Thug

You are a thug, a bruiser, deadly in a brawl. Close range is your specialty. Daggers, long knives, short swords… even longswords. You've perfected the art of grabbing your foe and sticking something sharp where the armor doesn't cover. You've been in more scrapes than you can count and you've come out ahead, finding that when the enemy is in your grasp, their lives are measured in moments. Knight in shining armor with a greatsword? Let's see how they fare with that clumsy blade once the distance has been closed... Not so well, you think.

Close Combat

When you choose this archetype at 3rd level, you can attempt to grapple a creature using your Cunning Action, and you gain proficiency in the Athletics skill, if you do not already have it.

You have advantage grappling creatures the same size as you or smaller, and your movement is not halved when dragging those creatures.

You have advantage on melee weapon attacks against creatures you have grappled when attacking with a weapon with the light property, and you may draw a dagger, if you have one, as part of this attack.

You also immediately gain 3 hit points, and gain 1 additional hit point for every level in this subclass you take thereafter.

Strangle

At 3rd level, as an action you may attempt to strangle a creature you have grappled. To do so, you must win an athletics contest against the creature. When a creature is strangled, it is restrained and cannot speak, and at the end of its 4th turn being strangled, it becomes unconscious. Strangling a creature requires at least two hands or grasping appendages, and you may only strangle humanoids.

Bonus Proficiency

At 3rd level you gain proficiency with medium armor.

Up Close and Personal

At 9th level, your brutal attacks come twice as quickly and you have learned how to avoid damage when close to the enemy. When you take the attack action, you may attack twice.

Creatures grappled by you have disadvantage on attacks against you, and if a creature grappled by you attempts to cast a spell, you may use your reaction to make a melee attack against the creature to disrupt the spell. If the creature takes damage from your attack, it must succeed on a Concentration check to complete the casting, and if the creature fails the check, the spell fails.

Additionally, when you are hit by an attack by a creature you are not grappling, as a reaction you may redirect the attack onto a creature you are grappling by winning a grapple check against the grappled creature.

Take Them Out of the Fight

At 13th level, when a hostile creature takes damage on a turn other than your own, as a reaction, you may move up to half your speed to within 5 feet of the creature and make a melee attack against it. This movement does not provoke opportunity attacks.

Master Brawler

At 13th level you may also adopt a particular style of fighting as your specialty. Choose one of the following options. You can't take a Fighting Style option more than once, even if you later get to choose again.

Defense

While you are wearing armor, you gain a +1 bonus to AC.

Dueling

When you are wielding a melee weapon in one hand and no other weapons, you gain a +2 bonus to damage rolls with that weapon.

Two-Weapon Fighting

When you engage in two-weapon fighting, you can add your ability modifier to the damage of the second attack.

Brutal Reach

At 17th level, when you make a melee attack against a creature you have grappled, you may apply your sneak attack bonus to every attack.

Improved Strangle

At 17th level, creatures are now strangled at the end of their 3rd turn being strangled, and the following are the only creatures types you may not strangle: undead, constructs, aberrations, elementals, oozes, plants, and creatures two sizes larger than you. You also now only require one hand or grasping appendage to strangle, and may strangle as an attack, rather than an action.