And I'd allow a monk with that background in my game. My post, though, showed how strong the connection between monk and monastery is and why. WotC connected them very strongly in 5e with it's writing of the monk classs, and the natural use of the word also connects monks and monasteries. I acknowledged in my post that there is no forced connection, so you can have a monk that is an exception. But in 5e a monk that isn't from a monastery IS an exception.
Of course a boxer is just the same. There is no need to have separate classes to cover martial arts originating from different real world cultures. One class covers ninjas, pugilists and shaolin warriors just fine. “Monk” isn’t a good name for it, but it’s hard to change anything in D&D without getting a ton of pushback.
You know what the difference is between orcs and goblins in Middle Earth? Which book they were in. That's it. Orc = goblin and goblin = orc. Ki is just a word for how you focus the energy inside of you. 5.5e making it focusing the energy inside of you didn't get rid of ki. It just Tolkien orc-goblinned it. Ki = focus and focus = ki.
the connection is found out of error it my point.
there is no need for most types of caster to be separate or for games to exist but both are better served that way so to here.
But that is so boring. I love martial arts and boxing in real life but for D&D a generic all encompassing martial artist seems less flavorful and interesting than an esoteric monk martial artist. You end up stripping the mysticism and flavor from it and just end up with a grounded class that is mundane or one with abilities that don’t fit boxers and judo practitioners. The reason people like the monk is because if it’s flavor and heightened abilities
Ninjas and monks do not have anywhere close to everything in common. The monk speed, AC and damage by level increases would fit Ninjas. They both use Ki, I mean focus their internal energy to do stuff. That's where the similarities end, though. Ninjas are focused on hiding, vanishing, and assassinating. They wouldn't have things like the ability to do force damage, step of the wind, deflect energy or body and mind. They would have other abilities in their place. I could see a ninja with something like step of the wind, but that only/also affected their enemies. A ninja might force a victim off of a high wall to fall to his death in that way.
No you don’t. There are two magical and two non-magical fighters in the PHB. No reason you can’t have magical and non-magical boxers.
The "error" hasn't been eliminated at all. They didn't change the class name, and the name monk ties the class pretty tightly to monasteries as that's the natural use of the word. They didn't get rid of Ki at all, but simply placed a band-aid on it and still kept "Ki"(focusing internal energy).
The shadow monk is a ninja. That’s the point of the subclass.
