Need some Monk/Ranger Backstory/Background ideas

[PhantomVector]

So I'm totally writers blocked right now when it comes this multiclass in terms of backstory, and a little bit on the background, but I figure you can't go wrong with a hermit, or outlander as fitting the stereotypical monk or ranger. I don't want to do the totally cliched monk comes down from mountain top monastery however(plus it wouldn't explain the ranger levels). I'm also trying to avoid the full on stereotpyical eastern style monk too, maybe not all the way towards a western friar tuck style monk though either.

Isaac Sohl
Race: Some sort of Elf, Wood Elf if I go Min/Max though I'm considering half elf too for the extra skills.
Class:Start 3 Monk/2 Ranger, with an end goal of 7 Kensei/3 Hunter
Alignment:LG/LN
Str:9
Dex:18
Con:14
Int:10
Wis:18
Cha:10
Module: Storm King's Thunder

Right now I'm sort of mulling over a sort of ronin(masterless) type monk, who travels and teaches villagers martial arts/weapon handling to help defend against bandits. But it's a little bland and again falling way too much into a strictly eastern mindset. What have you guys done that's outside the sort of eastern style monk? I know you can flavor the combat to be like a boxer, grappler, etc. What might you suggest for me?

[Reth]

So I'm totally writers blocked right now when it comes this multiclass in terms of backstory, and a little bit on the background, but I figure you can't go wrong with a hermit, or outlander as fitting the stereotypical monk or ranger. I don't want to do the totally cliched monk comes down from mountain top monastery however(plus it wouldn't explain the ranger levels). I'm also trying to avoid the full on stereotpyical eastern style monk too, maybe not all the way towards a western friar tuck style monk though either.

Isaac Sohl
Race: Some sort of Elf, Wood Elf if I go Min/Max though I'm considering half elf too for the extra skills.
Class:Start 3 Monk/2 Ranger, with an end goal of 7 Kensei/3 Hunter
Alignment:LG/LN
Str:9
Dex:18
Con:14
Int:10
Wis:18
Cha:10
Module: Storm King's Thunder

Right now I'm sort of mulling over a sort of ronin(masterless) type monk, who travels and teaches villagers martial arts/weapon handling to help defend against bandits. But it's a little bland and again falling way too much into a strictly eastern mindset. What have you guys done that's outside the sort of eastern style monk? I know you can flavor the combat to be like a boxer, grappler, etc. What might you suggest for me?

You don't have to be a monk coming down from a mountain top, you could just be part of a militia order of some priesthood located near a few villages of the faithful charged with the defense of humanity against the vast hordes of untamed beast and monsters of the wilds. You don't even need it to be a order of just one class. Some members of the order are paladins, some are monks and clerics or rangers, each preforming a different role with in the order. You could just be part of the arm of the order that helps to maintain the trainign of the locals to defend their towns till the order can get there to help.

[saucerhead]

This is a bit cliché, but here you go.

You could be the son of a huntsman that worked for the order. He taught you to track and stealth as he stalked deer to help feed the monastery. He also taught you about your favored enemy and why they should be respected, but one day he didn't come home after that enemy was seen in the area. You were brought closer into the order and learned their ways until you were older, but still want to seek out the enemy and hold them to account. Eventually you leave the order to find them, possibly even becoming a highwayman just to get closer to your favored enemy (optional criminal background, rather than hermit or outlander).

[Wisefool]

If you don't want to deal/RP a specific monastic order during your campaign, you can go with the cliched kicked out/forced sabbatical from your order. You honed your ranger skills as you trekked through the wilderness back to civilization and perhaps reflavor some of your ranger abilities with a more martial arts flair (animal traps use your darts like arrows, etc).

[KorvinStarmast]

Go wood elf. Start Ranger to get the extra skill proficiency. :smallwink: Saving Throw Proficiencies are identical.

1 Ranger
3 Monk
1 Ranger.

Background: Criminal. Fits your highwayman theme. Offers stealth and thieves tools, among other things.

You fell in with some highwaymen who used you as their scout due to your talent for hiding in trees (see wood elf racial ability Mask of the Wild). Your band had kidnapped someone and was holding her for ransom. You discovered that she was a pilgrim headed to a particular religious shrine. She convinced you to help her. Taking a risk, you snuck off in the night with her (obviously burning a bridge) but leaving most of your gold behind for your former bandit compadres to have.
You delivered her to the shrine.
The shrine's head cleric/keeper convinced you to dedicate your life to {this cause}: something about that shrine really struck a nerve.

Monk.

You do a bit of the Kwai Chang Caine thing, but with a twist that fits your campaign. You keep the area around the shrine free of beasties and bad guys. As time goes on, you follow up on rumors of giants and other things going wrong. (I am guessing you will pick giant favored enemy, but whatever). Along the way, you get that second level of ranger and begin to access the weave through divine spells alongside of your Ki.

{Some sort of information} arrives at the shrine via the master having a vision/dream that you are needed to answer the call. (Or the shrine gets burned down, looted, by hill giants ... or something). Off you go, Giant Hunting.

--------------------------------------------

I am guessing that you want Ranger 2 early for a few spells. It appears that Hunter's Mark should synergize well with your monk multiple attacks/flurry (https://rpg.stackexchange.com/q/58158/22566), but this is yet another case where the rules were just muddy enough to make it as clear as mud. It appears to have taken both an errata and a tweet to spell out that while not a weapon, per se, the unarmed strike from the monk is classified as a "melee weapon attack" (as opposed to some other kind of attack, like a "ranged weapon attack" or a "spell attack") and thus benefits from Hunter's Mark.
Some potential nova damage from the staff/flurry of blows with Hunter's Mark operating.

[Vogie]

The character could have been self-exiled due to a family conflict, an accident, or to avoid the consequences of a single crime (i.e. not being a career criminal).

They could be a character in transition - They were originally a Ranger, but found a guru and is changing their way of life.

[DevilMcam]

I acually have a NPC in a campaign I run that is ranger/monk multiclass and I love it.

Here is a sample backstory.

Isaac Sohl, as most wood elves grew up in his tribe of hunters, gatherers and traders became a Hunter and founded a family within It.
One day, returning from a hunt to find that the encampment (the tribe is nomadic) had been raided by bandits.
Not been a tribe of warrior, a lot of people had been wounded, and the bravest that dared stand to the bandits were killed. Among them was his son, he had taught how to wield a lance and a bow to hunt for boars.

That day he lost it, and when on a retaliatory hunt. He was not driven by duty, or need anymore, but just by hatred and revenge.
When he finally found them, It wa not that hard for him to kill them all. But in the chaos a lot of innocent people were also killed. Prisonners, mostly childrens the bandits planned to sell as slaves, hookers they hired for the night...
Reallizing what path his revenge had set him on, he started to seek attonement through isolation and joined a group of monks.
In the monastery they teach martial arts, although they don't use it in real fight, they proide their teachings with strage blade, bearing no handle. To swing it you have endure the same pain your foe is about to feel.
Through the way of the blade, they showed him how to not let himself be engulfed in rage again, and after several years away from the world, he has now returned...

[Nidgit]

You were raised by spiritually enlightened bears that taught you the ways of ki and meditation. You've left them to go explore the lands of beings more like you.

Make it a group of werebears if you want to be less silly.

[saucerhead]

You were raised by spiritually enlightened bears that taught you the ways of ki and meditation. You've left them to go explore the lands of beings more like you.

Make it a group of werebears if you want to be less silly.

Ha! Or Pandas if you want to be more silly.:smalltongue:

[solidork]

The thing that sets a monk apart from other martial characters is that they harness ki. The stereotypical way that they learn to use ki is through study and meditation at some sort of monastery, but you could easily fluff it as a more primal awareness learned through a close connection with the living world which is suffused with ki. There is a ton of lore about fighting styles that were inspired by the movements of various types of animals.

[Spieldog20]

... but you could easily fluff it as a more primal awareness learned through a close connection with the living world which is suffused with ki. There is a ton of lore about fighting styles that were inspired by the movements of various types of animals.

I like this, personally. Your monkness comes from an extension of your connection with Nature. Connecting with Self through your connection with Nature, and vice versa.

[MagneticKitty]

Maybe you're all about living off the land and very anti blades. You make your own bow and bowstaff to fight with. Your martial arts are an extension of surviving naturally and self sustaining. Maybe society wronged you which is why you started being a hermit. Maybe your parent (s) are in prison for crime they didn't commit and you blame the system (you'd be neutral or chaotic not lawful) and you want to get powerful enough to break them out without landing a lethal blow (monk pressure point type things) on guards just doing their job.
Or something... I dunno you do you