Monk (Dungeons & Dragons)

Monk / Mystic

A Dungeons & Dragons character class
Publication history
First appearance	Supplement II - Blackmoor
Editions	All
(as a standard class)	1st, 3rd, 3.5, 4th, 5th
(as an alternate class)	OD&D, BD&D (as Mystic) 2nd
Image	Wizards.com image
Stats	OGL stats

The monk (also mystic) is a playable character class in most editions of the Dungeons & Dragons fantasy role-playing game. A D&D monk is a fantasy martial artist, specializing in unarmed combat.

The original monk character class was created by Brian Blume, inspired by the fictional martial arts of the Destroyer series of novels. The monk was introduced in 1975's Blackmoor supplement.

The monk was a main character class in the first edition Players Handbook. The monk was presented as one of the five core classes in the original Players Handbook.

In 1981, Philip Meyers argued that "the monk is the weakest of the character classes" in an article published in Dragon Magazine #53 (later reprinted in Best of Dragon, Volume III). Meyers offered an extensive unofficial revision to the class, expanding and strengthening many of its game abilities (for example, increasing the monk's hit dice by 50%, raising the maximum level from 17 to 21, and adding class abilities as a "form of psionic power").

In 1985, the next official revision of the monk appeared as a character class in the first edition Oriental Adventures rulebook, by Gary Gygax and David Cook. This version retained most of the class as presented in the first edition Players Handbook, but replaced the abstract hand-to-hand attacks with a more specific rules system to emulate different styles of martial arts (such as karate, judo, etc.). According to a reviewer for White Dwarf, this version of the monk was "altered to fit into an Eastern pattern", and was "at last in the proper context".

The monk was available as a character class known as a "mystic" in the game's "Basic" edition, introduced in the Dungeons & Dragons Master Set.

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Wikipedia