Editing Monk (section)

==Fantastic Monks==
Here, the term 'monk' basically just means "East Asian-style martial artist", and is not gender-specific. Nuns and [[Sisters of Battle|fighting nuns]] do exist in several other settings, but they're usually absent from the D&D-style stuff.

This is primarily because Dungeons & Dragons introduced the Monk class as a martial arts expert, much in line with kung-fu movies where people dance on bamboo leaves while beating each other up with super-fast punches and kicks. In fact, the original inspiration for the class was Brian Blume's fascination with the proto-weeaboo novel series "The Destroyer."

Kung-fu monks really do exist, of course. There's the historically martial arts-practicing monks of the Shaolin Temple in northern [[China]], who were self-organized into a legendary militia to defend the complex against barbarian Mongol raiders. But note that most Buddhist monasteries don't practice martial arts at all, and that the Shaolin monks are an exception even in China.  Plus, the Shaolin used weapons; the more historically accurate group of unarmed combat experts were the Okinawan peasants, who were denied weapons by the Satsuma clan and then got really good at beating up samurai with fists (karate).  

Long story short? D&D-style monks have almost nothing in common with real life monks. Not even with your average Buddhist monk. Aspects like religion, celibacy and asceticism are underemphasized if not ignored alltogether with D&D monks. And thus, you get the rather weird situation where 'monk' can refer to either a pudgy pale elderly man in long robes or a surly ambiguously brown musclegirl in a tube top.

As for the rules and game mechanics with D&D monks... hoo boy, there's ''a lot'' to be said.

With the proper feats and items, you can turn any D&D Monk into a veritable machine of death, destruction, and holy Jesus fucking Christ fists ''(3rd Ed Hint: The tripping line of [[Feat]]s + spiked chain)''  but that's only after you've gotten over the horrible hump of single-digit levels, and you will still be the fifth wheel in a party that has a [[Cleric]] or [[Wizard]]. You're better off using a [[Barbarian]], [[Bard]], [[Ranger]], [[Swordsage]]... pretty much any other class if you're starting from level 1.