Everyone Kung Fu Fights!
Today I take a break from B/X D&D class creation and leap back over to 5E D&D with an idea about how to introduce some wuxia-inspired martial arts mayhem into the game. Here’re my initial, rough-drafty thoughts.
Step One: Remove the monk as a character class option. No, seriously.
Step Two: Every character class gets proficiency in Strength saving throws and Dexterity saving throws. If a character class already has proficiency in Strength and/or Dexterity saving throws, the character gains Expertise in the saving throw.
Step Three: Choose two skills from Acrobatics, Athletics, History, Insight, Religion, and Stealth. These are additional skills.
Step Four: Add the monk class features listed below to every character class. “I am serious, and don’t call me Shirley.” Each monk class feature is gained at the normal level as if the character were a monk.
- Unarmored Defense
- Martial Arts
- Ki
- Flurry of Blows
- Patient Defense
- Step of the Wind
- Unarmored Movement
- Deflect Missiles
- Slow Fall
- Extra Attack (unless the character class already has this feature)
- Stunning Strike
- Ki-Empowered Strikes
- Stillness of Mind
- Evasion (unless the character class already has this feature)
- Purity of Body
- Tongue of the Sun and Moon
- Diamond Soul
- Timeless Body
- Empty Body
- Perfect Soul
Step Five: Classes that get to choose a subclass may choose a monk subclass. I guess you could do this for other classes, replacing, for example, a wizard’s Arcane Tradition with a monk subclass.
Step Six: Add Wuxia Movement to the game.
Wuxia Movement: When you take the Move or Dash action, up to half of your movement (round down to nearest 5 feet) ignores difficult terrain or other obstacles so long as you can describe the cool acrobatic moves you make while moving. You can leap over things (no Strength [Athletics] required), run up walls, skip across water, et cetera. When your movement ends, you suffer any negative effects related to terrain, environment, or gravity deemed appropriate. You may also suffer negative effects for doing things like dancing across lava, et cetera. Your Wuxia Movement does not provoke opportunity attacks when you move out of an enemy’s reach (assuming you describe why).
