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Message: <blockquote data-quote="fusangite" data-source="post: 1866693" data-attributes="member: 7240">The question is not being authentically medieval; the question is whether a class conforms to a fantasy medieval archetype we can situate in our shared mythic past. Every culture, including the West has the archetype of the martial ascetic. In the East, the martial ascetic is the archetype represented by the Monk class. In the West, the martial ascetic is represented by the Paladin. D&D is not about the actual past; it is about the mythic past. Common D&D archetypes derive from the mythic past of Western Europeans -- this mythic past has deep roots going back 500 years or more. The Bard and Druid classes are based on the Celtic mythic past that has been celebrated in literature for more than a millennium. The Paladin and Cleric derive from the ascetic holy knights we imagined into the crusades -- again a tradition more than 700 years old. The Wizard and Sorceror derive from the original idea of the mage/magus -- an archetype that has existed in our literature for more than 2000 years. The generic fighter goes back to the dawn of time; and the Barbarian derives from the Norse berserkers who, again, stretch back through nearly 1000 years of literature and myth.The only classes that do not stem from powerful cultural archetypes are the Ranger and the Monk -- the two classes that I think add little or nothing to D&D. (Yes, one could link the Ranger to the Robin Hood archetype but suddenly the two-fisted wildernazi doesn't seem such a good way to model the idea.)Now, if I were running a campaign in the Eastern Orthodox world -- one based on the medieval near east, I would be all over the Monk class. In both Islam and Eastern Orthodox Christianity, we have the hermit/athlete of God, the original St. Symeon/St. Anthony model of Christian asceticism before St. Benedict came along. It is from this tradition that the Islamic Sufi/Dervish springs. So, I'm not opposed to the monk per se; I just think the class is a poor cultural fit and makes about as much sense as the Barbarian class would in a feudal Japan game. So, because I've never run a campaign based on cultural archetypes from east of the Adriatic, I've never run a game with monks therein.</blockquote>

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