D&D (2024) Help Me Hate Monks (Less Than I Currently Do)

[Paul Farquhar]

When it comes down to it, there is very little that is particularly “European” in D&D. Bards are Welsh, berserkers are Nordic, druids had been exterminated a thousand years before the medieval period, magic wasn’t real, psychic powers and mutant sorcerers weren’t even a myth.

It’s just a fantasyland, disconnected from any real place or time.

 

[MGibster]

Why? People have always travelled, especially adventurers, and stories about people from one culture encountering another are commonplace.

At the end of the day it's just preference. In a game like Deadlands, your party might consist of a rabbi, a samurai, a one armed Confederate veteran, a mad scientist, and a Russian wizard all of which are perfectly fine because it's kind of a gonzo setting where anything goes. If I'm sitting down to play a Wuxia martial arts game, your cowboy character with is six-shooter is a fly in the ointment. I have never considered any D&D game I've played to be an anything goes type setting save for perhaps Planescape. But like I said, it's just preference.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

If I'm sitting down to play a Wuxia martial arts game, your cowboy character with is six-shooter is a fly in the ointment

Why? They had gunpowder in china long before the west. The only thing your gunslinger needs to change is his hat.

 

[MGibster]

I started what I hoped would be a fun thread where we could discuss different orders or even types of monks for D&D. I regret starting this thread.

 

[Chaltab]

I started what I hoped would be a fun thread where we could discuss different orders or even types of monks for D&D. I regret starting this thread.

Perhaps a new thread with a name that doesn't invite certain discourse. Like "Tell me about your Monastic Orders" or something.

 

[GobHag]

it is not designed to mimic east Asian martial arts very well and certainly not the story versions from legends, books and visual media.

the problem is more that no one seems to be willing to do the leg work of explain the basic metaphysics the makes these things tick and then just work outwards.

I know that in context they are no stranger than a wizard but I do not have a firm grasp of the context hence I can't do it.
but I know it should neither be martial or caster as it is its own beast.

Worry not, the metaphysics of magic doesn't matter in 99% of games or products that WotC releases anyways. Amongst all the spells in the PHB, did any of it ever mention the weave? No, none of them do, so clearly the metaphyscis never mattered to anyone.

 

[Steampunkette]

I started what I hoped would be a fun thread where we could discuss different orders or even types of monks for D&D. I regret starting this thread.

Adept | Level Up

a5e.tools

How about this as an alternative?

No "Ki". No "Immortal Master" conceit. You can build outright barroom brawlers and burly orcs wearing spiked gauntlets to pummel their enemies into submission. You also get combat maneuvers for different martial arts styles that can be graceful or brutal.

Plus, y'know. Strength based brawlers wearing light armor and using Strength to AC instead of Dex.

Way less "Wuxia" way more "Bloody Knuckles"

 

[GobHag]

I don't even need monastic orders to make a Monk, the two that I made just trained and now know how to dent steel with fist and paralyze people with a punch.

You don't need magical schools to have a Wizard so I don't know why you'd have to make an Order for a monastic order.

 

[Bedrockgames]

Why? They had gunpowder in china long before the west. The only thing your gunslinger needs to change is his hat.

At the end of the day it's just preference. In a game like Deadlands, your party might consist of a rabbi, a samurai, a one armed Confederate veteran, a mad scientist, and a Russian wizard all of which are perfectly fine because it's kind of a gonzo setting where anything goes. If I'm sitting down to play a Wuxia martial arts game, your cowboy character with is six-shooter is a fly in the ointment. I have never considered any D&D game I've played to be an anything goes type setting save for perhaps Planescape. But like I said, it's just preference.

A few thoughts here. China's history is quite extensive and wuxia can cover anything from very ancient pre-gunpowder periods to periods that are quite modern with all sorts of modern weaponry (there are wuxia stories for example set in the Ming Dynasty where you have western powers bringing european style guns into the setting, and China has had gunpowder for some time as @Paul Farquhar points out: you won't find a six shooter in the song dynasty but you will find fire lances and eventually have things like Hand Cannons (and there is a type of hand canon that has nine barrels----I think the nine barrel hand cannons were from the Ming Dynasty).

But if you are being historical, you could have a cowboy in a wuxia campaign in the late Qing Dynasty or in a setting modeled after that (and there are movies that feature characters like this in this era). And you could do a campaign inspired by the boxer rebellion where characters actually develop techniques that make them immune to firearms (The Boxer Rebellion is actually a pretty good time period for this sort of cowboy character to appear in-----and if getting an American in there feels forced you can always have him be English and something other than a cowboy). If your campaign setting is fantasy that is just inspired by history, things open up way more.

That said, tone and genre is important, so obviously this is a matter of taste and what the right balance is, can vary a lot. So I am not saying you ought to do any of this @MGibster. But I think this sort of thing isn't that unusual to have in wuxia (characters from foreign lands showing up happens in the genre-------one recurring thing in Chinese wuxia movies is every so often you see a random American or British actor showing up playing this kind of character---like David Carradine appearing suddenly in True Legend----the 2010 film).

 

[Zaukrie]

There was a Will Shetterly novel from 1986, Witch Blood, that made me see how to incorporate monks into a European-inspired fantasy setting, if you want to remove the Asian flavor. As it is, most people don't take into account the amount of travel and cross-pollination people have always had on Earth. You had a Samurai community in Mexico City in the early 1600s, shortly after the fall of the Aztec Empire. An emissary from Beijing was sent to Europe by the grandnephew of Kublai Khan in the late 1200s. If someone wants to play an exotic character in a medieval-inspired D&D campaign, its a valid option, speaking from a historical-nerd perspective.

Yup, that book convinced me for sure. Plus all you other points. Now add in portals and flying ships and magic carts and other ways to travel....

I've never quite understood why this is an issue for an many people. But then, I tend not to take my gaming overly seriously in terms of the world.