The monk. It will be mystical most likely

[Abstruse]

I'm sorry, I'm just getting a little fed up with people saying that this thing doesn't belong in D&D and that thing doesn't belong in D&D when most of the things they're bitching about were part of D&D since before they were-- it's one thing to say that something new and different "isn't D&D" or "doesn't feel like D&D" and it's quite another to run around saying that things that have been part of D&D for thirty goddamned years aren't legitimate parts of D&D because they don't fit inside this tidy little Eurocentric wankfest they've constructed, that D&D itself has never actually fit into and was never actually intended to fit into.

He wants to run a particular kind of game at his table, that's fine-- I'm not even saying that, as a matter of taste, I even particularly disagree with him. I've run different kinds of D&D with different kinds of rules all the time, and there's nothing wrong with that. But if someone is sitting there saying that such-and-such class or such-and-such culture "doesn't fit" or "doesn't belong" in D&D, when it has been a part of D&D for as long as there has been D&D, then the problem isn't the class or the culture-- it's their narrow perception of what D&D is and what it's supposed to be.

It's all well and good for us to have our individual tastes and our individual wants and needs for the game, and I don't mean to imply that people shouldn't express those desires-- of course we should all be telling the designers what we want and don't want in our D&D.

I'm just baffled how anyone could have played D&D and read any of the D&D rulebooks published in the last thirty-some years and still somehow come away with the misapprehension that any D&D setting ever was supposed to look like Middle Earth.

You understand that people aren't saying "I want this out of the game and banished to the void!" and are actually saying "I don't want this in the core edition and would prefer if it were put in a sourcebook or PHB2", right?

The game changes with each edition. There are people who thought that having races and classes separate ruined the game. Then that removing to-hit tables to use THAC0 (and removing assassins and monks for the record from the game) ruined it. Then that using ascending AC ruined it. Then that releasing a glorified errata as a "new edition". Then powers (in an edition which also didn't have monks as a core class).

If you're going to use the argument that "D&D has always been like this", then you're probably wrong because almost every aspect of the game has been different in each edition. The only things that pretty much have been constant are attributes, hit points, armor class, classes, and rolling funny-shaped dice. That's pretty much it.

 

[Argyle King]

I'd like more robust grappling rules so I can make a monk who is more of a wrestler than a striker.

 

[pemerton]

Monitor: To learn these forbitten techniques the user must travel deep into the underdark and live among its inhuman residents. At the high cost of loosing their sanities, the users bend the laws of reality at their touch, becomming a force to be recogned with. That is, if they can still remember their original purpose

Apparently I can't XP you again yet - but I wanted to call out this nod to D2.

 

[Plane Sailing]

For the record, have you ever tried to limit classes in a game?

All the time. Never a problem.

 

[El Mahdi]

The monk was mentioned in the fighter's design goal article.
Another goal mentioned was to include all the classes that were in the first PH style book for each edition.
Many designers have claimed that a goal is to make each class unique.

I still don't see how the statement "A monk can match a fighter’s skill when it comes to unarmed combat", the fact that since it's in the first PHB that it will be a class in 5E, and that the designers want to make each class unique in 5E, combines to mean "the 5E Monk will most likely be mystical"...

Considering that the information I just included in the previous paragraph is pretty much the sum total of what we know about Monks for 5E, that's a pretty big leap...like Evel Knieval trying to jump the Snake River type of leap.

 

[Minigiant]

I still don't see how the statement "A monk can match a fighter’s skill when it comes to unarmed combat", the fact that since it's in the first PHB that it will be a class in 5E, and that the designers want to make each class unique in 5E, combines to mean "the 5E Monk will most likely be mystical"...

Considering that the information I just included in the previous paragraph is pretty much the sum total of what we know about Monks for 5E, that's a pretty big leap...like Evel Knieval trying to jump the Snake River type of leap.

It's the unique part that sends signals of mysticism.
If the monk is just an unarmed warrior in no armor, it could be replicated with a theme on fighter or rogue.
If the monk is more mystical, a theme wouldn't add enough to create a decent monk.

 

[El Mahdi]

It's the unique part that sends signals of mysticism.
If the monk is just an unarmed warrior in no armor, it could be replicated with a theme on fighter or rogue.
If the monk is more mystical, a theme wouldn't add enough to create a decent monk.

Yeah, like I said, a pretty big leap.

I don't think you're going to reach the other side of the canyon. Might be time to pull the chute...

 

[Minigiant]

Yeah, like I said, a pretty big leap.

I don't think you're going to reach the other side of the canyon. Might be time to pull the chute...

A monk can make that jump and negate a lot of the falling damage.
And that is if it doesn't use one of his mystic powers.

 

[Steely_Dan]

A monk can make that jump and negate a lot of the falling damage.
And that is if it doesn't use one of his mystic powers.

At a certain level he/she could just jump off and negate all falling damage, walk across the canyon floor, and climb up the other side.

 

[grimslade]

Yay Mystic monk! Bring on some D&D Jedi! Scarlet Brotherhood wanna-bes. Githzerai squid-head punchers. PCs of iron will and flurrying fists. Mystic Brotherhoods in mountain Monasteries honing their body and spirit to perfection. Faerie Warriors who disdain using any weapon that might contain iron.

Monks deserve a slot at the PHB class party. Monks have always been a class of interesting mechanics and were one of the most identifiable classes in the game. The mechanics may have missed the mark, ie Flurry of Misses, but they were unique to the monk. The mystic, magical monk is very appropriate to a variety of D&D subgenres and a multitude of campaign settings. It would be difficult to replicate with themes and background alone. Class from the start.