Hey, everyone! I homebrewed my first subclass recently (I've homebrewed before, but never completed anything). I was hoping to get some feedback before I posted it in the homebrew section. This started out as a conversion of the Brawler from Pathfinder, but after watching some favorite action movies of mine, I decided to add a little inspiration from a few of those, as well.
My goals for this subclass: to make a fighter straight out of an action movie that will still be able to fit into most one shots or campaigns. I tried to give as much original stuff as I could to this subclass, while adding my own extra flair. I think this could be a good parallel of the Monk class without this subclass outshining it. Enjoy! (Bonus points to anyone who gets the movie references I put in here).
Credit to KibblesTasty, NickLantz, and the Pathfinder developers. I took a lot of inspiration from these people. Check those Brawlers out!
(REMINDER: your unarmed attacks count as melee weapon attacks, so these can work with certain Battlemaster maneuvers).
An elven soldier is stranded from her weapons on a battlefield. Facing the enemy, she puts up her hands, ready to face them with what the gods gave her.
A Half-orc is drinking at a tavern with his party after a long and tumultuous adventure. After the rogue scams a card game, and knives come out, the half orc sighs, drains his beer, and grabs the stool he’s sitting on, walking over to protect his friend.
After kidnapping what seemed like an easy target, a local crime boss smirks, thinking to himself that the person he has captured in his basement will give up the location of their gold. After hearing a commotion come from his kitchen, he goes to investigate. His smirk drops as he sees his captive, armorless and unarmed, standing over the unconscious bodies of his thugs, blood dripping from their wounds and hands clenched into fists.
Brawlers are the kinds of fighters that don’t know when to quit, the kinds of adventurers who stare a barbarian down and throw their sword to the side, cracking their knuckles. When it gets down to it, as long as the other person is crumpled and bleeding, who cares if it was from a punch or a sword, a rock or a dagger? Either way, the job is getting done.
Three Men In A Bar
At 3rd level, you gain proficiency in improvised weapons. Additionally, the damage for your Unarmed attacks is now 1d6. This goes up to 1d8 at 5th level, 1d10 at 11th level, and 1d12 at 17th level.
Flow and Crash
Additionally at 3rd level, at the end of a long rest, you may replace one fighting style you have with another from the Fighter Fighting Style list.
If Archery is chosen, you can add +2 to attack rolls you make while throwing a weapon. This only applies to simple or martial weapons with the thrown property, as well as light improvised weapons that you have thrown with an Attack action (a fist sized rock, a tree branch, a chair, etc).
Don’t Need It
Beginning at 3rd level, while you are wearing no armor and not wielding a shield, your AC equals 10 + your Strength modifier + your Constitution modifier.
That All You Got?
At 7th level, you can attempt to shrug off some of the damage you take from melee attacks. If a creature hits you with a melee attack that deals bludgeoning, piercing, or slashing damage, you can use your reaction to reduce the damage by 1d10+your Constitution modifier (minimum of 1)+your Fighter Level. You can use this feature a number of times equal to your Constitution modifier, you regain all uses after a long rest.
If you reduce the damage from an attack this way to 0 damage, you may make an unarmed strike or improvised weapon attack as part of the same reaction.
Keep ‘em Busy
At 10th level, if you have hit a creature with an unarmed strike, you may use a bonus action to make a ranged improvised weapon attack or a thrown weapon attack against another creature that is within 20 feet of you. If the attack hits this creature, they must make a Constitution saving throw or be subjected to either the blinded or stunned conditions (your choice when you make this attack) until the start of your next turn. The DC for this saving throw equals 8+your PB+your Strength modifier (minimum of 1).
Additionally, at 10th level, your improvised weapon damage goes up to a minimum of 1d6.
FUN FLAVOR: feel free to have your Brawler kick up a rock or bottle or branch when they make this attack, or maybe slide a stool across the ground to hit their enemy in the legs.
Let’s Do This Quick
Additionally, at 10th level, you can attempt to break an improvised weapon on someone. If you hit with an improvised weapon attack, you can choose to break the weapon on the creature you’re attacking, dealing maximum damage on the appropriate dice, as well as adding your PB and Strength modifiers. However, the weapon breaks and is unusable. You can use this feature a number of times equal to your Strength modifier, per long rest.
Additional Fighting Style
At 15th level, you can take another fighting style from the Fighter Fighting Style list. However, you can only change one fighting style per long rest with Flow and Crash.
Additionally, you range for Keep ‘em Busy extends to 30 feet.
Got It Covered
At 18th level, you can make two thrown improvised weapon attacks or thrown simple or martial weapon attacks as part of the bonus action of Keep ‘em Busy. These must be against two separate creatures of your choice.
Additionally, at 18th level, your improvised weapon damage goes up to a minimum of 1d8.
Like a Ghost
Also, at 18th level you gain advantage on Constitution checks and saving throws.
You can also gain advantage on one death saving throw per day.
I personally love the subclass and have been looking for something similar to it for a while. Couple notes
The stunned condition is crazy to put out as a bonus action I would recommend something like the target’s speed being reduced to 0 as well as them having disadvantage on attack rolls.
The 3rd level features are almost all intruding on other classes territory. I see no reason why a tavern brawler should be discouraged from wearing armor especially when we already have the monk which has unarmored defense and also makes a lot of unarmed attacks. I would also reduce the die for unarmed attacks to start at a d4 up to a d10 to once again distance itself from the monk and to further encourage constantly finding improvised weapons rather than just using their bare hands. Furthermore changing up the progression to line up with less eventful levels would probably be best. For example at 5th and 11th levels fighter are already getting extra attacks then at 17th level they are getting both their 2nd action surge and 3rd indomitable. I like the idea of putting them on 6th, 12th, and 18th.
Additionally the flow and crash feature is simply off in a subclass like this. Most players only need one fighting style for a build and stick to that one, furthermore if you are constantly switching between improvised weapons the fighting style you picked that morning probably won’t work with the new barstool you just picked up. This is a tricky problem since it is such an integral part of the class. I would modify it to one of two things: equipping a weapon is now a bonus action, in addition as part of the same bonus action you may choose to replace one of your current fighting style with a new one. OR pull from WOTCs take in the archetype in 2024 and allow for the player to pick one weapon mastery to assign to each one handed improvised weapon used that day that can be applied after each attack with no action, and an additional mastery for all two handed improvised weapons used that day. In addition to this all one handed improvised weapons gain a thrown weapon range of 20/60. Two handed improvised weapons gain a thrown weapon range of 10/30.
This change leaves the question of what happens to the ”don’t need it” feature at level 3 and the additional fighting style feature at level 15. I would move the “let’s do this quick” feature down to level 3 to avoid overpacking level 10 since “keep em’ busy” is already so powerful. I would switch additional fighting style with another feature entirely (excluding the “keep em’ busy” range boost). I thought up a feature called sucker punch which gives you advantage on attack rolls against creatures that are unaware of you or have been hit with a melee weapon attack since your last turn.
No matter what it is vital that you add the trait. At 3rd level improvised weapons can be picked up, equipped, and switched to as a bonus action, in addition you gain proficiency with improvised weapons.
Hey, everyone! I homebrewed my first subclass recently (I've homebrewed before, but never completed anything). I was hoping to get some feedback before I posted it in the homebrew section. This started out as a conversion of the Brawler from Pathfinder, but after watching some favorite action movies of mine, I decided to add a little inspiration from a few of those, as well.
My goals for this subclass: to make a fighter straight out of an action movie that will still be able to fit into most one shots or campaigns. I tried to give as much original stuff as I could to this subclass, while adding my own extra flair. I think this could be a good parallel of the Monk class without this subclass outshining it. Enjoy! (Bonus points to anyone who gets the movie references I put in here).
Credit to KibblesTasty, NickLantz, and the Pathfinder developers. I took a lot of inspiration from these people. Check those Brawlers out!
(REMINDER: your unarmed attacks count as melee weapon attacks, so these can work with certain Battlemaster maneuvers).
An elven soldier is stranded from her weapons on a battlefield. Facing the enemy, she puts up her hands, ready to face them with what the gods gave her.
A Half-orc is drinking at a tavern with his party after a long and tumultuous adventure. After the rogue scams a card game, and knives come out, the half orc sighs, drains his beer, and grabs the stool he’s sitting on, walking over to protect his friend.
After kidnapping what seemed like an easy target, a local crime boss smirks, thinking to himself that the person he has captured in his basement will give up the location of their gold. After hearing a commotion come from his kitchen, he goes to investigate. His smirk drops as he sees his captive, armorless and unarmed, standing over the unconscious bodies of his thugs, blood dripping from their wounds and hands clenched into fists.
Brawlers are the kinds of fighters that don’t know when to quit, the kinds of adventurers who stare a barbarian down and throw their sword to the side, cracking their knuckles. When it gets down to it, as long as the other person is crumpled and bleeding, who cares if it was from a punch or a sword, a rock or a dagger? Either way, the job is getting done.
Three Men In A Bar
Flow and Crash
Don’t Need It
That All You Got?
Keep ‘em Busy
Let’s Do This Quick
Additional Fighting Style
Got It Covered
Like a Ghost
I personally love the subclass and have been looking for something similar to it for a while. Couple notes
The stunned condition is crazy to put out as a bonus action I would recommend something like the target’s speed being reduced to 0 as well as them having disadvantage on attack rolls.
The 3rd level features are almost all intruding on other classes territory. I see no reason why a tavern brawler should be discouraged from wearing armor especially when we already have the monk which has unarmored defense and also makes a lot of unarmed attacks. I would also reduce the die for unarmed attacks to start at a d4 up to a d10 to once again distance itself from the monk and to further encourage constantly finding improvised weapons rather than just using their bare hands. Furthermore changing up the progression to line up with less eventful levels would probably be best. For example at 5th and 11th levels fighter are already getting extra attacks then at 17th level they are getting both their 2nd action surge and 3rd indomitable. I like the idea of putting them on 6th, 12th, and 18th.
Additionally the flow and crash feature is simply off in a subclass like this. Most players only need one fighting style for a build and stick to that one, furthermore if you are constantly switching between improvised weapons the fighting style you picked that morning probably won’t work with the new barstool you just picked up. This is a tricky problem since it is such an integral part of the class. I would modify it to one of two things: equipping a weapon is now a bonus action, in addition as part of the same bonus action you may choose to replace one of your current fighting style with a new one. OR pull from WOTCs take in the archetype in 2024 and allow for the player to pick one weapon mastery to assign to each one handed improvised weapon used that day that can be applied after each attack with no action, and an additional mastery for all two handed improvised weapons used that day. In addition to this all one handed improvised weapons gain a thrown weapon range of 20/60. Two handed improvised weapons gain a thrown weapon range of 10/30.
This change leaves the question of what happens to the ”don’t need it” feature at level 3 and the additional fighting style feature at level 15. I would move the “let’s do this quick” feature down to level 3 to avoid overpacking level 10 since “keep em’ busy” is already so powerful. I would switch additional fighting style with another feature entirely (excluding the “keep em’ busy” range boost). I thought up a feature called sucker punch which gives you advantage on attack rolls against creatures that are unaware of you or have been hit with a melee weapon attack since your last turn.
No matter what it is vital that you add the trait. At 3rd level improvised weapons can be picked up, equipped, and switched to as a bonus action, in addition you gain proficiency with improvised weapons.