Building a Drunken Master!

[Pyon]

So, I am going to be joining a campaign soon: and I want to play a Drunken Master. However, I am not very knowledgeable on monks, drunken mastery, or even DND in general. This is gonna be my third campaign =/ And the first one where I actually want to work hard to make a powerful but fun character. So there are the things I'd like to be able to do:

1. Be a drunken master
2. Preferably play a larger race so I can use a barrel as a one handed weapon
3. Fight with a barrel
4. Be a badass
5. Have fun.

Would the Playground answer my cries for help!?

Cheers :3

(As far as I know, everything is allowed. Last time I played with these guys we could even bring in homebrew stuff.)

[BassWalker]

My suggestion as someone who has done this: don't. Play a drunken boxer in fluff, but never in mechanics. The Monk is bad after a few levels, and Drunken Master actually makes you weaker (good luck being an efficient Monk with those Dex/Wis penalties). If everything is allowed, then I would suggest either a refluffed Unarmed Swordsage (there are lots of fitting maneuvers, or you could homebrew your own or find something suitable here) or Tashalatora Psychic Warrior. The Tashalatora feat is in Secrets of Sarlona, if I remember correctly, and Psychic Warrior is obviously in the XPH. Swordsage gives you the skill points to emulate all of the drunken boxing goodness you likely want to emulate after watching Jackie Chan, or Psychic Warrior could do the same with powers and provide combat buffs if you like the spontaneous casting-style mechanics more (refluffing is always your friend).

As for your race, Goliath and Half-Giant give you Powerful Build (Large size in everything but name) at only LA+1, or a Half-Ogre gets true Large size at LA+2. I would suggest one of the first two, personally. You would need to ask your DM about how to go about wielding a barrel, but Exotic Weapon Proficiency and some homebrewed stats could work well enough.

I hope that this helps :smallsmile:

[Troacctid]

Yeah, the main thing you need to know is that Monk is underpowered and Drunken Master is even more underpowered. So if your goal is to make a powerful, fun character, you are better off applying the same concept to a different class.

I like Swordsage, because not only are you a classic kung fu master with Setting Sun maneuvers that allow you to toss people around and sidestep attacks and whatnot, but you can also belch fire with Desert Wind maneuvers. *Urp* FWOOSH! And if you take a full-round action to quaff some ale, it recovers all your maneuvers! It's perfect!

[Optimator]

What they said. Monks are pretty poor and Drunken Masters are even worse. Mega stats and great magic items can help but are unreliable and help any class regardless. You may be able to work something out with PF Monks and their wacky archetypes but Swordsage or Tashalatora will be better and tons of fun.

Perhaps you could make your own PrC? If your DM knows Monks are teh ass you could probably get away with some powerful stuff. Perhaps take the CW Drunken Master and really crank it up: More and better abilities, full BAB, even more Monk ability advancement, etc.

[Darrin]

Iron Chef XV: Drunken Master (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?176049) is probably worth looking at for build ideas.

[Kraken]

I had fun playing a drunken master once. I've since lost the build, but the big schtick was that I always picked up whatever was around me and used it as an improvised weapon. I forget how, but I intentionally finagled my damage so that I did one of every type of dice with each hit (d4, d6, d8, d10, d12). With that said, it definitely wasn't my most effective character ever, but it was a lot of fun to play.

[Pyon]

Well my plan was also in using improvised weapons like a badass =/ But the barrel was the main idea. Other than the Iron Chef suggestion is there any other awesome way to make this character?

[ShurikVch]

Get a 2 level dip in Brawler (Dr #295; BAB +7, Intimidate 5, Alertness, CRef, IUS)
First level will remove nonproficiency penalty for improvised weapon (i. e. barrel)
Second level allow you to take weapon-specific feats (such as Weapon Focus) for improvised weapon. For example, if you take Weapon Focus (barrel), you may go Kensai with it. Barrel with +5 bonus...