I was curious where you were going to end up with this build. "It ain't about how hard you hit, it's about how hard you can get hit and keep moving forward", I think this is about as good as you can get. Adding some extra dice and some base attack damage. Thanks for the plug by the way!
@@DnDDeepDive I thought I read somewhere that you only get the feature of your unarmored defense from the "first" time you gain the feature. It has been a while since I looked into it but I am fairly certain that is how the rules read.
One thing I meant to discuss and forgot so will put it here: what about Expertise!? It's true: finding a way to get Expertise in Athletics would increase your grappling prowess significantly. I was trying to stretch our DPR with this character but you should definitely consider trying to work Expertise into the build somehow. For me it would either be via the Skill Expert feat (and if I went that route, I'd *probably* start Custom Lineage so I could get that feat and start with an 18 Strength) *or* take one level of Ranger along the way for Canny, which is basically Expertise. ALSO! Errata: You cannot get Unarmed Defense from Barb if you already got it from Monk as per RAW (I sometimes forget that you don't get to choose one or the other). Thus, with this version of the build you'd be best off starting Barb.
For expertise I think I would get one level of rogue. Then try to talk my DM into allow my Fists to light finesse weapons to add sneak attack. It is só stupid that they are not.
I ended up taking a dip in Rogue for the Extra Skill Proficiencies and Expertise in Athletics + Intimidation/Persuasion (mainly cause of the way I wanted to play this character). But yeah, having that Expertise in Athletics is pretty fun, I've done some very bonkers things! Also, having advantage on Grappling is... just icing on the cake; couple that with a few random Homebrewed Feats that a DM had on hand (they uhhh.... kinda make this Grappler extremely unfair).... I think just having an Eldritch Claw Tattoo is currently sufficient for my Magical Bonus lol. Overall though, nice Unarmed Fighter build! Mine is moreso with Plate Armor cause why not have a Soldier who's there to kick some ass with their bare hands, feet, etc! Also a female character, she's 'built different' as my friends say lol xD P.S: I may not be subscribed, BUT... if I can recommend an idea, try looking at Rin Tohsaka from Fate/Stay Night: Unlimited Blade Works! Look at how she can fight CQC (Unarmed Fighting) and use Magic to buff herself/deal insane fun damage xD I'll leave it up to you in terms of how you'd build this character, or if you want an idea on how to do so and maybe do a Viewer D&D Optimized Build, I'll offer myself as tribute for the first one to do it as a Guinea Pig xD
@@dienezdarcprowlyr9406 I'd try and convince the DM into doing that IF I mutliclassed Rogue and Monk. They might try to turn it into a Feat instead, but could turn it into a Half-Feat with the +1 ASI to Dex.
One more little issue with the tactical options around 27:50 (levels 2-6 so pre-Extra Attack). If you use your Action to Grapple, the monk with Martial Arts unfortunately cannot do a BA unarmed strike. The BA attack is enabled by using the Attack action with an unarmed strike or monk weapon. Not a huge deal. Does help the case for Tavern Brawler and/or cutting the monk entirely for anyone interested/disinterested in those...inhumane routes. Monks are people too.
My friend was playing in a ToA game and they were playing a Rune Knight with the unarmed fighting style, and they were highly consistent. I also got them an Eldritch Claw tattoo so they would have a 'magic weapon'. They had that tattoo all the way to the end (the end being a sidequest into the Nine Hells to get a wish from a Dao) They punched a Demon Lord in the face, it was epic.
@@jacopoolivari5484 god that sounds fun, but on the other hand, my brain is imagining if you played just some pissed off halfling lol, hope it continues to be absolutely rad as hell
When I played Rise of Tiamat, I thought "well... one big problem when fighting dragons is that they can flyby over our heads breathing tons of damage on us. What if they coudn't fly away anymore?" So I did a Goliath Rune Knight/ Divine Soul who could increase to Huge size (giant might + enlarge), teleport to the sky (thunderstep) and action surge to grapple
Can we just take a moment to appreciate the commitment with the make up on the thumbnail!? Also I’ve been working on a similar concept to this but a duo with a Bard being like a wrestler and their entourage. This will for sure help me work it!
@@guitarplayerJeiky I would love to see that, it sounds like a lot of fun. I wonder of your dm would let the bard use a bullhorn as their musical instrument and spellcasting focus? Lol
One cool alternative for the race would be the Bugbear if you can manage to get high enough stats. The extra reach and once per combat damage could give this character a role similar to a polearm master build if you take sentinel
I played a strength based pugilist/grappler and I was actually surprised at how effective (and incredibly fun) it was. I didn't take a monk level - instead I took tavern brawler to gain a bonus action grapple. Once I had my extra attack my first round was typically to shove prone the enemy with my first attack, do an unarmed strike with my second, and then grapple with the bonus action. That worked really well and I would typically lock down the toughest looking opponent in most fights. After having that set-up and working I took skill expert with my next ASI to get expertise in athletics.
When I dmed for a monk i gave him basically martial arts wrappings that increased his martial arts die by 1 since it maxes at d10. we made it a d12 and his damage felt really good imo
@@davidsweet5094 it is probably my fault trying to do multiple things at once. I will check the video & apply the correction. Noting if it is a mistake in the video.
I think I would rather take the last level on monk to unlock ki features. It would be cool thematically, something like "after all your travels, adventures and fights you came back from were you began and understood the way of your first master to unlock the power within". And mechanically that would give you 2 uses of flurry of blows per short rest that you could use in the same turn as action surge, make 8 attacks and feel like a Street Fighter character using a Special Move. As always, amazing show. Thank you so much for all your work.
Something that would help your survivability is the fact that a prone enemy has disadvantage on attacks. So that grappled&prone enemy would have a harder time hitting you
Don't comment often in videos since YT comment section is a bit intimidating for me haha,; however, I have really wanted to express that I have been watching your channel since I first came across your Beast Master 2.0 video, and each video is still a blast to watch. Thanks for all the thought and work you put into every video! :)
Since we want to start as a barbarian anyway for the unarmored defense, I wonder how this build would perform if you went berserker barbarian for the extra attack as a bonus action and omit monk entirely. I know that this would delay our fighter levels, but that might be the way to easily squeeze in another class for expertise.
First! Really excited for this build btw. Also, before I forget: I was playing an artillarist artificer yesterday, and I found out the protector turret, when combined with a raging barbarian, is incredibly effective and makes your frontline even more tanky then before. This gave me an idea: how would you go about creating a two-person build (like the wolf & coyote, battery & blender, etc) but instead of building for damage, you build to make these two characters, when paired together, basically unkillable. Just a thought.
One thing I really like about your channel is that you make personal requests for support, rather than using pre-recorded ads that you insert into every video. 👍🏻
The "redundancy" between the rune and rage (advantage on strength stuff, resist some damage) isn't a bad thing. There are plenty of games where you might run out of rages. Perfect time to invoke those runes!
Build Suggestion: "The Spellblade," featuring Charisma x 3 to every attack Race: technically anything with martial weapon proficiencies as of Tasha's, swap something out for a rapier Stats: prioritize Dex, then Cha, then Con Draconic Sorcerer 6. Pick up Green-Flame Blade, a fire-type dragon ancestor, and Quickened Spell. Celestial Warlock 12. Pick up Pact of the Blade and Lifedrinker. Fill out the last two levels with either Sorcerer or i guess Paladin? Result: You can Green-Flame Blade + Quickened Green-Flame Blade every turn for 2d8 + 10 + 6d8 + 30 damage, you have AC equal to plate armor due to Draconic, and you're still a fullcaster. ... You run out of gas after 3-4 turns though.
Here is my brawler build and he works great. 3. Lvls in Barbarian, Bear Totem. 17 lvls in Fighter Battle master with unarmed combat as your fighting style. You can hit three times a round, access to action surge twice. You can use your maneuvers to do sick combat stuff to control the battlefield using your abilities. While your rage lets you take half damage from almost everything so your in the fight for a while. Take the tough feat for extra HP. Then take the sentinel feat. After that just ASI as needed.
One idea I had for this build. If you roll for stats and you get a bit lucky, it would be really cool to go loxodon for the race, because you don't need to invest as heavily into dexterity, and you can grapple 3 people at once.
I'm a big fan of the character, The Goon, who punches the undead and other eldritch horrors out for a living. Wanted to build a 5e inspired character for a long time. This is dope
I played a character like this. He was a russian pit fighter, specialized in grapples and battlefield control as fighter. Yep, I'm kinda insane, but it was really fun
Man I really gotta start actually doing my ideas. I was JUST thinking about how to optimize the unarmed strikes fighting style, and here you are doing it before I get the chance. Not gonna lie, it feels like I'm spoiling it for myself so I don't get the chance to figure it out, but your builds always end up better than mine anyways.
I say go for it still Caleb! If you want to you can customize Colbys' build, or just go ahead with your own ideas. You could try doing variants as well, like purposely taking no monk levels while still trying to maximize unarmed fighting, or focusing your build around a different race. In any case you should definitely give it a shot :)
When you spoke of wanting to grapple and fight unarmed, I figured you'd do a duergar rune knight. That way you can use the rune knight ability to become large then enlarge/reduce on yourself to become huge and grapple pretty much anything Edit: Well, I kept watching and I see you went Rune Knight after all lol
I think the ‘not a monk’ preference was to avoid the no armour restriction which you can’t avoid if you want the extra bonus attack. 6 lvls in beast barbarian might work and be on point for that inner rage you talked about when explaining why they were with the monks in the first place?
Right - I seriously considered Beat Barb for a long time but ultimately decided against just because I was really wanting like, an MMA puncher and not so much a Werewolf/Slasher, ya know? Obviously it'd be a strong option, but especially as the claws are technically considered weapons, it just didn't feel quite right, thematically.
12:13 if you stretch some logic. Since beast barbarians claws are treated as simple weapons so that there is no confusion if it works with rage, if you’ve got the dual wielder feat you can two weapon fighting using the claws option which will give you a free attack as part of the attack action and the bonus attack just without the damage modifier but still the rage modifier.
If you wanna be more of a striker type but don't wanna leave out the grappling, it's worth keeping in mind that conceptually, grappling doesn't have to mean suplexes, ground positions or joint locks - it could just be something as simple as an ear grab while you throw elbows, or a single collar tie for your knee strikes to connect to. Any kind of entanglement at all can be what grappling is. You don't have to be greek or roman! :)
@@shinystars2475 yep, exactly! Clinches just like I said with the ear grab or single collar tie. All sorts of options. You probably mean the thai plumb? You could also do a half nelson or grovit, or the old pit hook if you're a bit to the side of them. Even a leg vine can still be a standing option. Hair grab, pie face or goozle for the rougher sorts maybe. Or hell just a shirt bunch why not. Plenty of options for a controlled target to be striking at, even if you're not intending to go to the ground. I mean if you really wanna go conceptual, you could reasonably have just a stream of accurate jabs behave as a grapple, so long as you're using them to control rather than do damage (as is, after all, the typical use). Even just that functionally behaves as a kind of tie-up.
@d4: D&D Deep Dive I know you've been talking about a spirit guardian build and I think I got one for ya 3 lvls Rune Knight Fighter for Giants Might 6 lvls of Lore Bard for expertise in Athletics and Magical Secrets grabbing Spirit Guardians and Spiritual Weapon. Pick up the feats Warcaster (keeps Spirit Guardians up) and Telekinesis (keeps ppl in your Spirit Guardians range) Extra 2 lvls of fighter get you a second grappled target. Bugbear for the extra reach? Also love the mental image of a Giant's Mighted Bugbear casting Spirit Guardians and running (in full plate armour) into the middle of the battlefield action surging to grapple someone and lifting them off the ground. And maybe your little goblin rogue friend has spider climb and is on your back that whole time taking snap shots when the opportunity arises.
I was just messing around with a similar build the other day. I chose Leonin and went more into Mercy Monk. I ended up with slightly less dpr, but I was able to Stun, Grapple, cause fear, and poison.
I think a really strong base for an "anti-monk" build would be 1 Monk/2 Rogue/x Fighter (and some Barbarian if you are going Strength like you did). Monk for Unarmored Defense and Martials Arts. Rogue for Cunning Action (and Expertise in Athletics if grappling). Fighter for Unarmed Fighting Style. I think right at level 4 you will feel similar-ish to a Monk, but your numbers across the board should be better.
I know you usually build characters for a whole campaign, and I really enjoy that! A one-shot character I'd made definitely didn't have that in mind, but with a rune knight and a sorcerer dip to get enlarge/reduce I made a grappler bugbear who got large enough to grapple an gargantuan dragon (homebrew young tiamat)! We had to check the rules because it surprised all of us, but legendary resistance won't help on the check to contest a grapple. Very fun to pin a dragon for multiple rounds.
At lvl 3, I swapped the 2nd level of barbarian for rogue before going fighter. I think a 1-level dip into rogue is worth the expertise in athletics (grappling). Not to mention getting proficiency and expertise in perception or whatever you want, plus thieves tools. If the DM allows sneak attack with unarmed, that would be a nice bonus.
Nice!!! Mine is a level 5 Hunter (colosssus slayer) Ranger STR20 with unarmed fighting style feat, so he give some heavy punches with Hunter's Mark and the other features. (one punch can make 27 damage)
I had an accidental pugilist. I went with bladesinger, which has great AC. I took three levels of Fighter for Echo Knight and took the unarmed fighting style. Then I got the Touch of Death -- Dark Gift. and with Booming Blade / Green Flame Blade this made a really good unarmed fighter. I didn't have the Blood Fury Tattoo, but that would have really topped things off.
I really like this idea and as soon as you said you wanted to go for consistent damage, I figured Rune Knight. But I made a few changes that kinda has the same feel but maybe a bit higher damage overall (I haven't run the numbers.😅) instead of mountain Dwarf I went Harengon to make up for my low Dex that a Monk would have both for AC and the reaction saving throw boost. The Jump is good for engaging or disengaging. And instead of Rune Knight I took Battle Master with Trip Attack, Brace, and Grappling Strike everything else is virtually the same. I would recommend starting off with 3 levels in Fighter first and using Chain Mail for your AC at first then dip in to Monk and then Barb for the bonus action attack, rage, and Unarmed Defense. Then you choice is grabbing another level in Barb or push fighter for extra attack
Hey Colby! Great Video!!! I'm never disappointed by your character builds. I have a request/suggestion for some future builds. It could be really neat to see some sort of mini series or perhaps just a special episode discussing the best options for solo class builds. such as what would be the best solo fighter, or solo druid etc... My D and D group is a bit hesitant on allowing multi-classing but I still love to optimize :D
Funny, I was thinking of this as a top laner in League the entire time I was listening to the video! I also haven't played much in a long time, but the memories are always there. Great content, thanks for your work :)
I think a good alternative for this type of build (though maybe a bit thematically different) would be either going Beasthide Shifter, giving you a +2 to con and a +1 to str, the ability to shift which gives extra temporary hit points and a +1 increase to AC all of which help the build, or Longtooth Shifter removing the level in Monk as it gives you a bonus bite attack and still some extra hit points (so either more survivability or more damage). I would also go for Path of the Beast Barbarian giving still giving rage etc.. but also ways to defend yourself more and make you far tankier with the tail and bite options (the claw option also lets you do more attacks but that is only a d6 unless your DM lets you still use the d8s from your fighting style), it also fixes the resistance to non-magical weapons if you keep going all the way to level 6 (however if again the DM lets use d8s instead of d6s I would go all they way to level 6).
I love this idea! If it were me, I'd probably skip the first level in Monk (unless you gotta have that story element) because if we consider a fighter with unarmed fighting style being able to utilize all their appendages as weapons (which I do as a DM, your mileage may vary) then we should be able to consider their bonus action as a viable "light weapon attack" since their appendages are unweighted. Plus you can wear chainmail, so your AC ends up being higher anyway (all the street fighters who like living wear armor). So you start out as an angry dwarf with no axe at hand, but with two doughty fists at level 1. I love the monk but I can't take that first monk level.
Older editions had the cestus that you could use as a weapon, I feel like it should exist in 5e. You're still using your fists, but it's also a weapon which can be magical. I mean, it's not like a pair of magical brass knucles would break the game.
@@hayleykaye1751 I am doing builds for Godzilla and Anguirus as PC's that are hunting down a golden hydra. I really want them to be brawler types. Not OP, just super fun.
Watched this earlier today, and when I clicked on it I thought “this is going to be great for the character concept my friend and I discussed the other day.” It’s doubtlessly an effective build, but… there’s a certain part that runs me the wrong way. You set out at the start to make a street brawler that wasn’t a monk and, implied by the nature of brawling pugilism, wasn’t a caster. The one level of monk was honestly fine, whole heartedly agreed that getting the martial arts benefits was a necessity. But then most the abilities you have are legitimately magic in nature. Rune magic, Zealot damage boost, doesn’t matter still magic. Something about that makes it feel like this isn’t a street brawler at all anymore. . . . . . . . . Because I want to share the concept my friend and I talked about: “pretty and refined/classy Noblewoman who is an unarmed terror on the battlefield. She will cave your skull in with your own ripped off arm if you’re not careful when fighting her.”
A couple spell tattoos can really help out a build like this. Barrier tattoo and Eldritch claw tattoo in particular. As a DM I would probably be inclined to let somebody have them if was was to bring a cool character concept more in-line with optimized characters.
12:03 "...There's no way [snip] to get an attack with your fists as a bonus action outside of being a monk..." I, too, might be wrong, but I think that's true. However! If you want an *unarmed strike* as a bonus action, there are a few ways to go about it. 1) It's possible with the Longtooth Shifter race from the 'Eberron - Rising from the Last War' sourcebook. It's only available while you're "shifting" - a kind of like a "Rage lite" feature available to use once between rests, short or long, lasting up to a minute. 2) The centaur can do it with their hooves after a charging attack, which in turn requires the character to move 30 ft in a straight line before it. 3) The minotaur (Theros, Ravnica, Amonkhet) can use their horns to make a bonus attack unarmed strike as a Goring Rush, but that requires taking a dash action and moving 20 ft - although, that movement doesn't need to be in a line. So, even in melee already, you could walk to the other side of your target never leaving the threatened squares, and still have 40 ft movement left for the round. It's not great, but it's possible. Note that you should ask if your DM considers centaur hooves and minotaur horns "weapons" that still make unarmed attacks or not. "Weapons" can be blessed, normal unarmed attacks can't, unless specifically mentioned by the type of blessing feature. In addition, some features require an attack made "with a weapon" - regardless of whether those weapons make unarmed strikes or normal weapon attacks. (Unarmed strikes are a special type of weapon attack, as "weapon attack" just means "not a spell attack") Regardless, each of the above are considered "unarmed strikes". A special note, the Viashino Race from UA53 - Races of Ravnica has access to an unarmed strike as a reaction to an enemy dealing damage to you. If your build wants plenty of unarmed attacks, that's a pretty unique option.
I am currently playing a Rune Knight/Barbarian/with one level of Druid. I know that doesn't make a lot of sense, but he makes his living as a charter fisherman and does pit fighting in his spare time. The druid is to have Druidcraft to know the weather for the next day's fishing, and Guidance to give his charter customers a little edge on their survival checks. Also, he uses Goodberry and create water to make sure they never starve or die of thirst when at sea, so though it isn't that important... (though having Jump for combat is awesome with this build) having that one level of Druid adds a lot of flavor to the character. I like your point about the level of Monk... but I hate to miss out on that 18th level capstone for Rune knight... being able to become huge is an awesome idea if you want to wrestle giants. Thanks for sharing the build!
Personally, when I made a pugilist I went for a more nonmagical route. Intsead of a level dip in monk, I took the tavern brawler feat. While the Rune Knight ia definitely better at grappling, I chose to go with the Battle Master subclass to make them seem like more of a trained fighter in hand to hand combat. As for the race, the campaign I was in gave everyone a free feat and didn't allow for V. Human, so I was stuck between going plasmoid or dhampir. Both were cool flavorwise and mechanically, but I ended up going with dhampir since a friend gave me a cool bacsktory idea. I eventually took the skill expert feat for expertise in athletics. The end result was ridiculous athletics checks (+13 athletics check +1d8 from grapple strike +1d4+4 from dhampir bite), the highest one being 42.
I'm a DM, I already encountered this issue years ago, and how I handled it was as such: Metal ring-like braces on your hands meant for fighting: +1 to unarmed strikes (to hit and damage). The definition is broad so the player can work around it. You may enchant said ring-like braces only with a few enhancements that would then make them "magical". The most common one is "of Protection". It works the same way when you get Vambraces of Protection, in which you cannot be wearing armor, it does not stack with shields nor vambraces, but gives you +1 to AC, must be attuned to, but you can now use "magical fist" strikes which get around the whole "immune to non-magical attacks". It costs 2200 gold (for a regular fair market price) to enchant. I did it this way as they can be taken away, donned/doffed and then also used by monks. Because of this I kept it so you don't gain 1d4 damage because you have metal bits on your fists, just +1, and you can *get by*. You can also ask a blacksmith to make your own versions depending on materials (if you used adamantium or dragon teeth, slap a +2 on that bad boy and make them magical, if you used Iceflex slap a +3 and a magical effect or 2, but you still do 1 base damage, hence why nobody has done that). Unlike monks, their magical property can be stolen by them by simply doffing the spiked metal on your fist though, and monks do 1d4 damage. Finally the use of Caestus is what I used to help pugilist fighters. Caestus simply do 1d4 damage, and can resemble virtually anything, even boxing gloves that have a little lead in them. This is usually what the pugilists use, and a good example would be Vander's choice of weapons in Arcane, especially when he uses the improvised weapon when he confronts Mr. Steroids on the bridge (trying not to give any spoilers). My players absolutely love this idea, and one of the players is currently pursuing making a Caestus out of Iceflex but cannot find a blacksmith capable of crafting a weapon out of the material. The same rules apply, except, just to ensure monks don't get shafted, if they in turn use a Cestus they get to do 1d6 damage, rather than 1d4. So far this hasn't been an issue as there are no monks in the party, but the ranger has already stated that if his character is to die, he is going full monke. The importance of the Caestus cannot be understated as I absolutely love expanding and customizing the use cases of weapons in D&D. One I love is the Macuahuitl :) but that's another story. My favorite one is a character I made who is a Dwarf who (inspiration from Eragon) has Ascudgamln (ASK-KULD-GAM-IL-LIN) (fists of steel in Dwarvish) where he essentially had screw holes with a black of iron surgically implanted into each of his knuckles, and is then able to screw in different types of bolts and blocks into his fists for use. Also another one was a man permanently embedded metallic curved blades into his elbows that cannot be retracted. He made them from enchant adamantium ingots such that they were extremely powerful, but the player soon realized how impractical they were ( he was free to use them but he couldn't "put them away" in the presence of the king for example so he had to be accompanied by guards in many scenarios and parties until the trust was earned, not to mention it put people on edge)
i love this concept. Ive always wanted to make something like this concept but i always ran into the nonmagical resistances so i made fist wrappings with +1, +2, +3 variants that are supposed to be used with the unarmed fighting style (available on DnD beyond) as a way to let it work but i was unaware of the eldritch claw tattoo and insignia of claws. so im gonna make a cool tatted fighter guy now
Thanks for the build! Currently trying to envision the same concept and your ideas with the monk dip and number crunching about barb levels helped me make some choices. I'm gonna stick to Battle Master though for those nice special moves.
Very nice as always! The best one I came up with (only gone to level 4 for the concept) was Fighter 1 & Tiger totem barb 3 - The entire idea was based around hitting them, and using bonus action to get them into a grapple. the next turn you would leap into the air (and hopefully have boots of leaping and striding) and go 15' into the air piledriving both you and them into the ground. Didn't think it would scale much, but I loved the concept!
For the zealot barbarian gain, I would slot it into a story beat where you realize the monastery you started in wasn't worthless. You still aren't suited to the way of the floating leaf, but your rage has a tranquility of it's own.
So cool to see you're already at 35k subscribers so soon after the 30k videos released. Love that you come up with not just the builds but with realistic backgrounds and reasons to play that character.
I actually was looking for a Zangief (Street fighter) build a couple years back. 😳 This isn't quite that, but close enough. Loved your bloopers at the end 🤣🎤
I did something similar with a homebrew race that's descended from wolverines. Because of that critter's thick skin, I gave the race a Constitution-based AC similar to loxodons'. That way I could stick with monk and fighter without worrying about unarmored defense. Still, taking fewer levels in monk (I was going for flurry of blows) and adding a few in barbarian is worth a look. Also, I went with Battle Master, particularly for Grappling Strike and Trip Attack, but considered Rune Knight, as much for the cool factor as anything else.
You know what I like most about theory-crafting and character building? The schedules of the participants ALWAYS line up. It seems like I can do it at almost any time I’d like!
You did an amazing job with the limited options for this concept you have in by the book gameplay. Thankfully I have a DM that allows homebrew and have a pugilist barbarian subclass that actually scales better than a monk with unarmed fighting. But genuinely your by the book build could be used in by the book games and outshine a number of solo class builds that people play in those games with ease. Well done.
My brawler build was a simple 14/6 Fighter/Barb Rune Knight/Bear Totem Emerald Dragonborn, so while raging I had every single damage resistance. I picked up Skill Expert for the Athletics expertise, and took Arcana as well. I did ultimately take Tavern Brawler, cuz it fit thematically, as did the Arcana prof. I never got to use it, but it was more of a gimmick build anyway. Glad it got made by you
I've been considering an unarmed, unarmored, brawling Aarakocra grappler inspired by Tibarn from the Fire Emblem series, so this is perfect timing and some great food for thought on my own deliberations. Thanks!
I didn't click on the card, but that is really cool to put up a link to another providers channel. That's what's up my guy. I love how you are joining the channels together in a sense. Spreading the wealth.
I ran this exact build up to level 10 in a one shot! I also on a prior incarnation of this build from before Rune Knight I asked Crawford about using a grappler creature as an improvised weapon which he then used in a session of Acquisitions Incorporated he DMed for.
I know this video is a few months old, but I had made an unarmed grappler and striker like this. I just went Rune knight until 5 for extra attack, I'd take skill expert for the Athletics expertise at 4. Then switch to Genie (efreeti) Warlock. This give hex which is helpful for winning grapples, and Armor of Agathys. I would stay with Genie until level 7 at which point I have 4th level spells. I'd pick up Fire Shield and Shadow of Moil. Now I would, either cast AoA and Fire shield before combat and really punish anyone who hits me, or AoA and Shadow of Moil. I'd probably go back to fighter to 8, then finish with Warlock 12. Once you get Warlock 11 you can cast AoA before combat for 25 temp hp. You can also cast Fire shield warm version to give resistance to cold (efreeti warlocks already get fire resistance) and deal damage on a hit. And on the 1st round of combat cast Shadow of Moil giving radiance resistance and dealing damage when you get hit. This way, any time someone hits you they take 2d8 fire damage 2d8 necrotic damage and 25 cold damage (as long as you keep your temp hp). That's a solid defense. Also, I recently realized that Shadow of Moil is a 4th level spell that is like 2 other 4th level spells combined (fire shield, and greater invisibility), yet better than greater invisibility because true sight still can't see through it.
I'm expecting unarmed fighter and maybe some barbarian for extra tankiness. I'm glad you're sticking to RAW for this build because that can encourage creativity. Using Benjamin Huffman's Pugilist would be too easy (I recommend you playing this class someday, though).
Damn colby you always seem to reach into my mind and pull out builds Ive had on paper forever but now get to see them be optimized!! Ill just give you my next idea so you dont need to use your alter memories on me. The MC/the mentor/undying type character basically the general idea is a barbarian/shadow monk atm that always gets up to fight back, lemme know what you think :) Its my own way of dealing with some bbegs and plans DMs set up, usually the plan to kill you once so this character has had some use running at the BBEG burning their strongest spells and then getting right back up
Thank you! I've had the character concept of a monk consumed by rage for a long time but couldn't figure out how to satisfyingly execute it mechanically. This is perfect. The only difference being my character will be a fallen aasimar for backstory reasons. He's going to be extra short for an aasimar so I can spin becoming a rune knight as trying to find a way to overcome his inferiority complex.
Hmm. The build I have right now is, 5 levels of fighter for battle master planning to get a 6th level) one level of monk, rest into barbarian. So monk, fighter, barbarian, get five into fighter, get to 3rd barb, last level of fighter, rest into barb. Take unarmed fighting style, take the feat to boost athletics, if you dont care about stats as much then get tavern brawler as well or just boost stats. Race mountain dwarf for more hp. That's how I have gone about the same concept idea that I am playing right now.
My build is also league legal, even if I'm I dont play league. With one added bonus. I got a claw tattoo from tasha to make his fists plus one weapons. He doesnt do insane dmg, but he can lock down one person till it's done, or command someone else with more dmg to hit what he has pinned. So the dmg isnt bad.
I have an unarmed/improvised weapon rune fighter at my table. As lycanthropes are a common enemy in my world, i granted him a pair of half shield/bracers that add 1ac, +2 on hit, and are silvered, for the sake of overcoming nonmagical attack resistance
My low equipment brawler ended up being a "Perfect specimen" type Tiefling based Dhampir. Mostly path of the beast barb, but 3 levels to rune knight as well. There is ZERO barbarian theme, he is a gentleman brawler. Rage is more of a . . . Razor instinct deal. Only piece of equipment is a full arm shield (bulky gauntlet style), with the shield master feat. The empty hand can punch in non threatening or role-playing situations, or can grapple when "raging", allowing you to attack with bite and tail. AMA
Sounds really cool! I especially like hitting people with your tail. I'm curious, is it flavor for your unarmed strikes or is it treated as something else? Like how a creatures tail attack might differ from their claws or bite.
@@hayleykaye1751 It's actually hitting with the tail, an option granted by path of the beast barbarian. Having Tiefling as a base flavour gives a tail from the start, for a flavour win.
I played something very similar! Interesting that you used bite and tail. I'd think that claws would be generally better (note you don't have to have both hands free to make two attacks with the claws, only one). Rune Knight Fire rune actually works with the Barb claws, bite or tail, since they are treated as 'simple weapons' by the game (this causes some other issues, such as not working with the unarmed fighting style, but meh)
@@insertphrasehere15 Claws certainly may be better for sustained dps, that's true! However, I opted for a bit more resilience with the shield, and so have no free hands when grappling. Also, I just love the defensive reaction the tail gives! The bite is. . . Lesser utilized.
Honestly one Build I would like for you to try is a Ranged Hexblade character. Basically you take a Hexblade. Give it probably a hand crossbow if you want to go Crossbow expert. And start sniping people from range. Maybe add sharpshooter in too. Alongwith a Gloomstalker ranger or a Fighter
You could always ask your dm to allow them to count as unarmed. If they're hesitant a good compromise could be using one of your item infusions to make them count as unarmed attacks, as if you had an infusion with that effect.
This is exactly what I was thinking while watching the video. 3 levels armor, 13 levels rune knight, 1 level rogue for expertise in athletics. Custom lineage to take tavern brawler, unarmed fighting style, tough feat, mobile feat, plate armor, heavy armor master feat as well. This was on the basis of rolling some decent stats too.
As a top laner in LoL I agree with your assessment. I have my own brawler build that enjoy. 3-4 levels of barbarian choosing path of the beast, 12 levels of fighter for battle master or echo knight. 2 levels in druid circle of spores. Leaving 2 levels to choose barbarian 6 or druid 4. For feat consideration I take duel wielder. Beast barbarians when they race can create claws that deal 1d6 and grand an extra attack once per turn, these claws count as simple weapons. Because they are simple weapons and nit unarmed strikes they count towards duel wielder which allows you to make a bonus action attack. If you chose variant Human or custom lineage, and tookk duel wielderas your starting feat, that's 3 attacks at level 3. Once you get extra attack from fighter you get 4 attacks and at fighter 11 a total of 5 attacks per round. As mentioned before barbarian can't cast or concentrate on spells while raging, but they can use abilities like wildshape. As a spore druid you can use one of your wildshapes to gain temporary hit points, and while those hit points are up, deal 1d6 of necrotic damage per melee weapon attack, which your claws count as simple weapons. 5 attacks per round at 2d6 + str + rage seems good to me. The two remaining levels can go into barbarian to make your claws magical or druid for extra temporary hit points. Alternative choice to battle master would be echo knight, since your echo can make a single attack whenever you take the attack action 5 attacks turn to 6 or if you action surge that's 10 attacks. Magic items to look out for is the insignia of the claw since it works on unarmed and natural weapons. And potions of speed for the AC and extra action, which if you choose to attack would also trigger you echo knight clone which if you fully commit to attacking would be 12 attacks. Talk with your DM if you can grapple with your claws.
Not the best option right now due to how it meaning another round of bonus action set up but the new shifter longtooth subrace is rumoured to have a bonus action bit attack that doesn't require a round of setup like the old one. That would be a good alternative to a monk level. I'd maybe go Longtooth fighter X/barbarian 4. Maybe picking battlemaster for the manoeuvres. You can grapple/shove prone two enemies and spend your time biting them. Huge and larger enemies will be a problem though unless you have a kind wizard friend willing to cast enlarge.
In Tasha’s there is a fighting style that lets you use a d8 for unarmed strikes if you aren’t wielding any weapons or a shield. There is also the new feat from Tasha’s called fighting initiate that let’s you get a fighting style. You could just not go into monk and get that feat from custom lineage and go barbarian-fighter
One thing to point out; per the PHB, once you have Unarmored Defense from one source you can't gain the feature again from another (just like extra attack). As such you probably want to start with your 1 level in Barbarian, otherwise you'll be stuck with monk unarmored defense forever.
I'd been theory crafting a boxer build for a while, more like a little mac than anything. a boxer so no focus on grapples and i thought I'd share what i personally came up with (i want to point out i am not optimizing for damage fully there are most certainly better options damage wise) Level 1: Monk, its already explained here why. start out variant human, taking the crusher feat (its just really cool too punch someone so hard they move 5 feet back also plus one to str/con is nice) assuming point buy the stats i started with are (after racials) 16 str: 14 dex: 14 con: 9 int: 14 wis: 8 cha: as a side note you could start 15 con and 13 wis. but the 14 wis will give slightly better survivability at level 1, take your pick 2nd level: 1 fighter: unarmed fighting style making 2 attacks per turn doing 2d8+6 3rd level: 1 barbarian: similarly you want barbarians unarmored defense more and rage is great 5th level: 3 fighter: i went with battle master as i think it fits better thematically, taking maneuvers like evasive foot work and feinting attack work really give the image of a boxer. evasive foot work is especially good here because with crusher your pushing most enemies out of melee range anyway leaving you free to move around 6th level: 4 fighter: I'd honestly just use this to pump strength, taking mobile is also i pick i like though for thematic and mechanical reasons 7th level: 5 fighter: you get your extra attack here 8th level: 2 barbarian: danger sense and reckless are great 9th level: 3 barbarian: i choose totem for even more tankieness i also think it works well thematically with a boxer being able to take damage well and stay standing from here I put the rest into fighter making sure to grab mobile and pumping but strength and con, theres quite a bit of room for feats in this build since a lot of it is fighter a few of my favorite for thematic reasons would be athlete,charger,tough,mobile,martial innitiate,martial adept. the biggest down sides to this build are obviously no magical damage to cover resistances, not amazing damage, not great AC and really not much out of combat utility. however it is still a pretty tanky build thanks in most to rage with bear totem and it is flavorful as hell thanks to battle master. this was my personal take on a similar build if you have any suggestions I'd love to hear em
I did this a while back, with no monk: V. Human -> Taver Brawler feat (+1CON and bonus action grapple). Try asking the DM for a pair of brass knuckles. Lvl 1: Barb for the Rage and the 12+CON HP. The AC helps as well Lvl 2: Fighter -> Unarmed Fighting for the damage dice increase Lvl 3: Fighter for the combo (Rage - punch - punch - grapple) Lvl 4: Fighter -> BM with Parry, Bait and Switch and Evasive Footwork if you don't have the knuckles. If you do, pick whatever you like (I'd go Riposte, Trip Attack and Pushing Attack/Parry for the MMA feel). Lvl 5: Barb if going for Bear Totem. Fighter all the way if not. Reckless should work only if you have the knuckles, I guess. Lvl 6: Barb -> Bear Totem for resistances. Lvl 7+: Fighter As Todd Howard said: "It just works"
I recently visited this concept on my own and would like to propose a different version of my favourite MMA Street fighter build. It has the same issue about magic resistances though. 13 str 15 dex 15 con 8 int 12 wis 8 cha Any race that allows you to pick three separate +1 for 16 dex 16 con 13 wis. Level 1: Barb. This is mainly to get our Unarmored Defense to scale off Dex and Con. We do get a couple of rage charges for when shit hits the fan, but we won't get the damage from Rage since we are using dex. Level 2: Monk 1. Allows us to use Dex for unarmed strikes and gives us a bonus action punch. Level 3 onwards: Fighter! I'd take battlemaster for those sweet maneuvers that look like MMA techniques like Pushing attack, Trip, disarming and what not. Fighting style is obviously Unarmed for those heavy hitting punches. Now since you're leveling fighter you get extra ASIs so leveling Dex and Con to your leisure will also give you insanely high AC, or you can grab Mobile / Sentinel if that's what you prefer. You don't need polearm master / GWM so plenty of room to go forward. Arguably could grab levels in something else but eh.
I 100% adore these Colby, but man oh man, you would go HAM if you did some Pathfinder 2 character builds :D It is such a detailed and versatile system and it has bloody good bones!
a really fun grappler build I've done was a goliath. I started barbarian 1 then 5 monk 2 more barb then monk the rest of the way. as a goliath you get athletic build which has an interesting interaction with grappling, because you count as a size category larger for pushing pulling and DRAGing you can actually drag medium size creatures your full speed. its a fringe benefit but if your dm is good with interesting terrain... similar to yours the barbarian rage is amazing for grappling and I love the grapple to flurry of blows combo. open hand lets me knock prone on the the attack for the makeshift stun and bear totem for the survivability. my favorite moment of his career was elbow dropping the back of a tyrannosaurus so hard it collapsed for a round. I understand people wanted a non-monk build they just need to realize that monk as a class doesn't neseccarily mean "lives in a monastery and learns martial arts" it just means "I don't need weapons because I am the weapon"
Currently playing this character and having a great time. I'm roleplaying him as a big dumb barbarian and in a recent combat encounter I attacked and successfully grappled a beholder and held it to the ground while the rest of the party beat him to death LOL. I just hit level 6 so with giants might unlocked things should get even more fun.
Honestly? This is a brawler build I can get behind. Let's you really embrace that "MMA" feel of a Brawler, while bringing a load of utility aside from "grab and hit stuff". Me personally, I'd likely go bear totem with this particular build because, moar tanky, and more effective hit points vs more elements. Also Acton Surge gives you a Lot more options with this build than you would think. And all those reactions? Muah. Chef's kiss. We're just doing stuff all the time. Great work as always.
I know you don't account for magic items, but if your dm allows (or just wants to give you one) take the eldritch claw tattoo. Your unarmed strikes count as magical (for overcoming resistance), +1 to hit and dmg, increases the range to 15ft, and gives an extra d6 force dmg!
My take on the unarmed combatant is a Lizardfolk Path of the Beast Barbarian with the Tavern Brawler feat. With the claw option you get two 1d6 attacks pro attack action and you can grapple a creature with a bonus action. And thanks to the Tavern Brawler feat you can use the grappled creature as a improvised weapon. There is also the level 6 features of the Path of the Beast that gives you magical attacks and grants you a psiodo spider climb. Take than 4 levels in fighter and pick the Battle Master subclass. Now you are a big lizard that can knock your enemies prone and then pounce on them and shred them into pieces using your jaws, claws and tail.
For a while I've been sorta back and forth on offing myself. DND was really one of the only things I enjoyed. I tried making a homebrew subclass to try and do exactly this. I posted it on Reddit and was told it was so bad that i shouldn't even try and fix it. Im really glad even if my awful subclass doesn't work im glad i can still do this.
I made some cool items like the lion wrist wraps that are leather fighter wraps that do magical damage and the damage for those made the attack slashing magical and you could burn a charge for an extra d6 of force damage. Also made greaves that did lightning or thunder damage for unarmed strikes and let you teleport once per day as a bonus action after attacking.
Just wanted to add, base human can also start with 16 str/con, 14 dex, 13 wis, with 9/9 int/cha. Since it’s so MAD, you get some mileage from the +1 down the line.
I was curious where you were going to end up with this build. "It ain't about how hard you hit, it's about how hard you can get hit and keep moving forward", I think this is about as good as you can get. Adding some extra dice and some base attack damage. Thanks for the plug by the way!
Legends supporting legends here, love to see it
You love to see it!
Thanks and of course! I’d like to play one of my monks with your house rules ;)
@@DnDDeepDive I thought I read somewhere that you only get the feature of your unarmored defense from the "first" time you gain the feature. It has been a while since I looked into it but I am fairly certain that is how the rules read.
@@BLynn IIRC it more of a 'if get unarmored defense from more than one source, you have to choose which one you want to use'.
One thing I meant to discuss and forgot so will put it here: what about Expertise!? It's true: finding a way to get Expertise in Athletics would increase your grappling prowess significantly. I was trying to stretch our DPR with this character but you should definitely consider trying to work Expertise into the build somehow. For me it would either be via the Skill Expert feat (and if I went that route, I'd *probably* start Custom Lineage so I could get that feat and start with an 18 Strength) *or* take one level of Ranger along the way for Canny, which is basically Expertise.
ALSO! Errata: You cannot get Unarmed Defense from Barb if you already got it from Monk as per RAW (I sometimes forget that you don't get to choose one or the other). Thus, with this version of the build you'd be best off starting Barb.
Skill Expert feat would be a great choice here and with only a +1 to stat, maybe grab Crusher feat for another +1 stat to round up.
For expertise I think I would get one level of rogue.
Then try to talk my DM into allow my Fists to light finesse weapons to add sneak attack. It is só stupid that they are not.
I ended up taking a dip in Rogue for the Extra Skill Proficiencies and Expertise in Athletics + Intimidation/Persuasion (mainly cause of the way I wanted to play this character). But yeah, having that Expertise in Athletics is pretty fun, I've done some very bonkers things! Also, having advantage on Grappling is... just icing on the cake; couple that with a few random Homebrewed Feats that a DM had on hand (they uhhh.... kinda make this Grappler extremely unfair).... I think just having an Eldritch Claw Tattoo is currently sufficient for my Magical Bonus lol.
Overall though, nice Unarmed Fighter build! Mine is moreso with Plate Armor cause why not have a Soldier who's there to kick some ass with their bare hands, feet, etc! Also a female character, she's 'built different' as my friends say lol xD
P.S: I may not be subscribed, BUT... if I can recommend an idea, try looking at Rin Tohsaka from Fate/Stay Night: Unlimited Blade Works! Look at how she can fight CQC (Unarmed Fighting) and use Magic to buff herself/deal insane fun damage xD I'll leave it up to you in terms of how you'd build this character, or if you want an idea on how to do so and maybe do a Viewer D&D Optimized Build, I'll offer myself as tribute for the first one to do it as a Guinea Pig xD
@@dienezdarcprowlyr9406 I'd try and convince the DM into doing that IF I mutliclassed Rogue and Monk. They might try to turn it into a Feat instead, but could turn it into a Half-Feat with the +1 ASI to Dex.
One more little issue with the tactical options around 27:50 (levels 2-6 so pre-Extra Attack). If you use your Action to Grapple, the monk with Martial Arts unfortunately cannot do a BA unarmed strike. The BA attack is enabled by using the Attack action with an unarmed strike or monk weapon. Not a huge deal. Does help the case for Tavern Brawler and/or cutting the monk entirely for anyone interested/disinterested in those...inhumane routes. Monks are people too.
My friend was playing in a ToA game and they were playing a Rune Knight with the unarmed fighting style, and they were highly consistent. I also got them an Eldritch Claw tattoo so they would have a 'magic weapon'. They had that tattoo all the way to the end (the end being a sidequest into the Nine Hells to get a wish from a Dao)
They punched a Demon Lord in the face, it was epic.
I did about the same with one of my characters. It was one of my favorites yet in 5e.
was your friend's build a straight fighter?
Currently playing a Goliath unarmed rune knight, missed a feat, but boi it's good to punch giants in the face.
@@jacopoolivari5484 god that sounds fun, but on the other hand, my brain is imagining if you played just some pissed off halfling lol, hope it continues to be absolutely rad as hell
@@GoblinLord Duregar.
You get big
Then BIGGER.
When I played Rise of Tiamat, I thought "well... one big problem when fighting dragons is that they can flyby over our heads breathing tons of damage on us. What if they coudn't fly away anymore?" So I did a Goliath Rune Knight/ Divine Soul who could increase to Huge size (giant might + enlarge), teleport to the sky (thunderstep) and action surge to grapple
Can we just take a moment to appreciate the commitment with the make up on the thumbnail!?
Also I’ve been working on a similar concept to this but a duo with a Bard being like a wrestler and their entourage. This will for sure help me work it!
Props to my friend Preston for the Thumb! (No, not for punching me, for the photoshop work 😛)
Oh that sounds like it'd be super fun Phillips! The first thing I thought of is an over the top wrestling manager like Jimmy Hart, that would be funny
@@hayleykaye1751 Exactly the concept! Me and a friend are planning on playing them in a future campaign since we are both fans of wrestling
@@guitarplayerJeiky I would love to see that, it sounds like a lot of fun. I wonder of your dm would let the bard use a bullhorn as their musical instrument and spellcasting focus? Lol
One cool alternative for the race would be the Bugbear if you can manage to get high enough stats. The extra reach and once per combat damage could give this character a role similar to a polearm master build if you take sentinel
I played a strength based pugilist/grappler and I was actually surprised at how effective (and incredibly fun) it was. I didn't take a monk level - instead I took tavern brawler to gain a bonus action grapple. Once I had my extra attack my first round was typically to shove prone the enemy with my first attack, do an unarmed strike with my second, and then grapple with the bonus action. That worked really well and I would typically lock down the toughest looking opponent in most fights. After having that set-up and working I took skill expert with my next ASI to get expertise in athletics.
When I dmed for a monk i gave him basically martial arts wrappings that increased his martial arts die by 1 since it maxes at d10. we made it a d12 and his damage felt really good imo
Your end outtakes make a good point, this character kinda requires a hard companion to announce them and sing their rocky theme.
ITS TIIIIIIMMMMMEEEE
Level 1:(see above) [monk 1 & race] {{Comments say to change this to barbarian}}
Level 2:(see above) [barbarian 1] {{changing 1st requires this or 3rd level to be monk 1}}
Level 3:(@15:54) [barbarian 2]
Level 4:(@17:29) [fighter 1 & fighting-style]
Level 5:(@22:15) [fighter 2]
Level 6:(@22:29) [fighter 3 & subclass]
Level 7:(see above) [fighter 4 & ASI]
Level 8:(@32:29) [fighter 5]
Level 9:(@32:54) [fighter 6 & ASI]
Level 10:(see above) [barbarian 3 & subclass]
Level 11:(@36:52) [fighter 7]
Level 12:(@38:36) [fighter 8 & ASI]
Level 13:(@39:00) [fighter 9]
Level 14:(see above) [fighter 10] {{my mistake commenting there was an ASI at this level}}
Level 15:(@42:11) [fighter 11]
Level 16:(@43:07) [fighter 12 & ASI]
Level 17:(@43:24) [barbarian 4 & ASI]
You don't get an ASI at fighter level 10. I think you and Colby goofed. He should only have a Dex of 16.
@@davidsweet5094 it is probably my fault trying to do multiple things at once. I will check the video & apply the correction. Noting if it is a mistake in the video.
I think I would rather take the last level on monk to unlock ki features. It would be cool thematically, something like "after all your travels, adventures and fights you came back from were you began and understood the way of your first master to unlock the power within". And mechanically that would give you 2 uses of flurry of blows per short rest that you could use in the same turn as action surge, make 8 attacks and feel like a Street Fighter character using a Special Move.
As always, amazing show. Thank you so much for all your work.
Something that would help your survivability is the fact that a prone enemy has disadvantage on attacks. So that grappled&prone enemy would have a harder time hitting you
Don't comment often in videos since YT comment section is a bit intimidating for me haha,; however, I have really wanted to express that I have been watching your channel since I first came across your Beast Master 2.0 video, and each video is still a blast to watch. Thanks for all the thought and work you put into every video! :)
Since we want to start as a barbarian anyway for the unarmored defense, I wonder how this build would perform if you went berserker barbarian for the extra attack as a bonus action and omit monk entirely. I know that this would delay our fighter levels, but that might be the way to easily squeeze in another class for expertise.
Yeah, I love the idea if you only tend to have one big combat encounter per day. Otherwise, that exhaustion gets *really* painful.
The description of the character's origin actually works really well for being Nacho Libre!
First!
Really excited for this build btw.
Also, before I forget: I was playing an artillarist artificer yesterday, and I found out the protector turret, when combined with a raging barbarian, is incredibly effective and makes your frontline even more tanky then before.
This gave me an idea: how would you go about creating a two-person build (like the wolf & coyote, battery & blender, etc) but instead of building for damage, you build to make these two characters, when paired together, basically unkillable.
Just a thought.
Ah but you weren't first...
Will put it on the to do list :)
@@heathbecker420 RIP. I didn't see any other comments when I put that. Darn it.
@@DnDDeepDive Huzzah!
One thing I really like about your channel is that you make personal requests for support, rather than using pre-recorded ads that you insert into every video. 👍🏻
So excited for this one I was literally refreshing the page waiting for it 😅
You and me both.
That makes three of us!
The "redundancy" between the rune and rage (advantage on strength stuff, resist some damage) isn't a bad thing. There are plenty of games where you might run out of rages. Perfect time to invoke those runes!
Build Suggestion: "The Spellblade," featuring Charisma x 3 to every attack
Race: technically anything with martial weapon proficiencies as of Tasha's, swap something out for a rapier
Stats: prioritize Dex, then Cha, then Con
Draconic Sorcerer 6. Pick up Green-Flame Blade, a fire-type dragon ancestor, and Quickened Spell.
Celestial Warlock 12. Pick up Pact of the Blade and Lifedrinker. Fill out the last two levels with either Sorcerer or i guess Paladin?
Result: You can Green-Flame Blade + Quickened Green-Flame Blade every turn for 2d8 + 10 + 6d8 + 30 damage, you have AC equal to plate armor due to Draconic, and you're still a fullcaster.
... You run out of gas after 3-4 turns though.
Here is my brawler build and he works great.
3. Lvls in Barbarian, Bear Totem. 17 lvls in Fighter Battle master with unarmed combat as your fighting style.
You can hit three times a round, access to action surge twice. You can use your maneuvers to do sick combat stuff to control the battlefield using your abilities. While your rage lets you take half damage from almost everything so your in the fight for a while.
Take the tough feat for extra HP. Then take the sentinel feat. After that just ASI as needed.
One idea I had for this build. If you roll for stats and you get a bit lucky, it would be really cool to go loxodon for the race, because you don't need to invest as heavily into dexterity, and you can grapple 3 people at once.
That moment when you’re rewatching one of Colby’s other videos just waiting for the new one to drop.
I'm a big fan of the character, The Goon, who punches the undead and other eldritch horrors out for a living. Wanted to build a 5e inspired character for a long time. This is dope
I played a character like this. He was a russian pit fighter, specialized in grapples and battlefield control as fighter. Yep, I'm kinda insane, but it was really fun
Russian fighter... specializes in grapples... now I'm imagining Zangief from street fighter, which sounds just Perfect! 😜
Man I really gotta start actually doing my ideas. I was JUST thinking about how to optimize the unarmed strikes fighting style, and here you are doing it before I get the chance.
Not gonna lie, it feels like I'm spoiling it for myself so I don't get the chance to figure it out, but your builds always end up better than mine anyways.
I say go for it still Caleb! If you want to you can customize Colbys' build, or just go ahead with your own ideas. You could try doing variants as well, like purposely taking no monk levels while still trying to maximize unarmed fighting, or focusing your build around a different race. In any case you should definitely give it a shot :)
@@hayleykaye1751 yeah I think I'd make it a little more spell friendly potentially. I've got some ideas 🤔
When you spoke of wanting to grapple and fight unarmed, I figured you'd do a duergar rune knight. That way you can use the rune knight ability to become large then enlarge/reduce on yourself to become huge and grapple pretty much anything
Edit: Well, I kept watching and I see you went Rune Knight after all lol
I think the ‘not a monk’ preference was to avoid the no armour restriction which you can’t avoid if you want the extra bonus attack. 6 lvls in beast barbarian might work and be on point for that inner rage you talked about when explaining why they were with the monks in the first place?
Right - I seriously considered Beat Barb for a long time but ultimately decided against just because I was really wanting like, an MMA puncher and not so much a Werewolf/Slasher, ya know? Obviously it'd be a strong option, but especially as the claws are technically considered weapons, it just didn't feel quite right, thematically.
12:13 if you stretch some logic. Since beast barbarians claws are treated as simple weapons so that there is no confusion if it works with rage, if you’ve got the dual wielder feat you can two weapon fighting using the claws option which will give you a free attack as part of the attack action and the bonus attack just without the damage modifier but still the rage modifier.
If you wanna be more of a striker type but don't wanna leave out the grappling, it's worth keeping in mind that conceptually, grappling doesn't have to mean suplexes, ground positions or joint locks - it could just be something as simple as an ear grab while you throw elbows, or a single collar tie for your knee strikes to connect to. Any kind of entanglement at all can be what grappling is. You don't have to be greek or roman! :)
Clinching would make since if you’re going for a boxer type character
@@shinystars2475 yep, exactly! Clinches just like I said with the ear grab or single collar tie. All sorts of options. You probably mean the thai plumb? You could also do a half nelson or grovit, or the old pit hook if you're a bit to the side of them. Even a leg vine can still be a standing option. Hair grab, pie face or goozle for the rougher sorts maybe. Or hell just a shirt bunch why not. Plenty of options for a controlled target to be striking at, even if you're not intending to go to the ground.
I mean if you really wanna go conceptual, you could reasonably have just a stream of accurate jabs behave as a grapple, so long as you're using them to control rather than do damage (as is, after all, the typical use). Even just that functionally behaves as a kind of tie-up.
I just started watching the netflix daredevil show. The ability to take a punch and being a “boxer” has some fun parallels!
All we'd need is a way to get blindfighting (or blindsense i forget the actual name) and we're set!
@d4: D&D Deep Dive
I know you've been talking about a spirit guardian build and I think I got one for ya
3 lvls Rune Knight Fighter for Giants Might
6 lvls of Lore Bard for expertise in Athletics and Magical Secrets grabbing Spirit Guardians and Spiritual Weapon.
Pick up the feats Warcaster (keeps Spirit Guardians up) and Telekinesis (keeps ppl in your Spirit Guardians range)
Extra 2 lvls of fighter get you a second grappled target.
Bugbear for the extra reach?
Also love the mental image of a Giant's Mighted Bugbear casting Spirit Guardians and running (in full plate armour) into the middle of the battlefield action surging to grapple someone and lifting them off the ground.
And maybe your little goblin rogue friend has spider climb and is on your back that whole time taking snap shots when the opportunity arises.
I was just messing around with a similar build the other day. I chose Leonin and went more into Mercy Monk. I ended up with slightly less dpr, but I was able to Stun, Grapple, cause fear, and poison.
Thank you for honoring Bob Sagat with this build, many people forget he lost the street fighter championship in 1987 to Ryu in a stunning upset.
I think a really strong base for an "anti-monk" build would be 1 Monk/2 Rogue/x Fighter (and some Barbarian if you are going Strength like you did). Monk for Unarmored Defense and Martials Arts. Rogue for Cunning Action (and Expertise in Athletics if grappling). Fighter for Unarmed Fighting Style. I think right at level 4 you will feel similar-ish to a Monk, but your numbers across the board should be better.
I know you usually build characters for a whole campaign, and I really enjoy that! A one-shot character I'd made definitely didn't have that in mind, but with a rune knight and a sorcerer dip to get enlarge/reduce I made a grappler bugbear who got large enough to grapple an gargantuan dragon (homebrew young tiamat)! We had to check the rules because it surprised all of us, but legendary resistance won't help on the check to contest a grapple. Very fun to pin a dragon for multiple rounds.
At lvl 3, I swapped the 2nd level of barbarian for rogue before going fighter. I think a 1-level dip into rogue is worth the expertise in athletics (grappling). Not to mention getting proficiency and expertise in perception or whatever you want, plus thieves tools. If the DM allows sneak attack with unarmed, that would be a nice bonus.
Nice!!! Mine is a level 5 Hunter (colosssus slayer) Ranger STR20 with unarmed fighting style feat, so he give some heavy punches with Hunter's Mark and the other features. (one punch can make 27 damage)
I had an accidental pugilist. I went with bladesinger, which has great AC. I took three levels of Fighter for Echo Knight and took the unarmed fighting style. Then I got the Touch of Death -- Dark Gift. and with Booming Blade / Green Flame Blade this made a really good unarmed fighter. I didn't have the Blood Fury Tattoo, but that would have really topped things off.
I really like this idea and as soon as you said you wanted to go for consistent damage, I figured Rune Knight. But I made a few changes that kinda has the same feel but maybe a bit higher damage overall (I haven't run the numbers.😅) instead of mountain Dwarf I went Harengon to make up for my low Dex that a Monk would have both for AC and the reaction saving throw boost. The Jump is good for engaging or disengaging. And instead of Rune Knight I took Battle Master with Trip Attack, Brace, and Grappling Strike everything else is virtually the same. I would recommend starting off with 3 levels in Fighter first and using Chain Mail for your AC at first then dip in to Monk and then Barb for the bonus action attack, rage, and Unarmed Defense. Then you choice is grabbing another level in Barb or push fighter for extra attack
Geez two new builds that I have been trying to think through back to back?? You’re on a roll, love to see it haha
Hey Colby! Great Video!!! I'm never disappointed by your character builds. I have a request/suggestion for some future builds. It could be really neat to see some sort of mini series or perhaps just a special episode discussing the best options for solo class builds. such as what would be the best solo fighter, or solo druid etc... My D and D group is a bit hesitant on allowing multi-classing but I still love to optimize :D
Funny, I was thinking of this as a top laner in League the entire time I was listening to the video! I also haven't played much in a long time, but the memories are always there. Great content, thanks for your work :)
I think a good alternative for this type of build (though maybe a bit thematically different) would be either going Beasthide Shifter, giving you a +2 to con and a +1 to str, the ability to shift which gives extra temporary hit points and a +1 increase to AC all of which help the build, or Longtooth Shifter removing the level in Monk as it gives you a bonus bite attack and still some extra hit points (so either more survivability or more damage). I would also go for Path of the Beast Barbarian giving still giving rage etc.. but also ways to defend yourself more and make you far tankier with the tail and bite options (the claw option also lets you do more attacks but that is only a d6 unless your DM lets you still use the d8s from your fighting style), it also fixes the resistance to non-magical weapons if you keep going all the way to level 6 (however if again the DM lets use d8s instead of d6s I would go all they way to level 6).
I love this idea! If it were me, I'd probably skip the first level in Monk (unless you gotta have that story element) because if we consider a fighter with unarmed fighting style being able to utilize all their appendages as weapons (which I do as a DM, your mileage may vary) then we should be able to consider their bonus action as a viable "light weapon attack" since their appendages are unweighted. Plus you can wear chainmail, so your AC ends up being higher anyway (all the street fighters who like living wear armor). So you start out as an angry dwarf with no axe at hand, but with two doughty fists at level 1. I love the monk but I can't take that first monk level.
Older editions had the cestus that you could use as a weapon, I feel like it should exist in 5e. You're still using your fists, but it's also a weapon which can be magical. I mean, it's not like a pair of magical brass knucles would break the game.
Agreed! I had a DM create some magical hand-wraps for me once; very thoughtful
I was just building a few brawlers based off of Godzilla the other day! I am stoked to watch this video for ideas! Keep up the awesome work!
Based off of Godzilla? Are you recreating the various monsters as d&d characters?
@@hayleykaye1751 I am doing builds for Godzilla and Anguirus as PC's that are hunting down a golden hydra. I really want them to be brawler types. Not OP, just super fun.
@@joshuasnell2596 Sounds like a lot of fun! How are you planning on doing Godzillas breath attack?
@@hayleykaye1751 I was looking at using the Red Chromatic Dragonborn for the breath attack.
Perfect timing. I get to watch this during my lunch break!
Watched this earlier today, and when I clicked on it I thought “this is going to be great for the character concept my friend and I discussed the other day.” It’s doubtlessly an effective build, but… there’s a certain part that runs me the wrong way.
You set out at the start to make a street brawler that wasn’t a monk and, implied by the nature of brawling pugilism, wasn’t a caster. The one level of monk was honestly fine, whole heartedly agreed that getting the martial arts benefits was a necessity. But then most the abilities you have are legitimately magic in nature. Rune magic, Zealot damage boost, doesn’t matter still magic. Something about that makes it feel like this isn’t a street brawler at all anymore.
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Because I want to share the concept my friend and I talked about: “pretty and refined/classy Noblewoman who is an unarmed terror on the battlefield. She will cave your skull in with your own ripped off arm if you’re not careful when fighting her.”
A couple spell tattoos can really help out a build like this. Barrier tattoo and Eldritch claw tattoo in particular. As a DM I would probably be inclined to let somebody have them if was was to bring a cool character concept more in-line with optimized characters.
12:03 "...There's no way [snip] to get an attack with your fists as a bonus action outside of being a monk..."
I, too, might be wrong, but I think that's true.
However! If you want an *unarmed strike* as a bonus action, there are a few ways to go about it.
1) It's possible with the Longtooth Shifter race from the 'Eberron - Rising from the Last War' sourcebook. It's only available while you're "shifting" - a kind of like a "Rage lite" feature available to use once between rests, short or long, lasting up to a minute.
2) The centaur can do it with their hooves after a charging attack, which in turn requires the character to move 30 ft in a straight line before it.
3) The minotaur (Theros, Ravnica, Amonkhet) can use their horns to make a bonus attack unarmed strike as a Goring Rush, but that requires taking a dash action and moving 20 ft - although, that movement doesn't need to be in a line. So, even in melee already, you could walk to the other side of your target never leaving the threatened squares, and still have 40 ft movement left for the round. It's not great, but it's possible.
Note that you should ask if your DM considers centaur hooves and minotaur horns "weapons" that still make unarmed attacks or not. "Weapons" can be blessed, normal unarmed attacks can't, unless specifically mentioned by the type of blessing feature. In addition, some features require an attack made "with a weapon" - regardless of whether those weapons make unarmed strikes or normal weapon attacks. (Unarmed strikes are a special type of weapon attack, as "weapon attack" just means "not a spell attack")
Regardless, each of the above are considered "unarmed strikes".
A special note, the Viashino Race from UA53 - Races of Ravnica has access to an unarmed strike as a reaction to an enemy dealing damage to you. If your build wants plenty of unarmed attacks, that's a pretty unique option.
I am currently playing a Rune Knight/Barbarian/with one level of Druid. I know that doesn't make a lot of sense, but he makes his living as a charter fisherman and does pit fighting in his spare time. The druid is to have Druidcraft to know the weather for the next day's fishing, and Guidance to give his charter customers a little edge on their survival checks. Also, he uses Goodberry and create water to make sure they never starve or die of thirst when at sea, so though it isn't that important... (though having Jump for combat is awesome with this build) having that one level of Druid adds a lot of flavor to the character.
I like your point about the level of Monk... but I hate to miss out on that 18th level capstone for Rune knight... being able to become huge is an awesome idea if you want to wrestle giants. Thanks for sharing the build!
Personally, when I made a pugilist I went for a more nonmagical route. Intsead of a level dip in monk, I took the tavern brawler feat. While the Rune Knight ia definitely better at grappling, I chose to go with the Battle Master subclass to make them seem like more of a trained fighter in hand to hand combat.
As for the race, the campaign I was in gave everyone a free feat and didn't allow for V. Human, so I was stuck between going plasmoid or dhampir. Both were cool flavorwise and mechanically, but I ended up going with dhampir since a friend gave me a cool bacsktory idea.
I eventually took the skill expert feat for expertise in athletics. The end result was ridiculous athletics checks (+13 athletics check +1d8 from grapple strike +1d4+4 from dhampir bite), the highest one being 42.
I'm a DM, I already encountered this issue years ago, and how I handled it was as such:
Metal ring-like braces on your hands meant for fighting: +1 to unarmed strikes (to hit and damage). The definition is broad so the player can work around it.
You may enchant said ring-like braces only with a few enhancements that would then make them "magical". The most common one is "of Protection". It works the same way when you get Vambraces of Protection, in which you cannot be wearing armor, it does not stack with shields nor vambraces, but gives you +1 to AC, must be attuned to, but you can now use "magical fist" strikes which get around the whole "immune to non-magical attacks". It costs 2200 gold (for a regular fair market price) to enchant.
I did it this way as they can be taken away, donned/doffed and then also used by monks. Because of this I kept it so you don't gain 1d4 damage because you have metal bits on your fists, just +1, and you can *get by*.
You can also ask a blacksmith to make your own versions depending on materials (if you used adamantium or dragon teeth, slap a +2 on that bad boy and make them magical, if you used Iceflex slap a +3 and a magical effect or 2, but you still do 1 base damage, hence why nobody has done that).
Unlike monks, their magical property can be stolen by them by simply doffing the spiked metal on your fist though, and monks do 1d4 damage.
Finally the use of Caestus is what I used to help pugilist fighters.
Caestus simply do 1d4 damage, and can resemble virtually anything, even boxing gloves that have a little lead in them. This is usually what the pugilists use, and a good example would be Vander's choice of weapons in Arcane, especially when he uses the improvised weapon when he confronts Mr. Steroids on the bridge (trying not to give any spoilers).
My players absolutely love this idea, and one of the players is currently pursuing making a Caestus out of Iceflex but cannot find a blacksmith capable of crafting a weapon out of the material.
The same rules apply, except, just to ensure monks don't get shafted, if they in turn use a Cestus they get to do 1d6 damage, rather than 1d4. So far this hasn't been an issue as there are no monks in the party, but the ranger has already stated that if his character is to die, he is going full monke.
The importance of the Caestus cannot be understated as I absolutely love expanding and customizing the use cases of weapons in D&D.
One I love is the Macuahuitl :) but that's another story.
My favorite one is a character I made who is a Dwarf who (inspiration from Eragon) has Ascudgamln (ASK-KULD-GAM-IL-LIN) (fists of steel in Dwarvish) where he essentially had screw holes with a black of iron surgically implanted into each of his knuckles, and is then able to screw in different types of bolts and blocks into his fists for use.
Also another one was a man permanently embedded metallic curved blades into his elbows that cannot be retracted. He made them from enchant adamantium ingots such that they were extremely powerful, but the player soon realized how impractical they were ( he was free to use them but he couldn't "put them away" in the presence of the king for example so he had to be accompanied by guards in many scenarios and parties until the trust was earned, not to mention it put people on edge)
i love this concept. Ive always wanted to make something like this concept but i always ran into the nonmagical resistances so i made fist wrappings with +1, +2, +3 variants that are supposed to be used with the unarmed fighting style (available on DnD beyond) as a way to let it work but i was unaware of the eldritch claw tattoo and insignia of claws. so im gonna make a cool tatted fighter guy now
Thanks for the build! Currently trying to envision the same concept and your ideas with the monk dip and number crunching about barb levels helped me make some choices. I'm gonna stick to Battle Master though for those nice special moves.
Very nice as always!
The best one I came up with (only gone to level 4 for the concept) was Fighter 1 & Tiger totem barb 3 - The entire idea was based around hitting them, and using bonus action to get them into a grapple. the next turn you would leap into the air (and hopefully have boots of leaping and striding) and go 15' into the air piledriving both you and them into the ground. Didn't think it would scale much, but I loved the concept!
For the zealot barbarian gain, I would slot it into a story beat where you realize the monastery you started in wasn't worthless. You still aren't suited to the way of the floating leaf, but your rage has a tranquility of it's own.
So cool to see you're already at 35k subscribers so soon after the 30k videos released. Love that you come up with not just the builds but with realistic backgrounds and reasons to play that character.
Love the prelude. You really set up what’s needed in the session “0”!
I actually was looking for a Zangief (Street fighter) build a couple years back. 😳 This isn't quite that, but close enough. Loved your bloopers at the end 🤣🎤
I did something similar with a homebrew race that's descended from wolverines. Because of that critter's thick skin, I gave the race a Constitution-based AC similar to loxodons'. That way I could stick with monk and fighter without worrying about unarmored defense. Still, taking fewer levels in monk (I was going for flurry of blows) and adding a few in barbarian is worth a look.
Also, I went with Battle Master, particularly for Grappling Strike and Trip Attack, but considered Rune Knight, as much for the cool factor as anything else.
You know what I like most about theory-crafting and character building? The schedules of the participants ALWAYS line up. It seems like I can do it at almost any time I’d like!
You did an amazing job with the limited options for this concept you have in by the book gameplay. Thankfully I have a DM that allows homebrew and have a pugilist barbarian subclass that actually scales better than a monk with unarmed fighting. But genuinely your by the book build could be used in by the book games and outshine a number of solo class builds that people play in those games with ease. Well done.
My brawler build was a simple 14/6 Fighter/Barb Rune Knight/Bear Totem Emerald Dragonborn, so while raging I had every single damage resistance. I picked up Skill Expert for the Athletics expertise, and took Arcana as well. I did ultimately take Tavern Brawler, cuz it fit thematically, as did the Arcana prof. I never got to use it, but it was more of a gimmick build anyway. Glad it got made by you
I've been considering an unarmed, unarmored, brawling Aarakocra grappler inspired by Tibarn from the Fire Emblem series, so this is perfect timing and some great food for thought on my own deliberations. Thanks!
I didn't click on the card, but that is really cool to put up a link to another providers channel. That's what's up my guy. I love how you are joining the channels together in a sense. Spreading the wealth.
I ran this exact build up to level 10 in a one shot! I also on a prior incarnation of this build from before Rune Knight I asked Crawford about using a grappler creature as an improvised weapon which he then used in a session of Acquisitions Incorporated he DMed for.
I know this video is a few months old, but I had made an unarmed grappler and striker like this. I just went Rune knight until 5 for extra attack, I'd take skill expert for the Athletics expertise at 4. Then switch to Genie (efreeti) Warlock. This give hex which is helpful for winning grapples, and Armor of Agathys. I would stay with Genie until level 7 at which point I have 4th level spells. I'd pick up Fire Shield and Shadow of Moil. Now I would, either cast AoA and Fire shield before combat and really punish anyone who hits me, or AoA and Shadow of Moil. I'd probably go back to fighter to 8, then finish with Warlock 12. Once you get Warlock 11 you can cast AoA before combat for 25 temp hp. You can also cast Fire shield warm version to give resistance to cold (efreeti warlocks already get fire resistance) and deal damage on a hit. And on the 1st round of combat cast Shadow of Moil giving radiance resistance and dealing damage when you get hit. This way, any time someone hits you they take 2d8 fire damage 2d8 necrotic damage and 25 cold damage (as long as you keep your temp hp). That's a solid defense. Also, I recently realized that Shadow of Moil is a 4th level spell that is like 2 other 4th level spells combined (fire shield, and greater invisibility), yet better than greater invisibility because true sight still can't see through it.
I'm expecting unarmed fighter and maybe some barbarian for extra tankiness.
I'm glad you're sticking to RAW for this build because that can encourage creativity. Using Benjamin Huffman's Pugilist would be too easy (I recommend you playing this class someday, though).
Damn colby you always seem to reach into my mind and pull out builds Ive had on paper forever but now get to see them be optimized!! Ill just give you my next idea so you dont need to use your alter memories on me.
The MC/the mentor/undying type character basically the general idea is a barbarian/shadow monk atm that always gets up to fight back, lemme know what you think :)
Its my own way of dealing with some bbegs and plans DMs set up, usually the plan to kill you once so this character has had some use running at the BBEG burning their strongest spells and then getting right back up
Thank you! I've had the character concept of a monk consumed by rage for a long time but couldn't figure out how to satisfyingly execute it mechanically. This is perfect. The only difference being my character will be a fallen aasimar for backstory reasons. He's going to be extra short for an aasimar so I can spin becoming a rune knight as trying to find a way to overcome his inferiority complex.
Hmm. The build I have right now is, 5 levels of fighter for battle master planning to get a 6th level) one level of monk, rest into barbarian. So monk, fighter, barbarian, get five into fighter, get to 3rd barb, last level of fighter, rest into barb. Take unarmed fighting style, take the feat to boost athletics, if you dont care about stats as much then get tavern brawler as well or just boost stats. Race mountain dwarf for more hp. That's how I have gone about the same concept idea that I am playing right now.
My build is also league legal, even if I'm I dont play league. With one added bonus. I got a claw tattoo from tasha to make his fists plus one weapons. He doesnt do insane dmg, but he can lock down one person till it's done, or command someone else with more dmg to hit what he has pinned. So the dmg isnt bad.
I have an unarmed/improvised weapon rune fighter at my table. As lycanthropes are a common enemy in my world, i granted him a pair of half shield/bracers that add 1ac, +2 on hit, and are silvered, for the sake of overcoming nonmagical attack resistance
A great build as always. I'll be home again about this time next week. Much love.
My low equipment brawler ended up being a "Perfect specimen" type Tiefling based Dhampir. Mostly path of the beast barb, but 3 levels to rune knight as well. There is ZERO barbarian theme, he is a gentleman brawler. Rage is more of a . . . Razor instinct deal. Only piece of equipment is a full arm shield (bulky gauntlet style), with the shield master feat. The empty hand can punch in non threatening or role-playing situations, or can grapple when "raging", allowing you to attack with bite and tail.
AMA
Sounds really cool! I especially like hitting people with your tail. I'm curious, is it flavor for your unarmed strikes or is it treated as something else? Like how a creatures tail attack might differ from their claws or bite.
@@hayleykaye1751 It's actually hitting with the tail, an option granted by path of the beast barbarian. Having Tiefling as a base flavour gives a tail from the start, for a flavour win.
I played something very similar!
Interesting that you used bite and tail. I'd think that claws would be generally better (note you don't have to have both hands free to make two attacks with the claws, only one).
Rune Knight Fire rune actually works with the Barb claws, bite or tail, since they are treated as 'simple weapons' by the game (this causes some other issues, such as not working with the unarmed fighting style, but meh)
@@insertphrasehere15 Claws certainly may be better for sustained dps, that's true! However, I opted for a bit more resilience with the shield, and so have no free hands when grappling. Also, I just love the defensive reaction the tail gives! The bite is. . . Lesser utilized.
@@ARatherDapperTapir can you bite while grappling an enemy? That would be cool
Honestly one Build I would like for you to try is a Ranged Hexblade character. Basically you take a Hexblade. Give it probably a hand crossbow if you want to go Crossbow expert. And start sniping people from range. Maybe add sharpshooter in too. Alongwith a Gloomstalker ranger or a Fighter
You can also take 3 levels of Artificer and punch with Thunder damage!
Didn’t think about Armorer - good point, though of course, technically your gauntlet counts as a simple weapon… 🤔
@@DnDDeepDive yes, they do, so not technically unarmed, though you would only have to use them when punching through resistances.
You could always ask your dm to allow them to count as unarmed. If they're hesitant a good compromise could be using one of your item infusions to make them count as unarmed attacks, as if you had an infusion with that effect.
This is exactly what I was thinking while watching the video. 3 levels armor, 13 levels rune knight, 1 level rogue for expertise in athletics. Custom lineage to take tavern brawler, unarmed fighting style, tough feat, mobile feat, plate armor, heavy armor master feat as well. This was on the basis of rolling some decent stats too.
As a top laner in LoL I agree with your assessment. I have my own brawler build that enjoy. 3-4 levels of barbarian choosing path of the beast, 12 levels of fighter for battle master or echo knight. 2 levels in druid circle of spores. Leaving 2 levels to choose barbarian 6 or druid 4. For feat consideration I take duel wielder.
Beast barbarians when they race can create claws that deal 1d6 and grand an extra attack once per turn, these claws count as simple weapons. Because they are simple weapons and nit unarmed strikes they count towards duel wielder which allows you to make a bonus action attack. If you chose variant Human or custom lineage, and tookk duel wielderas your starting feat, that's 3 attacks at level 3. Once you get extra attack from fighter you get 4 attacks and at fighter 11 a total of 5 attacks per round. As mentioned before barbarian can't cast or concentrate on spells while raging, but they can use abilities like wildshape. As a spore druid you can use one of your wildshapes to gain temporary hit points, and while those hit points are up, deal 1d6 of necrotic damage per melee weapon attack, which your claws count as simple weapons. 5 attacks per round at 2d6 + str + rage seems good to me. The two remaining levels can go into barbarian to make your claws magical or druid for extra temporary hit points.
Alternative choice to battle master would be echo knight, since your echo can make a single attack whenever you take the attack action 5 attacks turn to 6 or if you action surge that's 10 attacks.
Magic items to look out for is the insignia of the claw since it works on unarmed and natural weapons. And potions of speed for the AC and extra action, which if you choose to attack would also trigger you echo knight clone which if you fully commit to attacking would be 12 attacks. Talk with your DM if you can grapple with your claws.
Solid build; I was stoked for this video and I was not disappointed.
Not the best option right now due to how it meaning another round of bonus action set up but the new shifter longtooth subrace is rumoured to have a bonus action bit attack that doesn't require a round of setup like the old one. That would be a good alternative to a monk level. I'd maybe go Longtooth fighter X/barbarian 4. Maybe picking battlemaster for the manoeuvres. You can grapple/shove prone two enemies and spend your time biting them. Huge and larger enemies will be a problem though unless you have a kind wizard friend willing to cast enlarge.
Battle Master is definitely a great option mechanically and flavor wise!
In Tasha’s there is a fighting style that lets you use a d8 for unarmed strikes if you aren’t wielding any weapons or a shield. There is also the new feat from Tasha’s called fighting initiate that let’s you get a fighting style. You could just not go into monk and get that feat from custom lineage and go barbarian-fighter
Did u watch the video?
One thing to point out; per the PHB, once you have Unarmored Defense from one source you can't gain the feature again from another (just like extra attack). As such you probably want to start with your 1 level in Barbarian, otherwise you'll be stuck with monk unarmored defense forever.
I'd been theory crafting a boxer build for a while, more like a little mac than anything. a boxer so no focus on grapples and i thought I'd share what i personally came up with (i want to point out i am not optimizing for damage fully there are most certainly better options damage wise)
Level 1: Monk, its already explained here why.
start out variant human, taking the crusher feat (its just really cool too punch someone so hard they move 5 feet back also plus one to str/con is nice)
assuming point buy the stats i started with are (after racials)
16 str: 14 dex: 14 con: 9 int: 14 wis: 8 cha:
as a side note you could start 15 con and 13 wis. but the 14 wis will give slightly better survivability at level 1, take your pick
2nd level: 1 fighter:
unarmed fighting style making 2 attacks per turn doing 2d8+6
3rd level: 1 barbarian:
similarly you want barbarians unarmored defense more and rage is great
5th level: 3 fighter:
i went with battle master as i think it fits better thematically, taking maneuvers like evasive foot work and feinting attack work really give the image of a boxer. evasive foot work is especially good here because with crusher your pushing most enemies out of melee range anyway leaving you free to move around
6th level: 4 fighter: I'd honestly just use this to pump strength, taking mobile is also i pick i like though for thematic and mechanical reasons
7th level: 5 fighter: you get your extra attack here
8th level: 2 barbarian: danger sense and reckless are great
9th level: 3 barbarian: i choose totem for even more tankieness i also think it works well thematically with a boxer being able to take damage well and stay standing
from here I put the rest into fighter making sure to grab mobile and pumping but strength and con, theres quite a bit of room for feats in this build since a lot of it is fighter a few of my favorite for thematic reasons would be athlete,charger,tough,mobile,martial innitiate,martial adept.
the biggest down sides to this build are obviously no magical damage to cover resistances, not amazing damage, not great AC and really not much out of combat utility.
however it is still a pretty tanky build thanks in most to rage with bear totem and it is flavorful as hell thanks to battle master.
this was my personal take on a similar build if you have any suggestions I'd love to hear em
As a toplaner, I'd say that rage is quite lore accurate for us. Nice video!
I did this a while back, with no monk:
V. Human -> Taver Brawler feat (+1CON and bonus action grapple). Try asking the DM for a pair of brass knuckles.
Lvl 1: Barb for the Rage and the 12+CON HP. The AC helps as well
Lvl 2: Fighter -> Unarmed Fighting for the damage dice increase
Lvl 3: Fighter for the combo (Rage - punch - punch - grapple)
Lvl 4: Fighter -> BM with Parry, Bait and Switch and Evasive Footwork if you don't have the knuckles. If you do, pick whatever you like (I'd go Riposte, Trip Attack and Pushing Attack/Parry for the MMA feel).
Lvl 5: Barb if going for Bear Totem. Fighter all the way if not. Reckless should work only if you have the knuckles, I guess.
Lvl 6: Barb -> Bear Totem for resistances.
Lvl 7+: Fighter
As Todd Howard said: "It just works"
I recently visited this concept on my own and would like to propose a different version of my favourite MMA Street fighter build. It has the same issue about magic resistances though.
13 str 15 dex 15 con 8 int 12 wis 8 cha
Any race that allows you to pick three separate +1 for 16 dex 16 con 13 wis.
Level 1: Barb. This is mainly to get our Unarmored Defense to scale off Dex and Con. We do get a couple of rage charges for when shit hits the fan, but we won't get the damage from Rage since we are using dex.
Level 2: Monk 1. Allows us to use Dex for unarmed strikes and gives us a bonus action punch.
Level 3 onwards: Fighter! I'd take battlemaster for those sweet maneuvers that look like MMA techniques like Pushing attack, Trip, disarming and what not. Fighting style is obviously Unarmed for those heavy hitting punches.
Now since you're leveling fighter you get extra ASIs so leveling Dex and Con to your leisure will also give you insanely high AC, or you can grab Mobile / Sentinel if that's what you prefer. You don't need polearm master / GWM so plenty of room to go forward. Arguably could grab levels in something else but eh.
I 100% adore these Colby, but man oh man, you would go HAM if you did some Pathfinder 2 character builds :D It is such a detailed and versatile system and it has bloody good bones!
a really fun grappler build I've done was a goliath. I started barbarian 1 then 5 monk 2 more barb then monk the rest of the way. as a goliath you get athletic build which has an interesting interaction with grappling, because you count as a size category larger for pushing pulling and DRAGing you can actually drag medium size creatures your full speed. its a fringe benefit but if your dm is good with interesting terrain... similar to yours the barbarian rage is amazing for grappling and I love the grapple to flurry of blows combo. open hand lets me knock prone on the the attack for the makeshift stun and bear totem for the survivability. my favorite moment of his career was elbow dropping the back of a tyrannosaurus so hard it collapsed for a round.
I understand people wanted a non-monk build they just need to realize that monk as a class doesn't neseccarily mean "lives in a monastery and learns martial arts" it just means "I don't need weapons because I am the weapon"
Currently playing this character and having a great time. I'm roleplaying him as a big dumb barbarian and in a recent combat encounter I attacked and successfully grappled a beholder and held it to the ground while the rest of the party beat him to death LOL. I just hit level 6 so with giants might unlocked things should get even more fun.
I was trying to figure out a character like this one for quite a while. Thank you!
Honestly? This is a brawler build I can get behind. Let's you really embrace that "MMA" feel of a Brawler, while bringing a load of utility aside from "grab and hit stuff".
Me personally, I'd likely go bear totem with this particular build because, moar tanky, and more effective hit points vs more elements.
Also Acton Surge gives you a Lot more options with this build than you would think.
And all those reactions? Muah. Chef's kiss. We're just doing stuff all the time. Great work as always.
I know you don't account for magic items, but if your dm allows (or just wants to give you one) take the eldritch claw tattoo. Your unarmed strikes count as magical (for overcoming resistance), +1 to hit and dmg, increases the range to 15ft, and gives an extra d6 force dmg!
My take on the unarmed combatant is a Lizardfolk Path of the Beast Barbarian with the Tavern Brawler feat. With the claw option you get two 1d6 attacks pro attack action and you can grapple a creature with a bonus action. And thanks to the Tavern Brawler feat you can use the grappled creature as a improvised weapon. There is also the level 6 features of the Path of the Beast that gives you magical attacks and grants you a psiodo spider climb. Take than 4 levels in fighter and pick the Battle Master subclass. Now you are a big lizard that can knock your enemies prone and then pounce on them and shred them into pieces using your jaws, claws and tail.
For a while I've been sorta back and forth on offing myself. DND was really one of the only things I enjoyed. I tried making a homebrew subclass to try and do exactly this. I posted it on Reddit and was told it was so bad that i shouldn't even try and fix it. Im really glad even if my awful subclass doesn't work im glad i can still do this.
Hang in there friend! ❤️
A Tabaxi would also be a good race to choose because of there claw attacks😁
I made some cool items like the lion wrist wraps that are leather fighter wraps that do magical damage and the damage for those made the attack slashing magical and you could burn a charge for an extra d6 of force damage.
Also made greaves that did lightning or thunder damage for unarmed strikes and let you teleport once per day as a bonus action after attacking.
You can easily flavor use a shield! This character turns heel and grabs a steel chair bah gawd!
I've said it before and I'll say it again... please never stop putting the outtakes at the end of the video
Just wanted to add, base human can also start with 16 str/con, 14 dex, 13 wis, with 9/9 int/cha. Since it’s so MAD, you get some mileage from the +1 down the line.