pathFinal Fantasy

Coursing through their veins is pure life energy, managed by steady breathing and advanced, somewhat unorthodox combat techniques, breath of life monks manage their breath and powers from turn to turn, and use them to do immensely powerful things

Breath of Life Monk is a pop culture archetype of the Monk Class, inspired by Jonathan Joestar of JoJo's Bizarre Adventure fame

Plucky Proficiency

Breath of life monks gain proficiency with longspears and bastard swords, though they must use bastard swords as two-handed weapons. Breath of life monks treat both longspears and bastard swords as monk weapons

In addition the breath of life monk gains proficiency with light and medium armours, but not with any shields, and can use evasion all in light and medium armour.

This modifies monk's standard weapon and armour proficiencies and replaces his AC bonus ability.

Breath Of Life (Ex)

Managing their breath even during the throes of combat, breath of life monks can channel their energy from their life, into their fists and other equipment.

Breath of life monks gain a breath of life pool, which is empty until generated in combat. The maximum is equal to the breath of life monk’s Constitution modifier. The breath of life monk uses this pool of breath of life to fuel his other abilities. This pool empties five minutes after combat ends or, if out of combat, five minutes after the last time the breath of life monk spent actions to acquire points.

The breath of life monk can gain one point of breath of life as a move action. At 7th level, they may do so as a swift action. At 14th level, they may do so as an immediate action. At 20th level this becomes a free action, although can only be done once per round.

At any time the breath of life monk lands an attack against any form of undead, they may expend one point from their breath of life to convert the damage of the physical damage of the attack to physHoly and an additional 1d6 points of holy (Not physHoly) damage to the attack. This bonus damage is not multiplied on a critical hit.

At 4th level, so long as the breath of life monk has 1 point in his breath of life pool, his unarmed strikes are treated as magic weapons for the purpose of overcoming damage reduction. At 7th level, his unarmed attacks are also treated as cold iron and silver for the purpose of overcoming damage reduction. At 10th level, he chooses one alignment component: chaotic, evil, good, or lawful; his unarmed strikes also count as this alignment for the purpose of overcoming damage reduction. (This alignment component cannot be the opposite of the breath of life’s actual alignment, such as a good breath of life monk choosing evil strikes.) At 16th level, his unarmed attacks are also treated as adamantine weapons for the purpose of overcoming damage reduction and bypassing hardness.

This ability replaces ki pool.

Breathing Techniques (Su)

At 1st level and at every Odd level afterwards, the breath of life monk may select one of the following techniques to learn. Each technique has a Breath Of Life cost, and can be used as many times as the breath of life monk can afford the cost. Breathing techniques are usually performed with unarmed strikes, but they can be performed with weapon attacks if the breath of life monk so chooses.

Forced Life Breathing (1 breath of life cost) - The Breath Of Life monk can strike an unconscious target’s gut with their pinky raised, allowing them to hit the diaphragm. This allows the breath of life monk to temporarily force the target to breath life energy. This technique stabilizes any dying creature it hits, as well as providing Fast Healing 1 for a number of rounds equal to half the breath of life monk’s level plus their Wisdom Modifier. This does nothing to creatures that are currently conscious.

Zoom Punch (1 breath of life cost) - The breath of life monk can channel their life energy into their limb, and gain immense reach by using that energy to prevent the harm caused by dislocating every joint in that limb. They can make one attack action as though it had reach. This cannot be used to gain reach on an attack of opportunity.

Ripple Cutter (1 breath of life cost per attack) - The breath of life monk channels their life energy into wine, which conducts life energy incredibly well, and use it as a projectile. A ripple cutter is a ranged touch attack with a range of 30ft that deals holy damage equal to the breath of life monk's unarmed strike damage + his wisdom modifier. Attacking with a ripple cutter replaces one of the breath of life monk's regular attacks, allowing the breath of life monk to make full attacks with this ability, provided he can pay for each use.

Tornado Overdrive (2 breath of life cost) - The breath of life monk forces their life energy down into their feet, leaping into the air and striking a foe with a twisting divekick. The breath of life monk makes a charge as a standard action (only allowing him to move his base speed, not double) and adds their Wisdom modifier to the attack roll. The breath of life monk does not provoke attacks of opportunity from movement when using this ability.

Live Wave Overdrive (3 breath of life cost) - The breath of life monk channels the life energy into an object or undead, tearing it apart from the inside. The breath of life monk makes a single attack, dealing holy damage instead of physical damage, and ignores an amount of hardness and damage reduction equal to their monk level. If the target of this ability is an undead, the breath of life monk rolls the weapon’s damage dice for the attack twice and adds the results together before adding bonuses from Strength, weapon abilities (such as flaming), precision-based damage, and other damage bonuses. These extra weapon damage dice are not multiplied on a critical hit or when using the vital strike feat, but are added to the total.

Scarlet Overdrive (2 breath of life cost) - The breath of life monk channels the life energy into their fist or weapon, striking it off the floor or another hard object to ignite it. Until the start of his next turn, the breath of life monk deals physFire damage in place of all physical damage he would deal with attacks.

Turquoise Blue Overdrive (2 breath of life cost) - The breath of life monk channels the life energy into their fist, before coating it in water. Until the start of his next turn, the breath of life monk deals physWater damage in place of all physical damage he would deal with attacks.

Life Magnetism Overdrive (2 breath of life cost) - The breath of life monk can use their life energy to restore life to plants. Healing 1d6 points of damage per monk level to living plants or plant creatures. Alternatively, if the breath of life monk is surrounded by fallen leaves or carries a bag of leaves with them, they may create a glider from the leaves, negating damage from a fall from any height and allowing 30 feet of forward travel for every 5 feet of descent. This glider lasts for a number of rounds equal to his monk level.

Life Wave Kick (3 breath of life cost) - The breath of life monk can use their life energy to propel themselves upwards, striking with surprising force. As a standard or attack action, the breath of life monk jumps 15 feet upwards to strike a foe in reach. The breath of life monk may attempt to increase the height of their jump with an acrobatics check, but they always jump at least 15 feet.

Sunlight Yellow Overdrive (4 breath of life cost) - The ultimate breath of life technique, designed to obliterate undead. The breath of life monk performs a flurry of blows on one undead target, converting all of their martial arts damage to Holy, adding 1d6 extra Holy damage to each hit as well as only counting DR once for the entire Flurry. To learn Sunlight Yellow Overdrive, the breath of life monk must be at least 6th level. This technique only functions on the undead.

These abilities replace blitz and all instances of fuse stance

Breath Of Life Mastery (Su)

In place of a bonus style feat, the breath of life monk can choose a power from the list below.

These abilities may replace some bonus style feats

Leather Body (Ex)

Rather than dexterously evading blows, breath of life monks often rely on their sheer physical conditioning to protect themselves against assault. At 3rd level, instead of gaining a Dexterity modifier to AC (Any bonuses or penalties he would have are ignored), the breath of life monk gains his Strength bonus as a natural armour bonus to AC, which stacks with any natural armour he might otherwise have. If a breath of life monk's strength score would be reduced to 9 or less, leather body ceases to function.

Although this natural armour is limited by the maximum Dexterity bonus of any worn armour, he does not lose his natural armour in situations where he would normally lose his Dexterity bonus to AC, such as being caught flat-footed or if an opponent successfully uses the feint action against him.

This ability allows a breath of life monk to take feats or make use of magic items that require him to have a natural armour bonus. However, he only benefits from those feats or items as long as leather body is actually providing him with a natural armour bonus. (For example, while a breath of life monk can take the improved natural armour feat, his armour must have a maximum dexterity bonus of at least +1. Likewise, if his strength score drops to 11 or less, any such feats or magic items cease functioning.)

Additionally, for the purposes of this ability, any armour the breath of life monk wears increases the maximum Dexterity bonus allowed by 1. For every 4 levels of warrior he has after 3rd, this bonus increases by +1. There is no “upper limit” to the increase of the maximum dexterity bonus allowed. A breath of life monk may disable or enable leather body as a free action once per turn at the start of his turn.

This ability does not stack with armour training, agility training or armoured flexibility.

Constant Breathing (Su)

At 20th level, the breath of life monk no longer has to intentionally breathe life energy. The breath of life monk begins each encounter with a full breath of life pool and may take actions to fill his breath of life pool even when he normally wouldn’t be able to, such as when he is unconscious or paralyzed.

This ability replaces full meter.