Classes For an Oriental Campaign?

[StoryKeeper]

The monk thread got me thinking about the asian-themed campaign I've been kicking around in my head for a while. I was planning on a sort of catch-all for oriental fluff that mixed indian, chinese, japanese, etc. cultures.

My question is this:
What classes other than the following would fit fluffily into such a setting:
MONK
SHUGENJA
WUJEN
NINJA
SAMURAI

Also, I know there's a list of the various classes and what "power tier" they fall under somewhere. I figure if I'm going to be restricting class choices, I might as well try to make sure they're all balanced, so could someone please tell me where I could find such a list?

[lsfreak]

The Tome of Battle classes can all be fluffed to fit an Oriental setting.

Class Tier Thread

[Dr.Epic]

Barbarian: in ancient civilizations barbarians refered to foriegners (it came from a Latin/Greek root that meant barber and they had beards and long hair). You could say that character is a foriegner from the west. Just a thought.

[Dienekes]

Pretty much all classes can be fluffed into oriental flavoring. It's kind of a loaded question. What are rogues but ninjas with a more western name? Same for fighter and samurai, ect.

If you want to be pounded in over the head with forced fluff I think you have all the major ones.

@Dr. Epic, I always heard that the term "barbarian" came from the Greeks calling the Persians (amusingly a more developed nation) that because the persian language sounded like they were saying "bar bar bar bar bar" over and over again. Them having long hair and beards had little to do with it since they themselves were known for their beards and some poleis their long hair.

[Nerocite]

There's also the Shaman and Sohei from Oriental Adventures

[StoryKeeper]

Pretty much all classes can be fluffed into oriental flavoring. It's kind of a loaded question. What are rogues but ninjas with a more western name? Same for fighter and samurai, ect.

If you want to be pounded in over the head with forced fluff I think you have all the major ones.

I suppose I wasn't very clear. What I wanted were the classes that took a general theme and did it more orientally (fake word?) For instance, Wu Jen in place of wizards, shugenja in place of clerics, etc.

Thanks for the suggestions thus far guys, and keep them up. Also, thank you for the link.

[Greenish]

The Tome of Battle classes can all be fluffed to fit an Oriental setting.

That was my first thought too when I saw the thread title. Warblades make better samurai than any of the classes that bear the name (aside from not being proficient with bows), and swordsages got the whole mystic old master vibe from the get go.

Other than that, spirit shaman has the right sort of fluff to begin with.


And for barbarians, my dictionary claims that it's derived from "barbarous", which: "ORIGIN late Middle English : via Latin from Greek barbaros ‘foreign’ + -ous."

[Tackyhillbillu]

And for barbarians, my dictionary claims that it's derived from "barbarous", which: "ORIGIN late Middle English : via Latin from Greek barbaros ‘foreign’ + -ous."

You are both right. The "Bar, Bar, Bar" is from Aristotle. The Romans picked up the sound from the Greeks, and made it into their root word for foreigner. Then, when French collided with the Germanic Languages spoken on the British Isle, the actual word "barbarous" arose.

[lsfreak]

Psionics all (or almost all) fit with Oriental; the use of meditation to tap into personal or spiritual energy sources that others can't.