Bruised Knuckles: Making Bar Brawls More Interesting

‘Two opponents size eachother up from across the room, the screaming roar of the onlookers drowned out in their ears. The first is an elf, blue swirling tattoos cover his body, each of them ending with twisting animal heads caught in menacing grimaces and growls. His opponent is short for a human with long dark hair and grey eyes.

The air is thick with the smell of sweat, wine and fury, below it all they smell the blood on the floor, barely washed away from the last fight.

Time slows, their fists clench, arcane symbols sizzling on their forearms. A temporary bond painted only for this fight. Behind each of them a companion shares the bond, their mind linked to the men in the ring. All at once they charge one another fists raised, as the crowd screams.’

The Rules

Unarmed brawls and fistfights in DnD have always been an odd stickler point for me when running campaigns. Upon arriving at a city I want to give my players the full possibility to pursue their own leisure activities in the way that best suits their character. Because of this I go out of my way to make a variety games, sports and gambling options that will grab their interest. This kind of thing is quite easy to create in a lore friendly way but I have always specifically struggled with brawling and bare knuckle fights which tends to be one of the main things my players seek out. Its no surprise as this concept is a staple of video games and many players love the idea of their character getting into a bare knuckles boxing match. 

The problem here is that the rules for unarmed combat kind of suck. With the current rules an unarmed strike does 1dmg plus your strength modifier. This is obviously different for monks and should you take certain feats etc but for the majority of characters this means standing opposite each other and dealing the same damage over and over until one drops.

This leads to quite a boring encounter in most occasions. If you have the narrative and descriptive skill of Matt Mercer then you might just be able to pull this through but most of us mortals have to find another way. Because of this I have come up with a few simplistic homebrew rules that I think spice up the fight. These rules are not designed to be perfect alternatives that fill in all gaps or be perfectly balanced. There are also a great deal of character abilities that can have a big effect on these rules, either clashing with them or making them pretty much redundant. The point here is that it gives a basis of unarmed combat from which to build. It is up to the DM how to incorporate them in a fair manner. For example the tavern brawler and unarmed combatant feats. The main aim here is not to undermine these options but to create more exciting and engaging fistfights that are quicker than the old method and make a more narrative driven experience.

First and foremost, my biggest change has been the dmg. If you view your hit points as more as a combination of health and luck in combat it makes sense that the dmg and way it effects your character would change in a bare-knuckle boxing match. The goal here isn’t to kill one another, its to knock the other player out or beat them enough that they won’t want to keep fighting. Therefore, to make it more interesting I have come up with a list of punches and their respective proposed dmgs.

Punch- 1d4+ str

Jab- 1+str (+2 to AC for this round)

Haymaker-(made at disadvantage) 1d6+ str + roll on KO chart

(bonus action) Unorthodox move- an opposed DC check with DM decided outcome

For the sake of this argument the monk dmg is kept the same as everyone else’s. They are not about to ki infuse their strikes in a one-on-one bar fight, if they do want to do this then all of their dice will rase to the monk respective damage dice. Monks are meant to wipe the floor with people in a fist fight, unless they are holding back which is what I propose here.

The first of the punches is your basic punch, you are swinging out without holding up your guard. For narrative sake this can be a kick or elbow as well depending how you spin it. The second is a Jab, you are making a lighter hit while maintaining your guard, this is especially useful for characters without unarmored defence. Finally, there is haymaker which is an all-out strike that is made with disadvantage to hit, if you miss with it your opponent will get advantage on their next strike similar to Barbarian reckless attack. If the barbarian wants to use reckless attack it will take away the disadvantage to hit but put him on disadvantage on his KO roll should he be hit with a haymaker). The unorthodox move is a way of grappling or trying to gain advantage. You describe to the DM what you want to try then make and opposed check with the opponent with a victory result described by the DM beforehand. This could run like this;

Player one; I knee my opponent below the waist.

DM; that will do a base jab dmg and put him on disadvantage attacks for the next turn. It will be opposed dex check

OR

Player one; I use my medical knowledge to search him for an area of weakness, perhaps an old wound.

DM; that is a medicine vs deception check if you succeed you can make haymaker without disadvantage.

You can only use an unorthodox move once, if you try to repeat the same thing you will immediately give your opponent advantage to hit you next turn. The aim here is to use roleplay and thinking on your feet to earn a haymaker strike without disadvantage or another bonus of the DMs choice.

The haymaker is designed to be taken as a risky move as missing one will give an opponent advantage on their next attack, effectively allowing them to make a haymaker with no disadvantage. If you do however land one then your opponent must make a CON save (DC haymaker dmg OR 10 whichever is higher) if they fail the striker can roll on the ko chart with a d8

1.      Disoriented- disadvantage on all attacks next turn

2.      Knocked off stride- can only punch or jab

3.      Bleeding- lose one d4 point each round (can be stacked)

4.      No effect

5.      Knocked down- player is knocked prone

6.      Tangle- the player manages to turn the strike into an automatic grapple

7.      No effect

8.      Knock out (deal extra 2d6+str dmg if this takes the opponent below half health then they must make another CON save, on a fail they are knocked out)

The inclusion of the knock out gives a level of chance to the encounter that makes the combat more interesting. It enables weaker melee characters to at least have a chance of winning against the bigger characters if they are lucky enough. It also means you can have powerful roleplay moments where a character manages to fight off a knock out multiple times before finally KOing their opponent.

The final rules I developed are linked directly to the lore of my main campaign but I hope they give you an idea as to how you can spice up things like this in your own setting.

Brawling with a magical twist

The Land of Culunoc takes place in a fey filled Celtic world where promises and secrets have worth and power. People can be bound with intricate spells connected to their oaths or prevented from lying or revealing dark secrets. In the underside of the cities however they have found a more practical use for this magic. They use thrill seeking students from the university to carve magical bonds on fighters forearms that connect to their partner who remains in the audience. The partner and fighter are now bonded with enables for a mass of unique rules that can change from fight to fight depending on the symbols drawn. In one fight the symbol might share damage with the partner in the crowd, both players rolling to see who gets the damage from the punches inflicted in the ring. If either of them drop they both lose. Neither player knows the others health so will occasionally have to check on one another to see if they can afford for the damage to go either way.

What’s more spellcasters can pump spell slots into their fighter, giving them punches that deal elemental damage or resistances to certain forms of attack. however each time they do this they open the shared bond between themselves and their fighter taking full dmg on any reaction attack.

Another set of symbols randomly swaps the consciousness of the two team members meaning that you will have a scenario where the wizard is piloting the barbarian body during the fight, desperately trying to figure out how to rage. Or you can even develop a match where the symbols connect to the fighter in the ring giving them magical surges of dmg at the cost of hit points. The possibilities with this are endless and it is up to the DM to develop unique matches wherever you go.

I hope these rules and Ideas help you to create a more interesting experience when it comes to fist fights in your campaign. Once again, these rules are made for a lore and narrative purpose and not to make the perfect balanced system. I hope you enjoyed this post and that your world becomes richer for it.

Stay tuned to catch our upcoming article covering all the rules for these magically infused fistfights!