Way of the Unseen Hand

Monks following the Way of the Unseen Hand believe that battles are best won before your foes even know there's a war. These monks work from the shadows, focusing not on martial superiority but on the art of deception. They learn to turn their ki against their opponents’ minds, altering perception, emotion, and even memory.

On the plane of Ravnica, House Dimir trains these monks as elite infiltrators and manipulators. The methods for creating these psychic agents are a closely guarded secret known only to the mysterious sages of Duskmantle.

Psychic Arts

Starting at 3rd level, you learn to harness your ki to alter other creatures' perceptions.

You learn the Encode Thoughts cantrip. Additionally, as an action, you can spend ki to cast specific spells without providing material components. The table below outlines the ki cost and monk level necessary to cast your spells.

Monk Level Ki Spells 3rd 1 Charm Person, Disguise Self 3rd 2 Detect Thoughts, Phantasmal Force, Suggestion 6th 4 Enemies Abound, Fear, Hypnotic Pattern 11th 6 Confusion, Phantasmal Killer 17th 8 Dominate Person, Dream, Modify Memory, Synaptic Static

Use your ki save DC for the purposes of determining your spell save DC. Each spell is cast at its lowest level. If a spell can be cast at higher levels, you can increase the level of the spell by spending 1 additional ki per level.

Psychic Persuasion

When you reach 6th level, you can use your abilities to subtly influence others. You gain proficiency in your choice of the Deception, Intimidation, or Persuasion skills.

Additionally, when interacting socially with a creature, you may spend 1 ki to force that creature to make a Wisdom saving throw against your ki save DC. On a failed save, you have advantage on your Charisma checks to interact with that creature, and the creature has disadvantage on its Wisdom checks to discern the truth of your words. The effect lasts for 1 hour. A creature which succeeds on its save becomes immune to the effect for 24 hours.

Regardless of the save, creatures are unaware of your use of this feature.

Unseen Mind

By 11th level your mental discipline shrouds your mind from others. You gain resistance to psychic damage.

Additionally, your thoughts cannot be magically detected or read, and your memories cannot be magically altered. You are aware of attempts to read your thoughts (though you may not know the source), and rather than negate such attempts outright, you can choose to create false thoughts instead. A creature detecting these thoughts must make an Intelligence check against your ki save DC to realize the deception.

Thief of Sanity

Starting at 17th level, when you damage a creature with an unarmed strike, you can spend 5 ki as a bonus action to assault its mind as well. The creature must make a Wisdom saving throw. On a successful save, it suffers 5d8 psychic damage but no other ill effect.

On a failed save, the creature suffers the psychic damage and must roll on the short-term madness table. Additionally, you can ask a question of up to 25 words. You extract the answer from the creature’s mind. The answer is truthful and as complete as possible but limited to 25 words. The first time the maddened creature suffers damage on a turn, it can repeat its saving throw, ending the madness on a success.

Constructs, creatures with an Intelligence score of 3 or less, and creatures immune to psychic damage are immune to this ability.