Barbarian/monk?

[Balgus]

Avatar of the North:
Read you own quote, it doesn't saw NON-CHAOTIC, its says a barbarian who becomes LAWFUL loses rage

errr- I think this was addressed to me. And yes- I apologise but i did say i don't have the book in front of me.

In any case, a monk has to be lawful. An barb has to be any nonlawful (or else loses rage) so in principle, monk/barb combo can never exist without losing something.

And especially the way you proposed your char to be, it can never happen.

But, you can propose to your DM that your char has multiple personalities, both of whichtakjes over the entire consciousness, and thus what one does does not interfere with what the other does. But that has some serious RPing to do- and you have better have a darn good explaination for how it came into being- or else the "he was born that way" might work too...

 

[Sejs]

There are other ways for a barb/monk character to work out. One example that springs to mind would be the title character from the Battle Angel Alita manga. Just because you're lawful, doesn't mean you can't have a temper. The character for all intents and purposes starts off as a monk, going about kung-fu'ing at things, but all along, has had a pretty dang -mean- temper. Something major happens in which the character's lifestyle is upset considerably ~ mentor is killed, school destroyed, exiled, what have you. Due to this the character is driven out from their source of monk training, out on their own, and just stops being so digilent, and ends up giving into their anger more and more. Becoming less and less lawful, less and less perfect. One day something happens and the character just loses it entirely and slips into what will eventually develop into their Rage ability.

When the dust settles, and the character can take appraisal of the situation... they're the only one left standing. They try to think back of what happened.. someone did something.. they got angry... a fight started.. then everything went white. It was like people around you were moving in slow motion.. they were slugs crawling on the ground, and you were a hawk soaring above them. You could dance thru their blows like they were rain. This was something entirely new to you..





and you loved it.

 

[Tsyr]

Completely IMHO and house rule, but if someone wants levels of Barbarian or Sorcerer IMC, they have to be taken from 1st. Though I would allow a Barb/Sorc multiclass. To me, you can't go "learn" how to be a barbarian; and sorcery (v. wizardry) is an innate talent that appears spontaneously (think "X-men"). So my house rule is you either start as a Barbarian (or Sorcerer) or you don't take those classes.

Barbarian is easily handled if you simply rename the class to "berzerker".

As for a sorcerer... sure, you might have had the potential to be a sorcerer your entire life, but that's not saying you would ever realize it. Indeed, the adventurer awakening to mighty powers from a forgotten bloodline is a fairly standard fantasy story.

 

[SylverFlame]

The Rules Rubberband

Easy way for the character to pull off the Barb/Monk combo is this. Start off as Barb, when ready, commence alignment shift and boogy for lawful.

Then, you advance to the level of monk you want. Let's say 10.

Next, commence 2nd alignment shift back to chaotic. Retake barbarian class, as there is no restriction about advancing as a barbarian after gaining levels in another class. Finish progression to level 10 or in PrC.

Voila, a 20th level char with Barb10/Monk10 and all the goodies. When you retake the barb class it's all in how you role play. Your char is just tapping another aspect of his Ki.

 

[darkbard]

in my campaign, there is a NG barbarian/ranger (working on foe hunter) who was born in the wild, as it were, but having been mildly civilized attempts (often unsuccessfully) to control his rage. in game terms, this means only as a last resort in combat does he explode into rage.

 

[satori01]

I am always a little dismayed when I read peoples opinion on viable class combos/character concepts. Alignment restrictions aside what about a barb/monk that:

1) is possesed of an evil chaos spirit. Rages are when the evil spirit gains some degree of control and the character has spent his entire life resisting the spirit.

2) in societies that believe in ancestor worship perhaps the barbarian rage is the result of chaneling the spirit of ancestors.
In fact all of the barbarians powers can be attributed to that.(the spirits told me about the trap etc etc). As monks are historicaly religous/spiritual seekers this concept can work.

3) The barbarian monk is able to tap into a mystical power source
(the power of death, the first spell, the crystal of castle greystone etc) that gives him or her his special(read class powers). Perhaps the character is adventuring to find this power source and understand better it and his or hers strange conection to it.

I believe all too often people get locked into writting inviolatable backgrounds first, that really cut down on character development.
Why only allow barbarians and sorcerers at first level? What a waste.