Has anyone managed to make the monk less oriental?

[Oberyn]

I like the idea of an unarmed fighter, i like the idea of someone being able to topple giant beasts with fists and feet alone.


My pet peeve is all of the KI abilitys and also the Oriental feel to it. I would like an unarmed fighter that meshes better with fantasy.



There are some such as the barbarians who used nothing but fists. Or some orders who would learn to fight how thier cultures danced. some of these have either nordic or brazillian feels to them... but at least they can be meshed into a world better than the monks current clunky state.

 

[Crothian]

I've found that a bit of renaming the abilities and possible altering some skills does the trick.

 

[Oberyn]

Iv always hoped that wizards or dragon or someone else who does d-20 would make an alternate monk because my dm wont let us use anything unless its been published.

 

[Crothian]

well, you could always create a class and self publish it as a PDF.....

Unearthed Arcana has some cool aternatives for the Monk as well

 

[fusangite]

I think that trying to make the monk occidental is about as productive as trying to make the barbarian oriental. In my view, it would be much easier to start from scratch and build a core class or prestige class that meets your actual needs. What do you need this occidental monk for? What role will he play? What does he need to be able to do? Answer those questions and build a class that fulfills your criteria; this will almost certainly be less of a headache than trying to re-write an existing class.

 

[Oberyn]

Hmm i once got started on a capoerista it had a bit of a brazillian feel to it but it also fit in with elves wnd thier love of dance and swordplay. it didnt have the flurry ability but it did have Full BAB and some nice anti flanking abilitys such as the ability to gain a free strike against a creature when it tries to flank you if it is within range.

 

[BiggusGeekus]

If you change the special effects it can be pretty easy to mask the monk. If you search for Hong, you can find the link to his martial artist class which many people find to be a good subsitute.

 

[twofalls]

I just don't allow the monk as a player choice in my game, but then I dislike the idea of a hand to hand martial artist taking down Armored Knights and Giants. I like the western theme of Fantasy games, and keep the Monk in eastern settings. The one place I can see using the class (in my game of course) would be as an exotic npc non-human race. Other than that I just avoid it.

I'm not trying to hijack your thread here, I just realized this doesn't really address your question.

 

[Darkness]

Maybe use a Shou Disciple (PrCl in Unapproachable East):

5-level prestige class, good BAB, good Refl & Will SV, HD d10, 2 skill points; unarmed strike progression, flurry, bonus feats.

Just change the flavor text and you're good. Well, for 5 levels, anyway. There are other classes as well, though.

 

[Oberyn]

What about maybe turning it into a class based around claws... i know Diablo 2 did the asassin to death that way but having a much lighter unarmed attack progression and then flurry and have full BAB give abilitys pertaining to using claws (slow fall could still work) such as things like being able to climb at 2 times your speed if wearing claws and things such as that. Its out there but its more viable and seems to fit more into a fantasy setting.