Human Variant, Fighting Initiate: Unarmed Fighting, Background is pure flavor **At level 1 if you use no other weapons except your fists you get to swing D8 Fist Damage, twice
At level 2 you now get to Flurry which is essentially 3 Attacks on your turn with your D8 ham fists **At this point the fighter is mad at you
At level 3 you head into subclass town. I like Open Palm for this build, but anything is good. Just remember that anything relying on martial arts dice is still limited by your level. **That's cool fighter, you can trip him on your turn, psyche! i'm going to punch him in the face, knock him prone, and then hit him with advantage! WITH d8s!
Honestly I haven't given it much thought, this was a build i used in a low level 1 shot that pissed off the fighter so now it makes me laugh.
It's a decent build but I don't consider it to be too strong due to falling off as you gain levels. Speaking specifically about low level? It's definitely a bump in strength.
Level 1: Spear (Versatile d8)) + MA (d4) has an average damage fairly close to the Punch (d8) + MA (d8)
Level 3: Spear (Versatile (d8)) + Flurry (d4) + (d4) again will have a fairly close average damage to the Punch (d8) + (Flurry) (d8) + (d8)
At level 5 it gets weaker: Spear (Versatile (d8)) + Flurry (d6) + (d6) vs Punch (d8) + Flurry (d8) + (d8)
The problem is that once your Martial Arts die reaches d8 at 11th level you actually lose power as a result of Unarmed Fighting as, at that point, the damage dice becomes equivalent and the only benefit you are gaining from the feat is "At the start of each of your turns, you can deal 1d4 bludgeoning damage to one creature grappled by you."
If you know ahead of time that your adventures usually end around, or before, level 11 then it could make sense to give up an ASI or early Mobility if that's the way you want to go with it since it is a benefit at lower levels, to be sure.
It's not that bad. The fighting initiate feat allows you to pick another fighting style on ASI levels. So once your martial arts die hits a d8, there's only 1 level left untill you can replace with it blind fighting to take advantage of the darkness spell
When you switch Fighting styles at 12th, blindfighting is a good choice.
(as a side note I really don't like the unarmed fighting style, it really intrudes on the monk's thing, like giving other classes Hex or Hunter's Mark or backstab)
Ah, I missed that part. I still think it's a hard sell between ASI and Mobility in the early game... but it's a bit better than I was thinking, haha.
I also did say LOW level monk build.
Yeah, not sure why everyone is ignoring this. Up until level five this might be the highest DPR build possible.
(Something that slightly annoys me is how a lot of the cool monk features are getting usurped by minor additions to other classes. Monks whole thing is "punch better than anyone else" and now a level one fighter can punch just as good as a level eleven monk.)
Ah, I missed that part. I still think it's a hard sell between ASI and Mobility in the early game... but it's a bit better than I was thinking, haha.
I also did say LOW level monk build.
Yeah, not sure why everyone is ignoring this. Up until level five this might be the highest DPR build possible.
(Something that slightly annoys me is how a lot of the cool monk features are getting usurped by minor additions to other classes. Monks whole thing is "punch better than anyone else" and now a level one fighter can punch just as good as a level eleven monk.)
it's not quite the highest DPR build. But others might require taking certain subclasses to compete. Or using alternate abilities from Tasha's such as Ki Fueled Strike. There is also the issue that it is only a small gain. But it is still a gain.
And the Gain over a Versatile spear is actually less than them math above. Because without using flurry of blows for 3 attacks it's d8+d8+d6 because 5 is when Extra attack kicks in. Primarily the gain is all in bonus action.
As for the Fighter issue. It's not actually punching as good as a level 11 monk at low level. It doesn't get the bonus action attack from the Fighting style so it's still at least one if not 2 attacks behind for fighting bare handed up until level 11 which means that the Monk is still doing as much or more damage as the fighter even at low level If the fighter decides to use the fighting style. The math here is based upon synergies with things that the Monk gets that the Fighter does not.
Ah, I missed that part. I still think it's a hard sell between ASI and Mobility in the early game... but it's a bit better than I was thinking, haha.
I also did say LOW level monk build.
And I DID say
If you know ahead of time that your adventures usually end around, or before, level 11 then it could make sense to give up an ASI or early Mobility if that's the way you want to go with it since it is a benefit at lower levels, to be sure.
A "low level" build is only good when the adventure is "low level".
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Human Variant, Fighting Initiate: Unarmed Fighting, Background is pure flavor
**At level 1 if you use no other weapons except your fists you get to swing D8 Fist Damage, twice
At level 2 you now get to Flurry which is essentially 3 Attacks on your turn with your D8 ham fists
**At this point the fighter is mad at you
At level 3 you head into subclass town. I like Open Palm for this build, but anything is good. Just remember that anything relying on martial arts dice is still limited by your level.
**That's cool fighter, you can trip him on your turn, psyche! i'm going to punch him in the face, knock him prone, and then hit him with advantage! WITH d8s!
Honestly I haven't given it much thought, this was a build i used in a low level 1 shot that pissed off the fighter so now it makes me laugh.
|| Sol Night-Arrow, Tabaxi Ranger ||
||Currently DMing a Homebrew Campaign ||
Guides or Important Threads of Mine ----- || List of ALL Official Familiars || My Homebrew Monsters ||
Level 3 One Shot Character Concepts ----- || Fist of the Gods || Triple Tap Hunter || Bullseye Dartmaster || Captain America ||
^^^Those are Links BTW^^^
It's a decent build but I don't consider it to be too strong due to falling off as you gain levels. Speaking specifically about low level? It's definitely a bump in strength.
Level 1: Spear (Versatile d8)) + MA (d4) has an average damage fairly close to the Punch (d8) + MA (d8)
Level 3: Spear (Versatile (d8)) + Flurry (d4) + (d4) again will have a fairly close average damage to the Punch (d8) + (Flurry) (d8) + (d8)
At level 5 it gets weaker: Spear (Versatile (d8)) + Flurry (d6) + (d6) vs Punch (d8) + Flurry (d8) + (d8)
The problem is that once your Martial Arts die reaches d8 at 11th level you actually lose power as a result of Unarmed Fighting as, at that point, the damage dice becomes equivalent and the only benefit you are gaining from the feat is "At the start of each of your turns, you can deal 1d4 bludgeoning damage to one creature grappled by you."
If you know ahead of time that your adventures usually end around, or before, level 11 then it could make sense to give up an ASI or early Mobility if that's the way you want to go with it since it is a benefit at lower levels, to be sure.
It's not that bad. The fighting initiate feat allows you to pick another fighting style on ASI levels. So once your martial arts die hits a d8, there's only 1 level left untill you can replace with it blind fighting to take advantage of the darkness spell
Ah, I missed that part. I still think it's a hard sell between ASI and Mobility in the early game... but it's a bit better than I was thinking, haha.
I also did say LOW level monk build.
|| Sol Night-Arrow, Tabaxi Ranger ||
||Currently DMing a Homebrew Campaign ||
Guides or Important Threads of Mine ----- || List of ALL Official Familiars || My Homebrew Monsters ||
Level 3 One Shot Character Concepts ----- || Fist of the Gods || Triple Tap Hunter || Bullseye Dartmaster || Captain America ||
^^^Those are Links BTW^^^
When you switch Fighting styles at 12th, blindfighting is a good choice.
(as a side note I really don't like the unarmed fighting style, it really intrudes on the monk's thing, like giving other classes Hex or Hunter's Mark or backstab)
Yeah, not sure why everyone is ignoring this. Up until level five this might be the highest DPR build possible.
(Something that slightly annoys me is how a lot of the cool monk features are getting usurped by minor additions to other classes. Monks whole thing is "punch better than anyone else" and now a level one fighter can punch just as good as a level eleven monk.)
it's not quite the highest DPR build. But others might require taking certain subclasses to compete. Or using alternate abilities from Tasha's such as Ki Fueled Strike. There is also the issue that it is only a small gain. But it is still a gain.
And the Gain over a Versatile spear is actually less than them math above. Because without using flurry of blows for 3 attacks it's d8+d8+d6 because 5 is when Extra attack kicks in. Primarily the gain is all in bonus action.
As for the Fighter issue. It's not actually punching as good as a level 11 monk at low level. It doesn't get the bonus action attack from the Fighting style so it's still at least one if not 2 attacks behind for fighting bare handed up until level 11 which means that the Monk is still doing as much or more damage as the fighter even at low level If the fighter decides to use the fighting style. The math here is based upon synergies with things that the Monk gets that the Fighter does not.
And I DID say
A "low level" build is only good when the adventure is "low level".