Fighters and monks as leaders:

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Post originally by Downtym at 2001-11-13 18:17:16
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Real world examples:

Fighters:

Alexander the Great; Fighter, 20th level.
Patton; Fighter, 20th level.

For good examples of what a fighter style leader is like, read "Gates of Fire". It's a book about the Spartans holding the Persians at the pass of Thermopolie (sp???? Phonetic spelling here, pretty sure it's wrong). The Spartans only had a few thousand men and the Persians had at least a few hundred thousand.

Monks:

Warrior monks of Chinese and Japanese mythology. Men who could defeat entire armies with a single kick that had the force of a typhoon. Best examples are from reading about the Shao-Lin and when they held off the Chinese army (Of course, once the Chinese got cannons, they just shelled the temples until the monks surrendered).

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Post originally by Sandy Antunes at 2001-11-13 19:03:16
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Hi,

I think you're confusing tactical leaders with societal/political leaders. My premise (which I cheerfully admit may be flawed) is that fighters, in general, are best leading only in fighting-type situations.

Patton is a great example. His battlefield leadership is unquestioned. His political saavy was enough for him to be mustered out. General Eisenhower, by contrast, is a clear case of a military leader sequeing neatly into pure politics.

Alexander the Great I do always count as an exception. Really, it raises the question of martial leader-- how many are able to move from the role of Conquerer to the role of Governor? Alexander sort of lost it later on. Napoleon was leader only while fighting went on. Though ironically he was very strong at political leadership, he required successful fighting to 'hang his hat' on and eventually was ousted.

In short, fighters are conquerer works-- but tell me one Great Conquerer who was succeeded by a Fighter.

Cheers,
Sandy
sandy@rpg.net

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Post originally by Theophagos at 2001-11-14 03:47:23
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Hmm, how about Caesar followed by Augustus? Both toke the Laedership after some long and hard military struggles. Augustus had 'only' a civil-war to win, but I think, that doesn't matter.

Valete - Theophagos