Floorlock
2016-03-01, 07:22 PM
Hey there. I'm new around here...I've only lurked through the forums a bit to pour over advice and thoughts from the community...and, I've only been in the tabletop roleplay environment for about a year now. I recently ran a group through The Hoard of the Dragon Queen, and was pleasantly satisfied with my ability to DM. However, I've recently made the decision to go full-fledged into a homebrew campaign. One of my players, essentially, wants to play an unarmed combatant sorcerer ala Black Desert Online's sorceress class.
I'm not entirely certain how to make this completely optimal. Way of the Four Elements monk is an option...but, as most have pointed out...it's one of the weaker options within the entirety of the game. Secondly, it's not so much a spellcaster at all. They only get a few spell-like abilities over the course of their leveling and they dip into their ki expenditure. Thirdly, that class option is based around Wisdom...which seems wrong flavor wise for something that seems to be more of an internal power...as in the way of the sorcerer's charisma.
So...then I thought, perhaps I should recommend they multiclass monk and sorcerer. Level 1 of draconic bloodline nets them an unarmored defense of 13+ Dex...so they won't have to press on wisdom so hard and they'll get to stay armorless for all of their monk abilities. But, then I noticed that monk doesn't reach a d6 damage with their unarmed strikes til level 5...and then you're at least gonna wanna stick around for the 6th level ki empowered strikes for bypassing resistances. So...Sorcerer 1...then 6 levels of monk...then 13 more levels of Sorcerer. But, that comes out to only getting your 2nd level spell slot as a 9th level character...the whole thing...I don't know..just seems like it hurts both the monk and sorcerer progressions. How non-optimal is this?
Third...and, this seems to be the most powerful of the builds...is to just create a weapon...that essentially functions as brass knuckles or something of the like...make it a light, finesse weapon...and give it a d6 of bludgeoning damage. They'd essentially be using short swords or scimitars...but, refluffed with a different damage type to give them the essence of slamming everything down with their hands. Go five levels of the freshly released Bard: College of Swords and gain two weapon fighting, the warcaster feat, and an extra attack...and then just go Dragon Sorcerer for the rest of the game. A question about this build, however, has to do with the Arcane focus. The Arcane Focus requires the use of a free hand, yes? However, I've seen it stated that it can make use of the same free hand as the one applying the somatic gestures of some spells. Warcaster eliminates the need for a hand to be free to perform somatic components; does it then also eliminate the need for the hand to be free to activate the Arcane Focus? If so...then she could theoretically rip through enemies with both her two weapon fighting style and magic as a merciless gish machine...just all the time...without ever worrying about stowing weapons. The only other potential issue is that...while it gives the basic feel of the character...it's not quite the same. Brass Knuckles do not equal pure martial arts badassery released from nothing but your palms and feet.
I'm not entirely sure what to do for this character. I have also considered the option of simply creating a class...but, I'm wary of attempting to create a gish, as they seem entirely too plausible for overpowered candidates if you don't construct them correctly. I've seen a few vampire classes floating around that seem to offer a nice template...given that most give vampires both dexterity based unarmed melee and magic ability. However, they usually include extra weakness...such as aversion to sunlight. These weaknesses wouldn't fit, but, I'm concerned with the notion of just taking them out. It just seems like a difficult beast to balance.
For more insight: The campaign is built off of rolling for stats...four d6, drop the lowest...and she has at least 2 powerful scores. She's playing around with either Tiefling or Aasimar, and, if she goes either route she'll potentially have a charisma of either 18 or 19 at the beginning of the game.
Does anyone have any idea on what I should do about this? Should I simply buckle down and attempt to create a class in as balanced a fashion as possible...or is that really necessary?
I'm not entirely certain how to make this completely optimal. Way of the Four Elements monk is an option...but, as most have pointed out...it's one of the weaker options within the entirety of the game. Secondly, it's not so much a spellcaster at all. They only get a few spell-like abilities over the course of their leveling and they dip into their ki expenditure. Thirdly, that class option is based around Wisdom...which seems wrong flavor wise for something that seems to be more of an internal power...as in the way of the sorcerer's charisma.
So...then I thought, perhaps I should recommend they multiclass monk and sorcerer. Level 1 of draconic bloodline nets them an unarmored defense of 13+ Dex...so they won't have to press on wisdom so hard and they'll get to stay armorless for all of their monk abilities. But, then I noticed that monk doesn't reach a d6 damage with their unarmed strikes til level 5...and then you're at least gonna wanna stick around for the 6th level ki empowered strikes for bypassing resistances. So...Sorcerer 1...then 6 levels of monk...then 13 more levels of Sorcerer. But, that comes out to only getting your 2nd level spell slot as a 9th level character...the whole thing...I don't know..just seems like it hurts both the monk and sorcerer progressions. How non-optimal is this?
Third...and, this seems to be the most powerful of the builds...is to just create a weapon...that essentially functions as brass knuckles or something of the like...make it a light, finesse weapon...and give it a d6 of bludgeoning damage. They'd essentially be using short swords or scimitars...but, refluffed with a different damage type to give them the essence of slamming everything down with their hands. Go five levels of the freshly released Bard: College of Swords and gain two weapon fighting, the warcaster feat, and an extra attack...and then just go Dragon Sorcerer for the rest of the game. A question about this build, however, has to do with the Arcane focus. The Arcane Focus requires the use of a free hand, yes? However, I've seen it stated that it can make use of the same free hand as the one applying the somatic gestures of some spells. Warcaster eliminates the need for a hand to be free to perform somatic components; does it then also eliminate the need for the hand to be free to activate the Arcane Focus? If so...then she could theoretically rip through enemies with both her two weapon fighting style and magic as a merciless gish machine...just all the time...without ever worrying about stowing weapons. The only other potential issue is that...while it gives the basic feel of the character...it's not quite the same. Brass Knuckles do not equal pure martial arts badassery released from nothing but your palms and feet.
I'm not entirely sure what to do for this character. I have also considered the option of simply creating a class...but, I'm wary of attempting to create a gish, as they seem entirely too plausible for overpowered candidates if you don't construct them correctly. I've seen a few vampire classes floating around that seem to offer a nice template...given that most give vampires both dexterity based unarmed melee and magic ability. However, they usually include extra weakness...such as aversion to sunlight. These weaknesses wouldn't fit, but, I'm concerned with the notion of just taking them out. It just seems like a difficult beast to balance.
For more insight: The campaign is built off of rolling for stats...four d6, drop the lowest...and she has at least 2 powerful scores. She's playing around with either Tiefling or Aasimar, and, if she goes either route she'll potentially have a charisma of either 18 or 19 at the beginning of the game.
Does anyone have any idea on what I should do about this? Should I simply buckle down and attempt to create a class in as balanced a fashion as possible...or is that really necessary?