[PF]Unarmed Dancer Bard?

[mistformsquirrl]

My brain is really on overdrive lately and I have yet another concept.

This one is... a little difficult; but I don't think it's impossible to pull off. What I'm trying to come up with is a bard that fights unarmed in a vein similar to a monk. Someone who's dancing can Inspire Courage and other bardsong effects while generally being a nuisance in melee.

Fluff-wise the character basically fights by dancing - they twirl out of the way of blows, gently misdirect opponents (to their great detriment), and occasionally land a solid but elegant blow to put them down for the count.

The problem is of course... Monk and Bard do not really mix particularly well. As near as I can tell, this is one of those concepts very few people would be interested in to begin with and so making it work is... probably not a priority.

I did find an interesting homebrew class that hybridizes the two: here (http://www.d20pfsrd.com/extras/community-creations/cartmanbeck-s-lab/multiclass-archetypes/ascetic-entertainer-bard-monk); but being homebrew I'm inherently suspicious that even if it's a decent enough class, it wouldn't be allowed in most games.

So while that's an option, probably the best option in fact... I'm curious if there's another way that's perhaps less reliant on homebrew?

One thing I've considered is starting with Flowing Monk* up until level 5 or so, and then going Bard the rest of the way - I think it would work, but it suffers the same problem most multiclassing does; and it's also pretty darn MAD. (I mean you're crossing monk, the posterchild for MAD, with Bard, which uses a completely different stat from Monk. ... so yeah. The only stat you could afford to dump is Int... so yeah.)

So that's... iffy. I mean I'm not planning for this to be a high op character to begin with - I'm fine being in the tier 4-5 range even; but I still want to do the concept justice you know? At least insofar as it's possible.

I should add that yes, I looked at Dervish of Dawn - I'm iffy on that because I really want to maintain the traditional bard "support the party" role while doing some fighting. Really, in terms of role, this character would be just like a traditional bard - supports the party and fights a bit; it's just making the unarmed side of this equation work that's... yeah.

*This replicates a lot of the moves I see this character performing; and just happens to be my favorite Monk archetype, so that works out nicely.

[SoraWolf7]

There is a class for this, it's called Battle Dancer (http://dndtools.eu/classes/battle-dancer/). While they may not have bardic music, their fighting style and other bonuses are exactly what you're looking for.

Unarmored and unencumbered AC = Dance dodging.
Unarmored strike = easily be flavored as using their dance steps as attacks.

There's no real crossover with bards that I know of with this class, but it works.

[Kudaku]

Unarmed fighting is generally kind of hard to pull off in 3.x, but you do have a few options...

Dawnflower Dervish (Dervish of Dawn) bard has the same damage output as a fighter - if you combine that class with a one or two level dip in Master of Many Styles Monk you can pick up Crane Style and Crane Wing, which reflects the "gracefully avoiding blows" concept very well (I'm playing a 4th level DoD bard atm, planning on taking a MoMS dip next level).

If you want to keep the Inspire Courage aspect then you don't really need the Dawnflower dip, though that will definitely help your damage output. Another option is the Arcane Duelist, which is a more martial take on the bard. I'd still take a dip in a monk class (preferably MoMS) for improved unarmed strike, decent damage die and so on.

To keep the character less MAD I'd suggest taking Weapon Finesse and picking up an Agile amulet of mighty fists as soon as possible. This'll let you add Dexterity to hit and damage with finessable weapons - like the unarmed strike.

[mistformsquirrl]

Sounds like I guessed right then <. .> Monk dip is my only real option to do what I want. That'll work, was just hoping there was some obscure feat or PrC or something that I had missed >_< But then again this is a really, really niche idea so I'm not too surprised.

Thanks for the info, both of you, I appreciate it!

[Kudaku]

Well, there's nothing stopping you from just picking up Improved Unarmed Strike and going to town with that - MoMS is handy for the unarmed attack proficiency and the style feats, but it's not really required. Your damage output won't be top of the line but the Agile amulet ensures that you'll be putting out decent damage - especially if you TWF with unarmed strikes. Of course, then you might run into some issues hitting your opponent...

[Feralventas]

If you're not dead-set on nothing but unarmed strike, there's a Bladed Scarf Dancer (http://www.d20pfsrd.com/classes/base-classes/magus/archetypes/paizo---magus-archetypes/kapenia-dancer) archetype that would let you dance around and fight with a relatively similar style, though I suppose there might be something specific you want out of Bard to make this concept work for you?

You could also just pick up a set of Gauntlets to deal unarmed damage with.

There's of course also the Sensei (http://www.d20pfsrd.com/classes/core-classes/monk/archetypes/paizo---monk-archetypes/sensei) Monk archtype that grants the Monk a form of Inspire Courage and lets them share Monk features to be a party buffer. No Flurry of Blows, but can still get Unarmed and Unarmored options as usual.

[StreamOfTheSky]

How important is the "buffing other people with inspire courage" part of the equation to you?

Both the Archaeologist (with Fate's Favored trait) and Dervish of Dawn (not to be confused with the Dervish Dancer) archetypes are decent if you just need to buff yourself to make your build combat-viable. Former's main draw is that it's only a swift to activate and that the trait gives you a +1 edge over inspire. The latter gives double bonuses, though the archetype is partially wasted if you're not using a scimitar.

Both lose the ability to inspire others. However, once you hit level 11, you can still pick up the Discordant Voice feat and it'll apply to all allies. And you have spells.

You really should dip 1 level for unarmed, though. It's worth it if you then pick up Crane Wing or Snake Fang, or both. Your options are Master of Many Styles Monk (MoMS) or Unarmed Fighter (UF).

MoMS: Costs you a BAB, and that hurts. However, it will let you combine Crane and Snake, which is a potent duo. It also lets you ignore pre-reqs for latter style feats if you have the base style, which is invaluable for Snake Fang (it has higher level requirements and the feat between it and Snake Style is utterly atrocious -- you don't want to blow a feat on that).
If you can combine with Sohei (RAW, I think it works but it's been debated, iirc) you probably should, as your wisdom will likely be in the crapper for Stunning Fist DC so getting +1 init and always acting in surprise rounds is a good trade.

UF: Main draw here is not losing BAB. Plus, since you're just nabbing a base style feat, you don't have to worry about when and how to enter the class for your dip. (Since you want the base style feat when you enter monk but need the monk's Imp. Unarmed Strike to qualify for any style feat, you MUST enter MoMS on an odd level so you gain a general feat with the class level, and if it has any other requirements -- like Dodge for Crane Style -- you also need to have them already).

[Kudaku]

One option might be to take the Dawnflower Dervish (or Dervish of Dawn) archetype and ask your GM to retrain Dervish Dance to an unarmed strike feat. It's not an entirely unreasonable request since you're already trying to build a character concept that is frankly a step down in power from a straight Dervish of Dawn.

[mistformsquirrl]

Unfortunately, being able to buff my teammates is probably equally important with fighting unarmed. I'm not sure if I mentioned it earlier, but conceptually I kind of want this character to play like a bard first, monk second, you know?

Discordant Voice might work though... that's got potential.

*edit*

Something I hadn't thought of, but which has just cropped up - Gestalt. *facepalm* Granted Gestalt games are rarer than normal games, but still... that does rather solve the problem.