Upgrade your account to a Community Supporter account and remove most of the site ads.
Enchanted Trinkets Complete--a hardcover book containing over 500 magic items for your D&D games!

Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="Mad Mac" data-source="post: 1972611" data-attributes="member: 27873">I never said the Monk was paticularly well designed. Nonetheless, lets look at the evidence.1. The Iconic Monk is decidedly non-asian.2. The Monk is proffecient with the club, crossbow, dagger, handaxe, javelin, and sling. The Monk is admittingly not proffecient with maces, flails, and swords. They are also not proffecient with axes, spears. polearms, or heavy melee weapons of any type, whether asian or european. Nor are they proffecient in Bows, a popular weapon even in asian nations.  In general, the Monk seems to focus on light, easily-concealed weapons, or those that could be passed off as tools. The Crossbow is a notable exception, but can be used by basically any class, due to ease of use.  The eastern weapons availible for the Monk are also (aside from the ones added in 3.5) decidingly non-optimal. (ie crap) It is with these suckiest of all weapons that the Monk is allowed to flurry. This strikes me as a poorly considered balance decision, more than anything. The Exotic status of these weapons is also stupid and poorly considered.  Still, because there is no default asian culture in the core rules, these weapons are presented as being primarily Monk weapons, rather than imports from somewhere else. 3. "Ki". Yes, Ki is a Japanese word. We have established already, however, that monks are not japanese by default. So why is Ki added to the description? IMO, because it establishes the mysticism of monks, and justifies their superhuman abilities without catagorizing them as Wizards or Priests.  Ki is actually utilized by a couple of Prc's, including the 3.0 Weapon Master and the 3.5 Kensai. Again, it's a convenient justification to allow non-magical classes to pull off superhuman stuff. It can easily be substituted by any other source of power, because there are no mechanics actually associated with ki. Ki is pure fluff.4. The Class description is built entirely around their monastic lifestyle, with no reference to any outside culture. Essentially, it tells us that monks are different because of the traditions, philosophy, and discipline instilled in them by the monastaries they were raised in.   Getting back to your actual question, no, it's not coincidence, it is in fact homage. What it decidedly is not  is an attempt to define the monk as a strictly asian instituition. D&D is divorced from historical reality, and in the D&D mythos, the Monk is a path anyone can embark on. Simple as that.</blockquote>

Verification