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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Celebrim" data-source="post: 6338029" data-attributes="member: 4937">The answer is, "So the monk class is a very poor fit for the archetype."  Monks in D&D are unarmored mystic warriors who in D&D fight with their hands.   The Knights Templars in the real world were largely armored heavy cavalry.Sure, and my Homebrew world has lots of monastic orders.  One of the current PC is a monk who belongs to the Hospitaller Brothers of Aravar the Traveller.  He's not however Monk class.  He's actually a 'Champion' classed individual.   Knight and monk are his professions.  Most of the lay brothers of Aravar are in fact have levels in 'Fanatic' - think Barbarian.   Those who aren't fighting men are generally Experts.   All those persons, Champions, Fanatics, and Experts are Monks, but not a one of them fights unarmored with their empty hands by choice.  Again, I have lots of fighting monks.  The last two sessions have largely dealt with a dawn attack by a large force of Kelterist cultists (about 300) - that is berserkers - backed up by Necromancers on the Temple quarter of the city of Talernga.  The temples were all protected to one degree or the other by fighting monks, that is Templars.   However, in general all those Templars wore mail, carried large shields, and fought with the favored weapons of their deity.  They were certainly fighting monks, but none of them are Monks.   The whole notion of fighting monks fighting barehanded and unarmored comes from a historical situation where the monks had been disarmed by the government, and so had to improvise weapons and employ fighting techniques based on that improvisation.  However, even then, none of those monks preferred to fight bare handed.  Like the peasants of Europe, they tended to employ weapons that had originally been improvised from agricultural implements.   The whole 'kung fu' monk of D&D is almost entirely a D&Dism (like the Wizard, the Druid, the Barbarian, the (D&D) Ranger, and the plate wearing Cleric).  Sure, but Friar Tuck is in no way Monk classed, since he's known for his skill with the longsword and fights in a steel cap.  In D&D terms, he's almost certainly a fighter or cleric (assuming you want to have magic in your setting).  He's the priest serving the Merry Band, and having a priest performing services for them legitimizes the band.  I have no idea what 'asceticism' technically means in this context, but if I can make a good guess based on what you say next...Absolutely.  The monk of D&D is an arcane warrior.It's a terrible fit for western monasticism.  Heck, it's even a terrible fit for almost all eastern monasticism.   More to the point, it's a terrible fit for the sort of monasticism practiced in my homebrew world.</blockquote>

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