Way of Living Metal

Monks traditionally rely on speed and agility to defeat their foes. They can dart into melee in the blink of an eye, unleash a storm of attacks, then slip away to avoid a counterattack. The monks who adopt the Way of Living Metal prefer a more direct, brutal approach. They weave their life energy into a protective shell, allowing them to transform into creatures of living metal. They can shrug off attacks by shifting their skin into living metal, and smash through even the most skilled defense with an overwhelming, iron-clad fist.

Monks of the Living Metal are taught to adopt the rigid strength of metal in both their bodies and minds. They are typically quiet, dour individuals who show no emotion. Their stoicism draws inspiration from the steady, enduring calm of the mountains that ores are mined from. To the teachers of this tradition, a body is like a rough lump of rock. Through careful study and relentless discipline, the valuable ore hidden within the body – the potential to become a skilled monk – must be mined, refined, and shaped into a potent weapon. This dedication leaves no room for emotion, personal attachments, or other frivolities.

Iron Heart, Steel Soul

Monks of the Living Metal undergo a variety of grueling trials to prove their durability and stoicism. What did you face, and how did it leave a mark on you?

D6 Roll or Choose

Iron Heart, Steel Soul

1: You thrust your hands into a vat of molten iron. The heat burned away your flesh, replacing your hands with hands shaped from iron. You retained your manual dexterity, but your hands’ appearance unsettles others. You wear gloves to remain inconspicuous.

2: As part of your training, you drink a mixture of water and various toxic, heavy metals each day. You meditate after drinking the foul mixture, directing your body to absorb the elements and bind them to your bones. The contamination gives your skin gray tint. As a side benefit, monsters that attempt to bite you recoil from the awful taste of your flesh.

3: You were buried alive under rocks and debris and left to hibernate for a month. This ritual bound your soul to the earth, but it left you with a mild case of agoraphobia. You find open spaces unsettling and prefer to remain indoors or underground.

4: You wear an iron mask at all times. Your order mandates that you must lose your identity, forgoing all attachment to your former life to master its techniques. How did your friends and family react when you renounced them? Do you regret this decision?

5: As part of your training, you have replaced your heart with a metal device that mixes mercury and flecks of ore with your blood. A small bronze plate on your chest allows access to the device. Each day, you must open the plate and oil the mechanism within.

6: Your attunement to elemental metals gives you an odd relationship with the other elements. You are comfortable handling open flames, but find the touch of water distasteful. You drink only when thirst compels you, and even then, are reluctant to do so.

Oath of Denial

The way of living metal often demands that its adherent take an oath to deny themselves the pleasures of the flesh. What have you sworn to deny yourself.

D6 Roll or Choose

Oath of Denial

1: Mirth. You find humor and fellowship to be a sign of weakness. Sometimes you can be judgmental toward others about this, but perhaps you do so out of a sense of jealousy. You never laugh and haven’t smiled in years.

2: Indulgent food and drink. You insist on eating the dullest, simplest meals and have sworn to avoid alcohol.

3: Celibacy. Romantic entanglements are a weakness in your eyes. You keep your body pure by forsaking intimate contact and hate it when others touch you in any way.

4: Comfort. You sleep on the most uncomfortable surfaces you can find, dress in light clothes in the winter and heavy layers in the summer, and otherwise go out of the way to make yourself miserable. All these measures ensure that you remain tough enough to endure the world’s hazards.

5: Progress. Your order is an ancient one, and its teachings have sustained its adherents since the earliest days of the world. Novelty, invention, and new ways of thinking are just good ways to put yourself and others in danger. You sneer at new fangled concepts that make folk weak.

6: You are a heretic in the eyes of your fellows, as you have forsworn the oaths of denial that they expect from members of your order. You indulge in a staggering number of vices and take pride that your inner toughness allows you to outlast anyone when it comes to indulging your appetites.

Tradition Features

Living Metal Technique

At 3rd level, you master the living metal technique. It grants you three benefits.

Bond of Metal. Your bond to metals grants you an empathic connection to objects crafted from them. As an action, you can grasp a metal object and ask a yes or no question about events that took place within 10 feet of it or how it was used in the past hour. You gain a truthful answer, or the object replies unknown if your question is not relevant to events in its area. You can use this feature three times and regain expended uses when you finish a long rest.

Iron Fist. When you hit with an unarmed strike or a monk weapon on your turn, you can use your bonus action to inflict an additional 1d10 + your proficiency bonus force damage to the target. This bonus damage increases to 2d6 + your proficiency bonus at 5th level, 4d6 + proficiency bonus at 11th level, and 5d6 + proficiency bonus damage at 17th level.

Iron Heart. When you use your Flurry of Blows, until the start of your next turn you can use your reaction to gain resistance to a damage type of your choice until the end of the current turn.

Living Iron

Starting at 6th level as a bonus action you can transform your body into a juggernaut of living iron. You can end this effect with another bonus action or when you become unconscious. While in this form, you are immune to poison and necrotic damage, you do not need to eat, sleep, or breathe, you gain a +2 bonus to AC, and you deal double damage to object and structures. However, your speed becomes 10 feet, it cannot be increased, and you cannot use reactions.

Sundering Strikes

Starting at 6th level, at the end of your turn when you use your Flurry of Blows pick one creature you attacked that turn. It suffers a penalty to AC equal to the number of times you hit it during your turn. This penalty lasts until the start of your next turn.

Master of Living Iron

Starting at 11th level, you gain the following benefits.

Battering Iron. The second time you hit a creature with a melee attack during your turn, you knock it prone.

Iron Fortress Technique. If you do not move on your turn, you gain a +2 bonus to AC until the start of your next turn.

Indomitable Iron

Starting at 17th level, as a bonus action you can spend 3 ki points and transform into an iron golem. You gain the benefits of casting shapechange, but you can only choose to assume the form of an iron golem and do not need material components for the spell. The spell’s durations changes to 10 minutes. The iron golem’s slam and sword are monk weapons for you.