Looking over UC I got the idea for a barbarian/martial artist grappler, which probably is better then a tetori, being extra strong, and hopefully ultra-good at grappling, and can deal good unarmed damage, any ideas how to improve?
Stats:
STR 18
Dex 14
Con 14
INT 10
WIS 12
CHA 8
Barbarian (Brutal Pugilist) except for 1 level martial artist
Feats:
Lvl 1: Power attack, Extra rage
Lvl 2: Improved grapple (monk), stunning fist (monk), improved unarmed strike (monk)
Lvl 3: Dragon style
Lvl 5: Dragon ferocity
Lvl 7: greater grapple
Lvl 9: Choke hold
Rage powers:
Animal fury, Fiend totem, Elemental rage (lesser), elemental rage, intimidating glare
Traits: Berserker of the Society, reactionary?
Items: Amulet of Mighty fists, and he probably needs brass knuckles adamantine to overcome DR at one point.
The only thing I can think of is adding 2 (for Totem Transformation => rake) or 6 (for wild shaping into a dire tiger) levels of lion shaman druid.
you might think of snapping turtle style, the second feat allows you to grapple as an immediate action if a melee attack misses.
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How do you plan to handle the alignment issue? If I understand correctly, Martial Artist is a monk archetype, so must be lawful. Brutal Pugilist is a barbarian archetype (cannot be lawful). Usually when combining these classes, players start as a monk, then switch to barbarian. A monk who ceases to be lawful can gain no more monk levels, but a barbarian who becomes lawful loses rage ability.
Is there a story for the character? Why does he go through such a drastic change in philosophy?
A martial artist can be of any alignment, so no problems here.
Looked at snapping turtle, not bad, but this would need to replace the Dragon style (which adds quite a punch).
Lion shaman would work too, but again, I would only have 3 attacks, with barbarian monk at level 12 I can get 6 attacks
3 for BAB 11, one for flurry, all with 1.5 times STR, one gore, one bite, all with a d6 due to elemental rage, another d6 for amulet of mighty fists, and I can add 1d6 for a round - maybe elemental fist is another good feat.... just need a WIS of 13
Lion shaman would work too, but again, I would only have 3 attacks, with barbarian monk at level 12 I can get 6 attacks
3 for BAB 11, one for flurry, all with 1.5 times STR, one gore, one bite, all with a d6 due to elemental rage, another d6 for amulet of mighty fists, and I can add 1d6 for a round - maybe elemental fist is another good feat.... just need a WIS of 13
Obviously I need to read what it says in Ultimate Combat, because I'm not sure how you can combine a flurry with natural weapons, or how adding additional natural weapons (claws+rake) would reduce your number of attacks per round by 3 instead of 1 (for the lower BAB), or how any of what you just noted relates to grappling (does one of those classes allow you to flurry and/or use multiple attacks in a grapple?).
The natural attacks are probably secondary attacks at -5, but he uses unarmed strikes, don't know if they count as natural? And could he sprout a horn while in tiger shape?
The natural attacks are probably secondary attacks at -5, but he uses unarmed strikes, don't know if they count as natural? And could he sprout a horn while in tiger shape?
a) "A monk with natural weapons cannot use such weapons as part of a flurry of blows, nor can he make natural attacks in addition to his flurry of blows attacks." -- from the Core Rulebook
b) I haven't read Ultimate Combat, so I don't know how he's sprouting a horn in the first place.
c) The lion shaman druid's Totem Transformation ability doesn't actually turn him into a cat; it just allows him to add a bite, two claw attacks, the rake ability and a +2 to grapple for 1 minute at a time. It's separate from wild shape.
Flurry is not possible then, but the monk level still gives a lot, esp., being able to take dragon style and I must not take the beast transformation rage power - giving other options. And barbarian 11 is probably worth it for greater rage.
Yup, found it, Feral combat training, but it also needs Weapon focus natural weapon.
Now there are some options: go for beast transformation and forget all the stuff with flurry, and forgo monk with Dragon style, to get a claw,claw, bite, gore attack,
or forgo the transformations and start to flurry?
or 3rd option, throw out extra rage and keep the trait, get the transformation to get a bite attack, WF bite, and feral combat training?
Btw., rules wise, if it says for Rage powers, the barbarian needs to be 12th lvl, does this mean class or character levels? So go more monk levels and at appropriate levels take barbarian levels, but I guess that is not possible, or? You need to be a 4th level barbarian to get elemental rage (lesser)?
Tending to go with Barbarian only execept for 1 level martial artist, WF (bite) and Feral combat training so over time I get more attacks, and only 1 level of martial artist. Whereas a second would also be nice to get evasion.
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Btw., rules wise, if it says for Rage powers, the barbarian needs to be 12th lvl, does this mean class or character levels?
Class levels.
Keep in mind that although you may have a higher CMB as a raging barbarian, the Tetori brings more to the table for grapplers than a CMB. Grab can be devastating (and grants a +4 bonus to your grapple checks btw) and the ability to nullify freedom of movement and polymorph/teleportation pretty much shores up some of the major weaknesses of grappling. Also being able to take attacks of opportunity while grappling takes some of the sting of being taken out of the fight away.
Barbarian grapplers are nice for the odd grapple and locking down a dangerous (medium ) foe, aside from dishing out some serious pain and also seems to be right on for what you're looking for. I would advise against taking monk as it specializes in a different playstyle than what you seem to want. (monks are more of a mobile battlefield controller)
PS. Also take note that barbarians are rather feat starved compared to just going monk to specialize in unarmed damage/grappling.
Thanks, yes looked at the tetori again more closely, and it looks very interesting. Esp, to combine him with snapping turtle style (to get the ability to grapple even more), but choke hold is something to get a bit earlier - maybe even at lvl 5.
I hope they will publish those feats, all in all I am probably playing a tetori monk soon.