Give me a monkless monk please. Using RAW, build a monk that is not a monk.

[Spo]

Didn't want to hijack another thread about the value of the "unarmed combat" fighting style, but in reading some comments over there and being a longtime monk player, I was interested in what people were proposing about non-monk builds that could rival the damage a monk could put out and also have some nifty features.

If the class of monk didn't exist, and using the current rules/classes/feats etc., how would you create a barefisted fighting character that could mix it up in melee combat? Thanks for your input.

[Jervis]

Didn't want to hijack another thread about the value of the "unarmed combat" fighting style, but in reading some comments over there and being a longtime monk player, I was interested in what people were proposing about non-monk builds that could rival the damage a monk could put out and also have some nifty features.

If the class of monk didn't exist, and using the current rules/classes/feats etc., how would you create a barefisted fighting character that could mix it up in melee combat? Thanks for your input.

Really you could grab any of the races with a natural weapon and skip the feat. It’s the average of 1 damage but it lets you use a shield. If you’re using unarmed combat you’re going for a suboptimal damage build anyway. Ironically cleric is a good fit for punching things since your shield can be a focus and your claws/horns/whatever can be your weapon.

[Gurgeh]

You could get a pretty decent start with a simple, single-classed Fighter.

Unarmed fighting style at level 1, Tavern Brawler feat at level 4, Skill Expert for expertise in Athletics at level 6; sink the rest of your ASIs into better strength/con or into versatility feats as you please.

Battle Master is probably your best bet since manouevres are handy and fun - but you could get a lot of mileage from Rune Knight, since the size increases open up more grappling opportunities. Samurai would also work well if you're just looking to throw out a bunch of damage, especially since the Fighting Spirit/Rapid Strike combo would fill a similar thematic niche to Flurry of Blows.

[Sorinth]

If you flavour Rage as entering a zen state of mind instead of being super angry then Barbarian would probably fit the bill.

They can be unarmored and still be fine, they would probably want some combination of natural weapons, Tavern Brawler, or the Unarmed Fighting style but the whole monks use their fists not weapons isn't even true for most monks.

But it all depends on your flavour of Monk, a Battlemaster can easily be Kensei. A Minotaur can play a bit like an Open-Hand monk by using Hammering Horns, but probably doesn't work well for a Shadow monk.

[Witty Username]

So to clarify a bit, this would be a martial artist, like in the flavor of a Kung fu movie?
Or just someone that fights unarmed?

[Nidgit]

Psi Warrior is another Fighter subclass that can fit the monk theme pretty easily. Pushes, big jumps, and a mental focus all fit the bill.

The theming is obviously a bit different but a Beast Barbarian makes for a pretty satisfied unarmed fighter if you're using claws, since you get an extra attack for free.

[loki_ragnarock]

A sorcerer using shocking grasp, Twin, and Quicken to pump out a shocking amount of kung-fu grip in a turn.

While it isn't stunning someone, denying them their reaction is pretty close. Be a draconic sorcerer and you've got your unarmored AC covered from the get go, flavor it as being fast as lightning, bonus hp put you in the same realm as a monk's expected hp. Take lightning for your "add Cha damage" feature and enhance that kung-fu grip.

Before long you'll be able to push out 2d8+X (with sometimes advantage) while denying reactions (which isn't dissimilar to disengaging for free, no) pretty much always, and a burst of up to three such moves in a round every once in a when you need to. You're flurry is a little more expensive, but the damage will probably keep up. Of course, nothing's stopping you from burning all your spell slots for sorcery points to keep the schtick up for longer than a non-gimmick player would commit to.

Meanwhile, you'll be able to fly, teleport, throw lightning bolts, and other DBZ stuff to your heart's content.

[Witty Username]

Hm, maybe Rogue 2 for expertise in athletics and cunning action then fighter for the rest, be something of a wrestler with a good sprint.
Or just take the skilled feat on straight fighter.
You won't be beating out weapons but it might be fun.

[Ganryu]

Battlemaster fighter.
Unarmed fighting style.
V human, grab mobile feat.
Get resilent feat-wisdom somewhere in there.

Your battle maneuvers could be martial arts, like flipping a person, or shoving them away. You hit really hard, and will getting more attacks than a monk.

-----------------

Alternatively
Elk -Totem Barbarian.
V human, grab unarmed fighting style, then mobile at lvl 4. You have 60-70 feet of movement, can pass through people, and hit like a truck. Also, dragging people around at mock speed is great.

-----------------------

Above works for ranger too, dragging them through spike growth can be great, but you'll have low AC.

[Arkhios]

Battle Master with the Unarmed Fighting Style could do a plethora of neat maneuvers even when unarmed, and additional damage with most of them, so there's that.

A problem of sorts arises in that you don't have an unarmored defense feature by default, so unless you're fine with a rather mediocre AC, you're stuck with using armor. Not that it's necessarily a bad thing, if you can afford Medium Armor Master and stick to medium armors.

[Waazraath]

(first build from my build compendium, see signature - this is from some years back, pre-tasha's, so I'm sure upgrades can be made now, maybe even with the unarmed fighting style :)).


The wushu monk

Race: Variant Human
Class: Barbarian (totem) 20
Ability scores lvl 1 (incl. racial modifiers): str 15 (+1), dex 13 +1, con 13, int 10, wis 12, cha 10
ASI / feats: 1: Great Weapon Master; 4: Tavern Brawler / con +1 8: str +2 12: prodigy; 16: str +2 19: con +2

Summary: Hell yeah, this monk that’s monkyer than most monks! It fights (quite traditionally) with a polearm, but smashes face with his mighty fists of iron as well, and (contrary to the PHB-monks) is a master grappler with killer moves! As a D&D monk should, he has fancy mobility modes, can move extremely fast, and even fly short bursts (Crouching Tiger, anyone?). His perceptive abilities are almost supernatural. His only ‘problem’: he’s a single class barbarian.

First tier (1-4)
Your role in the party is that of skirmisher. Because of that, you don’t need too high ability scores except for Strength. If you’re not around to be attacked, AC and HP aren’t that important. That means you can have decent all round ability scores, no negatives, and even a modest bonus to wisdom for that monky feel.

It’s really simple. You hit with a polearm. At these low levels, most opponents won’t have reach. So move, hit, move back. At level 1, use rage 2/day for extra damage (and some resistance, in the case somebody does want to hit you despite hit & run tactics). If you aren’t attacked in return often, use reckless attack any time you want from level 2 onward. At level 3, you can use dash as a bonus action and often end up at a safe distance – even if folks want to hit you in return, you’re too far away. Great Weapon Master in combination with Reckless attack is, of course, gold. At level 4 you get quite good in grappling. If it is a tactical advantageous situation for it, punch face, immediately start a grapple as a bonus action. With maximized strength, proficiency in athletics and advantage when raging, you should win most opposed checks easily.

Second tier (5-10)
Tougher, faster, meaner. Extra attack at 5, and faster movement. With second attack, when appropriate, use grapple tricks like “hit + grapple, shove prone” for control, or “hit + grapple, move, shove in chasm”. Get superior vision at 6, and fat bonus to initiative and immunity to surprise at 7. Grow stronger at 8, do more damage at 9 (from rage +3 and an extra critical die), Commune with Nature at 10. Not too hard to imagine the martial Monk flavour, right?

Third tier (11-16)
Yeah! Expertise in athletics with the prodigy feat, so also with grapple checks, at level 12. And at level 14, you can fly short bursts. From here, you can punch somebody 2 times and start a grapple by doing so, fly 25 ft up, and make him/her/it crash down. Ok, you’ll crash as well, but have resistance to the damage. And, depending on your DM, you might land on top of your poor foe, doing extra damage and maybe even have a bit softer landing. Plenty of variations: drop somebody in a chasm, pit or lava stream, or just any tactical good spot. Or start a grapple and fly up next turn 50ft. Go wild on it, when appropriate, and if not just hit somebody a few times with your stick of pain.
You’ll get tougher with relentless rage, do more damage with brutal critical and with stronger / more frequent rage. All is well.

Fourth tier (17-20)
More damage, more RAGE, and the very fine Barbarian capstone, that makes you end your career with 24 str and 20 con.

Conclusion & variants

This is a bit of a gimmick build.

Action economy: ok. Plenty of bonus actions (rage, dash, start a grapple, bonus attack with GWM). Two attacks. No reactions though.
Offense: hit with advantage, with GWM. Only two attacks, normally, but with brutal critical, GWM and extra damage from rage, that’s fine. You have grappling as secondary offensive mode, with additional (fly & drop) grapple tricks at higher levels. For a skirmisher build: above average.
Defence: good for a skirmisher, but likely less hp and AC than a normal tanky barbarian
Mobility: great: really high speed, and fly bursts from 14 onward.
Utility: meh. Barbarian is rather weak with this. You have 1 extra skill from your race, but next to skills and a background only a few rituals from your subclass, and you can see really far.

In general, compared with a monk, you have more hp and powerful resistances from rage, do more damage, have weaker saves and a few less special abilities. Compared with a ‘normal’ barbarian, you’ll do less damage, but often won’t be there for the counter attack, have a superior mobility / speed, and cool uncommon grapple options.

Since the build is Barbarian 20, are and there isn’t too much reason to multi-class, and the Barbarian capstone is very nice, there isn’t that much variety here.

A fun variant is using the rather obscure Simic Hybrid race from Ravnica’s. Its stat modifiers are very nice (+2 con +1 whatever), but excellent are its ‘animal enhancements’. You can pick one at level 1 and 5. At level 1, you can take manta glide (don’t take falling damage up to 100 ft), at level 5 you can take Grappling Appendages: claws or tentacles that give a natural attack at 1d6 + str, and if you hit you can start a grapple as a bonus action. This first ability makes sure you don’t have to take damage yourself if you fly up 100 ft to drop a grappled opponent on the floor; the second makes sure you don’t need to spend a feat on tavern brawler.

Of course, a few feats can be switched as well. Mobile and Pole Arm Master would be nice to have. Instead of the Eagle aspect at 6, the Tiger could be taken for a few appropriate skills for a little extra (or: different) utility. Or the Elk Totem spirit could be taken at 3 instead of Eagle, it also gives a high bonus to speed.

[Gurgeh]

Battle Master with the Unarmed Fighting Style could do a plethora of neat maneuvers even when unarmed, and additional damage with most of them, so there's that.

A problem of sorts arises in that you don't have an unarmored defense feature by default, so unless you're fine with a rather mediocre AC, you're stuck with using armor. Not that it's necessarily a bad thing, if you can afford Medium Armor Master and stick to medium armors.
Why not just wear heavy armour? TC didn't require the character fight unarmoured, and you'll want strength for grappling anyway.

[Arkhios]

Why not just wear heavy armour? TC didn't require the character fight unarmoured, and you'll want strength for grappling anyway.

Personally, when I think of a monk, I picture a character in light or no armor at all. The question was how would I build a monk without taking levels in monk, so that's why.
I admit Medium Armor is bit of a stretch in that regard, and using a fighter, I understand you'd be using strength mostly - not only because grappling (not everyone wants to do that), but also because anyone but monk must use strength for unarmed strikes.

However, as "a monk" you should be agile (as in, dexterous) anyway, but relying on light armor only doesn't get you very far (at most AC 17 in studded leather, if you have Dexterity 20, before additional bonuses such as defense fighting style, which you don't have unless you take either it or unarmed fighting style with the new feat from TCE). Also, a heavy armor imposes disadvantage on stealth, which is a skill that I feel even monks should excel in, even if they didn't have expertise in it. So, medium armor is, in my opinion, the optimal choice. Unless, of course, you are okay with mediocre AC.

Also, what's TC?

[JellyPooga]

Ranger could make a fairly decent Monk-less monk. Light armour, Extra Attack, spells that can replicate some of the more mystical aspects and subclasses that can sub in for some specific features; Swarmkeeper for forced movement and mobility, Hunter to increase damage or attacks and better defenses, etc.

Add some Barbarian and/or Rogue to flavour as desired (unarmoured and resilient from the former and mobility and skills from the latter).

[AttilatheYeon]

Scourge Aasimar into Zealot Barbarian. I'd check with your DM if Zealot's Divine Fury works with unarmed strikes as there seems to be some debate. But if it does, you don't even need an unarmed die for damage until late tier 2.

[BoutsofInsanity]

Didn't want to hijack another thread about the value of the "unarmed combat" fighting style, but in reading some comments over there and being a longtime monk player, I was interested in what people were proposing about non-monk builds that could rival the damage a monk could put out and also have some nifty features.

If the class of monk didn't exist, and using the current rules/classes/feats etc., how would you create a barefisted fighting character that could mix it up in melee combat? Thanks for your input.

It's not quite raw. But it's implied that this would be fine.

In the DMG under Modifying Classes it give several options that WOTC encourages dungeon masters to use. With this encouragement I would do the following.

Paladin Chasis - Wisdom based to keep with the wise flavor.



Add the following ability - when wearing no armor may use wisdom + dexterity to calculate AC
Enable the following - When you use your smite ability it also causes your unarmed attacks to be magical for one minute
Enable smiting through punching
Reflavor many of the smite spells and other spells as cool martial arts ki flavored things.
Profit.


Congratulations, you now have magical healing, shoryuken, punch into other dimension attack, D10 hit dice, good saves, power up buffs like bless, and can summon a magical companion to help you travel around like an anime protagonist. It pretty much gets it all done and you can just reflavor away from the whole holy power stuff to more things like martial arts.

[MadBear]

Honestly, this is my favorite non-monk punchy class. It may not be core, but its very well done and has been balanced in every game I've seen it in. The pugilist, sets you up to be a boxer, wrestler, drunken fist fighter super well. It also does a good job of not feeling like a monk while having similar abilities.

https://www.dmsguild.com/product/184921/the-Pugilist-Class

[Lavaeolus]

My instinct for a "non-Monk Monk" was a Battle Master Fighter with a Barbarian dip and Unarmed Fighting. Again, this sort of depends on in what ways you want to feel, uh, Monk-ish. This hits two boxes that I think most people will think of: unarmored and with decent unarmed support. Between Extra Attack and Action Surge it can also punch people a lot each turn, which is always nice.

I think it's missing a little something, though. I imagine it a bit more brutish than a usual Monk -- it's Strength-based and likely to lack Wisdom -- but I might make it a tabaxi in order to capture the Monk's feeling of movement through Feline Agility and a climbing speed. Technically, with tabaxi now using a firm 1d6 as of Monsters of the Multiverse, you could skip or delay the Unarmed Fighting pick and go more Barbarian heavy. Another interesting race might be tortle: it also does d6 unarmed damage, but comes with an in-built unarmored support. While some are definitely more viable than others, that can work with a lot of classes.

For a different Monk flavour, another route might be Ranger. Unarmed attacks put aside entirely, I think one of the more recognisable Monk weapons out there is the quarterstaff. So how about a Shillelagh Ranger, taking advantage of Druidic Warrior? I don't know if this is in line with the OP or if it's the most optimal use of the Ranger Fighting Style, but I think it occupies a similar flavour as a semi-mystical high-WIS martial. A Fey Wanderer, perhaps. Alternatively, a Samurai Fighter with Magic Initiate (Druid) occupies a similar, but more mundane, niche.

In terms of just utilising "barefisted fighting", the range of options gets bigger. If you're going Unarmed Fighting, you can of course just wear heavy armour and not worry about your DEX score. Certainly this makes building easier! I've mentioned the Battle Master before, and it's still a decent option as any melee Battle Master is. And though it probably means going in medium armour, the Barbarian dip is still nice on it if you feel like leaning into unarmed: Rage gets you advantage on Strength checks, which you might want to take advantage of for grappling purposes.

Another way to get advantage on Strength checks, though? Turn into a giant, of course. The Rune Knight can utilise Giant's Might to gain advantage and turn Large, which has some other grappling benefits (namely "you cannot grapple something two or more sizes larger than you"). In both cases, if you do want to go this route, I recommend looking at Skill Expert; it's a source of Athletics Expertise, but as a flexible half-feat it's relatively easy to work into your ASI progression.

[strangebloke]

Tortle battlemaster with trip attack, unarmed style, and tavern brawler for grapples. Knock 'em down, pin them to the ground, use your other maneuvers for cool kung-fu stuff like counter attacking (riposte). Take 2 levels of rogue for mobility. Grab the new element touched for further mobility and mystic flavoring.

Works with Tortle, but also with any race if you can get a barrier tattoo/molten armor.

Other contender is druidic warrior with ranger levels to become a SAD guy who chucks rocks and beats people with a staff while casting healing magic. Feels pretty monk-like to me, anyway.

[Psyren]

Battle Master with the Unarmed Fighting Style could do a plethora of neat maneuvers even when unarmed, and additional damage with most of them, so there's that.

A problem of sorts arises in that you don't have an unarmored defense feature by default, so unless you're fine with a rather mediocre AC, you're stuck with using armor. Not that it's necessarily a bad thing, if you can afford Medium Armor Master and stick to medium armors.

Or go Tortle, problem solved :smallbiggrin:

Or, well, just wear armor.

[Segev]

Fighter / Barbarian. Unarmored Defense from Barbarian, Unarmed Fighting Style from Fighter. Go Frenzied Berserker, and if it really isn't a huge deal to have Exhaustion every day, you can get your bonus action attack without having to have Martial Arts, and you'll do much better damage with it (d8+str mod+rage damage).

[Amnestic]

Armourer artificer with your punchmode gauntlets could work?

Armourer 3 or 4/Bladesinger 6, with a dual wielder feat? Gives you a "punch", a bonus action attack, increased speed, only light armour instead of medium/heavy. Use your spell slots on buffs or spells that seem monk-y for your flavour (four elements style). Infusions="putting your ki into items".

[RogueJK]

Tortle Psi Warrior Fighter X
STR 15+2
DEX 8
CON 14
INT 15+1
WIS 10
CHA 8
Unarmed Fighting Style
ASIs: Mobile, Crusher (+1 STR), +2 INT

or

Loxodon Swarmkeeper Ranger X
STR 8
DEX 14
CON 15+2
INT 10
WIS 15+1
CHA 8
Druidic Warrior Fighting Style (Shillelagh, Magic Stone)
ASIs: Crusher (+1 CON), +2 WIS, Polearm Master

[Yakmala]

I mentioned this in another thread, but I've been playing a Shifter Beast Barbarian recently and it feels a lot like playing a Monk, only more durable and higher DPS.

The character uses the Beast Barbarian Claws option, the spider climb level 6 ability and the Longtooth Shifter option.

So, by level 5, you have four attacks per round without having to spend Ki or using a feat or multi-class dip and at level 6, you can run along walls and ceilings as well or better than a monk. You have a good unarmored AC, advantage on dexterity saves and faster movement. All things that are monk-like. You also get Barbarian benefits such as resistance to slashing/piercing/bludgeoning, bonus rage damage and reckless attack.

[Spo]

I mentioned this in another thread, but I've been playing a Shifter Beast Barbarian recently and it feels a lot like playing a Monk, only more durable and higher DPS.

The character uses the Beast Barbarian Claws option, the spider climb level 6 ability and the Longtooth Shifter option.

So, by level 5, you have four attacks per round without having to spend Ki or using a feat or multi-class dip and at level 6, you can run along walls and ceilings as well or better than a monk. You have a good unarmored AC, advantage on dexterity saves and faster movement. All things that are monk-like. You also get Barbarian benefits such as resistance to slashing/piercing/bludgeoning, bonus rage damage and reckless attack.

I recently played a shifter moon druid and I agree with your description of how it plays. Combining that with beast barbarian certainly intrigues me.

[Psyren]

I mentioned this in another thread, but I've been playing a Shifter Beast Barbarian recently and it feels a lot like playing a Monk, only more durable and higher DPS.

The character uses the Beast Barbarian Claws option, the spider climb level 6 ability and the Longtooth Shifter option.

So, by level 5, you have four attacks per round without having to spend Ki or using a feat or multi-class dip and at level 6, you can run along walls and ceilings as well or better than a monk. You have a good unarmored AC, advantage on dexterity saves and faster movement. All things that are monk-like. You also get Barbarian benefits such as resistance to slashing/piercing/bludgeoning, bonus rage damage and reckless attack.

Your attacks also count as magic, just like a monk's.

(Well, not the Shifter bite - but I think a plenty of DMs will just let you throw that one in for ease of play. Mine did!)

[Skrum]

It is rather amazing to me that a character that can fight without weapon is such a popular character concept, but 5e had so little support for it. Even the class that's supposed to do exactly that is, at best, a merely passable class. Other classes that go the unarmed route are almost always making significant mechanical sacrifices for the sake of playing the character type. Really baffling, actually.

[LibraryOgre]

Build 1: Light and slashy ninja monk

Let's see: Wood Elf Rogue (Acolyte is a good background, it will give you Insight for your monky proclamations)
With default array

Str 10
Dex 17 (15+2)
Con 14
Int 12
Wis 14 (13+1)
Cha 8

You'll take expertise in Stealth and Athletics at 1st, then Acrobatics and Insight at 6th

Sneak attack lets you do good damage, even with normal punches, or you can be "guy with butterfly knives aka short swords". Cunning Action covers your mobility (better than a monk does, that's for sure).

Thief archetype includes Second Story Work (so you can climb at normal speed... which can work as parkour and such), and lets you jump further.

Some useful feats for your ASIs (you'll get to a 20 Dex quickly, and that's most of what you need)

*Athlete (half feat, and while the "don't lose movement to climbing" benefit is lost (since you have it from your subclass), the quick up and short jump benefit are monky)
*Grappler (If you have the strength and want to; I had a friend who tried to grapple EVERYTHING with his monks; advantage on attack rolls though really helps with sneak attack damage)
*Martial Adept (Cool martial arts moves)
*Mobile (monk speed)
*Resilient (monks have lots of saves)
*Tavern Brawler (monky punches)

I'd probably do ASIs something like this:
4th: Dex +2
8th: Athlete Dex +1, other stuff
12th: Mobile
16th: Martial Adept
19th: Resilient

Build 2:
A slightly different build can make you a bit more wrestler-monk... grappler, tavern brawler. That, I would do a Hill Dwarf, and it would look like this

Str 15
Dex 13
Con 16 (14+2)
Int 10
Wis 13 (12+1)
Cha 8

Still works well as a Thief rogue, but Battlemaster fighter works great, too. Go with Two-weapon fighting (again, I'm sticking strictly PH)

ASIs:

4th Tavern Brawler (+1 Strength)
6th Grappler
8th Resilient: Dexterity
12th Polearm Master
14th Sentinel
16th Mage Slayer
19th Martial Adept

Early on, he'll mostly punch things, turning those into grapples. Later, he'll start using quarterstaves or magical pole-arms, plus Maneuvers, to do a lot of battlefield control.

[Yakmala]

Your attacks also count as magic, just like a monk's.

(Well, not the Shifter bite - but I think a plenty of DMs will just let you throw that one in for ease of play. Mine did!)

Yeah, I think most reasonable DM's will allow the bite to be magical as well, if only to have less bookkeeping. But if they are not so inclined, see if you can get them to include an Insignia of Claws in their loot (Or trade for one if you play AL). It not only solves the bite problem, but is one of the few "weapons" that will increase the accuracy and damage of natural and unarmed attacks.

[sambojin]

Really late to this one, but a themed Moon Druid works fine. Sun Wukong (Monkey) from Monkey Magic/ Journey to the West. Essentially, all the monkey. Even with vague Dragon Ball references (Tidal Wave *is* a Kamehameha).

Kobold (MPMM ver) for the "Monkey!" scream, even in wildshape, take PAM at lvl4 if you want caster form staff work, or Alert.
Or Bugbear (MPMM ver) with PAM at lvl4 for the sudden assault and extendo-stick, or Alert.
Most animals can be slightly reformed from stat blocks, and most ape forms could use a quarterstaff if they knew how. Which you do. Plus, the 101 transformations thing.

Ape? Punchy Throwy monkey. Frilled Deathspitter? Fast punchy Throwy monkey. CR1/2 done. Brown Bear? Bigger punchy monkey. Giant Rocktopus? Bigger extendo-stick monkey. Spider King? Climby throwy smart monkey. Female Steeder? Jumpy monkey. CR1 done. Huge Polar Bear? Even bigger punchy monkey. Giant Spitting Lizard? Trippy grapply Throwy monkey. CR2 done, has magic attacks all the time. Giant Ape from Polymorph? Even bigger Punchy Throwy Monkey. CR7/lvl4 slots done. Summon Draconic Spirit? Cranky combat cloud that you can fly around on, but can be knocked off. Lvl5 slots done. Air Elemental form? Fly'y quick/dodgy Punchy Monkey on a cloud that s/he can't be knocked off. Lvl10 done.
(Yes, Monkey uses a surprisingly large amount of poison/intoxicants against mortals, that canonically also work against demons, but not in 5e's case)

And guess what sorts of creatures you call in with Summon Beast and Conjure Animals? Yep... Maybe just use whatever familiar you think is best. If you don't feel like you've got enough attacks, have whatever summon ride around on you. Claws=punches. Slams/ Bites=headbutts from his indestructible skull.

I mean, if a Monk got this level of stuff, you'd think it was a broken class.... 2/Sr shenanigans, *and* full-list full-caster.

[Blatant Beast]

Tortle Psi Warrior Fighter X
STR 15+2
DEX 8
CON 14
INT 15+1
WIS 10
CHA 8
Unarmed Fighting Style
ASIs: Mobile, Crusher (+1 STR), +2 INT


Psionic Strike/TK Thrust only works with a weapon, and not with an unarmed strike.

[Nefariis]

I've always been curious about creating a MasterMaker Artificer for unarmed combat.


Battlefist
At 3rd level you replace one of your arms with a battlefist, a magical prosthetic you created. Your battlefist is a simple melee weapon, and you can use it as a spellcasting focus for your artificer spells. While your battlefist is a magical weapon, it can be infused as if it were a nonmagical weapon.

When you attack with your battlefist, you can use your Intelligence modifier instead of Strength for the attack roll. If you hit with it, you deal bludgeoning damage equal to 1d10 + your Strength or Intelligence modifier. At 9th level, the damage dealt by your battlefist increases to 2d10 + your Strength or Intelligence modifier.

Additionally, you can choose one of the following weapon properties to add to your battlefist: finesse, thrown (range 20/60), or reach. When you finish a long rest, you can replace this property with a different weapon property from the list.


It seems like if you added Crusher and Skill expertise athletics into the build, you would have a pretty burly punch monster.


As a side note - "At 9th level, the damage dealt by your battlefist increases to 2d10", interestingly enough, doesn't say "At 9th level in this class". I'm not sure if I am reading that RAW or RAI though (I am currently reading this like BB/GFB).

The 9th level ability being -


Improved Battlefist
At 9th level, you have modified your battlefist in both mundane and magical ways. It gains the following benefits:


When you infuse your battlefist, you can apply two infusions to it at a time. If both infusions grant bonuses to your attack rolls or armor class, you gain only the greater bonus.
Your battlefist is also a shield, increasing your armor class by 2. You can wield it as a weapon even if you are using it as a shield. You can infuse it as if it were both a simple melee weapon and a shield.
The maximum number of items you can infuse at once increases by 1, but the extra infusion must be applied to your battlefist.



Fighter 2 or Bladesinger 2 would both add a lot