Pathfinder 1e Archetype Monk

Monk of the Empty Hand

The monk of the empty hand eschews normal weapons in favor of whatever is lying around—rocks, chair legs, flagons of ale, even a simple quill pen all become deadly weapons in the hands of such a monk.

Class
Monk
Kind
Archetype
Granted Spells
Replaces
4 features

The monk of the empty hand eschews normal weapons in favor of whatever is lying around—rocks, chair legs, flagons of ale, even a simple quill pen all become deadly weapons in the hands of such a monk. A monk of the empty hand draws on his own ki to infuse his improvised weapons with power, and can transform a broken bottle into a magical weapon.

Replaces

Weapon and Armor ProficiencyStill MindPurity of BodyDiamond Body

Archetype Features

Weapon and Armor Proficiency

↪ builds on Weapon and Armor Proficiency

Monks of the empty hand are proficient with the shuriken only. A monk of the empty hand treats normal weapons as improvised weapons with the following equivalencies (substituting all of their statistics for the listed weapon): a light weapon functions as a light hammer, a one-handed weapon functions as a club, and a two-handed weapon functions as a quarterstaff. This replaces the normal monk weapon proficiencies.

Flurry of Blows

Starting at 1st level, a monk of the empty hand can make a flurry of blows using any combination of unarmed strikes or attacks with an improvised weapon. He may not make a flurry of blows with any other weapons, including special monk weapons. A monk of the empty hand's flurry of blows otherwise functions as normal for a monk of his level.

Bonus Feat

A monk of the empty hand adds the following feats to his list of bonus feats at 6th level: Improved Dirty Trick*, Improved Steal*, and Improvised Weapon Mastery.

Versatile Improvisation

↪ builds on Still Mind (Monk)

At 3rd level, as a swift action, a monk of the empty hand may use an improvised weapon to deal damage as if it were another type (bludgeoning, piercing, or slashing) for 1 round, regardless of the weapon's normal damage type. This ability replaces still mind.

Ki Pool

At 4th level, in addition to the normal abilities of his ki pool, a monk of the empty hand may spend 1 point from his ki pool to increase the range increment for an improvised thrown weapon or shuriken by 20 feet for 1 round.

Ki Weapons

↪ builds on Purity of Body (Monk)

At 5th level, a monk of the empty hand may spend 1 point from his ki pool as a swift action to deal damage equal to his unarmed strike damage with an improvised weapon for 1 round. At 11th level, the monk may spend ki to grant an enhancement bonus or magical weapon abilities to an improvised weapon for 1 round, at the rate of 1 point of ki per +1 bonus or its equivalent. The monk may not spend more than 3 points of ki at one time for this purpose. For example, a monk can spend 2 points of ki to give his improvised weapon a +1 enhancement bonus and the ki focus quality, or just the flaming burst quality. At 15th level, the limit increases to 5 ki per round. The monk may use this ability to add magical weapon qualities to improvised weapons that could not normally have such a quality, such as adding the disruption quality to a slashing weapon, or the vorpal quality to a bludgeoning weapon. This ability replaces purity of body and diamond body.

Attribution

Seeded catalog content, attributed to Paizo Inc. by catalog provenance — not an individual Open Game License attestation. Licensing for reproduced SRD content is covered by the site's Section 15 register.

Sources Used in This Record
  • Based on class: Monk (Class) — core content under OGL 1.0a

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OGL 1.0a Notice. Pathfinder-derived Open Game Content on this page is used under the Open Game License v1.0a and Section 15 notice.