Way of the Storm

Monks of the Way of the Storm attune themselves to the natural energies of air, water, and lightning that are ever-present around us. They learn to manipulate these energies in a number of ways, allowing them to make their movements lightning fast, call out to elementals to aid them, or even become a storm themselves.

Ride the Lightning

Starting when you choose this tradition at 3rd level, you can channel the power of the storm to make your movements lightning fast and your body as light as a cloud. Whenever you use your Step of the Wind feature you gain the benefits of both the Dash and the Disengage action and your jump distance is quadrupled, instead of doubled.

In addition, when you use Step of the Wind, you may choose to spend 1 additional ki point to briefly become an entity of pure lightning energy, allowing you to pass through other creatures. Any creature whose form you pass through in this way must make a Dexterity saving throw. On a failed save, each creature takes lightning damage equal to your Martial Arts die + your Wisdom modifier, or half that on a successful one.

One with the Storm

At 6th level, you have become more attuned to the storm, gaining the following benefits:

Learn to speak, read, and write Primordial

The ability to breathe water

A swim speed equal to your walking speed

Resistance to lightning damage

Storm's Aid

At 6th level, you have gained a certain amount of respect from the air and water elementals. You may spend 10 minutes performing a rital that calls out to one of these beings for aid. At the end of the ritual, an air or water elemental (your choice) will appear before you. Roll a percentile die and add your monk level + your Wisdom modifier to determine the elemental's disposition. You may gain up to a +25 bonus or a -25 penatly to this roll - depending on how conducive your GM determines the environment is. Consult the table below to determine what the elemental's dispotion is and what effect its disposition has.

You may have to negotiate with the elemental to get it to answer your questions or do the favor you ask of it.

Result Disposition Effect 85+ Very Friendly Advantage on Persuasion checks made to influence it and it would be likely to want to help the monk with what he or she needs 61-84 Friendly Advantage on Persuasion checks made to influence it 40-60 Neutral No effect 16-39 Unfriendly Disadvantage on Charisma checks made to influence it 15 or lower Very Unfriendly Disadvantage on Charisma checks made to influence it; and it's likely it will ask for extra compensation from the monk

Dungeon Masters - Roleplaying The Elemental The first thing to think about when determining how to roleplay the elemental is the environment that your Monk is performing the ritual in. The location of the ritual can have a big effect on the elemental's disposition. If they are trying to contact an air elemental from the top of a windy cliff, that would be an extremely conducive environment. If they are trying to contact a water elemental from the middle of a vast, sandy desert, that would be an extremely unfavorable enviornment. Once you determine its disposition, think about what kind of information this particular elemental would know. It probably knows everything there is to know about the weather in the area. It might recall if someone or something out of place had passed through recently. It probably wouldn't know much about the lore of a mysterious artifact its never seen before or the political structure of the region it resides in. Finally, think about what its motivations might be. What could the Monk offer it that would be valuable to it? What could the Monk do for it that it can't do itself? What kind of information would it want to keep secret from the Monk, if any?

Storm's Herald

At 11th level, you can spend 3 ki points to cast call lightning. However, you may consider yourself the conduit from which the lightning is called from, allowing you to cast this spell without any space restrictions. In addition, when you use an action to cast or interact with your call lightning spell, you may make an unarmed strike as a bonus action, or spend 1 ki point to activate your Flurry of Blows feature.

You also gain the ability to spend additional ki points to enhance the potency of your call lightning. The spell's level increases by 1 for each additional ki point you spend. The maximum number of ki points you can spend to cast it in this way (its base ki point cost of 3 plus any additional points) is 4, increasing to 5 at 13th level, and 6 at 17th level.