Has anyone managed to make the monk less oriental?

[Arkhandus]

Oberyn,

I suggest you simply ask your DM if you can use the Martial Artist advanced class from D20 Modern, published by Wizards of the Coast. You don't even have to buy D20 Modern to use it, in fact, because the D20 Modern System Reference Document can be found and used freely off the WotC website. Here's the URL for the D20 Modern SRD:
http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=d20/article/msrd

There's next to nothing that you'd need to do to use the Martial Artist advanced class in a regular D&D game. It's completely nonmagical, can be taken as early as 4th-level, and provides decent unarmed combat ability (only hitch is that it's 10 levels so it just doesn't extend long enough in level to rival the Monk's high-level unarmed damage). The Martial Artist has fewer skill points than the Monk but gets a high base attack bonus like the Fighter. It gets only a few class abilities, primarily Living Weapon and Iron Fist. Living Weapon boosts unarmed damage, Iron Fist provides temporary unarmed damage bonuses, but requires spending action points. I'd recommend you ask your DM to simply let the Iron Fist ability by used instead once per day or something, or once per day per point of Strength bonus perhaps.

I'd recommend asking the DM to allow the d20 Modern unarmed combat feats as well, since they're fair and form a decent feat tree for Martial Artists to pursue. Just ignore the class' Reputation bonus since that's just a d20 Modern mechanic. Ask to have the Martial Artist retain its class defense bonus to AC though. It's treated like a dodge bonus to AC, and it makes the Martial Artist decent at self-defense since it doesn't get the monk's Wisdom bonus to AC nor other monkish AC bonuses. Change the Martial Artist's Knowledge class skills to be Knowledge (Religion) and Knowledge (History), I think those are the closest matches for the D20 Modern knowledges listed in its description.

This rather easily solves the restriction to printed-materials-only, though it may not be optimal, but at least it works and it's quite reasonable. A 3rd-level Fighter, Barbarian, Ranger, or Paladin can easily qualify to take the Martial Artist advanced class at 4th-level.

 

[Ranger REG]

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

Why not use the fighter class and have them access martial arts feats as bonus feats? That way for them it is technique, not some spiritual mumbo-jumbo about being one with the universe.

BTW... Has anyone managed to make the paladin less Euro-Medieval?

 

[Arkhandus]

Oh, I almost forgot because D20 Modern was the first thing that came to mind, but if you want a more extensive set of material for a martial artist character in d20 games (such as 3.x D&D), you could get Blood & Fists. Should be easy to find someplace to buy it from if you search the net (plenty of online places sell it so far as I know), and it's written by Vigilance of the EN World forums. The previews I saw of it before were good and I've seen good reviews of the book (though I'm too poor to buy much gaming material, so I don't have it yet myself). :^D

 

[Tonguez]

BTW... Has anyone managed to make the paladin less Euro-Medieval?

Yes - my Spirit Champion is a 'primitive' paladin

"The Spirit Champion is the chosen vessel of the beast gods (shark, wolf, boar, lion, hawk, velociraptor etc), the Spirit Champion 'carries' the god into battle allowing them to feast upon the souls of the slain and in return the god embues its champion with a little of their power..."
The Special Mount becomes a Companion Beast, Smite Evil is Smite Enemies (the beast spirit literally feeds on the enemy) everything else as is

 

[MoogleEmpMog]

Why not use the fighter class and have them access martial arts feats as bonus feats? That way for them it is technique, not some spiritual mumbo-jumbo about being one with the universe.

BTW... Has anyone managed to make the paladin less Euro-Medieval?

Yeah, I have.

"Poor Pigeonholed Paladins," Dragon 327

 

[Goblyn]

Yes

its called a Psychic Warrior

(because Psionic feats DO make a better Monk)

I second this. Of course H-H damage would still be low, but you could run on walls n' stuff.

 

[saethone]

instead of making the monk less oriental, why not make the oriental less exotic? it is your world, after all

 

[Bloodstone Press]

Several years ago, I made a 3.0 Brawler, which is a sort of alt. monk. Check him out here.
http://www.bloodstone-press.com/classes.html
THe 3.5 version is currently with the editor and will be out eventually.

 

[Gez]

Hard to say, since none of my players have been interested in one, but I think I did.

First, I renamed the abilities. They're still the same thing, but don't have those Ki-this, Ki-that, and pseudo-zen-koan names.

Then, I changed their weapon proficiencies. Kamas and nunchuks are cool, but they're boring. Why should monks be Farm Implement Masters? In a world where true weapons are readily available, there's no need to turn tools into weapons.

So, my monks are proficient with simple weapons.

Then, they're grouped by orders, usually religious ones. Each order has its own chosen weapon (usually the weapon favored by the deity). The monk deals extra damage when using that weapon (in other words, the monk's unarmed damage is applied to one weapon, not necessarily his bare hands, that is chosen at creation). If the monk's weapon of choice is his bare hands, he get Improved Unarmed Strike. If it's a martial or exotic weapon, he gets Weapon Proficiency with said weapon. If it's a simple, but double weapon (quarterstaff), he gets TWF instead. If it's a simple, single weapon (dagger), then he gets a free Weapon Focus.

Ki strike, stun attack, etc., all are performed with the monk's weapon. But it's only with the monk's weapon -- he starts with one, and that's the one. He can use other weapons of the same kind (since he's proficient), but do not get the extra nifty damage or stun attack, etc.

And of course, as long as the weapon has a better damage die than the monk's unarmed strike, then it uses the normal damage die.

I thought also of making a few different paths for the monk class. Some would get the usual abilities, but variants would get other things instead. I'm eyeing the Skirmish ability...

 

[ThoughtfulOwl]

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.

It depends. Recycling existing and playtested mechanics while slapping a different flavor on it just requires imagination; rebuilding from scratch requires a lot of tinkering with the rules.

What about these two (fluff specifics are an example, of course):

Dreadwood Claws
When the kingdoms encroaching the ancient Dreadwood Forest turned their greedy eyes toward its natural resources, they justified their plundering by declaring a holy crusade against the 'pagan' old druidic order. Knowing that they no longer had sufficient numbers to repel the servants of the New Gods, the druids cast their divinations and posed questions: the answer was to create the Claws.
Each Claw undergoes a mystical ritual during which he contacts and strikes a pact with several animal spirits; imbuing the supplicant, these spirits grant superhuman abilities symbolically associated to animals, some even highly magical.
To this day, the grandsons of the repelled invaders still hear grandpa's tales about the feral Claws, how they could appear and disappear among the bushes without warning and how they looked like feral beasts cast in human form, even more terrifying than the druids who actually turned into animals.

In mechanical terms, rename all the class features as symbolic animal traits (speed of the wolf and so on); possibly swap Knowledge(arcana) with Know.(nature) as a class skill. The lawful requirement represents the mental restrain necessary to keep the animal spirits in check and within the body; as the 'Monks' raise in level, they strike further pacts. Describe their demeanor, movements and attacks as feral and animalistic, rather than elegant kung-fu moves. Swap the oriental monk weapons with mechanically equivalent western ones.


The Protectors
The Wizard Guild of Korobach has grown in political power for hundreds of years; upon finally becoming a magocracy, the mages needed a trusted police force to enforce their laws; they conscripted thousands of people, brainwashed them into obedience and applied several alchemical procedures meant to strenghten and toughen their bodies. Coupled with extensive martial training, this resulted in the perfect law enforcement corp.
The protectors are adept at subjugating or knocking out people without causing harm, but they also know well how to kill; their alchemy-induced resilience and inhuman speed makes them hard to pin down or affect with magic, invaluable when dealing with rogue spellcasters.
As the magocracy turned corrupt and riddled with internal strife, the Protectors doubled as deadly and silent assassins on behalf of their masters.
As they were forced to perform increasingly worse atrocities, some good hearthed Protectors managed to shake off their conditioning; this initial core of rebellion eventually led their brethren against their former masters and brought down the corrupt government.
The alchemical procedures have long since been seized by the Protectors themselves, who have become an independent charter of mercenaries and bodyguards for hire.

In mechanical terms, just describe the 'Monks' as having an otherworldly air, with innaturally fast and precise movements and a lingering smell of chemicals: they look like more as magical pet servants than as an order of warriors. The oriental weapons are intentionally odd in order to act as badges and signature items of the Protectors. Rename any offending class feature as necessary, aiming at an 'hermetic tinkering' flavor rather than kung-fu galore.