Vitor Medina Cruz

Well, I would expect monk to be bald man sitting in dusty chamber in his brown robes studying books and whipping himself from time to time, but I'm not getting all hurr durr because Obsidians interpretation doesn't match that image. I think only attribute that should always be associated with monk-class is disciplined spirituality and ability to draw power from that and Obsidians vision fulfills this requirement. You have of course right to object, but in my opinion you are objecting for wrong reasons as it's only about pictures in your head and not about mechanical or balancing issues. After all it's brave new world and D&D and other old fart fantasy settings don't have power here. This is the general attribute of a monk. Not every monk fights, or train some kind of martial art for what I know. Those who do, however, still comply to your monk definition, but they also practice some martial art, and it for this aspect, not for some association with D&D, that I feel Eternity definition of monk so strange. But perhaps, as Mr. Magniloquent said, Obsidian can come up with a good background for this class that explains things better.

From wuxia fantasy novel "heaven sword and dragon saber". One of the character practice an internal art where the act of learning/aquiring each level of power will harm the practioner's internal system. The harm he suffer is but a fraction of what he can dish out. The arts moto go something like "hurt yourself first, then (really) hurt your foe". Link here (in Chinese though): http://www.360doc.com/content/10/0114/16/736764_13540122.shtml As for real life, practitioner of "iron sand palm" as we'll as"iron shirt". Basically would do repeated palm strike on rough sand and rocks to condition their hand or have someone flog their body to condition themselves. Well, yes, but those are means for training, not for the real fight, isn't?

I am not tied to the D&D definition of Monk, but to the real concept. I am not aware of any martial art that welcome damage of any kind, can someone give an example? I can see a monk flogging themselves, but NOT for a fight. For what I know, this Monk has little to do for what I know for a real (not D&D, D&D only tried to make an association with reality) Monk that fights. Again, it is our fantasy world and we can do whatever we want, but I find this confusing and unnecessary, I think obsidian could innovate in a Monk class for what it is most recognized for and use this mechanics in some other class that makes more sense. Not that it would ruin the game though, and not that I care much actually, since I prefer mages , but sure it sound strange to me.

You are describing now a different part of the combat - but even there you agree, that your monk gets his powers from discipline in whatever form, not from being hit. So I suspect a system where the character had to rest/meditate and train his body would reflect even him better than a rage counter, that unleashes wrath when full. Well, I really don't think it's like rage, nor do I get a rage feeling from it. To me, it feels more like someone who receives a blow, then re-directs and re-channels that pain (or chi, or whatever) as a focus for his soul. So it goes something like this: 1) Receives pain. 2) Pain is turned into focus for soul. 3) Soul powers awesome stuff. Feels quite disciplined to me, not rage-like and unbridled like a berserker. Well, still don't fell like a monk to me. I would expect a monk to focus his discipline and his soul on avoiding hit and doing amazing , I don't know, counter-stuff, and be able to find and explore others weaknesses. I don't know what would be a cool and different monk class, I just don't think this one suggested is that.

Agreed. While i think the mechanics interesting, I don't think it fits well with a monk. When we speak of a Monk that fights, we can't ignore the association with martial arts, which, in turn, are all based on avoiding damage and doing critical hits, the opposite of the described mechanism. The monk described is so much counterintuitive, much like saying that a mage main ability is to throw arrows... Since it is a fantasy game in an imaginary world we can do whatever we want, ok, but why been so explicitly confusing? I don't a see a good reason for this, if the mechanism is interesting (and it is), find another class that it makes more sense, and find an interesting mechanism which fits better with the common understanding of what a monk do.

Didn't answered the pool because neither answers apply to me. So no, I don't want PA to be MMO, and if they planned to do it I would probable think more before I pledge. And I don't agree that MMO comes with no prejudice to narrative depth for instance, actually I think the very opposite. No MMO please.