BAttle Dancer PC class

[Grayson01]

Has anyone ever herd of and/or played a Battle Dancer it's apprently from the
Dragon Compendium
Class name Prestige
Aerial Avenger
Arcanopath Monk
Battle Dancer
Blessed of Gruumsh
Cerebrex
Death Master
Fleet Runner of Ehlonna
Flux Adept
Force Missile Mage
Jester
Monk of the Enabled Hand
Mountebank
Osteomancer
Savant
Sha'ir
Shaper of Form
Urban Druid

[Jeff the Green]

I've used it before, though only to get Charisma to AC. Other than that it's fairly lackluster.

[StreamOfTheSky]

It's worse than the Monk, which is a pretty impressive accomplishment. I made a better version (http://torchofspirit.proboards.com/post/462) based on Capoeira, because I like the basic concept, the class just sucks (as with Monk, which I've also spent quite a lot of time trying to fix).

[Necroticplague]

I've used it several times before. I've found that it makes excellent filler for a cha-based martial build, due to granting CHA to AC and an unarmed strike as a backup weapon. I've used some builds that manage to use it as part of a method to get CHA to AC 3 times (battledancer, ascetic mage, ghost), making a character who is pretty hard to hit by just focusing on one stat.

Wait, do you mean beyond just doing a one-level dip in it? Heck no, that thing is even worse than the monk outside its level 1 dip (and obviously a wis-based chassis would find the monk dip more useful).

[Sian]

if nothing else, it do have full BAB, which the Monk really should have had.

[Necroticplague]

if nothing else, it do have full BAB, which the Monk really should have had.

That's one of the reasons it makes such good filler. If you have some empty levels between you base full bab class and a class with a BaB requirement (say, fighter 2, barb1 going into Thayan Gladiator), you can just slot it in there without losing any progression. For example, my before mentioned build used it in a space between fighter and generic warrior while waiting for Soul Eater.

[DeAnno]

Eh, Full BaB and gets Pounce at level 11. Also an early aura of Courage and a very late but at least existent Fly speed. Definitely a higher optimization floor than the Monk, at least.

[Kaje]

It's standard filler in my CHA-based melee and gish builds. Goes well with paladin variants and blackguards and binders and such.

[StreamOfTheSky]

Eh, Full BaB and gets Pounce at level 11. Also an early aura of Courage and a very late but at least existent Fly speed. Definitely a higher optimization floor than the Monk, at least.

Not if you use splat books, which you probably do if Battle Dancer is even an option.

Monk is still the worst class in the PHB even then, but it did get a bunch of really nice options like Invisible Fist, Decisive Strike, Martial Monk, etc...

Battle Dancer is a monk based off a worse stat without access to droves of splat hotfixes. Ergo, it is even worse than monk.

[animewatcha]

But you get to justify pouncing an enemy with b***y-power from anywhere.

[heavyfuel]

Not if you use splat books, which you probably do if Battle Dancer is even an option.

Monk is still the worst class in the PHB even then, but it did get a bunch of really nice options like Invisible Fist, Decisive Strike, Martial Monk, etc...

Battle Dancer is a monk based off a worse stat without access to droves of splat hotfixes. Ergo, it is even worse than monk.

Well, he did say the optimization floor was higher. I don't think anyone will disagree that the optimization ceiling isn't higher for the Monk. Also, it's a nice way to get pounce with a monk-like character since Monks can't get that Barbarian dip easily.