1. Notes

Way of the Shihan

Monastic Tradition

Shihan warriors are immediately identifiable, due to the brightly-colored white and red face paint and almost identical armor that they wear. Shihan warriors began as a female-only fighting force to deal with drunkards and other ne'er-do-wells who acted in an unsavory or lecherous manner towards the female populations of small towns who had no means to defend themselves. Even today, the Way of the Shihan is almost exclusively taught to females. A male being granted permission to learn their ways is almost unheard of, and highly irregular.

Bonus Proficiencies

When you choose this tradition at 3rd level, you gain proficiency with light armor, shields, spring shields, katanas, and shanzi.

Silk Threads

At 3rd level, you begin to hone your abilities while wearing your traditional Shihan armor and wielding a shield. Your Martial Arts features apply even when you wear light armor and wield a shield, though you lose the benefits of Unarmored Defense when you do so.

In addition, katanas and shanzi are considered monk weapons for the purposes of your Martial Arts abilities.

Gold Insignia

Your practice of the Shihan tradition allows you to take better advantage of traditional Shihan weapons. Starting at 6th level, so long as you wield a monk weapon or are unarmed, you can use your Deflect Missiles feature against melee weapon attacks as well.

If you reduce the damage to 0, you can spend 1 ki point to force the attacker to make a Dexterity saving throw. On a failed save, you disarm the creature, forcing it to give up one item of your choice that it is holding. You can grab the object with a free hand or allow it to drop at the target's feet.

Brave Blood

Your bravery allows you to stand up to even the most terrifying foes. Beginning at 11th level, you are immune to being frightened.

Additionally, you can spend 1 ki point as a reaction whenever you would be charmed to activate your Stillness of Mind feature immediately, negating the effect.

Warrior's Heart

As a true Shihan warrior, your honor shines true like a beacon of purity. Starting at 17th level, whenever you would reduce an enemy to 0 hit points, you can instead choose to reduce that enemy to 1 hit point by spending 3 ki points. The target must make a Wisdom saving throw. On a failed save, the target is charmed by you, and acts as though under the effects of both a Unknown and Unknown spell. This effect lasts for a number of days equal to your monk level. On a successful save, the creature is immune to this effect for 24 hours.

The target creature will do as you instruct as though regarding an old field whom they've grown apart from. For the duration of the effect, the creature will feel as though it was in the wrong for any misdeeds it has performed against you or anyone you regard as an ally. This effect allows you to convince the creature that it should give itself up for sentencing in a fair trial, banish itself from the area, or similar actions. This effect cannot be used to command a creature to perform any action that would put its life in direct peril. If you or an ally attacks the creature, this effect ends.

You can have only one creature under the effect of this feature at a time. You can choose to end the effect at any time without using an action. Once the effect ends, the creature will revert to its true nature and can make a Wisdom check against your Ki Save DC. On a failed check, the creature assumes the actions it took while under the effect of this feature were its own choices and may regard you as a kind of adversarial ally, whom they respected enough to listen to. On a successful save, the creature knows it was charmed by you.