Beowulf was a Monk

An odd thought popped into my head last night or this morning. It came while considering how to have the unique powers and playstyle of the monk class (or "mystic" in BECMI/Rules Cyclopedia parlance) without all of the kung fu and/or wuxia trappings. Consider: which hero of Old English legend...

• ...regularly fought monsters armed with few or no weapons?
• ...performed athletic feats for days on end?
• ...fought completely without armor (on at least one occasion)?

If you answered "Beowulf", congratulations - you read the title of the post.

The typical portrayal of the D&D monk is primarily inspired by Asian martial arts movies, starting off as a Ka-kui Chan (incredibly dextrous and strong, but within the laws of physics) at low levels, and rapidly approaching an Iron Monkey (all but flying around while smashing solid objects) around name level. And given the success of certain D&D products, it seems that American players definitely enjoy this portrayal - including me.

But it may not be fully suited to all campaign settings, especially ones that are otherwise extremely European. The usual suggestion seems to be dropping the class altogether, but I have said (and still think) that the monk can be treated as a fifth core class type alongside clerics, fighters, magic-users, and thieves - especially in old-school D&D. Dropping it entirely would mean taking away 20% of the options available for human characters in BECMI/RC D&D.

As far as the other abilities of the monk - acrobatics, sliding down walls, and so on - who says they have to be graceful about it? In I, Robot (the movie), Spooner is able to slow his fall down a shaft by simply digging into the wall with his mechanical fingers, and uses the same arm to beat down the occasional robot bare-handed and "armored" only by a leather jacket. More relevant to the main example, remember this scene from the 2007 movie?

A stone castle, a dragon, and a muscled dude hanging on by a chain.

That kind of action is typical of most of the super awesome 5th Edition campaigns that I hear about. Extreme strength and resistance to pain can allow a character to perform feats of fantastic power without divine aid or spells - but where a Lo Lieh character might do so with nimbleness, Riki-Oh would just push through it by sheer, brute strength. (Content warning for blood and gore, that.) And considering the other stuff Ray Winstone's CGI wax dummy does, why couldn't he find a way to punch someone so hard they die several hours later?