I will start a game soon where I intend to play a square-jawed cowboy who, for reasons we don’t need to go into here, has ended up in a Pathfinder game. Ideally he’ll be a tracker, horseman, great with fisticuffs, but as we have a player who throws a hissy fit whenever guns enter the game he will not have access to firearms. In order of priority, the character would-
1- Be a good unarmed combatant
2- Have ride and/or handle animal and perhaps a mount
3- Have decent survival and/or perception
Martial artist monk seems like a good choice, but so does a brawler fighter or a combination of the two. From a roleplay perspective a paladin would work, but I’d rather not wear armor heavier than leather.
Are there any unarmed builds that I am missing?
Agreed, Pan, ranger makes sense, but with all the options there is really no good one for a ranger who just punches people.
Do unarmed strike have to be the actual unarmed strikes, or can you accept a general punchy style? I mean, every player character that isn't a druid is proficient in brass knuckles and the cestus. I prefer the cestus (basically spiked glove), since it has the same basic stats as a dagger.
Barbarians can do a similar style though, since there are rage power for this, but the rage power is restricted to your rage rounds obviously.
A ranger could pull it off fairly easily with a cestus or an unarmed strike. Their access to spells helps, especially since unarmed strike is considered one weapon for spells like greater magical fang according to the FAQ's, so it would be easy to get a decent to hit and damage.
Maybe an early dip into monk? It depends on what kind of alignment you want. When I think of cowboys, I always tend to go to that LG lone ranger image, but you could possibly become more flexible depending on your GM. For example, many monks are trained by wandering masters. You could go for that, but maybe a 'failed apprentice' angle to explain why you are not lawful. Basically, since leveling is the only problem with monk alignment, just ask your GM if you can change alignment through events in your backstory so you start off with a more appropriate alignment. Having monk as your first level is not that bad, even if you are not built for unarmored fighting. Anyone can wear leather and masterwork studded leather without penalty since they have 0 ACP.
*BAM!*SMACK!*POW!* "Justice is done!"
That's the basic concept here, with action scenes looking like this image or this image.
Sohei Monk is an interesting option that I forgot about. Not sure that cestus or brass knuckles really work from a flavor perspective, but it is a good idea.
How well do monk & ranger mix?
Unarmed Fighter could work :)
Unarmed fighter seems to be built around fighting other unarmed fighter. The brawler archetype seems to be more about the general smackdown.
I think I'd go with one level of Monk, then into Ranger with the TWF combat style (to bypass the Dex requirement).
Human Monk (Tetori) 1/Ranger X
18/14/14/10/12/8 (Assuming 20-point buy)
Monk(Tetori)1: IUS, Power Attack, Weapon Focus (unarmed strike), Improved Grapple
Ranger2
Ranger3: TWF, Toughness
Ranger4
Ranger5: Boon Companion
...
etc.
Maybe pick up a Belt of Hurling later, plus Quick Draw and some daggers.
Monk-ranger works out decently, espeically with monastic legacy (which requires 3+ levels in monk), but not incredibly so. A monk archetype without flurry can still use TWF with the ranger feats. I would use mostly ranger levels - with monastic legacy, your unarmed damage will still be fairly decent.
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A fighter with the brawler archetype, 2 level dip in Monk (Master of Many Styles) to pick up some Style Feats of your preference.
You'd want the two-weapon fighting chain, weapon focus and weapon spec: unarmed. Brawling Armour. Gloves of Duelling.
(For a mount if you can take Skill Focus: Knowledge (Nature)and Eldritch Heritage: Sylvan (Horse). Requires 2 feats and a charisma of 13 though. I'd just buy a heavy war trained horse. You're not likely to be riding it in combat anyway if your focus is on hand-to-hand fighting. it's just a mode of transport and background.)
Super genius games talented monk/rogue could accomplish this very effectively. The monk has rules for mixing the monk and rogue. You can then cherry pick abilities from both classes and their archetypes including skills.
So for instance, you have a monk's unarmed fighting abilities, with the sohei mounted abilities, and be wisdom based with perception and survival as class skills.
So I completely forgot a set of products specifically designed to represent the man out of time character. The super genius games Anachronistic Adventures line.
Specifically the Tough and the master of arms archetype focusing on unarmed attacks (from the monk weapon group) would be your best bet. Possibly also using the avoidance line of feats that are present in the enforcuer.
End result: Scaling unarmed combat damage as well as improved unarmed strike at level 1. Avoidance can let your wear little or no armor and keep your ac on par with those that do, you can have survival and perception as class skills (you can choose any two at first level).
Kolokotroni, I am in your debt. The anachronistic adventures lines is fantastic. I'll start with the enforcer and see where we end up.
are you using guns?
gunslinger 1/sohei 6/weapon master 3 (add additional levels to gunslinger and/or sohei)- competent in unarmed combat (and doesn't need to rely on armor), bunch of extra abilities to any mount he rides (which could be an AC:horse if you take the feat tree), and when the crap hits the fan you can flurry with your guns (need either a pepperbox, or rapid reload and alchemical cartridges with a 1-hand firearm).