Non-Asian Martial Artists?

Due to Buddhist principles, they (Shaolin) could not use traditional weaponry. Instead, they adapted a number of farming implements into bladed weapons (a technical evasion of the religious strictures) that they used predominantly in warfare.

Ummm...No.

Buddhist principles decry all violence, including hand-to-hand. The Shaolin (or any Asian group or culture that developed a martial art) did not adapt the use of farming implements because of Buddhism. There were lots of reasons, with the primary being restrictions by the ruling governments of various periods banning the use of, or training with, weapons of war. Other groups and cultures did this for many varied reasons. Some were reasons similar to why the Shaoling did this, some are different. Such as, in Japan, the primary impetus was the caste system, which prohibited people of certain castes from using weapons (specifically swords).

Buddhism had very little to do with it.

Asian Martial Arts spread through a combination of two things: spread of Martial Knowledge along the Silk Road (the same way Buddhism spread) with origins in India, and independent development in individual culture groups. Indian Martial Arts that developed contemporarily with Buddhism utilized swords, knives, archery, and hand-to-hand from the very beginning.

A move away from Swords, Knives and Archery had nothing (or very little) to do with Buddhist tenets.

B-)
 

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Unfortunately, as cool as those zweihanders were, only the guards of standard-bearers were allowed to use them. All other troops were explicitly banned from using them, and preferred shortswords and long pikes.

Err, sort of. Modern soldiers are actually trained in a variety of martial arts techniques, but not nearly as much as the landsknechts, who practiced their techniques every day. War meisters encouraged wrestling for sport as a way of honing these techniques.

Shaolin monks used weapons just as much as Europeans. Due to Buddhist principles, they could not use traditional weaponry. Instead, they adapted a number of farming implements into bladed weapons (a technical evasion of the religious strictures) that they used predominantly in warfare.

Those trained in lethal wrestling (or martial arts) can easily break bones and dislocate joints.

Have a link: 6 Great Martial Arts for Killing a Man With Your Bare Hands | Cracked.com


Yeah because im so sure this guy wants to add on a :):):):) ton of rules allowing the PC's to break any creatures arms and legs thus nullifying their combat ability...

OH NO IT"S GRAZ'ZT

(four broken bones later)

Oh look it's graz'zt the lame.
 

also
SAMBO- technically not a martial art, also technically asian
Muay thai - asian , and striking based
Mcmap - Not european, not lethal
Silat - asian
Eskrima - asian
Krav maga - asian

I find it amazing, but not surprizing that the cracked article listed them all as martials great for killing a man but one of them is non-lethal and all of the rest are asian, making your post redundant
 

My homebrew campaign has a Greco-Roman/ancient world type of feel to it. Although I do have an Asian-inspired region, I made a monk variant for the main campaign region.

The basic idea is that instead of being a cloistered martial arts master, the athlete is the guy that competes in the Olympic games, marathons, competitions things like that. Although they have familiarity with gladiatorial weapons, boxing and wrestling are a big part of the games, so they excel at unarmed combat. They don't wear armor because it's tough to sprint and leap in it. They train daily to keep in top physical condition, even though they don't "meditate" or perform other mystic practices. I've found that it's actually sort of easy for players to wrap their heads around the idea of a non-Eastern "monk" with a bit of extrapolation and re-skinning.

I've attached the athlete for you to check out. :) I started with the martial artist monk archetype and have been slowly re-skinning or tweaking things in play.

If you're going for a more Celtic flavor, you might want to start looking at Celtic mythology and see what catches your eye to re-skin or swap out class abilities with the standard monk. That's the easiest way to change a class to fit a particular role.
 

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My homebrew campaign has a Greco-Roman/ancient world type of feel to it. Although I do have an Asian-inspired region, I made a monk variant for the main campaign region.

The basic idea is that instead of being a cloistered martial arts master, the athlete is the guy that competes in the Olympic games, marathons, competitions things like that. Although they have familiarity with gladiatorial weapons, boxing and wrestling are a big part of the games, so they excel at unarmed combat. They don't wear armor because it's tough to sprint and leap in it. They train daily to keep in top physical condition, even though they don't "meditate" or perform other mystic practices. I've found that it's actually sort of easy for players to wrap their heads around the idea of a non-Eastern "monk" with a bit of extrapolation and re-skinning.

I've attached the athlete for you to check out. :) I started with the martial artist monk archetype and have been slowly re-skinning or tweaking things in play.

If you're going for a more Celtic flavor, you might want to start looking at Celtic mythology and see what catches your eye to re-skin or swap out class abilities with the standard monk. That's the easiest way to change a class to fit a particular role.

I like your Athlete class, I am totally stealing it. It makes a good alternative to the Gladiator in more civilised, peaceful socieities. I think I'm going to have to build a class for my wrestler of Oghma from scratch, but the Athlete has some interesting abilities I can transfer...
 

also
SAMBO- technically not a martial art, also technically asian
Muay thai - asian , and striking based
Mcmap - Not european, not lethal
Silat - asian
Eskrima - asian
Krav maga - asian

I find it amazing, but not surprizing that the cracked article listed them all as martials great for killing a man but one of them is non-lethal and all of the rest are asian, making your post redundant

The point of the link was to show that Asian martial arts are quite varied and anyone who says "I don't want an Asian martial artist" because they believe Kung Fu is representative of all of them is sorely mistaken.

Also, a martial art is simply a trained and practiced combat system. All of the above count as such.
 
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Krav maga - asian

Quibble: technically, while Israel is in the Middle East ( and thus, part of the Asian landmass) the style's creator was born in Hungary and grew up in Slovakia, neither of which is an Asian nation, and had developed the foundation for the style long before he emigrated to what would become Israel.
 

Quibble: technically, while Israel is in the Middle East ( and thus, part of the Asian landmass) the style's creator was born in Hungary and grew up in Slovakia, neither of which is an Asian nation, and had developed the foundation for the style long before he emigrated to what would become Israel.

Krav Maga was developed straight from the street fighting techniques of the resistance fighters who went up against the Nazis. Lichtenfeld made an analysis of the techniques that worked best and created his own system. Nothing Oriental about it at all...
 



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