Unarmed Brawler/Pugilist type build help

Pathfinder: WotR Class Builds
#1

Hi, Trying to work out a build for a character I have in mind and would appreciate some help and direction. My Pathfinder system familiarity is shallow/intermediate, mainly transferred from 3.5

Non-negotiables: Half-orc
Mythic Path: I think mechanically, Azata is probably the route im going with, but working off limited knowledge here, so, open to change if theres a much better mechanical option
Preference: Strength based with as little magic as possible (Buffs being more tolerable), rage of some kind would fit thematically. unarmored (but thats the first thing im willing to throw out)

So, I figured that without going into monk, im probably going to need to pick up a few extra feats to make this viable… Looking through the classes and feats, these are the possibilities ive worked out so far, but not sure which has the better potential.
(also aware of and not against the Cornugon Smash effectiveness)

Scaled Fist+Primalist (to get rage without the alignment conflict of monk barbarian), not sure on the bloodline (abyssal had some interesting bonus feats), and likely a few levels of fighter to pick up some feats if needed

Invulnerable Rager/Fighter - Beast totem to my “unarmed” damage

maybe some way to get sneakattack on fists?

appreciate any help/insight.

Edit: do Claws fall under unarmed attacks in any/some contexts (like Pummeling strikes and Hammer the gap) or are they entirely divorced mechanically?

Cheers!

1 Like
#2

Bad news: Monk must be lawful but Azata are chaotic.
But there is no downside if you already have monk levels and then become Azata.
But then you cannot take more monk levels.

  • Bloodragers are nice, primalist is great (at lv 4,8,12,16 you can chose if you want bloodline powers or rage powers and you always get lv1 bloodline power) but I see no reason to add monk. Bloodragers can use armor which will probably be better than monk bonus because your main stat is str, you just need enough cha to cast your buffs.
  • Monk makes only sense if you take one level (for AC and one feat, most people take crane style) or 20. If you want to punch things then you need to be a pure monk, damage and AC scale with level. If one level of monk makes any sense at all, then the other class should be unarmored itself and have some other means of getting defense. A sorcerer with spells or a sword saint with int bonus plus spells are usual options.
  • If you want to be unarmored and str based and chaotic the best idea I have is sword saint. But they do not rage and they can use magic, which should be used for buffing.

If we ignore the unarmored part, bloodrager primalist is the way to go. Stay single class, max out str and have enough cha to cast spells. Primalist is better than babarian (unless you want to rage with pet) because you can chose between bloodline powers and rage powers and you get spells.

1 Like
#3

Barb unarmed is doable if not really beneficial in any way via Improved Unarmed Strike (which you can pick up via background) or the first level spell Stone Fist. Azata Monk kind of goes against the spirit of both.Fist.

1 Like
#5

Yeah, unarmored was more for esthetic, but turns out there’s an option for me to look half-nekkid regardless of gear so, my immersion is saved regardless of what I wear!

#6

Reading through, looks like Beat totem would be a viable alternative, just wondering if claws fall under unarmed strikes in some cases (like hammer the gap and pummeling strike) or if they are considered entirely separate

#7

Natural Attacks and Unarmed Strikes are usually considered equivalent.

1 Like
#8

If you want to rage with claws you should add the bite attack as rage power.
Kingmaker had a cape that added trip to bite attacks, I am not sure if something similar exists in WotR.

Bonus question: Do claw attacks stack?
If you are a primalist with a bloodline that gives claws and you take beast totem, do you have 4 claw attacks?
And then you add another bloodline via mystic.
According to PnP rules you can attack only once per turn with any part of your body but it looks like the game allows several bite attacks per round.
I never played a natural attacker myself.

1 Like
#9

Azata Monk kind of goes against the spirit of both.

True from a RP perspective, but mechanically the beta seems to let you do that. You only need to choose certain chaotic Azata mythic path options, which is not enough to push you from lawful to chaotic. Actually, I played through chapter 3 choosing almost all chaotic options available, and the game now considers me neutral good.

2 Likes
#10

Doesn’t look like they stack from playing, when i rage with abyssal/dragon bloodline, it gives me 2 claw attacks, if i rage with another bloodline and take beast totem, i get 2 claw attacks (with a different icon), if i have both bloodline claws and beast totem, i only get 2 claw attacks with the beast totem icon.

now im just trying to figure out claws work with pummeling style and hammer the gap so that i can work out which feats to grab.

1 Like
#11

Claws work with Hammer the Gap but it’s rarely worth it. If you’re hitting that much you don’t need it and if you’re not it doesn’t help. There’s even a spell that gives you the same thing that you may have access to. Pretty sure that Pummeling is just unarmed since Call of the Wild has a Feat which lets you treat Natural as Unarmed for use in Monk abilities.

1 Like
#12

And as a reminder there are some REALLY good equipment for unarmed or natural attacks.

I cant really remember the details (cause i sell it right away) but there shoud be a bracer and an amulett, which give u big boni on attack and damage for these kinds of attacks.

2 Likes