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<blockquote data-quote="CleverNickName" data-source="post: 8771153" data-attributes="member: 50987">For my upcoming campaign, one of my players has told me he wants to play a Monk.&nbsp; Specifically, he wants to play a monk based on the character of Kvothe, in the novel &quot;The Name of the Wind&quot; by Patrick Rothfuss.&nbsp; &quot;I want to play someone who has a mystical ability with his sword,&quot; he said.&nbsp; Now personally, I feel that the character of Kvothe would probably be best represented as a Bard, and I suggested it to the player, but no dice.&nbsp; &quot;Nope, I won't play a spellcaster,&quot; he said.&nbsp; Not &quot;can't,&quot; not &quot;doesn't want to,&quot; but &quot;won't.&quot;&nbsp; Like a druid with metal armor, it's not happening.Now I don't need to tell you that this kind of input from your players is solid gold, and most DMs would kill to have their players inject this amount of planning and forethought into their characters.&nbsp; So I am happy to oblige, even though the character doesn't quite fit the campaign setting (which is more of a swashbuckling, Renaissance Italy-flavored setting).&nbsp; I'm not so enamoured with my setting that I won't make changes to accommodate my players.&nbsp; So I asked him why he chose monk, and he said that he had been looking at the Way of the Kensei subclass in Xanathar's Guide to Everything and he thought it would be a good fit for that character.&nbsp; I can't argue with that; it's his character and his interpretation of Kvothe.You see, there are 5 players in my gaming group, and they are a good mix of min-maxing optimists, rules lawyers, and story-focused improv actors.&nbsp; The player who wishes to play this Kvothe Clone is one of the latter:&nbsp; he does not care about combat optimization, and it drives him nuts how everyone else at the table will examine the rules with a fine-toothed comb, trying to eek out every tiny bonus and advantage for every roll possible.&nbsp; He wants to play this character simply because he admires the character in the story, and wants to examine the game world through Kvothe's perspective.&nbsp; He probably picked Way of the Kensei because the description mentions &quot;weapon&quot; more often than the other subclasses, and isn't a spellcaster.I'm a little bit out of my element here.&nbsp; Monks are not a common character class in my campaigns...I think I've only ever seen one in this gaming group, and it was years ago, and it was a shadow-monk-assassin-rogue that was optimized all the way to hell and back.&nbsp; And I'm struggling to figure out how to build one that resembles the character of Kvothe, and still makes sense in the campaign.&nbsp; Any advice?&nbsp; How would you do this?&nbsp; Pretend it's an <a href="https://www.enworld.org/threads/iron-dm-2022-is-upon-us-sign-ups-and-scheduling.690999/post-8747781" target="_blank">Iron DM challenge</a>, and you were given the following ingredients:<ul>
<li data-xf-list-type="ul">5th Edition Monk</li>
<li data-xf-list-type="ul">&quot;The Name of the Wind&quot; by Patrick Rothfuss</li>
<li data-xf-list-type="ul">Renaissance Italy</li>
<li data-xf-list-type="ul">Mystical Swordsman</li>
<li data-xf-list-type="ul">No Spells</li>
</ul>I've got a few ideas floating around in my head, but more heads are better than one.&nbsp; What would you do?</blockquote>

[QUOTE="CleverNickName, post: 8771153, member: 50987"] For my upcoming campaign, one of my players has told me he wants to play a Monk. Specifically, he wants to play a monk based on the character of Kvothe, in the novel "The Name of the Wind" by Patrick Rothfuss. "I want to play someone who has a mystical ability with his sword," he said. Now personally, [I]I feel[/I] that the character of Kvothe would probably be best represented as a Bard, and I suggested it to the player, but no dice. "Nope, I won't play a spellcaster," he said. Not "can't," not "doesn't want to," but "won't." Like a druid with metal armor, it's not happening. Now I don't need to tell you that this kind of input from your players is [I]solid gold, [/I]and most DMs would kill to have their players inject this amount of planning and forethought into their characters. So I am happy to oblige, even though the character doesn't quite fit the campaign setting (which is more of a swashbuckling, Renaissance Italy-flavored setting). I'm not so enamoured with my setting that I won't make changes to accommodate my players. So I asked him why he chose monk, and he said that he had been looking at the Way of the Kensei subclass in [I]Xanathar's Guide to Everything[/I] and he thought it would be a good fit for that character. I can't argue with that; it's his character and his interpretation of Kvothe. You see, there are 5 players in my gaming group, and they are a good mix of min-maxing optimists, rules lawyers, and story-focused improv actors. The player who wishes to play this Kvothe Clone is one of the latter: he does not care about combat optimization, and it drives him nuts how everyone else at the table will examine the rules with a fine-toothed comb, trying to eek out every tiny bonus and advantage for every roll possible. He wants to play this character simply because he admires the character in the story, and wants to examine the game world through Kvothe's perspective. He probably picked Way of the Kensei because the description mentions "weapon" more often than the other subclasses, and isn't a spellcaster. I'm a little bit out of my element here. Monks are not a common character class in my campaigns...I think I've only ever seen one in this gaming group, and it was years ago, and it was a shadow-monk-assassin-rogue that was optimized all the way to hell and back. And I'm struggling to figure out how to build one that resembles the character of Kvothe, and still makes sense in the campaign. Any advice? How would you do this? Pretend it's an [URL='https://www.enworld.org/threads/iron-dm-2022-is-upon-us-sign-ups-and-scheduling.690999/post-8747781']Iron DM challenge[/URL], and you were given the following ingredients: [LIST] [*]5th Edition Monk [*]"The Name of the Wind" by Patrick Rothfuss [*]Renaissance Italy [*]Mystical Swordsman [*]No Spells [/LIST] I've got a few ideas floating around in my head, but more heads are better than one. What would [I]you [/I]do? [/QUOTE]

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