(Edit) meant easter not middle easter my bad.

so my friend is making a new campaign and asked me to join in, I am working on making a homebrew cursed half oni race that is different from the others based on the oni in the lore that are like ogres in the eastern province. I want to try and make the character your performance blade dancer not the religious one so I am aiming for little to no magic and focusing on agile movement, one handed sword possible using one or dual wielding depending on class choice.

The back story will be more in line with a rough life in the eastern province, father being a known serial killer, mother being a prostitute, sold into slavery, then bought by a man who used him in his establishment as entertainment trained as a sword dancer. After being a mere slave for years, forced to sell his body by his master, sent into arenas to fight for entertainment, and finding solitary only in dancing with his swords for a crowed his master was eventually murdered because of a deal gone wrong which weakens his magic slave collar that kept him docile. He went on a rampage killing any guard that stepped in his way helping the other slaves escape to freedom and after they escape he flees to the western providence hopping aboard a trade ship and hiding among the cargo.

I am debating between choosing kensie monk or swashbuckler rogue, any advice on what class/subclass would work best for this type of thing? Some other info if it matters he wears a very vibrant kimono with wooden sandals he normally doesn't wear the right sleeve leaving the right side of his torso bare sporting a floral tattoo that wraps around his back over the shoulder and chest covering down his right arm. Planing on making him proficient in performance, acrobatics, maybe slight of hand, and deception.

The two you were debating between are the ones I would suggest, though barbarian is also a possibility.  Rogue typically needs to wear armor but gets lots of appropriate skills, monk mostly uses unarmed attacks, even for kensei, and barbarian has the downside of needing strength as well as dexterity which may not fit your image of the character.

If you go rogue, ask your DM if you can get scimitar proficiency since it would be more thematically appropriate, possibly by trading the superior rapier proficiency for it. 

Thanks i mean worst comes to worst i can rp the leather armor as a kimono lined with durable materials or breathable armor i put under the kimono since rogue armor isn’t usually restricting.

didn’t know the monk would need str focus so that is a bit of a downside lol and yeah barbarian just seems too musclebound to me for this character who is more about graceful dexterous movements in combat.

thanks for the info though this helps!

Monk doesn't need str focus, their problem (thematically) is that most of their attacks will be unarmed strikes.

Yeah and that honestly just doesn’t fit for this character hints why i looked at kensei and not other subclasses lol

Quote from Lunali >>

Monk doesn't need str focus, their problem (thematically) is that most of their attacks will be unarmed strikes.

 Unless they're using Flurry of Blows, at most 1/2 of their attacks would be unarmed from levels 1-4, and from there it goes down to 1/3. Even then, there's some alternatives if they really want to commit hard to weapon attacks, like using their bonus action on Patient Defense or Two-Weapon Fighting.

Another no-magic alternative to the Swashbuckler and Kensei is the Battle Master fighter.

Finally, if you're ok with having magic, the bard's College of Swords and the wizard's Bladesinging school also emphasize elegant swordplay.

I don't think I'll have anything to add that hasn't been said already.

The bard college of swords is the sword dancer class.

But if you want to avoid spells (in no particular order):

• Kensei monk
• Battlemaster fighter
• Samurai fighter
• Mastermind rogue
• Scout rogue
• Swashbuckler rogue

All have features that could be flavored to be a dancer.

If you decide you are okay with magic, some classes that could work are:

• Arcane trickster rogue
• Bladesinging Wizard
• Archfae warlock
• Hexblade warlock

Thanks was looking at the sword college anything you can tell me about your experience or someone you've seen use it?

I'm playing a Swords Bard right now and I wanted to make him a sword dancer, but I didn't quite fully get it the way I wanted. If it's important to you that this character be unarmored I would recommend Monk and instead of Way of the Kensei, take a look at Way of the Drunken Master. It works great for dancing through crowds of enemies without them being able to land a hit.

Strong or dexterous?

Anyhow I feel like it should be a multiclass character with either Barbarian (if str/con based) or monk (if dex/wis based) in it for AC bonus without armor.

On top of that you could add Battlemaster and/or Swashbuckler. All these comboes should work well