had a character in my pocket that I've been waiting to play in a suitable game, quite a silly theme and uses UA. Was originally deugar monk/barbarian, the idea being he was raised as an orphan in a dwarven monastery that pays homage to the gods by re-enacting their stories/battles/feats. Was going to have him on a pilgrimage, performing/wrestling to spread the faith/raise funds for the orphanage (a'la Fray Tormenta).
The new UA has changed things up for this character with the new fighting styles, manouveres and bard spells. I'm now looking at barbarian 1 for unarmoured defence and a couple of rages for tougher fights against large or smaller opponents, and battle master 5 for extra attack, unarmed fighting style and manouveres, specifically restraining strike, but others such as disarming strike and riposte will be handy. After this I'm looking at lore bard for vicious mockery/cutting words for the rp it will offer along with something to do to those I can't punch/grapple, expertise in athletics (looking at using performance, intimidation and religion for the others, not optimised but seem character appropriate), and the enlarge spell for huge creatures/running out of rages.
Doesn't come completely online till quite late at level 9 but I think it will be useful up till then. Just not sure what the end game split should be, more battlemaster (for more/better superiority dice and attacks) or more bard (for more spells/inspiration). Or even stop battle master at 3/4and take more barbarian for extra movement and more/better rages.
Also not used casters much so struggling with picking effective/thematically appropriate spells, so help here would be great, looking at these so far:
Vicious mockery-- for smack taking and something to do at range.
Minor illusion/dancing lights- stage effects
Skywrite/magic mouth- advertising matches
Enlarge- grappling huge creatures/advantage when out of rages
Polymorph- a bit out of theme (maybe fluff it as getting REALLY BIG, giant ape form to wrestle anything.
The 3 things this build need the most is natural armor or unarmored defense, unarmed fighting style, expertise in athletics.
You can get these 3 things and a few spells as early as level 5 (fighter 1, barbarian 1, lore bard 3), then go back into fighter levels to get battle master and extra attack.
Aye, wasn't sure if I was better to get the battlemaster and extra attack first or the bard dip. Figured it was better to get battlemaster first due to restraining strike being so much better than an ordinary prone/grapple in terms of Acton economy and not giving ranged allies disadvantage, also I could get the expertise if struggling to succeed with the grappling at level 4 with a feat.
You do have a point though, and the bard component is pretty important to the "feel" of the character.
Also just realised polymorph might not be as great as I first thought. To used to playing moon druid, hadn't realised I loose features as well as stats, so no expertise in athletics, restraining strike or con save proficiency as a giant ape :(
You can also get the tavern brawler feat to bonus action grapple to help with action economy, but you wouldn't need it as much with combat maneuvers and unarmed fighting style.
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had a character in my pocket that I've been waiting to play in a suitable game, quite a silly theme and uses UA. Was originally deugar monk/barbarian, the idea being he was raised as an orphan in a dwarven monastery that pays homage to the gods by re-enacting their stories/battles/feats. Was going to have him on a pilgrimage, performing/wrestling to spread the faith/raise funds for the orphanage (a'la Fray Tormenta).
The new UA has changed things up for this character with the new fighting styles, manouveres and bard spells. I'm now looking at barbarian 1 for unarmoured defence and a couple of rages for tougher fights against large or smaller opponents, and battle master 5 for extra attack, unarmed fighting style and manouveres, specifically restraining strike, but others such as disarming strike and riposte will be handy. After this I'm looking at lore bard for vicious mockery/cutting words for the rp it will offer along with something to do to those I can't punch/grapple, expertise in athletics (looking at using performance, intimidation and religion for the others, not optimised but seem character appropriate), and the enlarge spell for huge creatures/running out of rages.
Doesn't come completely online till quite late at level 9 but I think it will be useful up till then. Just not sure what the end game split should be, more battlemaster (for more/better superiority dice and attacks) or more bard (for more spells/inspiration). Or even stop battle master at 3/4and take more barbarian for extra movement and more/better rages.
Also not used casters much so struggling with picking effective/thematically appropriate spells, so help here would be great, looking at these so far:
Vicious mockery-- for smack taking and something to do at range.
Minor illusion/dancing lights- stage effects
Skywrite/magic mouth- advertising matches
Enlarge- grappling huge creatures/advantage when out of rages
Polymorph- a bit out of theme (maybe fluff it as getting REALLY BIG, giant ape form to wrestle anything.
Counterspell (magical secrets) - smack talk casters
Jump (magical secrets) - acrobatics, maybe even grapple&jump for fall damage and prone when out of manouvers/if dm allows
Silence--out of theme, but used with action surge for trapping mages/silent takedown of sentries.
Any feed back or people's ideas building a character (improving rp or mechanics) on this theme would be great
The 3 things this build need the most is natural armor or unarmored defense, unarmed fighting style, expertise in athletics.
You can get these 3 things and a few spells as early as level 5 (fighter 1, barbarian 1, lore bard 3), then go back into fighter levels to get battle master and extra attack.
Aye, wasn't sure if I was better to get the battlemaster and extra attack first or the bard dip. Figured it was better to get battlemaster first due to restraining strike being so much better than an ordinary prone/grapple in terms of Acton economy and not giving ranged allies disadvantage, also I could get the expertise if struggling to succeed with the grappling at level 4 with a feat.
You do have a point though, and the bard component is pretty important to the "feel" of the character.
Also just realised polymorph might not be as great as I first thought. To used to playing moon druid, hadn't realised I loose features as well as stats, so no expertise in athletics, restraining strike or con save proficiency as a giant ape :(
You can also get the tavern brawler feat to bonus action grapple to help with action economy, but you wouldn't need it as much with combat maneuvers and unarmed fighting style.