What would be a proper fighting style to represent certain subclasses of Monk? I have little knowledge regarding such things but I have a Mercy Monk Monastery within my setting and want to represent a certain "style" without it just narrating "he slapped the man real hard and his opponent keeled over in pain".
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I'm no expert on martial arts either, but I know "defensive" martial arts tend to involve alot of grapples and throws and trips and that sort of thing, while offensive martial arts tend to be more focused on delivering powerful blows directly to the head and/or soft parts of the body.
Fist of the North Star.
All of it.
You are welcome, OP.
Omae wa mou shindeiru
>he only said this once in the early part of the manga
>things that have only been said once have never become memes or iconic
>dynamite kung-fu is valid
The terms you're looking for are "hard" and "soft" martial arts. It's completely possible to kick someone's ass with judo or wrestling.
Mercy is one of the weird magical subclasses. You could maybe represent it as a fantasy pressure point ("dim mak") martial art; real-world styles which are sometimes claimed to involve such attacks include Tai Chi and various forms of Kung Fu.
Contrary to popular (and even some would be-experts around the net) belief and memes, in situations of actual combat most fancy stuff gets thrown out the window by whoever happens to have a brain and some experience in taking punches to the face until he learns how not to do it, so in the thick of it a lot of styles end up looking pretty similar from outside.
That said, you can either point out particular techniques that single out a style in case some characters happen to have knowledge on the matter, or describe something more vague that still marks out a style, like preferring elbows, kicks, grappling and the like. What styles did you have in mind? Are they original or based on real world styles?
>Contrary to popular (and even some would be-experts around the net) belief and memes, in situations of actual combat most fancy stuff gets thrown out the window by whoever happens to have a brain and some experience in taking punches to the face until he learns how not to do it, so in the thick of it a lot of styles end up looking pretty similar from outside.
This. That's, however, only the case in real life. With roleplaying games and other fiction, we can take artistic liberties.
OP, you say you have little knowledge regarding such things. I recommend gaining knowledge. Consume martial arts media and get creative. Many wuxia movies have some crazy shit in them. I can personally recommend the manga Kengan Ashura/Omega. Or if you want to really go balls to the wall, Grappler Baki.
The PC Monk who's from the monastery can best be described as a problem student: Talented but driven to improve for a certain dark notion that keeps him from truly excelling.
He is a Mercy Monk, those that channel Ki to either mend wounds or inflict more direct ones, but he hinges on the latter more then the former.
May or may not include some sword arts.
Ah, that can be fun. First thing that comes to mind is Hung Gar, a chinese kung fu style that is often enough associated in media to characters that want to wreck shit with no bullshit involved. Physical superiority is also sometimes implied, it is a strong "hard" (if we want to use this term) style that relies on direct blows, mainly using the upper body in general but things may vary. Now, the fun thing with Hung Gar is the tiger position you take with your hands, you see it in movies quite often. That's supposed to be both for salute and for defense, but some blows do use it offensively, the idea is actually aiming for the face to scare the other dude or go for the eyes. I can see that working very well with someone that can open wounds on contact, all in all the style is well suited to the character I'd say.
>those that channel Ki to either mend wounds or inflict more direct ones
see
That is Toki's entire schtick.
Monks should only have one style, and that's dying against people who brought weapons and armor to the fight because those things exist for a reason.
>fighter tries to bully monks because he can't say the same to wizards without imploding
My honest advice.
Take notes from fighting games from back when they still used 2D sprites, or start reading something like Ranma 1/2. Preferably both. You'll pick up some funny things to reference and people probably won't notice it. It just works.
maybe check out movies like five deadly venoms or heroes of the east, they're all about showcasing real and fictional martial arts
What's wrong with slapping people real hard? People who play monks in D&D definitely need more Bud Spencer and Terence Hill or Don Camillo in their lives. How can some people think brawls should be exclusively fought by martial arts masters with their fancy exotic techniques I'll never understand.
>People who play monks in D&D definitely need more Bud Spencer
Agreed.
For those who are wondering, Brancalonia is meant to be played with a level cap of 6.
>Brancalonia is meant to be played with a level cap of 6
I didn't know that, and now it got even more interesting. I always thought that most adventures would need to cap at 5 or 6 in D&D.
>you can't use Str for unarmored defense till 3rd level
>meaning you still need high Dex and Wis to survive up to that point
>meaning you're even more mad than normal monks
Who made this shit?
Able to retaliate as a reaction is really nice though
Pump CON instead and hope for the best.
Just rewrite it so STR always works for unarmored defense.
Rewrite what you don't like means D&D isn't bad, after all.
>more mad than normal monks
that makes no sense, you arent forced to max Dex and Str
>What's wrong with slapping people real hard?
Nothing inherently, monks should imply a certain level of technique because if they're just brawlers then it takes away a lot of their class identity, leave the bud spencer-ing to the fighters and barbarians.
All "brawling" in D&D means is that you make use of makeshift weapons. There is functionally no difference in slapping someone versus punching them.
Brancalonia's monks were posted here, which are based on a pretty established trope (at least in catholic countries) of the badass western priest or friar who doesn't shy away from beating the shit out of evildoers if he has to. This character is usually presented as either a war veteran, a former cop, a pugilist, or a wrestler to justify his competence in hand-to-hand combat, so I don't see why monks should exclusively be kung fu fighting and their class abilities ascribed to some secret technique from the mysterious Orient. Can't a monk more mundane abilities be the result of his expertise in street fighting or his military training, and the supernatural ones a gift from their god? All I'm saying is that a monk doesn't need to be a shaolin one to be kino if you know what you are doing.
Whatever you do don't do what the people here suggested about looking at Manga or Anime for ideas. Those are often written by people who have no idea about any form of physical exercise.
Someone also said that all martial arts end up looking the same because the technical moves get lost. That is also entirely untrue, most martial arts end up looking somewhat similar because the rulesets (gloves, no small joint manipulation, no kicking a down opponent, no strikes to back of head, etc...) constrict the game to a more limited set of techniques. In a no rules tournament Muay Thai and Kickboxing look very different than they do in a Kickboxing match. Technical moves are used by those who are skilled enough to pull the off, most people today do martial arts as a hobby so they never come close to advanced.
I've got decades in a whole bunch of martial arts but I don't know the details of the setting that you're referring to so I can't really answer your question. Have a look at the cartoon Avatar Airbender series, they tend to match elements to different gong fu styles and it comes across well (except airbending which looks nothing like Baguazhang).
>Someone also said that all martial arts end up looking the same because the technical moves get lost
That's not what I said at all, I said A LOT of styles look SIMILAR from the outside (in that someone that doesn't know about martial arts looking at the fight wouldn't get what styles are used), because that's the view we're taking with OP, that doesn't know about martial arts and still wants to describe them to others like him.
>Those are often written by people who have no idea about any form of physical exercise.
You understand this thread is about playing characters in a tabletop game, right? You're not expected to perform the moves your character can.
>ctrl+f "shaolin"
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"Merciful" martial arts just don't break joints or bones. So-called soft styles tend to redirect force rather than meet/beat it.
Of the so-called soft-styles, basically only judo, wrestling, and jiujitsu are still standing as legitimate martial arts. The majority of survivor martial arts are hard-soft styles that mix heavy strikes with soft blocks, but there are several notable hard-styles like Taekwondo, Muay Thai and modern Boxing (with a couple of notable exceptional practitioners who still fight slip and roll style). Most of the hard-soft discussion is overcome by events (mostly MMA events) at this point.
In short, just use the base mechanics in 5e.
Mercy would focus more on soft style so more pressure point striking, palm strikes, and joint locking to disable the enemy rather than cause direct destructive damage that bone breaking and direct strikes would cause.
Obviously in real life our options are limited and you'd be using a weapon first and foremost. Fiction gives us leeway to do more stuff obviously.
You might consider allowing unarmed combat to use different damage types like slashing to represent tiger style or piercing for spear hand/finger jabs. That said, there's only so many ways to describe striking so I wouldn't get too bent out of shape about it.
Submission/Grappling techniques blocking the opponent's limbs or grabbing their wrists
You can even implement the "dark side" of your character with a particularly painful hold that neutralizes stronger opponents