A monk by another name

[warlord]

You could remove alighnment restrictions and call them Ninjas or Warriors.

 

[Klaus]

This sounds really, really cool. Can't wait for the article!

The article is up at www.fierydragon.com !

 

[DrNilesCrane]

In the World of Karathis (the official Fiery Dragon campaign setting), the tradition of unarmed combat started in the aftermath of the Shadow Wars, when the Monastic Dragons developed their fighting techniques from observing the mightiest of the world's creatures: dragons.

Mechanically, they are just like the PHB monks, except for the weapons. The kama, sai, siagham, nunchaku and shuriken were replaced by the dragontogue sword, dragonhorn dagger, dragonfang, dragonscale darts and dragontail club.

Expect an article detailing the Monastic Dragons later this week at www.fierydragon.com .

I'm working on a new campaign for my group kicking off next summer and that sounds PERFECT -- can't wait to see what you put together! My group is on a monk kick but the campaign doesn't have an asian feel to it at all, and dragons are going to be a major theme/element...

 

[Tonguez]

Which would work great if monks didn't have standard abilities such as Slow Fall, Abundant Step, Quivering palm, and Tongue of the Sun and Moon, all of which are very wuxia. Coupled with the monk weapons (nunchaku, sai, kama, etc) its really hard to pretend they aren't eastern. Friar tuck may have been a pretty good grappler, but he did not use nunchuks..

Slow Fall Friar Roger Bacon was reputed to have been seen jumping off the walls of Oxford and landing safely on the ground

Abundant Step The Bible mentions an Apostle (Stephen?) appearing before (and then baptising) an Ethiopian Merchant without having traveled the distance between (ok this might better be portrayed as Teleport but Abundant Step has a minimum range of 440 ft)

Quivering palm A death curse which requires that the victim be touched (forget the vibrations fluff)

Tongue of the Sun and Moon St Francis of Asisi could talk to animals, and many Pentecostal Churches talk about the 'Gift of Tongues'

All the abilities can be westernised if you remove the fluff and so can the weapons (Nunchucka = Threshing flail, Kama = Sickle (maybe even just a dagger))