Monks: Alternate Rewards

[BerzerkerUnit]

Here's a thought for monks:

Monk Temples or Solo Masters can give you a quest. If you succeed in said quest, you can initiate into another Monk Tradition. You could also have Scrolls/Manuals that teach such things.

Ki is finite. Exceedingly finite. So handing out additional features that burn it is generally going to be more options, not necessarily more power, but may present a path to more power by offering edge case interactions.

Example: Empty Hand and Mercy- now your flurry of blows can not only heal, but also push an ally out of the way when it does, or prone an enemy that also takes additional poison damage (or necrotic, I don't know mercy that well).

the # of magic items monks get real use out of can be counted on 1 hand (excluding weapons which generally serve other martials better anyway), so this would kind of fill that gap.

I'd say limit it to 3rd level techniques or initiating into other traditions opens up which one you can "self teach" at later levels but more quests are needed to unlock later features at similar levels.

[spoiler: Example] An Astral Self Monk 5 finds the Scroll of Shadows. He can spend X amount of downtime mastering the Shadow Monk techniques. Now he has some Shadow spells. Great utility, not so great for combat, but he has his Astral Arms for combat. That's good stuff. At level 6 he can choose to pursue either the Way of Shadow or Astral Self on his own, but will need to find a Master or Scroll if he wishes to learn the later techniques of the other tradition.[/spoiler]

I think this presents some real options to bring monks back up to par (which statistics consistently bears out, they do not meet, particularly when weak subclasses like Sun Soul are on the table).

It's almost Gestalt, but only for monks/martial artists for whom "stealing techniques" is such a common trope.

If anyone can think of any immediately broken combos, pls let me know.

[Abracadangit]

So funny you should post this now!

I'm doing something very similar in the game I'm running right now, except it's for all classes. Fighters can find weapons manuals/books of strategy, rogues can find "mischief manuals," the various spellcasters can find whatever book type matches their class, and to your point, monks can find technique scrolls and martial arts books.

The rules work like this:
--Your character can only be reading one book at a time. You can change whatever book you're currently reading whenever you take a long rest.
--The book your character reads confers some kind of benefit, which starts as soon as your character begins reading the book, and lasts until your character decides to pick up a new book. Sometimes it's a passive boost to something, sometimes it's an active ability (like a new maneuver or a new spell), and sometimes it's something cosmetic or silly.
--The book has X number of pages. Whenever you decide to spend a long rest reading a given book, you roll d20 and add your proficiency bonus + which ever ability modifier the book calls for, to determine how many pages you get through. (Ex: A weapons drill manual might be Str, while an archery guide might be Dex.) You can also spend a short rest reading, but that requires you to not spend any Hit Dice.
--Once your character has completed the book, the book's ability becomes permanent.

It's been a hit so far. It actually gets players to look through bookshelves like mad for once, but it also creates the feeling that improvements to your character aren't just baked in to your class, like Pokemon learning attacks at certain levels. Abilities are also out there in the world, so long as they can find them. I've always found it odd that only one class in the whole game (wizards) get a mechanic that lets them find new spells while adventuring. Shouldn't EVERYONE get something like that?

But to answer your question, I think it's a marvelous idea, and even more in tune with monks' flavor than others. Start implementing your system in your campaign as soon as you can! Your players will be happier for it.