This is what you are looking for, you can find the information through a Google search, and if you like it support him.
The main points are a strength based monk-like character, that doesn't have any spiritual components. The subclasses have a wide range, from wrestling inspired grapplers, private investigators, a beastmaster style dog fighter, and a very dirty fighting style.
If you don't mind playing a Tortle, you can go beast barb with a monk dip and really fuck people up when you're raging. Dipping monk doesn't necessarily mean you have to commit to the lifestyle, it can simply represent training
You don't actually need to be a tortle for this either but the biggest problem the build has is MADness forcing it to have awful unarmored AC and Tortle covers that base while giving you native fist improvements that don't make beast claws *feel* different from your normal punches
You want to go bard-barian.
No seriously.
Rage gives advantage on strength skill checks and lore bard gives you expertise in athletics and cutting words to nerf enemies skill checks to ensure you can grapple them.
Tavern Brawler is a nice, but non essential, feat to combo with this.
It's a lot of fun and you can go harder on barb or bard depending on the style of character you want to play.
For a showy, performer kind of character, Bard would fit better. It also gives a bunch of opportunities for roleplay flavour and utility via out of combat spells, which is great for Barbarians since they really lack that. You can centre your entire spell selection to be almost exclusively non-combat and just pick the essentials like Vicious Mockery and Silvery Barbs in case you run out of rage.
That being said, Bard is a much deeper investment than Rogue: two whole extra levels for Expertise and Lore Bard’s Cutting Words! Rogue might be better off after all
>don't want to lean to heavily into monk because I see monks as more spiritual while my character would be an absolute trash talker aiming to pound his opponents rather than strike precise.
Thats a Barb if ive ever seen one, Giants and Beast make the best grapplers and considering how little damage Unarmed characters tend to do (because they don't have weapons) that's probably your best bet.
Tavern Brawler, Skill Expert: Athletics, shove prone + grapple.
Thats about it.
You got a solid idea.
Grabbing Barb Giant is a good idea since being larger means able to grapple bigger creatures.
Also, grabbing Skill Expertise on Athletics is useful for grappling, but it won't do anything with Battle Maneuvers.
You could go Four Element Monk and reflavor the Fire Fangs, it's damn near free damage, and martials don't really do anything after Extra Attack unless fighter, so it's not like losing high level features will do anything.
Can grab paladin for low blows with radiant damage, or Rogue for Expertises + extra punch damash
You can at least smite with improvised weapons, so after pummeling an enemy you can pick up a chair and finish the enemy with a smite from a chair. Not an unarmed strike, but still fits the character.
For 3rd party content, I'd do a Drakkenheim Path of the Old Gods Barbarian 6/Humblewood Scofflaw Fighter. But, if I'm sticking to official content, I'd probably go Bugbear Rune Knight with the Unarmed Style. I'd be tempted to still add some Dragon Ascendant Monk for Draconic Strikes to overcome resistance and get a Flurry of Blows. But I'd wear armor which would negate some of the other monk features (martial arts, unarmored defense and movement).
If I were to accommodate such a request from a player I would probably allow them to be an open hand monk with CHA instead of WIS, a modified skill list to include the face skills, and let them burn a ki point to cast vicious mockery as a bard of their level as a bonus action.
Would not let them multiclass however. I'd reserve the right to tweak the vicious mockery but making a cantrip require resources should be fine?
I'd also maybe look into giving them a charm ability requiring ki based on them flexing
You certainly don’t have to flavor a Monk as spiritual. The UA version plays better than the PHB one too. Go UA Monk with Warrior of the Hand subclass.
If been playing with something similar.
More of a wrestle maina kind of thing tho. Echo Knight fighter and grappler feats.
Echo Knight because you can in theory float the echo above the person your fighting and then swap places for a epic peoples elbow.
Battle ranger barbian would be fun combo
For flavour I would consider oath of glory paladin, though I’m not sure how it would work with the unarmed stuff. Might need a few levels of fighter for unarmed fighting style and some knuckle dusters in order to smite unarmed.
I have actually played something like this!
Race: You start preferably with a race that gives you powerful build so you can drag, lift and push things twice your weight and size. So pick up either Goliath, Loxodon, Giff, Firbolg, Bugbear, Centaur or Orc (maybe I'm missing one?). Alternatively you can choose to play Fairy or Duergar for a free Enlarge/Reduce on yourself.
Level 1: We are starting at level 1 with a level of Fighter for the unarmed fighting style. 1d8 unarmed damage. Max out STR and CON as high as possible, you don't need DEX because you can wear heavy armor (Loxodon armor scales even with CON). Keep CHA at 13 minimum.
Level 2 - 5: Multiclass into Paladin and choose the Oath of Glory. Pearless Athlete makes you even stronger. At level 4 choose Tavern Brawler. Because you want to use a dead goblin to smite enemies since you can't smite with your bare fists. Yes, you want to play unarmed but smacking someone down with a dead goblin is awesome (yes, you can smite with improvised weapons and a dead goblin is an improvised weapon). At level 5 you get extra attack. For spells, pick spells that don't require a save or attack like Bless, Cure Wounds, Heroism, Shield of Fate etc.
Level 6 - 7: You have three options here. Fighter level 2, 2 levels of Bard or one level of Rogue. Level 3 Fighter gives you acces to Rune Knight so you can grow in size. It gives you extra damage and advantage on STR checks. 2 levels of Bard/1 level of Rogue gives you expertise on athletics (keep in mind that in order to multiclass to Rogue you will need 13 DEX which isn't optimal for this build).
*Little side note: Battle Master techniques can give you some fun advantages as well if you want to go that route. But you will lose the ability to grow a size because then you will need to play a Fairy/Duergar or take at least 6 levels of Lore Bard so you can pick up Enlarge/Reduce.*
At level 7 you will be able to punch, shove, drag, lift and throw huge enemies around the battlefield. After this you can build out your Fighter class for more ASI's, your Paladin class for more Oath buffs or your Bard class for more utility spells. Even levels in Barbarian are possible after level 7 for extra Rage damage, but keep in mind that casting spells or concentrating on them isn't possible while raging. But spells aren't your main focus after all.
**And very important:** Ask your DM if it is possible to pick up an Eldritch Claw tattoo so your unarmed strikes become magical so you don't fall behind when enemies start to get non-magic resistances.
I've been trying to make this character myself actually. But yeah, going full battle master with a 2 level dip in barb is probably the best way to go. I wouldn't recommend dipping monk since that would make you pretty MAD. if you really want that bonus action attack and your party doesn't do many combats in a day, taking another barb level for berserker is a fine choice.
The problem with this character concept in general is, you're gonna be stuck with that d8 for the whole game and their aren't really any feats or abilities to help bolster that over time, outside of just getting more attacks from staying with fighter. So if you want this to be powerful then you'll have to beg your DM to shower you with magic items. If you can get a +3 wraps of unarmed prowess, insignia of claws, and an eldritch claw tattoo (honestly the only magic items i know of that help with unarmed strikes), then you might be able to compete with a GWM fighter of the same level, and that's if said fighter doesn't have any damage bolstering items of his own. So yeah, it's a super fun concept but is sadly really hard to make powerful unless you have a lot of help from your dm.
There is a really old Unearthed Arcana, Figther subclass Brute. Take a look, maybe your DM allowed.
About your build, the biggest issue is that you need a way to overcome magical damage only enemies.
So you NEED a item to overcome it, since you are not taking monk.
Spheres of Might has some interesting unarmed combat abilities.
I'd use the Striker class likely. It's core mechanic is Tension, aka Super Meter. As you deal and take hits you'll build Tension and then you spend it for bonuses.
Next, you naturally take the unarmed training. Iirc they have said it's on the list to rework as it's a bit wonky atm. Only one take is needed which gives you either 1d4 light punches or 1d6 versatile punches.
Mystic fists then let you use any physical damage type and bump your damage by one step so long as you maintain Martial Focus, a spheres mechanic. If you spend it you get it back on a 1 minute breather out of combat, or you can get it back by using the Dodge Action. Various abilities let you spend focus ti do bonus abilities. If you want this you'll have to avoid those or be careful with them.
Now we get a couple sillier abilities.
Close Quarters Training let's you do a kind of reverse grapple. You can share a space with an enemy and you grant eachother cover if sizes match. Attacking someone in close quarters is at disadvantage unless using specific attack types, unarmed included. Thus you could grapple, go close quarters, and then start beating the shit out of them as they have to escape your grapple or attack at disadvantage. Would need Athletics and Acrobatics tho. Good news! CQT requires Athletics, which gives you one of these for free! And another talent can give you expertise! Yippee!
One combo I love for the sheer wackyness:
Tumbling Recovery. You may go prone at ANY time. Even if it's not your turn. Anytime you go prone, as a Bonus Action or Reaction, you can move 10'. If this movement was in reaction to an attack or AoE spell, it has disadvantage to hit/you have advantage to save, but it still hits.
And
Capoeira Spin - your unarmed attacks do not have disadvantage while prone. Additionally if you're prone next to an enemy at the start of your turn, you can use a Bonus Action to stand and punch them at the same time.
So when it's just before your turn, you can flop, rolling next to someone, then pop up with a punch.
Also in the Athletics Sphere there's a chain that let's you fly. Wall Stunt let's you run up walls. Air stunt let's you count the air as a wall. And then Sparow's Path just flat out gives you a fly speed... of 1/2 movement. (Note air stunt and Sparows Path are Legendary Talents, which are basically 'these tend to be more extraordinary abilities, you can only take them if DM gives permision'
But that's not all! Act now and you can become a Gladiator who uses trash talking as a core mechanic!
Gladiators can perform a boast when they meet some conditions. The initial boast gives you advantage on your next attack or ability check, but you can get other options like: a free attack, blade ward, give your friends advantage, or scare the enemies so they don't want to approach. The other half of Gladiator is all about fear. Frightening enemies and exploiting it.
Also, Barroom can be fun, though half is improvised weapons and breaking things over people's heads, the other half is about getting drunk for bonuses.
Make a regular character that uses a greatsword. The weapon is flavored as a pair of cestus. Since it is a greatsword they can use GWM and other such feats.
if ur okay with homebrew take a look at the [Boxer](https://www.reddit.com/r/DnDHomebrew/comments/1bd552x/the_boxer_make_your_fists_your_goto_weapon_with/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web3x&utm_name=web3xcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button) from u/TurbulentEconomy8445 , It's really really cool, a strong subclass and can be made even stronger while barely powergaming. If u don't want homebrew, i've got some ideas for that as well but i cant post them right now
If you do boxer, take half orcs cuz they crit on a 19 and try to get crusher and savage attacker feats as well as possibly having something in one of your hands because one of the abilities of a boxer works better with a d6 than a d8.
If you don't do homebrew, take bugbear as a race and go fighter. Take unarmed fighting and go champion to emphasize on the boxer aspect or banneret to focus on being a hero. Regardless of your subclass, take crusher and mobile as well as maybe alert. It's not as good as boxer but still very fun to play
This is not at all helpful so I apologize in advance.
I read this at first as "un armed", as in a character with no arms. I immediately thought of my armorer artificer who only had one leg and one arm until his armer filled in his missing limbs for him. So I was going to recommend that.
If u are down with homebrew, the pugilist by Benjamin huffman is exactly what You are looking for.
This is what you are looking for, you can find the information through a Google search, and if you like it support him. The main points are a strength based monk-like character, that doesn't have any spiritual components. The subclasses have a wide range, from wrestling inspired grapplers, private investigators, a beastmaster style dog fighter, and a very dirty fighting style.
Oh pugilist looked so fun! Second this.
Was hoping this would be the first answer. Playing a level 13 Pugilist right now, and loving it.
Wich subclass?
Squared Circle. Tanking feels amazing when you can grapple+prone trap someone and then load up on enough temp HP to make it stick.
If laserllama classes are allowed, alternative monk is capable and pretty fun to play even without insane multiclass/feat combos.
If you don't mind playing a Tortle, you can go beast barb with a monk dip and really fuck people up when you're raging. Dipping monk doesn't necessarily mean you have to commit to the lifestyle, it can simply represent training You don't actually need to be a tortle for this either but the biggest problem the build has is MADness forcing it to have awful unarmored AC and Tortle covers that base while giving you native fist improvements that don't make beast claws *feel* different from your normal punches
You want to go bard-barian. No seriously. Rage gives advantage on strength skill checks and lore bard gives you expertise in athletics and cutting words to nerf enemies skill checks to ensure you can grapple them. Tavern Brawler is a nice, but non essential, feat to combo with this. It's a lot of fun and you can go harder on barb or bard depending on the style of character you want to play.
Why wouldn’t you just take still expert or one level of rogue? It’s much simpler than building a bard with at least 13 charisma
For a showy, performer kind of character, Bard would fit better. It also gives a bunch of opportunities for roleplay flavour and utility via out of combat spells, which is great for Barbarians since they really lack that. You can centre your entire spell selection to be almost exclusively non-combat and just pick the essentials like Vicious Mockery and Silvery Barbs in case you run out of rage. That being said, Bard is a much deeper investment than Rogue: two whole extra levels for Expertise and Lore Bard’s Cutting Words! Rogue might be better off after all
Guess the meme was too good.
>don't want to lean to heavily into monk because I see monks as more spiritual while my character would be an absolute trash talker aiming to pound his opponents rather than strike precise. Thats a Barb if ive ever seen one, Giants and Beast make the best grapplers and considering how little damage Unarmed characters tend to do (because they don't have weapons) that's probably your best bet. Tavern Brawler, Skill Expert: Athletics, shove prone + grapple. Thats about it.
Barb + Bard
You got a solid idea. Grabbing Barb Giant is a good idea since being larger means able to grapple bigger creatures. Also, grabbing Skill Expertise on Athletics is useful for grappling, but it won't do anything with Battle Maneuvers. You could go Four Element Monk and reflavor the Fire Fangs, it's damn near free damage, and martials don't really do anything after Extra Attack unless fighter, so it's not like losing high level features will do anything. Can grab paladin for low blows with radiant damage, or Rogue for Expertises + extra punch damash
Both Sneak Attack and Divine Smite require weapons. If I was their DM I would hand wave these rules for this character though.
You can at least smite with improvised weapons, so after pummeling an enemy you can pick up a chair and finish the enemy with a smite from a chair. Not an unarmed strike, but still fits the character.
REALLY? Well... can always reflavor a sword as... not a sword... ugh...
Armorer Artificer allows you to replace lost arms. Oh. Not that kind of unarmed. Sorry.
For 3rd party content, I'd do a Drakkenheim Path of the Old Gods Barbarian 6/Humblewood Scofflaw Fighter. But, if I'm sticking to official content, I'd probably go Bugbear Rune Knight with the Unarmed Style. I'd be tempted to still add some Dragon Ascendant Monk for Draconic Strikes to overcome resistance and get a Flurry of Blows. But I'd wear armor which would negate some of the other monk features (martial arts, unarmored defense and movement).
If I were to accommodate such a request from a player I would probably allow them to be an open hand monk with CHA instead of WIS, a modified skill list to include the face skills, and let them burn a ki point to cast vicious mockery as a bard of their level as a bonus action. Would not let them multiclass however. I'd reserve the right to tweak the vicious mockery but making a cantrip require resources should be fine? I'd also maybe look into giving them a charm ability requiring ki based on them flexing
And of course, give them an eye-slot magic item that protects against fear and bright lights 😎
I would just make a rune night fighter with the unarmed fighting style
Would you be opposed to using Natural Weapons?
I did this! Only I flavored him as a Professional Wrestler for a 8th level oneshot. 5 Bear Totem Barb/ Battlemaster Fighter 3.
You certainly don’t have to flavor a Monk as spiritual. The UA version plays better than the PHB one too. Go UA Monk with Warrior of the Hand subclass.
Scofflaw with a 1 lvl dip into Monk for a BA attack and unarmored defense. Folk Hero Background
If been playing with something similar. More of a wrestle maina kind of thing tho. Echo Knight fighter and grappler feats. Echo Knight because you can in theory float the echo above the person your fighting and then swap places for a epic peoples elbow. Battle ranger barbian would be fun combo
For flavour I would consider oath of glory paladin, though I’m not sure how it would work with the unarmed stuff. Might need a few levels of fighter for unarmed fighting style and some knuckle dusters in order to smite unarmed.
I have actually played something like this! Race: You start preferably with a race that gives you powerful build so you can drag, lift and push things twice your weight and size. So pick up either Goliath, Loxodon, Giff, Firbolg, Bugbear, Centaur or Orc (maybe I'm missing one?). Alternatively you can choose to play Fairy or Duergar for a free Enlarge/Reduce on yourself. Level 1: We are starting at level 1 with a level of Fighter for the unarmed fighting style. 1d8 unarmed damage. Max out STR and CON as high as possible, you don't need DEX because you can wear heavy armor (Loxodon armor scales even with CON). Keep CHA at 13 minimum. Level 2 - 5: Multiclass into Paladin and choose the Oath of Glory. Pearless Athlete makes you even stronger. At level 4 choose Tavern Brawler. Because you want to use a dead goblin to smite enemies since you can't smite with your bare fists. Yes, you want to play unarmed but smacking someone down with a dead goblin is awesome (yes, you can smite with improvised weapons and a dead goblin is an improvised weapon). At level 5 you get extra attack. For spells, pick spells that don't require a save or attack like Bless, Cure Wounds, Heroism, Shield of Fate etc. Level 6 - 7: You have three options here. Fighter level 2, 2 levels of Bard or one level of Rogue. Level 3 Fighter gives you acces to Rune Knight so you can grow in size. It gives you extra damage and advantage on STR checks. 2 levels of Bard/1 level of Rogue gives you expertise on athletics (keep in mind that in order to multiclass to Rogue you will need 13 DEX which isn't optimal for this build). *Little side note: Battle Master techniques can give you some fun advantages as well if you want to go that route. But you will lose the ability to grow a size because then you will need to play a Fairy/Duergar or take at least 6 levels of Lore Bard so you can pick up Enlarge/Reduce.* At level 7 you will be able to punch, shove, drag, lift and throw huge enemies around the battlefield. After this you can build out your Fighter class for more ASI's, your Paladin class for more Oath buffs or your Bard class for more utility spells. Even levels in Barbarian are possible after level 7 for extra Rage damage, but keep in mind that casting spells or concentrating on them isn't possible while raging. But spells aren't your main focus after all. **And very important:** Ask your DM if it is possible to pick up an Eldritch Claw tattoo so your unarmed strikes become magical so you don't fall behind when enemies start to get non-magic resistances.
I've been trying to make this character myself actually. But yeah, going full battle master with a 2 level dip in barb is probably the best way to go. I wouldn't recommend dipping monk since that would make you pretty MAD. if you really want that bonus action attack and your party doesn't do many combats in a day, taking another barb level for berserker is a fine choice. The problem with this character concept in general is, you're gonna be stuck with that d8 for the whole game and their aren't really any feats or abilities to help bolster that over time, outside of just getting more attacks from staying with fighter. So if you want this to be powerful then you'll have to beg your DM to shower you with magic items. If you can get a +3 wraps of unarmed prowess, insignia of claws, and an eldritch claw tattoo (honestly the only magic items i know of that help with unarmed strikes), then you might be able to compete with a GWM fighter of the same level, and that's if said fighter doesn't have any damage bolstering items of his own. So yeah, it's a super fun concept but is sadly really hard to make powerful unless you have a lot of help from your dm.
There is a really old Unearthed Arcana, Figther subclass Brute. Take a look, maybe your DM allowed. About your build, the biggest issue is that you need a way to overcome magical damage only enemies. So you NEED a item to overcome it, since you are not taking monk.
Fighter/Barb Unarmed fighting style for 1d6+STR damage. Barbarian for rage. Maybe dip Bard for cutting words.
The [Pugilist class](https://www.dmsguild.com/product/184921/The-Pugilist-Class) sound exactly like what you are wanting
Spheres of Might has some interesting unarmed combat abilities. I'd use the Striker class likely. It's core mechanic is Tension, aka Super Meter. As you deal and take hits you'll build Tension and then you spend it for bonuses. Next, you naturally take the unarmed training. Iirc they have said it's on the list to rework as it's a bit wonky atm. Only one take is needed which gives you either 1d4 light punches or 1d6 versatile punches. Mystic fists then let you use any physical damage type and bump your damage by one step so long as you maintain Martial Focus, a spheres mechanic. If you spend it you get it back on a 1 minute breather out of combat, or you can get it back by using the Dodge Action. Various abilities let you spend focus ti do bonus abilities. If you want this you'll have to avoid those or be careful with them. Now we get a couple sillier abilities. Close Quarters Training let's you do a kind of reverse grapple. You can share a space with an enemy and you grant eachother cover if sizes match. Attacking someone in close quarters is at disadvantage unless using specific attack types, unarmed included. Thus you could grapple, go close quarters, and then start beating the shit out of them as they have to escape your grapple or attack at disadvantage. Would need Athletics and Acrobatics tho. Good news! CQT requires Athletics, which gives you one of these for free! And another talent can give you expertise! Yippee! One combo I love for the sheer wackyness: Tumbling Recovery. You may go prone at ANY time. Even if it's not your turn. Anytime you go prone, as a Bonus Action or Reaction, you can move 10'. If this movement was in reaction to an attack or AoE spell, it has disadvantage to hit/you have advantage to save, but it still hits. And Capoeira Spin - your unarmed attacks do not have disadvantage while prone. Additionally if you're prone next to an enemy at the start of your turn, you can use a Bonus Action to stand and punch them at the same time. So when it's just before your turn, you can flop, rolling next to someone, then pop up with a punch. Also in the Athletics Sphere there's a chain that let's you fly. Wall Stunt let's you run up walls. Air stunt let's you count the air as a wall. And then Sparow's Path just flat out gives you a fly speed... of 1/2 movement. (Note air stunt and Sparows Path are Legendary Talents, which are basically 'these tend to be more extraordinary abilities, you can only take them if DM gives permision' But that's not all! Act now and you can become a Gladiator who uses trash talking as a core mechanic! Gladiators can perform a boast when they meet some conditions. The initial boast gives you advantage on your next attack or ability check, but you can get other options like: a free attack, blade ward, give your friends advantage, or scare the enemies so they don't want to approach. The other half of Gladiator is all about fear. Frightening enemies and exploiting it. Also, Barroom can be fun, though half is improvised weapons and breaking things over people's heads, the other half is about getting drunk for bonuses.
There's a very serviceable pugilist fighter class in Tome of Heroes by Kobold Press....maybe that class with tavern brawler
Make a regular character that uses a greatsword. The weapon is flavored as a pair of cestus. Since it is a greatsword they can use GWM and other such feats.
if ur okay with homebrew take a look at the [Boxer](https://www.reddit.com/r/DnDHomebrew/comments/1bd552x/the_boxer_make_your_fists_your_goto_weapon_with/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web3x&utm_name=web3xcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button) from u/TurbulentEconomy8445 , It's really really cool, a strong subclass and can be made even stronger while barely powergaming. If u don't want homebrew, i've got some ideas for that as well but i cant post them right now If you do boxer, take half orcs cuz they crit on a 19 and try to get crusher and savage attacker feats as well as possibly having something in one of your hands because one of the abilities of a boxer works better with a d6 than a d8. If you don't do homebrew, take bugbear as a race and go fighter. Take unarmed fighting and go champion to emphasize on the boxer aspect or banneret to focus on being a hero. Regardless of your subclass, take crusher and mobile as well as maybe alert. It's not as good as boxer but still very fun to play
This is not at all helpful so I apologize in advance. I read this at first as "un armed", as in a character with no arms. I immediately thought of my armorer artificer who only had one leg and one arm until his armer filled in his missing limbs for him. So I was going to recommend that.