I'm thinking to build a sort of mystical pugilist, with the soul of a flute player and the heart of a fighter. I really enjoyed the Swordsage class in 3.5, all I had to do was putting some bard levels on it and selfbuff like there's no tomorrow. Race must be Elan or Shabti, they both fill the character concept - I don't care about feats or classes, all I want to do is kicking people and play a flute in a fashionable way while doing so
If you're starting at mid-levels (7+ ideally) variant multiclassing Bard (from Pathfinder Unchained, see here) and taking Brawler or similar as your normal class should work just fine.
If you're starting from first you probably want something which gets there faster. One level in the PF Unchained Monk with the Scaled Fist archetype for basic unarmed competence and the rest in Bard or Skald should work.
How much detail do you need?
It's for a homebrew steampunk campaign starting at level 5
Yeah, but what sort of detail are you looking for as advice? Do you want a list of suggested feats or do you want a build complete with planned magic items?
Ah sorry, yes a build would be ideal. I would like to be a frontline melee character while still having at my disposal spells to self buff or for out of combat utility. Like I said I really like the Swordsage flavor but this is for a pathfinder campaign
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
the Sensei Monk gets access to some Bardic Performances, but they run off Perform: Oratory.
At later levels so can the Wanderer.
I feel your best option would be the Exemplar Brawler which is all about combat without that pesky Lawful rubbish.
The only problem with this list is that your flute won't be mechanically tied to your Bardic Performance, it would be just flavor.
Flavor the flute part is ok to me
I'm happy to give some suggestions for a build if you tell me which path you'd like to follow
I don't know :/ the exemplar brawler seem to be more of a tactician, the other two are Lawful so it's a no no
Wouldn't be better to dip?
Self-buffing rather than party, utility spells, level 5 start, Dreamscarred Press stuff in use, check.
Elan Scaled Fist Unchained Monk 1 / Dawnflower Dervish Bard 4 (keep raising bard at later levels)
Str > Cha > Dex > Con > Wis > Int as ability priorities go. If 20 point buy, Str 15 +2 race +1 level =18, Dex 14, Con 12, Int 8, Wis 8, Cha 16. Int 7 & Wis 10 is an option if you don't care much about skills but you are worried about saves.
Feats
Wild Talent (race), Improved Unarmed Strike, Stunning Fist, Dragon Style (monk bonus), Dervish Dance (bard bonus, don't use this), Power Attack, Psionic Fist, Deflect Arrows.
If you prefer, swapping Dex & Str and replacing Psionic Fist & Deflect Arrows with Weapon Finesse & Deadly Agility is an option. Combat Reflexes & Equipment Trick (boots) is another pair of feats you might prefer to those two as well (with Str > Dex.)
Spells
1: Vanish, Tap Inner Beauty, Unseen Servant, Heightened Awareness
2: Mirror Image, Heroism (add Urban Step next level)
Equipment
Besides the obvious (Amulet of Mighty Fists, Cloak of Resistance, Ring of Protection, Headband of Alluring Charisma, Belt of Giant Strength or Incredible Dexterity, probably a wand of mage armor or a pearl of power to persuade another party member to cast it on you), at later levels you might want a Circlet of Persuasion (concentration is technically an ability check), Mnemonic Vestments, Bracers of the Glib Entertainer, & maybe a Ring of Spell Knowledge.
At level 5 I'd suggest an Amulet of Mighty Fists +1, a Cloak of Resistance +2, a masterwork flute of course, a wand of Mage Armor and a bunch of other consumable magic items and some mundane stuff - including a bow, it's embarrassing to be useless when your enemies are staying out of reach.
Awesome! Thanks <3
Edit: wouldn't the martial artist be better than the scaled fist? So I don't have to be lawful and I don't need charisma to self buff anyway
I see above you're allergic to Lawful alignments. OK, that's a problem. I was thinking of Mage Armor + Dex + Cha for AC. With Martial Artist that becomes MA + Dex + Wis and drops at least one point; also by RAW at least the Unchained Monk can't take that archetype so you have to take the standard monk class which loses a point of BAB, and the Dragon Style bonus feat needs to be replaced by one of the standard monk bonus feats like Combat Reflexes.
I'll think about alternatives and get back to you tomorrow.
I love Lawful allignments! Just...it wouldn't make much sense for this character. It is technically "banned" from the master - the character must be a fantasy version of ourself. He made me take an online test and C.N came out, I also play the flute (I'm self taught) and I had a talent for martial arts when I was younger (I was also a little whiny kid so I left unfortunately - I'm getting at it again though). If I were a fantasy character I would display both
(We have a Neutral Gnome Wizard, a Neutral Dwarf Druid and a Chaotic Evil Psion)
If that Monk level is the ONLY Monk level you are planning on, your alignment can be whatever you want. You only need to be lawful to gain Monk levels, not to keep them.
oh that's actually true
If you're OK with switching alignment like that we can leave it there. If you'd rather, then assuming the Elan you're using is Dreamscarred Press's version from their psionics book then maybe their Path of War is available too. If so then it's possible to do something with the Stalker or Warlord classes instead of Monk.
It's ok to switch allignments for me but go on please! Just in case the master feels a little cocky, I'd like to have many options
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
You wanna play a beat boxer? Brilliant. :)
Ooooooh I'm so going to steal this, here have a cookie for your pun
Yay for puns and cookies! I'm probably gonna use it too.
I love Lawful allignments! Just...it wouldn't make much sense for this character. It is technically "banned" from the master - the character must be a fantasy version of ourself. He made me take an online test and C.N came out, I also play the flute (I'm self taught) and I had a talent for martial arts when I was younger (I was also a little whiny kid so I left unfortunately - I'm getting at it again though). If I were a fantasy character I would display both
(We have a Neutral Gnome Wizard, a Neutral Dwarf Druid and a Chaotic Evil Psion)
One of the other players was classified as CE by this online quiz? That is ... worrisome.
Ooh we know him well it's not just the quiz, he's the chaos impersonificated
Path of War is a 3rd party product (Dreamscarred Press) which seeks to take D&D 3.5's Tome of Battle and make it into a OGL Pathfinder system. The usual complaints about either PoW or ToB are that it's too like spellcasting, too anime, or too overpowered. There's answers to any of those but I won't go into them here, just giving you a heads-up.
With the unchained monk you'd be taking the monk level first; your early talent showing. With stalker or warlord you'd take it at level 5 after 4 levels of bard; it's your getting into martial arts again. The mechanics reason for the latter is that half your non-stalker or warlord levels count for determining the level of maneuvers you can get. In this case this means you can start with 2nd level maneuvers with only the one-level dip.
As a warlord you'd take the Steelfist Commando archetype, as a stalker you would use the base class without archetypes. In either case you want to use the Broken Blade discipline. That's the main part of the unarmed ability that either class adds to your character. Warlord gives you one more point of BAB and easier recovery of the maneuvers, stalker gives you the ability to easily use Dex to fight with via one of the stalker's art options.
Stalker with Deadly Agility it is then!
Idea: what if I go full stalker and I flavor the flute thing in some way?
Or play an Arcane duelist and buff the party
Totally doable. Single classing stalker is a solid character. You could make the flute pure flavour, or take that variant multiclass bard I mentioned at the start though the perform provides no benefits until 7th level.
Edit: The arcane duelist likely works too, depending on exactly what you want to do with it.
It occurred to me that of course you're familiar with ToB, you talked about a swordsage above. Sorry if I seemed to be talking down to you, I didn't remember that when I wrote the paragraph about Path of War above.
Ok I'm sure of what I'm going to play then Arcane duelist/Stalker Dex based.
Now I just have to complete the sheet yay
*edit: don't worry, the people I play with all love the animu flavor of the ToB but I can understand why some don't like it. The Crusader and Swordsage seem to be the two most liked builds in my group. Personally it is my favourite manual in d&d 3.5 - it makes melee characters so fun to play!
So I decided to go human (the immortality thing was just for flavor and it's not going to show up so whatever)
I'll go Unchained Monk 1/Bard Arcane duelist 3/Stalker 1
Feat:
(Human): Weapon finesse
Monk: Deflect arrows
1°: Deadly Agility
3°: Piranha strike
Bard: Combat casting
5°: Weapon focus (unarmed)
All I need to use is Dex - Cons and Wis. I'll proceed as Bard
I'm super excited for this character!
If you want you can get both weapon finesse and deadly agility from the first level stalker art, Killer's Implements, leaving you a couple extra feats to play with. Also Arcane Duelist gives you Arcane Strike as well as Combat Casting; you probably want the Magical Knack trait to get caster level 5 so that AS gives +2 damage, as well as the direct effect on bard spells.
I took them with feats instead of martial art because I want to take evasion. Two feats are nice but with all the ref save I have Evasion can save my life