Monk Weapon Group Question

[TheGabening]

I have never played a Monk, however looking at their listed proficiencies they seem... more limited than I expected.

The updated version of the Monk Weapon group for Fighters is

Spoiler:

"bo staff, brass knuckles, butterfly sword, cestus, dan bong, double chained kama, double chicken saber, emei piercer, fighting fan, hanbo, jutte, kama, kusarigama, kyoketsu shoge, lungshuan tamo, monk's spade, nine-ring broadsword, nine-section whip, nunchaku, quarterstaff, rope dart, sai, sansetsukon, seven-branched sword, shang gou, shuriken, siangham, temple sword, tiger fork, tonfa, tri-point double-edged sword, unarmed strike, urumi, and wushu dart."

As opposed to their origional "kama, nunchaku, quarterstaff, sai, shuriken, siangham, and unarmed strike."

But Monks as a Class have

Spoiler:

brass knuckles, cestus, club, crossbow (light or heavy), dagger, handaxe, javelin, kama, nunchaku, quarterstaff, sai, shortspear, short sword, shuriken, siangham, sling, spear and temple sword.

I did a bit of looking into it here on the boards and found plenty of things, but I never found a direct answer to the problems I have.

Taking into account that the Fighter weapon group "Monk" has a massive amount of weapons, then why do the monks get so few weapon proficiencies? Is this a mistake, because the original version of the weapon group matched the Actual monk proficiencies more closely. Should monks get more proficiencies?

The 3.5 books had said in Unearthed arcana, under the feat Weapon Group (Monk Weapons) that "You understand how to use weapons normally favored by monks."

Yet still, this doesn't seem to make sense. I mean, I understand that Monks shouldn't get all of those proficiencies, but doesn't their list seem a little dated? All they really gained was the Temple Sword and Brass knuckles, and only one of those is truly that much of a benefit.

Bo staff is a simple enough, and common enough weapon in classical and realistic monk culture that I believe all monks should gain that proficiency. What kind of monk doesn't know how to stickfight?

My personal suggestion would be something along the lines of
"A Monk is proficient with the brass knuckles, club, crossbow (light or heavy), dagger, handaxe, javelin, quarterstaff, sai, shortspear, short sword, shuriken, sling, spear and temple sword. Monks also gain a proficiency with a number of weapons from the Monk Weapon Group equaling somewhere around 3 weapons, maybe increasing with levels"

Thoughts? Opinions? Etc. Etc.?
(Also, first post on the board? Did I do anything wrong? Kinda new to this)

[Kazaan]

It is kind of odd, but the whole idea behind Monks is that they will eventually eschew weapons as their Unarmed Strikes become more potent, whereas an Unarmed Fighter never improves his Unarmed Strike and the Monk weapon group is given to them in its entirety mainly as flavor (could just as well have been the entire Blades group for a Blademaster). There are certain new monk weapons that I'd think would be added to a monk's default, maybe with a special equipment caveat of, "On character creation, a monk may replace any any one starting weapon proficiency with a weapon from the Monk group that he isn't otherwise proficient in." Or something along those lines.

[DeltaOneG]

You (accidently I assume) created three threads ^_~.

I agree with Kazaan. The intent is that monks don't use weapons or armor. This is a downside in some ways.

I do believe this is one place where monk the class and monk the weapon group both use the same word without meaning exactly the same thing. Perhaps it would be better to call the weapon group 'martial art' or something similar....

[Eridan]

By RAW monks have only proficiencies with ..

Quote:

brass knuckles, cestus, club, crossbow (light or heavy), dagger, handaxe, javelin, kama, nunchaku, quarterstaff, sai, shortspear, short sword, shuriken, siangham, sling, spear and temple sword.

For all other weapons they need the related proficiency feat. The fighter also needs a proficiency feat because most of the monk weapons are exotic weapons.

Should monks have more proficiencies? Maybe but this is not a rule question :)

[Kazaan]

Monk has 4 characters; Martial Art has 11. Calling it the 'Monk' group saves on space.