Room for another unnarmed fighting class?

[chronoplasm]

So in PHB3, we will have the Monk, a psionic class that focuses on punching people with your fists.
Do you think there's any possibility we might see another class that focuses on unnarmed attacks but in another power source?

I could see something Monk-like in the Divine power source. Imagine a Herculean or Samson-esque type character with a body blessed and sculpted by the gods themselves. Samson was the dude from the old testament who killed an entire army with only the jawbone of a donkey. David was the kid who took his armor off and killed the giant Goliath with only a slingshot. Picture that with Channel Divinity powers and Prayer attacks. Maybe throw some Lucha Libre elements in, inspired by the great El Santo. That guy fought vampires.

I could also see some possibilities for primal-class build options. Like a Barbarian who is all about scratching and biting people.

Also, I still really want to see some sort of Brawler class for the martial power source... something that focuses on fist fighting without the meditation or eastern flavor of the monk. I tried to create such a class as a martial controller a while ago with help from a friend of mine, but I'm not happy with the end result.

 

[weem]

I think some kind of brawler would be fun, sure.

I think it would be fun if the consumption of alcohol gave him temporary boosts (end of turn, etc) like a Drunken Master kind of thing, but without the karate/kung fu skills - just plain old punching and kicking.

But what would make even more fun would be to allow them to do even better if they use improvised weapons. So, he could bash and kick people for moderate damage, but if he uses improvised weapons (chairs, tables, crates, etc) he does more severe damage. So he could make more use of them then others - in other words, he gets a bonus for using those kinds of things.

I think that would be a fun class to play (not that I expect to see it ever show up officially - it appeals to me, and maybe a few other people, hehe)

 

[chronoplasm]

Hey! What if the emphasis on improvised weapons is further encouraged by a mechanic that lets you shatter your weapons for additional effects?
For example, if you hit an enemy with a chair, you can have the chair shatter into a million splinters and turn it into a close blast attack.
Shattered weapons can create difficult terrain, blind, slow, or weaken enemies, or even turn into smaller but more jagged weapons.

 

[invokethehojo]

I've been wanting to play this class for years. the best I could do was play a kind normal guy in Mutants and Masterminds and build him with good unarmed feats and extra damage.

 

[weem]

Hey! What if the emphasis on improvised weapons is further encouraged by a mechanic that lets you shatter your weapons for additional effects?
For example, if you hit an enemy with a chair, you can have the chair shatter into a million splinters and turn it into a close blast attack.
Shattered weapons can create difficult terrain, blind, slow, or weaken enemies, or even turn into smaller but more jagged weapons.

There ya go

A different way to approach it would be to come up with some example effects/improvised weapons and then create a feat that allows you to access those kinds of effects. Like "Mounted Combat" lets you access the mount ability of a creature, an "Improved Combat" feat (for example) would allow you to access those kinds of features of improvised weapons.

Would save you from having to make an entire class.

 

[chronoplasm]

A different way to approach it would be to come up with some example effects/improvised weapons and then create a feat that allows you to access those kinds of effects. Like "Mounted Combat" lets you access the mount ability of a creature, an "Improved Combat" feat (for example) would allow you to access those kinds of features of improvised weapons.

Would save you from having to make an entire class.

Kind of reminds me of terrain powers, or of the weapon specific powers from some Dragon articles.

 

[Saeviomagy]

There ya go

A different way to approach it would be to come up with some example effects/improvised weapons and then create a feat that allows you to access those kinds of effects. Like "Mounted Combat" lets you access the mount ability of a creature, an "Improved Combat" feat (for example) would allow you to access those kinds of features of improvised weapons.

Would save you from having to make an entire class.

I advocate the addition of a feat that lets you fight unarmed as though you are wielding a specific weapon. And also lets you enchant that weapon.

That way you can take any existing class and tool them as an unarmed master (or improvised weapon master) without any loss of effectiveness.

I'd probably put in the same thing as a feat for armor.

 

[chronoplasm]

In Martial Power, the Rogue gets an optional feature that lets you use clubs or maces in place of daggers for your powers, right? I think that something like that with a Belt of the Brawler would make for a pretty cool character.
Suppose that there was a feat that does what Belt of the Brawler does, except that it also makes your club fists enchanted as you level up.

Now let's suppose I take that idea I had for 'shattering' and made that a keyword for some homebrewed martial powers?

Splintering Strike- Martial Attack
Encounter. Martial, Shattering, Weapon
Standard-Action
Requirement: Must wield an improvised weapon.
Melee or Ranged Weapon
Target: One creature.
Attack: Strength vs. AC
Hit: 2[W] + Strength modifier damage.
Shatter: Make a secondary attack, close burst 1, centered on the target of the first attack.
Target: Each creature in burst.
Attack: Strength vs. AC
Hit: 1[W] + Strength modifier damage and the target is blinded until the end of your next turn.

 

[Saeviomagy]

In Martial Power, the Rogue gets an optional feature that lets you use clubs or maces in place of daggers for your powers, right? I think that something like that with a Belt of the Brawler would make for a pretty cool character.
Suppose that there was a feat that does what Belt of the Brawler does, except that it also makes your club fists enchanted as you level up.

The problem with that is that clubs are crappy weapons. Spending a feat AND picking a not-too-great class feature to use them is just punishing people who, for no real mechanical reason at all, just want to not have to wield a weapon.

Using a belt of the brawler just makes it worse.

OTOH, simply adding a feat which lets you choose ANY weapon for your unarmed strike to emulate AND allow enchantments means that you can take any existing weapon using class and use them as an unarmed brawler with no real balance concerns (since there are very few times when a character will get disarmed except as a story mechanic, and there are massive balance implications for doing so already). The feat would give the benefit of quickdraw effectively.