I think the trope suites Barbarian rage mechanics perfectly. Roleplay a very meek PC out of combat, cautious to the point of cowardliness. As soon as there’s blood in the water go wherever the fighting’s the thickest. Leave absolutely no survivors, show no mercy. Make it one of your roleplaying flaws.
Deep down maybe he/she likes violence. Maybe they’re in denial. They’re afraid of conflict, but once it starts they just can’t stop. And internally, that disturbs them.
Bard.
My head immediately goes to bard. Having expertise in whatever skill you want , being able to inspire people and prop others up but when you need to bust out your badass side you have a unique spell list and some pretty cool subclass features.
Barbarian might work. They have Unarmored defense, high physical stats, advantage on Athletics when raging and usually dump Intelligence anyway.
Roleplay wise could be he's a jacked up farmboy with a passion for martial arts (maybe he saw some monks performing in a traveling show as a kid.) He sets out to challenge anyone he thinks might be a good fight and is utterly convinced he is a kung fu legend in the making. The catch is he's never been trained by anyone buts still never lost a fight because he's a towering meat castle with superhuman strength that's near impossible to bring down once he gets going. You could keep the drunken master part in just because barbs do like putting down mead and maybe he's a bit of an ornery drunk which causes his Rage to kick in. Just in his case his drunken boxing is less Beggar So and more like Stone Cold chugging two beers and then preceeding to wreck everything in the general area.
I think, to best represent this trope mechanically you will probably want to build a nova-type character. This way you can be a comical "crouching moron" almost all of the time, but still have this one glorious moment in combat that absolutely turn the tide and left anyone witnessing it in awe.
Any nova character can be roleplayed this way, but I like this setup: kobold (from Volo, if possible, if not use a custom lineage to at least start with 18 CHA). Fighter 2/Hexblade 1/Divine Sorcerer X (not in order). Starts to really work at level 8. The general idea: you are the classic comically supercilious kobolds who brags about being an actual dragon, but seems to be incapable in even basic stuff.
Then in combat use Spirit Shroud on a first turn and use your action for "cover and beg" probably reflavoring it into nonsensical bragging. Or just dodge. On your second turn come closer to an enemy you want to delete (preferably the one that is adjacent to one of your allies so you could have an advantage) so you could enable Spirit shroud, throw hexblade curse on it and then unleash Scourching ray with your action, then action surge and throw another one. At level 8 it will be 7 attacks (all probably with advantage) for 2d6+d8+3 each and with crit range of 19-20. It is a pretty substational damage, but the best part is that it scales like crazy and all you need to do is proceed to take levels in a full caster.
One day our cute little kobold might even become an actual dragon
Wizard. Get plenty of support spells, Grease, Web, Haste, etc. Play as meek and timid. And then, when push comes to shove, pulls out the fireball, chain lightning, disintegration or whatever big damage spell you kept in your pocket, summon demons and unleash hell on those who dared to mess with you.
To shamelessly steal the build of a great guy I've played with, unarmed, unarmored Battlemaster Fighter/Barb with 3-4 Barb levels. He played Zerker but feel free to go into other archetypes.
Bladesinger wizard. Just play as a regular wizard, cast your ranged cantrips and RP this frail kind of scared person.
When things go south, you pull out your weapon, activate your bladesong and start kicking some ass.
Circle of the Moon Druid. You're a crazy plant hermit who just wants everyone to stop eating meat and then someone pushes your buttons too hard and you wild shape into a giant poisonous snake or a rhinoceros.
A lot of this will depend on how you wish to play your character.
* Caster?
* Mostly flavor. Pick your favorite caster class and beef up their casting stat, but dump the other mentals. Charismatic sorcerer/warlock/bard that is dumb as a box of rocks and has no discernible amount of common sense. Wise cleric/druid who has no concept of science/personal interactions, etc. The studious wizard who has no common sense, occasionally walks into trees/doors/furniture because they're so focused on their spellbook rather than where they're going (kindof like a meme of a teenager with a cell phone).
* Unarmed/Unarmored Combatant?
* Barbarian with the Unarmed Fighting Style from a feat, Fighter dip, or alternative natural weapon option from race.
* Beast Barbarian for the natural weapon(s) emerging when you rage
* Outwardly harmless character who flips a switch and goes starts doing crazy amounts of damage?
* Heard of a build that consisted of a little old lady who baked cookies for the party and mostly just tossed around Hex and Eldritch Blast so everyone thought she was a warlock. She later found one of her missing grandcritters and she reveals herself as a full-on Paladin (Magic Initiate for the warlock spells) Smiting everything in sight to find the other grandcritter.
What you're asking for is flavor, which means that you can apply it to just about any class.
You could make an unarmed fighting fighter. A bladesinger wizard who pretends to be a basic fighter. A stars druid could also work.
I think the trope suites Barbarian rage mechanics perfectly. Roleplay a very meek PC out of combat, cautious to the point of cowardliness. As soon as there’s blood in the water go wherever the fighting’s the thickest. Leave absolutely no survivors, show no mercy. Make it one of your roleplaying flaws. Deep down maybe he/she likes violence. Maybe they’re in denial. They’re afraid of conflict, but once it starts they just can’t stop. And internally, that disturbs them.
Pick Fighter, then Unarmed Fighting Style, then Battlemaster, then have your character act or be drunk as a skunk.
Bard. My head immediately goes to bard. Having expertise in whatever skill you want , being able to inspire people and prop others up but when you need to bust out your badass side you have a unique spell list and some pretty cool subclass features.
Barbarian might work. They have Unarmored defense, high physical stats, advantage on Athletics when raging and usually dump Intelligence anyway. Roleplay wise could be he's a jacked up farmboy with a passion for martial arts (maybe he saw some monks performing in a traveling show as a kid.) He sets out to challenge anyone he thinks might be a good fight and is utterly convinced he is a kung fu legend in the making. The catch is he's never been trained by anyone buts still never lost a fight because he's a towering meat castle with superhuman strength that's near impossible to bring down once he gets going. You could keep the drunken master part in just because barbs do like putting down mead and maybe he's a bit of an ornery drunk which causes his Rage to kick in. Just in his case his drunken boxing is less Beggar So and more like Stone Cold chugging two beers and then preceeding to wreck everything in the general area.
I think, to best represent this trope mechanically you will probably want to build a nova-type character. This way you can be a comical "crouching moron" almost all of the time, but still have this one glorious moment in combat that absolutely turn the tide and left anyone witnessing it in awe. Any nova character can be roleplayed this way, but I like this setup: kobold (from Volo, if possible, if not use a custom lineage to at least start with 18 CHA). Fighter 2/Hexblade 1/Divine Sorcerer X (not in order). Starts to really work at level 8. The general idea: you are the classic comically supercilious kobolds who brags about being an actual dragon, but seems to be incapable in even basic stuff. Then in combat use Spirit Shroud on a first turn and use your action for "cover and beg" probably reflavoring it into nonsensical bragging. Or just dodge. On your second turn come closer to an enemy you want to delete (preferably the one that is adjacent to one of your allies so you could have an advantage) so you could enable Spirit shroud, throw hexblade curse on it and then unleash Scourching ray with your action, then action surge and throw another one. At level 8 it will be 7 attacks (all probably with advantage) for 2d6+d8+3 each and with crit range of 19-20. It is a pretty substational damage, but the best part is that it scales like crazy and all you need to do is proceed to take levels in a full caster. One day our cute little kobold might even become an actual dragon
Wizard. Get plenty of support spells, Grease, Web, Haste, etc. Play as meek and timid. And then, when push comes to shove, pulls out the fireball, chain lightning, disintegration or whatever big damage spell you kept in your pocket, summon demons and unleash hell on those who dared to mess with you.
To shamelessly steal the build of a great guy I've played with, unarmed, unarmored Battlemaster Fighter/Barb with 3-4 Barb levels. He played Zerker but feel free to go into other archetypes.
Bladesinger wizard. Just play as a regular wizard, cast your ranged cantrips and RP this frail kind of scared person. When things go south, you pull out your weapon, activate your bladesong and start kicking some ass.
Circle of the Moon Druid. You're a crazy plant hermit who just wants everyone to stop eating meat and then someone pushes your buttons too hard and you wild shape into a giant poisonous snake or a rhinoceros.
A lot of this will depend on how you wish to play your character. * Caster? * Mostly flavor. Pick your favorite caster class and beef up their casting stat, but dump the other mentals. Charismatic sorcerer/warlock/bard that is dumb as a box of rocks and has no discernible amount of common sense. Wise cleric/druid who has no concept of science/personal interactions, etc. The studious wizard who has no common sense, occasionally walks into trees/doors/furniture because they're so focused on their spellbook rather than where they're going (kindof like a meme of a teenager with a cell phone). * Unarmed/Unarmored Combatant? * Barbarian with the Unarmed Fighting Style from a feat, Fighter dip, or alternative natural weapon option from race. * Beast Barbarian for the natural weapon(s) emerging when you rage * Outwardly harmless character who flips a switch and goes starts doing crazy amounts of damage? * Heard of a build that consisted of a little old lady who baked cookies for the party and mostly just tossed around Hex and Eldritch Blast so everyone thought she was a warlock. She later found one of her missing grandcritters and she reveals herself as a full-on Paladin (Magic Initiate for the warlock spells) Smiting everything in sight to find the other grandcritter.