Monastic Tradition: Way of the Assassinating Fist (Ansatsuken)

[Submortimer]

Way of the Assassinating Fist (Ansatsuken)
The Way of the Assassinating fist, or Ansatsuken, is an ancient martial art, recording it's lineage from student to master for over 600 years. At the fundamental level, Ansatsuken is about using 'Satsui no Hado", or murderous intent, to channel your Ki into powerful, destructive techniques. As such, Ansatsuken holds a great number of powerful warriors and assassins in it's historical ranks, and was known as the most deadly of arts.

That all changed when a master known as Gokui took the mantle of grandmaster of the school of Ansatsuken. He knew that such a murderous, corrupting art could never be truly used for righteous purpose, and so he set about changing the art to encompass Mu no Hado, the "Power of Nothingness", instead of murderous intent; this opened up the school to more flexible combat arts and meant fewer instances of corrupted students.

Those guides, those instructions, have not dissappered, and with the right amount of devotion, the secrets of Satsui no Hado may still be unlocked.


Mu no Ken/Satsui no Hado
At third level, when you take this class, you must choose weather you channel Mu no Hado (Power of Nothingness) or Satsui no Hado (Surge of Murderous intent). Mu No Ken is generally regarded as more lawful and good, whereas Satsui No Hado is wholly Evil and chaotic.

Ansetsuken Techniques
Also at third level, you learn the ancient techniques of the Ansetsuken Dojo:
- HadoKen/Messatsu go Hado: You learn to focus your Ki into a ball of destructive force you may fire at your opponent. You may spend a point of ki to cast the Eldritch Blast cantrip. If you channel Mu no Hado, you may choose for the cantrip to deal either fire or radiant damage instead of force damage; If you channel Satsui no hado, you may deal fire or necrotic damage instead of force damage.
- Tatsumaki Senpukyaku/Tatsumaki Zankyaku: You can propell yourself through the air with a ki-fueled whirlwind kick. As an action, you may spend a point of ki, and move in a straight line up to your movment speed; each creature you move adjacent to during that movement takes damage as it you hit them with an unarmed strike, or half that on a successful dexterity saving throw.
- Shoryuken/Messastu Go Shoryu: You focus your ki into your fist and your legs, punching your opponent into the air. As an action, you may spend a point of ki and make a single unarmed attack against a Large or smaller creature; if you hit, that creature must make a strength save or be pushed 10 ft. away from you, either straight back or straight up into the air; Knocking them into the air causes them to take 1d6 falling damage. At the end of the push, the creature is knocked prone.

Ansatsuken Specialization
Monks of the Ansatsuken school find themselves naturally drawn to one ofthe three major techniques, and they learn to harness that ability with much more skill than thier bretheren. At 6th level select one of your Ansatsuken techniques: that technique no longer costs a point of Ki to use.

Charge Technique
At 11th level, you learn the secrets of pushing your techniques further than you thought possible. When performing an Ansatsuken technique, you may spend an additional point of Ki to add your wisdom bonus to the damage of your technique.

Ultimate Technique
At 17th level, you learn the final secret of your path, the ultimate technique. This is directly tied to your Ansatsuken specialization:
- Shinku Hadoken: as an action, You fire your hadoken as a 120 ft. long, 10 ft wide beam. Each creature in this area must make a dexterity save. Failue means they take 10d10 points of Radiant or force damage, your choice, or half that on a successful save.
- Shinku Tatsumaki Senpukyaku: as an action, You funnel your ki into your legs, aturning your spinning kick into a whilring vaccuum of destruction. All creatures within 30 ft. of you must make a strength saving throw: Failue means that they are pulled adjacent to you (or as close as possible) and are dealt 10d10 magical bludgeoning damage. Those that make the save are not pulled and take half the damage.
- Shinryuken: You funnel your ki into your fist, turning you into a pillar of firey destruction. As an action, you make a single unarmed attack against a creature; if it hits, that creature takes 5d10 magical bludgeoning and 5d10 Fire damage, and is pushed 10 feet away from you for evey 10 points of damage the attack deals, taking falling damage as appropriate.

The sole exception is those that channel Satsui no Hado:
- Shun Goku Shatsu: As an action, you may move up to your speed at a target and grapple them; should you succeed, your target must make a constitution saving throw. on a failue, that target dies instantly; success means that they take 5d10 magical bludgeoning and 5d10 necrotic damage.

Using an ultimate technique is extermely taxing; once performed, you may not do so again until after a long rest.

[ImSAMazing]

Looks great. I wonder how balanced it is, but I like the idea. Also, the names are a bit hard to understand. Maybe translate it to normal english

[Kerleth]

Also, the names are a bit hard to understand. Maybe translate it to normal english

Someone hasn't played street fighter. ;) Keep the names, they invoke nostalgia and let anyone who is familiar with the source material know exactly what you are talking about at first glance. Besides, yelling the names out when you use them is half the point of the class, ain't it?!

Balance wise, not bad. I certainly don't think it is overpowered. The base abilities aren't super strong, but they are useful in ways that the base unarmed combat is not. i.e. ranged attacks, "area" attacks. The shoryuken seems a little meh, since you could accomplish the same with a flurry of blows. 3 attacks, 1 for damage, 1 for athletics check to knock prone, and 1 for athletics check to shove away. I think charge technique is probably one of those boring but useful sorts of things, so it's probably alright. The ultimate techniques all seem alright to me at a glance, and no complaints about the ansetsuken specialization.

[DiBastet]

{Scrubbed}

I have to ask something: You're meant to learn all three abilities? If so then they are too strong if you compare them to the open hand monk's abilities. Also I think that maybe, just maybe, since these abilities have no mechanics to tie in into your flurry of blows and are more like spells (use your ki, spend an action, cause effect x), that you should rework it to be based around the elemental monk.

That way you can design more abilities and base them on the handy power level of spells instead of trying to tackle them. For example you could base the spinning kick on some spell that causes damage on creatures around you, you could base the Alpha/vs Marvel super special hadouken on lightning bolt, that really fast one that akuma can use in the air on minute meteors and so on.

That would be a lot more balanced (besides you could sneak in attacks from other characters that branched from ken and ryu besides akuma, like sakura or even dan). And if you manage to do that I'll totally make an addon to use sagat's style. Maybe even say "Tiger Robocop".

[Submortimer]

I won't lie, I hate weeaboo. At first I was like "ugh weeaboo", then I saw what it was about and was like "ow, now that's ok"

I have to ask something: You're meant to learn all three abilities? If so then they are too strong if you compare them to the open hand monk's abilities. Also I think that maybe, just maybe, since these abilities have no mechanics to tie in into your flurry of blows and are more like spells (use your ki, spend an action, cause effect x), that you should rework it to be based around the elemental monk.

That way you can design more abilities and base them on the handy power level of spells instead of trying to tackle them. For example you could base the spinning kick on some spell that causes damage on creatures around you, you could base the Alpha/vs Marvel super special hadouken on lightning bolt, that really fast one that akuma can use in the air on minute meteors and so on.

That would be a lot more balanced (besides you could sneak in attacks from other characters that branched from ken and ryu besides akuma, like sakura or even dan). And if you manage to do that I'll totally make an addon to use sagat's style. Maybe even say "Tiger Robocop".

Yes, you're intended to learn all three abilities. Not all three Ultimate techniques: for that, you learn the Ultimate technique that corresponds to your specialization. The balancing factor here is that you need to pay a point of Ki to use each ability (until you specialize), so they're stronger than the OH monk's ability.

[umbrapolaris]

i think you can add a feature that allows to create combo moves (those are all the majesty of SF),

P.s: why not Hokuto Shin Ken and Nanto sui cho ken :D

[JNAProductions]

Yes, you're intended to learn all three abilities. Not all three Ultimate techniques: for that, you learn the Ultimate technique that corresponds to your specialization. The balancing factor here is that you need to pay a point of Ki to use each ability (until you specialize), so they're stronger than the OH monk's ability.

Open Hand Monk abilities only work when you use Flurry of Blows, costing a point of ki.

[Submortimer]

Open Hand Monk abilities only work when you use Flurry of Blows, costing a point of ki.

Huh. Somehow, I didn't realize that. In any case, I think I'm going to keep it the same way it is now.

[Submortimer]

i think you can add a feature that allows to create combo moves (those are all the majesty of SF),

P.s: why not Hokuto Shin Ken and Nanto sui cho ken :D

1. I choose to think of Flurry of Blows as the standard "Combo" mechanic for the monk class.

2. This is specifically for a Ryu/Ken/Akuma style subclass. That, and a Hokuto Shin Ken subclass would only be two abilities:

Your Head Asplode:
At 3rd level, your very touch is enough to disrupt the flow of ki in your opponents system. Whenever you hit a living creature with an unarmed strike, they must make a constitution save or their head explodes. In the case of creatures with more than one head, this will only cause one of thier heads to explode.

ATATATATATATATATA!: At 7th level, you gain the ability to make a supersonic version of your flurry of blows. By spending 2 points of ki, you make 100 unarmed strikes as a bonus action instead of the normal 2.

[umbrapolaris]

1. I choose to think of Flurry of Blows as the standard "Combo" mechanic for the monk class.

i want my ken's 23 hit combo !!!

2. This is specifically for a Ryu/Ken/Akuma style subclass. That, and a Hokuto Shin Ken subclass would only be two abilities:

Your Head Asplode:
At 3rd level, your very touch is enough to disrupt the flow of ki in your opponents system. Whenever you hit a living creature with an unarmed strike, they must make a constitution save or their head explodes. In the case of creatures with more than one head, this will only cause one of thier heads to explode.

if it was just the head...but it is more like a pressure points ability that make the touched point explode.

ATATATATATATATATA!: At 7th level, you gain the ability to make a supersonic version of your flurry of blows. By spending 2 points of ki, you make 100 unarmed strikes as a bonus action instead of the normal 2.

i cant do better :D