Way of MercyMonk Monastic Tradition — D&D 5e
Way of Mercy is the monk that heals — a touch of ki-fueled palm strike can knit wounds shut or, flipped the other way, tear the same energy into a foe as necrotic damage, all through the same one feature. It’s the closest a monk gets to being a support character without giving up the class’s martial core, and it scales into genuine death-prevention at higher levels.
Level by level
Way of Mercy Features
Level 3 — Hands of Healing and Harm
By touching a creature and spending 1 ki point, you either heal it for a roll of your martial arts die plus your Wisdom modifier, or deal that much necrotic damage to a hostile target and reduce its speed by 10 feet until the start of your next turn, giving one feature two completely opposite battlefield uses.
Level 3 — Physician's Touch
Your Hand of Healing can also cure one disease or end one condition (blinded, deafened, paralyzed, or poisoned), and your Hand of Harm can instead inflict the poisoned condition, turning your touch attack into a status-effect tool as much as a damage or healing one.
Level 6 — Merciful Reach
You can trigger Hand of Healing or Hand of Harm at range by spending an extra ki point and directing a spirit of healing to a creature you can see within 30 feet, freeing you from having to stand next to whoever needs the touch.
Level 11 — Beyond Death's Grasp
You can use Hand of Healing on yourself without spending ki, and you become immune to any nasty side effects tied to healing yourself with life-draining magic, so keeping yourself alive stops competing with your ki budget for everything else.
Level 17 — Hand of Reprieve
When you use Hand of Healing on a creature at 0 hit points, it doesn’t need to make death saving throws and can act as if it had regained hit points immediately, letting a single well-timed touch pull an ally back from the actual brink of death instead of just topping off a healthy target.
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