It strikes me that martial arts disciplines have developed from, or have strong connections with, philosophical teachings. Some ways unabashedly derive from religions.
So wouldn't monks be, in effect, followers of a divine tradition akin to clerics and paladins, but manifesting that divinity via ki rather than prayer?
Arcane vs Divine magic doesn't have much to do with religion; it's about how you cast the spell. Arcane spellcasters manipulate the Weave themselves while Divine casters have some other entity do it on their behalf.
Most monk subclasses can't cast spells at all so the terminology doesn't really apply but monks have more in common with arcane casters since they have to train to learn how to use ki.
The traditions of monks don't follow divine beings, which is the main idea of a divine class. The traditions of monks are ancient ways practiced and studied, not the worship of a god. I see the traditions of monks as closest to wizards. Wizards also study and follow ancient ways to gain their power. I don't think the study of an ancient tradition makes the monk a divine class.
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The waters on this have honestly been as murky for as long as monks have been a thing in DnD. If I remember correctly, 4e actually had them classified as psionic. Of course, I'm only going off of memory here, so I could be wrong, but I think if you're looking for a clear answer from official sources, the clearest answer you will get is probably psionic, but the source of that comes from 4e which changed a lot of the lore for a ton of different things, so that may or may not hold true for 5e. Of course, in 5e, such distinctions between divine and arcane magic generally don't matter as much. If you're DMing and it does matter in some part of the campaign for whatever reason, my advice is to classify it as whatever fits best lore-wise for your world and your game.
4e did class them as psionic but was kind of weird about it. Power source wise (martial, arcane, divine, primal, psionic) I do think psionics felt the best for lore. That said, the signature feature of psionic classes was the power point mechanic with augmentable at wills in place of encounter powers which monk... did not do.
That aside, I still think psionic feels like the best match so I would posit that monk is actually our first psionic base class ;)
Is this a controversial view? I don't even know.
It strikes me that martial arts disciplines have developed from, or have strong connections with, philosophical teachings. Some ways unabashedly derive from religions.
So wouldn't monks be, in effect, followers of a divine tradition akin to clerics and paladins, but manifesting that divinity via ki rather than prayer?
Arcane vs Divine magic doesn't have much to do with religion; it's about how you cast the spell. Arcane spellcasters manipulate the Weave themselves while Divine casters have some other entity do it on their behalf.
Most monk subclasses can't cast spells at all so the terminology doesn't really apply but monks have more in common with arcane casters since they have to train to learn how to use ki.
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The traditions of monks don't follow divine beings, which is the main idea of a divine class. The traditions of monks are ancient ways practiced and studied, not the worship of a god. I see the traditions of monks as closest to wizards. Wizards also study and follow ancient ways to gain their power. I don't think the study of an ancient tradition makes the monk a divine class.
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Aren’t they the 5th divine class though, behind clerics, Paladins, druids, and Rangers?
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The waters on this have honestly been as murky for as long as monks have been a thing in DnD. If I remember correctly, 4e actually had them classified as psionic. Of course, I'm only going off of memory here, so I could be wrong, but I think if you're looking for a clear answer from official sources, the clearest answer you will get is probably psionic, but the source of that comes from 4e which changed a lot of the lore for a ton of different things, so that may or may not hold true for 5e.
Of course, in 5e, such distinctions between divine and arcane magic generally don't matter as much. If you're DMing and it does matter in some part of the campaign for whatever reason, my advice is to classify it as whatever fits best lore-wise for your world and your game.
4e did class them as psionic but was kind of weird about it. Power source wise (martial, arcane, divine, primal, psionic) I do think psionics felt the best for lore. That said, the signature feature of psionic classes was the power point mechanic with augmentable at wills in place of encounter powers which monk... did not do.
That aside, I still think psionic feels like the best match so I would posit that monk is actually our first psionic base class ;)