Tabaxi monk order needing details.

[Aurich]

I'm designing some content for a campaign.

I want to flesh out some details for a monk order.

The party will visit the Tabaxi homelands. which i envision in a style as a mix of mayan and asian culture. The tabaxi are ruled by a king/lord. he has a regular guard force.
But i want to provide a sort of shadow guard. A special ops in the form of a ninja force.

Mainly it's to be used as an extra tool to prevent them to go places where they aren't supposed to go.
Like infiltrating the palace where they have no business.

Also it fits in the background of an NPC/DMPC.

it's a ninja like order, stealthly operating.

i'm set on the name of Moonclaws. bearing a symbol of a crescent moon in a a pawprint.
all members ( purely Tabaxi) bear a magical tattoo on the back of a paw denoting their membership, only becoming visible with a special gesture.
Ranks go from copper to gold claws, along other rank denotions.


For the rest i'm looking for ideas to model it more out and to produce NPC stats for them.

[HandofBlades]

Make the order so that it follows a few basic tenants.

Loyalty to the tabaxi people. The monks serve the tabaxi and since the king rules they serve the king. Should the king/lord turn upon his people or bring ruin or destruction upon them they remove him

Loyalty to the kingdom. The monks protect that which makes their homeland great, with members stationed in cities and the country to protect natural resources or places of great importance.

Loyalty to the king, the king is the soul of the people. Without him the body is lifeless. When the soul is corrupt the body fails and this they work to keep the soul pure.

[Caelic]

Emphasis on self-sufficiency. "Too much reliance on material things is a weakness. The Moon Mother gave us claws and cunning and quickness. Trust in Her gifts, not in man-made toys."

[Vaz]

Is there a Grand Master, or a Council of Leaders? Is there both, where to the outside world, they present a nominal leader, but in reality, they have a Council who decide autonomously among themselves whether the request is worth fulfilling? Are they political assassins? Are they a tool of the state, are they autonomous, or do they (or a member) have designs on controlling the state, either overtly, or covertly? Is it a meritocracy, where higher ranks are fulfilled by their abilities as an assassin, length of service, or is it based on what they can provide for the order, such as wealth, or other people outside of the order who "get-stuff-done" to let the order be the order?

Do they have a particular fighting style, or particular weapons? Are there any kata (cat-a?) that follows the order from inception, or do they have multiple. Is the head of the order the best martial artist, or is there another who is a better martial combatant, but less strategically focused? If so, what is the relationship between the two; friendly, or unfriendly, or openly friendly, but secretly politicking against one another, or is one not aware? If there are multiple kata, are there individuals who take part in multiple? What is the opinion of students of single kata; is it something that the students aspire to master, or is it something that looks down upon as being unfocused?

Is the order traditional, or is it more experimental? Is there divergence in the ranks? Does the order have any sacred cows or taboos? No use of Poison or Disease etc? Never kill an individual without them being aware of their death? No Bladed weaponry?

Are there any artefacts or otherwise magical gear that the order can provide or have stolen? Who keeps this? Does the head of the order go wandering around in a Sacred Gi and carry an Ancestral Daisho, or are they left in a guarded magical vault? What does it require to use that gear?

Are there are any rituals within the order? When the Head of the Order dies, what happens to his body? Does he get buried? Burned? Sky Burial (left to the open air on a mountain, to which the local wildlife eat them)? Do they prefer to take their own life with ancestral daisho, so that their soul passes on to the

Can you be a monk in setting without mechanically being a monk class? Are some of the "monks" actually Ancestral Guardian Barbarians, Hexblade Blade Pact Warlocks, Eldritch Knights, or Redemption Paladins? What sort of skill challenges can the players participate in to be assessed by the order? Is it simple combat, physical, mental or social skill checks etc? What is it that the order look in for recruits? What is it about the order that requires them to be Tabaxi - is it an ingrained xenophobic racial dislike of others, or is it just tradition - are there some within the order who could break ranks with that tradition?

What is the goal of the order - are they meant to be antagonistic, or friendly with the players? Can the players get on side with the order. Even if they're not Tabaxi, perhaps they could get some benefit for training with the order? Can they get mechanical boons from the order? Can they provide services or hirelings for the party? And if so, what? Is it lore based, and if so, what kind of lore? Forgotten Arcana, a detailed history on people gathered from spying, physical and geographical knowledge, such as locations of source of trading wealth like rare materials or actual wealth such as gold and gems? Or can they provide adventuring aid such as specialised ninja-esque equipment and things like Health Potions and low level magic items.

[Provo]

If you want stats. The martial arts adept from Volo's Guide is a good starting place. I would probably call it a silver claw.

You would want to add a climb speed of 30, and maybe add an ability like "Step of the Wind the silver paw's long jump is up to 25 feet and its high jump is up to 10 feet." That way you can have shadowy figures jump from rooftop to rooftop over the players heads.

Edit: For the copper claw, I would drop dexterity to 15 and wisdom to 14. They would make two attacks instead of three, and their attacks wouldn't impose any status effect.

[Aurich]

Those are some really interesting points.I'm going to take those into consideration for sure.

Thanks.

Feel free to add more if you know some.