Pugilist - D&D 2024 (5.5e) Class Optimisation Guide

Become a street brawler with this hard punching, 3rd party class for D&D 2024.

Pugilists are street brawlers. They’ve learnt to survive against the odds in backalleys, boxing rings and on the streets of the most loathsome cities you’d care to walk. Unlike fighters, they lack traditional training with weapons, instead preferring their fists and whatever bar stool, beer bottle or other improvised weapon they can get their hands on.

Pugilists are capable of phenomenal feats of strength, resolve and desperation. This comes from a self-confidence, instilled from many a brawl survived in desperate moments.

The pugilist is a 3rd party class that has gained some amount of cult following. Created by Benjamin Hoffman and recently released on D&D Beyond, for which it has been updated to D&D 2024. In this article, I’ll be taking a look at how the pugilist stacks up and giving a load of advice on tactics and how you can optimise your build.

At a glance

Strengths

Powerful martial warriors
Use unarmed strikes to grapple and batter into submission
Very resilient against saving throws and have lots of tricks to help them survive longer

Weaknesses

Not great at ranged attacks
Lack much utility out of combat
Quite a low AC for a melee class
Lots of expendables to track

Pugilist features

Fisticuffs (Lv1) – 5/5

Fairly similar to a monks martial arts. You get strong unarmed strikes and uses of pugilist weapons as well as a bonus action attack. The damage is a little higher making this a little better.

As you later on more features, your unarmed strikes will be enhanced further.

Iron chin (Lv1) – 3/5

The base AC barely helps at all here. You can get a base of 12 with studded leather which is relatively cheap. I guess it saves you a few gold pieces.

What is better is now you can focus your ability score into constitution and completely neglect dexterity in favour of strength, constitution and perhaps some feats.

The problem is, without a shield, you’re really maximising your AC at 17, and that’s with heavy investment in constitution. It’s not huge for a frontline martial. In fact, I’d probably label it as acceptable only. However, based on later features, I think the idea is to get hurt a lot and survive in other ways (subsequent additions of temporary hit points for instance).

Moxie (Lv2) – 5/5

A lot like monk’s focus, you can expend moxie points to add to your capabilities each turn. An extra bonus action attack or a dash/disengage alongside your bonus action attack is pretty good. The option of those temporary hit points is quite strong too for some durability. It’s brace up that will get stronger as you level up too.

Bloodied but unbowed (Lv2) – 4/5

A reaction to regain moxie points and grab a bunch of temporary hit points. This can get really impactful at higher levels and is definitely best taken when you’re bloodied.

Swagger streak (Lv2) – 4/5

Some really useful resilience here to a wide range of saving throws. The bonus will average +4.5 to your savings throw (which gets higher with higher levels) too which is significant.

The wording is odd, but it seems that if you fail, you can’t use this again until you rest, but if you succeed, then it can be used again (but you’ve expended a moxie points so will still be limited). Great for narrowly missed saving throws, but maybe not worth it for abysmal rolls.

Heavy hitter (Lv3) – 5/5

Grapple or shove when you make unarmed strikes. This will work with your bonus action attacks too and works on each unarmed attack. By level 5, that will often mean 3-4 attacks making grapples and shoves. If you shove a creature to the ground, then grapple them, this can be really debilitating for them and great for allies to pile in and pummel the poor thing.

Dig deep (Lv4) – 4/5

Resistance to 3 very common damage types is great and practically immunity to exhaustion is interesting (unless the exhaustion kills you that is). Because of this, exhaustion can become a resource of its own where you need to make sure you don’t become too exhausted to be at risk of death.

Also be aware that exhaustion affects you outside of combat too so you may find yourself less skillful if you abuse the use of this. Annoyingly, the bonus action to activate this will get in the way of some of your attacks and your use of moxie.

Extra attack (Lv5) – 5/5

The obligatory extra attack at level 5 nicely increases your damage output as well as your ability to make more grapple and shove attempts.

Moxie fueled fists (Lv6) – 4/5

Turn your attacks into force damage which is very rarely resisted. Great for getting around resistances.

Down but not out (Lv7) – 4/5

Extra damage for a combat is handy, but it’ll only work once per long rest. It’s decent damage though. Chances are, your constitution modifier will get to about +4 or 5 and you can easily afford 1-3 levels of exhaustion if you’re happy letting others deal with skill checks. Good feature, but needs balancing between other features.

School of hard knocks (Lv9) – 4/5

A decent amount of extra damage per turn. Going for maximum damage on the next attack probably won’t be better than just rolling an extra d12. However, other classes can deal more damage in a single attack than a pugilist. The rogue for example, will benefit a lot from maximum sneak attack damage. Equally, this allows for spells attacks to maximise on damage too. If you can get a rogue or sorcerer immediately after you, then this becomes substantially more powerful.

Provoke can be good if you have more resilience than those around you. Your low AC is a barrier here, but plentiful temporary hit points do compensate.

Herculean (Lv10) – 2/5

Basically a bunch of ribbon features. I rarely see carrying capacity or object breaking in practice. Jumping occurs more, but others will have better solutions for chasms and similar obstacles at this stage.

Shake it off (Lv10) – 5/5

Simply removing one of quite a few conditions, some of which are quite nasty, from yourself is pretty good. The fact you can do so at the start of your turn is excellent. Really strong resilience feature to make it even harder to affect you with conditions.

Dig deeper (Lv13) – 3/5

More extra d12s for attacks, but only for 1 minute when activated, and activating means losing an attack (but also using dig deep). Useful for big battles, but less so than always on damage boosts.

Unbreakable (Lv14) – 5/5

Even more resilience for many saving throws. You now have advantage on saving throws for 3 ability scores and a potential reroll. This can be combined with swagger streak too for enhanced saving throw rolls.

Pugnacious (Lv15) – 4/5

How often you need to remove exhaustion levels may depend on how cavalier you play. An extra use of Down But Not Out, Dig Deep, and Shake It Off will go a long way to boosting your resilience.

Fighting spirit (Lv18) – 5/5

This is a really strong version of features that prevent you dropping to 0HP. Half your maximum HP in temporary hit points is a lot at this stage. It does mean that you won’t be able to use your other sources of temporary hit points like bloodied but unbowed unless you happen to get these temporary hit points quite low. Your resistance to practically all damage will help your durability though.

Peak physical condition (Lv20) – 4/5

Boosted strength and constitution means better attacks, more AC and more HP. All the things a good pugilist needs. If you take your levels beyond 20, you can also enhance your strength and constitution beyond 23 with epic boon feats.

At this point, you won’t have to worry about exhaustion as much and you’ll have plenty of healing on short rests too making long adventuring days less of a problem.

Tactics

Pugilists are brawlers. They tend to be best in close quarters, punching and grappling into submission. They also have an unusual interplay of relatively low AC but high temporary hit points and resistances as well as being one of the best classes against saving throws.

You can use some of the following tactics when playing a pugilist:

Find ways to up your AC

With an AC high of 17 through conventional methods, you’ll want to toughen up as much as possible in other ways as standard armor won’t get you higher. You can invest in constitution as a starting point.

There may be less conventional ways to achieve this too. For example, a 1 level dip in fighter means you can grab the defense fighting style and as light armor works with your iron chin, you can grab +1 AC. Don’t be tempted to start using heavy armor though as that won’t work with fisticuffs. You could also look for something like a ring of protection.

You could also go for a 1 level dip into barbarian to grab unarmored defense. It’ll mean investing heavily in strength, dexterity and constitution, but you’ll have a higher ceiling for AC this way. Plus you’ll get rage and weapon mastery too.

Find other ways to get more resilient

Pugilists do have other methods for staying on their feet. A lot of this revolves around resistances and temporary hit points. You can enhance this in a few ways. Something like the tough feat will give you more hit points, as will being a Dwarf. You can also grab more resistances through something like your species (Dwarves, Aasimar and Dragonborn are good for this). An Orc will let you survive an ordinarily knock out blow for a bit longer too.

Grappler

Pugilists are innately great at grapple techniques. Use shove to knock an enemy to the floor and then grapple them while they’re down. Now they can’t get up so are stuck with disadvantage on attack rolls and advantage on attack rolls against them until they can wriggle free of your grapple, but that will consume a turn for them. By level 3, you don’t even need to choose between damage and one of these options, you can do both.

From level 1, you’ll have 2 attacks most of the time and by level 5, will have 3. Using moxie can sometimes give you even more attacks to make as well meaning shove/grapple combos are relatively easy for a pugilist.

Exhaustion can enhance in battle, but be a problem outside of it

As you manage your exhaustion levels, be aware that this will reduce your effectiveness outside of combat, even if you’re fine in combat. For this reason, it’s often best not to rely on a pugilist’s capabilities with skills.

Manage your resources

On that note, you’ll need to manage your resources carefully. Don’t expend all your moxie against the warm up battle against the goblins or waste dig deep before you fight the BBEG. Some of these features you’ll want to save for desperate times when you expect to take a pummelling.

It’s also worth being aware that pugilists have a lot of expendable resources. Many of their features can only be used once per short rest, long rest or require moxie to use. You may want to edit your character sheet to help you keep track of it all.

How good is the pugilist?

The pugilist can be a little tricky to balance, with low AC but high resilience in other areas while also being a melee specialist. It’s not that they’re overly complicated, but there’s a lot to track and a lot of different features to remember. Still, those complexities pale in comparison to remembering all the spells a wizard might possess, for instance.

In fact, there’s mostly only one way to use the pugilist. Like a monk, they’re very much pushed down a single combat approach; punch, shove and grapple. The many features keep them interesting, but be aware that you’ll struggle to make a pugilist that functions too much differently than that.

Because of this very prescribed route, the pugilist does work as an unarmed grapple specialist. Something that monks and fighters can achieve, but not as competently. For that reason, I do think the pugilist has a place at the table and a tactical role to fulfil.

4/5

Optimising a pugilist build

You’ll want to build your pugilist around punching hard and surviving longer. This is where pugilists excel and it’s hard to make them function well outside of this role. A couple of options may also help you with the grapple style of combat they can be great at too.

Ability scores

Recommended options

Strength: A must have as unarmed combat is likely your best option most of the time and you’ll need this high for successful shoves and grapples.
Constitution: Constitution will not only increase your HP for better resilience, it can also be used to enhance your AC, saving investing in dexterity.

Options to avoid

Dexterity: A finesse build just doesn’t quite work for a pugilist. You don’t need it for AC and their unarmed attacks and grapples and shoves rely on strength so I’d tend to avoid building into dexterity.
Wisdom: Not much need for wisdom other than for saving throws.
Intelligence: The same goes for intelligence.
Charisma: Maybe your best non-physical option, if only so you can be involved in social situations. You can also benefit from some enhanced charisma saving throws a bit more if you have some investment in charisma. I’d still say investing in this isn’t particularly worthwhile for a pugilist, but it could be a tertiary ability if you choose.

Ability score	Point Buy	Standard Array
Strength	15	15
Dexterity	10	12
Constitution	15	14
Intelligence	8	8
Wisdom	8	10
Charisma	14	13

Skills

Recommended options

Athletics: You’ll probably be a strength build so this is better to take than acrobatics.
Intimidation: You won’t make a great party face, but you may have a bit of intimidating bravado which might lead to the need for a decent intimidation.
Perception: Your wisdom probably won’t be that high, but everyone tends to get involved in perception checks so this is always handy.
Stealth: Similarly, you probably won’t have a high dexterity, but stealth may be needed by the whole party from time to time.

Options to avoid

Acrobatics: Your strength will be better than your dexterity so I’d go with athletics if you want some physical prowess.
Deception: You probably won’t have the charisma to be good enough at this. Leave the lying to others.
Sleight of hand: Again, you should hopefully have someone more dextrous in the party that can make better use of sleight of hand.

Species

As a pugilist, you’ll likely want your species to help you with certain aspects of your build including:

Toughen up: Pugilists fight on the frontlines with a relatively low AC. Any way to counteract this weakness will help such as extra HP, AC and resistances.
Damage dealing: You also want to deal as much damage as possible meaning traits that can improve this will help.

Recommended options

Dragonborn: A choice of a resistance and a breath weapon for some crowd control works great. You should have a top constitution too, making that breath weapon harder to avoid. Flight is always useful as a bonus.
Dwarf: Extra HP and poison resilience will help with the durability side of things.
Goliath: Large form will let you grapple even bigger creatures and the extra movement speed is handy for closing the gap to the fray as pugilists aren’t great at ranged combat. For your giant ancestry, you can go for higher damage with fire or knock prone, grapple and deal damage in the same attack with hill.
Shifter: I’d go for beasthide for the increased AC and temporary hit points. I’d avoid longtooth though, you can already make more powerful bonus action attacks.
Warforged: Great for extra resilience. +1 AC and poison resilience are both great for this.

Backgrounds

Backgrounds are much more important now with D&D 2024 as the ability score increases previously tied to your race/species are now linked to your background. You also get an origin feat linked to your background too.

I’d recommend focusing on backgrounds that can boost strength and constitution giving us the following backgrounds for a pugilist:

Name	Ability scores	Origin feat	Skill proficiencies	Tool proficiency
Farmer	Strength, constitution, wisdom	Tough	Animal handling, nature	Carpenter’s tools
Flaming fist mercenary (HoF)	Strength, constitution, charisma	Tough	Intimidation, perception	Smith’s tools
Ice fisher (HoF)	Strength, dexterity, constitution	Alert	Animal handling, athletics	Woodcarver’s tools
Rashemi wanderer (HoF)	Strength, constitution, charisma	Tough	Intimidation, perception	Cartographer’s tools

I’d probably favour the flaming fist mercenary or the rashemi wanderer as tough is an ideal feat for a pugilist and while not great in the skill department, intimidation and perception are probably more useful than most other options for you.

It’s worth noting that I’ve avoided including any backgrounds with the savage attacker origin feat. It only works with weapons and even if you sometimes use weapons, you often won’t just to take advantage of elements of your fisticuffs so this is a poor option for a pugilist.

Choosing your subclass

At level 3 pugilists get their subclass. There are 6 to choose from which are:

Grim harbinger ranger: Avantris Entertainment

Dog & Hound

Some pugilists form bonds with a canine friend. More loyal than a 2 legged companion, this companion will brawl alongside the pugilist, making a deadly duo.

Hand of Dread

Granted eldritch powers by an unknown entity, these pugilists can combine their fisticuffs with some small amount of magical capacity.

Piss and Vinegar

Uncouth and willing to fight dirty, these pugilists refuse to play by the rules. They’re loud, brash and rub people up the wrong way.

Squared Circle

Wrestlers who know how to quickly bring their foe to submission. They focus on controlling their most powerful opponent with chokeholds and armbars.

Street Saint

Despite their rough lot in life, some pugilists rise above the filth of their upbringing to live a life of devotion and goodliness. These pugilists are gifted with some amount of divine power as a result.

Sweet Science

Both quick and powerful, these pugilists cling to the upper crusts of society, duelling for the entertainment of the wealthy. But they keep their skills keen by duking it out in back alleys too.

Feats

Origin feats

I’d recommend the following origin feats for a pugilist:

Alert: Ensures your initiative rolls are higher allowing you to go earlier in combat. Means you can close the gap on enemies quickly, disable them if possible or even kill them outright before they can take their turn.
Lucky: Great on any class to gain advantage on some rolls.
Musician: A generally excellent origin feat for helping your allies out with some heroic inspiration (kind of like a slightly better lucky you give to your friends).
Tough: Really valuable extra hit points as you can expect to take a beating.

General feats

From level 4, you can grab a general feat in place of an ability score increase. I’d recommend the following for a pugilist:

Charger: With moxie, you can dash more often than most classes and this also means the potential of disengaging easily and moving around the battlefield for charged up attacks.
Grappler: Yes the pugilist can already grapple and cause damage and I don’t think these capabilities combine so you can shove, grapple and damage in the same attack. However, advantage on attack rolls against a grappled creature and no movement reduction are pretty good if you expect to do less shoving and more moving of your enemies when you grapple them.
Mage slayer: Great for handling spellcasters and gives you a kind of legendary resistance that makes you even more resilient against saving throws.
Sentinel: Great when defending allies and keeping enemies in reach.
Speedy: You may want to move faster just to close down enemies quicker. This will also make it a bit safer to move away from enemies without having to use moxie or an action to disengage.

Weapons

Pugilists are just better with their fists. Weapons add little in the way of enhancements other than the ability to use them at range. Pugilist weapons don’t cover ranged weapons, but do cover thrown weapons, and this is about the only reason to use a weapon for a pugilist.

You probably won’t have a high dexterity anyway so thrown weapons is probably the way to go to get some range on your attacks. You’ll only be proficient with simple or improvised weapons so this means going for daggers, handaxes, javelins, spears or light hammers. In theory, you could dual wield daggers, handaxes and light hammers for a bonus action attack (you won’t normally get this with thrown attacks) and all these options are pugilist weapons so technically have the same damage; a minimum of a d8.

Armor

You have no need to wear any armor. If your constitution is higher than your dexterity (which it usually should be), then no armor or any light armor will beat using your dexterity for armor. Even if you grab armor proficiency from outside of your class, this will be a detrimental to other pugilist features.

Because being unarmored is cheaper than wearing light armor, you might as well not bother with armor at all.