Unarmed Archetypes

Primal Path - Path of the Bear Warrior

You are a warrior-shaman devoted to the spirit of the bear. Not content to simply take inspiration from your totem animal, you let it possess you in battle, turning you into a ferocious killing machine. While so possessed, you fight with tooth and nail, and sometimes simply crush the life out of your enemies.

Bear's Ferocity

At 3rd level, your close-quarters striking and grappling abilities improve. You gain the following benefits while you are raging:

You deal more damage with unarmed strikes, rolling the die appropriate to a monk of your barbarian level.

Your rage does not end early at the end of your turn so long as you are grappling an enemy, even if you have neither attacked nor suffered damage since the end of your last turn.

While you have a target grappled, you can use your bonus action to deal damage to it equal to your strength modifier + your rage damage bonus.

Beginning at 6th level, your unarmed strikes count as magical for the purpose of overcoming resistance and immunity to non-magical attacks and damage.

Bear's Senses

At 6th level, some of the spirit of the bear lingers inside you even when you are not fighting. You gain advantage on Wisdom (Perception) checks that rely on hearing or smelling, and can track a creature based on scent alone. If you are not proficient in survival, you are considered to be proficient in it when tracking in this fashion.

Bear's Presence

At 10th level, the presence of the bear spirit within you becomes more apparent to those around you. You have advantage on Charisma (Intimidation) against any creature who has seen you rage in the past 24 hours. However, any creature you fail to intimidate becomes immune to this feature until the next time it sees you rage.

If a creature belongs to a culture that worships totem animals, this feature applies to all Charisma checks instead.

Bear's Frenzy

At 14th level, the spirit of the bear takes you over so completely that it produces minor physical changes in your body while you rage. When you make an unarmed attack, you can choose to deal slashing or piercing damage in place of bludgeoning damage.

Additionally, when an enemy hits you with a melee attack or leaves the reach of your unarmed attacks, you can make a grapple attempt against that enemy as a reaction.

It is highly unfortunate that the original name for this type of warrior, "berserker," has been claimed by a path nobody plays.

Martial Archetype - Brawler

Just because most fighters use weapons doesn't mean you have to. You fight with the weapons nature gave you -- fists, feet, elbows, and knees. Sometimes your forehead, too.

This does not, however, mean that you are ignorant of weapons. You've had the same training all those other warriors have, and have learned how they work and how to beat them. Woe to the warrior who brings a weapon to bear against a brawler, as they may have precious little time to make use of it!

Iron Fist

Whether covered in steel or the flimsiest of bandages, your unarmed attacks strike with the power of worked metal. Starting at 3rd level, you gain the following benefits:

You can use Dexterity instead of Strength for the attack and damage rolls of your unarmed strikes.

You deal increased damage with your unarmed strikes, rolling the same damage die as a monk of your fighter level.

The damage bonus from the Dueling fighting style applies to your unarmed attacks if you are holding no weapons.

You can deflect attacks made against you. As long as both your hands are free (you are holding nothing and wearing no shield), you gain +1 to your AC.

Beginning at 6th level, your unarmed strikes count as magical for the purpose of overcoming resistance and immunity to non-magical attacks and damage.

The Spice of Life

You have a knack for getting into situations that other fighters wouldn't, and have picked up all sorts of tricks and skills as a result. At 7th level, you gain proficiency in any combination of 2 skills or tools.

Even Playing Field

At 10th level, you perfect the art of disarming attackers. When a creature makes a melee weapon attack against you using a weapon and misses, you may use your reaction to attempt to disarm it of the weapon it used to make the attack. The creature makes a strength saving throw, and if it fails, it drops the weapon, which lands in a space of your choice adjacent to both of you. The DC of the saving throw is 8 + your proficiency bonus + your Strength or Dexterity modifier (your choice).

Duck and Weave

At 15th level, you gain proficiency in Dexterity saving throws, and the bonus to AC you gain from Iron Fist changes to +2.

One-Two Punch

At 18th level, you have mastered the art of raining down strikes on your hapless enemies and setting them up for devastating knockout blows. Whenever you hit an enemy with an unarmed attack as part of the Attack action, your critical hit range increases by 1 until the end of your turn.