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PapaQuackers
2016-11-07, 12:21 PM
Hi guys, today I'm trying to make a monk archetype that embodies the idea of the blinded warrior. Someone who has lost their sight, but has gained so much more in return. With each of these abilities I'm attempting to emulate the almost precognition of blind warriors in common mythology and help to recreate the feeling of listening to someone's heart beat to tell if their lying and all of the other types of things we see with blind warriors in stories. So without further ado, The Order of the Darkened Eye:

Monastic Order of the Darkened Eye
"What I hadn't realized, was how much my sight had blinded me. That what I could see was preventing me from knowing."
Trints Salvoris, founder of The Order of the Darkened Eye

The Monastic Order of the Darkened eye is comprised of monks who believe that those who rely on visual input to define the world around them have lost there way. That people who only believe what they see, and summarily believe what they see, have closed their mind to the world around them. They are a nomadic tradition of monks that travel the world drinking in all the possibilities using all senses available to them. That being said, they are aware of the failings of beast and man alike and have honed their bodies to fight without the benefit or bane of their sight.

Blinded
Starting when you choose this tradition at 3rd level, you can manipulate the energies in your body in order to blind yourself. You may perform an hour long ritual, that can be done during a short rest, in which you pool the ki in your body away from your eyes and into your other sensory ports. Doing so will cause complete and utter blindness until you complete a short or long rest. While blinded specifically by this effect, you gain Blind-sight (As described in the DMG) out to 30 feet.
You may choose not to complete this ritual everyday, but if you do not complete this ritual you may not use any abilities granted to you by this monastic tradition until you do.

Starting at 3rd level, so long as you are blinded as per the effect of the ritual detailed above, you may spend 1 point of ki as a bonus action to heighten your perception. Make a perception check against a creature in range of your blind-sight, if that check exceeds their base constitution score you may identify the circulation points of ki in an enemies body. Until the beginning of your next turn, you may choose to strike a point on the arms or legs with your attack action. That creature must make a constitution save or lose the use of the limb for a number of rounds equal to 1 + your Wisdom modifier (minimum of 1.)

1 Disabled Leg will reduce movement speed by 15ft
1 Disabled Arm Will cause the weapon in that armor to be dropped
2 Disabled Legs will reduce movement speed by 30ft
2 Disabled Arms will give disadvantage on attack rolls and cause weapons to be dropped.

Honesty of the Heart
At 6th level, you have gained the ability to listen closely to a man's heart while speaking. You may make insight checks against a target without speaking the same language as them without any penalty and you gain advantage on insight checks against creatures you share a language with. If you listen to a creature speak for at least 30 seconds you can accurately determine their feelings toward the creature they're speaking to without making an insight check.

Sense Intentions
At 11th level, you have gained the ability to read even further into a creature's heart. When a creature within the range of your Blind-sight begins to advance towards you, as a reaction you may roll an insight check to determine if it has hostile intent. If you do find that the creature has hostile intent, you may add twice your Wisdom modifier to your AC and saving throws against that target until the beginning of your next turn. You may use this ability a number of times per day equal 1 + Wisdom Modifier (minimum of once).

At 11th level, you have gained the ability to lessen the range of your blind-sight to increase the potency. By spending 2 points of ki as a bonus action, you can reduce the range of your blind-sight to 5ft in order to increase your critical hit range to 17-20 until the beginning of your next turn. You can extend this effect by spending an additional point of ki as a bonus action at the beginning of your turn.

Join Me
Beginning at 17th level, you have gained the ability to enlighten others to the darkness around them. As an action you may creature a 30ft aura of darkness around you. All creatures in the area will be unable to see regardless of whether or not they have dark vision and this darkness cannot be dispelled by magical or non-magical means. While surrounded by this darkness you gain advantage on attack rolls against all creatures that do not have blind-sight. This effect will last a number of rounds equal to 1 + Proficiency Bonus + Wisdom modifier. You must complete a long rest before using this ability again.


So guys, thoughts about improvements I could make?

Bookwormav
2016-11-07, 12:45 PM
Looks great! Maybe you could have their mortal enemies be Beholders?

clash
2016-11-07, 02:38 PM
I feel like it needs some ki options

PapaQuackers
2016-11-07, 03:09 PM
I could add a ki option that lets you reduce your blind sight range for increased crit chance?

Bharaeth
2016-11-08, 04:23 AM
Pretty good stuff. Got me thinking, though - I wonder what the in-universe justification for the lvl 17 aura of darkness's immunity to dispelling is. Should it overpower a high-level cleric's Dispel Magic, who may well be the voice of their deity on the mortal plane?

Also, the voluntary reduction to 5' blindsight gnaws at me. I can't work out why, yet, but it seems a bit too limiting!

Mortis_Elrod
2016-11-08, 04:30 PM
Needs another Ki option at lower levels. 3rd level you spend an hour losing darkvision (if wood elf) and gain blindsight. Cool 1-1 trade and now you can use the cool features granted by the tradition. Only there aren't any at that time. Seems like I'm not going blind unless i have to which means 3 more levels at least, for the benefit of a walking polygraph test.

PapaQuackers
2016-11-08, 04:35 PM
Blind-Sight is pretty darn useful I think. It comes with a lot of benefits that dark-vision plain doesn't.

I have heard that the level 6 ability feels lack luster though, so I'll add another ki option to 3rd level when I get a bit more inspired.

All suggestions are welcome.

Mortis_Elrod
2016-11-08, 05:10 PM
I feel like it needs something to do before level 11. Not alot of ideas but something that plays off the 'heightened senses' thing that is also offensive. I'd also give this sub class Scent from previous editions or an updated version. I think the issue I'm having coming up with anything could be that the 'blind warrior' classic abilities kind of overlap with the monks basic features. But it should be


Is either offensive or promotes proactive play from the player
Either relies on the sense of Smell or Touch
And is something usable at least as 2 times per short rest (just like every other tradition has)


The only traditions that don't use at least 1 ki point to use their third level ability is long death and sun soul, and even then sun soul has a sun flurry attached. (not counting the cantrip from shadow). Should be in line with these abilities.

PapaQuackers
2016-11-08, 06:05 PM
Alright, there's my rough shot at a third level ability that satisfies the people's needs.

Mortis_Elrod
2016-11-08, 06:26 PM
ok thats cool. I actually like this alot. only issue i have now is what does that do mechanically? as in what conditions are applied? I'm thinking restrained. or at least speed halved or zero, plus disarmed if they have a weapon. After that i think its perfect.

Llama513
2016-11-08, 06:32 PM
I do worry about the cap not being dispellable, cause that would cause there to be no way to avoid it's affect, unless you could give your self blindsight, which I'm not sure of any class besides druid or a high level rogue and possibly high level of the revised ranger, that can do that, at the moment

Sicarius Victis
2016-11-09, 12:04 AM
As written, Devil's Sight also lets you see through the capstone's effect. It's not Darkvision, it's an entirely separate ability, and since it works against magic darkness, there's no problem there either.

Was that intended?

PapaQuackers
2016-11-09, 07:49 AM
Wasn't intended, but it's acceptable.