How could I go about building the most flavourfull/optimal Wu Xia swordsman character in DnD 5e? I wanted him to be like Jet Li´s character in the movie Hero, or Li Mu Bai character in Croutching Tiger, Hidden Dragon movie. So, a sword master without armour and based in pure swordsmanship, agile, dexterious and lethal, with a lot of atacks and difficult to hit (lots of dodge).
He is basicaly a damage dealer, I want him to excel in that regard, but not in a Barbarian way, rather in a Wu Tang Clas finesse way.
I´m going for both Fighter and Monk forums for this because I honestly don´t know which class can deliver this in the most optimal way.
I´m torn between monk and fighter because it seems that most of monk´s extra atacks comes from unarmed atacks, and I wanted a pure swordmaster, more like Wu Tang, not a Shaolin Monk
There's the Samurai subclass in Fighter from XGtE. Battlemaster could also work with all of it's versatile abilities.
But like InquisitiveCoder said, probably Monk Way of the Kensei would be most thematic because Monks tend not to wear armour and Fighters sort of have to.
Trouble is without armor you're not very effective as a fighter. Monk can use wisdom do up their armor to offset this. That being said, a fighter is capable of a lot more damage.
I would suggest a high dexterity samurai that uses light armor. Use a rapier and just flavor it as a Chinese long sword. That would fairly closely fit what you want.
I take it back. Way of the Kensei monk fits thematically so much better for a Li Mu Bai type character. I haven't seen it in a while, but I'm pretty sure he was a Wudang monk. The fighting style does still use non-weapon attacks like the rest of monks though.
For an armoured blademaster, Fighter battlemaster - and use your own flavourful descriptions for the superiority die effects - Lion chases sun, Crouching Thrikreen, Hidden Bulette
Or samurai and rely on your creativity to style it
If allowed, feats will dramatically alter your fighting options, and fighters gain more than others.
An out of left field option is Ranger hunter taking the melee options when available. whether you customise for single foes or groups you will have abilities most wont have seen used before (unless you regularly play with the mythical beast that is the melee hunter ranger) The spells you should be able to reflavour as prayers invoking ki or Void, depending on how Rokugan your going, just dont choose ones that cant be explained by inner Ki, so healing yourself, hunters mark, zephyr strike, all work nicely.
Have fun with it - and if you need background for the forgotten realms, their is a lot of it out there from older editions. I vaguely remember an island called Wu.
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Hi, peeps!
How could I go about building the most flavourfull/optimal Wu Xia swordsman character in DnD 5e?
I wanted him to be like Jet Li´s character in the movie Hero, or Li Mu Bai character in Croutching Tiger, Hidden Dragon movie. So, a sword master without armour and based in pure swordsmanship, agile, dexterious and lethal, with a lot of atacks and difficult to hit (lots of dodge).
He is basicaly a damage dealer, I want him to excel in that regard, but not in a Barbarian way, rather in a Wu Tang Clas finesse way.
I´m going for both Fighter and Monk forums for this because I honestly don´t know which class can deliver this in the most optimal way.
Check out the monk's Way of the Kensei.
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Just to give you a visual idea of what I picture for this character´s flavour/fighting style:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j4FdVAzmqek
I´m torn between monk and fighter because it seems that most of monk´s extra atacks comes from unarmed atacks, and I wanted a pure swordmaster, more like Wu Tang, not a Shaolin Monk
There's the Samurai subclass in Fighter from XGtE. Battlemaster could also work with all of it's versatile abilities.
But like InquisitiveCoder said, probably Monk Way of the Kensei would be most thematic because Monks tend not to wear armour and Fighters sort of have to.
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Trouble is without armor you're not very effective as a fighter. Monk can use wisdom do up their armor to offset this. That being said, a fighter is capable of a lot more damage.
I would suggest a high dexterity samurai that uses light armor. Use a rapier and just flavor it as a Chinese long sword. That would fairly closely fit what you want.
I take it back. Way of the Kensei monk fits thematically so much better for a Li Mu Bai type character. I haven't seen it in a while, but I'm pretty sure he was a Wudang monk. The fighting style does still use non-weapon attacks like the rest of monks though.
DEXy battlemaster + rapier reskinned as a Jian.
You even get to have calligraphy as a subclass skill. Learn your characters and get into writing with a brush!
For an armoured blademaster, Fighter battlemaster - and use your own flavourful descriptions for the superiority die effects - Lion chases sun, Crouching Thrikreen, Hidden Bulette
Or samurai and rely on your creativity to style it
If allowed, feats will dramatically alter your fighting options, and fighters gain more than others.
An out of left field option is Ranger hunter taking the melee options when available. whether you customise for single foes or groups you will have abilities most wont have seen used before (unless you regularly play with the mythical beast that is the melee hunter ranger) The spells you should be able to reflavour as prayers invoking ki or Void, depending on how Rokugan your going, just dont choose ones that cant be explained by inner Ki, so healing yourself, hunters mark, zephyr strike, all work nicely.
Have fun with it - and if you need background for the forgotten realms, their is a lot of it out there from older editions. I vaguely remember an island called Wu.