Feat: Tavern Brawler - Character Concept

I had an idea of making a character that uses the feat of Tavern Brawler from the 5e Dungeons & Dragons Player’s Handbook as the main focus of the build. The feat adds +1 to either Constitution or Strength, the character is proficient in improvised weapons, unarmed strikes cause 1d4 of damage, and gives a Bonus Action grapple. My initial idea was to build a Way of the Drunken Master Monk. Thematically, you can see the connection between a tavern brawler and a monk whose abilities are based on acting drunk.

I really liked the idea that the character’s main weapons would be bottles. I wanted the character to be able to use the Mending cantrip so that they could repair their bottles after combat. Since I was picking up Tavern Brawler as the initial feat with my variant human, I could not also get Magic Initiate, so this meant there was a need for a dip as a spellcaster. 

Bard made the most sense from a thematic sense while Cleric and Druid made more sense from the mechanics side. Cleric and Druid felt clunky from the backstory I was already developing, but I could see it if you were building from the idea that the character had fallen out with their order/circle. I was looking for a more fun-loving character and not a fallen-from-grace tragic backstory (D&D is full of characters with tragic backstories). My character would be singing in taverns and would learn to defend himself in the rough and tumble places. The problem was that Monk and Bard classes do not naturally work together since the minimum ability score for Bard is Charisma and for Monk it is both Dexterity and Wisdom. This means that the character would need 13s in those three ability scores plus they would need a high Strength to be able to take advantage of the grappling attack. This would mean that Intelligence and Constitution would be the dump stats. I can live with a low Intelligence, but I didn’t think the character could survive with a low Constitution. On top of that, the unarmed strike bonus from the feat would be covered by the Monk class. The build fell apart upon these revelations.

Not one to give up that easily I decided to see if there was another way to approach this character idea. I decided that the Fighter class along with the Entertainer background would get me where I was heading. Granted that the Mending cantrip would not be available until third level, but by sixth level the character would have three feats. Also, I only needed a 13 in either Strength or Dexterity and, since they would become an Eldritch Knight, their Intelligence would need to be high. I have a couple of different ideas about eventual multiclassing, and I’ll discuss those as we go along.

I’m using the rolls I made for my last build for continuity across all these builds, which were 12, 10, 15, 16, 8, and 15. I am assigning them thusly:

Str 16   Dex 15   Con 12   Int 15   Wis 8   Chr 10 

I would add the +1s to Strength and Intelligence making them 17 and 16 respectively. The +1 from Tavern Brawler would be added to Strength making it a very respectable 18. The skill that I would choose from the Variant Human race would be Athletics.

This is how the character would progress. They would start their career as a Fighter. The chosen Fighting Style would either be Dueling for the extra damage or Two-Weapon Fighting for the extra attack with their Bonus Action. If I started with Two-Weapon Fighting, I would switch it to Dueling at fourth level since you need the Bonus Action available for grappling.

The character will eventually choose Eldritch Knight as their Martial Archetype. For Cantrips, I would select Mending to fix the bottles or whatever else the character destroys while picking up different items as their improvised weapons. I would also pick up Shocking Grasp for some free damage to whatever opponent the character is grappling with that round. Green Flame Blade, Sword Burst, or Mind Sliver are also good choices as your second cantrip. Sword Burst is verbal only and anyone within 5 feet of you has to make a Dexterity saving throw which is with disadvantage if a target is restrained (for instance if they were grappled). Mind Sliver is an interesting choice since it is verbal only, but the target does get an Intelligence saving throw. Two of the first level spells would have to be from abjuration and evocation, but the good news is that there are several good spells to choose from such as Chromatic Orb, Magic Missile, and Shield. The other good news is since the third spell can be from any school of magic you can choose Find Familiar (one of the best spells in the game). Summon an owl familiar to get the fly by Help action for advantage on attacks.

Eldritch Knights get Weapon Bond when the subclass is chosen. This makes a bond between the character and up to two weapons. The weapon, if on the same plane of existence, can be summoned to the character’s hand. This could make for some interesting items being bonded. I like the idea of a chair that was used in a particular fight that went really well for our Tavern Brawler being bonded to them. I think it would be funny to have the character summon that chair and leave some poor tavern patron falling to the floor as their chair suddenly disappeared.

At fourth level, the character would pick up the Grappler feat and switch to Dueling for their Fighting Style if they did not have it already. The character now has advantage against any opponent they are grappling with and can then pin whoever they have grappled which restrains both the character and the opponent. This feat is all about getting the advantage on an opponent the character is grappling with. This is not the best feat in the world but works quite well with Tavern Brawler.

At sixth level, the character gets another feat and I would choose War Caster. Now you don’t have to worry about the somatic elements to any spells that you acquire. You also get advantage on your Constitution saving throws when making concentration checks and since the character is proficient in Constitution saving throws they will hardly ever lose a save on concentration.

In melee combat, you would attack with your improvised weapon which opens up the Bonus Action to grapple your opponent. If the grapple were successful, then your second attack would be made with advantage. The following turn, if the opponent hasn’t broken the grapple, then you can automatically use Shocking Grasp or make two more attacks with advantage.

At seventh level is where I would start multiclassing. Warlock would be fun if no other reason to take Pact of the Blade and call the most random items into your hand for combat. “I create a frying pan into my hand and attack.” Of course, the Charisma of this character is too low to make this a possibility, but you could switch around the ability scores to make this happen.

I think, Rogue makes the most sense which would only be a one-level dip. As a Rogue, you would take Expertise in Athletics to get an additional bonus to grappling. Also, you can sneak attack any opponent that you have grappled since you have advantage on attacks against them. You could also use your owl familiar to get that advantage before you grappled your opponent.

I thought about going far enough in Rogue to pick up the 2d6 Sneak Attack damage, but it did not make sense for this build. First off, none of the Roguish Archetypes gelled with the theme of this character. Most of the features of the Roguish Archetypes are about being sneaky and keeping their distance. This character is all about getting close and not letting go. One level of Rogue feels more like a feat than anything else and augments the abilities the character already has. Additional levels don’t add to the character and actually kind of water it down.

When you pick up the next level and become a seventh level fighter, then you can cast a cantrip and make an attack as a bonus action. So, if you grappled an opponent on the previous turn and they did not break it, then you get a free Shocking Grasp as your Action and can Bonus Action attack with Sneak Attack. You also get one first and two second level spell slots. You can learn a second level spell from any school for the Wizard spell list. Some good ideas could be Darkness, Enlarge/Reduce, Flaming Sphere, Mirror Image, Misty Step, and Web. I would go with Enlarge/Reduce to add to your damage potential and the targets available to grapple (since you would be large and could grapple with huge opponents).

Next level opens up another Ability Score Improvement or Feat feature. I really wanted to take the +2 and add it to Strength, but I also really wanted some more cantrips. I thought about taking the +2 and then doing a dip into Wizard to get the cantrips, but this was a disaster because of how much a dip would nerf spell slots. Staying in Wizard long enough to fix the spell slots issue did nothing for the build. The character abilities became anemic since Bladesinger or War Magic brought nothing so great to the table to warrant the extended dip. So, I decided to take Magic Initiate which gives two cantrips and one 1st level spell to the character. I would pick up Swordburst and Green Flame Blade for some added versatility to damage you can do while grappling an opponent. Pick whatever floats your boat for the 1st level spell because this was done to get those cantrips. I’d stay away from Booming Blade since the goal of this character is to stay in close and not moving around to trigger the thunder damage.

I have an idea for an additional Cantrip, but this is a bit of homebrew and would need to be approved by your DM. The character would turn their bottles into stone for some nice bludgeoning damage and bottles that are destroyed in the fight.

Turn to Stone

Transmutation cantrip

Casting Time: 1 action

Range: Touch

Components: V

Duration: 1 minute

You choose any inorganic material that you are touching and is no larger than a 1-foot cube and turn it into stone for 1 minute.

I would just keep going with the Fighter class for this character. Pick feats that you like or improve the character’s ability scores as you go. My character idea started as a more complicated build, but became a Fighter with a one level dip into Rogue. Now, I would not play the character in a campaign where the DM is not interested in going into the details of things in the room that your character can use as weapons. If the idea of coming up with different random objects as weapons sounds like a chore to you then I would not suggest playing this character. The Tavern Brawler is a fun way to use your imagination and be as much like Jackie Chan as you can be.

Before I worked on this character, I did not see grappling as a viable combat tactic. Grappling is something every character can do, but not everyone should. It requires a high Strength and the addition of feats to make it more than just a way to capture an opponent for questioning. Tavern Brawler allows you to use a Bonus Action to make a grapple attack. The Grappler feat then gives you advantage on attacks to an opponent you have grappled. Layering in the ability to use Shocking Grasp and Sneak Attack then suddenly grappling becomes very dangerous for your opponents.

What do you think? Let me know in the comments below.