concentration but the spell is considered as being cast by the original caster for purposes of the spell.
Impossible Vitality
At 17th level your life force and the weave are intertwined and have become impossible to separate. Your vitality and health has risen to the supernatural;
- Your max hit points are increased by 30.
- Whenever you roll a hit point die you can choose to take the average of the die instead.
- You gain magical resistance.
Alternant Feature/Cut/Suggested ideas
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While I know that this is not in any of the RAW and so it would make this subclass less official I have an idea that could keep the Con stat as the center of the class (This is just because I really really like the flavor of Constitution being the main stat) and that is to include a note or a caveat with this subclass that would sound something like this;
As a Monk you can choose to commit yourself to the Way of the Conduit monastic tradition starting at level 1. If you do so than you use your Constitution instead of Dexterity for the attack and damage rolls of your unarmed strikes and for the Unarmored Defense feature. If chosen in this way than at 3rd level this is the tradition you have chosen. -
Balance adjustment: "Allowing you to use Con instead of Dex for attacks and AC is kind of scary. You will have +3 or +4 extra health per level compared to a normal Monk who only has a 12 or so Con. You lose some initiative, but you Con saves improve a lot and you don't really need high Dex for Dex saves because you get proficiency and evasion." - u/bedrocksthelimit. That is something to consider and I am leaning towards agreeing. The adjustment could be to take away the 3rd level Arcane Absorption feature.
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Because of Monk levels 1-2 (Especially Unarmored Defense) do not synergize with the Constitution stat and so it is not narratively logical it could be restructured so that this is a Wisdom based class.
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Balance change to the 17th feature (It was suggested that it is OP at the moment):
Impossible Vitality
At 17th level your life force and the weave are intertwined and have become impossible to separate. Your vitality and health has risen to the supernatural. Whenever you roll a hit die you can choose to take the average of the die instead. and you can choose one of the following effects.;
- Your max hit points are increased by 30.
- You gain Magic Resistance.
- Your hit die become a d10 (maybe a d12 if it is not OP)
- Your Constitution scores increase by 4. Your maximum for those scores is now 24.
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Because Spellcasters are actually fairly rare enemies this leaves the 6th level Unwilling Redirection feature not consistently usable enough to be viable. I have considered changing the feature from redirecting only spells to broader idea of redirecting all magical effects. But when I researched what the true definition of magical effect was in RAW I found that that it is super loosely defined so I am afraid it is too abusable or too dependent on the DM.
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Replacement for Unwilling Redirection: "If you are subjected to an effect, the source of which being magical, than you can use your reaction so that your body can attempt to overpower the incoming magical effect and redirect it by force. You can expend up to as many hit dice as is equal to your Constitution modifier, roll the hit dice, and if the result is higher than the DC (?) you can choose to either end the effect or redirect it to another creature within 30 ft of you making them suffer the effect instead."" (Usually you have a saving throw before you suffer a magical effect but I don't know what the DC would be if you suffer the effect automatically.)
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Cut Feature: You may also use your arcane absorption to store spells. A creature within 5 ft of you may spend an action in order to store a 3rd level or lower spell within your Ki. The creature must use all the necessary components and expend the appropriate spell slot used to cast the spell in order for the spell to be absorbed.
While a spell is stored within you are able to cast it as if you were the spell caster, using Constitution as your spellcasting ability and your Ki save DC for all saving throws. A spell can be stored for a number of minutes equal to your Wisdom modifier.
Thank you so much for taking time to look at this. I know it is a lot.