Monk class idea

[gruevy]

I've studied Shaolin Kung-fu for like 8 years, so here's a list of things that people can actually do (and I'm not kidding, all of this is possible) that you could use as ideas for skills in a monk class.

First off, here's a list of weapons that every Shaolin student learns before they branch off: Straightsword, broadsword, spear, staff, and chain whip. If you want to include weapons, you could limit it to those.

On to the skills. First off is the animal forms, of which there are 6 primary ones. These could work like stances, only one active at a time.

Crane - lots of dodging, quick strikes to pressure points, emphasis on evasion, dodging, and redirecting strikes around the body in such a manner as to stupefy your opponent until you can find a good opening. One of the crane's primary attacks is a quick swipe across the eyes to blind an opponent, and the crane's beak strike is intended to hit pressure points to allow physically weaker people to cause a maximum amount of pain for their body type. A good crane can hit you in places that slow you down. It's happened to me, and it's hard to explain without seeing it. Crane is an internal style and makes heavy use of chi in anticipating attacks, blocking, redirecting, and especially striking. They strike places where adding chi will actually cause damage.

Tiger - Second of the two that everyone knows about. Tiger is almost entirely offensive, with very little focus on blocking and evasion. A tiger's primary method of defending himself is to keep up a wall of fast, hard, offense that keeps an opponent off balance. They use a lot of raking strikes, either to the eyes, or to areas where they can rip the skin and cause bleeding. With their bare hands. Yes, this really happens. A powerful tiger can literally tear muscles off of bone, particularly the pectorals. You strike a pec just right and yank, and they can't use that arm anymore until they get surgery. Tiger is strictly external, focusing on the physical body exclusively.

Leopard - Similar to tiger, but with a much higher emphasis on dodging and accurate strikes and kicks. They employ more acrobatic sorts of kicks, but they are intended to control the floor space and move your opponent where you want them. The leopard's paw strike is used in places like the floating ribs, the throat, or the kidneys, to immobilize (and possibly kill) your opponent. The leopard is actually a balance between tiger and crane in a lot of ways. Leopard is an external style, with a little bit of chi development, usually to help guide your strikes to the right place.

Preying Mantis - This is a very strange-looking style, but it's incredibly effective. The mantis focuses on controlling the opponent with an ingenious series of grabs and strikes. They control opponents better than any other style, because all of their blocks are designed to allow the possibility of catching the arm or leg of the opponent, and from there, to strike pressure points with the fingers, rip the flesh, or joint-manipulate the opponent into submission. Their kicks are never high, and are usually to the legs to strike an opponent off-balance and get them to move where you want them. Actually hitting a good mantis is almost as hard as hitting a good crane. Mantis is neither internal nor external, but a strange mix of both. While they don't focus on using chi, they don't focus on physical power either.

Snake - Snakes focus on outrageously fast strike patterns. They will hit you 8 times in tender places before you have time to blink. They have some of the catching ability of the mantis style, but they focus primarily on evading attacks in such a manner as to allow ideal counterattacks. A snake will snake in around a punch while they hit you in the throat, ribs, eyes, balls, under the armpit, side of the neck, and then before you realize they're behind you, side kick you in the kidneys. I hate snakes. Many of their strikes, like the crane, are designed to allow physically weaker people to cause a maximum amount of pain, and they also slow down their opponents over time. They're just a lot more vicious about it, and they do it will looking like a snake. Snake is an internal style and uses lots of chi development.

Dragon - Dragon is indeed one of the 6 animals of shaolin, even though most people haven't heard of the style and can't explain it if they have. It's basically a tiger with chi powers. I'm not kidding. Tiger is designed to be an external system, focusing on speed and strength, but dragon uses similar sorts of attacks, augmented by superior internal energy work. They focus a lot on anticipating attacks and using their energy in their strikes to cause a lot more damage. They employ a lot of circular motions, and can use parts of the bodies in attacks that you would never anticipate, like the thigh. The dragon's claw grabs for specific muscles, and can cause massive bleeding or tearing much like a tiger, or they can use the shape of the fingers to attack several pressure points at once, in ways that are only taught to dragons. A Chinese dragon's theme is that they are creatures of balance and change, sort of living expressions of Yang part of the Tao. They are activity, power, and control.

Here's a list of things that either I have done or have personally seen with my own eyes:

Breaking bricks
Breaking steel (yes, steel. Breaking it.)
Breaking a staff across ribs with no damage or pain
Taking a full force kick to the balls with no damage or pain
Taking a full force punch to the throat with no damage or pain
Punching solid concrete at nearly full force without damaging the fist
Bending spears with the sharp end stuck on the throat, and the other end stuck against a tree.
Same, but with 3 spears. Also, breaking a spear that way by bending it far enough.
Stealing an opponent's strength by sucking out his chi without touching him, rendering him basically harmless (although able to easily stand and move around)
Part of my training was 10 people hold a log and swing it as hard as they can at my stomach. I had to keep doing it until my feet never left the ground when being struck. It hurt. It was pretty impressive once I got it figured out tho. The whole room could feel the concussion
My teacher also once 1-inch punched me about 30 feet. The first fifteen feet of that, my feet didn't touch the ground. Then I stumbled back until I hit the wall. It hurt.

Here's a list of things that people I know and trust claim to have seen:

A short, light man who couldn't be picked up or knocked over. He would root himself to the ground with his chi and stand there looking bored. He couldn't be budged.
Blocking a sword strike with bare flesh and not being cut
Knocking over an opponent with nothing but chi
Making an opponent fall unconscious with a wave of the hand (and a whole lot of chi)
Causing a row of people to involuntarily move parts of their bodies, again with chi.
Breaking any rock in a large pile by slapping only the top rock. Not stacks of bricks, which I've seen (only breaking the middle one, etc) but a pile of rocks. This person then broke them all at once to conclude that part of his demonstration.
Causing unconscious, heavy vomiting, paralysis, or extreme pain (not at once) by lightly tapping various pressure points and injecting chi. Actually, I've had the pain one done on me once. It hurt like a bitch (like, almost bad enough to cry) for like 15 minutes. He wouldn't show me the others.
Bending and moving metal with the mind.

I've also seen videos and heard stories (although I can't say I believe them since videos can be faked, and 3rd hand stories aren't really trustworthy) of the following:
Causing electric shocks
Causing paper to burn
Killing animals by sucking the life out of them.

This should give someone some ideas. You wouldn't need weapons, and you could limit armor to nothing but cloth, and it could totally work.

[Grey]

Whilst I don't believe half of what you say I do think it's all perfect for a fantasy game. Perhaps a class that's found only in the east? The animal stance would be inappropriate (since they're used in real life) but a bare-handed fighter that relies on inner strength instead of armour would be cool.

[Canderel]

Dragonball T!!! I miss you!

There was a module for T3 which was a Martial Arts game. It had:
Crane, Turtle and some others, cant recall all of them.

Also, Kung-fu, Tae-Kwon-do, Karate, Fencing, Wrestling, Sumo, Guns and other fighting techniques.

One of the most fun roguelikes I've played.

We must just get in touch with... who was it again... Search the forums I'm sure you'll find reference to it. The engine changed probably quite a bit, but the lua code for the skills will probably only need a little bit of change.

[marvalis]

great fantasy ^_^

[KPine]

Knocking over an opponent with nothing but chi
Making an opponent fall unconscious with a wave of the hand (and a whole lot of chi)
Causing a row of people to involuntarily move parts of their bodies, again with chi.

I think you left out Jedi lightsabers from the list of weapons you were trained in.

But jokes aside, I would like to see a class that utilizes chi. That could be a lot of fun.

[LordBucket]

I've studied Shaolin Kung-fu for like 8 years

Hey, Gruevy. I did mixed martial arts for a little over ten years. Chinese, Japanese and Korean styles. I've trained with members of the Beijing wushu team, and under a couple different grandmasters. I retired from active training many years ago, but Reenen sent me an email about your post, so I thought I'd give you some feedback.

list of things that either I have done or have personally seen with my own eyes:
list of things that people I know and trust claim to have seen:

I completely relate to why you're phrasing it this way. I've personally done things, had pictures taken, and then later been told by people that it was impossible and that the pictures were obviously photoshopped. So I've had that conversation when I try to explain that, no...it wasn't photoshopped, yes this kind of thing is real, and I routinely spend my Thursday nights with half a dozen other people who can do this stuff too, many of whom are much better at it than I am.

Then there's that middle ground of things I've seen done that I can't do, and that to me are fairly impressive, but I know they're possible because again...I've seen them done. So when people don't even believe things that I've done personally, how are they supposed to believe things that impress me?

And then on the far end there are things I've heard about, been told by others that they've seen...but kind of have a difficult time believing myself. But given that I've done things that others believe are impossible, it doesn't seem unreasonable that some of those things that to me seem to stretch credulity...there may very well be people out there who can actually do them. I mean, I totally believe that there are things I haven't seen that are possible. It seems silly to assume that I've seen the limits of what are possible. I only did martial arts for about 11 years. There are lots of people who've done it for 40 or 50 years, or more. I've sen some neat things, but when you talk to people who've been doing martial arts for decades, some of them have some absolutely amazing stories of things they've seen.

Here's my favorite example of this "disbelief" phenomenon: Take a look at this picture. The jump is only waist high. It's pretty trivial. It wasn't intended to be a formal demonstration. It was simply a casual "hey let's take a fun picture" at an anime convention I went to about six years ago. I've actively practiced leaping kung on two separate occassions in my life, once for six months straight, and at my peak I came in at a very carefully measured 48.5 inches. That's just over four feet. And I've seen people jump higher. But there are people who have looked at that picture of a jump that probably only about 3 feet and believed it was photoshopped. But then, why shouldn't they, when there are some absolute frauds out there like this guy:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FPhCuwFdJGc

No, I'm sorry...martial arts jumping does exist, I've personnally done the training, I've known others who have done it, yes it's real...and that guy is not doing it.

Taking a full force kick to the balls

I trained for a few years with an instructor who had done this training. I never asked for a graphic, naked demonstration, but as I understand it, one is not actually taking the strike to the testicles. Men are born with their testicles inside the abdomen, and it's not until shortly after birth that they descend down into the scrotum. Over time, and typically during or after puberty, the channel that they descend through grows connective tissues that block it. If one begins prctice before that channel grows over, it's possible to draw the testicles back up through it via abdominal suction. WIth regular practice, the tissues never grow to block it.

Breaking bricks

Standard fare. I've done two, two-inch cinderblocks with no spacers, and as many as four or five with spacers. I've seen people do like 16, to the point where they have to stand on something to get high enough to do the break.

Breaking steel (yes, steel. Breaking it.)
Breaking a staff across ribs with no damage or pain
Bending spears with the sharp end stuck on the throat

Sure, but let's be honest: a lot of this kind of thing gimmicky. Anyone can do these things with five minutes of coaching. I've personally taught people with zero martial arts experience how to break bricks, the steel break requires a certain kind of low quality steel, sort of like how board breaks are generally done with the grain rather than against the grain, and the spear break is done by bending the spear. Once the spear begins to bend it's a flat side of the spearhead, not the point, that's pressing on your throat. Once you know how to do these things, many of them are simply a matter of overcoming fear, and not being hurt is mostly just a matter of strengthening your body.

Blocking a sword strike with bare flesh and not being cut

Have heard about this, but never seen it demonstrated. As I understand it, this is supposed to have something to do with an energy flow peculiar to the hands, and the technique doesn't work on most parts of the body. I've only heard about the strike being taken to the palm-up side of the forearms. But again, never seen it done, or known anyone who claims to have seen it personally.

seen videos
Causing electric shocks
Causing paper to burn

John Chang?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Aos0hnwiHt8

Haven't seen anything like that in person, but well known video.

Knocking over an opponent with nothing but chi
Causing a row of people to involuntarily move parts of their bodies, again with chi.

I don't dismiss the possibility, but my own exposure to this phenomenon is that it is not a legitimite technique, but rather it's an unfortunate learned response to a certain style of training. It's standard practice at most Aikido schools, for example, for the partner whom a technique is being performed on to be as cooperative as possible. To be a good "uke." Students are taught to offer no resistance during practice, and told that this is to avoid injury. There's a certain philosophy at work here, the idea being that one avoids damage by "bending like a reed in the wind" so to speak.

Unfortunately, after years of this kind of training, students can learn to be extremely responsive to the intent of their active partner. To the point of anticipating intended motion and coopertaing with it whether or not it is actually applied.

Here's a video of this in action:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wd7M4H0b62k

Around the 1:00 mark you'll see him manipulating an opponent without touching him. But this is one of his own students that he's probably been training with for years. If you skip ahead to 3:30 you'll see how well it doesn't work when he tries it in a full contact prize match against an MMA fighter.

---

So, I'll share a few stories of my own:

I had an instructor who could put out a candle with a single finger with the extended part of his hand fully 5-6 feet away from the candle. Awesome to watch. That instructor claimed to have seen his instructor break a board without touching it by punching the space about an inch away from it, which was what inspired him to start the candle training. Interestingly, while he described the no-contact board break as an "energy punch" he said that putting out the candle was purely a physical act, and that it wasn't done by projecting chi, but rather it was totally a matter of creating an air vortex with a wrist-flick while perfectly rotating your finger in a direct line pointing towards the base of the flame. I practied it myself for a while, best I ever did was putting it out from about a foot away. And while that was really neat, there's a huge difference between putting a candle out from one foot away vs seeing it done from 5-6 feet away. With your arm extended, a finger one foot away from a candle puts your chest at about three feet away. From that distance, anyone can wave their hand a couple times and put out a candle. Watching it done with a finger it's pretty easy to justify that maybe it's not really air from the finger doing it, but air being pushing by the flat of the first from the other fingers. It looks neat, but it's not really impressive. Watching it done by somebody from with a finger 5-6 feet away, and thus, their chest about 7-8 feet away, is crazy awesome.

I've witnessed finger hand stands. The guy I saw do it was using the index finger of both hands, but as I understand it, there are people who can do it with just one index finger rather than two. Quick youtube check...here's a video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7LkhVeW7VV0
I've seen that done in person.

I don't recall the name of the art, but I once met a practitioner of some moderately obscure Japanese falling art, who could leap up into the air, twist around and land on the back of his head and be uninjured by it. When he jumped, he would swing his arms and jump straight up...rotate around so his feet were above his head, and then basically plow down on the back of his head. And then stand up and do it again.

Those three are probably the most spectacular things I've seen. I've also seen a whole bunch of moderately impressive things. I've known a bunch of iron palm practitioners. Breaking bricks is not terribly difficult, anyone in the proper frame of mind can do it, but there's a certain casualness when it done by someone who's actively doing daily iron palm training that...well, you just kind of have to see it firsthand. When I've done brick breaks, there's obviously a lot going on. I sink the hips, I rotate the shoulder down...my entire body goes into the motion of the break. But when you see a guy with an absolutely blank look on his face, almost a bored look, simply drop his hand with no hip motion, no shoulder movement, and split a brick with no more effort than a flick of the wrist, that's fairly impressive.

Then there's the stuff that's actually very difficult, but just doesn't look that impressive. For example, we've all seen brick and board breaks. But they're generally a downard strike to the middle of a board or brick supported on opposite sides. I've done board breaks where the board is placed upright on its edge on a flat surface, and I punch horizontally through it. And there are people breaking boards hanging from a string, or throwing them up in the air and breaking them in two before they land. That kind of thing isn't very impressive, but it's actually far more difficult than simply smashing through a couple bricks.

Bending and moving metal with the mind.

Well, again...I don't dismiss these things as impossible. That may very well be possible. I've seen and even personally done some things that some people think are impossible. But it's helpful to remember that there are some charlatans and idiots in this world.

When it comes to bending metal, the first name that comes to mind in Jack Houck. He's the guy who started the "PK party" phenemenon. Supposedly he teaches people how to bend spoons with their mind. I personally attended one of these events in Anaheim, california many years ago, and from that experience, I can assure you that it's an absolute sham. But it's not that they're deliberately lying to people...I think they genuinely believe in what they're doing...but what they're doing is basically a massive excercise in self delusion. They're not using psychokinteic powers. They're simply bending spoons. Pick up a spoon sometime, and bend it. It's not difficult to do. At these PK parties they get a party atmosphere going, subject you to half an hour of psychobabble, and create a mob mentality expectation of magically bending spoons with their mind. It's like an ANthony Robbins seminar with a huge crowd intensity of excitement...and then somebody bends a sppon and get all excited and shouts about it, so others join in and before long pretty much everyone in the room is bending spoons and thinking they used psychokinetic powers to do it. Forgetting that any 12 year old has the finger strength to bend a spoon. And that's all they're doing: using their fingers to bend spoons and attributing it to psychic power.

So, some people will believe, others won't. Yes, there are a few charlatans out there, like the guy in that first video I linked pretending to do ninja jumping techniques, but a few charlatans doesn't mean that these things aren't real. Guys like John Chang might be the real deal. But at the same time, as someone who has spent over a decade in martial arts and has seen a lot of things, I'd caution anyone from believing everything they hear just because of the few things they have seen personally.

Anyway, thanks for the post. Hope you enjoyed reading.

[gruevy]

Thanks for your post. A lot of people think they've got the universe figured out before they gather a very large data set But yes, I draw a large distinction between things I've seen personally, and things I've only heard about. I think it's an important distinction to draw.

Firstly, the metal I saw broken was a standard metal file like you might get from any hardware store. He broke a stack of two of them. I haven't try to break one myself, but it could very well be pretty brittle.

Secondly, you were right about the video with the fire/electricity - It was that guy, and probably that same video. I've done a bit of yin/yang separation meditation and tai chi, but I never got far enough into it. I was barely able to tell them apart when I quit doing it, but I did notice a difference, so I'm placing that video in the realm of possible. Not sure if I believe it though, although I don't disbelieve it.

Thirdly, the moving and bending metal is from a close personal friend of mine who spent over a year in the backwoods of Hungary. He wasn't a martial artist at all. Apparently, a village he visited had large numbers of people who could do this, and they would stick all kinds of large metal objects to themselves to show off for the funny foreigner. He mentioned, among others, one story of a guy who told him to place a spoon in the flat of his palm. He did so, and after a few seconds, it started slowly rotating. My friend was pleased with himself until the guy told him that he (the guy) was the one making it move, not my friend. Go figure.

When you say that if you're in the martial arts scene long enough, you will see stuff like this, you're absolutely correct. At least that's been my experience. So why are the guys on TV and the internet so often fakes and charlatans? Who knows. I never felt a need to demonstrate anything I was ever able to do in front of a news crew, not that much of it would have been very impressive. It just never entered my mind. Maybe it's the same way for rural Hungarians and 80 year old grandmasters.

[edge2054]

Steel is hard but brittle. The hardness is what allows it to maintain an edge better then iron but adding carbon causes the ore to become brittle. The harder the steel the more brittle it will be.

So depending on the purpose of the steel breaking it really isn't that difficult. Breaking the stainless steel they make refrigerators and cars out of would be impressive (less hard, less brittle) but breaking the steel you make a sword out of would not be (very hard to hold an edge, which results in the metal being more brittle).

[Sirrocco]

Actually, stainless in general is tremendously brittle. You can't use it for actual blades because it'll shatter too easily. It's things like spring steel that bounce back well.

[Grey]

Yeah, I'd like to see someone use their chi against a slinky spring ;)