Homebrew:Way of the Pestilent Haze: Difference between revisions

Latest revision as of 18:25, 26 July 2025

(OOC: This is an implementation of the Way of the Pestilent Haze subclass from The Crooked Moon)

Base Class: Monk

Adherents of the Pestilent Haze draw plague into their very beings, folding it into their energy and becoming one with the disease. Monks who follow this tradition wander, often following or even preceding waves of pestilence. Some walk with caution, their touch measured, unleashing sickness only where dense populations must be culled. Others revel in the miasma spreading as far and fast as possible.

Your Miasmic Plague is a unique magical affliction that can take many forms that you weave through your deep connection to the contagion. The Plague Manifestations table offers suggestions for what magical form your signature disease takes as it spreads, as well as its hallmark symptoms.

Plague Manifestations
1d10	Manifestation
1	Bloodbreath. Bruise-colored miasma, the edges of which form into slithering tentacles—painful bruises and a hoarse, bloody cough
2	Drone Spew. Swarm of monstrous, mutated flies that buzz with a horrifying drone—bleeding ears and intense vomiting
3	Festergut. Viscous, gray sewer water that leaves a film on surfaces—intense stomach pain, dehydration, and blood loss
4	Gutterpox. Globs of toxic, greenish sludge that oozes erratically to the touch—swollen, green papules and oppressive mucus buildup
5	Knell Fever. Hot wind that prickles the skin and howls with the sound of a tolling bell—heat blisters and feverish hallucinations
6	Rotface. Numerous spiked, fungal spores that float through the air—rapid rotting of flesh, especially around the eyes and mouth
7	The Unclean. Undulating mass of pallid flesh, teeth, and tongues—grotesque, mutated growths such as new tentacle-like appendages and gnashing mouths
8	Toadscale. Infected rains filled with venomous, spectral toads—hardened, itchy patches of scaly skin that turn vibrantly colorful and fits of agonized croaking
9	Verminplague. Scurrying mass of ravenous, spectral plague rats that gnaw and scratch victims—painful boils and pustules and an incessant, squeaking cough
10	Yellow Death. Billowing, skull-shaped clouds of foul-smelling fumes with a sickly yellow hue—debilitating fatigue, muscle aches, and sunken, sallow skin

Contagious Discipline

3rd-level Way of the Pestilent Haze feature

You have brewed and concentrated disease within yourself and can now push manifestations of it outward. You gain the following benefits.

Claws of Pestilence.: Your nails grow into a set of vermin-like claws. You can deal slashing damage when you hit with an unarmed strike instead of bludgeoning damage. When you hit a creature with an attack granted by your Flurry of Blows, you deal extra necrotic damage equal to one roll of your Martial Arts die.
Miasmic Plague.: When you hit a creature with an unarmed strike, you can expend 1 ki point to force the creature to succeed on a Constitution saving throw or be cursed for 1 minute. While cursed, the creature has the poisoned condition, and it takes extra necrotic damage from your unarmed strikes equal to one roll of your Martial Arts die. A creature can take this damage only once per turn. The creature repeats the save at the end of each of its turns, ending the effect on itself on a success.

If you forego the extra damage granted by Claws of Pestilence, you can use Miasmic Plague without paying its ki point cost.

Gift of Pestilence

3rd-level Way of the Pestilent Haze feature

Through your observation and meditation, you are attuned to the nature of pestilence and the creatures believed to carry it. You gain the following benefits.

Inoculation.: You have advantage on saving throws to avoid or end the poisoned condition or diseases, and you have resistance to poison and necrotic damage.
Vermin Kinship.: Through chittering sounds and hand gestures, you can communicate simple concepts to vermin, such as rats, pigeons, and insects, and you gain the ability to decipher their noises and motions. Vermin lack the intelligence to convey or understand sophisticated concepts, but friendly vermin could relay what they have seen or heard in the recent past.; Additionally, you can cast animal messenger using Wisdom as the spellcasting ability targeting a Tiny Beast that is considered vermin and thought to spread plague and disease. Once you cast the spell in this way, you can't do so again until you finish a long rest.

Potent Plague

6th-level Way of the Pestilent Haze feature

The strain of your plague becomes more virulent and deadly. When you deal necrotic or poison damage, you ignore the target's resistance to those damage types, if any.

Tolling Censer

6th-level Way of the Pestilent Haze feature

You can unleash a cloud of miasma upon your enemies. As an action, you can expend 2 ki points to magically unleash a cloud of miasma in a 20-foot radius around you. Each creature of your choice in that area must make a Constitution saving throw. On a failed save, a creature takes necrotic damage equal to two rolls of your Martial Arts die and is cursed by your Miasmic Plague. On a successful save, it takes half as much damage only.

Miasmic Contagion

11th-level Way of the Pestilent Haze feature

The strength of your Miasmic Plague has increased, granting you the following benefits.

Choking Miasma.: Constitution saving throws against your Miasmic Plague have disadvantage.
Scurrying Spread.: When you use your Step of the Wind, until the end of the turn, when you enter a space within 5 feet of any creature of your choice, it must succeed on a Constitution saving throw or be cursed by your Miasmic Plague. A creature makes this save only once per turn.

Epidemic

17th-level Way of the Pestilent Haze feature

Your plague has reached the height of its potency and its symptoms rapidly afflict your foes. Your Miasmic Plague ignores a target's immunity to the poisoned condition. Additionally, when you deal necrotic damage to a target cursed by your Miasmic Plague, it takes extra necrotic damage equal to one roll of your Martial Arts die.

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-[[file:atonement.jpg|right|thumb|500px]]
+[[file:pestilent haze.jpg|right|thumb|500px]]
-{{ooc note|This is an implementation of the {{PAGENAME}} subclass from [[Xanathar's Lost Notes to Everything Else]]}}
+{{ooc note|This is an implementation of the {{PAGENAME}} subclass from [[The Crooked Moon]]}}
 __NOTOC__
 {{base class|monk|blockquotestyle=width:calc(100% - 510px - 1.4em)}}
-Monks of the Way of Atonement seek to absolve themselves for their past transgressions and current indiscretions by giving up their possessions and atoning through peaceful and selfless service. Seeking not the zealot’s path, they believe that through calming and controlling their fervor, they can bolster the universal well-being of all mortal creatures. These monks seek to protect the delicate balance struck by the presence of the pantheons. and strike out in malice only to defend those who can’t defend themselves.
+Adherents of the Pestilent Haze draw plague into their very beings, folding it into their energy and becoming one with the disease. Monks who follow this tradition wander, often following or even preceding waves of pestilence. Some walk with caution, their touch measured, unleashing sickness only where dense populations must be culled. Others revel in the miasma spreading as far and fast as possible.
-Feared by those with wealth, and praised by those who lack it, these monks are easy to spot in their dusty burlap robes and bare feet. The Atoned sacrifice not only material possessions but also temporal pleasures to find their way to forgiveness. They often carve or brand the markings of the gods on their skin in penance.
+Your Miasmic Plague is a unique magical affliction that can take many forms that you weave through your deep connection to the contagion. The Plague Manifestations table offers suggestions for what magical form your signature disease takes as it spreads, as well as its hallmark symptoms.
-In exchange for the strength to seek perfect purity in an existence full of ambition and hubris, followers of this path endeavor to abstain from anger, envy, and corruption. Not so naïve as to believe that the gods' designs won’t require skirting the edges of temptation, and sometimes justify ends by their means, they willingly pay the price in flesh for their actions. As part of their atonement, they learn to encourage wicked and vile denizens of their world to repent using only a heavy, unadorned club that each refers to as their penance.
+{| class="wikitable"
+|+ Plague Manifestations
+! 1d10 !! Manifestation
+|-
+| 1 || '''Bloodbreath.''' Bruise-colored miasma, the edges of which form into slithering tentacles—painful bruises and a hoarse, bloody cough
+|-
+| 2 || '''Drone Spew.''' Swarm of monstrous, mutated flies that buzz with a horrifying drone—bleeding ears and intense vomiting
+|-
+| 3 || '''Festergut.''' Viscous, gray sewer water that leaves a film on surfaces—intense stomach pain, dehydration, and blood loss
+|-
+| 4 || '''Gutterpox.''' Globs of toxic, greenish sludge that oozes erratically to the touch—swollen, green papules and oppressive mucus buildup
+|-
+| 5 || '''Knell Fever.''' Hot wind that prickles the skin and howls with the sound of a tolling bell—heat blisters and feverish hallucinations
+|-
+| 6 || '''Rotface.''' Numerous spiked, fungal spores that float through the air—rapid rotting of flesh, especially around the eyes and mouth
+|-
+| 7 || '''The Unclean.''' Undulating mass of pallid flesh, teeth, and tongues—grotesque, mutated growths such as new tentacle-like appendages and gnashing mouths
+|-
+| 8 || '''Toadscale.''' Infected rains filled with venomous, spectral toads—hardened, itchy patches of scaly skin that turn vibrantly colorful and fits of agonized croaking
+|-
+| 9 || '''Verminplague.''' Scurrying mass of ravenous, spectral plague rats that gnaw and scratch victims—painful boils and pustules and an incessant, squeaking cough
+|-
+| 10 || '''Yellow Death.''' Billowing, skull-shaped clouds of foul-smelling fumes with a sickly yellow hue—debilitating fatigue, muscle aches, and sunken, sallow skin
+|}
-To take this path, the acolyte must commit to the poorest lifestyle, renouncing all that they were before atonement.
+== Contagious Discipline ==
+''3rd-level {{PAGENAME}} feature''
-== Path of Atonement ==
+You have brewed and concentrated disease within yourself and can now push manifestations of it outward. You gain the following benefits.
-When you choose this tradition at 3rd level, your Hit Dice represent a pool of vitality you can exhaust to fuel your Way of Atonement features.
-Atonement requires absolutely commitment, and constant reminder of the pain you inflict on others by inflicting that pain on yourself during deep contemplation or prayer. To atone, roll the Hit Dice you spent and add them together. You deal bludgeoning, piercing, or slashing damage to yourself equal to the total. You deal this damage after you regain hit points from any Hit Dice you spend at the end of a short or long rest, and it can’t be reduced in any way.
+;''Claws of Pestilence.''
+:Your nails grow into a set of vermin-like claws. You can deal slashing damage when you hit with an unarmed strike instead of bludgeoning damage. When you hit a creature with an attack granted by your Flurry of Blows, you deal extra necrotic damage equal to one roll of your Martial Arts die.
+;''Miasmic Plague.''
+:When you hit a creature with an unarmed strike, you can expend 1 ki point to force the creature to succeed on a Constitution saving throw or be cursed for 1 minute. While cursed, the creature has the poisoned condition, and it takes extra necrotic damage from your unarmed strikes equal to one roll of your Martial Arts die. A creature can take this damage only once per turn. The creature repeats the save at the end of each of its turns, ending the effect on itself on a success.
-;Penance Weapon.
+If you forego the extra damage granted by Claws of Pestilence, you can use Miasmic Plague without paying its ki point cost.
-:Also at 3rd level, you learn a ritual prayer that creates a divine bond between you and one nonmagical simple weapon of your choice. You perform these prayers over the course of 1 hour, which can be done during a short rest. This weapon counts as a monk weapon for you, and you can’t be disarmed of that weapon unless you are incapacitated.
-;Strength of Faith.
-:You can deliver your own form of justice to others. When you hit with your penance weapon or an unarmed attack, you can spend one Hit Die and expend one ki point, to add 2d8 force damage to the attack.
-;Trials of Temptation.
-:For each magic item you currently own, the cost of Hit Dice and ki points used by your Way of Atonement features increase by 1, and again each time you acquire an additional permanent item. Potions and consumable wondrous items don’t count toward this total.
-== Armament of Atonement ==
+== Gift of Pestilence ==
-At 6th level, your strict adherence to the tenets of your faith has earned you the gods’ favor. While you wield your penance weapon and no other weapons, you gain the following benefits:
+''3rd-level {{PAGENAME}} feature''
-;Faithful Strike.
+Through your observation and meditation, you are attuned to the nature of pestilence and the creatures believed to carry it. You gain the following benefits.
-:Your attacks with your penance weapon count as magical for the purpose of overcoming resistance and immunity to nonmagical attacks and damage.
-:Additionally, you gain a +1 bonus to attack and damage rolls with your penance weapons and unarmed strikes. This bonus increases to +2 at 11th level and +3 at 17th level.
-;Flagellant Hide.
-:You gain a +1 bonus to your AC and saving throws. This bonus increases to +2 at 11th level, and +3 at 17th level.
-== Labor of the Gods ==
+;''Inoculation.''
-At 11th level, constant suffering has made you no stranger to pain. When you are reduced to 0 hit points but not killed outright, you can use your reaction to spend a Hit Die, roll it, and recover hit points equal to that number plus your Constitution modifier. You can’t use this feature again until you finish a short or long rest.
+:You have advantage on saving throws to avoid or end the poisoned condition or diseases, and you have resistance to poison and necrotic damage.
+;''Vermin Kinship.''
+:Through chittering sounds and hand gestures, you can communicate simple concepts to vermin, such as rats, pigeons, and insects, and you gain the ability to decipher their noises and motions. Vermin lack the intelligence to convey or understand sophisticated concepts, but friendly vermin could relay what they have seen or heard in the recent past.
+:Additionally, you can cast ''[[spell:animal-messenger|animal messenger]]'' using Wisdom as the spellcasting ability targeting a Tiny Beast that is considered vermin and thought to spread plague and disease. Once you cast the spell in this way, you can't do so again until you finish a long rest.
-At 17th level, you gain one additional use of this feature between rests, and can spend a number of Hit Dice equal to half your monk level instead of one.
+== Potent Plague ==
+''6th-level {{PAGENAME}} feature''
-== Enlightened Voice ==
+The strain of your plague becomes more virulent and deadly. When you deal necrotic or poison damage, you ignore the target's resistance to those damage types, if any.
-Starting at 17th level, your time spent in quiet contemplation, prayer and servitude has granted you supreme wisdom. Whenever you make an ability check that you are not proficient with, you can spend 1 ki point to gain proficiency in that check and use your Wisdom modifier in place of the skill’s ability modifier.
-Additionally, when in counsel with any creature that you are able to speak with, and can understand you, you can spend a number of Hit Dice equal to half your monk level or less to add a bonus to its next Charisma, Intelligence, or Wisdom check or saving throw, equal to the number of Hit Dice you spend.
+== Tolling Censer ==
+''6th-level {{PAGENAME}} feature''
-You can’t use this feature again until you complete a short or long rest. If you use any part of this feature to deceive or bribe, you can’t use it again until you complete a long rest.
+You can unleash a cloud of miasma upon your enemies. As an action, you can expend 2 ki points to magically unleash a cloud of miasma in a 20-foot radius around you. Each creature of your choice in that area must make a Constitution saving throw. On a failed save, a creature takes necrotic damage equal to two rolls of your Martial Arts die and is cursed by your Miasmic Plague. On a successful save, it takes half as much damage only.
-[[category:homebrew monk subclasses|Atonement]]
+== Miasmic Contagion ==
+''11th-level {{PAGENAME}} feature''
+The strength of your Miasmic Plague has increased, granting you the following benefits.
+;''Choking Miasma.''
+:Constitution saving throws against your Miasmic Plague have disadvantage.
+;''Scurrying Spread.''
+:When you use your Step of the Wind, until the end of the turn, when you enter a space within 5 feet of any creature of your choice, it must succeed on a Constitution saving throw or be cursed by your Miasmic Plague. A creature makes this save only once per turn.
+== Epidemic ==
+''17th-level {{PAGENAME}} feature''
+Your plague has reached the height of its potency and its symptoms rapidly afflict your foes. Your Miasmic Plague ignores a target's immunity to the poisoned condition. Additionally, when you deal necrotic damage to a target cursed by your Miasmic Plague, it takes extra necrotic damage equal to one roll of your Martial Arts die.
+[[category:homebrew monk subclasses|Pestilent Haze]]