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

[Bedrockgames]

...that seems like a pretty damning indictment of Fighters. Who wants to play a guy who just swings a sword? If even Bruce Lee, who is doing relatively grounded martial arts with no supernatural elements, is too spectacular to be a Fighter, then what are Fighters even doing in Dnd?

I didn't mean it that way. I just meant visually, the cinematic inspirations for the fighter looks pretty different from the stuff you have Bruce Lee doing in movies. Part of that is just the style of film making. But the other part is because there is so much attention to unarmed fighting in kung fu craze movies, it gets very elaborate with it. Also a genre, in both wuxia and kung fu, the skill level of the character is more important than what weapon they are using. So a character might block a sword with their finger tips. I feel like that is less common in the depiction the fighter is being being drawn from

 

[Paul Farquhar]

If I had a dime for every player who wanted to invent a machine gun in a time frame that seems far too early, I would be a very rich GM lol

The biggest obstacle is you need machine tools to drill the barrels to sufficient accuracy. But with magic, and my gang of trained imps…

 

[Bedrockgames]

...that seems like a pretty damning indictment of Fighters. Who wants to play a guy who just swings a sword? If even Bruce Lee, who is doing relatively grounded martial arts with no supernatural elements, is too spectacular to be a Fighter, then what are Fighters even doing in Dnd?

I dont' mean spectacular as in "effective'. Bruce Lee would probably be the first to say punching is punching and kicking is kicking (he drew on European style fencing for his footwork and I believe western boxing as well). But the style of the movies he was in looked spectacular: it was a feast for the eyes. I just mean it in terms of style

 

[Mind of tempest]

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.

true however magic is not sacred in the west the stuff that monks class runs on has been thus it helps to do it right.
can't be too scared as it is in all sorts of things.
also getting why something works helps make more classes for it more easily.

For me it depends. Interaction between east and west was very limited pre age of sail. Relative handful of merchants snd ambassadors.

So it's really up to the DM snd if their world has sge of sail equivalent or portals, airship etc facilitating long distance travel.

Or if Monks are available locally. I've git a tortle one atm in my games because I wasn't running anything specific that would exclude Monks. Eg Darksun would. My fate of Atlantis game (432BC)would probably exclude them

monks make way too much sense for Dark Sun in a world where decent weapons are a dying art turning the body into one starts seeming a good idea and add in that internal eastern energies read similarly to internal energies of psionics and they start to feel quite at home together.
also just watch fist of the north star it totally works

 

[Zardnaar]

So, the PC is an inventor.

That still violates the genre if the DM has a distinct idea.

My fate of Atlantis Game is tech locked at 432BC. Atlantean stuff exists but you need to go find it. Best armor is Greek ensemble at least what you can buy.

Six shooter he'll there's no longsword or chain mail.

 

[Zardnaar]

true however magic is not sacred in the west the stuff that monks class runs on has been thus it helps to do it right.
can't be too scared as it is in all sorts of things.
also getting why something works helps make more classes for it more easily.

monks make way too much sense for Dark Sun in a world where decent weapons are a dying art turning the body into one starts seeming a good idea and add in that internal eastern energies read similarly to internal energies of psionics and they start to feel quite at home together.
also just watch fist of the north star it totally works

They don't work because it's to efficient at getting around the theme of the setting.

Same with warforged even if you can make them out of non metal.
. Just because you can doesn't mean you should.

 

[Zardnaar]

I responded to this one earlier a lot of this depends on the era and campaign, because wuxia can be set in the late 19th century. So in that time at least, a cowboy with a 6 shooter is conceivable as a character (and definitely characters with guns from Europe would be).

Before that you might have had something like this: Xun Lei Chong - Wikipedia

Or something like this:

View attachment 391004

You can actually find videos online demonstrating the usage of a nine barrel hand cannon to see how it would look in practice.

One thing I will say is this, China has a lot more than people might imagine. I am not saying you would see a revolver in Song China, but it is often surprising how advanced China was by the 10th century, especially compared to Europe and in regard to things like bureaucracy and culture. Song China is pretty incredible interns of what heights it reached. A campaign set in historical China or an analog of it, actually fits D&D style fantasy more IMO than medieval Europe.

Up to a point. Just because it's available in China doesn't mean it's available in Europe.

Diffusion took a long time pre age of sail.

 

[Chaltab]

They don't work because it's to efficient at getting around the theme of the setting.

...Not sure how that tracks. How does punching people get around the theme of the setting?

 

[Zardnaar]

...Not sure how that tracks. How does punching people get around the theme of the setting?

Bunching people is fine but high level Monks out damage things like metal greatswords.

Major aspect of darksun is crappy materials and monks get around that.

 

[Mind of tempest]

They don't work because it's to efficient at getting around the theme of the setting.

Same with warforged even if you can make them out of non metal.
. Just because you can doesn't mean you should.

and the theme is?