Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="Celebrim" data-source="post: 6193950" data-attributes="member: 4937">Very little.  I've never liked the class and it's not available under my house rules.So, originally, the Monk is the Kwai Chang Caine from the TV series Kung Fu.   Don't ask me why anyone thought this was a good idea, but you know everyone was 'kung fu fighting' back then.   It might make some very superficial sense in the context of an exclusively Eastern inspired setting, but even this actually falls down hard on inspection.   First, in an Eastern inspired setting, there wouldn't be a 'martial artist class' because everyone knows 'martial arts'.  In an Eastern inspired setting 'martial arts' are simply 'knowing how to fight'.   The very notion of a martial artist class is an Orientalism.  Further, the notion that martial arts are exclusively Eastern and that there is some fundamental difference in fighting between the East and the West beyond style and flavor is itself an unsupportable bit of Orientalism.   If martial arts are to be part of your setting, then it should apply to pretty much everything.   Mixed martial arts have I think finally just about done away with the crappy mysticism that surrounded eastern martial arts, but unless you can remember the wierd way people imagined karate when I was a kid, you just don't get it.   People thought say Wrestling and Boxing operated under a wholly different set of mechanics than Kung Fu or Karate.  Kung Fu and karate suspended the laws of physics.And lets not even get into the whole 'more dangerous with your fists than with weapons' schtick.  Again, Kung Fu the TV series.  Not one eastern martial arts tradition ever advocated that.   Shoalin monks didn't preferentially fight with bare hands if the contest was mortal.Anyway, so I loathe the monk, not the least of which because it - especially in 3e and on - doesn't seem to have the least to do with monasticism.  Monasticism as a general cultural institution - east or west - isn't normally associated with combat arts, and if it is, then east or west it is associated with warrior priesthoods.   To the extent that we can identify normal monks with experts of some sort, and only warrior monks are 'monk' classed it's not at all clear that the monk class is a particularly good fit or interesting.  It's terribly inflexible as written and seems to give the same range of powers to the monk regardless of his outlook on life, martial arts tradition, or monastic tradition.  As for the Monk mystic tradition, I believe that magic is magic.  Pyschic powers or 'psionics' (a misnomer, since the psion of D&D or the psionic power of D&D doesn't seem to be actually tied to psionics in any way) are just magic dressed up in a psuedo-science costume.   In 3e in particular, there is no obvious in game way psionics differ than magic.   At least in 1e, psionics had some justification for existance as innate magical ability not tied directly to character level or training.   As such, if you really really had your heart set on making an unarmed mystical combatant I'd advice you to make a multi-classed Fighter/Socerer or maybe a pure Sorcerer with  the 'Body Sorcery' feat, and then take appropriate spells and feats to make this sorta practical - keeping in mind that it is going to be a given that Sword > Fist in 90% of the ways that count.   Or maybe you could go fighter + cleric and an unusual background trait to play up the religious role of the monk, or maybe a Champion with appropriate portfolio.   There is very little that the Monk does that is even needed under how I've reorganized things.  Flurry of blows can be done better with the Fighter feat Improved Flurry.  Improved unarmed combat damage progression can be done by about a dozen different feats.  Martial arts manuevers are likewise available as combat feats.   Still Mind is inferior to Iron Will most of the time.   Fast movement is unnecessary as a class ability, since under my rules it is a skill.   The Monk AC bonus is available as a Feat.  Slowing a fall is basically just being really good at tumble.   There are a few very specific mystic powers (immunity to poison) that might be hard to come by and the Monk all around good saves would be difficult to get, but strictly in terms of combat prowess my unarmed fighters with higher BAB, higher hit points, and better and more diverse options probably out does a stock monk anyway.   And they'd still be inferior to the same level fighter with a sword.</blockquote>

Verification