Take a look at that Monk over there?
You mean that woman? What makes you think she's a monk?
Look at the way she's beating all those guys up. Three guys come at her with a knife, and she knocks them all back, empty handed!
Maybe she has the Improved Unarmed Strike feat.
Dude! She made three attacks in one round. But she doesn't seem to have a +11 BAB.
Maybe she has the Two Weapon Fighting feat.
Nah. Look at how much damage she is doing each time she strikes. I'd say she's doing 1d8, at least.
Let's ask her what she is. Pardon me, miss. Are you a Monk?
Do I LOOK like I shave my head???
And thus my dilemma. I've convinced myself that there could be Monks in the 17th Century Protestant world, but I do not think they would call themselves "monks".
To them, "monks" are people who live in monasteries and shave their heads and copy books and drink the sacramental wine. What I am thinking of is a kind of "wandering saint" who studies the scriptures and contemplates the mysteries of consubstantiation and predestination. They also wander from town to town, using their martial and spiritual skills to do good works. Paladins use swords, but these guys, and gals, use fists, and/or a select few weapons that they specially train with.
My problem is that I can't come up with a really good name for this type of adventurer -- a name that they themselves would use. I would like a name that sounds good in German, but I'm not happy with any combinations I've been able to come up with.
Given that this organization arises during the wars of the Reformation, what would be a good name for them?
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I know of many groups that will bring a character in the game and not label them with a class name.... just a character name. I mean obviously a smart player could figure out what levels they have but sometimes it's nice to escape the labeling.
I guess what I'm trying to say is that the player can call their character whatever they want... they don't have to call their character a monk they could call he/she a martial artist or a acrobat.
Edit: sorry I didn't give a name and haven't come up with one yet. You may however look in the GM guide because they have a table to generate random names for organizations that works pretty well... also you can just try another random one if you don't like what comes out first.
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What you mean is you are describing a Philosopher. Eastern Monks are 'Philosophers' as are the middle eastern philosophers. But this is a broad term refering to the study - as such it would cover the term SAGE - however the term sage is one who would have a broader area of knowledge as opposed to the focus of a philosopher. You could call them 'The Covenant of Truth'.
Philosophers imply a quest for individual and independant thought and study which is oft unpopular with churches whose Dogma is oft fixed... So your Churches would likely call your Philosophers 'those damn heretical dogs!'.
And PS those Monks (Clerics) were shaving their heads as far back as the Spanish in South America.
Mcarvin's idea to look at the table in the GM's guide was a good one. One of the words listed is "Vindicators", which translates as Verteidiger. I might be able to work with this.
Don't call (N)PCs by class name.
You don't call the monk-classed guy a monk, unless your in Tian Xia.
Monk class = Pugilist, bareknuckle fighter, or martial artist.
If you want a semi-religious name, I'd call them "Palmers," after the folk who went to the Holy Land and came back with palm leaves as proof of their journey. If the somehow learned the secrets of open-palmed slapping on the way, or how to beat people up with improvised weapons like prayer books, or their trusty pilgrim's staff, that would work too.
Muslim versions would be hadjis, of course, as they would have completed the Hadj, but you could use the monk stats for both.
Don't call (N)PCs by class name.
You don't call the monk-classed guy a monk, unless your in Tian Xia.
Monk class = Pugilist, bareknuckle fighter, or martial artist.
I've been thinking of ways to encourage the players to think out of the box. People have a tendency to think that monks come from monasteries, bards play the lute and perform in funny suits when not adventuring, barbarians come from barbarian lands, et cetera.
Now that I've come up with the idea of attaching tarot cards to each class, I think this may help me with the problem. Monks are represented by the Strength card. To run them, refer to the rules under the Monk character class, but your occupation ("soldier", "priest", "musketeer", et cetera) is what you call yourself.
Still, in order to justify the Monk skill-set and flavor, I need occupations to employ these characters. I suppose I could leave it as "you can be like Father Mulcahe or like Brother Silence" and that would be good enough. But like the Theclanae, which I invented as an order of female ascetics for this setting, I felt that the German Protestants also needed a named order, especially since the Theclanae are a female only order.
(Thecla is also an genus of butterflies, too. The Theclanae know this.)