I hate monks

[ForceUser]

Not on your life. They're Norse berserkers.

Actually, way back when this was Eric Noah's 3E hint site, I read a 3E designer post that claimed that William Wallace a good example of the 3E barbarian.

While the barbarian can easily be a Norse berzeker, he isn't one in the core rules. If he were, they'd have called him a Norse berzerker. No, he's a "barbarian"--whatever that means in the context of one's campaign world. In the default setting of Greyhawk, he's not a Norse anything, since the Norse don't exist there. And what if my barbarian were an elf, or a gnome? Would he still be, by your definition, Norse? Do you see how your labels are meaningless?

 

[Crothian]

How so?

Default is Greyhawk and that setting is very Europian

 

[ForceUser]

Default is Greyhawk and that setting is very Europian

Tell that to the Scarlet Brotherhood, a vast nation run by....monks.

 

[Crothian]

While the barbarian can easily be a Norse berzeker, he isn't one in the core rules. If he were, they'd have called him a Norse berzerker. No, he's a "barbarian"--whatever that means in the context of one's campaign world. In the default setting of Greyhawk, he's not a Norse anything, since the Norse don't exist there. And what if my barbarian were an elf, or a gnome? Would he still be, by your definition, Norse? Do you see how your labels are meaningless?

The concept is very norse, but the name is not. Like the Druid concept is very Cletic, but they didn't call them the Celtic Druids. And there is no reason to think that just becasue they didn't called them Norse Beserkers, they aren't inspired by the norse. If thjat were true, since none of the classes have names like that then there would be zero items used to inspire the game. And we all know that is false.

 

[Crothian]

Tell that to the Scarlet Brotherhood, a vast nation run by....monks.

Just because the setting is Europian based doesn't mean it is entirely spawned from those concepts. I would expect exceptions.

 

[Krieg]

Tell that to the Scarlet Brotherhood, a vast nation run by....monks.

Who were also foreigners displaced from a far off land...

 

[ForceUser]

The concept is very norse, but the name is not. Like the Druid concept is very Cletic, but they didn't call them the Celtic Druids. And there is no reason to think that just becasue they didn't called them Norse Beserkers, they aren't inspired by the norse. If thjat were true, since none of the classes have names like that then there would be zero items used to inspire the game. And we all know that is false.

yes, but you're missing the point. They de-Norse-ified barbarians, stripped druids of anything remotely Celtic, and watered down the Asian-ness of monks. Why? To make them applicable cross-genre. Why? To open up the game to multiculturalism. Why? Because it's 2005 and parochialism is so last century.

 

[ForceUser]

Who were also foreigners displaced from a far off land...

Blond-haired, blue-eyed foreigners. IIRC, the natives (Baklundish?) are the swarthy ones.

 

[Crothian]

yes, but you're missing the point. They de-Norse-ified barbarians, stripped druids of anything remotely Celtic, and watered down the Asian-ness of monks. Why? To make them applicable cross-genre. Why? To open up the game to multiculturalism. Why? Because it's 2005 and parochialism is so last century.

Obviously they didn't do a good enough job then.

 

[ForceUser]

Obviously they didn't do a good enough job then.

Sure they did. I maintain that you guys are too wrapped up in labels. One man's Norse berserker is another man's Mongolian hun.