Way of the Shadow Grappler
Way of the Shadow Grappler:
4fight/9mystic/6monk/1rogue
I like highest in Dex, need at least 13 in str or dex, int, and wis for multiclassing. Vanilla Human with +1 to all can go a long way if you're limited on stats. Cha is a stat dump.
Feats: Lucky, Skulker
I leave off strength because other than adding a single point in athletics per 2 stats, it adds nothing of value for me. Until hopefully a later fix, Grappler feat is next to worthless as well. The virtually invisible decrease and having constant advantage to strength checks rgardless made me okay with lowering it for a more useful dex score. 1 each from int and wis can go to strength if you'd prefer, but I am comfortable leaving it at 12.
1st: Fighter1, dueling, insight, perception, con save
- Start with default medium armor and martial weapon (katana and shuriken for style points)
- Take Dueling style to add 2 damage for all melee one handed attacks, including unarmed
- Chosen first for proficiency in con saves for our precious concentration spells
2nd: Mystic1, Mastery of Force focus, Inertial Armor, Giant Growth
- Always have advantage on strength checks, including athletics
- Can gain 10 temp hp for 2 psi, a huge amount for low level
- Grow to large with extra 1d4 melee and increase reach for 1 min conc
- Can also opt to see through magical darkness but forego strength adv; useful for fighting in darkness if you want to forego grappling
- Switch to unarmored and use Inertial armor to reach 17ac
3rd: Monk1, unarmored, martial arts, 1d4
- Katana and shuriken will apply as monk weapons. Inertial is better than dex+wis, but you can get some sweet black gi to wear
4th: Monk2, ki, movement
- Increase walk speed with the option to dash, disengage, double jump height, or dodge
5th: Monk3, deflect missiles, shadow arts
- Much tougher to ranged damage
- Can now cast darkness or silence for 2 ki, conc.
6th: Fighter2, action surge
- Can now surge after casting darkness/silence and immediately grapple to hold a target in
7th: Monk4, ASI, slow fall
- As good a time as any to take Lucky and smooth over those occasional bad rolls, 3/day
8th: Monk5, extra attack, 1d6 martial arts
- Can now grapple two or grapple+shove in the same round
9th: Monk6, unarmed damage becomes magical, unarmored movement, shadow step
- Significant increase to movement and a free 60ft teleport while hiding
10th: Rogue1, expertise, sneak attack
- Big bump to Athletics; after 9th level that’s already +4. Proficiency in stealth. Guaranteed extra 1d6 to targets with Sneak Attack
11th: Mystic2, mystic recovery, telepathy
- Darkness from discipline is now viable to use over the wizard spell as it requires no conc
12th: Mystic3, Wu Jen, discipline, 3 psi limit
- Now always self-heal for the amount of psi you spend
- Take Bestial Form to gain additional 2 ac; can also gain gills to drown grapple
- Perfect Senses from Bestial Form, 3 psi to have blindsense is redundant, but an option now
- Can now summon two Shadows to Strength Drain your grapple targets to death
13th: Mystic4, ASI
- I like to take Skulker to ensure stealth checks in dim light or behind your own allies/illusion
14th: Mystic5, discipline, /5
- Iron Durability for 1-7 as reaction to your AC and an option for +1 AC as focus
- Can now fly with Bestial Form
15th: Mystic6, Wu Jen
- Take Order of the Wu Jen for a few useful spells.
- With extra psi to spend you have the option to dump with Bestial Claws to augment your unarmed strikes, a d10 for every psi, as a free action as many times in a round as you want, while mystic recovery is simultaneously restoring you.
16th: Mystic7, discipline, 6 psi limit
- Take Brute Force mystic discipline to really take your jump height places. Combine with Jump and Feather Fall from Wu Jen to achieve max fall damage to grapple victims
17th: Mystic8, ASI, potent psionics
- Potent Psionics adds another 1d8 once a round when you hit
- Take +2 dex for armor, attack, damage, initiative, reflex, and stealth increase
18th: Mystic9, discipline, 7 psi limit
- Psionic Restoration to heal yourself and your allies with your many psi points
19th: Fighter3, Battle Master
- Take disarming, menacing, and trip. It’s nothing that you can’t do without the special resource, but it can be useful for action economy and shorten setup. DC is based on proficiency and dex, so it’s a high chance for you.
20th: Fighter4, ASI
- Take +2 dex for armor, attack, damage, initiative, reflex, and stealth increase
End up with 13 in athletics, 11 in stealth, 21 ac, 6 ki, and 57 psi points.
A word on Wu Jen:
Order of the Immortal is redundant with monk and Nomad is redundant with Way of the Shadow. Shadow is the only place a monk/mystic is getting Silence to shut down casters. Meanwhile, Order of the Wu Jen can give us a handful of great effects from the wizard spell list:
- Familiar: Bat (2 psi, 1 hour cast time) is a great partner with 60ft blindsense, for the occasional help action, or a myriad of other awesome uses. Just don’t let him get hit.
- Jump (2 psi, no conc) triples jump height, even the silly amounts from the Brute Force discipline, making your sky suplexes higher than Mighty Leap alone can reach at a more economical psi cost
- Feather Fall (2 psi, reaction) to have the effect of Air focus 3 levels earlier, making the order of which disciplines to learn much less stressful. It’s only good for one drop per cast because the spell ends when you touch the ground.
You can change which spell you prepare each mystic level, and if you’d like to change a spell you could opt for:
- Dispel Magic (5 psi). You can’t perform the verbal component from within Silence, but you can cast this from up to 120 feet as long as you can see the target. Recall that this also applies to if your familiar can see the target when viewing through its senses.
Some notes about Battle Master Maneuvers:
- You have 4 maneuvers to use between short rests, combined with action surge and second wind also restored on a short rest, encourage liberal use of them and to find rests where you can get ‘em.
- Maneuvers work on any weapon hit, so multiple attempts of effects tagged onto your flurry is a possibility. If nothing else, it’s added 1d8 damage for each
- RAW, a grapple is a Special melee attack, so maneuvers could apply to a grapple check. You could disarm and grapple in the same action, do the same to another target, then pull them both away from their weapons. How do you manage with only two hands? Badass judo tricks using their own limbs against them, such as using the arm of the first guy to block and trap the attack of the second, your free hand to take his weapon.
- Also works on an attack of opportunity, so if a target attempts to flee your dark/silent radius, you can roll to trip with the OA
A reasonable alternative to 3 and 4 in fighter would be to reach 11 in mystic:
- 11th level mystic gets a large increase in psi points between normal resource growth, special resource in psionic mastery (but no truly tantalizing conc combinations), and a final reserve of psi points taken out of your max health, up to a possible total of 23 more psi points available per day. Already sitting at 57 psi points, you don’t have to have it, but it’s nice.
- Loses one ASI, so 2 less in dexterity
Way of the Shadow Grappler:
Preparation Round: 11 psi
- Start with Force focus, Familiar active(2 psi), 6 psi of spellslots (6 psi),
- Use action to cast Minor Illusion; I like to make the screeching noises of dozens of bats while my familiar flaps distractingly in the air to misdirect them. Oh yeah, we’re getting spooky.
- Use Bonus to cast Tough Hide (2 psi)
- hide with advantage
Round 1, Lights Out: 3-4 ki
- Use action to cast Darkness from the mystic discipline (1 psi per 10ft radius, no con, easily better than the wizard spell) and use the bat as the object it’s centered on, then telepathically tell it to fly over targets just out of their melee attack reach
- Use bonus to change focus to Mastery of Light and Darkness to see through your magical darkness
Round 2, Shadow Boxing: Extra ki, psi, and conc as desired
- Good for filling an enclosed space with Darkness that they can’t simply run out of
- Enjoy fighting with advantage (Bat within 5 feet) while they are blind and you aren’t
- Use attack, extra attack and bonus attack (3 unarmed hits using bonus action)
- Use attack, extra attack and flurry of blows (4 unarmed hits using bonus action, 1 ki)
- Can opt to grow large (2 psi) or huge (7 psi)(conc) to further boost melee as a bonus action, but expand darkness accordingly
- Guaranteed Sneak Attacks, 1d6, once per round, and Potent Psionics, 1d8 per round
- Can use Bestial Claws to boost freely, 1d10 per psi, free action with any unarmed attacks
Or:
Round 1, Ready for Takeoff: 4-9 psi, conc
- Use action to cast Jump (2 psi, 1 min)
- Use bonus to grow large (2 psi) or huge (7 psi)(conc)
- Stay hidden
Round 2, Meteor Strike: up to 4-10 psi, 0-1 ki
- Use bonus to Dash or Disengage if needed (1 ki)
- Move 10 feet to get high jump if needed, doubled from Step of the Wind
- Use action to grapple, extra to grapple two, with advantage
- Hulk Jump!
- 2-3 psi of Mighty Leap, option of double from ki, triple from Jump, as large or huge should easily push you in excess of 200 feet or 20d6 and leave the targets prone
- Land one of three ways:
o Use reaction to cast Feather Fall (2 psi) when under 60 feet to the ground, releasing grapple before you do.
o Can also opt to cast Flight (5 psi) as bonus to better maneuver and hold a target until the very last second if you think they have a spell to avoid damage. Still use Jump for faster ascent and sprout wings on the way down while grappling.
o Even without Feather Fall or Flight, at Monk level 6 your slow fall negates 30 damage, plus temp hp is your threshold to take no damage and land safely. If Huge, you have 30 temp hp and therefore ignore 60 fall damage, the highest possible damage of a drop from 100 feet or 10d6. If you do this, apply all that damage to the target(s) you land on. Consider it a reflex save to avoid, which prone targets such as the ones you just dropped don’t have.
- Aim to land adjacent to them if they aren’t dead or land in a shadow if there are more enemies. If you didn’t use extra attack yet, you can try aiming to knock someone prone and grapple.
Or:
Round 1, Quiet Time: 2 ki, conc.
- Use action to cast Silence on the floor under a caster (2 ki, conc); they’ll probably leave spell on their turn
- Use bonus to shadow step behind where you predict they will run
Round 2, Bullying, conc.
- Use bonus to shadow step if needed nearest to where casters went
- Use action to grapple, extra attack to grapple two
- Use movement and/or mighty leap as needed to reach Silence area
- Use extra attack to shove prone if you didn’t use it yet
Or:
Round 1, Shadow Gathering: 5-10 psi, conc.
- Use action to summon two Shadows (3 psi, conc.) and keep them hidden
- Shadow Step to hide as needed
Round 2, The Azkaban Treatment: 0-3 psi, conc.
- Use action and extra attack to grapple two targets or grapple/shove one
- Have Shadows continue to hit with Strength Drain with advantage, lowering strength score and potentially killing them if they reach 0
- Throw in a timely intimidation to assert total dominance
Any round while grappling:
Ground Control: Extra ki and psi as desired
- Use Shove (athletics) as needed to prone 1-2 grappled targets
- Use strength contest to take their weapon away, movement to drag them away from it
- It’s not in the rules, but there’s no reason to say you couldn’t use a strength check to apply your martial arts know-how and seriously break an opponent’s bones once prone. Submissions are dangerous, yo.
- Use attack and bonus attack (1 extra unarmed hit as bonus action)
- Use attack and flurry of blows (2 unarmed hits as bonus action, 1 ki)
- Guaranteed Sneak Attacks, 1d6, once per round
- Use Bestial Claws to boost freely, 1d10 per psi, free action with any attacks
Action Surge can be used to combine any two of these rounds, and superiority die can shorten actions required. With good initiative or surprise, you could pull off the Round 2 effects before they even move. Use it again after a short rest.
Shadow Beasts:
If not using conc on Giant Growth or Silence, you can create two Shadows (3 psi, conc). Shadow stat block:
SHADOW
Medium undead, chaotic evil
Armor Class 12
Hit Points 16 (3d8 + 3)
Speed 40ft.
STR 6 (- 2) / DEX 14 (+2) / CON 13 (+1) / INT 6 (- 2) / WIS 10 (+0) / CHA 8 (-1)
Skills Stealth +4 (+6 in dim light or darkness)
Damage Vulnerabilities radiant
Damage Resistances acid, cold, fire, lightning,
thunder; bludgeoning, piercing, and slashing from
non magical weapons
Damage Immunities necrotic, poison
Condition Immunities exhaustion, frightened, grappled,
paralyzed, petrified, poisoned, prone, restrained
Senses darkvision 60ft., passive Perception 10
Languages -
Challenge 1/2 (100 XP)
Amorphous. The shadow can move through a space as narrow
as 1 inch wide without squeezing.
Shadow Stealth. While in dim light or darkness, the shadow
can take the Hide action as a bonus action.
Sunlight Weakness. While in sunlight, the shadow has
disadvantage on attack rolls, ability checks, and saving throws.
ACTIONS
Strength Drain. Melee Weapon Attack: +4 to hit, reach 5 ft.,
one creature. Hit: 9 (2d6 + 2) necrotic damage, and the target's
Strength score is reduced by 1d4. The target dies if this reduces
its Strength to 0. Otherwise, the reduction lasts until the target
finishes a short or long rest.
If a non-evil humanoid dies from this attack, a new shadow
rises from the corpse 1d4 hours later.
Strength Drain is an auto kill scenario, and while holding a target prone, they’ll have plenty of time to keep draining, provided no other enemies are free to attack them.
