Pointless--you're arguing just for the sake of argument.
No. I'm arguing that people get their terminology straight. If you don't use proper terminology, unintended misunderstandings can crop up.
Extreme example: I have a friend who thought Foxes were a kind of cat. Foxes are NOT felines, they are canines- a point I had to make by showing her the full latin terminology (Family: Canidae, Genus Vulpes).
By your logic, my correcting this person was pointless.
This discussion is about whether the monk fits in the default game...If we're going to remove classes because of ethnic flavor, then we'd better ditch the bard, the druid, and the paladin too.
Yep. And the monk, as described from 1st-3.5 is more Eastern than Western (or acultural), and as such, stands apart from every other base class in the PHB.
That said, I'm not arguing getting rid of the monk- but the other classes you mention are SOLIDLY Eurocentric or acultural. "Bards," all terminology aside, can be found in any culture. The druid is based on a Northwestern European/British Isles nature-religion tradition. The Paladin can be found in stories of Jean D'arc, Lancelot, Charles Martel, and other warriors driven by their beliefs, but it is an archetype without a true counterpart in Eastern legends.
If you read things like
Tales of Genji (the world's first novel, from Japan), books of Japanese and Chinese mythology, etc. you will find deeply religious warriors. However, by and large, they compartmentalize their religious lives from their military lives.
If "Quivering Palm" is too "Asian" for you, you can call it "Hand of Thor."
Well, considering that there really was no formalized unarmed martial art among the Vikings, other than the love of a good wrestling match, I think I'll pass on that.
+++
Dude...you're talking to someone who went to Catholic school taught by monks (Cistercians & Dominicans), in a family that went to Catholic schools (run by Jesuits & Nuns)... I have been fortunate enough to visit and stay in monestaries in many countries, so I've seen the (Western) monastic life up close and personally.
Unless you were a monk during the crusades, in which case some level of martial expertise was desirable, you're correct. But...
Those Crusaders were fully armored as knights, fought from horseback & used blunted lances...That model of monk became the D&D Priest/Cleric. Furthermore, they belonged to only a few orders- some of which were excommunicated from their parent faith. Technically, most of those were not even really monks, but Friars or priests. Monks (from Greek, adjective, single, from monos single, alone: a man who is a member of a religious order and lives in a monastery) typically lived in a community of men devoted to God, but living in small, single occupancy rooms. An adventuring monk is almost an oxymoron. Friars & Priests, OTOH, were free to live and travel pretty much as they liked, with a few strictures.
And, with that ONE exception, the typical western monk was a cook, a housekeeper, a scholar, a teacher, a farmer, a scribe, a winemaker, or a cheesmaker in addition to his duties as a priest. Examine the daily routine of any Benedictine order, Dominicans, Jesuit or any other monastic tradition from the West.
While martial prowess was not disalowed, it was also not encouraged. It was regarded as somewhat self-centered and inappropriate- a man of God was a man of peace, not war. And studying the martial arts took time away from prayer and duties to the monastic community.
The ability to assert control over one's own body or surroundings through meditation is by no means synonymous with Eastern mysticism.
No, but it is
more strongly associated with it. For every Padre Pio, I can point to a mass demonstration by eastern monks captured on film or video- such as was captured for an A&E special. In it, a group of Tibetan (?) monks, dressed in nothing but their saffron & orange robes spent a night on a cliff in the Himalayas. During a snowstorm.
...unless I'm mistaken, the 'quivering palm' only stuns opponents - I don't think that it acquired the instant kill aspect until a re-worked version of the attack appeared in Oriental Adventures.
You are mistaken. It did normal damage, plus it had a chance to instantly stun an opponent, PLUS it had the chance to instantly kill an opponent.
Open hand damage...has a chance to stun or even kill an opponent. An opponent is stunned by a monk for 1-6 (1d6) melee rounds if the score of the monk's "to hit" die score exceeds the minimum number required for a hit by 5 or more...The chance to kill is a percentage which equals th armor class (AC) of the oppnent, modified by the number of experience levels avove seven which the monk has attained...) 1Ed AD&D PHB p 30. (1978)
Further evidence of the Eastern flavor of the 1Ed monk is also found on the same page. If a monk makes a saved against
petrification, he can dodge or deflect non-magical missile attacks.
They Open locks, F/R Traps, Move Silently, Hide in Shadows, Hear Noise, and Climb walls with skill equal to the 1Ed Thief.
Even their level progression is tinged by Eastern culture- albeit cinematic Eastern culture. To advance beyond 7th level, a monk PC had to defeat (in single, unarmed, HTH combat) a monk of the level he wished to attain, and had to do so at each subsequent level. (1Ed AD&D PHB p 32. (1978)) AFAIK, that has NEVER been part of the Western tradition, even cinematically.
