I was going to go Rune Knight as well. The runes along with the Giant Might seem amazing, just a shame that Giant Might is on a long rest. It's understandable that it is, but I could see it being an issue for the campaign my group is in. I decided to go with Battle Master after the new UA presented the "Restraining Strike" maneuver.
Sweet, thanks. I figured as much, it made no sense otherwise.
I haven't looked at Battle Master. We're playing Eberron, so Giant runes make sense as ancient precursor magic, especially for a warforged, which as far as I can tell are based on excavated Giantish war golems anyway. At least that's what i'm going with since they didn't put any actual lore in the damn Eberron book.
That's definitely a dope idea you have for the reason your character has the runes. I honestly haven't even looked at the Warforged race even once. I'll have to check it out.
I also want to point out that extra damage with two free hands has nothing to do with attacking with both hands. You can generate more force with two free hands than you can with one. It annoys me that people are talking about double hammerfisting like that is what you have to do if you are attacking for the 1d8 damage. It's ugly and absurd. I had to say something somewhere, because it was bothering the hell out of me.
I plan on describing attacks as jiujutsu and krav maga style most of the time- nerve strikes, joint locks, throws, and crushing soft tissue attacks. I am imagining basically a robot version of RDJ's Sherlock Holmes, analytical and precise and able to anticipate an opponent's moves and react to them with almost supernatural speed. Of course I'll probably roll a bunch of single digits and look like a buffoon, cuz if there's anything D&D is good at, it's cutting your sweet character concept down to size just to spite you :P
But then I also think when the character engages "runic overdrive" they basically turn into an anime/luchador style fighter, much more flamboyant.
But like I said, we'll see what the game lets me get away with.
What are you thinking thematically for your battle master? Pit fighter/ gladiator maybe?
Yeah a huge part of the fun of Unarmed Fighting is describing the attacks for me. My character is more of a brawler/dirty fighting type though. The goal is to grab someone and beat the crap out of them. My character started out as an indentured servant/pit fighter on a pirate island. He served on a ship which was sunken by water elementals under the control of a Kraken. They imprisoned him along with others underwater where they were basically given less and less to survive, forcing them to fight for food and such, until only he was left alive. The water elementals then presented him to the Kraken and he became a (Lurker in the Deep) warlock. This happened pre-campaign. Just recently he made a deal with a Fey Goddess to break his pact with the Kraken for him, but now he owes her an unknown favor, as well as his "last breath". (Yeah, not good, I know lol.) Currently he is under the tutelage of a Battle Master/Master Smith while the rest of the party is participating in a sort of Kumite. He lost his Warlock magic, of course, but having been touched by the Kraken he retained the ability to use some magic. (He has a level in Sorcerer for this.) I homebrewed a Sorc subclass to go with his Battle Master levels so that he would maintain the flavor from the Lurker in the Deep a bit. It pretty much thematically lets him harness cold, pressure, and darkness of the deep sea to fight.
More than you asked for, I know, but I couldn't help myself.
That's extremely epic! What level are you starting at to cram all that in?
My character is going to be an experimental prototype warforged that incorporates a "rune engine" based on reverse engineered Jotun magitech, like a spherical rubik's cube in its chest that can shift to form the different rune symbols and invoke their powers. The lab they were being built in got raided during the war, and they have spent a decade in a crate in a warehouse, alone and motionless- until of course the adventuring party opens that crate... Now they want to know what happened to their Maker and why they were abandoned for so long. They know how to use weapons of course, but they don't need them because they *are* a weapon. But they also have no idea how to be a person, so they'll be learning that from the other party members- and I have no idea what lessons they will pick up, so that should be fun ;)
Hope your game is as dope as your character concept!
I love you character concept, it is so focused and well thought out. The Rubik's Cube is a beautiful idea and learning about being a person is a really cool RP opportunity. I'm assuming you guys are playing an Eberron campaign. Ours is a Baldur's Gate.
My character started off with two levels fighter and one level warlock. Got two more levels in warlock during the campaign dealing with having a Kraken for a patron. Right now he has basically reverted to a level three character temporarily.
Sounds cool! Yeah our game is set in Eberron, with a healthy dose of homebrew. We're starting in an original city called the Sapphire Carousel, and I have no idea what that means but it sounds baller. Baldur's Gate is... Forgotten Realms? Same setting as Neverwinter, right? I think that's where we were last campaign- Undermountain and all that. We sent the Mad Mage packing like a chump- we kind of accidentally ended up with a party extremely well suited to mage-murdering, so he didn't really stand a chance. Good times!
Anyway, the Warforged / Rune Knight / Unarmed Fighting build is, to be honest, pretty mechanically suboptimal, but I'm really going for theme over stats on this one, so I'm not worried about it. My last PC was a Bearbarian who was a pretty efficient murdermachine, so it'll be fun to explore the other end of the spectrum, and I can always explain any bad rolls as glitchy programming =P
Is there any reason I can’t add Unarmed Fighting Style for a Fighter when I create a new PC? I have playtest material checked on, and I can see other UA, just not the new fighting styles.
Is there any reason I can’t add Unarmed Fighting Style for a Fighter when I create a new PC? I have playtest material checked on, and I can see other UA, just not the new fighting styles.
None of this content is on the site yet. No one knows when it will be.
Is there any reason I can’t add Unarmed Fighting Style for a Fighter when I create a new PC? I have playtest material checked on, and I can see other UA, just not the new fighting styles.
Implementing the Variant Class Features UA requires a major overhaul of the entire DDB creation system. So we are all waiting patiently for them to reprogram 50% of their website for us.
Actually with this wording, isnt it XXX+Str+1d4? XXX= w/e you have in hand? Bcs the way it is written it doesnt imply you have to use unarmed attack. So you can grapple one attack and then pull out your sword and slash them, while still getting that 1d4, if you have both hands free before the fight.
Ranger 3/Monk x is the real way to go with the Variant UA. Getting Colossus Slayer + Hunters Mark on each of those punches can really lay down some hurt round 2+. Ranger also actually became a fairly strong martial class and can get a movement buff or skill expertise as well.
Ranger 3/Monk x is the real way to go with the Variant UA. Getting Colossus Slayer + Hunters Mark on each of those punches can really lay down some hurt round 2+. Ranger also actually became a fairly strong martial class and can get a movement buff or skill expertise as well.
Colossus slayer is once per turn only...not sure its worth the loss of level from Monk TBH.
If you look at the homebrew feats someone made the fighting style on there. to use it just add it to your character and dont select any fighting styles in the character editor as the feat is the fighting style
I love everything about this fighting style. i realy think a wrestler fighter subclass would be fun, but requiring you to have the unarmed fighting style. some things that would make it more thematic and unique is that wrestlers don't wear armor and a fighter without armor is looking to be squashed. Make it so they loose proficency with armor or some armor and maybe have some sort of unarmored defense or some way that they can survive longer like more hp as they can take a hit. On the line of prof loss maybe also restrict their weapons and then offer a way to do magic damage or ways to use their brute strength against foes larger than them. At this point it really tears the main class down at the reward that you fit a unique way of fighting that is fighting at its simplest
I love everything about this fighting style. i realy think a wrestler fighter subclass would be fun, but requiring you to have the unarmed fighting style. some things that would make it more thematic and unique is that wrestlers don't wear armor and a fighter without armor is looking to be squashed. Make it so they loose proficency with armor or some armor and maybe have some sort of unarmored defense or some way that they can survive longer like more hp as they can take a hit. On the line of prof loss maybe also restrict their weapons and then offer a way to do magic damage or ways to use their brute strength against foes larger than them. At this point it really tears the main class down at the reward that you fit a unique way of fighting that is fighting at its simplest
Doing some research i found a entire class that fits the bill and believe is what Wizards was trying to accomplish sort of with a fighting style instead of a full class. The Pugilist is a class that is a unarmed fighting class with things similar to the monk like Ki and monk weapons. think of a Str based monk with less mobility that when taking enough damage gets stronger the more damaged they receive and can swing wildly to do extra damage. Includes fun sublcasses that fits most cases. wrestlers, boxers, smart brawlers, Libre, pet subclass, and one that fights dirty and will insult everyone in the room to start a fight.
its on DMs guild and is Made by Benjamin Huffman and is an Adamantine best seller, right up there next to the Blood hunter. Check it out if you have the time, there is a free version and i think anyone who wants a different Unarmed fighting character should spread word of this existing
Was just about to make a new thread on homebrew for some changes I was looking at making to barbarian (and a couple of feats) based in the class feature variants that might be relevant to the last few posts.
1) Allow reckless attack to be switched out for fighting style (any of the the none class specialist ones), allows for a barbarian who has had more formal martial training rather than just hacking blindly. With unarmed feat also allows an armed/unarmoured martial character other than monk.
2) Include athletics and stealth as options for survival instincts, as they are appropriate skills for a hunter to have expertise in. Yes it allows to to get everything to dominate grappling in single class (apart from enlarge), but it is quite a limited facet to dominate and was easy enough to achieve through feats and multiclassing anyway.
Getting a bit broader in scope.
3) Alter tavern brawler to allow the bonus action grapple off any melee attack no reason why hitting someone with a table leg would let to grapple them but a club or claw wouldn't. Also if a character already has an unarmed die it increases by one size, makes it more relevant for monks and unarmed fighting style.
4) Grappler feat replace the pin mechanic with "allows a chacter to replace an attack with an athletics contest, if successful you can choose to apply the restrained or silenced condition to the opponent until the end of your next turn". Stops it eating away your whole action and takes away the negatives but due to eating an attack each turn makes it a bit more of a strategic choice to use it or not. Also allows martials the ability to do a stealthy take down of guards and makes them effective against casters if able to close the distance. Not sure if this is too powerful.
Was just about to make a new thread on homebrew for some changes I was looking at making to barbarian (and a couple of feats) based in the class feature variants that might be relevant to the last few posts.
1) Allow reckless attack to be switched out for fighting style (any of the the none class specialist ones), allows for a barbarian who has had more formal martial training rather than just hacking blindly. With unarmed feat also allows an armed/unarmoured martial character other than monk.
2) Include athletics and stealth as options for survival instincts, as they are appropriate skills for a hunter to have expertise in. Yes it allows to to get everything to dominate grappling in single class (apart from enlarge), but it is quite a limited facet to dominate and was easy enough to achieve through feats and multiclassing anyway.
Getting a bit broader in scope.
3) Alter tavern brawler to allow the bonus action grapple off any melee attack no reason why hitting someone with a table leg would let to grapple them but a club or claw wouldn't. Also if a character already has an unarmed die it increases by one size, makes it more relevant for monks and unarmed fighting style.
4) Grappler feat replace the pin mechanic with "allows a chacter to replace an attack with an athletics contest, if successful you can choose to apply the restrained or silenced condition to the opponent until the end of your next turn". Stops it eating away your whole action and takes away the negatives but due to eating an attack each turn makes it a bit more of a strategic choice to use it or not. Also allows martials the ability to do a stealthy take down of guards and makes them effective against casters if able to close the distance. Not sure if this is too powerful.
Also discovered a path of the sumo for barbarian that focuses on grappled and shoves and gives the unarmed strike dice increase like monk and the magic fists. It at the start counts you as a size larger for grapples and shoves. Later in while raging you count as an additional size larger for that and can throw grappled creatures
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I was going to go Rune Knight as well. The runes along with the Giant Might seem amazing, just a shame that Giant Might is on a long rest. It's understandable that it is, but I could see it being an issue for the campaign my group is in. I decided to go with Battle Master after the new UA presented the "Restraining Strike" maneuver.
Sweet, thanks. I figured as much, it made no sense otherwise.
I haven't looked at Battle Master. We're playing Eberron, so Giant runes make sense as ancient precursor magic, especially for a warforged, which as far as I can tell are based on excavated Giantish war golems anyway. At least that's what i'm going with since they didn't put any actual lore in the damn Eberron book.
That's definitely a dope idea you have for the reason your character has the runes. I honestly haven't even looked at the Warforged race even once. I'll have to check it out.
I also want to point out that extra damage with two free hands has nothing to do with attacking with both hands. You can generate more force with two free hands than you can with one. It annoys me that people are talking about double hammerfisting like that is what you have to do if you are attacking for the 1d8 damage. It's ugly and absurd. I had to say something somewhere, because it was bothering the hell out of me.
I plan on describing attacks as jiujutsu and krav maga style most of the time- nerve strikes, joint locks, throws, and crushing soft tissue attacks. I am imagining basically a robot version of RDJ's Sherlock Holmes, analytical and precise and able to anticipate an opponent's moves and react to them with almost supernatural speed. Of course I'll probably roll a bunch of single digits and look like a buffoon, cuz if there's anything D&D is good at, it's cutting your sweet character concept down to size just to spite you :P
But then I also think when the character engages "runic overdrive" they basically turn into an anime/luchador style fighter, much more flamboyant.
But like I said, we'll see what the game lets me get away with.
What are you thinking thematically for your battle master? Pit fighter/ gladiator maybe?
Yeah a huge part of the fun of Unarmed Fighting is describing the attacks for me. My character is more of a brawler/dirty fighting type though. The goal is to grab someone and beat the crap out of them. My character started out as an indentured servant/pit fighter on a pirate island. He served on a ship which was sunken by water elementals under the control of a Kraken. They imprisoned him along with others underwater where they were basically given less and less to survive, forcing them to fight for food and such, until only he was left alive. The water elementals then presented him to the Kraken and he became a (Lurker in the Deep) warlock. This happened pre-campaign. Just recently he made a deal with a Fey Goddess to break his pact with the Kraken for him, but now he owes her an unknown favor, as well as his "last breath". (Yeah, not good, I know lol.) Currently he is under the tutelage of a Battle Master/Master Smith while the rest of the party is participating in a sort of Kumite. He lost his Warlock magic, of course, but having been touched by the Kraken he retained the ability to use some magic. (He has a level in Sorcerer for this.) I homebrewed a Sorc subclass to go with his Battle Master levels so that he would maintain the flavor from the Lurker in the Deep a bit. It pretty much thematically lets him harness cold, pressure, and darkness of the deep sea to fight.
More than you asked for, I know, but I couldn't help myself.
That's extremely epic! What level are you starting at to cram all that in?
My character is going to be an experimental prototype warforged that incorporates a "rune engine" based on reverse engineered Jotun magitech, like a spherical rubik's cube in its chest that can shift to form the different rune symbols and invoke their powers. The lab they were being built in got raided during the war, and they have spent a decade in a crate in a warehouse, alone and motionless- until of course the adventuring party opens that crate... Now they want to know what happened to their Maker and why they were abandoned for so long. They know how to use weapons of course, but they don't need them because they *are* a weapon. But they also have no idea how to be a person, so they'll be learning that from the other party members- and I have no idea what lessons they will pick up, so that should be fun ;)
Hope your game is as dope as your character concept!
I love you character concept, it is so focused and well thought out. The Rubik's Cube is a beautiful idea and learning about being a person is a really cool RP opportunity. I'm assuming you guys are playing an Eberron campaign. Ours is a Baldur's Gate.
My character started off with two levels fighter and one level warlock. Got two more levels in warlock during the campaign dealing with having a Kraken for a patron. Right now he has basically reverted to a level three character temporarily.
Sounds cool! Yeah our game is set in Eberron, with a healthy dose of homebrew. We're starting in an original city called the Sapphire Carousel, and I have no idea what that means but it sounds baller. Baldur's Gate is... Forgotten Realms? Same setting as Neverwinter, right? I think that's where we were last campaign- Undermountain and all that. We sent the Mad Mage packing like a chump- we kind of accidentally ended up with a party extremely well suited to mage-murdering, so he didn't really stand a chance. Good times!
Anyway, the Warforged / Rune Knight / Unarmed Fighting build is, to be honest, pretty mechanically suboptimal, but I'm really going for theme over stats on this one, so I'm not worried about it. My last PC was a Bearbarian who was a pretty efficient murdermachine, so it'll be fun to explore the other end of the spectrum, and I can always explain any bad rolls as glitchy programming =P
Is there any reason I can’t add Unarmed Fighting Style for a Fighter when I create a new PC? I have playtest material checked on, and I can see other UA, just not the new fighting styles.
None of this content is on the site yet. No one knows when it will be.
Implementing the Variant Class Features UA requires a major overhaul of the entire DDB creation system. So we are all waiting patiently for them to reprogram 50% of their website for us.
Creating Epic Boons on DDB
DDB Buyers' Guide
Hardcovers, DDB & You
Content Troubleshooting
Actually with this wording, isnt it XXX+Str+1d4? XXX= w/e you have in hand? Bcs the way it is written it doesnt imply you have to use unarmed attack. So you can grapple one attack and then pull out your sword and slash them, while still getting that 1d4, if you have both hands free before the fight.
Ranger 3/Monk x is the real way to go with the Variant UA. Getting Colossus Slayer + Hunters Mark on each of those punches can really lay down some hurt round 2+. Ranger also actually became a fairly strong martial class and can get a movement buff or skill expertise as well.
Colossus slayer is once per turn only...not sure its worth the loss of level from Monk TBH.
Ranger 2 is worth it though.
If you look at the homebrew feats someone made the fighting style on there. to use it just add it to your character and dont select any fighting styles in the character editor as the feat is the fighting style
I love everything about this fighting style. i realy think a wrestler fighter subclass would be fun, but requiring you to have the unarmed fighting style. some things that would make it more thematic and unique is that wrestlers don't wear armor and a fighter without armor is looking to be squashed. Make it so they loose proficency with armor or some armor and maybe have some sort of unarmored defense or some way that they can survive longer like more hp as they can take a hit. On the line of prof loss maybe also restrict their weapons and then offer a way to do magic damage or ways to use their brute strength against foes larger than them. At this point it really tears the main class down at the reward that you fit a unique way of fighting that is fighting at its simplest
Doing some research i found a entire class that fits the bill and believe is what Wizards was trying to accomplish sort of with a fighting style instead of a full class. The Pugilist is a class that is a unarmed fighting class with things similar to the monk like Ki and monk weapons. think of a Str based monk with less mobility that when taking enough damage gets stronger the more damaged they receive and can swing wildly to do extra damage. Includes fun sublcasses that fits most cases. wrestlers, boxers, smart brawlers, Libre, pet subclass, and one that fights dirty and will insult everyone in the room to start a fight.
its on DMs guild and is Made by Benjamin Huffman and is an Adamantine best seller, right up there next to the Blood hunter. Check it out if you have the time, there is a free version and i think anyone who wants a different Unarmed fighting character should spread word of this existing
Was just about to make a new thread on homebrew for some changes I was looking at making to barbarian (and a couple of feats) based in the class feature variants that might be relevant to the last few posts.
1) Allow reckless attack to be switched out for fighting style (any of the the none class specialist ones), allows for a barbarian who has had more formal martial training rather than just hacking blindly. With unarmed feat also allows an armed/unarmoured martial character other than monk.
2) Include athletics and stealth as options for survival instincts, as they are appropriate skills for a hunter to have expertise in. Yes it allows to to get everything to dominate grappling in single class (apart from enlarge), but it is quite a limited facet to dominate and was easy enough to achieve through feats and multiclassing anyway.
Getting a bit broader in scope.
3) Alter tavern brawler to allow the bonus action grapple off any melee attack no reason why hitting someone with a table leg would let to grapple them but a club or claw wouldn't. Also if a character already has an unarmed die it increases by one size, makes it more relevant for monks and unarmed fighting style.
4) Grappler feat replace the pin mechanic with "allows a chacter to replace an attack with an athletics contest, if successful you can choose to apply the restrained or silenced condition to the opponent until the end of your next turn". Stops it eating away your whole action and takes away the negatives but due to eating an attack each turn makes it a bit more of a strategic choice to use it or not. Also allows martials the ability to do a stealthy take down of guards and makes them effective against casters if able to close the distance. Not sure if this is too powerful.
Also discovered a path of the sumo for barbarian that focuses on grappled and shoves and gives the unarmed strike dice increase like monk and the magic fists. It at the start counts you as a size larger for grapples and shoves. Later in while raging you count as an additional size larger for that and can throw grappled creatures