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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Wyrmshadows" data-source="post: 3980692" data-attributes="member: 56166">There is absolutely no connection between the medieval Christian monk and the Shou Lin monk upon whose archetype the D&D monk is built. Friar Tuck of Robin Hood fame would not be a monk just because he fights with a staff. He would be a monastic cleric in the Western mold. I am saying this because I have heard folks claim that Tuck can be used as an example of a martial Western monk. There are no Western Archetypes of hand to hand combat specialists that aren't either bare knuckle boxing irishmen or greco-roman wrestlers from antiquity, all others are heavily influenced with Asian martial arts flavor.D&D can always make one up and at least there doesn't have to be the terribly uncomfortable fit of a bunch of Shou Lin monks running around with plate mail armored knights, Gandalf looking mages, crusader clerics and Norse berserker types. I would have less of a problem with the monk if the class didn't exist in its own little Asian vacuum. What I mean is that in order to have the monk fit well there needs to be some cultural cross pollination so that monks aren't the only Asian influenced folks walking around.Wyrmshadows</blockquote>