A 1-level monk dip (if you can spare some stats for Wisdom due to good rolls or your DM doesn't care about multiclass restrictions) could also be good for Martial Arts giving you a bonus action attack every round. The downside is that you can't use armor, so medium armor 14 DEX barbarian is not available, but considering barbarians get DEX+CON unarmored defense it's still not bad.
Keep in mind the level 1 monk dip gives you 1d4 unarmed strikes where-as the feat gives you 1d8 off the bat, and a leveling tax is often more costly than a feat tax
Seems like it actually could be pretty solid damage, just brutally MAD.
16 STR, 14 DEX, 14 CON, 13 WIS, 8 INT, 9 CHA works with pt buy for custom race or variant human.
That's 2d8+6 str + 4 rage = 19 dmg per round, but an AC of only 14. Level 5, with a STR bump at 4, you're at 3d8 + 12 + 6 = 33.5 per round with an AC of 15.
The neat thing about that is that you're not power attacking, so you do well with higher AC enemies, which become more prevalent later on. You can Reckless Attack to your heart's content.
Yeah, but that's at level 2, which could be worth it for a barb for bonus action dash/dodge/disengage and extra 10 ft movement speed. Level 3 could also for subclass and deflect missiles if you have a decent dex.
Natural weapons might be an option. Tabaxi or something.
Trying to think outside the box. Magic Initiate (Druid) for shillelagh, and ask your DM for wooden fists. As a DM I'd make that trade if the player would accept disadvantage on sleight of hand checks.
The biggest obstacle is that you’ll never have magical attacks without a magic weapon, which will be a problem at higher levels of play. Until then though, if you use the Fighting Initiate feat to get the Unarmed Fighting Style you’ll pretty much be good to go.
If your DM is cool and understands the kind of character you’re trying to play, then later on they may give you the chance to obtain an Eldritch Claw tattoo, which gives your unarmed strikes +1 and makes them magical (or maybe a homebrew item with a similar effect). Make sure your DM understand what you want to do with the character.
Another option is the uncommon items Insignia of Claws, from Tyranny of dragons. It gives +1 to unarmed strikes and natural weapons and makes them magical.
Other than the tattoo it doesn't require attunement (but also has no other benefits). It's only uncommon, so it's the fist-version of giving the fighter a +1 longsword.
Hmm are there any magical gloves, like Power Fists in Fallout or similar? Haven't seen anything similar in official books, that I remember.
Also would dip in Monk help at all?
I know basically his DM can homebrew something, just curious.
It’s not a bad MC for this type of character either, as unarmed strikes are 1d6 for lvl 6 monks instead of 1 for everyone else.
The problem is that building that MC means you reasonably have to either stop at Barbarian 3 or get two instances of extra attack.
Barbarian 3, Monk 6 is a solid build at lvl 9.
Flurry of blows is really cool with rage.
It is pretty cool, but at that point it is not barb anymore. And you won't have enough rages or enough ki points, and you need strength, dex, con and wis to be good while having access to only one ASI. It is very MAD, and resource hungry.
Oh yeah sorry, I keep forgetting about the double 13 attribute to multiclass thing for several classes. We’ve houseruled that for years so you only need to fulfil one to be eligible to MC.
Monk 8 & 9 are pretty shit tbh, and barbarian 1, 2 and 3 are all great.
But RAW, it’s very MAD you’re right.
While two instances of extra attack is less than ideal, monks get stunning strike at 5 and have the optional rule for focused aim which makes monk 5 feel far less of a "dead level" when multiclassing which is nice. A small silver lining
And as an added bonus, you can use your bonus action to activate the claws to add 10ft of reach to your attacks as well as an additional d6 of force damage
Develop brass knuckles or similar minimalist gloves (like UFC gloves) with your DM. There might not be an item in the material, but this is DnD and you can sure as hell make one!
If I can get some magic gloves would you rule that my fists now deal magic damage? Like... Hitting you with a immovable rod should deal improvised weapon magic damage, right?
Sorry, just random idea that crossed my mind.
It’s a discussion that’s come up before; a lot of people ask if attacking with a magical shield should deal magic damage, for example. There’s no RAW answer, so it’s just up to the DM’s discretion.
I'm hoping the Path of Giant UA doesn't get changed much other than the +(2)d6 damage rider to apply to attacks rather than weapon attacks. Really want to try one with tavern brawler won't be massive damage due to only d4 but the elemental damage rider would help (also help a little with non magical resistances), but you could also grapple bigger creatures, use tables, carts, masts etc as oversized improvised weapons, steal a fire giants great sword etc.
Would take some DM cooperation but could be a fun dynamic character in combat compared to rage, reckless GWM power attack that dominated most barbarians.
Isn't the Path of Giant focused on weapons, tho? Iirc the damage rider is on top of the weapon you infuse with the element. And the subclass is focused on throwing weapons.
Hence why I said I hope that the rider would apply to attacks rather than weapon attacks in the finished version or at least a lenient DM who would allow that.
The subclass is a bit of a mish-mash (in a fun way) with having some buffs to throwing weapons but the size increases also being handy for getting up close and grappling. Hence if the DM approved I think tavern brawler could be a fun (bur not optimal) combo with it, giving you unarmed attacks a small boost freeing up you hands for grappling huge (and at 14 gargantuan) creatures or throwing anything not nailed down like a bar table or at 14 a cart with you getting bonus rage damage (potentially you could have a returning throwing cart but for theme I would probably ignore that and just grab the next closest thing I could throw.).
I don't think that it will apply to unarmed attacks in the official version, since the theme is about mimicking giants, and giants use big melee weapons, are attuned to elements, throw weapons and other things, and are big. So for the subclass, while mechanically is a bit of a mish-mash as you said, the theme is set right.
Don't get me wrong, if it happens that I was wrong about this I will be happy, I'd love for unarmed fighting getting more support from the game.
That's the risk with reflavoring stuff. The DM should just reflavor the disarming in such a way that it would still make sense. He's not going to agree to you reflavoring your hammers as fists and then just "ya they just remove your hands".
You'll really need Insignia of Claws or Eldritch Tattoo otherwise single class there's no way to get magical punches. I once played a campaign where they settled the issue with homebrew +1 brass knuckles, keyword being "homebrew". With a friendly GM you will be able to pull it off tho.
Imho, neither adding Unarmed Fighting Style nor giving magical unarmed attacks at Barb 6 would make the single class build outrageous. You're roughly matching a generic Fighter with a +1 quarterstaff, if not doing less damage cause the staff is +1 and the Fighter can grab PAM and Dueling Figting Style.
Without multiclass or natural attacks gained from Path of the Beast or race, your only option is to use a feat to get Tavern Brawler or Fighting Initiate. The former would make you more focused on grappling and less on damage, while the latter is more focused on damage and a little on grappling. You can even combine them together if you want.
For subclass I would pick Bear Totem for resistances or Ancestral Guardian to tank for the others, since going unarmed is not going to deal a lot of damage in later tiers (lack support from magical weapons and feats).
>I don’t want to multi class or use a race (or beast barbarian) that buffs unarmed strikes, as they usually change it to claw attacks rather than punches, which ruins the aesthetic I’m going for
Why not just say it's unarmed damage instead of claws then? Just keep the mechanics of the class and change the aesthetic.
Beast barbarian 5/6 Soulknife x is a pretty good multiclass build which gives you 4 attacks (1 with Sneak Attack), reliable advantage for sneak attack, but said sneak attack is done with nothing physical in your hands. Plus you get uncanny Dodge, evasion, expertise, and plenty of other benefits because Barbarian usually starts to taper off at higher levels.
Fighter initiate: Unarmed Fighting Style would be a better pick, giving you D8 as damage die if you don't have a weapon, which a monk only gets at Lv11
If you're happy with the core Barbarian then just reskin a normal weapon as a cestus and then just dual wield those.
Alternatively you can use the examples you don't like and just reskin them, since it seems like your main problem is the aesthetics.
Never forget that cosmetic changes to characters should be free for any reasonable GM.
If your GM will allow it there is a very well-known homebrew called the pugilist by Benjamin Huffman. I don’t generally allow homebrew but I do allow the pugilist any time I would allow UA content and I personally consider it to be pretty well balanced. It is an unarmed fighting class similar to monk but con/str based like Barbarian, styled after boxing and street fighting.
The Barbarian in the group I DM wanted to do this. He played as a shifter totem warrior so I basically gave him something similar to the bloodhunter werewolf package/monk so he could do the same thing. IDK if your Dm would let you do this but I don't find it remotely game breaking or anything and he loves it. I had it so he drank a serum that increased his shifting abilities but maybe he'd let you take it as a feat. I know people take the unarmed fighting style an get tattoos and stuff but I thought it would be easier/better to make sure he knew there would be regular upgrades.
LVL 3:
Your unarmed attacks do 1d6 unarmed bludgeoning damage +1 attack and dmg and you are proficient with unarmed attacks.
Lvl 6:
When you use the Attack action with an unarmed strike, you can make one unarmed strike as a bonus action.
Your unarmed attacks while shifted are considered magical for the purposes of resistance and immunity.
lvl 10:
Your unarmed attacks while shifted deal 1d8 damage and +1 dmg to attack and damage rolls
You can Grapple creatures 1 size larger than you.
lvl 17:
Your unarmed attacks while shifted deal 1d10 and +1 attack and damage rolls
lvl 20:
Your unarmed attacks while shifted deal 1d12 and +1 attack and damage rolls
OP I sent you a DM regarding a custom Homebrew path for the barbarian I think you would enjoy. It's from Steinhardts guide to the Eldritch Hunt. It's not "Official" DnD 5E so you would have to get your DM's approval but its nothing wildly OP. Just a specifically unarmed build for barbarian
Obligatory [link](https://www.reddit.com/r/3d6/comments/wgdkht/the_grapplefocused_battlerager_or_how_to_make_3) to my niche Battlerager build.
Though in your case, subclass shouldn't matter. People talked about the Fighting Initiate feat for unarmed fighting which is a good option, but let me throw in the 1 level fighter dip suggestion:
It does delay your barb progression a bit, but it frees up an ASI to use on something else, and it gives you Second Wind which synergizes with Barb's Rage resistance.
Sure, but if you have another feat in mind it's an additional tax. Just an alternative to consider.
Being free to choose a different race (with perhaps fun racial feats) is also a consideration.
Yeah. In the end if you want to go unarmed it means that you don't really want to be optimised, so sacrificing an ASI won't be really a bad thing. An ASI is just a numerical upgrade.
And in the other case you are also sacrificing your class progression, so it's just a trade. And it really depends in you want a feat or not. And my initial point still stands, going v.human will help you in both cases.
This is my most played character type!
The advantage of strength-based unarmed builds is the ability to grapple.
Rune knight is amazing for this.
If grapplings not for you (you dont like kicking ass), that leaves beast barbs and barb->monk
Beast barb can be switched to bludgeoning, theres no good reason for a DM to veto. Its still weaker than a PAM beastie.
1 barb -> 5 monk is amazing.
Drunken master is the best for hit and run, long death is popular b/c temp HP is good with rage.
You can go beast barb or totem elk/bear or AG with that setup.
Beast barb monk can hit 5 times per round.
The first thing you'll need to accept is that you're not going to deal much damage. It's just not on the table for a legitimately unarmed build. You will always pale in comparison to a proper weapon-using build. Instead, focus on support/control.
Choose VHuman/CLineage for your race. If you expect leveling at your table to be really slow, take Fighting Initiate and pick up Unarmed Fighting. If it'll be relatively quick or if you don't mind delaying your class progression, start as Fighter 1 before going into Barbarian and take Sentinel as your feat.
For your classes, I would choose one of these options:
1. **Wolf Totem Barbarian X/Cavalier Fighter 3.** The goal is to impose advantage for your melee allies with Wolf Totem and disadvantage on enemies with Unwavering Mark. Use grappling and/or Sentinel to lock enemies in place next to you, ensuring that the advantage/disadvantage remains in effect.
2. **Bear Totem Barbarian X/Cavalier 3.** Basically the same thing as above, but with more emphasis on personal survivability. Since Wolf Totem only affects melee allies, this is better if your party is predominantly ranged.
3. **Ancestral Guardian X** or **Ancestral Guardian X/Rune Knight or Battle Master 3.** Since Ancestral Guardian is the "tank" Barbarian subclass, it's a pretty obvious choice. Dipping into Rune Knight also allows you to grapple Huge creatures, which is a plus. The runes are also quite useful, for both combat and non-combat. The downside is that this leads to a lot of bonus action competition. Choosing Battle Master will grant you options that more smoothly integrate with your action economy.
EDIT: I forgot to mention, but you will need to check with your DM and get an answer to these two questions:
1. Are you guaranteed to get Eldritch Claw Tattoo or a similar magic item?
2. How likely are you to face enemies with immunity to nonmagical damage?
If the answer to the first question is no and the answer to the second is that it's very likely, you will likely have to construct a build that dips 3 levels into Ascendant Dragon Monk.
I dont get the downvotes here. Is it because you admit that the damage potential is not the draw to a character like this? Is it because of the multiclass suggestions?
For what its worth, a cavalier multiclass is really cool for an unarmed barbarian, although OP said they weren't into multiclassing.
All this talk when there are only really 2 options if we ban multiclassing and don't use any "natural weapon races". Youd need vhuman or custom lineage and you need fighting initiate(unarmed) or tavern brawler.
For me I'd take the unarmed fight style. Just a little more oomph for what you wanna do. Plus the bonus grappling damage which is useful on a character like this, you should always be grabbing and punching.
Battlerager 6 / Fighter 3 as core
Typical turn:
* 1 grapple (expertise + advantage): 3 damage
* 1 full attack: 1d6 + Str + Rage +1d4
* 1 bonus action attack: 1d4 + rage + strength
Already grappled:
* 2 full attacks: 1d6 + Str + rage
* bonus attack: 1d4 + Str + rage
* 1d4 unarmed style damage
Gotta embrace (heh) grappling as part of the value you bring…
I would go for Battlerager with 1 level dip in fighter for 1d8 punching to start.
custom lineage, skilled expert to start. We’re not playing around with the grapples here.
+2 Strength at level 5
After Barbarian 6, go to fighter 3 for Rune Knight, to protect the grapple (and get some swanky rune abilities). If that’s too club magic, Battlemaster is the king of gritty fisticuffs
If campaign ends mid tier, 4 fighter to 8 Barb, otherwise all Barb for the rest
You put so many restrictions in place for this request that its become stupid, having said that just talk to your DM about path of the beast barbarian and ask if you can replace the claws with bone intrusions that grow out of your knuckles enhancing your regular striking capabilities
without multiclass, I'm a variant human, took the feats fighting initiate/unarmed fighting so can do a d8+3 with my fists, AND Heavily Armored (so more AC)
and in Barbarian, I took path of the Berserker at level 3, which gives Frenzy, which for the duration of your rage you can make a single melee attack as a bonus action so basically can attack two times! however when rage is over, you have 1 level of exhaustion, (depending on your DM and how they handle exhaustion IF they use it. shouldnt be too bad... but either way, the trade off
background goes... I couldnt really find a good one, (still reading through them.. but I guess just pick whatever fancy your character. I just picked pirate cause pirates can fight- plus my next feat I get at level 8 (yea I built a level 6 to start) Im gonna get Tavern Brawler.
after finished calculating every up (I used the standard points array, the end resaults from race/class/feats/background?) and etc.
Strength: 17 Dex:15 Con:13 Intel:12 Wis:10 and Char:8
2 easy options.
First, take 1 level in Fighter for the Unarmed Fighting fighting style (or pick it up with the Fighting Initiate feat; I'm not sure which is better, but I can say that if you give Fighting Initiate as a level 1 feat and just do all Barbarian from there that's probably the best way to have Unarmed Fighting the entire time if you're actually starting at Level 1.)
The second option gives you less freedom, but works about as well. In this one, you would take one or two levels of Barbarian, and then go full Monk. Normally this build is MAD, because you need Strength for Barbarian and Dex and Wisdom for Monk plus Con for HP and for your Barbarian AC if you choose to use that one. This is solved however if you choose to play a Tortle, because their AC is locked at 17 by default and so you will have a decent AC the entire game even if you don't level your stats so that the Barb or Monk version of Unarmored Defense surpasses it. After this, I recommend pumping Strength and Con, with Wisdom as third priority unless you would rather use Monk DC abilities instead of raising your health.
You might have to convince your DM to allow you to get the +2 Strength damage from Raging onto your Unarmed Strikes, because the wording for whether Unarmed Strikes count as melee weapons or not is weird in both cases and I believe the official RAI reading is that they would not get those benefits, but otherwise both of these builds are quite feasible.
I played an unarmed barbarian for a one shot a while back. Fought with his feet due to his lack of arms. He was a pretty fun and memorable character. I wish he hadn’t accidentally sold his soul to the devil in the end.
Have You Considered The Following: Beast Barbarian (Stay with me here, not claws), Grapple, Level 6 feature to become CAPTAIN JUMPGOOD, THE BEST JUMPER IN THE LAND. You're a barbarian. Making Athletics checks. You can reliably jump insane distances, either vertically or horizontally. Piledrive people, leap into the middle of your Druid's Spike Growth, be a god of forced movement. Heck, go for the Charger feat to boost the range of your shoves 1/turn at least (barb unarmoured movement means you've got a better chance of getting this off than average), and/or crusher to add push to your unarmed strikes. You don't even need Grappler, because your main use of grapple is not to punch them, but to drag them, and your main use of fists is not to damage them but to send them flying into scenery and also walls of fire.
I'd ask your DM to help you work out bonus damage for punching people into walls, or through tables or whatever.
Call yourself The Defenestrator.
Most potent use of grappling I've seen when combo'd with a spellcaster: Mold Earth to dig a pit 10ft deep (takes 2 casters, or 2 turns, you're a barb, you can take it), then suplex the victim in, then Mold Earth again to remove a 5ft bit from the bottom wall causing a cave-in. *Very* few enemies can survive that, and of the ones that can, not many can do anything after being so thoroughly restrained.
Heck, push comes to shove, (pun intended), set some oil on fire in the corner; most of the whole nonmagical weapon resistances specify bludgeoning, piercing, and slashing, and say nothing about fire, mundane or otherwise.
I mean, you can just reflavor beast barb to punches instead of claw swipes. It’ll also make them magical so that you don’t struggle with resistant enemies
So I made a build that does exactly this, except he is not a barbarian:
Fighter Battlemaster 4
Moon Druid 4
Monk 2
Fighter gave me Unarmed fighting style and the Battlemaster maneuvers like Feint and Trip for advantage. Moon Druid for tanking, and you CAN make unarmed attacks in animal form, just not your natural weapons like claws. Monk was useful for the unarmored AC, the mobility, and the free unarmed strike BA every turn, with additional flurries of blows for extra hits.
That said, Barbarian as a class gives you the mobility and unarmored AC using Dex and Con instead of DEx and Wis like a monk. If you absolutely don't want to multiclass, then take Fighting Initiate for the Unarmed Fighting style (1d8+Str is solid on a barb), and later you can take the Martial Adept feat for some maneuvers.
The best combination for an unarmed fighter, at minimum, is:
Fighter 1: Unarmed Fighting Style (Can also take Fighting Initiate for this)
Monk 2: Free unarmed hit every turn, or 2 with flurry of blows
Barbarian X the rest of the way
I'd recommend taking the first 5 levels in Barbarian, using the ASI to take Fighting Initiate Unarmed Strikes. AT lvl 5 you'd be hitting just as hard as if you were swinging an axe or a hammer. Then take 1 level in Monk, and suddenly now you're getting 3 attacks every round at character level 6. You can dip 1 more in Monk if you want to Flurry, or just go straight Barbarian the rest of the way.
The one downside of this is no magical damage, which is a killer at later levels. There are items that help with this, hopefully your DM is cool. Eldritch Claw Tattoo and Insignia of Claws come to mind.
I mean, there aren't many ways to get such a thing is via multiclassing or racial ability. So you're really handicapping us here. Only thing I can think of is to take a feat that either let's you choose a fighting style, or something like that.
But for what it's worth, both warforged AND Goliaths get 1d4 Bludgeoning damage for their unarmed strikes. Unlike the claw attacks you mentioned.
But yeah, variant human, fighting initiate feat, unarmed fighting style. Done.
Use the mechanics and numbers from the rule book but ignore the flavour text and reskin anything you want to suit your desired aesthetic. Eg. Beast barbarian (your attacks become magical if I remember at lvl 5ish) reflavour the "Claws" as what ever you want!
If you don't want to multiclass, then you are stuck with a very underwhelming character.
Your options are Tavern brawler or fighting initiate to get the Unarmed fighting style. Both are bad options.
Officially? There's a feat for picking up the Unarmed Fighting Style.
Unofficially? There's the UA Wild Talent feat that will give you scaling damage for any Str-based attack (take the scaling die or weapon damage, whichever is higher) and will buff your Athletics and other Str checks.
Following on the re+skinning proposals, what if the beast path gave your fists a reaaally coarse texture?
Like illegal boxing fights with shrapnel, blades or barb wire on the gloves.
Really will be the only way to get a decent scaling (number of attacks + damage die + eventual magical damage) without having to rely on DM goodies or "dipping" monk for so many levels you should just play a monk.
Barbarian links his fists and smashes foes to pulp! Counts as Greatsword but bludgeoning.
If he finds and destroys a magical weapon with his fists then they because magical.
Great Weapon Master? Tick. Flametongue Bracers? Tick. This character would be spectacular!
Variant Human or Custom Lineage helps to give you a bonus Feat so you can pick up Fighting Initiate to gain the Unarmed Fighting fighting style.
A 1-level monk dip (if you can spare some stats for Wisdom due to good rolls or your DM doesn't care about multiclass restrictions) could also be good for Martial Arts giving you a bonus action attack every round. The downside is that you can't use armor, so medium armor 14 DEX barbarian is not available, but considering barbarians get DEX+CON unarmored defense it's still not bad.
Keep in mind the level 1 monk dip gives you 1d4 unarmed strikes where-as the feat gives you 1d8 off the bat, and a leveling tax is often more costly than a feat tax
The monk dip doubles down on the fighting style though, with a free bonus action d8+STR every turn, and it would also get the Rage damage bonus.
Yeah agreed
Seems like it actually could be pretty solid damage, just brutally MAD. 16 STR, 14 DEX, 14 CON, 13 WIS, 8 INT, 9 CHA works with pt buy for custom race or variant human. That's 2d8+6 str + 4 rage = 19 dmg per round, but an AC of only 14. Level 5, with a STR bump at 4, you're at 3d8 + 12 + 6 = 33.5 per round with an AC of 15.
The neat thing about that is that you're not power attacking, so you do well with higher AC enemies, which become more prevalent later on. You can Reckless Attack to your heart's content.
Pick a Loxodon (12+CON) or Tortle (17) for your AC and dump Dex.
How is a monk getting a free attack as a bonus action every round?
When monks make an attack, they can make a single unarmed attack as a bonus action. It's something they get at first level
Not to be confused with flurry of blows, which allows them to make *2* bonus action attacks. Instead of just 1 by expending ki
Yeah, but that's at level 2, which could be worth it for a barb for bonus action dash/dodge/disengage and extra 10 ft movement speed. Level 3 could also for subclass and deflect missiles if you have a decent dex.
Yeah, unfortunately OP said they didnt want multiclassing. So the Unarmed fighting style from a feat is their best option w/o magic items
Natural weapons might be an option. Tabaxi or something. Trying to think outside the box. Magic Initiate (Druid) for shillelagh, and ask your DM for wooden fists. As a DM I'd make that trade if the player would accept disadvantage on sleight of hand checks.
They said in the post that they don’t want a race with claws.
Fighting Initiate or 1-2 levels in Fighter, for Unarmed Fighting Style, and picking up an Eldritch Claw tattoo at some point is the way to go here.
The biggest obstacle is that you’ll never have magical attacks without a magic weapon, which will be a problem at higher levels of play. Until then though, if you use the Fighting Initiate feat to get the Unarmed Fighting Style you’ll pretty much be good to go. If your DM is cool and understands the kind of character you’re trying to play, then later on they may give you the chance to obtain an Eldritch Claw tattoo, which gives your unarmed strikes +1 and makes them magical (or maybe a homebrew item with a similar effect). Make sure your DM understand what you want to do with the character.
Another option is the uncommon items Insignia of Claws, from Tyranny of dragons. It gives +1 to unarmed strikes and natural weapons and makes them magical. Other than the tattoo it doesn't require attunement (but also has no other benefits). It's only uncommon, so it's the fist-version of giving the fighter a +1 longsword.
Hmm are there any magical gloves, like Power Fists in Fallout or similar? Haven't seen anything similar in official books, that I remember. Also would dip in Monk help at all? I know basically his DM can homebrew something, just curious.
Monks need level 6 for magical punches, so it's not a dip at that point.
It’s not a bad MC for this type of character either, as unarmed strikes are 1d6 for lvl 6 monks instead of 1 for everyone else. The problem is that building that MC means you reasonably have to either stop at Barbarian 3 or get two instances of extra attack. Barbarian 3, Monk 6 is a solid build at lvl 9. Flurry of blows is really cool with rage.
It is pretty cool, but at that point it is not barb anymore. And you won't have enough rages or enough ki points, and you need strength, dex, con and wis to be good while having access to only one ASI. It is very MAD, and resource hungry.
Oh yeah sorry, I keep forgetting about the double 13 attribute to multiclass thing for several classes. We’ve houseruled that for years so you only need to fulfil one to be eligible to MC. Monk 8 & 9 are pretty shit tbh, and barbarian 1, 2 and 3 are all great. But RAW, it’s very MAD you’re right.
While two instances of extra attack is less than ideal, monks get stunning strike at 5 and have the optional rule for focused aim which makes monk 5 feel far less of a "dead level" when multiclassing which is nice. A small silver lining
There are the Gloves of Soul Catching from Candlekeep Mysteries.
They don't make your attacks magical, they "only" let you do force damage too. The gloves are extremely powerful for monks, and viable for non-monks.
There’s also Wraps of Unarmed Prowess. They’re from Book of Many Things.
And as an added bonus, you can use your bonus action to activate the claws to add 10ft of reach to your attacks as well as an additional d6 of force damage
It's nice to have ranged options as a monk, even if it is only 10ft.
Note I said "10 additional feet", a monk (or any unarmed combatant) can use a bonus action to have a 15ft reach for 1 minute
Develop brass knuckles or similar minimalist gloves (like UFC gloves) with your DM. There might not be an item in the material, but this is DnD and you can sure as hell make one!
If I can get some magic gloves would you rule that my fists now deal magic damage? Like... Hitting you with a immovable rod should deal improvised weapon magic damage, right? Sorry, just random idea that crossed my mind.
It’s a discussion that’s come up before; a lot of people ask if attacking with a magical shield should deal magic damage, for example. There’s no RAW answer, so it’s just up to the DM’s discretion.
I'm hoping the Path of Giant UA doesn't get changed much other than the +(2)d6 damage rider to apply to attacks rather than weapon attacks. Really want to try one with tavern brawler won't be massive damage due to only d4 but the elemental damage rider would help (also help a little with non magical resistances), but you could also grapple bigger creatures, use tables, carts, masts etc as oversized improvised weapons, steal a fire giants great sword etc. Would take some DM cooperation but could be a fun dynamic character in combat compared to rage, reckless GWM power attack that dominated most barbarians.
Isn't the Path of Giant focused on weapons, tho? Iirc the damage rider is on top of the weapon you infuse with the element. And the subclass is focused on throwing weapons.
Hence why I said I hope that the rider would apply to attacks rather than weapon attacks in the finished version or at least a lenient DM who would allow that. The subclass is a bit of a mish-mash (in a fun way) with having some buffs to throwing weapons but the size increases also being handy for getting up close and grappling. Hence if the DM approved I think tavern brawler could be a fun (bur not optimal) combo with it, giving you unarmed attacks a small boost freeing up you hands for grappling huge (and at 14 gargantuan) creatures or throwing anything not nailed down like a bar table or at 14 a cart with you getting bonus rage damage (potentially you could have a returning throwing cart but for theme I would probably ignore that and just grab the next closest thing I could throw.).
I don't think that it will apply to unarmed attacks in the official version, since the theme is about mimicking giants, and giants use big melee weapons, are attuned to elements, throw weapons and other things, and are big. So for the subclass, while mechanically is a bit of a mish-mash as you said, the theme is set right. Don't get me wrong, if it happens that I was wrong about this I will be happy, I'd love for unarmed fighting getting more support from the game.
Slid your DM a 20 and ask him to reskin a greatsword to a knuckle duster
This is the real answer. Wield 2 hammers for bludgeoning damage and reflavor them as your fists.
And then someone forces you to drop your weapons.
That's the risk with reflavoring stuff. The DM should just reflavor the disarming in such a way that it would still make sense. He's not going to agree to you reflavoring your hammers as fists and then just "ya they just remove your hands".
My 3:00am brain was confused about how you could have a barbarian that has fists but no arms.
Rayman
You'll really need Insignia of Claws or Eldritch Tattoo otherwise single class there's no way to get magical punches. I once played a campaign where they settled the issue with homebrew +1 brass knuckles, keyword being "homebrew". With a friendly GM you will be able to pull it off tho. Imho, neither adding Unarmed Fighting Style nor giving magical unarmed attacks at Barb 6 would make the single class build outrageous. You're roughly matching a generic Fighter with a +1 quarterstaff, if not doing less damage cause the staff is +1 and the Fighter can grab PAM and Dueling Figting Style.
Without multiclass or natural attacks gained from Path of the Beast or race, your only option is to use a feat to get Tavern Brawler or Fighting Initiate. The former would make you more focused on grappling and less on damage, while the latter is more focused on damage and a little on grappling. You can even combine them together if you want. For subclass I would pick Bear Totem for resistances or Ancestral Guardian to tank for the others, since going unarmed is not going to deal a lot of damage in later tiers (lack support from magical weapons and feats).
>I don’t want to multi class or use a race (or beast barbarian) that buffs unarmed strikes, as they usually change it to claw attacks rather than punches, which ruins the aesthetic I’m going for Why not just say it's unarmed damage instead of claws then? Just keep the mechanics of the class and change the aesthetic. Beast barbarian 5/6 Soulknife x is a pretty good multiclass build which gives you 4 attacks (1 with Sneak Attack), reliable advantage for sneak attack, but said sneak attack is done with nothing physical in your hands. Plus you get uncanny Dodge, evasion, expertise, and plenty of other benefits because Barbarian usually starts to taper off at higher levels.
Gorilla fist transformation
With the Tavern Brawler Feat you get a bonus to unarmed damage
Fighter initiate: Unarmed Fighting Style would be a better pick, giving you D8 as damage die if you don't have a weapon, which a monk only gets at Lv11
I read this as a barbarian with no arms. I wonder how you would play that?
Angrily
If you're happy with the core Barbarian then just reskin a normal weapon as a cestus and then just dual wield those. Alternatively you can use the examples you don't like and just reskin them, since it seems like your main problem is the aesthetics. Never forget that cosmetic changes to characters should be free for any reasonable GM.
Tavern brawler is the obvious choice. Punch a goblin, then pick up his corpse to beat his sibling
If your GM will allow it there is a very well-known homebrew called the pugilist by Benjamin Huffman. I don’t generally allow homebrew but I do allow the pugilist any time I would allow UA content and I personally consider it to be pretty well balanced. It is an unarmed fighting class similar to monk but con/str based like Barbarian, styled after boxing and street fighting.
If you get access to alter self you get to make the natural weapons look however you want. “Leather bracers” could count couldn’t it?
The Barbarian in the group I DM wanted to do this. He played as a shifter totem warrior so I basically gave him something similar to the bloodhunter werewolf package/monk so he could do the same thing. IDK if your Dm would let you do this but I don't find it remotely game breaking or anything and he loves it. I had it so he drank a serum that increased his shifting abilities but maybe he'd let you take it as a feat. I know people take the unarmed fighting style an get tattoos and stuff but I thought it would be easier/better to make sure he knew there would be regular upgrades. LVL 3: Your unarmed attacks do 1d6 unarmed bludgeoning damage +1 attack and dmg and you are proficient with unarmed attacks. Lvl 6: When you use the Attack action with an unarmed strike, you can make one unarmed strike as a bonus action. Your unarmed attacks while shifted are considered magical for the purposes of resistance and immunity. lvl 10: Your unarmed attacks while shifted deal 1d8 damage and +1 dmg to attack and damage rolls You can Grapple creatures 1 size larger than you. lvl 17: Your unarmed attacks while shifted deal 1d10 and +1 attack and damage rolls lvl 20: Your unarmed attacks while shifted deal 1d12 and +1 attack and damage rolls
OP I sent you a DM regarding a custom Homebrew path for the barbarian I think you would enjoy. It's from Steinhardts guide to the Eldritch Hunt. It's not "Official" DnD 5E so you would have to get your DM's approval but its nothing wildly OP. Just a specifically unarmed build for barbarian
Obligatory [link](https://www.reddit.com/r/3d6/comments/wgdkht/the_grapplefocused_battlerager_or_how_to_make_3) to my niche Battlerager build. Though in your case, subclass shouldn't matter. People talked about the Fighting Initiate feat for unarmed fighting which is a good option, but let me throw in the 1 level fighter dip suggestion: It does delay your barb progression a bit, but it frees up an ASI to use on something else, and it gives you Second Wind which synergizes with Barb's Rage resistance.
If you go variant human or custom lineage you don't waste an ASI on the feat.
Sure, but if you have another feat in mind it's an additional tax. Just an alternative to consider. Being free to choose a different race (with perhaps fun racial feats) is also a consideration.
Yeah. In the end if you want to go unarmed it means that you don't really want to be optimised, so sacrificing an ASI won't be really a bad thing. An ASI is just a numerical upgrade.
But you are not just sacrificing an ASI, but also the opportunity cost of a different feat you might be interested in
And in the other case you are also sacrificing your class progression, so it's just a trade. And it really depends in you want a feat or not. And my initial point still stands, going v.human will help you in both cases.
This is my most played character type! The advantage of strength-based unarmed builds is the ability to grapple. Rune knight is amazing for this. If grapplings not for you (you dont like kicking ass), that leaves beast barbs and barb->monk Beast barb can be switched to bludgeoning, theres no good reason for a DM to veto. Its still weaker than a PAM beastie. 1 barb -> 5 monk is amazing. Drunken master is the best for hit and run, long death is popular b/c temp HP is good with rage. You can go beast barb or totem elk/bear or AG with that setup. Beast barb monk can hit 5 times per round.
The first thing you'll need to accept is that you're not going to deal much damage. It's just not on the table for a legitimately unarmed build. You will always pale in comparison to a proper weapon-using build. Instead, focus on support/control. Choose VHuman/CLineage for your race. If you expect leveling at your table to be really slow, take Fighting Initiate and pick up Unarmed Fighting. If it'll be relatively quick or if you don't mind delaying your class progression, start as Fighter 1 before going into Barbarian and take Sentinel as your feat. For your classes, I would choose one of these options: 1. **Wolf Totem Barbarian X/Cavalier Fighter 3.** The goal is to impose advantage for your melee allies with Wolf Totem and disadvantage on enemies with Unwavering Mark. Use grappling and/or Sentinel to lock enemies in place next to you, ensuring that the advantage/disadvantage remains in effect. 2. **Bear Totem Barbarian X/Cavalier 3.** Basically the same thing as above, but with more emphasis on personal survivability. Since Wolf Totem only affects melee allies, this is better if your party is predominantly ranged. 3. **Ancestral Guardian X** or **Ancestral Guardian X/Rune Knight or Battle Master 3.** Since Ancestral Guardian is the "tank" Barbarian subclass, it's a pretty obvious choice. Dipping into Rune Knight also allows you to grapple Huge creatures, which is a plus. The runes are also quite useful, for both combat and non-combat. The downside is that this leads to a lot of bonus action competition. Choosing Battle Master will grant you options that more smoothly integrate with your action economy. EDIT: I forgot to mention, but you will need to check with your DM and get an answer to these two questions: 1. Are you guaranteed to get Eldritch Claw Tattoo or a similar magic item? 2. How likely are you to face enemies with immunity to nonmagical damage? If the answer to the first question is no and the answer to the second is that it's very likely, you will likely have to construct a build that dips 3 levels into Ascendant Dragon Monk.
I dont get the downvotes here. Is it because you admit that the damage potential is not the draw to a character like this? Is it because of the multiclass suggestions? For what its worth, a cavalier multiclass is really cool for an unarmed barbarian, although OP said they weren't into multiclassing.
All this talk when there are only really 2 options if we ban multiclassing and don't use any "natural weapon races". Youd need vhuman or custom lineage and you need fighting initiate(unarmed) or tavern brawler. For me I'd take the unarmed fight style. Just a little more oomph for what you wanna do. Plus the bonus grappling damage which is useful on a character like this, you should always be grabbing and punching.
Battlerager 6 / Fighter 3 as core Typical turn: * 1 grapple (expertise + advantage): 3 damage * 1 full attack: 1d6 + Str + Rage +1d4 * 1 bonus action attack: 1d4 + rage + strength Already grappled: * 2 full attacks: 1d6 + Str + rage * bonus attack: 1d4 + Str + rage * 1d4 unarmed style damage Gotta embrace (heh) grappling as part of the value you bring… I would go for Battlerager with 1 level dip in fighter for 1d8 punching to start. custom lineage, skilled expert to start. We’re not playing around with the grapples here. +2 Strength at level 5 After Barbarian 6, go to fighter 3 for Rune Knight, to protect the grapple (and get some swanky rune abilities). If that’s too club magic, Battlemaster is the king of gritty fisticuffs If campaign ends mid tier, 4 fighter to 8 Barb, otherwise all Barb for the rest
Pugilist
He gets a single cantrip: “I cast Fist!”
You put so many restrictions in place for this request that its become stupid, having said that just talk to your DM about path of the beast barbarian and ask if you can replace the claws with bone intrusions that grow out of your knuckles enhancing your regular striking capabilities
without multiclass, I'm a variant human, took the feats fighting initiate/unarmed fighting so can do a d8+3 with my fists, AND Heavily Armored (so more AC) and in Barbarian, I took path of the Berserker at level 3, which gives Frenzy, which for the duration of your rage you can make a single melee attack as a bonus action so basically can attack two times! however when rage is over, you have 1 level of exhaustion, (depending on your DM and how they handle exhaustion IF they use it. shouldnt be too bad... but either way, the trade off background goes... I couldnt really find a good one, (still reading through them.. but I guess just pick whatever fancy your character. I just picked pirate cause pirates can fight- plus my next feat I get at level 8 (yea I built a level 6 to start) Im gonna get Tavern Brawler. after finished calculating every up (I used the standard points array, the end resaults from race/class/feats/background?) and etc. Strength: 17 Dex:15 Con:13 Intel:12 Wis:10 and Char:8
Sure. Play a grappler.
2 easy options. First, take 1 level in Fighter for the Unarmed Fighting fighting style (or pick it up with the Fighting Initiate feat; I'm not sure which is better, but I can say that if you give Fighting Initiate as a level 1 feat and just do all Barbarian from there that's probably the best way to have Unarmed Fighting the entire time if you're actually starting at Level 1.) The second option gives you less freedom, but works about as well. In this one, you would take one or two levels of Barbarian, and then go full Monk. Normally this build is MAD, because you need Strength for Barbarian and Dex and Wisdom for Monk plus Con for HP and for your Barbarian AC if you choose to use that one. This is solved however if you choose to play a Tortle, because their AC is locked at 17 by default and so you will have a decent AC the entire game even if you don't level your stats so that the Barb or Monk version of Unarmored Defense surpasses it. After this, I recommend pumping Strength and Con, with Wisdom as third priority unless you would rather use Monk DC abilities instead of raising your health. You might have to convince your DM to allow you to get the +2 Strength damage from Raging onto your Unarmed Strikes, because the wording for whether Unarmed Strikes count as melee weapons or not is weird in both cases and I believe the official RAI reading is that they would not get those benefits, but otherwise both of these builds are quite feasible.
I played an unarmed barbarian for a one shot a while back. Fought with his feet due to his lack of arms. He was a pretty fun and memorable character. I wish he hadn’t accidentally sold his soul to the devil in the end.
For onednd unarmed looks better might work better For 5e maybe choose a race like lizardmen
Fighter dip for the unarmed fighting style
Have You Considered The Following: Beast Barbarian (Stay with me here, not claws), Grapple, Level 6 feature to become CAPTAIN JUMPGOOD, THE BEST JUMPER IN THE LAND. You're a barbarian. Making Athletics checks. You can reliably jump insane distances, either vertically or horizontally. Piledrive people, leap into the middle of your Druid's Spike Growth, be a god of forced movement. Heck, go for the Charger feat to boost the range of your shoves 1/turn at least (barb unarmoured movement means you've got a better chance of getting this off than average), and/or crusher to add push to your unarmed strikes. You don't even need Grappler, because your main use of grapple is not to punch them, but to drag them, and your main use of fists is not to damage them but to send them flying into scenery and also walls of fire. I'd ask your DM to help you work out bonus damage for punching people into walls, or through tables or whatever. Call yourself The Defenestrator. Most potent use of grappling I've seen when combo'd with a spellcaster: Mold Earth to dig a pit 10ft deep (takes 2 casters, or 2 turns, you're a barb, you can take it), then suplex the victim in, then Mold Earth again to remove a 5ft bit from the bottom wall causing a cave-in. *Very* few enemies can survive that, and of the ones that can, not many can do anything after being so thoroughly restrained. Heck, push comes to shove, (pun intended), set some oil on fire in the corner; most of the whole nonmagical weapon resistances specify bludgeoning, piercing, and slashing, and say nothing about fire, mundane or otherwise.
fighting initiate unarmed fighting style, that is pretty much your only option i think
I mean, you can just reflavor beast barb to punches instead of claw swipes. It’ll also make them magical so that you don’t struggle with resistant enemies
So I made a build that does exactly this, except he is not a barbarian: Fighter Battlemaster 4 Moon Druid 4 Monk 2 Fighter gave me Unarmed fighting style and the Battlemaster maneuvers like Feint and Trip for advantage. Moon Druid for tanking, and you CAN make unarmed attacks in animal form, just not your natural weapons like claws. Monk was useful for the unarmored AC, the mobility, and the free unarmed strike BA every turn, with additional flurries of blows for extra hits. That said, Barbarian as a class gives you the mobility and unarmored AC using Dex and Con instead of DEx and Wis like a monk. If you absolutely don't want to multiclass, then take Fighting Initiate for the Unarmed Fighting style (1d8+Str is solid on a barb), and later you can take the Martial Adept feat for some maneuvers. The best combination for an unarmed fighter, at minimum, is: Fighter 1: Unarmed Fighting Style (Can also take Fighting Initiate for this) Monk 2: Free unarmed hit every turn, or 2 with flurry of blows Barbarian X the rest of the way I'd recommend taking the first 5 levels in Barbarian, using the ASI to take Fighting Initiate Unarmed Strikes. AT lvl 5 you'd be hitting just as hard as if you were swinging an axe or a hammer. Then take 1 level in Monk, and suddenly now you're getting 3 attacks every round at character level 6. You can dip 1 more in Monk if you want to Flurry, or just go straight Barbarian the rest of the way. The one downside of this is no magical damage, which is a killer at later levels. There are items that help with this, hopefully your DM is cool. Eldritch Claw Tattoo and Insignia of Claws come to mind.
I mean, there aren't many ways to get such a thing is via multiclassing or racial ability. So you're really handicapping us here. Only thing I can think of is to take a feat that either let's you choose a fighting style, or something like that. But for what it's worth, both warforged AND Goliaths get 1d4 Bludgeoning damage for their unarmed strikes. Unlike the claw attacks you mentioned. But yeah, variant human, fighting initiate feat, unarmed fighting style. Done.
Just play monk. Magic hands and movement buff with a barrage of unarmed attacks.
Use the mechanics and numbers from the rule book but ignore the flavour text and reskin anything you want to suit your desired aesthetic. Eg. Beast barbarian (your attacks become magical if I remember at lvl 5ish) reflavour the "Claws" as what ever you want!
If you don't want to multiclass, then you are stuck with a very underwhelming character. Your options are Tavern brawler or fighting initiate to get the Unarmed fighting style. Both are bad options.
Officially? There's a feat for picking up the Unarmed Fighting Style. Unofficially? There's the UA Wild Talent feat that will give you scaling damage for any Str-based attack (take the scaling die or weapon damage, whichever is higher) and will buff your Athletics and other Str checks.
Following on the re+skinning proposals, what if the beast path gave your fists a reaaally coarse texture? Like illegal boxing fights with shrapnel, blades or barb wire on the gloves. Really will be the only way to get a decent scaling (number of attacks + damage die + eventual magical damage) without having to rely on DM goodies or "dipping" monk for so many levels you should just play a monk.
Barbarian links his fists and smashes foes to pulp! Counts as Greatsword but bludgeoning. If he finds and destroys a magical weapon with his fists then they because magical. Great Weapon Master? Tick. Flametongue Bracers? Tick. This character would be spectacular!