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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Nyaricus" data-source="post: 2807007" data-attributes="member: 35678">Here are a few of my thoughts on the (shaolin) monk which made its way into 3e core.D&D is assumed to be European Inspired. Now what this means is that stuff like aliens with tentacles for faces and three fingers make cults all over an underground realm and suck out brains for "enlightenment" for a living. So, where does European history come into that? I don't know <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f61b.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":p" title="Stick out tongue    :p"  data-smilie="7"data-shortname=":p" />D&D is not only European-Inspired, but has a life all it's own as well. It creates it's own archetypes for many things - In Europe, "chromatic" dragons were not all evil, while "metallic" dragons were goodly - that is something which i am pretty sure Dragon Lance has done for D&D. Most of these things are not bad, but just deepen the mythos of D&D in and of itself. Tolkien took many different themes and also added in his own to create something completely original - D&D is a sorta half-bastard child with the "WTF" Template compared to Tolkiens' world. IE: Tolkien has Goblins (a Germanic mine-fairy) and Orcs (a made-up race) be brethren in his world - D&D makes them different races and adds in more "goblinoids."D&D isn't real life - it is a made up game with some major influences of its authors - none of which include most of us EN Worlders. So what we are doing is pondering the written word of those authors and their intents behind it. Personally, I think that WotC should and should have done some *major* surveying to see what D&D players really want and base the game off those results. That said, look at the other side and realise just how popular D&D has became again in recent years and you could say with confidence that most of what they did wasn't half-assed - maybe a little far fetched, but not bad.So there's most of my neutral responses to this issue of the (shaolin) monk in the D&D game. Here are some of my biased, more down to earth opinions on the monk.***IMHO, the monk doesn't fit in with the core rulebook. It should not have been there. It is obviously a Shaolin Monk archetype; a martial artist who uses fist and finesse to overcome foes. I personally do not feature them in my homebrew campaign - which is end-of-the-darkages/tolkien-esque world. if i had a choice, i wouldn't allow them in my Forgotten Realms games, either. They are an Oriental-concept, and should have been in Oriental Adventures. D&D is European-inspired, but why did they have to make an Oriental book? Because standard D&D is assumed to be set in a European-ish setting. Monks don't fit that, with a name change or minor ability changes - and for them, major changes aren't even really worth it. Rather a fresh build for the archetye you want makes a helluva better choice; that way you won't get held back by Oriental themes when you wanted Occidental.It should also be noted that for thousands of years, Europeans and Asians didn't mix bloodlines. It is generally accepted that ther are three main "races" of humans (and remember: that is to be read main races) - that would be Caucasion, Mongoloid and Negroid. Only Now-a-days that cultures are becoming more intergrated are issues such as the ones we are debating in this very thread becoming apparent > that would be either saysing "meh, shaolin monks could have a spot in Europe" and "ummm, why is Jackie Chan chillin with Arthur and Beowulf?". So, back to the bloodlines bit,and the theme of the monk, i have to say that Monks have NO place in a European-Inspired setting such as D&D. This makes sense from many POV's - including the evidence from human bloodlines that it would be Inpossible to have a Europe with Asian influences. The closest thing we got IRL was Middle-east and Northern Africa stuff.So, in conclusion, the monk is not an archetype that is appropriate in a European-Inspired game. As previous posters ahve offered up - there are many different unarmed/unarmoured fighting styles to choose from -  a simple google search could do wonders for inspirations for this. As i said, if i had a choice, the (shaolin) monk would be out of all of my games, but one of my players has an anime-affixiation, and he jumped on the monk class for that. There is a balance point which any GM or DM must bow to.</blockquote>

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