When I was a kid I used to watch Kung Fu theatre each and every Sunday. I was a real martial arts junkie. I read books on several kinds of martial arts from a Shaolin book that had copies of pages from original training documents to Stephen K Hayes ninja manuals. While I was studying Tae Kwon Do with a large school a friend of mine was studying traditional Wu Shu Kung Fu with a master one on one. I also saw every martial arts genre film that came thru the theatres. Bruce Lee, Chuck Norris, David Carradine, Sho Kosugi, Jackie Chan, Sammo Huang, and more recently Jet Li are all favorites. I even used to go to Jean Claude Van Damme and Stephen Segal flicks regularly. So it should come as no surprise that the Monk class is near and dear to me.

Way back in 1^st edition AD&D they gave us the Monk as an Eastern flavored martial artist. It didn’t really fit in the hardcore Tolkien-esque settings I played back then so while I never played a monk I was happy they existed. Then came the OA books with their non class based martial arts system. It made more sense to me that not all martial artists had to be monks after all I’d seen plenty of people who studied martial arts without it becoming a career. Also you now could have Chaotic martial artists which was a huge plus to me. I loved using that system, mostly the soft styles because I liked the idea of flowing like water. You know, like Spike. The hard/soft aspect of it also fit really well with the different styles of martial arts I’d learned about. But it wasn’t until 3^rd edition that D&D put forth a Monk class that really appealed to me. I loved the 3.x monk. The versatility in skills, feats and multi-classing allow for a incredible range of concepts. From the Kwai Chang Caine single class mental stat focused Monk to the physical power of  Sho’nuff the Shogun of Harlem who left the Monk class to gain a bunch of fighter bonus feats. I got to play a Monk for a little while (up to 4^th level) and it was great. It does feel a little like the Dark Side in that once you start down the path of the Monk forever will it dominate your destiny. There are just so many great Monk abilities right around the corner that it never seems like a good idea to multi class. I also loved the Monk in Neverwinter Nights but that was mostly for the ground speed. Running thru those epic long levels that you have to keep retracing worked great as a Monk. Sure you’d outrun your support but that’s okay because you were an unstoppable killing machine. I have yet to play a Monk deep into NWN2 so I am not sure if it is still the same. I hope so.

So what lies ahead for my beloved Monk? I’ve not heard any official word yet but there is a lot of speculation as well as things that can be deduced from the way they handled the other classes. They have mentioned the Ki power source which is good. And they’ve all but said that it will be a Striker which is appropriate as well. The big question I have is how limited are they going to make them. I’ve listened to a lot of interviews with the creative team of 4E so I am getting a good idea of their process. One of the first steps is to determine what aspects of the previous incarnations were the signature ones. For example they felt that the favored enemy and archer/two-weapon fighter were the important part of the Ranger class and all the fu-fu animal/nature stuff could go. Now they are apparently adding animal companions back in as a feat option which I am not happy with. Taking away class features and making them into Feats just undermines the concept of giving out more Feats. That aside, I wonder what the core Monk abilities will be? Unarmed combat of course but will Flurry of Blows make it? As an at-will? Will Stunning fist be an encounter or daily? How are they going to handle all those passive abilities granted at the mid to higher levels? Are these what’s going to be cut or relegated to the Feats list? Maybe they will release several Monk like classes. A striker monk who focuses only on the unarmed combat beat down, a controller monk who combines Hong Kong Wu Shu style mystical powers and disabling strikes, a leader monk who specializes in throwing enemies and setting up allies, and they could even do a defender who specializes in Grapples and Iron Skin techniques. I just don’t see how they can release a catch all Monk class in this system. It is way too specialized. Looking at it from a purely personal exercise of what I would want to play in a Monk I guess I’d go with creating Jet Li like character. I swear when I first saw him in Lethal Weapon 4 I was stunned. I had to rewind some of those scenes just to figure out what he did. He is the definition of fast and there was never a better fit for Drowning Pool’s “When the Bodies Hit the Floor.” (BTW once that song is over you can stop watching “The One.” It was a terrible film.) He’s definitely a striker and the powers I’d be looking for would be multi-hits (flurries), interceptions, and misdirections. Like that move in LW4 where he kicks that guys AK into the air beats the tar out of him and then as the AK is still falling he kicks it into the next guy. (One of my favorite Jet Li moves.) So let’s see, that would be a disarm attack with a damage component with a secondary effect of a ranged attack with the disarmed weapon. I guess that works. It would have to be a daily power ‘cause that is just too badass to use every fight. Maybe they should use that for the Monk and leave all the variant types as Paragon paths? Have any Paragon paths out there changed the Role of the character? I don’t think so.

Well here’s to hoping they don’t screw it up. *swig* If any of you have any inside info you care to pass along I’d love to hear it.

BTW if you want to check out a great old martial arts film you’ve probably never seen Avenging Eagle is on youtube here. It is one of my favorites.