New Class! The Alternate Monk v1.0.0 (Patreon)

Hey all! 

I've been working diligently trying to "fix" the monk class in a way that fits with the design philosophy of 5e (simple mechanics for an evocative archetype). The monk, with its (frankly) wild number of class features and niche thematic archetype was a bit of a challenge. I decided I wanted the Alternate Monk to do a few things different than the monk class as presented in the Player's Handbook:

Reduce the MADness of the Class: To play an effective PHB monk you need high Dexterity, Wisdom, and Constitution. I decided that I wanted my Alternate Monk to be able to focus solely on Dexterity and Wisdom, so I changed a few things. 

- The class now has a d10 hit die (like most other martial classes). You can afford to have a lower Constitution score and get by just fine.

- Quickened Healing Technique (I'll explain Techniques in a bit). This allows you to spend 2 ki as a bonus action to heal for your Marital Arts die + WIS.

Defined Combat Role: The monk in the PHB is very fast, but unless you land stunning strikes, you can't keep up with the other martial classes. I've decided to make my Alternate Monk a "martial controller" who imposes status effects fairly easily; prone, grappled, reduced movement etc. So I've done a few things:

- Increased size of your Martial Arts die. Starts as a d6 and scales to a d12. Doing 1d4 damage on hit just doesn't feel that great and this puts you in line with other martial builds as long as you hit the majority of attacks.

- Ability to use Dexterity (Athletics) checks to make grapple and shove attacks. Duh.

- Mystic Techniques! I've moved a ton of features into Techniques, and you get to pick which ones you've learned. I've added quite a few in the vein of Stunning Strike, so you can customize your monk to be a grappler, mage slayer, or harrier. 

Changes from the Player's Handbook Monk Class:

• Class Features // Hit Dice // Upgraded to 1d10.
• Class Features // Equipment // Added an option for Shortbow and 20 arrows
• Martial Arts // Rewrote the language around “unarmed strikes and monk weapon attacks” to just “Martial Arts attacks”.
• Martial Arts // Allows you to use Dexterity (Athletics) for grapple or shove attacks.
• Ki // Rewrote the Ki resource explanation to be more in line with other 5e resources (ie: Combat Superiority, Psi Dice, etc).
• Ki // Mystic Techniques // Moved some of the ribbon-esque abilities out of the base class and added in Techniques that you can choose to learn. Flurry of Blows is now a class feature, and Step of the Wind and Patient Defense have been moved to the list of Techniques.
• Unarmored Movement // The buff (running on walls) you get at 9th level was moved to the Technique list.
• Enlightened Fist // New feature, based on the optional Ki-Fueled attack feature from TCoE. Also causes your unarmed strikes to be magical so long as you have at least 1 ki point remaining. Early compared to other martial classes, but I thought it worked as a thematic thing for the monk!
• Monastic Traditions // Included adjusted version of the Open Hand, Shadow (now Shadow Arts), and Four Elements (now Wu Jen).
• Slow Fall // You don’t land prone if you reduce the damage to zero.
• Deflect Missiles // Moved to 5th level rather than moved to an optional Technique. I felt it was core to the identity of the monk to do this sort of thing.
• Stunning Strike // Now a Technique.
• Tongue of Sun and Moon // Now a Technique.
• Diamond Soul // Replaced with Awakened Soul. Allows you to add your WIS mod to all saves instead of proficiency. Similar to Paladin Aura.
• Empty Body // Now a Technique
• Perfect Self // Replaced with Ascended Soul. As a bonus action you can regain ki points equal to your WIS mod. Wild enough for a capstone ability!
• Way of the Open Hand // Open Hand Technique // Replaced with two features: Disciple of Many forms (you learn an extra Technique), and Flurry of Fists (you can grapple or shove as part of your Flurry of Blows or Enlightened Fist attacks).
• Way of the Open Hand // Master of Many Forms // New feature that allows you to switch out one Technique over a long rest.
• Way of the Open Hand // Wholeness of Body // Replaced with Ebb and Flow to give you some cool reaction-based Marital Arts options.
• Way of the Open Hand // Tranquility // Now a Technique. Replaced with extra Martial Arts die damage once per turn.
• Way of the Open Hand // Quivering Palm // Now a Technique. Replaced with Grand Master of the Open Hand, massive damage ability.
• Way of the Shadow Arts // Eyes of Night // New ability that gives darkvision and eventually a devil's sight equivalent.
• Way of the Shadow Arts // Shadow Arts // You now have adv on Stealth checks made to hide in darkness.
• Way of the Shadow Arts // Opportunist. Rolled into Cloak of Shadows. Replaced with Grand Master of Shadows. Improved Shadow Arts and new spells.
• Way of the Wu Jen // Totally rebuilt from the ground up as an elemental spell caster Monk. You can learn extra elemental spells instead of Techniques.