I have seen a few iterations of the question: when does a d&d monk become a black belt, and I don’t think that is entirely the right question. Because as pointed out in the answers to those questions, dnd characters get a lot more powerful than regular people pretty quickly. If they aren’t black belt at level one, they get there almost immediately. But my question is less about what is equivalent and more about what would belt levels be like for the character. If real world forms of martial arts arose within a dnd world, scaled to the higher power of that world, at what levels would a player character reach what belts within that tradition?
"Belts" are not a thing in all real-world martial arts, and different traditions and organizations have their own systems and requirements. (And, AFAIK, they're entirely a modern invention.)
Adding to that, the martial arts systems monks learn don't have real-world equivalents, and may not represent any kind of formal training at all.
In other words, if you want a formal rank system for monks in your game, either you or your DM should make one up.
(first edition AD&D had one, and you could lift the titles for your own purposes, as long as you don't use it to block actual leveling like AD&D did.)
I have seen a few iterations of the question: when does a d&d monk become a black belt, and I don’t think that is entirely the right question. Because as pointed out in the answers to those questions, dnd characters get a lot more powerful than regular people pretty quickly. If they aren’t black belt at level one, they get there almost immediately. But my question is less about what is equivalent and more about what would belt levels be like for the character. If real world forms of martial arts arose within a dnd world, scaled to the higher power of that world, at what levels would a player character reach what belts within that tradition?
I don't think D&D has used any ranking system since AD&D, where you are given a title equivalent to Shaolin practice.
Belts only exist in certain forms of martial arts, like Karate, Tae Kwon Do, Akido etc. They don't exist in others like Kung Fu or Muay Thai.
The core rules say that you left your previous life, presumably as a student to test your physical and mental development in the real world. As I stated earlier there hasn't been any ranking since AD&D1e. Perhaps someone has come up with something, but like I said not all martial arts use a belt system anyway. If I was to start a ranking, I certainly wouldn't start as a white belt. There's no way to scale them to the real world, since no real world martial artist can do any of those feats. The D&D Monk is just character from a Kung Fu movie or maybe Anime cartoon. IMO.
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I have seen a few iterations of the question: when does a d&d monk become a black belt, and I don’t think that is entirely the right question. Because as pointed out in the answers to those questions, dnd characters get a lot more powerful than regular people pretty quickly. If they aren’t black belt at level one, they get there almost immediately. But my question is less about what is equivalent and more about what would belt levels be like for the character. If real world forms of martial arts arose within a dnd world, scaled to the higher power of that world, at what levels would a player character reach what belts within that tradition?
"Belts" are not a thing in all real-world martial arts, and different traditions and organizations have their own systems and requirements. (And, AFAIK, they're entirely a modern invention.)
Adding to that, the martial arts systems monks learn don't have real-world equivalents, and may not represent any kind of formal training at all.
In other words, if you want a formal rank system for monks in your game, either you or your DM should make one up.
(first edition AD&D had one, and you could lift the titles for your own purposes, as long as you don't use it to block actual leveling like AD&D did.)
I don't think D&D has used any ranking system since AD&D, where you are given a title equivalent to Shaolin practice.
Belts only exist in certain forms of martial arts, like Karate, Tae Kwon Do, Akido etc. They don't exist in others like Kung Fu or Muay Thai.
The core rules say that you left your previous life, presumably as a student to test your physical and mental development in the real world. As I stated earlier there hasn't been any ranking since AD&D1e. Perhaps someone has come up with something, but like I said not all martial arts use a belt system anyway. If I was to start a ranking, I certainly wouldn't start as a white belt. There's no way to scale them to the real world, since no real world martial artist can do any of those feats. The D&D Monk is just character from a Kung Fu movie or maybe Anime cartoon. IMO.