3.5 Unarmed Brawler level 4-14 critique/help

[sage20500]

Hey guys, so one of my friends is getting ready to run a module which is called "Return to the Temple of Elemental Evil". It's my first 3.5 actual campaign that I've ever been in, and because almost all of the players in this one are new to 3.5 the dm had us roll our stats out, with a guaranteed free 18 in 1 stat rolled at random. For books available he's allowing any official 3.0/3.5 Wizards content and dragon magazines, but nothing from pathfinder or any other 3rd party content, and no home brew material. As for house rules, he's allowing players to take a feat at even level and every time we're allowed to increase a stat by one, we instead add +1 to two stats. At the moment the group I'm in includes a Warforged Vow of Poverty Ranger who is using the shape shifter variant, and is planning on using the master of many forms combo with fist of the forest to do hijinks, a human sorcerer who is experiencing D&D for the first time and at the moment pretty much only wants to light things on fire, and possibly our 4th member if she decides to join is a human rogue int/dex rogue, though at the moment she's still undecided on if she is going to join us or not. Pretty much I'm trying to make sure I'm as optimized as can be for levels 4-14 since the DM is pretty sure we won't be going past level 14 after the module ends.

For my stats I ended up with a 15 STR, 16 Dex, 14 Con, 18 Int, 13 Wis, and 18 Cha. Since we already have a caster at the start and the shapeshifting ranger is unable to start doing anything until level 5 for the most part, I decided to roll with a front liner type character after finding the Battle Dancer class in the Dragon Compendium. The templates that I'm allowed to use on her are both the Magic Blooded Template as well as the Unseelie Fey template. So at level 4 right now my characters stats are 13 Str, 19 Dex, 12 Con, 18 Int, 11 Wis, and 23 Cha. For the moment since we still don't know if the rogue is going to be joining the group or if this is going to be a 3 person party, I'm working on trying to make this character both a decent front liner as well as a suitable skill monkey. As for the going unarmed part, when ever I've played a character in 4e I've always had them use either a greatbow or some kind of giant sword, and since 3.5 actually allows for unarmed strikes to be pretty decent and your able to create your own magic gear I wanted to try something I've never done before, and beat people to death with my fists. (I may also have recently discovered RWBY and was inspired with the character idea after seeing Yang in particular)

So build progression that I currently have right now:
Base Race: Magic Blooded Unseelie Fey Human, Alignment Chaotic Neutral

Level 1: Spirit Lion Totem City Brawler Barbarian 1 with the Whirling Frenzy Rage Variant,
So I gain Pounce, Two Weapon Fighting, and Improved Unarmed Strike for free, and my 2 level 1 feats are Nymphs Kiss (For extra skill points and +2 bonus to Cha skills) and Hidden Talent (Grabbing Burst as my psionic power)

Level 2: Battle Dancer 1
The feat that I take at this level is Versatile Unarmed Strike so that I can have my attacks be piercing, bludgeoning, or slashing when ever the situation calls for them to be so.

Level 3: Pugilist (Fighter Variant from Dragon 310 Page 37) 1
Pugilist gives me Endurance as a freebie, and then for the fighter feat I take Power Attack.

Level 4: Unarmed Swordsage Variant 1(DM has ruled that this will apply to my Battle Dancer levels for unarmed strike progression)
I get Shadow Blade for my feat this level, and then for the maneuvers I'm grabbing three from the tiger school, 2 from desert wind, and 1 from unseen hand. Stance I'm getting is Child of Shadows.

Level 5: Pugilist 2 (Fighter is going to become my favored class)
Second feat I get is a toss up between Combat Reflexes, Blind-Fight, or Cleave, because I'm unsure at the moment which will be the most helpful to me.

Level 6: Incarnum Blade 1
Feat for this level is Leadership so I can recruit a chaotic neutral artificer to supply me with the items I need to make this character be guaranteed to work as well as to supply me with wands that I can UMD on myself for buffing potential. For the bind since the blade meld doesn't restrict access to magic items I was going to choose hands for the +1 insight bonus to damage rolls.

Level 7: Bloodclaw Master 1
Nothing noteworthy gained at this level,

Level 8: Bloodclaw Master 2
Feat for this level is Frozen Berserker, and I gain superior two weapon fighting so I'm not longer taking -2 on my full round action attacks that include TWF

Level 9: Frostrager 1
I gain a 2nd rage which includes natural armor and extra damage on my unarmed strikes, plus I get freezing blood,

Level 10: Frostrager 2
Feat I pick up at this level is Snap Kick, which combines nicely with One-Two Punch

Level 11: Pyrokineticist 1
Nothing much gained for this level,

Level 12: Pyrokineticist 2
Get extra damage to add to all my unarmed strikes, fire adaptation, and the feat I take at this level is Melee Weapon Mastery,

Level 13: Frostrager 3
I gain absorb cold,

Level 14: Frostrager 4
Feat for this level is Flying Kick, and I get improved frost rage,

Pretty much if we decide to continue on after this I was going to finish Frostrager out, then take another level in Swordsage, 1 level in Bear Warrior, and then 2 more levels in Pugilist Fighter, and my final level would be back in City Brawler Barbarian. Because this is unknown at the moment though, my goal is to get all of the most fun toys for this character by levels 10-13. Skill monkeying wise at the moment I am the groups party face, with very good scores for bluff, diplomacy, gather information, and a ridiculous intimidate (its 23 at level 4). I have two perform skills that have pretty good scores, as well as jump, tumble, and open lock. As for my use magic device skill, which its not a class skill I've managed to get enough bonuses to it to where I can succeed on casting any wands with a roll of 6 or better, and since for the most part the only thing I'll ever be using UMD for is to cast buff wands or to make other people think I'm a sorcerer im not two worried about trying to put more than 8-9 ranks in the skill overall.

Gear wise I'm currently using master feycrafted linen wraps as my "weapons" so that I can have weapon finesse as a freebie, and I'm currently holding onto several wrist, boot, elbow, and knee blades that are wand slotted so I can have my wands available. The only two wands I currently have on me is a wand of open close and a wand of feather fall. I'll eventually be adding in a wand of greater wallop and bloodwind, to the list, as well as probably a wand of mage armor and any other helpful wands I can think of. There's a hand slot item I'm going to be getting called the Gauntlets of Heartfelt Blows (http://www.realmshelps.net/faerun/organizations/fireitems.shtml) which add my charisma mod as damage to all of my melee attacks. My plan is to transfer that enchantment onto a pair of gauntlets that I then enchant to hell and back since I don't have to worry about getting magic armor. Thankfully my DM is going to house rule that gauntlets are considered a double weapon for crafting purposes since logically you'd never create a single gauntlet, they're always created in pairs, so while +# enchantments will still have to be added separately, I don't have to worry about doubling up on base non +# enchantment or enchancements.

So pretty much that's everything I have right now, any critiques or build suggestions would be awesome. My only goal at the moment is to try and keep BAB as high as possible while still being able to do as much as I can to improve her Unarmed Fighting Potential. Other than that the character has become a full on anime styled character with the psionic's mixing in with incarnate shenanigans, so I'm pretty sure that nothing is considered over the top anymore.

[Vogonjeltz]

Level 5: Pugilist 2 (Fighter is going to become my favored class)
Second feat I get is a toss up between Combat Reflexes, Blind-Fight, or Cleave, because I'm unsure at the moment which will be the most helpful to me.

If you were to take Combat Reflexes you could grapple anyone who provoked, which probably screws up their actions.

Examples:
Enemy casting a spell with somatic components or with a casting time more than 1 standard action -> Grapple -> Spell automatically fizzles.
Enemy using a non-light weapon exits a square you threaten (perhaps they are charging an Ally) -> Grapple -> Enemy can't even use their weapon in a grapple.

[Gwendol]

Of those three feats, combat reflexes is the good one, especially if you can grow a size to get reach (which also helps with grappling and intimidating). I note you have a high potential for a fear build, but make nothing of it. A feat such as Dreadful Wrath could do wonders for you. Or the never outnumbered skill trick.

[sage20500]

Of those three feats, combat reflexes is the good one, especially if you can grow a size to get reach (which also helps with grappling and intimidating). I note you have a high potential for a fear build, but make nothing of it. A feat such as Dreadful Wrath could do wonders for you. Or the never outnumbered skill trick.

While I would really love to grab Dreadful Wrath, its a level 1 only feat, and I need to make sure I have hidden talent in order to qualify for Pyrokineticist and I really want to get nymphs kiss as early as possible to make sure I can fulfill the job of being the groups skill monkey/all around party face. How ever as soon as I hit level 5 and am able to get the 8th rank I need in intimidate for Never Outnumbered I'm going to get it. Thanks a bunch for pointing that trick out to me! :)

[sage20500]

If you were to take Combat Reflexes you could grapple anyone who provoked, which probably screws up their actions.

Examples:
Enemy casting a spell with somatic components or with a casting time more than 1 standard action -> Grapple -> Spell automatically fizzles.
Enemy using a non-light weapon exits a square you threaten (perhaps they are charging an Ally) -> Grapple -> Enemy can't even use their weapon in a grapple.

Combat reflexes it is, I hadn't realized that you could use grapple as an opportunity attack, so that definitely suddenly makes it a way better option compared to the other two. Thanks a bunch for letting me know that :)

[Gwendol]

You could still pick up Frightful Presence (Draconomicon p.105) as it is taken at higher levels (requires 9 ranks of intimidate and a CHA of 15).

[sage20500]

Looking for ways to try and work Frightful Presence into the build and I had a question about a different fighter variant, all Pugilist does for me really is give me Endurance as a freebie feat on top of the bonus fighter feats, in regards to the Commander variant, because I saw someone else on giant tip mention this and I'm unsure if i'm just misunderstanding the context of what they meant. The Commander Fighter variant has leadership listed as one of their bonus feats, does this mean that I could possibly take leadership sooner than level 6 if I got it through that, or would I still need to be a minimum of level 6? If the latter is the correct way that is supposed to work, anyone have any ideas for a filler 5th level class that has full BAB I could qualify for since I'd be taking incarnum blade out of the build to go Commander 2 at level 6 for freebie leadership and adding a new opened feat up into the build?

[sage20500]

Would taking 1 level in hexblade or warblade be a good replacement level for 5 so I could do commander fighter at 6, and then I'll just scrub out Incarnum Blade from the list? What are peoples opinions on a 1 level dip of either hexblade or warblade?

[Vogonjeltz]

Combat reflexes it is, I hadn't realized that you could use grapple as an opportunity attack, so that definitely suddenly makes it a way better option compared to the other two. Thanks a bunch for letting me know that :)

Glad to help :)

For martial characters it's a good idea to familiarize with the Special Attacks in the Combat section, and what kind of actions they are:

Aid Another: standard action
Bull Rush: standard action (attack) or as part of Charge.
Charge: full-round action (if character can only take a standard or move action on their turn they can still charge with restrictions)
Disarm: replaces a melee attack
Feint: standard action
Grapple: replaces a melee attack
Overrun: standard action during move action
Sunder: replaces a melee attack
Trip: replaces a melee attack

Some of these have fun synergy, so if you have three attacks you could grapple, pin, and grab something from off them in 1 round (a spell component pouch, for example).

*regarding hexblade or warblade:

The only ability you gain from 1 level of hexblade is the 1/day curse, which keys off Charisma.

The Warblade nets you int to reflex saves, and weapon aptitude, along with some maneuvers and a stance.

Weapon aptitude probably won't be important if you're focusing on unarmed combat, but the extra saves could be nice, and depending on the stance/maneuvers, you could get something useful there.

[sage20500]

Glad to help :)

For martial characters it's a good idea to familiarize with the Special Attacks in the Combat section, and what kind of actions they are:

Aid Another: standard action
Bull Rush: standard action (attack) or as part of Charge.
Charge: full-round action (if character can only take a standard or move action on their turn they can still charge with restrictions)
Disarm: replaces a melee attack
Feint: standard action
Grapple: replaces a melee attack
Overrun: standard action during move action
Sunder: replaces a melee attack
Trip: replaces a melee attack

Some of these have fun synergy, so if you have three attacks you could grapple, pin, and grab something from off them in 1 round (a spell component pouch, for example).

*regarding hexblade or warblade:

The only ability you gain from 1 level of hexblade is the 1/day curse, which keys off Charisma.

The Warblade nets you int to reflex saves, and weapon aptitude, along with some maneuvers and a stance.

Weapon aptitude probably won't be important if you're focusing on unarmed combat, but the extra saves could be nice, and depending on the stance/maneuvers, you could get something useful there.


Thanks for the info, I think I'm gonna be going with hexblade for the level, charisma is my highest stat, so the save should always be pretty high, and once a day it gives me the ability to tell a rather nasty threat to go frick off which reminds me of the 4e marks, though its kind of better than a standard mark for 4e X) Also it does open up some very interesting options to explain how she is able to do this, since for the most part as of right now, its a mixture of rage taping into untrained psionic potential.