How about switching Tai Chi to the Monk area?

[Taijibum]

Seriously, Tai Chi is not yoga. Tai Chi is more like Aikido. I train Tai Chi as my main martial art and work out with Aikido guys and Judo guys. In other words it's a martial art even if most people dont learn it that way. 

 

....or start a Jedi class?

[Relic]

I think that Tai Chi is in the Druid's care because it is sometimes used more like yoga. That is, centering and awareness more than defence. The stereotype would be a group of old people in a park all doing the same no-contact routine. I know that this is not the only way people practice it and honestly, I don't know what percentage use it that way vs treating it like a martial art (how it started) but that is why it is in the Druid's section at least.

This would be a grey area case where there is some crossover between guilds. (Monks tend to do bodyweight work like Assassins, Rangers sometimes lift weights like Warriors...

The way you use it would make you more of a Monk than a Druid so if you wanted your Tai Chi to define your class it would make you a Monk.

That being said, I don't practice, so my opinion is not terribly valid

Maybe we should see how many people practice Tai Chi and how they use it in order to see where it should go...

P.S. I would put the Jedi with the Rangers because Jedi are pretty much good at everything.

[guest439437484421]

The descriptions of the guilds are more like guidelines.  Sometimes warriors branch out into non-warrior things, but are still warriors at heart and stay in the guild.  Sometimes we cross pollinate, moving between guilds.  If you feel that you're more a monk than a druid, then hang with the monk guild.  Or hang out with both.  Like it said they're more like guidelines than hard and fast rules.

[Taijibum]

I am in the scouts right now because I run a lot. How do you like me? I have been here less than a week and I already want to change things! Hahahaha......

[Mordechaj]

I agree with the transition idea. Just because Tai Chi became more popular in it's "soft" incarnation does not mean it's not a martial art.

[RisenPhoenix]

It's interesting you post this. When I initially joined NF I put myself as a Druid, rather than a monk, because I am practicing aikido. Given that its so anti-strength, and built around fluidity, I felt like it was very un-monkish. But after some thought I figured that in the end I want to be more monk than Druid, and even if the art I practice isn't the board-breaking, flying-kick performing variant, the mental portion is still following the monk path. And that's the path I want to follow. Even if its an atypical route.

Just my 2 cents.

[Mordechaj]

Martial arts can be "soft" or "hard", or "internal" or "external".

 

Just because Tai Chi is "soft", "internal" doesn't mean it's not a martial art and that it's movements are not all meant to be applicable as joint-locks, bone breaks, or soft tissue attacks.

[Gingerdave]

They are totally both martial arts.  I used to run a martial arts group at a previous job.  Every so often we would get together and everyone would show a technique from their art, it got to be a fairly regular thing and a lot of fun.

 

In one of these days there was a great discussion about wrist locks that was being had by a tai chi lady and an Akidoka I joined in and learnt a lot.

 

And for anyone who doubts Aikido I point them in the direction of Angry White Pajamas.