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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Greg K" data-source="post: 7759988" data-attributes="member: 5038">It lives up to the design goals. However, I think the monk continues the tradition of sucking, because it is the only martial arts class and,therefore, ninjas. practitioners of any Asian martial art, and martial artists from other cultures (mystical and not) continue to all get lumped into the monk, due to the monk's unarmed damage and ac bonus. As a result, they pick up abilities along the way that are inappropriate.Furthermore, the design continues to be based upon the 1e Monk which in turn was based upon a single source- Chun, from the Destroyer Series of novels (or the Remo Williams movie adaptation for those familiar with the movie). Even with subclasses, 5e monks could use more differentiation in style. Personally, as a DM and, even as a player, I would have liked some more choices early and later. The basics of the 1e Oriental Adventures Martial Arts system, in my opinion, would have been great- Choose your style (is it Hard, Hard/Soft, or Soft) and your style's primary method (Kicking, Locks, Movement, Push, Strike, Vitals, Weapons). These combine to form your base AC Mod, your base unarmed damage, and base number of attacks. You then get an maneuver or ability based off your primary method.  Additional combat maneuvers, Mediation abilities, Ki Abilities, Body Conditioning,   can be additional choices at certain levels and/or put into style based subclasses.Also, nice would have been an iron /body shirt Monk variant at first level, because there are examples of monks in movies that prefer to take hits and let their iron body/shirt ability protect them. Even in the real world, iron body is associated with some styles of Shaolin kung Fu and they practice by taking full body blows, being struck full force with staves or 2 x 4 wood.I think some my first issue above may be addressed in part by Mearls as he worked on a Brawler subclass for the fighter which is a non-mystical martial artist that receives increased unarmed damage and a monk-like AC.  If he keeps with WOTC's design goals, that should mean he creates a brawling style and, perhaps, a variant that encourages the fighter to remain unarmored at first level. However, as he is basing the subclass on WWE wrestlers, I have reservations.</blockquote>

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