Any tips on what martial class to try next? (barbarian, monk, or rogue?)

[Rfkannen]

I realized it has been a while since I have played a character withought spellcasting, and I should consider playing a martial character again.

The reason I started playing casters was because I found just swinging a sword every turn kind of boring, so if any of these have any more versatility I would be interested in that.

The feel i want to go for the feel of a god of combat. Someone who wrecks shop in the battlefield, and is a big threat that enemies have to deal with, someone really in the thick of things. Ideally this character would be doing more than just hitting things, im thinking of the oots combat where thog throws roy around. I'm also thinking of stuff like: all the early fights from god of highschool, Thorkell from vinland saga, all might from my hero acedmia, one punch man. Just a character that wrecks shop.

I had fun as a fighter when I played one (i was a great weapon battlemaster), just want to try something else.

any tips?

[Spo]

Love playing monks. Played drunken master and open hand at lower levels and kensai and sun soul at higher levels.

I like tactical side of melee (I also played a battle master fighter before as well) and the different effects the various subclasses provide. I would not, however characterize them as “gods of combat.” What you are describing I would place in the barbarian category.

I have played with enough players who play barbarians to know they are the sledgehammers in combat and I am the scalpel.

[djreynolds]

A monk at 5th level.... with an 18 dex.. If they hit with 4 attacks..... its a minimum of 20 damage.... if you rolled all 1s.

Monks are awesome. Really.

[tKUUNK]

I'm no builds expert, but-

Sounds like you want barbarian, except you say "more than just swinging a sword"...

You might like Open Hand or Kensei monk for the tactical flavor.

But my pick:

Does anyone ever do barbarian / thief multiclass? For athletics expertise AND advantage on strength checks while raging? If you want to grapple, shove, and throw opponents, or take Tavern Brawler and pick them up to use as improvised weapons, this might be your ticket to big fun.

[Crgaston]

Does anyone ever do barbarian / thief multiclass? For athletics expertise AND advantage on strength checks while raging?

Yes, this is a known build (basically Conan) and really only needs 2 levels of Rogue (for Expertise and Cunning Action) to make it work.
3 levels gets you an Archetype. On a melee beast like the OP describes, I like Thief for the climb speed and Fast Hands, but other archetypes have their various appeals.
5 levels gets you Uncanny Dodge, which takes a little pressure off your need to burn Rages, and the +3d6 Sneak Attack damage is roughly equivalent to an extra greatsword attack.



...take Tavern Brawler and pick them up to use as improvised weapons, this might be your ticket to big fun.
Love it!

[Guy Lombard-O]

A monk at 5th level.... with an 18 dex.. If they hit with 4 attacks..... its a minimum of 20 damage.... if you rolled all 1s.

Monks are awesome. Really.

Like others said, I don't know if monk is really what you're looking for. But we have a player in our group who has forsaken all others, now that he's played a monk. Also, since he took the Mobile feat and hit 10th level, he's just hilariously fast and kites like a boss (we all joke that he's the Flash), since he can be hitting targets in three of four places on the battlefield in a single turn.

[Amechra]

Put me down as a vote for the Monk as well. Barbarians are pretty fun, but they're basically entirely a "hit things until they die" class - the fun comes from the feelings of invincibility you get.

And my experience playing a Rogue was that I really just ended up settling into a routine so that I could get off my sneak attack every turn. It doesn't help that the DM rarely called for ability checks other than Perception checks, so my Expertise in all of the social skills (I took Prodigy as my VHuman bonus feat) was completely and utterly irrelevant. But still, I felt like I was always doing the same thing, and that the game was trying to push me towards being an archer (which I would like to try at some point... but not on that particular character).

Drunken Monk? Sure, I was technically taking the same actions almost every turn (attack+flurry), but the fact that I could basically walk into melee, punch a bunch of guys, toss around some stunning strikes, then leave... that was excellent, and felt pretty tactical.

[wookietek]

I'm currently playing a Barb/Rogue and, while not optimized, it's a blast. He's a grappler (expertise in athletics) who uses nets, bolas, grappling, and zany acrobatics to rage around the battlefield. He's also a lizardfolk, but I'm still waiting for a fight to be near water so I can drag an opponent into the water to drown them crocodile style.

[Guy Lombard-O]

I'm still waiting for a fight to be near water so I can drag an opponent into the water to drown them crocodile style.

Sorry, because I know it's not the subject of this thread, but good luck ever drowning anything in 5e.

Suffocating. A creature can hold its breath for a number of minutes equal to 1 + its Constitution modifier (minimum of 30 seconds). When a creature runs out of breath or is choking, it can survive for a number of rounds equal to its Constitution modifier (minimum of 1 round).

I mean, whatever it is will most likely stab or bite you to death long before it's in any danger of actually drowning.

Please excuse my off-subject rant.

[wookietek]

I think I can convince my DM to allow taking damage to mitigate the time allowed holding your breath. It would be unlikely that you could hold your breath for 1 minute +1 minute/con modifier while I'm biting and stabbing you and you're fighting to escape. We may have to come up with con saves and such. Good point though.

[W41Blackr4zr]

Personally my favorite character I have is a rogue assassin halfling

I hide behind the half-orc ranger and then sneak attack
the roleplaying instances are good too

he finds every trap...by setting them off, but he never gets hit because his dex saves are so good

but judging by your example of things you probably would like a barbarian best
(maybe a Barb/rogue multiclass would add some flavor)

[MagneticKitty]

Barbarian / rogue
Heavy on the rogue. I'd say either 1, 3 or 5 lvs barb depending on what you want out of it
use a finess weapon with strength and you can sneak attack with strength while raging.
I like thief (if not tabaxi) for mobility, and any barb of your choice.
Assassin is also good. Bugbear is a great race for this combo with bonus damage for surprise attack and longer range with good stat bonuses and darkvision.
Expertise gives you some nice things to do outside of combat using skill checks.

[HPisBS]

It sounds to me like Monk is probably what's most down your alley. Yes, it's largely just rolling to hit, but there's also some magicalness to them thanks to ki. The subclasses really flesh that out. For example, Open Hand makes every flurry of blows a tactical decision beyond just "who do I need to stun" every turn. Shadow lets you do some extra battlefield control (Darkness), gimp casters (Silence), or boost the whole party's stealth to avoid combat entirely / set up ambushes (Pass W/out Trace). And then there's all the fun and hijinks that Shadow Step opens up :smallbiggrin:



Alternatively, you could play a Swords Bard like a martial by focusing on Dex over Cha and leaning on Defensive Flourish and martial-type spells.

Or play a Ranger and just be extra choosy and fluffy with your spells, since the spell-less version is so lame. The UA Variant makes Hunter's Mark more of a class ability, so that helps.

[djreynolds]

Like others said, I don't know if monk is really what you're looking for. But we have a player in our group who has forsaken all others, now that he's played a monk. Also, since he took the Mobile feat and hit 10th level, he's just hilariously fast and kites like a boss (we all joke that he's the Flash), since he can be hitting targets in three of four places on the battlefield in a single turn.

Play a monk.

I say mobile early. Why?

For open hand it's only on the FOB attacks that you walk away. But with mobile it's all attacks... now you can just knock them all down or push.

It's just a fun class. And with a high inherent dex and wisdom you can be awesome at stealth and perception or focus elsewhere.

And the new UA allows for wisdom modifier monk weapons... so you swing away with long sword or battle axe for 1d10... finally versatile weapons have someone to wield them again... yeah warhammers.

Good luck

[SpawnOfMorbo]

I realized it has been a while since I have played a character withought spellcasting, and I should consider playing a martial character again.

The reason I started playing casters was because I found just swinging a sword every turn kind of boring, so if any of these have any more versatility I would be interested in that.

The feel i want to go for the feel of a god of combat. Someone who wrecks shop in the battlefield, and is a big threat that enemies have to deal with, someone really in the thick of things. Ideally this character would be doing more than just hitting things, im thinking of the oots combat where thog throws roy around. I'm also thinking of stuff like: all the early fights from god of highschool, Thorkell from vinland saga, all might from my hero acedmia, one punch man. Just a character that wrecks shop.

I had fun as a fighter when I played one (i was a great weapon battlemaster), just want to try something else.

any tips?

Smartbarians are awesome. Expertise in Nature via prodigy and you can play Randy Marsh... Drop Dex to no more than 12 and give him some Int. Your hp, resistance, and bonus to saves will make up for losing out on 1 AC (medium armor > unarmored defense). Make sure to yell "I thought this was America" when you rage. Take Half-Orc so you can go all "I didn't hear no bell" when you use your racial feature to stay at 1 HP.

Prodigy and 13 Int will make you the best at Nature checks, suck it druids and wizards.


Edit: Bonus points for taking Deception and Performance... And grabbing the Actor feat and pretending to be a female musician.

[kazaryu]

I realized it has been a while since I have played a character withought spellcasting, and I should consider playing a martial character again.

The reason I started playing casters was because I found just swinging a sword every turn kind of boring, so if any of these have any more versatility I would be interested in that.

The feel i want to go for the feel of a god of combat. Someone who wrecks shop in the battlefield, and is a big threat that enemies have to deal with, someone really in the thick of things. Ideally this character would be doing more than just hitting things, im thinking of the oots combat where thog throws roy around. I'm also thinking of stuff like: all the early fights from god of highschool, Thorkell from vinland saga, all might from my hero acedmia, one punch man. Just a character that wrecks shop.

I had fun as a fighter when I played one (i was a great weapon battlemaster), just want to try something else.

any tips?

if you're open to it then a barb/rogue multiclass is amazing for this. between expertise and cunning action, combined with being a barbarian you have so many options on what to do during you're turn.

is there a cliff? great, grapple and shove someone off it.
no cliff, do you have a finesse weapon? reckless attack to get sneak attack.
that mage in teh back being annoying? grab their puny ass and drag them to the front line.
ally in trouble? haul his ass out of it

biggest downside is you want pretty good ASI's (probably won't work well, at least early, if you're doing standard array/point-buy).


another option is one of the non-vanilla rogues. Im quite enjoying playing my str based mastermind rogue (although im somewhat annoyed that WoTC somehow thought 'mastermind' meant sherlock holmes instead of like....moriarty. but their at-will is still pretty fun if you're into that.