Hi all been wanting to make a strength based brawler for a while, and while I have a barbarian/monk I hope to try in adventurers league, I would like to experiment with other builds in more casual games.
The biggest difficulty with existing classes seems to be the unarmoured options all relying heavily on dex, which while logical can make grappling builds quite mad. Secondly the boosts to unarmed damage are either tied up in the either attribute reliant monk class or a bit lacking in the form of certain races or tavern brawler.
The purpose of these feats is to open up new builds in a variety of classes without outshinning the features of existing classes. I'd be interested in hearing feedback, and assistance in balancing these.
Tweaked tavern brawler- same as existing but the grapple can be made as a bonus attack with out the pre-existing constraints of requiring a prior unarmed or improvised weapon strike. Cleans up the whole shove prone and grapple at early levels and also allows much more freedom to users, eg a bard casting silence or cloud of daggers then holding their victim with in it. Ideally I would also like the feat to give a bonus action unarmed attack for a damage increase as well as to me it feeling logical as you have atleast two weapons to fight with. I know some folk feel it treads on the monks toes to much but at the end of the day it doesn't scale up and you don't get flurry, so as long as it's not overpowered it feels right to me.
Tweaked grappler- the biggest issues appear to be action economy and too high downsides for restraining. Firstly I'd like the action to apply the restrained feat to a grappled opponent replace a single attack like a grapple attempt, allowing level 5 martials to grapple and and pin in a single turn. Secondly, I'd like to keep a risk reward pay off for the pin, but mellow it out a bit, therfore rather than giving you the restrained condition it merely gives u grappled opponents advantage on attacks against you and you disadvantage against them. However you still get advantage against the grappled opponent and he has disadvantage against you. The improvement over grapple/prone is advantage for your ranged allies and dex save disadvantage for your victim.
Unarmoured defence- to make it universality useful for classes make it either ac=13+proficiency or ac=13+con the first gives a higher max and doesn't rely on an attribute the second can max out much earlier in the game and encourages increased hp with an attribute that is useful to all classes. In either case it can't get as high as the monk or barbarian options and doesn't allow a shield like a barbarian nor can it get as high as a warforged. Not sure which way to go with this one.
Would be interested in people's opinions on these feats or there own solutions to opening up unarmoured/unarmed builds.
Oh another addition I'd forgotten, this time an item.
One issue with unarmed strikes is the inability to harm creatures immune to mundane damage, a lesser issue is that there to hit modifier can be poorer late game. One solution I've seen is a knuckle duster weapon which can come in magic varieties.
Knuckle duster--light, finesse, special d4 damage
Special- your hands count as empty allowing you to grapple or cast spells as if unarmed.
Based it on the dagger but switched the thrown property for it allowing you to count your hands as empty. Also can give an effective bonus attack with 2 weapon fighting and allow sneak attacks due to the light and finesse properties. Figured finesse to once again keep it universal and it seemed appropriate for a rogue, the sneak attack can be reasoned as catching them off guard due to its easily concealed nature.Wondering if that's a little too much though compared to an unarmed feat it does have the weakness of it being possible for you to be unarmed.
Be Warforged juggernaut barbarian with 1 level rogue for expertise in athletics. Just need 14 DEX. AC will be 15+proficiency shield optional. Unarmed attacks already 1d4.
Aye that works though in that case I prefer a human barbarian monk with prodigy as first asi for expertise, squishier due to it being difficult to get attributes for a high ac but better action economy and damage with the bonus attack/flurry.
The purposes of these feats are to allow effective unarmed/unarmoured builds with a variety of classes to open up some fun archetypes.
For example the the tavern brawler barbarian bard build for a over the top WWE character is really fun but a bit all over the place with rage conflicting with spells and being rather MAD. Hopefully these feats can allow a pure bard build that plays similarly (probably a little squishier) with out the conflicting stats and features.
Examples of other builds I'd like to try using these feats:
Pure battlemaster as a dirty fighting street brawler with high numbers of attacks and manouvers.
A subset of unarmed bladesingers (imagining it as a magical capoiera) sure bladesinger or bard with monk could give a similar feel but again the stats make it very MAD, these feats would hopefully make it playable but the lower damage die and max base ac stop it treading on the monks toes.
Using the knuckle dusters with rogue could make another street brawler style character by allowing free hands to grapple but a decent number of attacks and a damage die/platform for sneak attack and bonuses but hopefully wouldn't tread on the toes of the dual rapier wielding rogues due to the smaller damage die.
Trick is trying to make these feats effective enough for plausible builds without being too good.
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Hi all been wanting to make a strength based brawler for a while, and while I have a barbarian/monk I hope to try in adventurers league, I would like to experiment with other builds in more casual games.
The biggest difficulty with existing classes seems to be the unarmoured options all relying heavily on dex, which while logical can make grappling builds quite mad. Secondly the boosts to unarmed damage are either tied up in the either attribute reliant monk class or a bit lacking in the form of certain races or tavern brawler.
The purpose of these feats is to open up new builds in a variety of classes without outshinning the features of existing classes. I'd be interested in hearing feedback, and assistance in balancing these.
Tweaked tavern brawler- same as existing but the grapple can be made as a bonus attack with out the pre-existing constraints of requiring a prior unarmed or improvised weapon strike. Cleans up the whole shove prone and grapple at early levels and also allows much more freedom to users, eg a bard casting silence or cloud of daggers then holding their victim with in it. Ideally I would also like the feat to give a bonus action unarmed attack for a damage increase as well as to me it feeling logical as you have atleast two weapons to fight with. I know some folk feel it treads on the monks toes to much but at the end of the day it doesn't scale up and you don't get flurry, so as long as it's not overpowered it feels right to me.
Tweaked grappler- the biggest issues appear to be action economy and too high downsides for restraining. Firstly I'd like the action to apply the restrained feat to a grappled opponent replace a single attack like a grapple attempt, allowing level 5 martials to grapple and and pin in a single turn. Secondly, I'd like to keep a risk reward pay off for the pin, but mellow it out a bit, therfore rather than giving you the restrained condition it merely gives u grappled opponents advantage on attacks against you and you disadvantage against them. However you still get advantage against the grappled opponent and he has disadvantage against you. The improvement over grapple/prone is advantage for your ranged allies and dex save disadvantage for your victim.
Unarmoured defence- to make it universality useful for classes make it either ac=13+proficiency or ac=13+con the first gives a higher max and doesn't rely on an attribute the second can max out much earlier in the game and encourages increased hp with an attribute that is useful to all classes. In either case it can't get as high as the monk or barbarian options and doesn't allow a shield like a barbarian nor can it get as high as a warforged. Not sure which way to go with this one.
Would be interested in people's opinions on these feats or there own solutions to opening up unarmoured/unarmed builds.
Oh another addition I'd forgotten, this time an item.
One issue with unarmed strikes is the inability to harm creatures immune to mundane damage, a lesser issue is that there to hit modifier can be poorer late game. One solution I've seen is a knuckle duster weapon which can come in magic varieties.
Knuckle duster--light, finesse, special d4 damage
Special- your hands count as empty allowing you to grapple or cast spells as if unarmed.
Based it on the dagger but switched the thrown property for it allowing you to count your hands as empty. Also can give an effective bonus attack with 2 weapon fighting and allow sneak attacks due to the light and finesse properties. Figured finesse to once again keep it universal and it seemed appropriate for a rogue, the sneak attack can be reasoned as catching them off guard due to its easily concealed nature.Wondering if that's a little too much though compared to an unarmed feat it does have the weakness of it being possible for you to be unarmed.
Be Warforged juggernaut barbarian with 1 level rogue for expertise in athletics. Just need 14 DEX. AC will be 15+proficiency shield optional. Unarmed attacks already 1d4.
Aye that works though in that case I prefer a human barbarian monk with prodigy as first asi for expertise, squishier due to it being difficult to get attributes for a high ac but better action economy and damage with the bonus attack/flurry.
The purposes of these feats are to allow effective unarmed/unarmoured builds with a variety of classes to open up some fun archetypes.
For example the the tavern brawler barbarian bard build for a over the top WWE character is really fun but a bit all over the place with rage conflicting with spells and being rather MAD. Hopefully these feats can allow a pure bard build that plays similarly (probably a little squishier) with out the conflicting stats and features.
Examples of other builds I'd like to try using these feats:
Pure battlemaster as a dirty fighting street brawler with high numbers of attacks and manouvers.
A subset of unarmed bladesingers (imagining it as a magical capoiera) sure bladesinger or bard with monk could give a similar feel but again the stats make it very MAD, these feats would hopefully make it playable but the lower damage die and max base ac stop it treading on the monks toes.
Using the knuckle dusters with rogue could make another street brawler style character by allowing free hands to grapple but a decent number of attacks and a damage die/platform for sneak attack and bonuses but hopefully wouldn't tread on the toes of the dual rapier wielding rogues due to the smaller damage die.
Trick is trying to make these feats effective enough for plausible builds without being too good.