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Clan of the... |
A gobbo squares off against her larger opponents, her massive cyber-fists each nearly the size of her torso. She bounces from foot to foot before springing forward, her superior speed and strength sending them reeling in surprise.
Taking a deep breath, an elf covered in circuitry tattoos settles into a battle stance. As the gangbangers charge her, she lets her internal implants turn her exhalation into white-hot plasma that washes over her foes.
Moving in utter silence, a black-clad wukong crawls along the outside of a corp exec's penthouse. He pauses on the balcony outside the kleptocrat's bedroom, pulling a knife from its sheath as he contemplates how vulnerable people are while they sleep.
Whatever their style or specialty, brawlers are united in their ability to turn their own bodies into lethal weapons. They train relentlessly to become the ultimate martial artists, combining physical and mental discipline with cybernetic augmentation on the road to perfection.
The Power of CHI
No mere street fighters or pugilists, brawlers are heirs to special combat techniques fueled by a unique implant: the Cerebral Haste Insert. This cybernetic tool allows brawlers to overcome their normal limitations, overclocking brain and body to perform superhuman feats of strength, speed, and skill. The CHI implant is so thoroughly wired into a brawler's brain and nervous system that it can never be removed; indeed, many brawler groups attract new members by offering to teach secrets that unlock the implant's potential even further.
Brawlers harness the power of CHI to channel uncanny strength and speed into their strikes, as well as allowing them to disrupt the nervous systems of their enemies, produce reality-warping fields, and otherwise do the seemingly impossible. As they gain experience, their martial training and mastery of the energy from their CHI implant gives them more power over their bodies and the bodies of their foes.
Unity and Independence
Brawlers tend to gather into tight-knit gangs known as "clans," building refuges and communes outside the grip of corporate-controlled life. The brawlers who join a clan seek personal perfection through practice, rigorous training, and techniques designed to unlock the CHI implant's potential. While some clans seclude themselves from outsiders entirely, others act as protectors of their neighborhood or local warlords, using their mastery of combat skills to keep the corpos out.
For a brawler, becoming a freelancer means leaving their clan behind, at least temporarily. Some clans regard this as a horrific betrayal of their teachings, while most see it as a learning opportunity or a chance for the novice brawler to bring back resources and connections for the clan's benefit.
Proficiency Martial CHI Unarmored
Level Bonus Arts Points Movement Features
1 +2 1d4 - - Unarmored Defense, Martial Arts
2 +2 1d4 2 +10 ft. CHI, Unarmored Movement, Weapon Training
3 +2 1d4 3 +10 ft. Brawler Clan, Deflect Missiles, Quick Attack
4 +2 1d4 4 +10 ft. Ability Score Improvement, Fast Healing
5 +3 1d6 5 +10 ft. Extra Attack, Focused Aim, Stunning Strike
6 +3 1d6 6 +15 ft. Empowered Strikes, Brawler Clan Feature
7 +3 1d6 7 +15 ft. Evasion, Iron Will
8 +3 1d6 8 +15 ft. Ability Score Improvement
9 +4 1d6 9 +15 ft. Parkour
10 +4 1d6 10 +20 ft. Iron Body
11 +4 1d8 11 +20 ft. Brawler Clan Feature
12 +4 1d8 12 +20 ft. Ability Score Improvement
13 +5 1d8 13 +20 ft. Parry Bullets
14 +5 1d8 14 +25 ft. Diamond Soul
15 +5 1d8 15 +25 ft. Perfected Metabolism
16 +5 1d8 16 +25 ft. Ability Score Improvement
17 +6 1d10 17 +25 ft. Brawler Clan Feature
18 +6 1d10 18 +30 ft. Ghost in the Machine
19 +6 1d10 19 +30 ft. Ability Score Improvement
20 +6 1d10 20 +30 ft. CHI Engine
As a brawler, you gain the following class features.
Hit Points
Hit Dice: 1d8 per brawler level
Hit Points at 1st Level: 8 + your Constitution modifier
Hit Points at Higher Levels: 1d8 (or 5) + your Constitution modifier per brawler level after 1st
Proficiencies
Armor: None
Weapons: Civilian weapons, machetes
Tools: Choose one type of tool kit or one vehicle
Saving Throws: Strength, Dexterity
Skills: Choose two from Acrobatics, Athletics, Culture, History, Insight, and Stealth
Equipment
You start with the following equipment, in addition to the equipment granted by your background:
- (a) a machete or (b) any civilian weapon
- (a) a delver's pack or (b) hobo's pack
Unarmored Defense
Beginning at 1st level, while you are wearing no armor and not wielding a shield, your AC equals 10 + your Dexterity modifier + your Wisdom modifier.
Martial Arts
At 1st level, your practice of martial arts gives you mastery of combat styles that use unarmed strikes and brawler weapons, which are any civilian melee weapon and machetes.
You gain the following benefits while you are unarmed or wielding only brawler weapons and you aren't wearing armor or wielding a shield:
- You can use Dexterity instead of Strength for the attack and damage rolls of your unarmed strikes and brawler weapons.
- You can roll a d4 in place of the normal damage of your unarmed strike or brawler weapon. This die changes as you gain brawler levels, as shown in the Martial Arts column of the Brawler table.
- When you use the Attack action with an unarmed strike or a brawler weapon on your turn, you can make one unarmed strike as a bonus action. For example, if you take the Attack action and attack with a baton, you can also make an unarmed strike as a bonus action, assuming you haven't already taken a bonus action this turn.
CHI
Starting at 2nd level, your training allows you to harness the overclocking ability of your Cerebral Haste Insert (CHI) implant. Your access to this implant is represented by a number of CHI points. Your brawler level determines the number of points you have, as shown in the CHI Points column of the Brawler table.
You can spend these points to fuel various CHI features. You start knowing three such features: Flurry Attack, Patient Defense, and Overclock Rush. You learn more CHI features as you gain levels in this class.
When you spend a CHI point, it is unavailable until you finish a short or long rest, at the end of which you draw all of your expended CHI back into yourself. You must spend at least 30 minutes of the rest meditating to regain your CHI points.
Some of your CHI features require your target to make a saving throw to resist the feature's effects. The saving throw DC is calculated as follows:
- CHI save DC = 8 + your proficiency bonus + your Wisdom modifier
Flurry Attack. Immediately after you take the Attack action on your turn, you can spend 1 CHI point to make two unarmed strikes as a bonus action.
Patient Defense. You can spend 1 CHI point to take the Dodge action as a bonus action on your turn.
Overclock Rush. You can spend 1 CHI point to take the Disengage or Dash action as a bonus action on your turn, and your jump distance is doubled for the turn.
Unarmored Movement
Starting at 2nd level, your speed increases by 10 feet while you are not wearing armor or wielding a shield. This bonus increases when you reach certain brawler levels, as shown in the Brawler table.
Weapon Training
As you refine your martial arts style, you train yourself to use a variety of weapons as brawler weapons. During a short or long rest, you can briefly practice with a weapon to count it as a brawler weapon until you use this feature again. The chosen weapon must meet these criteria:
- The weapon must be a civilian or military weapon.
- You must be proficient with it.
- It must lack the heavy and special properties.
Brawler Clan
When you reach 3rd level, you commit yourself to a brawler tradition known as a clan. Your clan grants you features at 3rd level and again at 6th, 11th, and 17th level.
Deflect Missiles
Starting at 3rd level, you can use your reaction to deflect the projectile when you are hit by a ranged attack. When you do so, the damage you take from the attack is reduced by 1d10 + your Dexterity modifier + your brawler level. You can only use this ability against mundane, muscle-powered attacks, such as thrown knives, slingshots, and archery attacks.
Quick Attack
Starting at 3rd level, when you take the Attack action on your turn, you can spend 1 CHI point to immediately make one attack with an unarmed strike or brawler weapon as a bonus action before the end of your turn.
Ability Score Improvement
When you reach 4th level, and again at 8th, 12th, 16th, and 19th level, you can increase one ability score of your choice by 2, or you can increase two ability scores of your choice by 1. As normal, you can't increase an ability score above 20 using this feature.
You can forgo taking this feature to take a feat of your choice instead.
Fast Healing
At 4th level, as an action, you can spend 2 CHI points and roll a Martial Arts die. You regain a number of hit points equal to the number rolled plus your proficiency bonus.
Extra Attack
Beginning at 5th level, you can attack twice, instead of once, whenever you take the Attack action on your turn.
Focused Aim
When you miss with an attack roll, starting at 5th level, you can spend from 1 to 3 CHI points to gain a +2 bonus on the attack roll for each point you spend, potentially turning the miss into a hit.
Stunning Strike
Starting at 5th level, you can interfere with the implants and energy flow in an opponent's body. When you hit another creature with a melee weapon attack, you can spend 1 CHI point to attempt a stunning strike. The target must succeed on a Constitution saving throw or be stunned until the end of your next turn.
Empowered Strikes
Starting at 6th level, your unarmed strikes count as tech for the purpose of overcoming resistance and immunity to mundane attacks and damage.
Evasion
At 7th level, your instinctive agility lets you dodge out of the way of certain area effects, such as a grenade's blast radius. When you are subjected to an effect that allows you to make a Dexterity saving throw to take only half damage, you instead take no damage if you succeed on the saving throw, and only half damage if you fail.
Iron Will
Starting at 7th level, you can use your action to end one effect on yourself that is causing you to be charmed or frightened.
Parkour
At 9th level, you gain the ability to move along vertical surfaces and across liquids on your turn without falling during the move.
Iron Body
At 10th level, your mastery of your own metabolism makes you immune to disease and poison.
Parry Bullets
Starting at 13th level, your ability to deflect missiles is improved, allowing you to also deflect bullets and tech-enhanced projectiles (but not pure tech attacks, like micro seeker). To deflect such high-powered projectiles, you must be armed with a brawler melee weapon.
Diamond Soul
Beginning at 14th level, your mastery of your own body and mind grants you proficiency in all saving throws.
Additionally, whenever you make a saving throw and fail, you can spend 1 CHI point to reroll it and take the second result.
Perfected Metabolism
At 15th level, your implants and training sustain you so that you suffer none of the frailty of old age. You can still die of old age, however. In addition, you no longer need food or water, directly absorbing life-sustaining energy from your CHI implant.
Ghost in the Machine
Beginning at 18th level, you can use your action to spend 4 CHI points to become invisible for 1 minute. During that time, you also have resistance to all damage but kinetic damage.
Additionally, you can spend 8 CHI points to cast the Group Sense-Tank Projection tech, without needing a tech focus. When you do so, you can't take any other creatures with you.
CHI Engine
At 20th level, when you roll for initiative and have no CHI points remaining, you regain 4 CHI points.
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