Any advice on making a martial artist run into less of a grindfest?
My understanding is that martial arts actually have the highest damage potential in extreme lategame, with the tradeoff of being nearly useless in the early game. So your OPM fantasy may well be possible.
I suggest equipping Claws or Tonfa in each hand. When possible, change materials until they are made from something with good Hit/Dmg bonuses. Craft Repair Kit to max out that potential. Bless them. Enchant them as high as possible. Get some gloves that have Hit/Dmg bonus and do the same. And make sure you keep your potentials up for Tactics and Unarmed.
In my own game, I recently plunged into a lvl 90 graveyard, slightly more daunting than the lvl 70 forests and caves I've been clearing lately. On the first floor, I opened a door and suddenly found myself surrounded by so many Legion Mages. Not particularly strong individually, but they were everywhere, and they all wanted to blind me and debuff my resistances and then whittle me down with foul magics. I summoned all of my most overpowered reserve pets. I had a Smash Ogre sweeping away multiple magi with each wave of her club. I had a flaming dragon wielding a massive greataxe, shrugging off vile spells while effortlessly bisecting mages with each strike. I had a twintailed cat wielding a living spear while riding a giant tarantula with a longsword; the tarantula would coat his blade in paralytic venom, stunning his foes with each strike and making them easy prey for the cat's bloodthirsty weapon. I had a tiny robot girl riding atop a giant sentient bell; together they created a literal hail of throwing knives and crossbow bolts which swept away opponents before they could even realize they were under attack. And I had a dark angel spraying a combination of bullets and disgusting insults at her foes as she charged hand in hand with a noble paladin who shielded her from harm while chanting words of holy prayer to mend the party's wounds.
All of this, and yet true to their name the Legion seemed endless; for each mage we cut down, two more would take it's place, and more than once when I thought I had beaten them I would find another wave emerging from some shadowy corner of the room. When the onslaught was finally really over, nearly half of my party had fallen; I was happy to expend some of my reserve of resurrection spells so that we could continue exploring this necropolis.
On down to the second sublevel of this dungeon, I found myself confined within narrow hallways. The very first door I opened contained cursing manticores, skeletal dragons, and another swarm of legion mages. Trying to fight the legion in these narrow hallways proved a fatal mistake, and I quickly lost two more pets. Weary of this fight, I opted to utilize a smoke bomb and run away. This Nefia was in a fever and it pained me to leave behind all those valuable resource nodes, but this fight was simply beyond my level. Someday I will be ready, but I'm sure by then this graveyard will have long since vanished to wherever it is these things go when the ground trembles and the terrain shifts, as it does from time to time. It seems I am not destined to ever learn what might have waited for me at the bottom of this crypt.