Bare-Fisted Monk: Difference between revisions
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{{trope}}
[[File:477px-
{{quote|''"He can't use [[Functional Magic|Ninjutsu]] or [[Master of Illusion|Genjutsu]]. That's why...he spent all his time on [[Good Old Fisticuffs|Taijutsu]]. He worked hard and [[When All You Have Is a Hammer|concentrated everything on Taijutsu.]] Even if he can't do any other Jutsu, he won't lose to anyone. He's a Taijutsu specialist."''|'''Might Guy''' talking about Rock Lee
The
Rather than finding flashy new equipment or learning new spells, a
Occasionally, they will have weapons they equip, but they either don't do much, or actually lower their attack, which if these weapons can only be used by them, makes one wonder why they exist in the first place. Armor restrictions are also typical.
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Compare with the [[Power Fist]], which is a piece of equipment that augments unarmed attacks. Not to be confused with [[Good Old Fisticuffs]], which is when the ''lack'' of a fighting style and weapons defeats people who have both.
Subtrope of [[Weapon of Choice]], and pretty much exclusively the province of [[Warrior Monk
{{examples|Examples:}}▼
== Anime
* Almost all the cast from ''[[Kenichi:
* Kenshiro of ''[[Fist of the North Star]]'' can fight well with nunchucks if he has to, but prefers his bare hands. The better to [[Your Head Asplode|pop heads with!]]
* Virtually all ninja from the series ''[[Naruto]]'' are trained in unarmed combat, but there are characters that are specialists.
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** The Raikage is an atypical example, preferring techniques that enhance his already insane speed and strength while [[Wrestler in All of Us|utilizing a professional wrestling-esque martial arts style]].
* [[Baki the Grappler|Doppo Orochi]], as the [[Combat Pragmatist]] he is, still gives us this wonderful speech on the aesthetics that a karateka should keep on:
{{quote|
** Half a minute after that, he cuts a [[Razor Floss|4-micres wire]] with the side of his hand to save two of his students from being sliced with it. Just to make his opinion stand.
* Kuu Fei in ''[[Mahou Sensei Negima]]''; she [[Never Bring a Knife
* Ryohei Sasagawa from ''[[Katekyo Hitman Reborn]]'' is this. Y'know, unless you count hand bandage wrap things as weapons.
** Averted when {{spoiler|his TYL self gets [[Cool Pet|Kangaryu]] to make him some [[Power Fist|super healing boxing gloves]] for the occasion of fighting against a giant storm snake.}}
* Sagara Sanosuke and Anji Yukyuzan from ''[[Rurouni Kenshin]]''.
* There are several unarmed melee users in ''[[Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha]]'', but the best example here is probably [[Catgirl|Lieze Lotte]], Chrono's close combat teacher. As shown during {{spoiler|her stint as one of the [[Mask of Power|masked men]] in ''A's''}}, she fights using unarmed combat exclusively, never using offensive spells even once.
** Also, all of the fighting until now in ''[[Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha
** The main contributors to the
* Scar from ''[[Fullmetal Alchemist]]'' was a monk before he became a [[Roaring Rampage of Revenge|counter-genocider]]. He still fights with his bare hands after forsaking God in favour of revenge, but [[Touch of Death|adds in destructive alchemy to the mix]].
* Minai from ''[[Shikabane Hime]]'' fights Shikabane using hand-to-hand combat and [[Power Fist|spiked gauntlets]], unlike her fellow Shikabane Hime who all use guns, swords or other weapons.
* Zenkichi Hitoyoshi of ''[[Medaka Box]]'' primarily relies on his Savate fighting style to handle foes dues to his aversion to weapons. {{spoiler|This doesn't preclude making the opponent's weapon backfire on them however.}}
== Comic Books ==
* Thunderlord from ''[[Global Guardians]]'' is what you get when mixing Buddhism, martial arts and mutant powers of the [[Make Me Wanna Shout]] variety.
* In the [[Marvel Universe]], the [[Incredible Hulk]] is just so big, mean and strong that his fists are all the weapons he needs, a trait that applies to many other super-strong characters, albeit on a lesser scale.
** More traditionally, there's Shang-Chi, [[Exactly What It Says
* Marv from ''[[Sin City]]'' is a non-martial arts example. While many of the mooks he fights use guns, he typically uses fisticuffs. This is despite the fact that he does have a gun which he [[I Call It Vera|named Gladys]].
== Literature ==
* The History Monks of [[Discworld]], at least the ones not outfitted by Qu.
{{quote|"Are you any good with weapons?" asked Susan.
- "No," said Lobsang, proudly.
- "Then try to stay out of the way."|"I mean I've been trained to fight ''without''..." }}
* The Bloodguard from the ''[[Chronicles of Thomas Covenant]]'' series disdain the use of weapons, believing that they will eventually betray their wielder. When a group of badass hunters display their ability to use garrotes to ensnare and kill their quarry, a Bloodguard examines one of their cords and dismissively snaps it.
* The Monk class of ''[[Ragnarok Online]]''. Did we mention that they're Catholic Shaolin Monks? (Hey, if [[Nuns Are Mikos]]...)▼
** The Taekwon class fight with just their feet.▼
*** Given that Taekwon means "hand and foot/punching and kicking" in Korean, this is slightly silly. Presumably the (Korean) developers thought it more catchy than "Kwondo" (Roughly translatable as "Way of Foot" or "Way of Kicking"). ▼
* The Martial Arts powerset in ''[[City of Heroes]]'' exemplifies the superhero version of this trope, and is a favourite for [[Badass Normal|Natural origin]] characters. [[Super Strength]] is similar, except it has a ranged attack where you ''rip up a chunk of the ground and throw it''.▼
** More recently added was "Street Fighting", which contains quite a few more [[Everythings Better With Spinning|circular motions]] than more realistic fighting styles, but has a very [[Mixed Martial Arts]] look and can be brutal when taking out groups of weaker foes.▼
* The Monk Class in ''[[Dungeon Fighter Online]]'' sheds his weapon in the battlefield (by implanting it into the ground for myriad bonuses), then goes on to use those fistcuffs. Doing so gives the Monk unparalleled [[Glass Cannon|speed and juggling capability]], and makes the class quite popular. However, one can still break their equipped weapon after shedding it like any other class.▼
** The [[Amazonian Beauty|Fighter]] excels in this as well, although she also uses [[Wolverine Claws]] and [[Dual Tonfas]].▼
* ''[[World of Warcraft]]'''s fourth expansion Mists of Pandaria introduces the monk as the game's 11th (and 10th base) class. Although monks can use weapons, many of their attacks rely on unarmed maneauvers.▼
** Blizzard had originally intended the discipline priest to be a melee DPS class, but it was found in early alpha testing not to balance. Prior to Cataclysm, you could still seem remnants of this in some of the discipline talents.▼
*** The Balance Druid, likewise, used to have a talent that restored mana whenever it landed a blow in melee. It is now a pure ranged spell-damage dealer.▼
* One optional skill in ''[[Kingdom of Loathing]]'' is Kung Fu Hustler. With it, when you fight without a weapon or offhand item, you periodically gain intrinsic buffs. First you get bonus damage equal to three times your level, then 50% additional combat initiatve, spooky damage equal to three times your level, and bonus item drops. If you adventure with a weapon, you lose them all instantly. You also get new barehanded hit and miss messages.▼
** There's also [[New Game Plus|an optional]] [[Self Imposed Challenge|challenge path]] called Way of the Surprising Fist, which restricts the use of weapons or off-hand items and severely reduces meat drops, but allows the player to learn path-specific skills.▼
== Tabletop Games ==
* The Monk class in ''[[Dungeons
** In edition 3.5, monks make up for their general lack of magic items by simply developing those powers naturally. By level 20, a monk can attack five times a turn with fists that deal more damage than any light/handheld weapon, punch through adamantium, teleport, avoid at least half of the damage from most magic attacks, heal himself, and has actually ascended to a higher state of existence, rendering him immune to several effects.
*** Which sounds completely awesome, [[Linear Warriors, Quadratic Wizards|until you realize...]]
*** The Monk from the third-party 3rd edition supplement ''Dungeonomicon'' manages to break out of the [[Linear Warriors, Quadratic Wizards|Linear Warrior]] mold by augmenting their Bare Fisted attacks with [[Supernatural Martial Arts]].
*** The 4e monk is a bit odd in by and large treating any weapons he is proficient with as ''implements''. Thus, when using any of his special monk attack powers, the attack roll, base damage, and other effects are set by the discipline used ''regardless'' of whether it's executed barehanded or with, say, a dagger or spear. A magical weapon still grants its specifically magical bonuses when used this
* Any player character from an Eastern-style [[Tabletop Game]] will probably know how to kick ass with his bare hands.
** Any character except the Killer, Techie or Sorcerer from ''[[
** ''Every'' player character from ''[[
== Video Games ==
* One example: ''[[The
* In ''[[
* Monks in ''[[Nethack]]'' take massive accuracy penalties if they wear body armor, and can only advance in a handful of weapon skills. They even take an alignment hit for eating non-vegetarian food, though it's a slap on the wrist past the first minute of the game, given that you can get gobs of alignment just by all the kills you'll need to be doing anyway. However, they learn a wide variety of intrinsics (special abilities), can learn magic to a surprising degree, and, of course, can build their martial arts abilities to the highest level.
** They're still arguably the most difficult class to win the game with, even more so than the Tourist.
*** That's mostly due to Master Kaen, their quest nemesis, who is one of the hardest enemies in the game, ''and'' is practically designed to be strong against Monks in particular. After you beat him, the rest of the game isn't so hard.
* The Monk job in ''[[
** The Black Belt/Master of the original ''[[Final Fantasy]]'' (known as Monk / Super Monk in the original Japanese version). His first playthrough, he killed Kraken in the second encounter in ''one attack''.
*** A maximum level (50, in this case) Master in [[Final Fantasy]] will, in one attack, do enough damage to kill Chaos, the final boss, twice over. Cast Fast on him, and he'll double that.
** Most of the [[Final Fantasy]] games have Monk-type characters (Sabin from ''[[
*** Not Yang. His attack rating grows with him, and his claws are mostly for elemental properties and afflictions; even without those he will out-damage both Cecil and Kain. At a given level, he'll have more HP than anybody else (a good thing too, since he doesn't wear heavy armor) and his strength stat is always through the roof.
*** Yang's Daughter Ursula in the After Years is also a monk (though her class is listed as Princess during her debut chapter), but she has different commands from her father aside from the standard "Fight" and "Item", and the traditional Monk move "Kick".
** ''[[Final Fantasy Tactics
** At one of the major points of ''[[
** Interestingly, {{spoiler|Vayne}} of ''[[
*** If you learn the "brawler" license ability, the game will calculate damage in line with how ''[[
** Monks in ''[[
** This also pops up in ''[[
*** Ayla is notable also because she is an exception to the "weakens by endgame" tendency. At higher levels she can still do more damage with her bare fists than ''Crono with his [[Infinity
** [[
** ''[[
** Among the [[Loads and Loads of Characters]] in [[
* In all [[SaGa]] games, all characters have the ability to Punch (or Kick.) In ''[[SaGa]] Frontier'', using nothing but punch techniques leads to one of the most [[Game Breaker|game breaking]] skills in the series.
* ''[[Eternal Sonata]]'' has Falsetto, who despite using no weapons, is still capable of dealing massive damage.
* The Fighter class in ''[[
** ''[[
** There's also one in ''[[
** All the playable characters in ''[[
** [[
*** One common way to avoid doing massive damage to your own party when one or more of your characters are confused is to deliberately leave fisticuffs undeveloped and then simply unequip the weapons as necessary.
* [[F
* The ''[[Fallout]]'' series: J.E. Sawyer of the canceled Van Buren project said that he intended unarmed fighters to be 'like mobile grenades'. And that's a good description for them in Fallout 2 and 3. In both of those, barehanded attacks have a quicker attack rate and markedly higher crit rate. In both of them, a single strike to the head has a good potential for instant kills, even against tougher opponents. In both, the unarmed fighter was somewhat left behind at the finale, against Frank Horrigan in Fallout 2 and during Liberty Prime's march in Fallout 3, but the form is still a viable game-finisher.
** Bare fists took a nerf in favor of 'unarmed weapons' in ''[[Fallout: New Vegas]]'', and the critical rate is no longer significant. Hence, the most tightly optimized barehanded fighter will not reach the fighting potential of a fist-weapon wielder.
* For all the complaints regarding the uselessness of Unarmed/Unarmored skills in ''[[Morrowind]]'', they were anything but. Unencumbered for maximum maneuverability, with high speed no fatigue cost strikes a monk build could render any opponent useless from fatigue loss in the first second, then take them down at leisure. Their weakness was finishing an opponent due to inability to deal health damage unless the opponent was unconscious, so at times it was a tedious exercise keeping an entire room knocked down while slowly chipping away at their life. But the final Boss was unkillable through combat, so keeping his fatigue low was a more workable strategy than direct damage hits.
* Fei, Citan, and Rico from ''[[
** All the barehanded fighters seriously lose out in attack strength towards the end of the game, even to Elly who is a mage. Fei more than makes up for it with his ridiculously powerful techniques that makes him the most powerful in non-[[Mecha]] fights.
* ''[[Avernum]] 3'' has this ''accidentally''. Nobody thought to apply the damage cap to punches.
* The Monk class in [[Diablo III]] is this, unless you have his using a bo staff or brass knuckles. Any other weapon you put on him, while you will get all the stats form it, will remain at his hip while he punches fools to death.
** For added points, he learns a technique that has him [[Ludicrous Gibs|channeling]] [[Fist of the North Star|Kenshiro]], [[You Are Already Dead|of all people]].
* In ''[[
* By cross-training your dwarves in ''[[Dwarf Fortress]]'' with various tasks like mining, crafting professions and bookkeeping (yes) they can become legendarily strong, agile and tough. Then train them as wrestlers and they will literally scatter limbs and body parts of their enemies across the landscape with their bare hands.
* In ''[[Rune Factory 3]]'', the main character can Brawl when {{spoiler|he learns to transform into a Golden Woolly}}. He cannot wield weapons when Brawling, but with practice can deal a huge amount of damage.
* Rena Lanford from ''[[
* [[Toyotomi Hideyoshi]] in ''[[Sengoku Basara]] 2''. [[Took a Level
* This is becoming a common element of the ''[[Tales
** Bruiser Khang from ''[[
** Farah Oersted from ''[[
** Regal Bryant from ''[[
** Tytree Crowe from ''[[
** Senel Coolidge, the main protagonist from ''[[
** Anise Tatlin from ''[[
** Hermana Larmo from ''[[
** Sophie from ''[[
** Jude Mathis, the main character from ''[[
* ''[[Battle Realms]]'' has a monk unit which can be trained in the keep.
* The Monk class of ''[[Desktop Dungeons]]'' takes a 50% physical damage penalty due to the HAND-TO-HAND attribute.
=== [[Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game|MMORPGs]] ===
▲* The Monk class of ''[[Ragnarok Online]]''. Did we mention that they're Catholic Shaolin Monks? (Hey, if [[Nuns Are Mikos]]...)
▲** The Taekwon class fight with just their feet.
▲*** Given that Taekwon means "hand and foot/punching and kicking" in Korean, this is slightly silly. Presumably the (Korean) developers thought it more catchy than "Kwondo" (Roughly translatable as "Way of Foot" or "Way of Kicking").
▲* The Martial Arts powerset in ''[[City of Heroes]]'' exemplifies the superhero version of this trope, and is a favourite for [[Badass Normal|Natural origin]] characters. [[Super Strength]] is similar, except it has a ranged attack where you ''rip up a chunk of the ground and throw it''.
▲** More recently added was "Street Fighting", which contains quite a few more [[
▲* The Monk Class in ''[[Dungeon Fighter Online]]'' sheds his weapon in the battlefield (by implanting it into the ground for myriad bonuses), then goes on to use those fistcuffs. Doing so gives the Monk unparalleled [[Glass Cannon|speed and juggling capability]], and makes the class quite popular. However, one can still break their equipped weapon after shedding it like any other class.
▲** The [[Amazonian Beauty|Fighter]] excels in this as well, although she also uses [[Wolverine Claws]] and [[Dual Tonfas]].
▲* ''[[World of Warcraft]]'''s fourth expansion Mists of Pandaria introduces the monk as the game's 11th (and 10th base) class. Although monks can use weapons, many of their attacks rely on unarmed maneauvers.
▲** Blizzard had originally intended the discipline priest to be a melee DPS class, but it was found in early alpha testing not to balance. Prior to Cataclysm, you could still seem remnants of this in some of the discipline talents.
▲*** The Balance Druid, likewise, used to have a talent that restored mana whenever it landed a blow in melee. It is now a pure ranged spell-damage dealer.
▲* One optional skill in ''[[Kingdom of Loathing]]'' is Kung Fu Hustler. With it, when you fight without a weapon or offhand item, you periodically gain intrinsic buffs. First you get bonus damage equal to three times your level, then 50% additional combat initiatve, spooky damage equal to three times your level, and bonus item drops. If you adventure with a weapon, you lose them all instantly. You also get new barehanded hit and miss messages.
▲** There's also [[New Game
* [[Pirate]] classes in ''[[Maple Story]]'' either use firearms or this sort of fighting.
== Western Animation ==
* Ty Lee from ''[[
* In the 2011 version of ''[[Thundercats 2011
* Jedi Master Mace Windu uses a lightsaber like all Jedi do, but in a pinch, he needs no weapon... He ''is'' a weapon! Proven by one episode of ''[[Star Wars: Clone Wars]]'', where he loses his lightsaber and is surrounded by an army of Battle Droids, but [[Crowning Moment of Awesome| takes ''them all'' down with his bare hands.]]
== Other Media ==
* Being the [[Trope Codifier]], every [[Wuxia]] title has plenty of these, sometimes mixed with [[Supernatural Martial Arts]] and [[Kung Fu Wizard]]. [[Ki Attacks]] are things characters in this kind of stories eat for breakfast, and the best of them can [[One
* Monks in ''[[Zangband]]'' lose their special monk attacks when wielding weapons, and lose bonuses when wearing heavy armor. Their magic skills are fairly good, though.▼
* The [[Yu-Gi-Oh! (Tabletop Game)|Yu-Gi-Oh!]] Card Game has two monsters that fit this
** They also get two support
* Black Belt from ''[[8
* Princess {{spoiler|Suzushiro Shikikagura}} from ''[[Princess Waltz]]'' is this, made from equal parts Hotblooded and [[Determinator]]. Funnily enough, she becomes rather cocky whenever the fighting starts, which is a stark contrast to [[Proper Lady|how she usually is]] outside of them.▼
* Chen-Chen in ''[[Harkovast]]'' is a Kung-fu nun who can shatter her enemies skulls with her [
==
* This trope isn't without real life examples. One of the most prominent is Masutatsu Oyama, the founder of the Kyokushinkai style of karate. He would hold public demonstrations where he would fight a bull with no weapons. On 49 of those occasions, he won by breaking the bull's horns off with knife hand strikes. On the other 3, he [[Crowning Moment of Awesome|killed each bull with a single punch to the skull]].
▲* Being the [[Trope Codifier]], every [[Wuxia]] title has plenty of these, sometimes mixed with [[Supernatural Martial Arts]] and [[Kung Fu Wizard]]. [[Ki Attacks]] are things characters in this kind of stories eat for breakfast, and the best of them can [[One Man Army|annihilate hordes of mooks in a couple of moves]].
▲* This trope isn't without real life examples. One of the most prominent is Masutatsu Oyama, the founder of the Kyokushinkai style of karate. He would hold public demonstrations where he would fight a bull with no weapons. On 49 of those occasions, he won by breaking the bull's horns off with knife hand strikes. On the other 3, he [[Crowning Moment of Awesome|killed each bull with a single punch to the skull]].
** On the other hand, fighting a fully armed and armored opponent with one's bare hands in real life would usually end up with a dead monk, what with the lack of magically strong punches and kicks and armor-grade skin and all. At best the Monk might be able to disarm his opponent or force him to tap out. Most martial arts treat unarmed fighting and grappling as supplementary when weapons are involved. And yes, that goes for the vaunted "warrior monks" like the Shaolin, who trained with all the contemporary arms and armor of their day as their primary means of giving battle.
*** In that sense, the trope differs slightly for real life examples. Examples like Masutatsu Oyama or practitioners of Iron Palm would probably either train in armed combat alongside unarmed methods or eschew combat altogether. The Shaolin monks might qualify for both options, though, being both well schooled in weapons and pacifistic.
▲* Monks in ''Zangband'' lose their special monk attacks when wielding weapons, and lose bonuses when wearing heavy armor. Their magic skills are fairly good, though.
▲* The Yu-Gi-Oh! Card Game has two monsters that fit this trope -- Monk Fighter and Master Monk. Both are (inexplicably) Rock-Types, both are seen smashing rocks with their hands (Fighter) and feet (Master), and both come with useful effects -- when your Fighter battles, your life points don't feel it, and Master Monk can attack twice.
▲** They also get two support cards -- Lone Wolf, and Kaminote Blow. Kaminote Blow in particular makes it so that, during the turn it's played, any monster attacked by your Monk Fighter or Master Monk will invariably DIE at the end of the battle. This is made sufficiently noteworthy due to the fact that its card picture shows Master Monk shattering the (3000-Defense-to-his-1900-Attack) Millenium Shield with his BARE FIST. Thus securing the Monks a spot on this page.
▲* Black Belt from 8 Bit Theater is based on the character class from the original ''[[Final Fantasy]]''. Not only is he capable of highly effective hand to hand combat but either his training or his Munchausen-esq foolishness allows him to utterly defy the laws of physics.
▲* Princess {{spoiler|Suzushiro Shikikagura}} from ''[[Princess Waltz]]'' is this, made from equal parts Hotblooded and [[Determinator]]. Funnily enough, she becomes rather cocky whenever the fighting starts, which is a stark contrast to [[Proper Lady|how she usually is]] outside of them.
▲* Chen-Chen in ''[[Harkovast]]'' is a Kung-fu nun who can shatter her enemies skulls with her [http://www.harkovast.com/index.php?id=91 fists!]
{{reflist}}
[[Category:Power At a Price]]
[[Category:This Index Knows Kung Fu]]
[[Category:Exotic Weapon Supremacy]]
[[Category:Video Game Characters]]
▲[[Category:Trope]]
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