Monastic Tradition
Way of the Stormdancer
Not all monks wait patiently in a sanctuary, meditating for the day their skills are required. The Way of the Stormdancer demands its adherents go out to experience the world, discovering enlightenment through personal experience of nature's awesome and terrifying power. It is common for them to enlist aboard ships, standing in the rigging or lashing themselves to the mast when a mighty gale blows through. Stormdancer monks want to harness the lightning and learn to flow through the world as the wind does, gaining a special communion with the sky.
Stormdancers more often hail from the common folk, finding monastic practice to be a route out of difficult circumstances and into a more connected state. With a wandering lifestyle and even fewer attachments to any given place, it can be difficult to reconcile a noble origin with storm-chasing peregrination.
Way of the Stormdancer Features
| Monk Level | Feature |
|---|---|
| 3rd | Windsight, Rhythm of the Storm |
| 6th | Galetouched |
| 11th | Cloud Combatant |
| 17th | Storm Spirit |
Windsight
When you adopt this tradition at 3rd level, you gain the ability to listen to the winds and hear what they convey. You gain advantage on all Perception checks involving hearing, and anytime you are outdoors, you can spend 1 ki point to learn weather conditions for the next 24 hours.
In addition, your jumping distance is doubled, and you can use your Dexterity modifier in place of Strength for determining your jump distance..
Rhythm of the Storm
Also at 3rd level, you are able to harness the storm's power for yourself. When you roll initiative or as a bonus action, you can choose to channel either lightning or wind.
Channeling lightning gives you the following benefits:
- When a creature damages you with a melee attack, they take lightning damage equal to your proficiency bonus.
- In place of an attack when you take the Attack action, you can hurl bolts of electricity, which act as ranged weapons (30/60) with which you are proficient, dealing 2d6 lightning damage on a hit. As a bonus action, you can spend 1 ki to throw one bolt.
Channeling wind gives you the following benefits:
- Your Step of the Wind does not cost ki points to use.
- Once per turn on your turn in place of an attack, you can throw out a forceful wind blast in a 15-foot cone. Creatures in the cone must make a Strength saving throw against your ki save DC or suffer 1d8 magical bludgeoning damage. Large or smaller creatures failing the saving throw are knocked back 10 feet. Before you throw the wind blast, you can spend 1 ki to increase the cone to 30 feet and increase the damage by 1d8.
Using these special attacks counts as using a monk weapon, for class features that require it.
Galetouched
At 6th level, your command of the storm's power increases. You gain resistance to lightning damage, and your jump distance increases to triple its base.
Cloud Combatant
At 11th level, you can summon storm clouds at will. You gain the ability to cast fog cloud and call lightning. You can cast each once, regaining the ability after a long rest. If you have already cast a spell, you may ast it again by spending ki points equal to its spell level.
In addition, you may treat clouds, including your fog cloud and call lightning spells, as solid ground for purposes of climbing and jumping, though you still fall if you end your turn standing on one.
Storm Spirit
At 17th level, you can transform yourself into an elemental avatar of the storm. As a bonus action, you can assume this form for 1 minute, which grants the following benefits:
- You gain immunity to lightning damage.
- You gain a fly speed equal to your walk speed, with hover.
- You gain both the benefits of lightning and wind channeling simultaneously.
- Your special attacks from Rhythm of the Storm have their damage dice doubled, dealing 4d6 per lightning bolt or 2d8 per wind blast.
You can use this ability once, regaining its use after a long rest. If you have no uses remaining, you can spend 5 ki to use it again.
Way of the Stormdancer quirks
The following are some optional quirks for a player of this subclass to choose from.
| d6 | Quirk |
|---|---|
| 1 | Your eyes shimmer with electricity at all times. |
| 2 | Your fingertips are blackened and scarred. |
| 3 | You have a permanent smell of ozone. |
| 4 | Your hair and clothing are windblown, even in still weather. |
| 5 | You don't understand why your comrades snicker every time you say "I will make wind." |
| 6 | You prefer to sleep outside and uncovered on rainy nights. |
Changelog
v0.5
- Nerfed lightning channel and clarified action economy
- Clarified that wind blast is not hit-confirmed
v0.4
- Added proficiency on Rhythm of the Storm's lightning channel weapons
v0.3
- Updated art and license
v0.2
- Buffed Storm Spirit
v0.1
- Rough Draft
Credits & References:
Way of the Stormdancer created by somanyrobots Discord | Patreon
Art
Narset, Enlightened Master by Magali Villenueve © Wizards of the Coast
Background Image Stains
License
- © 2024 somanyrobots
5E SRD Content
This work includes material taken from the System Reference Document 5.1 (“SRD 5.1”) by Wizards of the Coast LLC, available here.
The SRD 5.1 is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License available here.