Lonely Tylenol
First Post
Over in another thread, people were complaining about the monk. Some people say the monk is too oriental, too kung-fu movie, or just too specific to cover more than just a single genre of unarmed fighter. So I made an unarmed fighter that should be able to cover every genre by being generic enough that it can stand in for anyone who fights unarmed. The class table is linked in the description below, since you just can't do tables on this board. Thoughts?
Alternative monk class: The Bruiser
While most soldiers and warriors learn to fight with heavy weapons and armour to better do battle with their foes, certain individuals learn to use their own bodies as weapons. They practice striking and grappling, learning how to best use leverage and momentum to break bones, crush organs, and twist joints, as well as learning the best ways to avoid blows and grabs. The bruiser treats his body as a tool, learning to hone and perfect it, mastering the art of applying force, both to his enemies and to himself. He leaps around the battlefield, dodging and weaving, his effortless movements propelling him faster and farther than armoured fighters could dream of. Master of speed and power, the bruiser wades into the thick of battle with nothing but his raw power and agility, and overcomes foes by skill and determination.
The local thug who breaks legs for his boss might be a bruiser. The champion of a primitive tribe who wrestles crocodiles to prove his might is probably a bruiser. The massive hero who wears little into battle but a loincloth and some linen to wrap his fists is a bruiser.
Adventurers: Bruisers often find themselves caught up in adventures just because they happen to be in the right place at the right time. Not needing equipment or the implements of magic, they are always ready for a fight, and are always eager to test themselves against a potential foe. Bruisers often find themselves getting involved in complicated situations just because they were unwilling to back down from a conflict.
Background: Many bruisers are self-taught, learning their skills on the streets by fighting. Sometimes this is for survival, and sometimes just for the challenge. Others are trained by a mentor who beats the lessons into his student who either learns quickly or spends all his time recovering from the pedagogical bludgeonings. A few schools have appeared, particularly among gladiators, who appreciate the spectacle of a single man capable of wrestling a bear to the death, and among these schools various styles have been pursued to achieve different effects with technique.
Races: Bruisers are found among all races, but the sturdier races are more inclined to follow this martial path. Dwarves, half-orcs, and humans are well-suited to the demanding lifestyle, while elves and halflings may find the focus on fisticuffs overly brutish and lacking finesse. On the other hand, the small races often find that they can surprise larger foes who might underestimate a short, unarmed humanoid.
Other classes: Bruisers like a good fight, and they like those who also enjoy battle. They can be found trading battle tips with fighters and barbarians, or practicing their tumbling with rogues. They have little use for arcane spellcasters except as backup, but tend to view them as “soft target” liabilities. They find clerics useful only as far as they can carry their own weight in a fight, but often view them as medics more than anything.
Role: A bruiser’s primary role in an adventuring group is as a highly mobile front-line head basher. Lacking much of the technical precision of a fighter or the barbarian’s ability to act as a shock trooper, the basher instead can hold his own against multiple opponents, although his ranged attack capability is limited. He is difficult to outmanoeuvre, and can outgrapple most opponents, making him tough to pin down. The bruiser excels at fighting against overwhelming odds, which helps to keep the mobs of enemies away from the less resilient party members.
Changes:
• Good BAB
• d10 hit dice
• Bad Will save
• No greater flurry
• Changed some class skills
• AC bonus as Oathsworn*, no Wis bonus to AC.
• Changes to special abilities
o Removed: Still mind, Ki strike, Purity of body, Wholeness of body, Diamond body, Abundant step, Diamond soul, Quivering palm, Timeless body, tongue of the sun and moon, Empty body, Perfect self
o Added: Shattering blow*, Lesser shattering strike*, Greater shattering strike*, Uncanny dodge/Improved uncanny dodge, Opportunist
* designates content derived from Monte Cook's Arcana Evolved
Rationale:
• The flavour of the class, such as it is, is generic like the fighter. It is intended to fill a number of roles, from a tough-as-nails street fighter to a showy expert wrestler to a leg-breaking thug, or even an eastern-style martial artist, minus the ki powers.
• Bonus feats left alone to allow character to be able to use fighting styles from Unearthed Arcana and Dragon magazine, many of which would work well for this generic martial artist. Also, they’re just useful feats for brawlers.
• I want this class to be a front-line fighter, a stand-in for a fighter or barbarian in a balanced party, not a “5th wheel” like the monk. BAB is increased to 1:1, HP increased to d10, and armour bonus is uncoupled from Wis, to reduce multiple ability dependency.
• Some other additions to help the character “mix it up” include uncanny dodge and opportunist, to help get him into the thick of it without being easily surrounded and overcome.
• To reduce the “mystic martial artist” angle, ki strike was removed and replaced with the shattering blow/shattering strike tree, which provides a generic ability to overcome damage reduction, rather than an alignment-focused one.
• To help prevent overdoing it at higher levels, greater flurry was removed.
Table 1: The bruiser
Abilities: Strength is important for bruisers because of its role in combat, while Dexterity can help compensate for the bruiser’s limited armour class as well as assist his mobility through the use of skills. Wisdom can also be useful to support the bruiser’s skills, as well as compensate for his weak Will saves, and Constitution can help him live longer.
Hit Die: d10
Class Skills: The bruiser’s class skills (and the key ability for each skill) are Balance (Dex), Climb (Str), Craft (Int), Escape Artist (Dex), Hide (Dex), Intimidate (Cha), Jump (Str), Listen (Wis), Move Silently (Dex), Perform (Cha), Profession (Wis), Sense Motive (Wis), Spot (Wis), Swim (Str), and Tumble (Dex).
Skill points at 1st level: (4 + Int modifier) x4.
Skill points at each additional level: 4 + Int modifier.
Weapon and armour proficiency: Bruisers are proficient with club, crossbow (light or heavy), dagger, handaxe, javelin, kukri, and quarterstaff. Bruisers are not proficient with any armour or shields. When wearing armour, using a shield, or carrying a medium or heavy load, a bruiser loses her AC bonus, as well as her fast movement and flurry of blows abilities.
Flurry of Blows (Ex): When unarmoured, a bruiser may strike with a flurry of blows at the expense of accuracy. When doing so, she may make one extra attack in a round at her highest base attack bonus, but this attack takes a -2 penalty, as does each other attack made that round. The resulting modified base attack bonuses are shown in the Flurry of Blows Attack Bonus column on Table: The Bruiser. This penalty applies for 1 round, so it also affects attacks of opportunity the bruiser might make before her next action. When a monk reaches 5th level, the penalty lessens to -1, and at 9th level it disappears. A bruiser must use a full attack action to strike with a flurry of blows.
When using flurry of blows, a bruiser may attack only with unarmed strikes or with certain weapons (club, dagger, kukri, quarterstaff). She may attack with unarmed strikes and special weapons interchangeably as desired. When using weapons as part of a flurry of blows, a bruiser applies her Strength bonus (not Str bonus × 1½ or ×½) to her damage rolls for all successful attacks, whether she wields a weapon in one or both hands. The bruiser can’t use any weapon other than a special monk weapon as part of a flurry of blows.
In the case of the quarterstaff, each end counts as a separate weapon for the purpose of using the flurry of blows ability. Even though the quarterstaff requires two hands to use, a bruiser may still intersperse unarmed strikes with quarterstaff strikes, assuming that she has enough attacks in her flurry of blows routine to do so.
Unarmed Strike: At 1st level, a bruiser gains Improved Unarmed Strike as a bonus feat. A bruiser’s attacks may be with either fist interchangeably or even from elbows, knees, and feet. This means that a bruiser may even make unarmed strikes with her hands full. There is no such thing as an off-hand attack for a bruiser striking unarmed. A bruiser may thus apply her full Strength bonus on damage rolls for all her unarmed strikes.
Usually a bruiser’s unarmed strikes deal lethal damage, but she can choose to deal nonlethal damage instead with no penalty on her attack roll. She has the same choice to deal lethal or nonlethal damage while grappling.
A bruiser’s unarmed strike is treated both as a manufactured weapon and a natural weapon for the purpose of spells and effects that enhance or improve either manufactured weapons or natural weapons.
A bruiser also deals more damage with her unarmed strikes than a normal person would, as shown on the table. The unarmed damage on the table is for Medium bruisers. A Small bruiser deals less damage than the amount given there with her unarmed attacks, while a Large bruiser deals more damage; see Player’s Handbook Table: 3-11 Small or Large Monk Unarmed Damage.
AC bonus (Ex): As he gains levels, a bruiser’s Armour Class improves with an insight bonus. This Armour Class bonus represents a preternatural awareness of danger, and a bruiser does not lose it even in situations when he loses his Dexterity modifier to AC due to being unprepared, ambushed, stunned, and so on. He loses this bonus when immobilized or helpless, when he wears any armour, when he carries a shield, or when he carries a medium or heavy load. Bruisers also lose this Armour Class bonus when immobilized.
Bonus Feat: At 1st level, a bruiser may select either Improved Grapple or Stunning Fist as a bonus feat. At 2nd level, she may select either Combat Reflexes or Deflect Arrows as a bonus feat. At 6th level, she may select either Improved Disarm or Improved Trip as a bonus feat. At 11th level, she receives Improved Critical (unarmed strike) as a bonus feat. A bruiser need not have any of the prerequisites normally required for these feats to select them.
Shattering blow (Su): At 2nd level and higher, the bruiser can take a full-round action to make a single powerful strike. The unarmed strike ignores 1 point of a creature’s damage reduction for each bruiser class level. So a 3rd-level bruiser ignores 3 points of damage reduction. This ability also applies to object hardness.
Evasion (Ex): At 3nd level or higher if a bruiser makes a successful Reflex saving throw against an attack that normally deals half damage on a successful save, she instead takes no damage. Evasion can be used only if a bruiser is wearing light armor or no armor. A helpless bruiser does not gain the benefit of evasion.
Fast Movement (Ex): At 3rd level, a bruiser gains an enhancement bonus to her speed, as shown on the table. A bruiser in armor or carrying a medium or heavy load loses this extra speed.
Uncanny Dodge (Ex): At 4th level, a bruiser retains his Dexterity bonus to AC (if any) even if he is caught flat-footed or struck by an invisible attacker. However, he still loses his Dexterity bonus to AC if immobilized. If a bruiser already has uncanny dodge from a different class, he automatically gains improved uncanny dodge instead.
Lesser Shattering Strike (Su): Beginning at 7th level, the bruiser’s strike becomes more ruinous, ignoring damage reduction on every blow. The unarmed strike ignores 1 point of a creature’s damage reduction for every two bruiser class levels. So a 7th-level bruiser ignores 3 points of damage reduction. This ability also applies to object hardness.
Improved Uncanny Dodge (Ex): At 8th level and higher, a bruiser can no longer be flanked. This defense denies a rogue the ability to sneak attack the bruiser by flanking him, unless the attacker has at least four more rogue levels than the target has bruiser levels. If a character already has uncanny dodge from a second class, the character automatically gains improved uncanny dodge instead, and the levels from the classes that grant uncanny dodge stack to determine the minimum level a rogue must be to flank the character.
Improved Evasion (Ex): At 10th level, a bruiser’s evasion ability improves. She still takes no damage on a successful Reflex saving throw against attacks, but henceforth she takes only half damage on a failed save. A helpless bruiser does not gain the benefit of improved evasion.
Skill Mastery (Ex): At 12th level the bruiser’s agility and body control allow him to move around the battlefield effortlessly even when stressed. When using the Balance, Tumble, or Jump skills, he may take 10 even if stress and distraction normally would prevent him from doing so.
Opportunist (Ex): Once per round beginning at 15th level, the bruiser can make an attack of opportunity against an opponent who has just been struck for damage in melee by another character. This attack counts as the bruiser’s attack of opportunity for that round. Even a bruiser with the Combat Reflexes feat can’t use the opportunist ability more than once per round.
Greater Shattering Strike (Su): At 18th level, a bruiser’s ability to land devastating blows increases. Each unarmed strike she makes ignores 1 point of a creature’s damage reduction for every class level. So an 18th-level bruiser ignores 18 points of damage reduction. This ability also applies to object hardness.
Alternative monk class: The Bruiser
While most soldiers and warriors learn to fight with heavy weapons and armour to better do battle with their foes, certain individuals learn to use their own bodies as weapons. They practice striking and grappling, learning how to best use leverage and momentum to break bones, crush organs, and twist joints, as well as learning the best ways to avoid blows and grabs. The bruiser treats his body as a tool, learning to hone and perfect it, mastering the art of applying force, both to his enemies and to himself. He leaps around the battlefield, dodging and weaving, his effortless movements propelling him faster and farther than armoured fighters could dream of. Master of speed and power, the bruiser wades into the thick of battle with nothing but his raw power and agility, and overcomes foes by skill and determination.
The local thug who breaks legs for his boss might be a bruiser. The champion of a primitive tribe who wrestles crocodiles to prove his might is probably a bruiser. The massive hero who wears little into battle but a loincloth and some linen to wrap his fists is a bruiser.
Adventurers: Bruisers often find themselves caught up in adventures just because they happen to be in the right place at the right time. Not needing equipment or the implements of magic, they are always ready for a fight, and are always eager to test themselves against a potential foe. Bruisers often find themselves getting involved in complicated situations just because they were unwilling to back down from a conflict.
Background: Many bruisers are self-taught, learning their skills on the streets by fighting. Sometimes this is for survival, and sometimes just for the challenge. Others are trained by a mentor who beats the lessons into his student who either learns quickly or spends all his time recovering from the pedagogical bludgeonings. A few schools have appeared, particularly among gladiators, who appreciate the spectacle of a single man capable of wrestling a bear to the death, and among these schools various styles have been pursued to achieve different effects with technique.
Races: Bruisers are found among all races, but the sturdier races are more inclined to follow this martial path. Dwarves, half-orcs, and humans are well-suited to the demanding lifestyle, while elves and halflings may find the focus on fisticuffs overly brutish and lacking finesse. On the other hand, the small races often find that they can surprise larger foes who might underestimate a short, unarmed humanoid.
Other classes: Bruisers like a good fight, and they like those who also enjoy battle. They can be found trading battle tips with fighters and barbarians, or practicing their tumbling with rogues. They have little use for arcane spellcasters except as backup, but tend to view them as “soft target” liabilities. They find clerics useful only as far as they can carry their own weight in a fight, but often view them as medics more than anything.
Role: A bruiser’s primary role in an adventuring group is as a highly mobile front-line head basher. Lacking much of the technical precision of a fighter or the barbarian’s ability to act as a shock trooper, the basher instead can hold his own against multiple opponents, although his ranged attack capability is limited. He is difficult to outmanoeuvre, and can outgrapple most opponents, making him tough to pin down. The bruiser excels at fighting against overwhelming odds, which helps to keep the mobs of enemies away from the less resilient party members.
Changes:
• Good BAB
• d10 hit dice
• Bad Will save
• No greater flurry
• Changed some class skills
• AC bonus as Oathsworn*, no Wis bonus to AC.
• Changes to special abilities
o Removed: Still mind, Ki strike, Purity of body, Wholeness of body, Diamond body, Abundant step, Diamond soul, Quivering palm, Timeless body, tongue of the sun and moon, Empty body, Perfect self
o Added: Shattering blow*, Lesser shattering strike*, Greater shattering strike*, Uncanny dodge/Improved uncanny dodge, Opportunist
* designates content derived from Monte Cook's Arcana Evolved
Rationale:
• The flavour of the class, such as it is, is generic like the fighter. It is intended to fill a number of roles, from a tough-as-nails street fighter to a showy expert wrestler to a leg-breaking thug, or even an eastern-style martial artist, minus the ki powers.
• Bonus feats left alone to allow character to be able to use fighting styles from Unearthed Arcana and Dragon magazine, many of which would work well for this generic martial artist. Also, they’re just useful feats for brawlers.
• I want this class to be a front-line fighter, a stand-in for a fighter or barbarian in a balanced party, not a “5th wheel” like the monk. BAB is increased to 1:1, HP increased to d10, and armour bonus is uncoupled from Wis, to reduce multiple ability dependency.
• Some other additions to help the character “mix it up” include uncanny dodge and opportunist, to help get him into the thick of it without being easily surrounded and overcome.
• To reduce the “mystic martial artist” angle, ki strike was removed and replaced with the shattering blow/shattering strike tree, which provides a generic ability to overcome damage reduction, rather than an alignment-focused one.
• To help prevent overdoing it at higher levels, greater flurry was removed.
Table 1: The bruiser
Abilities: Strength is important for bruisers because of its role in combat, while Dexterity can help compensate for the bruiser’s limited armour class as well as assist his mobility through the use of skills. Wisdom can also be useful to support the bruiser’s skills, as well as compensate for his weak Will saves, and Constitution can help him live longer.
Hit Die: d10
Class Skills: The bruiser’s class skills (and the key ability for each skill) are Balance (Dex), Climb (Str), Craft (Int), Escape Artist (Dex), Hide (Dex), Intimidate (Cha), Jump (Str), Listen (Wis), Move Silently (Dex), Perform (Cha), Profession (Wis), Sense Motive (Wis), Spot (Wis), Swim (Str), and Tumble (Dex).
Skill points at 1st level: (4 + Int modifier) x4.
Skill points at each additional level: 4 + Int modifier.
Weapon and armour proficiency: Bruisers are proficient with club, crossbow (light or heavy), dagger, handaxe, javelin, kukri, and quarterstaff. Bruisers are not proficient with any armour or shields. When wearing armour, using a shield, or carrying a medium or heavy load, a bruiser loses her AC bonus, as well as her fast movement and flurry of blows abilities.
Flurry of Blows (Ex): When unarmoured, a bruiser may strike with a flurry of blows at the expense of accuracy. When doing so, she may make one extra attack in a round at her highest base attack bonus, but this attack takes a -2 penalty, as does each other attack made that round. The resulting modified base attack bonuses are shown in the Flurry of Blows Attack Bonus column on Table: The Bruiser. This penalty applies for 1 round, so it also affects attacks of opportunity the bruiser might make before her next action. When a monk reaches 5th level, the penalty lessens to -1, and at 9th level it disappears. A bruiser must use a full attack action to strike with a flurry of blows.
When using flurry of blows, a bruiser may attack only with unarmed strikes or with certain weapons (club, dagger, kukri, quarterstaff). She may attack with unarmed strikes and special weapons interchangeably as desired. When using weapons as part of a flurry of blows, a bruiser applies her Strength bonus (not Str bonus × 1½ or ×½) to her damage rolls for all successful attacks, whether she wields a weapon in one or both hands. The bruiser can’t use any weapon other than a special monk weapon as part of a flurry of blows.
In the case of the quarterstaff, each end counts as a separate weapon for the purpose of using the flurry of blows ability. Even though the quarterstaff requires two hands to use, a bruiser may still intersperse unarmed strikes with quarterstaff strikes, assuming that she has enough attacks in her flurry of blows routine to do so.
Unarmed Strike: At 1st level, a bruiser gains Improved Unarmed Strike as a bonus feat. A bruiser’s attacks may be with either fist interchangeably or even from elbows, knees, and feet. This means that a bruiser may even make unarmed strikes with her hands full. There is no such thing as an off-hand attack for a bruiser striking unarmed. A bruiser may thus apply her full Strength bonus on damage rolls for all her unarmed strikes.
Usually a bruiser’s unarmed strikes deal lethal damage, but she can choose to deal nonlethal damage instead with no penalty on her attack roll. She has the same choice to deal lethal or nonlethal damage while grappling.
A bruiser’s unarmed strike is treated both as a manufactured weapon and a natural weapon for the purpose of spells and effects that enhance or improve either manufactured weapons or natural weapons.
A bruiser also deals more damage with her unarmed strikes than a normal person would, as shown on the table. The unarmed damage on the table is for Medium bruisers. A Small bruiser deals less damage than the amount given there with her unarmed attacks, while a Large bruiser deals more damage; see Player’s Handbook Table: 3-11 Small or Large Monk Unarmed Damage.
AC bonus (Ex): As he gains levels, a bruiser’s Armour Class improves with an insight bonus. This Armour Class bonus represents a preternatural awareness of danger, and a bruiser does not lose it even in situations when he loses his Dexterity modifier to AC due to being unprepared, ambushed, stunned, and so on. He loses this bonus when immobilized or helpless, when he wears any armour, when he carries a shield, or when he carries a medium or heavy load. Bruisers also lose this Armour Class bonus when immobilized.
Bonus Feat: At 1st level, a bruiser may select either Improved Grapple or Stunning Fist as a bonus feat. At 2nd level, she may select either Combat Reflexes or Deflect Arrows as a bonus feat. At 6th level, she may select either Improved Disarm or Improved Trip as a bonus feat. At 11th level, she receives Improved Critical (unarmed strike) as a bonus feat. A bruiser need not have any of the prerequisites normally required for these feats to select them.
Shattering blow (Su): At 2nd level and higher, the bruiser can take a full-round action to make a single powerful strike. The unarmed strike ignores 1 point of a creature’s damage reduction for each bruiser class level. So a 3rd-level bruiser ignores 3 points of damage reduction. This ability also applies to object hardness.
Evasion (Ex): At 3nd level or higher if a bruiser makes a successful Reflex saving throw against an attack that normally deals half damage on a successful save, she instead takes no damage. Evasion can be used only if a bruiser is wearing light armor or no armor. A helpless bruiser does not gain the benefit of evasion.
Fast Movement (Ex): At 3rd level, a bruiser gains an enhancement bonus to her speed, as shown on the table. A bruiser in armor or carrying a medium or heavy load loses this extra speed.
Uncanny Dodge (Ex): At 4th level, a bruiser retains his Dexterity bonus to AC (if any) even if he is caught flat-footed or struck by an invisible attacker. However, he still loses his Dexterity bonus to AC if immobilized. If a bruiser already has uncanny dodge from a different class, he automatically gains improved uncanny dodge instead.
Lesser Shattering Strike (Su): Beginning at 7th level, the bruiser’s strike becomes more ruinous, ignoring damage reduction on every blow. The unarmed strike ignores 1 point of a creature’s damage reduction for every two bruiser class levels. So a 7th-level bruiser ignores 3 points of damage reduction. This ability also applies to object hardness.
Improved Uncanny Dodge (Ex): At 8th level and higher, a bruiser can no longer be flanked. This defense denies a rogue the ability to sneak attack the bruiser by flanking him, unless the attacker has at least four more rogue levels than the target has bruiser levels. If a character already has uncanny dodge from a second class, the character automatically gains improved uncanny dodge instead, and the levels from the classes that grant uncanny dodge stack to determine the minimum level a rogue must be to flank the character.
Improved Evasion (Ex): At 10th level, a bruiser’s evasion ability improves. She still takes no damage on a successful Reflex saving throw against attacks, but henceforth she takes only half damage on a failed save. A helpless bruiser does not gain the benefit of improved evasion.
Skill Mastery (Ex): At 12th level the bruiser’s agility and body control allow him to move around the battlefield effortlessly even when stressed. When using the Balance, Tumble, or Jump skills, he may take 10 even if stress and distraction normally would prevent him from doing so.
Opportunist (Ex): Once per round beginning at 15th level, the bruiser can make an attack of opportunity against an opponent who has just been struck for damage in melee by another character. This attack counts as the bruiser’s attack of opportunity for that round. Even a bruiser with the Combat Reflexes feat can’t use the opportunist ability more than once per round.
Greater Shattering Strike (Su): At 18th level, a bruiser’s ability to land devastating blows increases. Each unarmed strike she makes ignores 1 point of a creature’s damage reduction for every class level. So an 18th-level bruiser ignores 18 points of damage reduction. This ability also applies to object hardness.
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