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<blockquote data-quote="Imret" data-source="post: 2810363" data-attributes="member: 991">Down to merely 80% asian-themed, I guess? Still not really close enough to &quot;acultural&quot; to be generic.If all the classes are applicable cross-genre, why does Oriental Adventures remove the bard, druid, cleric, and paladin? Why are monks the only ones who get proficiency with asian-origin weapons at 1st level without expending feats? Why are all the options for monks, the least-customizable class until then, in Oriental Adventures? Why does the PHB, with a handful of exceptions, contain only weapons, armor, and equipment from European origin or straight out of fantasy?You can argue for the modern, all-inclusive, politically acceptable, &quot;stop being narrowminded&quot; approach all you want, but it doesn't change the fact that the monk is included in the PHB for the single, solitary reason of the designers of D&amp;D 3.x wanted it there. Not because it was a critical party role, not because it meshes well with the rest of the game, not even because it's mechanically very good and has abilities that work well together (IMO, neither is true). It's there because white kids like to play ninja, because wuxia films are popular, and because eleven classes sounds better than ten.I'm not saying the monk shouldn't be there. I'm saying with his abilities (and their names), his weapon proficiencies, the implications of calling an unarmed fighter with mystical powers a monk, the PHB monk is an unagi roll on the burger platter of the PHB. I've got nothing against sushi, but it's not even related to hamburgers.Also, Wait, it's not oriental-themed because they're (ostensibly, kinda,) fantasy-Caucasian? Does that even make sense to you? Culture != genetics. (Well, we'll pretend that means &quot;not equal to.)</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Imret, post: 2810363, member: 991"] Down to merely 80% asian-themed, I guess? Still not really close enough to "acultural" to be generic. If all the classes are applicable cross-genre, why does Oriental Adventures remove the bard, druid, cleric, and paladin? Why are monks the only ones who get proficiency with asian-origin weapons at 1st level without expending feats? Why are all the options for monks, the least-customizable class until then, in Oriental Adventures? Why does the PHB, with a handful of exceptions, contain only weapons, armor, and equipment from European origin or straight out of fantasy? You can argue for the modern, all-inclusive, politically acceptable, "stop being narrowminded" approach all you want, but it doesn't change the fact that the monk is included in the PHB for the single, solitary reason of [b]the designers of D&D 3.x wanted it there[/b]. Not because it was a critical party role, not because it meshes well with the rest of the game, not even because it's mechanically very good and has abilities that work well together (IMO, neither is true). It's there because white kids like to play ninja, because wuxia films are popular, and because eleven classes sounds better than ten. I'm not saying the monk shouldn't be there. I'm saying with his abilities (and their names), his weapon proficiencies, the implications of calling an unarmed fighter with mystical powers a monk, the PHB monk is an unagi roll on the burger platter of the PHB. I've got nothing against sushi, but it's not even related to hamburgers. Also, Wait, it's not oriental-themed because they're (ostensibly, kinda,) fantasy-Caucasian? Does that even make sense to you? Culture != genetics. (Well, we'll pretend that means "not equal to.) [/QUOTE]

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