Way of the Cobalt Soul - Monastic Tradition for Monks

Driven by the pursuit of knowledge and their worship of the Knowing Mistress, the archives of
the Cobalt Soul stand as some of the most well-respected and most heavily guarded
repositories of tomes, history, and information across Exandria. Here, young people seeking the
clarity of truth and the strength of knowledge pledge to learn the arts of seeking enlightenment
by understanding the world around them, and mastering the techniques to defend it. To become
a Cobalt Soul is to give one’s self to the quest for unveiling life’s mysteries, bringing light to the
secrets of the dark, and guarding the most powerful and dangerous of truths from those who
would seek to perverse the sanctity of civilization.

The monks of the Cobalt Soul are the embodiment of the phrase “know your enemy”. Through
research, they prepare themselves against the ever-coming tides of evil. Through careful
training, they have learned to puncture and manipulate the spiritual flow of an opponent’s body.
Through understanding the secrets of their foe, they can adapt and surmount them. Then, once
the fight is done, they return to record their findings for future generations of monks to study
from.

Mystical Erudition
Upon choosing this tradition at 3rd level, you’ve undergone extensive training with the Cobalt
Soul, teaching you extensively in history or lore from the monastery’s collected volumes. You
learn one language of your choice, and you choose one skill from the following list to gain
proficiency in: Arcana, History, Nature, and Religion.

You gain an additional language and an additional skill proficiency from the above list at 11th
and 17th level. If you already have proficiency in one of the listed skills at 11th or 17th level, you
can instead choose to double your proficiency bonus for any ability check you make that uses
the chosen proficiency.

Extract Aspects
Beginning at 3rd level when choosing this tradition, you can strike multiple pressure points to
extract crucial information about your foe. Whenever you hit a single creature with one of the
attacks granted by your Flurry of Blows, you can choose to learn three characteristics about the
creature of your choice: Creature Type, Armor Class, Senses, Saving Throw Modifier of your
choice, Damage Vulnerabilities, Damage Resistances, Damage Immunities, or Condition
Immunities. Once you use this feature, you must finish a short or long rest before you can use it
again.

Upon reaching 6th level, you can use this feature twice between rests, and beginning at 17th
level, you can use it three times between rests. When you finish a short or long rest, you regain
your expended uses.

Extort Truth
At 6th level, you can hit a series of hidden nerves on a creature with precision, temporarily
causing them to be unable to mask their true thoughts and intent. If you manage to hit a single
creature with two or more attacks in one round, you can spend 1 ki point to force them to make
a Charisma saving throw. You can choose to have these attacks deal no damage. On a failed
save, the creature is unable to speak a deliberate lie for 1 minute and all Charisma checks
directed at the creature are made with advantage for the duration. You know if they succeeded
or failed on their saving throw.
An affected creature is aware of the effect and can thus avoid answering questions to which it
would normally respond with a lie. Such a creature can be evasive in its answers as long as the
effect lasts.

Mind of Mercury
Starting at 6th level, you’ve honed your awareness and reflexes through mental aptitude and
pattern recognition. You can take a number of additional reactions each round equal to your
Intelligence modifier (minimum of 1), at the cost of 1 ki point per reaction beyond the first. You
can only use one reaction per trigger.
In addition, whenever you make an Intelligence (Investigation) check, you can spend 1 ki point
to gain advantage on the roll.

Preternatural Counter
Beginning at 11th level, your quick mind and study of your foe allows you to use their failure to
your advantage. If a creature misses you with an attack, you can immediately use your reaction
to make a melee attack against that creature.

Debilitating Barrage
Upon reaching 17th level, you’ve gained the knowledge to temporarily lower a creature’s
fortitude by striking a series of pressure points. Whenever you hit a single creature with three or
more attacks in one round, you can spend 3 ki points to cause the creature to suffer a
vulnerability to a damage type of your choice for 1 minute, or until after they take any damage of
that type.
Creatures with resistance or immunity to the chosen damage type do not suffer
vulnerability. Instead, their resistance to the chosen damage type is lost for the duration, or their
immunity is reduced to resistance for the duration.

Changes:

 Mystical Erudition: Changed it to actually grant Proficiency instead of advantage on a Ki point use. It
was found that the Ki point economy of the Monk made it a risky/less inspired choice in practice.
 Extract Aspects: Changed it to no longer require a saving throw or a Ki point, allowed specific saving
throw mod info to be extracted, and the number of aspects learned is increased. Spending of a Ki
point in combat has many combat benefits outside of this ability, so to make this feature a benefit
that wasn’t a choice between other features, and based on continued feedback, I removed the Ki
cost and tied it to Flurry of Blows.
 Extort Truth: Added an element that gave advantage to Charisma checks against the target for the
duration. Previously, it acted as a single-target Zone of Truth with 1/10 the duration. Adding the
Charisma advantage now offsets the shorter duration, and helps improve the utility of spending the
Ki. It’s meant to be an interrogation feature, and this helps give it that boost.
 Debilitating Barrage: Removed the Disadvantage on attacks, and removed the saving throw to impose
the vulnerability. The original design was a bit overly complicated, and already had the hoop to jump
through of hitting with 3+ attacks in a single round AND being a 3-point dump. Making it an auto-
vulnerability on use makes it MUCH more useful, and fixes my original issue of a successful save
resisting the effect (3 ki for a successful save just feels awful, which is why I included the
Disadvantage to attacks to help give a benefit regardless… but this just feels better).