Trying to kitbash an unarmed fighter...

[TheBadElf]

In the Shackled City campaign I'm currently playing in my character has evolved through roleplaying from being a very stereotypical axe-wielding half-orc barbarian to being a brawler who prefers unarmed combat ang grappling. I'm working on getting him into the Reaping Mauler prestige class; he's the most "fun" character I've ever had and I love him. Unfortunately, I'm the only frontline fighter in the party - we have a monk, a scout, a wizard, a spellthief, a favored soul, and my guy.

The D&D rules are keeping him on the weak side for a main fighter if I play him the way I want to; even with Improved Unarmed Strike his damage is still only D3. He's (very) chaotic so monk levels are out of the question. I'm considering asking the DM about letting him use the monk's unarmed damage in exchange for some of his fighter proficiencies - specifically, having him give up heavy armor, shields, and martial weapons and gaining the unarmed damage and the Decisive Blow ability from PHB2, both tied to his fighter level. Any comments on whether this sounds reasonable??

 

[Lorgrom]

Sounds like its time to come up with a custom prestige class. Ya there are 10 to the 127th power prestige classes out there. But there is nothing quite the same as a class you and the DM work together to develope. Check out the section in the DMGII for rough guidelines on how to make them.

 

[Land Outcast]

Hum... which lvl is your guy?

 

[Land Outcast]

Just an Idea

Prerequisites: Improved Unarmed Strike, Improved grapple, Weapon focus (US), Bab +6

Bab: Good
Saves: Good Ref and Fort
Skills: 2+Int

1st- 1d6 damage
2nd- Weapon specialization (US)
3rd- 1d8 damage, Undaunted (You receive a bonus equal to your Grappler level on grapple checks made against creatures larger than you)
4th- Greater Weapon Focus (US)
5th- 1d10 damage, Greater Weapon Specialization (US)
6th- Master Grappler (Add your Grappler lvl as a bonus to damage when grappling)

 

[Drowbane]

Ask your DM to be allowed to use the Martial Arts feats from either SWd20 (4 feat chain) or d20 Modern (quite a bit more feats)

SW feats:
Martial Arts: 1d4 dmg
Defensive Martial Arts: +2 Dodge bonus to AC
Improved Martial Arts (BA+4?): 2d4 dmg and 19-20 crit.
Advanced Martial Arts (BA +8?): 3d4 dmg and 18-20 crit.

I'm not all that familiar with the d20 Modern feats.

 

[Primitive Screwhead]

Whats wrong with tweaking the Monk class, doing a chaotic version.

Now that I think of it.. there was a alt-monk named the Brawler posted not too long ago on this forum.. I couldn't find it in my scan of the last 8 pages...

Thats probably the class for you

Was not able to find the Brawler, but thanks to Nyaricus' Tasy Bits thread.. there is the Street Brawler which might work as well...

 

[Land Outcast]

Hum... I'll propose the idea I posted here on a new thread...

[Edit] Or I'll just post it neatly here

[B]Prerequisites:[/B] Improved Unarmed Strike, Improved grapple, Weapon focus (US), Bab +6

[B]Skills:[/B] 2+Int (Climb, Escape Artist, Jump, Tumble)

[U]Level   Bab    Fort    Ref    Will   Unarmed Damage   Special[/U]
                                         [U]S/M/L[/U]

1st     +1      +2     +2     +0      1d4/1d6/1d8
2nd     +2      +3     +3     +0      1d4/1d6/1d8     Weapon specialization (US)
3rd     +3      +3     +3     +1      1d6/1d8/1d10    Undaunted
4th     +4      +4     +4     +1      1d6/1d8/1d10    Greater Weapon Focus (US)
5th     +5      +4     +4     +1      1d8/1d10/2d6    Greater Weapon Specialization (US)
6th     +6      +5     +5     +2      1d8/1d10/2d6    Master Grappler

[B]Unarmed Damage:[/B] A grappler deals more damage with his Unarmed Damage than 
a normal person would, as shown in the above table, the damage figures 
presented are for Small, Medium, and Large Grapplers. 

[B]Undaunted(Ex):[/B] When making a grapple check against a creature larger than 
you, you get a bonus equal to your Grappler level.

[B]Master Grappler(Ex):[/B] When damaging your opponent while in a grapple, you 
get a bonus to damage equal to your Grappler level.

 

[Stalker0]

You could ask your dm to allow improved unarmed strike to upgrade your damage to a d6...the feat is pretty weak normally, this gives it a little "punch"

 

[ValhallaGH]

It's possible that this feat chain may be of interest to you and your DM. You'll have to adjust the prerequisites to suit, and you can always replace the flurry-like feats with things that boost grappling, but it might be a good start on making your very cool character be mechanically powerful too.

 

[Fishbone]

I played a Half-Orc Fighter 14 that I called The Cheat. He had a Monk's Belt, Improved Natural Attack, Monk's Tattoo, the Weapon Focus and Weapon Specialization feats, a custom made belt of Enlarge and +4 Gauntlets with the Heavy enchantment on them. That gave me a character with an unarmed strike at +2 to attack, +4 damage, doing another +4 from enchantments, and a base damage of 6d6 on unarmed strikes. I hit nearly as hard and a lot more often than the Monk(6 more points of attack bonus than a similarily equipped monk. If you wanted to Grapple take Improved Grapple and Earth's Embrace. Thats a +16 on your grapple check, your grapple should be high 30s at this high level. The cheat is a fun build and is a way for a barbarian or a fighter to deal 6d6 or 6d6 +4 base damage at the mid levels. And when you rage, whoo boy!
Last but not least, if your DM runs a loose game introduce him to the joys of Greater Mighty Wallop from a level 12 caster with this "build". 12d6 damage a pop fist damage, plus another 8 and your strength modifier(which as a raging half-orc should be pretty high.