Ki Feats

Once a character has acquired a pool of ki points, he then qualifies to take additional feats of the ki feat type, which are described in the section that follows. Some feats affect the general physical, mental, and spiritual strength of the user and her ability to master the basic flows of ki energy. Other feats are more specifically dedicated toward refinement of a character’s martial or magical mastery and allow her to perform a number of amazing feats.

Feat	Prerequisites	Benefits
Aiming at the Target (Ki)	–	Spend ki to overcome concealment or use Wisdom bonus to attack rolls with spells, spell-like abilities, and some magic items
Align Ki (Combat, Ki)	Base attack bonus +6	Spend ki to make weapons aligned
Anticipatory Advance (Combat, Ki)	Dex 13, Dodge, base attack bonus +6	Use Wisdom bonus to AC against attacks of opportunity
Body Control (Ki)	Wis 13, ki pool or Ki Meditation	You can endure extremes of temperature and go without breathing
Composure (Ki)	–	Increase DC to use Sense Motive against you and spend ki to decrease fear effects
Destructive Force (Ki)	Caster level 5th	Reroll damage dice for spells or spell-like abilities
Disruptive Ki (Combat, Ki)	Base attack bonus +8	Spend ki to deal ability damage
Endow Ki (Ki)	–	Grant another creature a temporary ki pool
Evade Charge (Combat, Ki)	Dex 13	+4 dodge bonus to AC against charging foes, spend ki to make attack of opportunity
Felling Strike (Combat, Ki)	–	Spend ki to trip a target you hit
Finding the Center (Ki)	–	Spend ki to increase save DC of a spell
Flowing Stance (Combat, Ki)	–	+2 dodge bonus to AC against attacks of opportunity, spend ki to add Wisdom bonus
Focused Strike (Combat, Ki)	At least 2 other ki feats, base attack bonus +6	Spend ki to add bonus to attack and damage
Fuel Ki (Ki)	Con 13	Take ability damage to regain ki points
Graceful Calm (Ki)	Dex 13	Add Dexterity bonus to concentration or Wisdom bonus to AC against attacks of opportunity for spellcasting
Hadouken (Combat, Ki)	Con 13, Elemental Fist, base attack bonus +6	Deal extra elemental damage on a critical hit, spend ki to make Elemental Fist attack as a ranged touch attack
Heightened Precision (Ki)	Sneak attack +3d6	You can reroll sneak attack damage dice and resistance to critical hits
Ignore Distraction (Ki)	–	Spend ki to roll concentration check twice
Imbue Ki Crystal (Ki)	Craft (gem cutting) 5 ranks	Store 1 ki point in a crystal 5
Inscribe Ki Tattoo (Ki)	Craft (tattooing) 5 ranks	Grant another creature a temporary ki feat
Ki Agility (Ki)	Dex 13, Acrobatics 5 ranks	+2 Acrobatics, spend ki for greater bonus
Ki Balance (Ki)	Dex 13, Acrobatics 5 ranks	+1 dodge bonus to AC and spend ki to avoid falling down
Ki Cloak (Ki)	Dex 13, Stealth 10 ranks	Make yourself undetectable
Ki Focus (Ki)		Increase bonus from a ki feat by +1
Ki Infusion (Ki)		Spend ki to increase caster
Ki Insight (Ki)	Sense Motive 5 ranks	+2 Sense Motive, spend ki for greater bonus
Ki Meditation (Ki)	Wis 13, no ki pool	You gain a ki pool containing 1 point and can enhance a skill by meditating
Ki Regeneration (Combat, Ki)	Con 13, Rapid Recovery, Heal 1 rank	Spend ki to heal damage
Ki Resilience (Ki)	Con 13	Spend ki to gain temporary hit points
Ki Rush (Combat, Ki)	Dex 13	Spend ki to maneuver easily while charging
Ki Sprint (Ki)	–	Dex 13, Run +10 feet of movement, or spend ki to increase bonus to +30 feet
Ki Touch (Combat, Ki)	Base attack bonus +6	Spend ki to make a melee attack as a touch attack
Kiai (Combat, Ki)	–	Focus ki with a shout to apply a bonus to CMB, CMD, damage, or Strength checks
Improved Kiai	Kiai	Your kiai deals sonic damage and deafens
Focused Kiai	Kiai	Your kiai affects a line or cone
Greater Kiai	Improved Kiai, Kiai	Your kiai deals double damage and pushes targets away, potentially knocking prone
Mental Feedback (Ki)	–	Spend ki to damage enemies attempting to affect your mind
Mighty Kiai (Combat, Ki)	Greater Kiai, Improved Kiai, Kiai	Your kiai deals triple damage and staggers
Mind Over Body (Ki)	Con 13	Spend ki to delay the onset of harmful conditions
Mystic Metamagic (Ki)	Any metamagic feat	Decrease the cost of a metamagic feat
Mystic Reflex (Ki)	Dex 13	Enhance your attacks of opportunity with magical power or spell-like abilities
Mystic Tattoo (Ki, Metamagic)	Any metamagic feat	Use one metamagic feat more easily
Perfected Creation (Ki)	Any item creation feat	Craft mundane and magical items more quickly
Perfected Performance (Ki)	Cha 13, bardic performance or Perform 5 ranks	Use Wisdom modifier for Perform checks and increase the effect of bardic performance
Rapid Recovery (Combat, Ki)	Con 13, Heal 1 rank	You stabilize automatically and gain greater benefit from healing effects
Recapture Energy (Ki)	Cha 13, Wis 13, Cha 13	Spend ki to recall a spell you have just cast
Reflexive Spell (Ki, Metamagic)	Dex 13	Use touch spells for attacks of opportunity
Sap Ki (Ki)	–	Drain ki from adjacent creatures
Sense Ki (Ki)	–	Spend ki to locate creatures as blindsense
Shattering Strike (Combat, Ki)	Base attack bonus +6	Spend ki to ignore hardness of objects
Spontaneous Conversion (Ki)	Int 13, Wis 13, Cha 13, ability to prepare spells	Spend ki to convert a prepared spell into a different spell
Strength of Will (Ki)	–	Spend ki to replace Fortitude or Reflex save with a Will save
Stunning Shout (Combat, Ki)	Improved Kiai, Kiai, Stunning Fist	Your kiai can stun creatures in its area
Subconscious Spell (Ki, Metamagic)	–	Target yourself with spells even when mentally incapacitated
Swift Recovery (Ki)	Con 13	Double natural healing and can heal ability damage or drain
Transcendental Communion (Ki)	Int 13, Wis 13, must know tongues as a spell or spell-like ability	Spend ki to overcome language barriers
Unbounded Conversion (Ki)	Int 13, Wis 13, Cha 13, ability to spontaneously cast spells	Spend ki to use spontaneous metamagic without increasing casting time
Unyielding Stance (Combat, Ki)	–	Spend ki to resist effects that move you
Yogic Levitation (Ki)	–	Spend ki to levitate or feather fall.

* Other than Ki Meditation, all ki feats require either a ki pool or the Ki Meditation feat and a Wisdom score of 13 as prerequisites; therefore, those prerequisites are not repeated for every feat on the table.

One of the iconic concepts of the mysticism of the Far East is ki (often transliterated as chi or qi) or spirit-energy, representing not only the spirit but also the subtle self of invisible energy fields, flows, and reservoirs that move through all living things. Similar in some ways to the prana energy of Indian mysticism, ki is a means of understanding the natural and supernatural connections of the body with the physical and metaphysical world around it. It can be used as a channel for healing, interpreting and realigning the flows that are interrupted, blocked, or diverted. It also provides a medium of exchange for different types of energies that the body might use, from intellectual to emotional to sexual.

In game terms, ki is usually the especial preserve of the monk class. Both the base monk class and virtually all archetypes and prestige classes designed for use with it gain a ki pool and a variety of special abilities that can be activated through channeling their ki. The qinggong monkUM offers the most robustly detailed version of this concept, but many other monk subtypes also possess an interesting variety of ki-related powers. Even some features of the monk class that are not explicitly labeled as ki powers can be conceptualized in a similar way, such as slow fall or their expanded use of the Stunning Fist feat compared to other classes, which can be interpreted as being an additional manifestation of their use of ki.

Ninjas also have the ability to focus their ki to empower a variety of ninja tricks, taking their ordinary powers of stealth and deception and taking them into the realm of the supernatural. The integration of ki usage with ninjas is less deeply embedded than for monks, as it is possible to focus on ninja tricks that do not use ki, taking a lower ability score in the Charisma that fuels their ki pool in order to improve their physical attributes.

Limiting the use of ki to monks and ninjas, however, does not entirely fit with the idea of ki being a universal kind of spirit-energy, one which exists within all creatures and which anyone can learn to focus and channel with practice. What follows is a structured system of ki available to characters of all classes and a means of acquisition for a personal ki pool, representing their practiced meditation and training in the art of focusing and tapping into the power of their ki. It is possible to acquire a ki pool by multiclassing into the monk or ninja class, of course, but in any campaign multiclassing should be an option but not the only path to arriving at a particular game-mechanical destination. This is especially true in a campaign where ki takes a more central role. In such a campaign, this method fulfills the necessity of enabling members of other classes to use the power of their ki.

• Ki Feats: The general structure of this ki system creates a new category of feats called ki feats. These feats can be taken in general feat slots.
• Monks and ki: Monks already gain a ki pool at 4th level. In addition, monks can select any ki feats for which they qualify as bonus feats. Monks wishing to begin their career with a ki pool can take the Ki Meditation feat at 1st level. When they later acquire a ki pool at 4th level, they must then retrain their Ki Meditation feat into a different ki feat.
• Ninjas and ki: Ninjas already gain a ki pool at 2nd level. In addition, ninjas can select ki feats in place of ninja tricks.
• Samurai and ki: Samurai do not have a ki pool in the standard rules. However, their resolve class feature is a natural place to implement a ki system for the class. The simplest method is to allow samurai to take the Ki Meditation feat, with the ability to spend 1 point from their ki pool to activate their resolve ability; uses gained by spending ki are over and above the number normally allowed.

A more radical solution is to redefine the resolve class ability as an ability drawn from a ki pool. In this case, the samurai’s ki pool would have as many points as she would normally have uses of resolve (i.e., 1 point, plus 1 point per 2 levels after 1st), and the resolve class features would be accessed by spending points from this ki pool. This mirrors the mechanic used by the ninja and monk and their ability to perform class-specific feats by spending a point from their ki pool (e.g., making an additional attack on a full attack, increasing speed, Stealth, or jumping).

Ki and existing feats and items: Ki obviously is connected with feats like Extra Ki and magic items like a necklace of ki serenity or weapons with the ki focus property. Less mechanically obvious feats that thematically resemble ki feats include Stunning Fist and feats for which it is a prerequisite, as well as alternative feats that certain archetypes may select in lieu of Stunning Fist (e.g., Elemental Fist for a Monk of the Four Winds. If you choose to represent such feats and game effects as ki effects, you could treat uses of Stunning Fist as an equivalency to points in a ki pool. Any feats or other game effects that grant an additional use of Stunning Fist (or an equivalent feat like Elemental Fist), such as Mantis Style or Efreeti Stance, instead grant 1 additional ki point. A creature can then spend 1 point from his ki pool to gain an additional use of her Stunning Fist (or equivalent) feat. Alternatively, you can allow characters to retain uses of such feats as their own separate resource but allow characters with a ki pool to use those feats more times per day than normally allowed by expending 1 point from their ki pool each time they do so.

Exceptional, Supernatural, or Spell-like? Some of the ki effects described herein resemble spells or spell effects, but unless otherwise stated all ki effects are supernatural abilities.

They cannot be detected with detect magic, identified with Spellcraft, nor dispelled with dispel magic.

Vows and Ki

In general terms, the only way to increase a creature’s pool of ki points comes from either class advancement in a class that already gains a ki pool or from taking the Extra Ki feat. If you are using a more robust ki system in your game, however, this may not provide enough access to ki points to really allow PCs to take advantage of the expanded ki options. Feat slots alone already constitute a limiting factor, but requiring PCs to spend feat slots on Extra Ki just to expand their ki pool enough to use the ki feats they select ends up like a double-tax on ki abilities and makes them relatively unappealing.

One solution, both thematically and mechanically, is to allow characters of any class can learn to devote themselves to vows of focus and purpose that define the things he should (or, more often, should not) do in order to further his efforts to find purity and balanced union of mind, body, and spirit. Thus, any character in a Far East themed campaign game can commit themselves to a vow of celibacy, chains, cleanliness, fasting, peace, poverty, silence, or truth, gaining the same benefits of bonus ki that a monk would receive from taking such monk vowsUM. The bonus to their ki gained through these vows is based on their total character level rather than their monk level, and the potential loss of ki for breaking those vows applies just as it does for monks. While these published vows offer an excellent starting point, they also can be used as models to develop similar vows that may be unique to particular organizations or cultures as appropriate for your campaign world.

Ki and Combat

In battle, ki is that sense of inner focus and concentration that allows a warrior to attain peace and oneness in the midst of a chaotic battle, achieving perfect clarity and analytical precision as they survey the battlefield and causing pain, fear, and confusion to ebb away. You become one with your weapon, flowing easily from attack to defense and back again, allowing you to supersede your physical limitations and defeat your enemies. While the monk, ninja, and samurai are described above as classes particularly suited to the use of ki, other martial classes could also adjust their class abilities in a campaign that prominently features the use of ki in the following ways.

• Barbarian: A barbarian may choose ki feats in place of rage powers.
• Cavalier: A cavalier may select ki feats using his bonus feat slots.
• Fighter: A fighter may select ki feats using his bonus feat slots.
• Paladin: A paladin may select ki feats in place of her mercies.
• Ranger: A ranger may choose ki feats in place of his combat style feats. These ki feats are not restricted to use in light or no armor as combat style feats are.
• Rogue: A rogue may choose ki feats in place of her rogue tricks.

Ki and Magic

Ki represents a serene mystic art separate and distinct from traditional forms of arcane and divine magic. However, the practice of focusing and channeling ki certainly has applications in terms of manipulating the traditional methods of magic. Ki can be used to subtly reshape the form of spells and magic themselves, but its greatest power is in the pursuit of perfection of spellcasters. Those who wield magic can find great comfort and aid in focusing their magical skills through combining their ki and their magical mastery as one. In a campaign where ki plays a prominent role, you can expand the availability of ki feats for spellcasting classes using the following methods.

• Alchemist: An alchemist may choose a bonus ki feat in place of a discovery.
• Bard: A bard may choose a bonus ki feat in place of a versatile performance.
• Cleric: A cleric may replace one domain with the Ki Meditation feat at 1st level, gaining one bonus ki feat at 4th level and every 4 levels thereafter.
• Inquisitor: An inquisitor may replace her domain with the Ki Meditation feat at 1st level, gaining one bonus ki feat at 5th level and every 5 levels thereafter.
• Magus: A magus may choose ki feats using his bonus feat slots.
• Oracle: An oracle may choose a ki bonus feat in place of a revelation; if she does so, she also gains another ki feat as a bonus feat 2 levels later.
• Sorcerer: A sorcerer may choose ki feats in place of bloodline bonus feats.
• Summoner: When gaining a level, a summoner may choose to gain Ki Meditation or another ki feat in place of the evolution points his eidolon would gain upon advancing to to that level.
• Witch: A witch may choose Ki Meditation or other ki feats in place of hexes.
• Wizard: A wizard may choose to take Ki Meditation in place of Scribe Scroll and to select ki feats with their bonus feat slots. Alternatively, a wizard could replace his arcane bond with the Ki Meditation feat, gaining one bonus ki feat at 6th level and every 4 levels thereafter.