Can we cobble together something that uses some of dmnqwk’s and bedir than’s notions, along with an idea of mine?
Let’s take a look at it:
The Way of the Blind Monk
Some people are born blind. To others it comes about through disease or misadventure. To the former, it is natural to take it in stride: it is what it has always been. For the latter, it can be anything from a source of deep depression to a personal challenge to overcome it or anywhere in-between. It is often a journey of mind and spirit from the one stage to another.
The monasteries that teach this discipline might call it the Order of the Hidden Veil, the Path of the Unseeing, or something similar. The tradition teaches students how to use all of their senses, both natural and supernatural, to perceive the world. Differences may exist in details, but they all unfold the core revelations described below.
Prerequisite:
This monastic tradition is only open to a character who is severely visually impaired. For the first two levels in this class, you make all Perception checks and all attack rolls with disadvantage, but gain an extra 2 Ki points at 2nd level. One of those extra Ki points disappears at 3rd level and the other disappears at 4th level; effectively, you have 4 Ki points at levels 2 through 4.
All Things Tremble
When you begin to train in this monastic tradition at 3rd level, you no longer suffer disadvantage on your melee attack rolls. Long periods of meditation have enabled you to finally “get” your earlier training, and you have learned to sense the slightest zephyrs of moving air, the lightest vibrations of the ground beneath your feet.
The friction of cloth folding over itself, the breathing of another creature, that creature’s heartbeat, a foot that lifts from the ground and sets down again in another spot: all of these, recognized and made discriminate from other ambient information immediately around you, enables you to act and react as if sighted. You gain Blindsense and Tremorsense to a range of 5 feet.
At 6th level, your sensitivity improves to where you no longer have disadvantage on Perception checks as long as you are not suffering from the deafened condition, and you can now make ranged weapon attack rolls without disadvantage as well, but only at short range.
By 11th level, after the initial exchange of melee attacks against an opponent in a combat encounter, you may spend 2 Ki points every other round to gain advantage on one melee attack roll (either an attack action, a reaction, or with one of the Flurry of Blows unarmed strikes) until the end of the encounter.
Enlightened Intuition
Beginning at 6th level, you begin to perceive an individual's temperament. You gain proficiency on Wisdom (Insight) rolls if you do not already have it, and you can spend 1 Ki point to gain advantage on any Persuasion or Intimidation check.
Attuned to the Ambience
Starting at 11th level, your Blindsense and Tremorsense abilities improve to a 15-foot radius.
A Voice of Stone and Thunder
When you reach 17th level, you have developed a deep connection with the earth and air that have so effectively alleviated your eye-blindness by delivering information to you. You may cast one spell, either earthquake or thunderwave, by spending a number of Ki points equal to the spell slot level of the casting. After using this ability once, you must take a long rest before you can use it again. Wisdom is the spell casting ability for the casting.
During the casting of earthquake, your Tremorsense extends to the full 500-foot range of the spell. This does mean that you cannot sense beyond that range. Unless you have been told by someone else, you have no idea of who or what may be affected by the spell in your blind spot.
