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Message: <blockquote data-quote="tetrasodium" data-source="post: 9501264" data-attributes="member: 93670">Yes there is an issue with making martials wuxia/xianxia/<a href="https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/SpiritCultivationGenre" target="_blank">cultivation</a>☆ in d&d without somehow converting the setting over and changing an awful lot of expectations.  A lot of the tropes those <a href="https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/SpiritCultivationGenre" target="_blank">cultivation</a> genre characters depend on are either jarringly out of place, completely unsupported by 5e, or come off looking toxic when not expected.  Have you read much of that genre?  Those characters simply don't fit into other settings any more than Harry Dresden Kate Daniels or locutus of borg can seamlessly be slotted into the avalanche of hreartwarming hallmark made for tv movies we can expect to see in the coming months about a city dweller & backwater rural country type finding their soulmate after crossing paths in a folksy coffee shop.While there are a lot of critical differences that keep those characters in check within their own settings, a couple of the easiest & most dramatically different elements to describe are things like tribulations/heaven's wrath &  how there's always someone (wayyyyyy) tougher.  TTRPGs have their own spin on stuff like "lightning strikes/rocks fall you've angered the GM" or the very old"you must fight to the death against another [whatever] to advance in this class after level X" &  it's usually not viewed positively when leaned on heavily or brought back, but in those genres it's such a common & well used trope that the in world characters respect and expect to face tribulations & heaven's wrath with regularity.  <a href="https://www.hulu.com/series/0c265948-3450-40ad-89b4-883af457f36d" target="_blank">Bleach</a>  makes for a good example of how always someone tougher plays out  since it happens so early & frequently throughout the series where the main characters seem to reach a new plateau of world-shaking power dealing with the last bbeg only to be casually humbled & crushed into the dirt by someone who doesn't even view them as worth getting serious to accomplish that.   Then you have the various mystic pills/rituals/etc needed to advance or use some of their more extreme powers (ie just like spellcasters often face).  All of those are important to keep those characters in check & bottleneck problem types who would become horrible genocidal war criminals & world reshaping level tropes like the common presence of beast tides, [monster filled] pocket worlds & so on needed to fuel them haven't even come up... If you thought murderhobos  treat "commoners" poorly, the plight of mortals existing near cultivators from those genres makes "commoner" seem like a step up to envy & strive for.Some of those tropes would be useful to be represented in player facing optional sidebars, but being player facing is important in allowing the player & character to recognize them without the GM needing to explain it in the heat of the moment.  It says a lot how the folks calling for just making martials like their wuxia counterparts never bring up including the stuff that supports & keeps those wuxia martials in check in the process of doing so.☆ Basically the same thing but one word is japanese another chinese & the one english.  There are some important differences, but generally interchangeable for purposes of this discussion. Sticking with the term cultivation over the other two is good because it splits off the various faith based elements or corrupts them into something as generic & decorative as the average anime "priest/sister" who happens to be dressed like the catholic version.</blockquote>

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