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speedwalkingtheplanes · 2 years

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Percy Jackson/Heroes of Olympus characters as D&D classes and races because I can’t sleep part 2

Part 1

I already did an intro in the last one, and frankly, I haven’t slept in 24 hours so I just don’t want to go through the whole shebang again. Just scroll down for the stuff.

Reyna Ramírez-Arellano: Human Samurai Fighter. I honestly wanted to make Reyna a ghostslayer blood hunter because she’s got the poltergeist patricide backstory, and she just fits The VibeTM, but I already established no hombrew, and if I make one exception then I’m going to start making more. So fighter seemed like the best choice, given her incredible battle prowess, as well as her mother being Bellona. Samurai because they get some roleplay abilities, which work great with her role as praetor of the Twelfth Legion. Samurai are very wisdom focused, and have strong willpower, which we see Reyna have. As for human, I simply don’t think any other race suits her that well. Maybe she could be an elf, but again, that’s just based on vibes, and I’ve been awake too long to judge the vibes of anything. Maybe I’ll edit this later.

Charles Beckendorf: Goliath Forge Cleric. I guess this one is going to have fewer multiclasses. Beckendorf’s race was a bit tricky to pin down at first, but he’s described as being absolutely huge, and Percy at one point says that he makes monsters cry for their mommies, so there ended up being no other choice but a goliath. He’s also one of our few clerics, as he doesn’t really have the finesse that artificers do, but he absolutely does have the brute force of a forge cleric. Proficiency in heavy armor, the ability to make any armor or weapon magical, and being able to just straight-up create non-magical items. He had to have been lower than level 17 though, as that grants you immunity to fire, and...well. Sorry.

Selina Beauregard: Eladrin Archfey Warlock/Whispers Bard. I think many children of Aphrodite would end up as warlock/bard multiclasses, and I think the subclass split would be relatively even across archfey, great old one, glamour, and eloquence. Silena, however, gets the college of whispers, considering that she acted as a spy for Kronos during the second Titanomachy. Honestly, I don’t think she always was, and may have been college of glamour even after Luke convinced her to be a spy, only switching to the college of whispers following Beckendorf’s death.

Will Solace: Protector Aasimar Divine Soul Sorcerer. I didn’t want to make another aasimar, but unless I just made him human, nothing else fit. Sure, he doesn’t fly, but the healing hands ability that aasimar get, plus the light cantrip seem like they fit him better than human ever could. I had also considered making him a cleric, but the obvious domains, light and life, don’t fit him particularly well either. Life clerics favor heavy armor and martial weapons, something we never see Will using, and light is very fire-magic focused, something that also doesn’t really fit well. At the end of the day, Will is a healer, and a damn good one at that, with little in the way of true combat abilities. Thus, the divine soul sorcerer is perfect for him, allowing him to take any cleric spell he wants without having to force him into a domain that may not fit, and leaving him a backline caster rather than a frontline bruiser.

Rachel Elizabeth Dare: Githerazi Aberrant Mind Sorcerer/Divination Wizard. This is the first subclass overlap we’ve had that wasn’t intentional, but aberrant mind just doesn’t tell the future like a diviner does. Githerazi are inherently psionic, something that happens to Rachel as the series progressed, both with her clear sight and her becoming the oracle. While telling the future is certainly one of her primary abilities, I like the idea that the oracle has to be able to see into people’s minds to properly create prophecies, and so giving her psionics both through her race and class seemed appropriate, along with the foresight that is the school of divination.

Ethan Nakamura: Shadar-Kai Arcane Trickster Rogue. Ignore my previous statement where I said I shouldn’t be judging characters by vibes on this little sleep, because Ethan is all vibes, and not anything else. So let’s talk about this. Shadar-Kai live in the shadowfell, acting at the behest of the Raven Queen and existing between the states of life and death, a perpetual limbo. We don’t see a massive amount of Ethan, but I think this fits him incredibly well. He is trapped between a life he can’t have with the demigods at Camp Half-Blood, and a life he can’t have in the mortal world. In this case, the Raven Queen could be a stand-in for Nemesis or Kronos, but I like the idea of Nemesis better, given that she took his eye. As for his class, I know that we never saw him perform magic, but it’s the “trickster” bit of arcane trickster that does it for me. He’s no stranger to deceit and backstabbing, things the arcane trickster excels at. And the trickery domain doesn’t really work, considering its focus on stealth rather than manipulation.

Calypso: High Elf Abjuration Wizard. Calypso was difficult to figure out. High elf seemed like it fit more than well enough, due to her long lifespan and some inherent magical ability. Her class, on the other hand, took me a while. We know she can cast unseen servant, so she must be a bard, a warlock, or a wizard. I ended up making her an abjurer, but I don’t think she is because she wants to be. The island of Ogygia is naturally warded, and someone living there for a very long time would likely come to understand the wards and how they work. However, I also think she studies the school of abjuration as a defense mechanism. Heroes come to Ogygia, but ultimately, they can never stay, and she is constantly hurt by it. Perhaps the wards, shields, and countermagic of an aburer is the kind of thing that one would want so they could protect themselves not from physical pain, but from the emotional wounds that carve much deeper. I could also see her being a genie warlock, and the entire island is her vessel. That’d be sick as hell.

Gleeson Hedge: Satyr Beast Barbarian/Drunken Master Monk. This one isn’t as sad as the others, and was also a lot easier to come up with. Just like Grover, he’s a satyr because he’s a satyr. And of course he’s a barbarian and a monk, given how often he screams, “Die!” and his fascination with mixed martial arts. It’s his sublasses that were a bit trickier, but not too terribly tricky. I was going to make him a berserker and an open hand, and while I do think those both fit, beast and drunken master add so much more flavor to him then just the base “take what the class does and make them do it better” subclasses. (Not that there’s anything wrong with those, of course. Several characters in part one have subclasses like that, and they are cool as shit.)

Chiron: Centaur Hunter Ranger/Ancients Paladin. As with Hedge and Grover, race is very easy. Chiron is centaur, which makes Chiron centaur. Perhaps best centaur. God, I’m tired. His class spread is interesting, though. He is absolutely a ranger, but nothing but hunter seems to fit him at all. He is a skilled healer and bowman, and also has a very high wisdom. No real tricks, no gimmicks, just straight goodness. But I also couldn’t shake that he feels like a paladin to me, his oath being that he would continue to train heroes until they no longer needed him. I think ancients fits him the best, given that he made this oath millenia ago to the gods, as well as his connection to nature. However, I could see arguments for devotion and redemption, seeing as how he has devoted his life to this cause, and he wants to learn from his mistakes and not lose any more heroes.

Octavian: Baalzebul Tiefling Eloquence Bard. To quote Mordenkainen’s Tome Of Foes, “Baalzebul...excels at corrupting those whose minor sins can be transformed into acts of damnation. Tieflings linked to this archdevil can corrupt others both physically and psychically.” Yeah, that sounds a hell of a lot like our resident fandom punching bag, Octavian. He is the perfect evil eloquence bard we’ve been looking for, as he is an expert talker and neogtiator, and was instrumental in getting Camp Jupiter to wage war on Camp Half-Blood with the fervor and zeal that they did. Plus, bards have access to some alright divination spells that he can use to perform his duties as augur (except augury, unfortunately). I don’t have more to say about his race or class, but did anyone else notice that he’s never given a last name? What’s up with that? Why don’t we know it? What does his family have to hide?

Zoë Nightshade: Wood Elf Horizon Walker Ranger/Stars Druid. Zoë is a wood elf due to her past as one of the Hesperides, she and her sisters guarding the golden apples. I couldn’t not make her a ranger, though I wasn’t going to make her a horizon walker at first. Due to the apples also being guarded by Ladon, I was going to have her be a drakewarden, but thought it was inappropriate for how she is presented in the series. (This may be another case of “was the other subclass at one point, but is this one by the end of their story,” in this case becoming a horizon walker when she joins Artemis’ hunt.) Horizon walkers guard the world from the threats they don’t even know about, the ones that may bring harm through terrible magic to those with no way to combat it. This seems like a great description of what we see of Artemis’ hunt, as we see with them hunting Thorn, and Zoë insisting that she accompany Artemis to hunt the ophiotaurus. As for the circle of stars...

Anyway, that’s going to be it for this one! As far as just PJO/HoO goes, I think I’ve hit most of the characters that matter (I won’t do Tyson until/unless there comes a playable cyclops race, because I can’t bear to just make him a goliath), but let me know if there’s any others you’d like to see, or if you disagree with my decisions! I’d love to know where you’d differ. See you on the flip side!

#Dungeons and Dragons #PJO #HoO #Reyna Ramírez-Arellano #Charles Beckendorf #Silena Beauregard #Will Solace #Rachel Elizabeth Dare #Ethan Nakamura #Calypso #Gleeson Hedge #Chiron #Octavian #Zoë Nightshade

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ink-flavoured-tea · 9 months

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Fun D&D Builds 6: The Randomiser

Wanna add a little more chaos to your d&d games? I gotcha.

What you’ll need:

Sorcerer

Wild Magic Origin

Bard

College of Spirits Subclass

Abyssal Tiefling (Unearthed Arcana)

Alternative:

Replace one with or multi-class a third time into Path of Wild Magic Barbarian

How it works:

Each time Abyssal Tieflings take a long rest they roll 1d6, whatever they roll depends on their cantrip, 1st level and 2nd level spell they can cast that day. You’ll also get an extra hit points too, so bonus!

Next you’ll want to choose Sorcerer and go for Wild Magic Origin. Every time you cast a sorcerer spell you’ll need to roll 1d20, on a 1 you roll on the Wild magic surge table and apply it’s effect. Or you can use the Dimension 20 rule and set the wild magic surge DC as 1, then every time you cast a sorcerer spell increase the DC by +1 (it resets to 1 when you fail) this way you can use wild magic surges more often.

You’ll also need to choose Chaos Bolt as it needs a dice to be rolled to determine it’s damage type.

Next multi-class into Bard and choose College of spirits. As an action, You’ll expend a use of your bardic inspiration to roll on another table which determines what your inspiration does, and you can use it once as a bonus action. You can also grab the Nathair’s Mischief spell which is an area of effect spell that requires you to roll 1d4 to determine what it’s effect does.

Alternatively, if you want to have some more martial abilities, you can replace one of the above classes (or just multi-class again if you’re stats are good) into Barbarian. Choose the Path of Wild Magic subclass, whenever you rage you roll a dice on its own table and apply the effect you rolled while you rage. (You could also choose Matt Mercer’s path of fundamental chaos, when it’s released to the public)

And that’s it! You’re character will be unpredictable and keep both friends and foes on their toes during combat! Also remember that there are a bunch of other Wild magic tables out there if you want to be more adventurous! (Seriously, one turned our warlock’s head into a snow globe)

Have a great day and remember to stay hydrated, grab a snack and get some sunlight and fresh air for a few minutes! :D

#d&d 5e #dnd #d&d #dnd thoughts #painting #dungeons & dragons #dnd character #text post #tiefling #bard #sorcerer

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grailfinders · 3 years

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Fate and Phantasms #85: Karna

Today on Fate and Phantasms, we’re making the Hero of Charity and Arjuna’s eternal rival, Karna! While Arjuna’s build focuses on excellence in everything he does and very few combat tricks, Karna’s is the opposite: he specializes in variety in combat, and doesn’t have particularly interesting social encounters.

Check out his build breakdown below the cut, or his character sheet over here!

Next up: Gee, that heroine sure is mysterious...

Race and Background

Karna is the son of the sun, making him a Fire Genasi. This gives him +1 Intelligence and +2 Constitution, Darkvision, Fire Resistance, and the feature Reach to the Blaze. At first level, this allows him to Produce Flame using his constitution as the casting modifier.

Arjuna started at the top, but Karna had to work his way up, starting as a Folk Hero. This gives him Animal Handling and Survival proficiencies.

Ability Scores

Your highest score should be Strength- you need that for stabbing. After that is Charisma; I’d like this one to be lower honestly, but we need it for multiclassing. You’re smart, even in the middle of combat, so next is Intelligence. Everything past this point is frustratingly low, but we needed to make cuts somewhere. Your Dexterity isn’t great, but that’s what you have built-in armor for. Your Constitution is also a lot lower than I’d like, but it’ll get a boost from your racial bonuses. Dumping your Wisdom is the least in-character option, but wisdom’s also the only ability we don’t need for this build and we’re strapped for options.

Class Levels

1. Fighter 1: You may have noticed Karna’s build is pretty similar to Arjuna’s, and just like his half-brother he starts as a Fighter. Your spear may be massive, but you wield it one-handed and we can’t afford to spend the ASI on war caster, so the Dueling Fighting Style you get at this level will increase all its damage by 2. You also get a Second Wind, letting you spend a bonus action once per short rest to heal a bit. You’re fighting against the Hero of Benefaction, so you’ve got to be in it for the long haul.

As a fighter, you also get proficiency in Strength and Constitution saving throws, as well as two fighter skills. Athletics because you’re clearly in good physical shape, and Insight to help make up for the low wisdom.

2. Fighter 2: Second level fighters get an Action Surge, letting them tack an extra action to their turn once per short rest.

3. Fighter 3: You’re not going to be a bard, so if we want more spells we’ve got to go with Eldritch Knight. They can cast Spells using their Intelligence, and they gain a Weapon Bond. Over the course of an hour, you can bond with a weapon, preventing you from being disarmed and letting you summon said weapon from anywhere in the plane as a bonus action. I’m pretty sure that spear is a part of you; it would really hurt to get it ripped out.

For spells, Blade Ward toughens your skin as an action, giving you resistance to physical damage types. Green Flame Blade adds green flame to your blade, extending the damage of your attack to another target. Shield gives you a higher AC as a reaction, but Mage Armor does that for several hours. Also grab Jump. You may not be able to levitate like Arjuna, but you can still reach him by tripling your jump distance.

Finally, your Reach to the Blaze evolves, and you can cast Burning Hands once per long rest, also using your Constitution.

4. Fighter 4: Use your first Ability Score Improvement to become a Piercer, adding 1 to your Strength, the ability to re-roll one piercing damage die, and deal additional piercing damage on critical hits.

Also, pick up Burning Hands for stronger and more usable fire fighting.

5. Fighter 5: Fifth level fighters get an Extra Attack each attack action for two to four attacks per turn depending on if you use your Action Surge.

6. Warlock 1: You got your fancy spear from Arjuna’s dad Indra, and if Arjuna’s an Air Genasi Indra’s a Djinni. At first level, he gives you a Genie’s Vessel, a tiny object we went into more detail this time last build, but while touching it you can use a Bottled Respite and Genie’s Wrath. The former lets you enter the vessel once per long rest. You can store items in the vessel until it’s destroyed or you take it back out, and can stay inside for a number of hours equal to twice your proficiency. The latter lets you add your proficiency bonus in thunder damage to anything that’s caused by an attack roll once per turn.

You also get Pact Magic, which has its own unique set of spell slots that don’t mix with your fighter slots, you use Charisma to cast them, and you regain them on short rests. For spells, grab Create Bonfire and Hellish Rebuke for more fire power, Eldritch Blast because it’s cliche, and Detect Evil and Good so you’ll know if those Pandavas are up to anything.

7. Warlock 2: Second level warlocks get Eldritch Invocations. Beast Speech will let you talk to animals at will, because a frighteningly high amount of the animals in the Mahabharata could talk, so you should be able to hear them. Use the other one however you want, we’ll be switching things up next level anyway.

You also get a new spell, the Armor of Agathys, which automatically deals cold damage to anything that hits you in melee range. It doesn’t make you tougher, but you will get hit less.

8. Warlock 3: At third level you get your pact boon, and the Pact of the Blade nets you a cool magical weapon you can summon as an action. It can be whatever you want, but the in-character option is a spear. Or something bigger, if you don’t mind the complications. Either way, you also get the Improved Pact Weapon invocation, adding 1 to attacks and damage rolls made with your weapon and letting you use it as a spellcasting focus. You can also have ranged weapons as your pact weapon, but that’s more your brother’s forte.

You also pick up Mirror Image, making yourself harder to hit thanks to illusory duplicates. We can’t really dedicate too much in the way of Ability Scores to making your armor good, but we can improve it in other ways.

9. Warlock 4: Use your second ASI to become an Elemental Adept. Now when you deal Fire Damage each die is guaranteed to come up at least a 2, and you can ignore fire resistance with your spells. Since Reach to the Blaze lets you cast spells, it’s one of the few features that actually works with this feat. Wild.

Also, pick up Prestidigitation for minor magical effects, and Suggestion. Like I said in the last build, truly powerful warriors can speak events into being, and you’re very powerful.

10. Barbarian 1: You’re not perfect like your brother, but you have natural armor and sometimes you explode. That’s a barbarian, baby! At first level, you get Rages, which you can enter as a bonus action for physical damage resistance, extra damage on weapon attacks, and advantage on strength based checks and saves. You have a limited number per long rest, and they last for a minute or until the fighting stops. Also, you can’t cast or concentrate on spells while raging. You also get Unarmored Defense, giving you an AC based on your Dexterity and Constitution. It’s not good natural armor, but it is natural armor.

11. Barbarian 2: Second level barbarians get a Reckless Attack, gaining advantage on all attacks they make in a turn in exchange for taking advantage on all incoming attacks until the next. You may be hard to hit, but this is pushing your luck. You also get a Danger Sense, helping you avoid dexterity based effects you can see by getting advantage on those dexterity saves. Mirror images won’t protect against fireballs, but this will.

12. Barbarian 3: Our last level of Barbarian sets us down the path of the Storm Herald, giving you a Storm Aura when you rage. Technically you can switch these out on rests, but we’re only interested in the Desert aura, which deals 2 fire damage to all other creatures within 10′ of you when you rage and as a bonus action each turn. You’re the sun, standing next to you should be unpleasant. If your DM’s cool, you can also use the new Tasha’s feature Primal Knowledge to gain a barbarian skill, Nature is pretty nice. It’ll help you know more about the animal friends you get from your Beast Speech conversations.

13. Fighter 6: Sixth level fighters get another ASI, use it for more Constitution for more health, a higher AC, and stronger innate spells.

14. Warlock 5: Fifth level warlocks get third level spells, like Spirit Shroud, a buff that lasts up to a minute with concentration, and makes any attack you make extra shiny, dealing extra radiant, necrotic, or cold damage with each hit if it’s within 10′ of you. Creatures that take this damage also can’t regain HP until the start of your next turn. Finally, you also slow down creatures of your choice within the shroud by 10′. Arjuna speeds up, and you pull him right back.

For your invocation, you also get Eldritch Smite, burning a warlock slot for an extra 4d8 force damage on an attack.

15. Fighter 7: Seventh level eldritch knights know War Magic, letting them attack as a bonus action after casting a cantrip with their main action. Now you can keep up your defense with Blade Ward without being a sitting duck.

You also get second level spells now! Aganazzar’s Scorcher lets you shoot a line of fire out 30′ in front of you.

16. Fighter 8: Use this ASI to bump up your Intelligence for stronger spells, and also pick up Fire Sphere to create a fire sphere that you can move around and shove into people. There might be better uses of your bonus action, but it’s a great visual.

17. Fighter 9: At ninth level of fighter you become Indomitable, letting you reroll a failed save once per short rest. Arjuna has a lot of charms, but falling for them at this point would just be embarrassing.

18. Fighter 10: Eldritch Knights get Eldritch Strikes. When you hit a creature with your weapons, you impose disadvantage on them for one spell save you make within the next turn. You don’t have a lot of save spells, but now you can really make them count.

Speaking of spells, grab Fire Bolt and Scorching Ray for even more fire. You’re the son of the sun, it’s kind of your thing.

19. Fighter 11: Eleventh level fighters get another Extra Attack for three per action. You also get your final spell, Continual Flame. This one doesn’t actually hurt, but not everyone can have Darkvision cough Arjuna cough.

20. Fighter 12: For your capstone level, use this last ASI for more Constitution, netting you better concentration, stronger innate spells, more HP, and a better AC. Now you can save slots by never using mage armor again!

Pros:

You’re a versatile fighter, with spells to make your fighting better and fighting to make your spells better.

Your critical hits hurt a lot, and you have plenty of opportunities to show that off thanks to your reckless attacks and extra attacks. Tack on a Green-Flame Blade, Spirit Shroud, and Eldritch Smite, and you’re looking at 3d6+16d8+6 damage in one go.

You’re pretty hard to hit, in the sense that people won’t want to. With spells like Hellish Rebuke and Armor of Agathys making it a bad idea and Mirror Image making hitting you at all a bit trickier.

Cons:

You’re definitely not hard to hit in terms of AC. 14 isn’t bad, but it’s not good for a frontline fighter, especially when you’re dealing with a prick who’s only too happy to shove an arrow in your spine from 100 yards away. You can use Shield to match up with Arjuna’s AC, but that will eat your spell slots very fast.

Your build is also all over the place, and incredibly Multi Ability Dependent. You need strength for stabbing, dexterity and constitution for not dying, and Intelligence and Charisma for your spells. Add on having high wisdom is in-character, and you have no scores you can comfortably dump. As such, you’re okay at everything in a fight, great at nothing.

Also thanks to your mixing of classes, you have to deal with the classic Rage/Spell choice. Most of your best armor spells don’t need concentration though, so it isn’t quite as much of an issue as it could be.

All that’s fine though, just get in close and make sure your brother can’t make a run for it and you’ll easily be able to outlast him in a straight fight. Just don’t be surprised if he fights dirty.

#Fate Grand Order #fgo #D&D 5e #Karna #Fate and Phantasms

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tigerkirby215 · 3 years

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I’m a particular fan of wasting my time so I decided to rate all the Half-Feats for no real reason

(Artwork from the Acquisitions Incorporated 5th Edition sourcebook, because I can’t just use artwork from Tasha’s Cauldron of Everything.)

If you have been around my blog for any lengthy period of time you will know two things about me.

I often fall into flights of fancy mostly under the guise of attempting to branch out with this blog, even though the real reason is that I wish to publicize any and all work I do for this hobby.

I really like half-feats.

And who could blame me (at least for the second point.) It’s always exciting when you can get a feat, and half-feats allow you to round out a stat of your choice while still allowing you to diversify your character with unique abilities to make them your own. Feats are always strong and even the most basic half-feat still provides you with unique traits to differentiate yourself from the standard adventurer. But it can be hard to choose when they are all so diverse which is why I’m making this list for myself and anyone who may find it useful.

I would also like to thank LudicSavant from the Giant in the Playground forums for their organized list of Half-Feats. It has made the creation of this list far easier and I frequently reference it when making builds.

WHAT IS A HALF-FEAT?

For the sake of understanding (because the last time I used the term “half-feat” on Reddit a lot of people got confused) I will define a half-feat here: A half-feat is any feat that gives half of an ability score improvement (+1 to a given stat) along with its regular features. They are obviously good choices for any player with an uneven stat, as they can make that stat even (for the increase in ability modifier) while also gaining an additional bonus.

HOW IS THIS LIST ORGANIZED

This post is split into 6 sections, one for each stat. (Strength, Dexterity, Constitution, Intelligence, Wisdom, Charisma.) The feats are organized in alphabetical order. Basically I’m lifting the formatting from LudicSavant.

Each feat will be shown as follows:

FEAT NAME

Description

Summary

Rating

Feats that can be applied to varied ability scores will be mentioned multiple times, however unless the feat changes based on the ability score chosen the entry will simply be shown as a redirect to where it was summarized earlier.

And I guess it also has to be said: This list is just my opinion and is in no way an objective ranking of the half-feats that currently exist in D&D 5th Edition. Feel free to make your own decisions when designing your character: this post is merely meant to share my opinion and provide a reference resource for people making characters.

(Artwork still from the Acquisitions Incorporated 5th Edition sourcebook. Damn this book has some nice artwork.)

STRENGTH

Athlete

Grants you the ability to stand up from prone faster, climb more easily, and jump further.

You’d think with the amount of builds I’ve included this feat in I’d have more positive things to say about it. But no: this feat is trash. Climbing is rare and jumping is pretty much never used in D&D. Even if it was there are low level spells (Spider Climb / Jump) that allow you to do what this feat does.

The only really useful addition to this feat is the faster speed to get up from the prone position. Being prone sucks and it can heavily restrict your movement when it happens. Putting yourself prone is also helpful in a ranged build to give enemies disadvantage to hit you from range. (You can technically knock yourself prone after attacking to make it harder to hit you.) But this strategy loses effectiveness quickly and it isn’t worth taking a feat to combat the rare possibility of being knocked off your feet.

Ultimately if you genuinely see any of the features of the Athlete feat as being useful chances are that either your DM forces way too much jumping / climbing, really likes knocking people over, or you really like knocking yourself prone.

2/10

Crusher

Grants extra utility to bludgeoning weapons, allowing you to move foes into more favorable positions.

RIP in piss Monks am I right lads? To be fair there aren’t any Finesse Bludgeoning Weapons with the only exception being the Sling. But regardless: this feat has two features along with its Ability Score Improvement:

The pushing ability is situational at best. Displacement abilities in 5th edition rarely have a significant impact. You may push an enemy off a cliff on occasion but unless your DM makes a significant effort to present these opportunities to you it won’t come up often. There is some niche use for this feat to work as a poor man’s Mobile feat, as you can push a foe back 5 feet before running away without needing to disengage.

But perhaps the biggest problem with the displacement ability of Crusher is that Shield Master does everything it does almost objectively better, all while providing additional benefits to Dexterity saving throws. Shield Master isn’t a half-feat, granted. But one could get one of the better +1 feats to STR / CON along with Shield Master.

The effect on a crit is incredibly potent. Giving all allies advantage to hit a foe will lead to more damage being dealt and an even higher chance to crit. However relying on crits usually isn’t a smart idea, and crits are already deadly enough without a feat to boost them.

7/10

Dragon Fear

DRAGONBORN EXCLUSIVE FEAT

Allows you to roar with your Breath Weapon ability, frightening nearby enemies.

This feat singlehandedly makes Dragonborn viable. I’m not even joking: being able to replace your CON based, low damage Burning Hands-lite with essentially the Fear spell which comes back on a Short Rest and is based on Charisma is insanely useful for any Charisma character. The most obvious use is for the Charisma casters: Bards and Sorcerers can get an extreme amount of value from this feature. But other Charisma classes like Paladins, Swashbuckler Rogues, and any other class that requires Charisma can use it well. Warlocks get a little less use out of it than most since their abilities already come back on a Short Rest but it’s still nice to have in your pocket.

It’s less useful for non-Charisma classes but it can’t be flawless. But it removes the problem of choosing between a subpar AoE damage ability or just attacking with your weapons / spells, and instead gives you a utility ability to give yourself space. It doesn’t scale well late when most enemies resist fears, but neither did your breath weapon. Especially with the Dragonborn subraces from Explorer’s Guide to Wildemount this feat is extremely good.

I mean, you could just play a Leonin and get the fear without investing in a feat, especially since Tasha’s lets you move ability scores around. But Dragonborn have more fun roleplay and other abilities that the Leonin lack.

10/10

Dragon Hide

DRAGONBORN EXCLUSIVE FEAT

Your AC is equal to 13 + DEX and your unarmed strikes do a d4 + STR damage.

The Mage Armor feat / the worse Tavern Brawler feat. What confuses me about this feat is how at-odds it is with itself. On one hand your AC is still based on DEX but on the other hand your natural weapon is based on STR?

Let’s just ignore the Unarmed Strike damage because let’s be real here: you can just pick up a dagger instead of slashing people with your dragon claws. Is Mage Armor really worth losing half of a feat? If you have nothing better maybe, but this list alone shows that there are better options. There are some very specific niche scenarios where Unarmored Defense is more valuable than actual armor but those scenarios are usually campaign-specific or a choice done more for roleplay, and you could just as easily accomplish the roleplay by taking the Magic Initiate feat to get Mage Armor along with two useful cantrips.

Honestly this should’ve just been added as a base feature for the Dragonborn, and most DMs I know give this feat to Dragonborn at level 1. (Minus the half feat ASI.) Lizardfolk have innate AC, crafting skills, and a healing bite; Dragonborn should get innate AC, damage resistance, and a crappy breath weapon that can be upgraded by the Dragon Fear feat.

3/10

Heavily Armored

Gain proficiency with heavy armor.

The vast majority of classes that are expected to wear Heavy Armor have Heavy Armor Proficiency. In fact the only Martial class that doesn’t have Heavy Armor proficiency (minus Barbarians and Monks who can’t wear Heavy Armor) is the Ranger, so this feat is good if you want to play a Ranger like a Paladin. Huhn. Ironic that I am playing a Horizon Walker Ranger like a Paladin in one of the campaigns I’m in.

(Artwork by Bo “chenbowow” Chen. Made for Riot Games.)

Like, you can grab this feat for Clerics and Druids I guess, but why would you? Medium Armor is on-par with Heavy Armor, and 14 DEX is far more useful than the 15 STR required to wear Platemail.

The only other two (well technically three) subclasses I can think of which could grab this feat are the Hexblade Warlock and the two Martial Bards. (College of Swords / College of Valor.) For Hexblade... why do you need Strength? You can swing your sword with Charisma. Bard however... I guess if you want to play a Strength Bard it’s an option?

But yeah: the only time I ever used this feat was to play a Ranger like a Paladin. And saying “I used this feat to play one of the worst classes in the game like a better class” isn’t exactly an accomplishment.

1/10

Heavy Armor Master

While wearing heavy armor, bludgeoning, piercing, and slashing damage that you take from nonmagical weapons is reduced by 3.

The word that kills this feat is “nonmagical.” I can tell you as a fact having had a Fighter use this feat in a level 1 - 5 campaign that it is TORTURE for any DM. “Oh boy I finally hit the 20 AC Fighter annnnd I did 5 total damage, even though I rolled max damage.”

But this feat literally becomes useless past level 8 or so when enemies start getting magical weapons. There are a few enemies that still technically do nonmagical damage at high levels, but even then this feat isn’t going to save you from foes that are normally doing upwards of 15 damage per swing. It adds up yes, but it’ll rarely add up in my personal experience.

Take this feat on a Variant Human at level 1 if you’re doing a level 3 one shot, just to be an asshole.

2/10

Lightly Armored

Gain proficiency with light armor.

?????

Mage Armor exists. The only classes in the game that don’t get proficiency with at least Light Armor are Sorcerer and Wizard. You can afford to lose a spell slot for Mage Armor. Seriously.

1/10

Moderately Armored

Gain proficiency with medium armor.

The best of the “armored” feats because (hot take time) Medium Armor is the best armor in the game. It requires the least investment which makes it the most easily accessible armor in the game. If you have a 13 in DEX I’d highly recommend grabbing this feat. If your DEX is at a 16 (+3) or higher I’d honestly maybe just recommend Light Armor / Mage Armor instead?

8/10

Orcish Fury

HALF-ORC EXCLUSIVE FEAT

Get the ability to choose to roll an additional damage die once per short rest. Additionally, you can use your Reaction to make a weapon attack after being knocked down to 1 HP via your racial trait once per short rest.

Anyone find it amusing that this feat is only available to Half-Orcs but not full Orcs? Anyways: having the ability to essentially crit on-demand is nice. Having the reactionary attack after being knocked to 1 HP is situational, but still alright. I think if I was playing a Half-Orc and I needed to round out either my Strength or my Constitution (more likely my CON since there are far better feats for STR) I wouldn’t be upset taking this. Is it worth playing a Half-Orc just for this feat? Not by a long shot lol.

6/10

Piercer

When you deal damage with a piercing weapon you can reroll one of the damage die on one attack per turn. When you crit you can roll an additional damage die.

Savage Attacker as a half feat, proving that Savage Attacker is a bad feat lol. I’m actually going to talk more about this feat when I go into the Dexterity section which makes this the first feat where I’ll actually rank it lower for a specific Ability Score.

3/10 (if using STR)

Resilient (STR)

Gain proficiency with Strength saving throws.

Strength saves are common and pretty bad, but not as bad as Wisdom or Dexterity. What’s more is that most classes that will be forced to make Strength saves have proficiency in Strength saving throws already. If you have an uneven Strength score this isn’t the worst way to round it out, but I’d sooner get a stronger feat for another ability.

3/10

Revenant Blade

Essentially Dual-Wielder for the Double-Bladed Scimitar.

A very specific feat to the Eberron setting, and even though I use Eberron content frequently in my builds I’ll be honest: I know very little about the setting. The DBS honestly just seems worse than uh... wielding two scimitars? 3d4 damage is about on-par with 2d6. This feat is something you take more for roleplay than actual practicality with your character, though I have played with people (outside of Eberron lol) using a double-bladed scimitar and it seems like a cool weapon. Dual Wielder is also a good feat and it seems you can use the DBS without grabbing the Dual Wielding Fighting Style.

5/10

Skill Expert

Learn a skill and gain expertise in a skill.

A very good skill to round out any build. Expertise can actually shape your character quite a lot, as it allows you to be good at things even if your Ability Scores are bad. A good go-to feat to round off any uneven Ability Score if you have nothing better imo.

7/10

Slasher

Slashing weapons lower the speed of the target hit by 10. On a crit the target has disadvantage on all attack rolls until the start of your next turn.

Easily the worst of the weapon damage type feats, which is a shame because I like slashing weapons. The slowdown effect is rarely useful: the only class which I really think can use the slowdown effect well is hit-and-run Rogues, but Slashing weapons are heavily restricted from Rogues for some reason. The crit effect is nice but you shouldn’t be banking on crits, even as a Champion Fighter. This feat at least has a niche if you plan to play a Whip Rogue but that’s about it.

3/10

Squat Nimbleness

Increase your movement speed by 5, gain proficiency with Athletics or Acrobatics, and gain Advantage to escape grapples.

It is actually goddamn hilarious how good this feat is. +5 movement is already nice (especially if you’re playing one of the later-added small races [or a Homebrew race] that has 30 feet of movement) but you also get a free skill proficiency in either of the two most commonly used skills in the game, and to top it off to my knowledge this feat is the only way to gain a bonus to escaping grapples. (Outside of like, the Freedom of Movement spell.)

Take this! Good lord take this! If you have an uneven ability score and are small don’t even hesitate!

10/10

Tavern Brawler

Gain a d4 unarmed strike and proficiency with improvised weapons. After striking a creature with an unarmed strike or improvised weapon on your turn you can grapple them as a bonus action.

This feat will either be the best or worst feat you take depending on your DM. If your DM lives up to the Dead Rising promise of “anything is a weapon” and lets you pick up a stick off the ground and use it as an improvised weapon: congratulations your Wizard now has an infinite supply of short swords!

The grapple after making an improvised or unarmed strike is... interesting. I’ve expressed my distaste for grappling in the past but on its own at lower levels its not the worst option. The main problem is really just that the Grappler feat is bad, but if you want to keep an enemy from running then grabbing them isn’t the worst option!

5/10

Weapon Master

Gain proficiency with 3 weapons.

Just take a single level in Fighter. Honestly upgrading your weapon’s damage die isn’t worth losing the ASI. Even in the most extreme example of upgrading a dagger (d4) to a rapier (d8) you’re only getting +4 damage potential max.

The only application I really think is worth it for this feat is Rogues, because for some stupid reason Rogues don’t get proficiency with either Scimitars or (more importantly) Whips. So if for whatever reason you want to play a Reach Weapon Whip Rogue but still get Stroke of Luck from the 20th level of Rogue then I guess Weapon Master has some use? But you could just as easily grab the Mobile feat to reap similar benefits without being forced to use a d4 weapon.

1/10

DEXTERITY

Athlete

See above.

Elven Accuracy

ELF / HALF-ELF EXCLUSIVE FEAT.

Roll 3 d20s instead of 2 when you have advantage and are attacking with DEX or a spell.

Otherwise known as “why Elf Samurai is secretly overpowered.” If you have a reliable way to get Advantage this feat is absolutely nutty. If not well... It’s still a nice way to round out an uneven Ability Score, and it works with spell attack rolls too which gives it plenty of versatility!

Basically if there’s any semi-consistent chance that you’re going to get advantage I’d take this feat. If not? There are better half feats out there. Really a shame this doesn’t work with STR attacks but I guess they didn’t want Elf Barbarians to be the most overpowered shit in the game.

8/10

Fade Away

GNOME EXCLUSIVE FEAT

Use your reaction to become invisible after taking damage. You remain invisible until the end of your next turn unless you perform an aggressive action.

Invisibility is never a bad thing. This feat gives you what is essentially a stronger version of the Shield spell once per Short Rest since (rules as written) enemies can’t target you if they can’t see you. Now of course a lot of this depends on your DM (how many enemies with Blindsense are around, and if enemies will swing where you just were because metagaming) but this feat is almost exclusively why you should play a Gnome as opposed to something else.

This feat plus Squat Nimbleness is honestly worth losing an ASI for. Fade Away, Squat Nimbleness, and Moderately Armored combined can be three very good feats for a Gnome spellcaster who already has a high casting stat.

9/10

Gunner

Crossbow Expert for guns.

Crossbow Expert for guns. The only part of this feat that affects non-firearms is the lack of disadvantage in melee range which I mean... if you’re not planning to use crossbows it might be useful? But I’d sooner take Piercer, Elven Accuracy, or another more useful feat.

GUN/10 3/10

Lightly Armored

See above.

Piercer

When you deal damage with a piercing weapon you can reroll one of the damage die on one attack per turn. When you crit you can roll an additional damage die.

The first and probably only feat where increasing one Ability Score is far more useful than the other! Let’s start with the obvious: Savage Attacker doesn’t work with ranged weapons, but since all ranged weapons (minus the Sling) do Piercing damage this feat affects them! For most ranged weapons this isn’t that big of a deal but if you’re using one of the ranged weapons with a bigger damage die (Longbow / Heavy Crossbow) it’s still nice to have, especially if you have multiple attacks and will henceforth have a higher chance of rolling low for damage.

The triple damage effect on a crit is also very nice for a ranged weapon, and lets you live out that sharpshooter fantasy. But again banking on crits is unreliable. Overall this feat is a very nice way to increase an uneven Dexterity score and get some benefits for your ranged weapons. It’s not something I’d go out of my way to get but it does feel very good to grab.

7/10 (if using DEX)

Moderately Armored

See above. Slightly better when increasing DEX because DEX is more universally useful than STR.

Resilient (DEX)

Gain proficiency with Dexterity saving throws.

Dexterity saving throws are some of the most common saving throws in 5e. Being able to halve the damage of a Fireball is always worth it.

9/10

Revenant Blade

See above.

Second Chance

HALFLING EXCLUSIVE FEAT

Force an enemy that’s attacking you to reroll their attack once per combat.

This feat interests me because (to my knowledge) it’s the only feat that replenishes when you “roll initiative at the start of combat.” But regardless: being able to force an enemy to reroll a hit on you is really nice, but mind you that there is the chance to turn a regular hit into a crit.

If your class already has reactions this really isn’t worth it. But if you’re playing something like a Fighter this can be a nice way to shrug off a hit or two over the course of the day. A good way to round out your stats and give yourself some safety, but not something I’d go out of the way to get.

7/10

Squat Nimbleness

See above.

Skill Expert

See above.

Slasher

See above.

Weapon Master

See above.

CONSTITUTION

Aberrant Dragonmark

Get one Sorcerer cantrip and one level 1 Sorcerer spell. Constitution is your spellcasting modifier for these spells. Additional effects when you cast your level 1 spell.

Veterans of this blog will know how much I love Aberrant Dragonmark. If you’re taking Magic Initiate to have a ranged attack then Aberrant Dragonmark is pretty much just universally better than Magic Initiate. The only real flaw with this feat is that you can only take from the Sorcerer list... oh and that it’s very Eberron specific. It’s unlikely that you’ll be allowed this feat, but I would recommend it for just about anyone who needs a ranged backup. Constitution becomes a lot more exciting when it’s used for more than just health.

8/10

Chef

Allies heal more during short rests. Prepare treats allies can use to gain Temporary hitpoints as a Bonus Action.

Song of Rest? Never heard of her! A fairly mediocre feat on its own, though admittedly fun for roleplay. The treats are actually not that bad to give allies a tiny bit of bulk. The definitely-not-Song of Rest feature is also good in its own right.

It’s a nice way to round out your Constitution or Wisdom if it’s uneven, and is very fun for roleplay. But it’s not the most impressive in terms of utility.

6/10

Crusher

See above.

Dragon Fear

See above.

Dragon Hide

See above.

Durable

Add double your Constitution modifier to rolled hit die while Short Resting.

I mean, it’s nice? But the only real use I see for this is for a Barbarian. It can definitely allow you save up on your hit die but unless you have a 13 in CON (14 with this feat) I wouldn’t recommend it. I’d much rather not take the damage in the first place: an ounce of prevention beats a cure!

5/10

Dwarven Fortitude

DWARF EXCLUSIVE FEAT

When you take the Dodge action you can heal with a hit die.

Otherwise known as “Dwarf Monks are super legit for no good reason.” It’s a very interesting feat that allows you to tank in interesting ways, and it’s particularly good if you know your DM doesn’t let you frequently short rest. It can be nice to heal in a pinch, but much like with Durable I’d rather negate the damage than heal with hit die.

And if your DM allows frequent short rests? This feat is objectively worse than Durable, since it doesn’t really matter when you heal with hit die.

5/10

Infernal Constitution

TIEFLING EXCLUSIVE FEAT

Resist Cold and Poison damage, and gain Advantage on saving throws against Poisons.

You already resist Fire damage, which is extremely common. This feat adds two more common damage types to that list, and also helps you against a common debuff. This is just a very good way to give your character more bulk! Of course if you aren’t fighting a lot of poisonous or cold enemies this feat won’t be too practical, but in a standard campaign with varied foes this will quickly carry its weight!

7/10

Orcish Fury

See above.

Resilient (CON)

Gain proficiency with Constitution saving throws.

Constitution saves are extremely common, most notably for Concentration checks. Other people have done the math that Resilient scales better than War Caster to help with Concentration checks. This feat is a must-have for spellcasters, and very good all-around.

10/10

Second Chance

See above.

Skill Expert

See above.

Tavern Brawler

See above.

INTELLIGENCE

Elven Accuracy

See above.

Fade Away

See above.

Fey Teleportation

HIGH ELF EXCLUSIVE FEAT

Learn Sylvan. Cast Misty Step once per Short Rest.

Otherwise known as LITERALLY THE ONLY REASON TO PLAY A HIGH ELF. Holy shit if you’re playing a High Elf take this feat! A free language is nice and all but Misty Step is one of the most useful utility spells in the game, and you have near-constant access to it!

10/10

Fey Touched

Learn Misty Step and one additional first level spell from the Enchantment or Divination schools. You can cast both of these spells once without using a spell slot.

Misty Step is one of the strongest spells in the game: if your class doesn’t normally get it I’d definitely recommend Fey Touched just to get Misty Step. Being able to grab strong first level Enchantment and Divination spells like Hex, Hunter’s Mark, Bless, Heroism, and Detect Magic are also very useful.

9/10

Flames of Phlegethos

Reroll 1s when dealing Fire damage. Surround yourself in Fire when casting a Fire damage spell.

Otherwise known as “Elemental Adept lite.” Only really useful if you’re planning to consistently be in close range, but very fun and flavorful if you are casting fire up close.

I honestly wish this feat wasn’t Tiefling exclusive because it’s cool as shit but so situational: I’d love to see a version of this feat that’s damage type exclusive and race exclusive. Hm maybe that’ll be a Homebrew project of mine.

7/10

Keen Mind

Know some information you should probably already know.

Otherwise known as “hey mister DM I forgot to buy a compass or a watch in town, and I’m too stupid to take notes.” This is the feat for bad players, and most DMs will ignore it even if you do take it.

1/10

Linguist

Learn 3 languages. Write cyphers.

The languages are honestly useless: Comprehend Languages is a first level spell, and Tongues is a third level spell. The cyphers are a lot more interesting, but they’re admittedly extremely situational outside of specific campaigns. It also really sucks that your feat can be undone with the Comprehend Languages spell, which can be cast as a ritual.

4/10

Observant

+5 to Passive Perception / Investigation. You can read creatures’ lips if you understand the language they’re speaking.

The ability to read creatures’ lips is honestly really interesting for espionage, but let’s be real: you picked up this feat for the increase to Passive Perception. Honestly if you don’t want to be ambushed just take the Alert feat.

7/10

Resilient (INT)

Gain proficiency with Intelligence saving throws.

Intelligence saves are rare. Devastating when they occur, yes. But I’d sooner take Observant, Linguist, or one of the Tasha’s feats over Resilient.

5/10

Shadow Touched

Learn the Invisibility spell and one additional first level spell from the Necromancy or Illusion schools. You can cast both of these spells once without using a spell slot.

Invisibility is less universally useful than Misty Step, and Necromancy / Illusion spells are weaker than Divination / Enchantment spells. (At least if we’re talking first level.) There are some nice ones like Disguise Self and Inflict Wounds but generally speaking mobility is more useful in my humble opinion.

7/10

Skill Expert

See above.

Telekinetic

Learn the Mage Hand cantrip. If you know it already, increase its range by 30 feet. You can make the Mage Hand invisible. Additionally, you may shove a creature 5 feet towards or away from you as a Bonus Action on your turn.

Mage Hand is one of the best cantrips in the game and being able to make it invisible was a subclass feature restricted to just Arcane Trickster Rogues previously. Having an invisible grabbing arm is insanely useful, and extending it to 60 feet is even better.

And that isn’t even the best part! Being able to shove people around isn’t necessarily the most overpowered thing but it still gives you a way to use your Bonus Action every turn! If you play on a tabletop you can use this feat to push enemies back into AoE damage abilities or pull allies away from danger! In Theater of the Mind however this feat isn’t as strong and I wouldn’t recommend using the shove too much as its liable to annoy your DM.

8/10

Telepathic

You can speak telepathically to a creature within 60 feet of you. They have to understand the language, and don’t gain the ability to respond telepathically. Additionally, you learn the Detect Thoughts spell, and can cast it once per Long Rest without using a spell slot.

Detect Thoughts isn’t that great of a spell, though granted this is just my personal experience. That being said having telepathy is extremely useful, and this is speaking from experience!

I will say right now: take this feat if you are a Druid. Unless your DM is a real stickler for the rules this will let you speak to people while Wildshaped! This opens up a whole world of possibilities for your Druid! I unironically consider this feat mandatory for a Druid, and fairly useful for any other character who wants to speak quietly and stealthily. And you know: doesn’t have access to Message.

8/10 - Mandatory for a Druid

WISDOM

Chef

See above.

Elven Accuracy

See above.

Fey Touched

See above.

Observant

See above.

Resilient (WIS)

Gain proficiency with Wisdom saving throws.

Wisdom saves are very common, but most Wisdom classes already get Wisdom saving throw proficiency. If you have an uneven Wisdom score it can be worth it to get the proficiency, but Wisdom saving throws are arguably the most common saving throw to be proficient with.

7/10

Shadow Touched

See above.

Skill Expert

See above.

Telekinetic

See above.

Telepathic

See above.

CHARISMA

Actor

Gain advantage when pretending to be someone else, and become capable of mimicking someone’s voice after listening to them.

A very good feat if you plan to do any infiltration or other political intrigue stuff. With the Disguise Self spell this feat can be used by just about anyone, but the real value comes for Changelings. Having Disguise Self as a racial trait means the “be better at fooling people” feat is insanely useful. Inversely this feat isn’t as useful for Kenku since you can already mimic voices more-or-less perfectly.

This feat is inherently situational but it’s beyond useful for the campaigns where it can be used. And again: it’s near-mandatory for a Changeling or a Warlock with the Mask of Many Faces invocation (or anyone who takes Eldritch Adept for Mask of Many Faces.)

7/10 - Mandatory for Changelings

Dragon Fear

See above.

Dragon Hide

See above. (How the hell this feat increases Charisma I have no idea.)

Elven Accuracy

See above.

Fey Teleportation

See above.

Fey Touched

See above.

Flames of Phlegethos

See above.

Resilient (CHA)

Gain proficiency in Charisma saving throws.

Charisma saving throws are extremely rare, and more often than not they’re more of the “don’t get to play the game” variety and less “die super bad and become a living vegetable” like Intelligence saving throws. Even if looking to round out uneven ability scores feats like Skill Expert and Telepathic are better.

3/10

Second Chance

See above.

Shadow Touched

See above.

Skill Expert

See above.

Telekinetic

See above.

Telepathic

See above.

HELPFUL CHART OR SOMETHING

#dnd #dnd 5e #dnd guide #dnd feats #feats #half feats #tier list #list

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raeynbowboi · 4 years

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How to Play as Joker in DnD 5e

I recently bought Persona 5 and just finished the first mind palace and my god is this game a metric fuck ton of awesome, colorful, and stylish. So, while i haven’t finished the game, I’m excited to figure out his DnD build. Normally, because Joker has a canon Persona, I would use Arsene to determine Joker’s magical abilities. But Arsene stops learning new abilities at a pitiful level 7. So, for everything else, we’ll have to look at his confidant abilities and try to make whatever connections that we can.

The Rebellious Spirit Within

Whether you address your dirty crime boy as Ren Amamiya or Akira Kusuru, it’s evident that he’s a human. However, not even other humans can do what Joker can do. So, he could absolutely be considered a Variant Human. As a Variant Human, we’ll pick up Dexterity and Charisma, along with Persuasion proficiency so you can convince your enemies to join your rag-tag group of plucky teen felons. So, what might you consider for his bonus feat as a Variant Human? Top picks would include: Dungeon Delver so you can run through mind palaces, avoid traps, and be a perceptive thief. Skulker so that you can hide in partial darkness and make ranged attacks without giving away your location. Lucky to give yourself some good old fashioned anime protagonist plot armor. Mobile so that you can outrun security and the consequences of your actions. Magic Initiate so that you can be even more of a thief by stealing from other spell lists. Inspiring Leader so that you can yell at your friends to git gud. Prodigy so you can become even more of a specialized skill monkey. And Skilled so that you can horde all the talent for yourself.

You fragrantly break the law and play the role as a Phantom Thief to take down corrupt authority figures. You are the definition of Chaotic Good.

Joker’s role as a thief of corrupt hearts lends itself to a few Background options. Urban Bounty Hunter fulfills the idea of Joker having a target that he hunts down. Criminal is an option if you want to lean into the Thief angle, plus the framing device of the story has Joker telling the story during a police interrogation, so clearly Criminal isn’t that far off the mark. Charlatan is a loose fit as it’s more of a con artist, but the Secret Identity feature works well as Joker is a second identity. The secret identity also appears for the Dimir Operative from the Guilds of Ravnica book, though while it is on DnDBeyond, that doesn’t guarantee that every DM will allow it, especially since this Background has built-in spells. The Urchin Background loosely fits as Joker’s family has given up on him and sent him off to be raised by someone who is an utter stranger, and finding your way around Shibuya and the mind palaces is kind of important. The Faceless background lets you throw your old life away and begin anew as someone else, and the Faction Agent makes you part of a secret society, such as the Phantom Thieves.

Arsene the Fool Arcana

Arsene, like all primary personas, first appears in a flash of blue flames. His only two damaging spells include Eiha which is a little bolt of dark flames that deals Curse damage, and Dream Needle, which deals psychic damage and has a chance of putting enemies to sleep. Arsene is seen with chains but doesn’t use them, and in Smash, having Arsene changes Joker’s up special from a grabbling hook to being launched by Arsene’s wings, which could allow Joker to learn Fly. Beyond that, everything else depends on Confidant abilities and the general magical damage types found in the game.

Personas can deal Fire, Ice, Lightning, Wind, Psychic, Nuclear, Bless, & Curse damage. Nuclear, Bless, and Curse are a little less clear, but I’d translate those to being Poison, Radiant, and Necrotic spells.

Collecting Your Jar of Hearts

BARD Whispers: While Joker is not inherently a creative person, the bard’s ability to steal from other spell lists could be re-skinned as part of Joker’s interchangeable Personas. Whisper Bards also deal damage with psychic blades, which is fitting because all of Joker’s thievery is more metaphorical, and all the fighting happens in the minds and hearts of corrupted people. So, his blades dealing Psychic damage is rather fitting since he’s literally fighting the demons in people’s minds and hearts. Also, the Bard’s Jack of All Trades would do well to make you a Wunderkind that’s kind of great at everything. FIGHTER Battle Master: While the Aid Spell is one of many that can do well for teamwork, there are some Maneuvers that actually focus on rallying allies to attack a single target or get into a formation, which is fitting for Joker as it’s often him who instigates the team’s ability to pull off an all-out attack. RANGER Gloom Stalker: Change a crossbow into Joker’s toy guns that shoot placebo bullets, and take advantage of this subclass' ambush ability and you’re going to do really well copying Joker’s ability to ambush shadows in the game. Ranger also comes with a new feature option called Canny that lets you get another extra proficiency you don’t already have and turn it into an expertise. ROGUE Assassin: Along with Gloom Stalker, these two subclasses combined will make ambushes way more effective when dealing with enemy shadows. Inquisitive: You’re better at figuring out enemy weaknesses and then exploiting them. Provides a nice boost to Sneak Attack damage at higher levels. Mastermind: This lets you Help an ally as a bonus action, and tells you when an enemy is too strong for you to fight. Soul Knife: Technically, you’re more of a thief in a metaphorical sense. You’re attacking people’s minds and hearts, so this subclass who is more focused on attacking people’s minds goes right along with that. Thief: They’re called the Phantom THIEVES. It had to at least be considered. WARLOCK Archfey: Since Demons are a specific kind of Persona, Archfey feels the most all-encompassing for this otherworldly pact. Whether you work it as the pact made with Igor or with Arsene himself, it’s obvious that Warlock had to be part of it, as the Phantom Thieves literally say that they make a pact with their Persona. It’s practically spelled out that Phantom Thieves are warlocks.

Stats and Proficiencies

You wouldn’t be a very good thief without a maxed out Dexterity. You’ll also need Charisma so you can manifest your feelings for magic and a decent Wisdom score so you can multi-class as a Ranger to optimize the use of your gun. Constitution will keep you from dying, Strength should be at least neutral, but if it gets left behind, pick up a proficiency with Athletics and it’ll be fine since you swing with Dexterity anyway. Even though Intelligence is a stat in Persona 5, it won’t really help you much here. So, it’s the dump stat for this build. You’re just a debonair ignorant pretty boy.

Acrobatics Athletics Insight Investigation Perception Persuasion Stealth Sleight of Hand

Name: Joker (Ren Amamiya or Akira Kusuru) Race: Variant Human Background: Urban Bounty Hunter Alignment: Chaotic Good Class: Assassin Rogue (8) Archfey Warlock (4) Gloomstalker Ranger (4) Battle Master Fighter (4) Base Stats: Strength: 8 (-1) Dexterity: 20 (+5) Constitution: 14 (+2) Intelligence: 8 (-1) Wisdom: 14 (+2) Charisma: 18 (+4) Saving Throws: Strength: -1 Dexterity: +11 Constitution: +2 Intelligence:+5 Wisdom: +2 Charisma: +4 Combat Stats: HP: 151 AC: 16 Speed: 30 Initiative: +7 Proficiency Bonus: +6 Passive Perception: 24 Dark Vision: 60 feet Proficiencies and Expertise: Acrobatics (Rogue) Athletics (Ranger: Canny Feature) Deception (Rogue) Insight (Urban Bounty Hunter) Investigation (Ranger) Perception (Rogue) Persuasion (Variant Human) Sleight of Hand (Rogue) Stealth (Urban Bounty Hunter) Skills: Acrobatics: +17 Medicine: +2 Animal Handling: +2 Nature: -1 Arcana: -1 Perception: +14 Athletics: +11 Performance: +4 Deception: +4 Persuasion: +10 History: -1 Religion: -1 Insight: +8 Sleight of Hand: +11 Intimidation: +4 Stealth: +17 Investigation:+11 Survival: +2

Spell Slots

1st (3) 2nd (2)

Joker’s Spellbook

Cantrips 1st Level 2ndLevel Eldritch Blast Cure Wounds Phantasmal Force Friends Detect Magic Shadow Blade Mind Sliver Disguise Self Expeditious Retreat Hex Hunter’s Mark Sleep

Actions:

Action Surge: Take an extra action once per rest. Primeval Awareness: Spend X spell slot, find creature types within 1 mile for X minutes.

Bonus Actions:

Cunning Action: Aim, Dash, Disengage, or Hide once per turn. Second Wind: Regain 1d10 + 4 HP once per rest.

Reactions:

Uncanny Dodge: Reduce damage from enemies you can see that hit you.

Features:

Assassinate: You have advantage on slower foes, all hits are critical. Battle Maneuvers: Commander’s Strike: Pass your turn to a friendly creature, add superiority die. Maneuvering Attack: If you hit, an ally can move without provoking an attack. Rally: Heal an ally by a superiority die + 4. Dread Ambusher: Make an extra attack on the first round, +1d8 damage on hit. Dungeon Delver: Add 2x your CON mod to healing, advantage on perception and investigation to find hidden doorways, advantage on saving throws against traps, resist trap damage, and search for traps at a walking pace. Ear To the Ground: You have a covert network of intelligence. Eldritch Invocations: Agonizing Blast: +4 to Eldritch Blast damage. Improved Pact Weapon: Your pact weapon deals +1 melee damage. Evasion: Take 0 damage on a successful DEX saving throw. Favored Enemy: Deal +2 damage to Fey, advantage on tracking Fey creatures. Fey Presence: Creatures within 10 ft are charmed or frightened for 1 turn. Fighting Style: Archery: +2 on attack rolls with ranged weapons. Dueling: +2 on damage rolls with one handed melee weapons. Natural Explorer: Preferred Terrain: Underdark: Advantages in Underdark environments. Pact Boon: Pact of the Blade: Summon a Pact Weapon. Sneak Attack: Deal 4d6 extra damage when advantaged. Thieves’ Cant: Conceal and decipher hidden meaning in casual conversation Umbral Sight: 60 feet Darkvision and hidden from creatures with Dark Vision.

This build was a ton of fun to make. How do you feel I did building Joker? Would you build him differently? Who’s your favorite Persona? And are you as upset as I am that you can’t date Ryuji? As always, I take requests, so send me your requests and I might just build yours next.

#dungeons and dragons #joker #persona 5 #ren amamiya #akira kusuru #arsene #persona #shibuya #phantom thief #phantom thieves #mind palace #dnd #dnd 5e #5e #5th edition #fifth edition #dnd 5th edition #dnd fifth edition #let me date ryuji

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masterweaverx · 4 years

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I’ve decided that the main characters of "My Next Life As A Villainess” can have D&D classes! So here we go. Big thanks to 5Etools for helping me out with this!

Katarina Claes: Kalashtar Redemption Paladin. Nobody said holy warriors had to be smart!

In all seriousness, Paladins of 5E are charisma-based “Half-casters,” which means they mix melee with magic. And it’s easy enough to reflavor a lot of D&D spells as “Oh, yeah, this character just happens to know X random thing or can talk so convincingly!” (Or the character doesn’t realize they’re doing magic, which would be so Katarina.) Plus the Redemption oath just fits so well for the girl, both thematically and mechanically. Throw on Strength-based combat skills because of years of farming and sword-training... it’s pretty obvious.

As to the race choice, the Kalashtar are a third-party Eberron race that are described as being “a fusion of humans and beings from the realm of dreams.” Which hey, what else would you call somebody who remembered their past life? And from a mechanical perspective, it would give Katarina resistance to psychic damage (she’s that dense) and automatic advantage on persuasion rolls (she can say just the right thing).

Maria Campbell: Variant Human Life Cleric. A “Well Duh!” if I ever saw one.

Clerics, the traditional healers and support characters in all of roleplaying, are wisdom-based casters in 5E. I was originally considering making Maria a Light cleric but, mechanically, Life clerics are closer to Light magic as portrayed in the series so, yeah, Life.

Variant Humans are the “Pick an ability increase and get a free feat at the start of the game” race, and Maria is sorta kinda the protagonist of the old game? Her player would probably just set herself up to fill in the gaps of the other characters anyway. So yeah.

Mary Hunt: Kaladesh Elf Samurai Fighter. Look, she can be scary, alright?

Fighters can be strength-based OR dexterity-based, and Mary would have a lot of dexterity skill from all the gardening and stuff. A lot of the Fighter perks are basically “No I’m NOT giving up!” which, yeah, fits her well. Being a Samurai not only enhances that, but it gives her perks for certain wisdom traits--Mary is not an idiot by any stretch of the imagination.

Kaladesh elves synch pretty well with this build, giving both Dexterity and Wisdom boosts, but primarily I picked this particular race for the free Druid cantrip in order to represent Mary’s water magic. Still, she would be one to choose to meditate instead of falling asleep, just to keep an eye on... things.

Sophia Ascart: Detection Mark Half-Elf Divination Wizard. She likes them books.

The class side of this was easy. Intelligence-based caster? Wizard. Love of books? Wizard. Not a physical fighter? Wizard. Had a talk with her past self? Divination wizard. What can I say, Sophia is pretty good at being a wizkid.

Race, though... oh, wow. So many options. I went with a Detection Mark Half-Elf because Sophia really, really notices things and that seems to be what that particular race was built for. Plus it’s an Eberron thing, like Katarina’s race, so that’s a past life connection! Yay!

Nicol Ascart: Storm Mark Half-Elf Swashbuckler Rogue. That smile works wonders.

Com on, how couldn’t I make Nicol ‘incapacitates a crowd with a smile’ Ascart a swashbuckler? Plus Rogues are usually known for being the skill class of 5E, doing things handling things that come up in adventures beyond punching monsters. Nicol does seem the most... level-headed of the group, so he would probably be the one to handle the little details.

As for race, I’ll admit I went with the ‘Sophia’s a half-elf so Nicol’s also a half-elf!’ route. But Storm Mark Half-Elves do come with a lot of wind-based magic, which not only fits canon but also enhances what Nicol could do as a rogue. Admittedly he would have to multiclass slightly to get at most of it, but hey, Gust is a cantrip and the other spells are there for him if he ever does.

Keith Claes: Fierna Tiefling Monster Slayer Ranger. Friendly, but dangerous.

Rangers are another half-caster class, and one with many ‘summon allies’ sort of spells. Sure, they’re technically animals instead of earth elementals, but I do subscribe to the ‘reflavor is fine!’ school of thought so Keith can have his dolls come out when he casts Conjure Animals. The Monster Slayer subclass is built around countering and containing dangerous beings... like, say, Keith himself? Oh, wow, I just picked it because it looked cool. Huh.

And why is Keith a Tiefling? In another life, he was a playboy, so of COURSE he’s going to get a charisma-boost race! A resistance to fire damage makes him perfect for, ah, interrupting a certain prince’s advances. And Fierna Tieflings get spells based around convincing people of things, like Friends and Charm Person, and there’s a certain dense girl in Keith’s life that needs a little guidance.

Geordo Stuart: Gold Standard Dragonborn Draconic Sorcerer. BURN BABY BURN!

Sorcerers are one of the charisma-based casters, with the idea that they have magic IN THEIR BLOOOOOD so they can, you know, cast without needing to do all that silly Study business. Plus they get some of their subclass stuff right off the bat, and Draconic Sorcerers get extra hitpoints every level. Geordo may not use his magic often, but it’s implied that as a royal his magic is redonkulously powerful, so this? This was basically set in stone.

And why did I make the prince a dragonborn? Why, because DRAGONS ARE AWESOME. Look, I don’t make the rules. More seriously, basic dragonborn have a charisma boost, strength boost, and a breath weapon. Admittedly this would probably make Geordo look a LOT different, but what the hey.

Alan Stuart: Silver Draconblood Dragonborn Lore Bard. He knows things so you don’t have to.

Bards are the other charisma-based casters, and a lot more support-based then sorcerers. Plus they’re good musicians, which fits Alan to a T! Lore Bards lean heavily into the ‘Jack Of All Trades’ mindset, with bonus proficiencies and extra magic secrets, because there was that competitive ‘I will best you some way!’ streak early on and that did lean into ‘I’ll learn all I can’ later in his life.

As to why he’s a draconblood dragonborn instead of a standard dragonborn? Draconbloods get an intelligence boost instead of a strength boost, and also get the trait Forceful Presence instead of Damage Resistance. He might not be able to do as much damage as his twin, but Alan is really good at getting attention and using it.

Anne Shelly: Standard Human Open Hand Monk. Somebody has to clean up after these kids!

Monks excel not just in unarmed combat, but in unarmed ‘getting places nobody thinks about’ as well as ‘keeping a cool head when everything goes nuts.’ And the Open Hand Monk doubles down on that, throwing in the ability to basically say “Stop That” whenever needed. This is perfect for Anne “My Mistress Is The Source Of All Chaos” Shelly, wouldn’t you say?

And yeah, she’s a Standard Human. In 5E Standard humans don’t get any special traits, but they do get +1 to every one of their abilities. That’s a small but significant boost to all rolls and a number of stats. Don’t underestimate Anne; she may be in the background, but she’s in the background of Madness and it takes a lot to survive that.

Rafael Walt: Fallen Aasimar Great Old One Warlock. Retired Edgelord.

Warlocks are, ah, not the easiest class to play. They’ve got a lot of special mechanics about their spells, having fewer slots but easier time restoring them. But they do also get a few free invocations, and their patrons can let them spread into different specializations. Rafael knows how to use his magic to the best he can, and... well, the Great Old One patron features just fit what he can do very well.

Aasimar have charisma boosts and darkness resistance universally, but Fallen Aasimar also come with a transformation into a terrifying shadow warrior. Look, Rafael's been through a lot, I’ll grant you. He probably deserves a break. But both thematically and mechanically, this just fits.

===

So that’s that! For now, anyway! Thoughts and opinions are always welcome.

#My Next Life As A Villainess #d&d 5e #Katarina Claes #Maria Campbell #Mary Hunt #Sophia Ascart #Nicol Ascart #Keith Claes #Geordo Stuart #Alan Stuart #Anne Shelly #Rafael Walt #I put way too much thought into this

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theworldbrewery · 4 years

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multiclass your...CLERIC

Like wizards, the subclass you choose for your cleric can seriously shape what you multiclass into. I’ll focus on the core domains offered: Life, Light, Knowledge, Nature, Tempest, Trickery, and War. At the end of the post I’ll briefly discuss the tips for multiclassing Arcana, Death, Forge, and Grave domain clerics.

Knowledge Clerics:

As a utility-based subclass, knowledge clerics can give themselves temporary proficiency with any skill or tool, read the thoughts of others, and even command them. Since this subclass is skill-oriented, I recommend picking up a handful of levels in ranger if you’re looking to diversify to gain an additional skill, extra languages, beef up your cleric’s combat with a fighting style, and snag some spell slots while you’re at it. If you hope to lean more into melee combat, consider taking a couple levels in monk to snag the ki points that will make you tougher to hit and keep consistent with your holy flavor.

Life Clerics:

Life clerics get proficiency with heavy armor and have boosts to their healing capabilities, making them perfect for close-range combat as well as healing. Get yourself a few levels in paladin to gain Divine Sense, Lay on Hands, and (again) a fighting style, plus some smites, new spells and additional spell slots at level two. If you’re more interested in amping your healing to greater heights, take three levels in sorcerer (I swear it’s worth it). Use your extra spell slots to throw out more healing and more damage and use font of magic to buy even more slots if you need them. Metamagic is a serious perk if you choose “Distant” and “Twinned” spells, which let you double the range of your healing (great for heals from a distance) or target two creatures instead of one with a healing spell.

Light Clerics:

Light domain clerics quite literally have access to light as a weapon, using it to impose disadvantage on attack rolls and deal damage to enemies. These clerics are pretty flexible; depending on whether you view these abilities as bonuses in melee or as fail-safes when you’re squishy, choose either monk or sorcerer. With sorcerer, consider the Shadow Magic or Divine Soul origins for their perks to your abilities (Shadow Magic lets you make a CHA save to drop to 1 hp instead of 0; Divine Soul helps you land a hit or boost a saving throw). As a monk, you can enhance your attacks and avoid getting hit through the use of ki points and monk weapons.

Nature Clerics:

This one is a toughie. Nature clerics are proficient with heavy armor and at 8th level gain bonus damage to weapon attacks, suggesting they are most suitable for weapons combat over spellcasting. There’s too much overlap with druids to make the early levels worth your effort; instead, contemplate taking a few levels in paladin to acquire smites that will further amp your damage, grant a fighting style, and allow some extra healing capacity. If you’re a little squishier than paladins typically allow, choose rogue instead, letting you shoot your shot from a distance more easily, deal sneak-attack damage, and employ cunning actions to ensure you stay on your feet.

Tempest Cleric:

Okay, my first recommendation is perilously specific. The perks of the tempest cleric revolve around lightning damage, specifically maxing it out and using it to push enemies away from you. But tempest clerics only get one spell and one ability that deal lightning. So my big recommendation: take at least one level in warlock and scorch your enemies with Witch Bolt. Take that spell right off. You can cast it with your cleric slots, meaning at cleric 7/warlock 1 you can cast a 4th-level witch bolt and deal 4d12 lightning damage to the target per round--with the tempest cleric’s boost to lightning, though, you could use a Channel Divinity to automatically deal 48 damage up to twice. Plus the warlock has all kinds of other cool junk, but this is the biggest perk ever. Otherwise, opt for druid, and go to Circle of the Land to have a nice little spell slot recovery mechanism and a bonus cantrip.

Trickery Cleric:

Take a couple levels in rogue. As a trickery cleric, you can expend your Channel Divinity to have a duplicate in melee with an enemy you are in melee with or turn invisible for one round and thereby gain automatic advantage on many attack rolls--ideal for sneak attack. The rogue’s Cunning Action is also a great boon for a concentrating cleric or even just a squishy one. Otherwise, consider multiclassing into bard to snag a few extra spells slots, bonus-action Bardic Inspiration, Jack-of-All-Trades, and Song of Rest; these abilities all mesh well with the Trickery cleric’s skillset.

War Cleric:

For war clerics, I recommend fighter. Choose dueling or protection fighting style, use your second wind to keep yourself standing and capable of healing, and potentially use your Action Surge (2nd level) to hit an enemy and cast a healing spell and toss out a cantrip, all in one turn. Just be sure not to use two weapons, because you’ll sacrifice your spellcasting to do it. If you’d like to branch out of combat success and into more skills, take a couple levels in ranger to get a fighting style and some skills tracking and remembering information about certain enemies.

For Arcana clerics, I suggest favoring classes that are support casters to enhance your Arcana skillset.

For Death clerics, take a class that offers boosts to weapon attacks to make your bonus necrotic damage more frequent and more potent.

For Forge clerics, opt for weapons-based classes to make the most of the perks to this divine domain, particularly paladins, which are often at their best in heavy armor like yours.

For Grave clerics, choose a multiclass that will help keep you standing either through increased hitpoints, magical armor abilities (see warlock’s Armor of Shadows invocation), or bonus actions (ki points or cunning actions), because you’ll want to be in range for your Path to the Grave and Sentinel at Death’s Door as well as any healing you can offer to unconscious allies.

Like what we do? Consider buying us a coffee!

#dnd #d&d #dungeons and dragons #critical role #taz #multiclassing #clerics

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hellyeahheroes · 4 years

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Building Rikki Barnes in D&D 5e

I will confess something. lately D&D has been a kind of comfort hobby for me, in wake of all this fucking madness around us that is this year. This includes these builds but also my campaign that I just wrapped up and before I kick off with a sequel I felt like doing some celebration with blog-related content. So I decided - let’s build a character I planned to build on Pride Month but didn’t manage to. One funky, gun-toting, shield-wielding, dimension-hopping immortal lesbian.

As always, credit to Tulok the Barbarian from whom I lifted the teamplate for those builds and like him we will start with Goals for the build. First of all, we need to fight like someone who studied under not one, not two but dozens of Captain Americas across the worlds. Second, we need to have knowledge and skills like someone who lived all kinds of lives, picking up all she learned along the way. Finally, we need to be able to use both shield and a gun in accord.

For Ability Scores we will stick to Standard Points Array - 15, 14, 13, 12, 10, and 8 - but if you want to roll, use points buy or other form of generating abilitty scores, go ahead and treat these as guidelines. Keep your Charisma and either Strength or Desterity at at least 13 for multiclassing purposes.

Strength: 15, say it after me RIKKI. IS. BUFF!

Dexterity: 14, your armor varied from short-shorts to what would pass for a leather armor and you have no problem jumping from one rooftop to another to catch-up with your Spider-Girlfriend.

Constitution: 12, you’re not as tough as Toro, but you can still take a hit.

Intelligence: 10, wish it was higher but we cannot have everything

Wisdom: 8,remember that time you didn’t recognize main universe counterpart of your brother is into you and didn’t recognize guy replacing Steve as Cap is your own grandfather?

Charisma: 13, say what you want but Rikki knows how to pick up girls.

Race: Rikki is a human, we will stick with Varian Human because we need a feat but Revenant Human could work as well if you want to go into technicalities about her ressurections. Variant Humans get +1 to two Abilitty Scores, boost up Strength and Dexterity, a bonus Skill, pick History and a feat. Pick a Soldier for a background since this is closest we get to “trained by most American American to ever American and reborn across the multiverse to do it again”. It gives you proficiency in Athletics and Intimidation, land vehicles if you want to borrow grandpa’s bike and a gaming set. Military Rank feature let’s you be recognzied as a fellow veteran by other soldiers who may be more letient to your requests. You lead two superhero teams so that adds up.

Shield Master will be our feat of chocie and we need to talk about it because it gives you not one but three fun features:

It let’s you add a bonus from your Shield to your Armor Class to any saving throws against spells and other harmful effects as long as they target only you. The way it is written means you could technically cover your eyes with shield when someone tries to hypnotize you, which is very much how I imagine members of Captain America Family (Cap Family?) dealing with mind-control.

If you take an attack action on your turn, you can use your bonus action to try to shove a creature within 5 feet from you with your shield. Shoving is normally an action that forces the target, say Bob Agent of Hydra, to make Athletics or Acrobatics check against your Athletics. If Bob fails (and he will because it’s Bob), he is either pushed 5 feet away from you or knocked prone. Maybe that will make him realize he needs a better job than fucking nazis.

It also let’s you use your reaction to cover with your shield if you are subjected to an effect that demands you make a saving throw to take half damage or full damage if you don’t, like for example FUCKING FIREBALL. With your shield up if you do make that saving throw you’ll take no damage. This is a bit weaker version of Evasion, a feature Rogues and Monks get at 7th level. Meaning that you will spend that many levels making them horribly jealous.

Speaking of Rogues, guess what we’re NOT picking for out Class. Instead we go with...

1st Level: Fighter! You gain proficiency with all Armors, shields, simple and martial weapons, Strength and Constitution saving throws, and two skills, I’d go with Acrobathics and Perception. You gain Second Wind, letting you recover as a bonus action 1d10+your fighter level of HP. Rikki is determined enough to chase the Maker across worlds and hit points can reflect will to fight.

You also get fighting style - unarmed Fighting lets you deal 1d6+your Strength modifier on your Unarmed Attacks, 1d8 if you use both hands (or do a dropkick I pressume) and if you grapple a creature, you can deal 1d4 damage when you innitiate it succesfull and then on future hits while grappling.

2nd Level: Fighter gets Action Surge, letting you once per short or long rest take an extra action during your turn.

3rd Level: Fighter gets to chosoe a Martial Archetype: Battle Master gainst a proficiency with Artisan’s tool of your choice but moe importantly, gains Combat Superiority. You Gain 3 Maneuvers that are fueled by your Superiority Dice - which at this level are 4 d8s. When you use a Maneuver you spend Superiority Dice, you get them back after a short or long rest. If those effects ask for a saving throw, it must beat 8 Your Proficiency Bonus + either your Strength or Dexterity modifier.

Bait and Switch let’s you switch places with an ally within 5 feets of you without provoking Opportunitty Attacks and until the start of your next turn that ally adds result of your Superiority Dice roll to their Armor Class. Julie power can overextend herself easily, this will keep her safe.

Sweeping Attack let’s spend one Superiorirty die when you hit an opponnent in meele to try to also hit another one within 5 feet of it - if the original attack roll was high enough to beat its AC you deal it damage equal your roll on Superiority Dice. So when ypu kick Red Skull you can also carry your kick toreach Crossbones as well, breaking two jaws with your heel in one strike.

Brace let’s you spend your reaction to attack a target that moves within 5 feet of you and add result to the damage if you hit. So if Sif tries to rush to help her father, you will deck her in the face without even having to look.

4th Level: Firghter gets an Abilitty Score Improvement or a Feat. We will pick Gunner from newest Unearthed Arcana for Feats. it let’s you add +1 to your Dexterity, gives you profficiency with firearms and let’s you ignore their loading quality, letting you shoot a gun for each of your attacks for a single turn and you don’t have disadvantage on an attack if you shoot a target within 5 feet of you..

Alternatives: Not every DM allows firearms in their setting. If that is the case the Crossbow Expert will do roughly the same for you. If you don’t like idea of Rikki with guns at all, then Crusher from the same Unearthed Arcana will let you push any target you hit with your fist and make attacks against them have an advantage for a turn whenever you crit on an attack. Martial Adept meanwhile can let you learn two more maneuvers and gain an extra Superiority Dice.

5th Level: Fighter can now attack twice on each turn attack action. Meaning You can in one turn roundhouse kicks Red Skull, use sweeping attack to carry that kick over to Crossbones, shoot Anirm Zola, knock Bob to the ground and use another Superiority Dice to deck Sin in the face if she comes to help her daddy on her turn. And that’s without using Action Surge and last Superiority Dice.

6th Level: Fighter gains another Abilitty Score Improvement. And you know what? Boost up your Strength.

7th Level: We have combat skills but what about other Skills? We can grab an extra one, like Stealth, by picking up a level of Bard. 1st Level Bards gain Bardic Inspiration, a set of 3 d6 dices you can give to your allies as a bonus action, letting them add it to an attack roll or a saving throw.

You also learn Bardic spells. You know a small number of those and spend spell slots to cast them. If your spell makes an attack roll, it does so with a bonus equal your Profficiency Bonus + Your Charisma modifier. Add to that bonus 8 and you get a number that has to be beaten if your spell reqires a saving throw.

You start knowing 2 Cantrips that you can always cast and 4 1st level Spells and have 2 1st level Spell Slots

Light is a flashlight you can use to make an object shine bright light in 30 feet and dim light in next 30 feet. Useful since you cannot see in the dark

Message is a communicator, letting you send a short message to another creature and be able to receive equally short reply

Comprehend Languages let’s you understand any language you hear for 1 hour. Rikki lived many lives, she likely picked a few.

Heroism you can cast on yourself to show how brave you are or on an ally, cherring them up. until the spell ends the target has an advantage on saving throwsagainst being frightened and gains an extra temporary hit point at the start of each of your turns.

Identify let’s you use your vast knowledge of other worlds to recognize legendary or jsut enchanted effects or what spells are affecting a creature or an object. After all, you have seen it all.

Cure Wounds is a first aid kit, healing 1d8+1 hit points on you or another target

8th Level: 2nd Level Bards gain Jack of All Trades, letting you add half of your Proficiency modifier to all skills you are not profficient with. You also get Song of Rest, letting you let your commrades roll an extra 1d6 whenever tehy roll to regain hit points - as a soldier of many Battlefields makes sense you will be tending the wounds of your allies and rising their spirits between battles. You also get another spell known but we will exchange it for something else on next level.

9th Level: Bards of 3rd Level can pick bardic College. College of lore lets you gain 3 more Skills. Survival, Investigation and Insight feel msot in character. You also get Expertise, doubling your Proficiency Bonus, in two skills of your choice that you are profficient with, I’d go with Athletics to make sure you knock down all opponnents, and Stealth. Finally you learn cutting words - you can use your reaction and spend one of your Bardic Inspiration dices to say some bit of multiversal knowledge that distracts an enemy - you roll that dice and subtract the result from one attack roll or saving throw an enemy makes.

You also learn more spells, letting us to pick two 2nd level spells:

See Invisibility let’s you see invisible creatures and those on Etherial Plane like Ghosts or Phase Spiders. Play it as you being so experienced you learned to see such creatures coming.

Enchance Abilitty let’s you gain or grant someone else an advantage on all rolls related to choosen Abilitty. When you need an extra show of skill.

10th Level: 4th Level bards gain an Abilitty Score Improvement. Boost your Dexterity for more accurate guns and better AC. You also learn one more Spell and a new Cantrip:

Vicious Mockery forces a target to make a Wisdom saving throw or be dealt 2d4 psychic damage from your quip and have disadvantage on its next attack roll Knock let’s you open a single lock, be it on doors or containers.

11th Level: back to Fighter. 7th Level Battlemaster gains an addition Superiority Dice, Two more Maneuvers and can Know Your Enemy - if you study a creature for at least a minute you will learn if it is your superior, inferior or equal in any of the two: Strength, Dexterity or Constitution score, Armor Class, Current hit points,Total class levels, if any or Fighter class levels, if any. Use it if you run into a black-clad silent Bat0themed girl from another dimension and btw Marvel, Dc I would pay gold for this fight to happen.

Our new Maneuvers will be:

Disarming Attack let’s you add a superiority dice roll to damage roll of your attack and force target to make a Strength saving throw or drop whatever they’re holding at the moment. Works with ranged attacks meaning you can shoot Cosmic Cube out of Red Skull’s hands.

Ambush let’s you spend a Superiority Dice to add the roll of it to a Stealth or Initiative roll

12th Level: 8th Level Fighter gains an Abilitty Score Improvement, get your Strength to 20 for better hits and better showing down the enemies.

13th Level: 9th Level Fighter gains Indomintable, letting you once per long rest reroll a failed saving throw. Including Death Saving Throws.

14th Level: 10th Levle Battlemaster improves their superiority dice to 1d10 and gains two more Maneuvers.

Riposte let’s you make an attack when a creature misses you with a meele attack you can use your reaction to make one attack against them and add roll of Superiority Dice to the damage.

Meanicing Attack let’s you spend a superiority dice to add it’s roll to damage dealt to a target and force them to make a Wisdom saving throw or be Frightened of you until end of your next turn.

15th Level; 11th Level Fighter can now make two extra attacks on each of attack actions. Meaning you can with Action Surge and your maneuvers shoot cosmic cube out of Red Skull’s hands, shoot Anirm Zola and Baron Zemo so hard the latter will not approach you out of fear, deliver roundhouse kick to Skull so hard you hit Crossbones too, knock down Bob and deck Sin in the jaw when she rushes to help her father.

16th Level: 12th Level Fighter gains an Ability Score Improvement, round up your Dexterity to 20 for better AC and more acurrate guns.

17th Level: 13th Level Fighter can use Indomintable twice per long rest. Meaning you are that much harder to kill and that more likely to survive fireballs from Onslaught.

18th Level: 14th Level Fighter gets another Abilitty Score Improvement. Boost up your Constitution for Better Concentration and mroe hit points (remember they add retroactively, giving you extra 18 HP at this level)

19th Level: 15th Level Battlemaster means two mroe maneuvers, one mroe Superiority Dice and now if you roll initiative on combat without any you regain one.

Rally lets you roll a Superiority Dice whenever you hit on an attack to give it’s result + your Charisma modifier as temporary hit points to another creature until end of your next turn.

Goading Attack also adds roll from Superiority Dice to damage dealt on attack and if Target fails a Wisdom saving throw, it has disadvantage on attacks against any other creature than you until end of your next turn. You know, i ncase Maker plans to blow you all up, make him punch you instead.

20th Level; We will finish with 16th Level of Fighter for one last Ability Score Improvement, investing either in Constitution for better hit points, or Charisma for better healing. Or picking a Tough feat to gain extra 40 hit points, which would be my preferred option.

Overview: My take on Rikki barnes is Battlemaster Fighter 16, College of Lore Bard 4. Let’s see how good this build is:

Pros: You can make a lot of attacks, making you excellent agaisnt crowds of mooks like Goblins or Hydra Agents. You have an answer for a lot of things an opponnent may do and several ways to control the battlefield to your advantage. You can also double as a skill-monkey, being skilled in enough things to make Rogue jealous. In fact, you basically are a discount Rogue, able to fill in for a lot of things Rogue would normally do. And you can heal too.If you have focused on your Constintution at the end you will also have pretty strong HP, maybe even up to 160-180 and with Shield Master or Indomintable it will be hard to hurt you as well.

Cons: Sadly, a lot of your abilitties compete for Bonus Action or Reaction, meaning you need to carefully consider what you will use each turn. You do nbot deal magic damage so a lot of late game enemeis will be resistant or immune to your hits un;ess DM gives you a magic gun. Finally, there is a big possibility you will burn out of your Superiority Dice early on, leaving you without many options later.

But you are still a valuable part of any team. Protect your allies, give them opennings to strike. Knock Bob down. Break Red Skull’s jaw. Just remember you need to rely on your teammates to survive - unless you want to be reborn in a different campaign.

-Admin

#Nomad #bucky #Rikki barnes #Dungeons & Dragons #Marvel

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utilitycaster · 2 years

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Any thoughts or speculation about potential multiclasses for the C3 characters

Ok real talk are my tumblr dms open to the public or something because I was just talking about this.

Anyway, it's too early to get a handle on when this should happen or character reasons (like, I don't think we could have predicted Fjord's multiclass at all at this time in C2, and I remember around the first time he lost his powers people speculating about bard) but from a mostly mechanics/broad character sense position:

Fearne and Orym have such good classes/subclasses that I just don't see the point, and at this time I don't see a character reason either.

Laudna is already multiclassed and I don't see a good reason to do more of it at this time.

I don't know enough about Ashton and FCG's subclass builds to say if it would be a good idea; barbarian/fighter is pretty much always good but I'd want to get a better sense of Ashton's subclass first. Cleric stacks well with most other casters, but it's also quite strong on its own, and for a number of reasons I would not recommend it at this time, but that may change as I learn more about FCG and the subclass.

This leaves Chetney and Imogen:

I think Chetney would do well to multiclass into artificer in this party, but only one or two levels. Blood Hunter stacks well with fighter as well but artificer helps more with this party (healing/spells like faerie fire for a party with little dark vision) and makes sense with the backstory - he literally already uses an artisan's tool as a weapon, so making it a spellcasting focus is a natural fit. Infusions are nice, but this party also doesn't lack for magic items the way the Nein did and high level bloodhunter stuff is pretty cool, so a one level dip would be enough, honestly.

For Imogen: it's really going to depend heavily on her story since a multiclass is going to represent a deliberate choice to move away from her sorcery powers, and I'd be interested in seeing either her lean into those powers or look for other options. Were she to multiclass, I'd go bard. I don't think she wants another sinister external power, so warlock is out. Bard doesn't interrupt her spell progression and it uses her same casting stat. It works well for the party as well - it's good to have several people with at least a little healing, inspiration is always helpful but doesn't take away from your turn, she can take a few extra utility cantrips, and it would give her a nice bump in the number of known spells as well as access to light armor and the jack of all trades feature. If she just wants to do a dip, I'd do two levels (for that jack of all trades/song of rest) but if she wants to go further, honestly, there are a few options. We've seen Lore before but it's a good all-around subclass; Valor permits her to take heavier armor and shields which would seriously buff her AC as well as allow for more uses of inspiration to help the party; and Glamour fits flavor-wise with both fey-touched and her sorcerer subclass's focus on psychic/charm effects.

#critical role #personally: I will be a tiny bit disappointed if chetney doesn't do artificer bc it fits SO WELL #but imogen...i'm honestly just excited to see where her character goes #i could see sorcerer all the way through i could see a dip i could see her switching to bard for many levels...all work for me

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wearesorcerer · 4 years

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For the d&d meme: 2 and 3

YAY! AN ASK! (Ahem.)

|| 2.) Your favorite character that someone else has played. ||

This one is kinda hard. Not counting Collectivists (it’s Moxie) or one’s I’ve not witnessed in play, I’ma have to say Mikey.

Mikey was a friend’s bareknuckle boxer Fighter (because this was 3.5 and he was taking after his Bard father, who wasn’t Lawful). The character was woefully suboptimal, but did an excellent job of becoming one of the two hearts of our fairly large party (the other was the idiot halfling rogue/sorcerer; long story) and got lucky in fights for quite a while, so we all naturally gravitated towards the character’s generic charisma (no, I have no idea what his actual stat was).

Unfortunately for us, he got coup de graced on a side quest we were doing because half of the players couldn’t attend a session and the DM decided to have us investigate goblins or orcs or something. The chieftain knocked him unconscious, then took the opportunity to cleave him in twain. T_T

|| 3.) Your favorite side quest. ||

I don’t actually have a favorite, so instead I’m going to tell you about the most memorable. Same campaign. This one overtook the main plot. Be warned: it’s long. It’s also why I don’t care for side quests.

This was our DM’s first time running a homemade campaign and his second time DMing ever (the first was the semester before, when he ran the module The Standing Stone; it ended in a hilarious near-TPK). We started in a tavern (like you do) not knowing each other (like you do). Thanks to the halfling’s backstory, we all got drawn into a barroom brawl against a local criminal. That pretty much formed our party and got us hired to investigate a cult of Nerull that had taken up in a nearby abandoned temple (of Pelor, IIRC).

During the boss fight against a couple of higher-up cultists (I forget how many, but one had swords or something), one of the enemy casters decided that it would be a good idea to place a necrotic cyst on the halfling.

There are EVER so many reasons why this was a terrible idea.

Necrotic cyst is a 2nd-level spell from Libris Mortis (pg. 68) on the Cleric and Sorcerer/Wizard lists (meaning we’re fighting 3rd- to 4th-level casters). On a successful melee touch (spell) attack, the target has to make a Fort (Con) save; failure means they get implanted with the eponymous cyst. Depending on where they were touched, they might not even know they bear it. The cyst does two things:

Makes the target more susceptible to necromantic stuff. -2 on saves against Necromancy spells and effects, but also +1d6 damage from the natural weapons of undead.

Enables the use of other spells. There are nine other necrotic spells in Libris Mortis which rely on existing cysts. This was the main problem.

Before I get into why those other spells were the main problem, I need to explain a few things about the metagame.

The DM was a touch...conservative, shall we say, with what he would and would not allow source-wise. Despite this, he had a penchant for picking up the latest splatbooks (non-setting specific and Eberron) and taking material from them. As a player, he mostly played Fighters and was not (at that time) big on mages; thus, he didn’t have a good grasp of what spells were and were not especially powerful based on (sometimes foreseeable) consequences.

The halfling was intended to be a dual-wand wielding sneak-a-sniper, so went Rogue/Sorcerer. Because of what this build required, he put many of his early levels into Sorcerer instead of Rogue when we needed a party Rogue, yet somehow managed not to cast much of anything. In the end, he was terrible at literally everything except lying.

Naturally, the enemy caster succeeded at planting the cyst on the halfling. I’m not sure why the caster felt the halfling (not just a halfling, but a halfling child) was the best choice for harboring a cyst that’s designed to screw with the enemy long-term and we had plenty of other party members who could have served for such a host, but whatever. The halfling failed his save and BAM! We’re in trouble.

Like I said, necrotic cyst enables nine other spells -- almost like a Cleric domain, as the others span 1st through 9th levels (no cantrips). However, they all require the caster to possess a “mother cyst” (a flavorful feat tax; eh).

The 1st-level spell is yet another detect something spell, but it only detects necrotic cysts. Meh, but it means that we can’t go anywhere near these cultists without them knowing we’re there.

It was probably the 3rd-level spell, necrotic bloat, that was the reason we felt the need to get rid of the cyst in the first place: the caster deals Level x d6 damage (so 5d6 to 6d6) to the target and half of that damage is “Vile” (horribly evil, can only be healed within the area of a consecrate or hallow spell).

I say this because we were never told (or I forgot if we were told; this was 14ish years ago) why the halfling was reduced to something like 1 HP, but the halfling was basically out of commission entirely as we struggled to figure out what we could do.

That was months of out-of-game time.

First, we turned to my character’s mother, a Dwarven Cleric; she was unable to do much, sadly.

Then we heard about an enclave of elven druids who might be able to remove the cyst. They were on the other side of the mountains, so it would be a long journey to get to them and it wasn’t assured that they could (or would) help us.

So we journeyed.

And were constantly waylaid by undead. Lots of undead. Lots of weird undead. (The DM had fun dragging up monsters from Monster Manual III, which I’d written off at that point. He did this largely because I had, but slightly because he had a hard-on for Eberron shit.)

We did manage to get to the enclave of elves and had them remove the cyst. The halfling’s player felt like they got to do basically nothing the entire time, another player switched out characters twice (one was boring due to how he made it, the other died; the third one developed mysanthropy [became a wererat] resulting in awesomeness), a third player spot rotated at least three times, and we had traded the quite fun Mikey for the Paladin no one liked, so we were not having fun.

It was after the enclave that we (well, I) realized something: we were being scryed upon. Our DM finally told us about necrotic scrying.

As it turns out, the 2nd-level cyst spell functions almost identically to scrying, but only on subjects with necrotic cysts (it also has a few other, largely meaningless drawbacks). Scrying is a monster of a spell, which is why it’s a 4th level spell by default on the Druid and Sorcerer/Wizard spell lists (that’s 7th class level for the prepared casters and 8th for Sorcerers); Clerics treat it as a 5th-level spell (10th class level), Bards as 3rd (because they maxed at 6th-level spells in 3.x, so they got it at the same time as Wizards). A caster with scrying can manipulate events from far, far away with little effort; it’s the spell for a BBEG for many campaigns. Making it a 2nd-level spell just makes it scarier.

It was at this point that I yelled at the DM:

If you give a continent-spanning cult of evil an easy means of scrying, you’ve given its upper echelons full access to the ACTUAL spell.

The ordinary spell scrying relies on familiarity; it’s one of the few instances of sympathetic magic in the game. By enabling someone an easier way to scry on one character and putting that someone into a large organization in a low-rung position, you’ve given the higher-ups a means of seeing the rest of the party and thus the ability to scry on them through normal means.

Meaning that the cyst became obsolete not long after the first casting of necrotic scrying.

Meaning the undead continued to bother us every night (and somehow never get seen on watches) even after we got the cyst removed.

The next step was to look up a means of blocking scrying. Our other caster having left the party long, long ago (player went to grad school) and our halfling being utterly useless, we had to track down a magic item to shield us from scrying.

So the DM made us negotiate with a dragon to get one out of its hoard.

The dragon could have easily killed us, for the record. It was astonishing that we were able to get the thing at all. Somehow, we got some like two other items, one of which was a cape of the mountebank...

...that the halfling promptly stole that night while everyone slept and used to abandon the party.

It was only after this point that we managed to get back to the main plot. We had been playing for a little over a year, may have been at fifth level at that point (it might have taken longer), and had next to no magic items (other than the anti-scrying device and maybe something else we got from the hoard). We got maybe two sessions after that before getting TPKed.

#ask meme #derptaur

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toxicdogars · 4 years

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DND!!

Tumblr Meets D&D - Your Muse as a D&D Character

Blue

The last of my builds for this round, we finally get to a Pokemon Adventures character, which means we actually have a heckin’ lot to base this build off of, both from the canon source and from @maskedthief‘s interpretation of her. Blue is the third trainer to rise from Pallet Town, having set out on her journey around Kanto to take part in the league tournament after stealing a Squirtle from Professor Oak’s lab. She’s run into the likes of Red and Green plenty of times, though major moments include stealing Red’s Boulder and Cascade Badges as well as selling him a bunch of fake items. There’s also the raid on Silph Co, where she helped Red and Green knock Team Rocket outa there, even pulling a few fast ones on the mistress of Psychic Types and Rocket Admin, Sabrina. We should also be reminded of her backstory, kidnapped at a young age by a giant bird and raised as one of the Masked Man’s minions. It was there she learned all about Evolution- when something will evolve, how it evolves, how fast it can evolve, etc. These are skills we should be able to translate into some forms of knowledge, which is our first goal. In addition we need to make sure her hands are fast and just as sticky and that she can move fast to wing it outta there. Lastly, let’s try to get some of her Pokemon team represented, with the bulk of them being of the Fairy Type, we should ensure that Blue has plenty of fey influence. Once again, we’ll be using Dungeons and Dragons 5th edition and all books and articles related to it.

Ability Scores

These ventures will use standard array, a set of numbers given as a sort of average stat pool. Feel free to roll for stats if you wanted to use this character, just treat this arrangement as a general order for what stats are most important. We won’t need to bother with multiclassing, so just make sure you use the stat spread as a guideline and you’ll be passing with flying colors. ...Too soon?

Strength: 8 (Won’t really help us.) Dexterity: 15 (Main attacking stat and useful for thievery) Constitution: 10 (I don’t wanna dump it.) Intelligence: 13 (Need this to be pretty solid.) Wisdom: 12 (Definitely has decent Insight rolls.) Charisma: 14 (Definitely knows how to please people.)

Race

Let’s look at some options here. We could make Blue a Human, since she is one (as far as we’re aware) and get her a free Feat. But I think we can do that juuuuust a little bit better. Know how I mentioned the fey earlier? Let’s actually make Blue a Half-Elf. Half-Elves get the best of Humans and Elves, starting with the typical 30 feet of movement, +2 to their Charisma score (raising it to 16), +1 to two different stats of their choice (bump Dexterity to 16 and Intelligence to 14), and Darkvision out to 60 feet. It doesn’t look very easy to see outta that mask, so she definitely had to see better in low light. Not to mention it’s very handy for a thief. Her Fey Ancestry would also give her advantage on charm saves and she wouldn’t be able to be put to sleep by magic, great for staying away from insomnia and nightmares, eh? She would also get Skill Versatility, gaining two skills of her choice. I’d recommend Arcana for her knowledge of magical metamorphosis and History to cover any research on Evolution already done. As for Languages, she gets Common, Elvish, and a language of her choice. Perhaps Auran, the language of beings close to the Elemental Plane of Air?

Class and Background

Now, for our thief-y little girl here, I’m thinking that the best way to go is Bard, her About page does mention she’s a good singer, right? Okay that’s a big fat lie and we know it. It’s obvious, she’s a Rogue. Do I even need to explain why? No, she probably stole the reason and flew on outta here.

Rogues start with a d8 hit die (decent, not the best), proficiency in Dexterity and Intelligence saving throws, simple weapons, hand crossbows, longswords, rapiers, shortswords, thieves’ tools, and four skills from a pretty big list. Of the options listed, Acrobatics, Deception, Investigation, and Persuasion cover her agility and people skills effectively. We’ll get some more skills to aid her thieving from her background. Toss on some light armor, I’d recommend studded leather. As for what weapons to focus on, I’d suggest any Finesse weapon to pair well with her Dexterity. While there’s no real in-character option, but a rapier is pretty stylish and could evoke a sweet masked thief vibe. It deals a d8 + her Dexterity modifier in damage too, making it the strongest option for her.

As for her background, let’s focus on her time with the Masked Man and call her an Urchin. But since we’re altering it a bit, feel free to rename it Kidnapped Youth or something like that. Take proficiency in Sleight of Hand and Perception to round off her thief-y skills. As I’ve said before, backgrounds also give you access to tools. Her Ditto could be represented early with proficiency in a Disguise Kit while proficiency in the Forgery Kit could make her just as deceptive in writing as she is with spoken word.

This build’s gonna be pretty easy, Rogue from start to finish. We’ll take a look at what Blue gets at each level and discuss ways to make use of them and cover any choices that need to be made. At Rogue 1, Blue gets one of the best things about being a Rogue, a way to make her anime as fuck with incredible skill checks in the skills she uses most:

Expertise: Choose two of your skill proficiencies, or one of your skill proficiencies and your proficiency with thieves' tools. Your proficiency bonus is doubled for any ability check you make that uses either of the chosen proficiencies..

I’d suggest Arcana to make her an expert in Evolution and Sleight of Hand to make her hands as fast as possible. For the record, proficiency bonuses start at +2 and reach +6 by level twenty, so that’s a free +12 in those stats by the end of the build. Pretty dang good if you ask me. Rogues also get their other key feature at this level, which helps them deal more damage in their turn:

Sneak Attack: Once per turn, you can deal extra 1d6 damage to one creature you hit with an attack if you have advantage on the attack roll. The attack must use a finesse or a ranged weapon.You don't need advantage on the attack roll if another enemy of the target is within 5 feet of it, that enemy isn't incapacitated, and you don't have disadvantage on the attack roll.

And lastly our girl Blue gets Thieves’ Cant, a secret language of ciphers and symbols that can carry secret messages. Pretty handy way to exchange secret communications.

Thieves’ Cant: You know thieves' cant, a secret mix of dialect, jargon, and code that allows you to hide messages in seemingly normal conversation. Only another creature that knows thieves' cant understands such messages. It takes four times longer to convey such a message than it does to speak the same idea plainly. In addition, you understand a set of secret signs and symbols used to convey short, simple messages, such as whether an area is dangerous or the territory of a thieves' guild, whether loot is nearby, or whether the people in an area are easy marks or will provide a safe house for thieves on the run.

At Rogue 2, we can satisfy that speedy goal of mine and get a way for her to soar like a Pidgeot compared to the average adventurer:

Cunning Action: You can use your Bonus Action to take the Dash, Disengage, or Hide action. Thanks to the Class Feature Variant Unearthed Arcana article, she can additionally use this bonus action to Aim. When using your bonus action in this way, you give yourself advantage on your next attack roll on the current turn. You can use this bonus action only if you haven’t moved during this turn, and after you use the bonus action, your speed is 0 until the end of the current turn

At Rogue 3, Blue can pick a roguish archetype. Arcane Tricksters gain the ability to cast wizard spells, relying on their Intelligence modifier to enchant and illuse. This means her Intelligence modifier is added to the attack rolls of spells and the difficulty check of saving throws her spells require. She gains two cantrips from the wizard list alongside Mage Hand, and three first spells, two of which must be enchantment or illusion schools with the third being free of that restriction. In case someone doesn’t know the difference, cantrips are simple magical tricks you can pull off at will, while leveled spells require expending one of your spell slots of a level equal to or higher than the spell’s level. Here’s some options:

Mage Hand: A conjuration cantrip that manifests a spectral hand that can be used to do a ton of really small things like lifting small objects, pulling levers from a distance, that sort of thing. It’s like a tiny ghost thing, which would be perfect if Blue ever picked up, say, a Shuppet or something. Especially with the benefits that Arcane Trickster gives her, as you’ll see down below. Dancing Lights: An evocation cantrip that creates lines of multicolored orbs of light, like fairy lights. It does require concentration to maintain them, but it’s still a nice little spell for its effects. Message: An transmutation cantrip that that allows the user to send a telepathic message to someone they point at, and that individual can respond telepathically. It’s like a walkie talkie, or a cell phone. A shitty cell phone. With a range of only a hundred and twenty feet. Disguise Self: A first level illusion spell that will let Blue take on different appearances. This is essentially her Ditto, able to shift her into the likeness of Sabrina, for instance. Charm Person: A first level enchantment spell forces a Wisdom saving throw on the target, and if they fail they become charmed by her and basically become her bestest friend while they’re affected. A great way to get what she wants if her own natural charisma isn’t enough. Find Familiar: A first level conjuration spell that has a buncha random rules, that you’re gonna wanna look up, but it basically amounts to the ability to summon a pet that will stick around and help her out. I’d recommend a pooch of some sort, and since this spell can allow the beast summoned to be considered a different creature type, it could be a fey dog. You know. Like Snubbull.

Also at this level, Blue gains some swanky upgrades to her Mage Hand spell, letting her use it for more rogue-y things. Additionally, her Sneak Attack dice go up to 2d6:

Mage Hand Legerdemain: When you cast Mage Hand, you can make the spectral hand invisible, and you can perform the following additional tasks with it: -You can stow one object the hand is holding in a container worn or carried by another creature. -You can retrieve an object in a container worn or carried by another creature. -You can use thieves' tools to pick locks and disarm traps at range. -You can perform one of these tasks without being noticed by a creature if you succeed on a Dexterity (Sleight of Hand) check contested by the creatures Wisdom (Perception) check. -In addition, you can use the bonus action granted by your Cunning Action to control the hand.

At Rouge 4, Blue gets the first of her Ability Score Improvements (ASIs). Let’s take the +2 and put it in Dexterity, bumping that up to 18 for better hit and damage rolls with her rapier and better armor. She also gets another spell, which can be from the enchantment or illusion schools:

Color Spray: A first level illusion spell that releases brilliant light in a cone that blinds a certain amount of hit points’ worth of individuals for one round. It’s not the best way to stall a foe, but it’s certainly in character. It’s a solid use of Flash, which would have been an HM back in the day that I suspect one of her team would have had.

At Rouge 5, Blue gets another incredibly helpful core feature that makes it a lot easier for Rogues to survive in the midst of combat. And it certainly fits her character, as the Pokemon Adventures trainers aren’t hesitant to get right up there with their foes in battles. In addition, her Sneak Attack dice go up to 3d6:

Uncanny Dodge: When an attacker that you can see hits you with an attack, you can use your reaction to halve the attack's damage against you.

At Rogue 6, Blue gains Expertise in two more skills (or her thieves’ tools) of her choice. Let’s make her social skills even more busted and take expertise in Deception and Persuasion.

At Rogue 7, Blue gets a spell, which can now be of second level, and another key feature which makes her even harder to hit than she was before, even by some of the strongest spells in the game. In addition, her Sneak Attack dice go up to 4d6:

Mirror Image: A second level illusion spell that functions like Double Team, creating illusory clones that can draw fire, making it harder to hit the real Blue. A handy little technique that I could see Blue making a lot of use of. Evasion: 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.

At Rogue 8, Blue gets her second ASI and let’s use that to max her Dexterity score at 20 for the best hit, damage, and armor modifiers for her level. She also gets a spell from any school:

Thunderwave: A first level evocation spell that blasts a fifteen foot radius around her with damaging sound, a bit like Hyper Voice, which I have no doubt her Jiggly knows. It’s handy to have magical damage, and with such a focus on utility spells this might be the best option for damage if her rapier won’t cut it.

At Rogue 9, Blue gets another Arcane Trickster feature that makes her oh-so deliciously more capable of messing with her enemies. In addition, her Sneak Attack dice go up to 5d6:

Magical Ambush: If you are hidden from a creature when you cast a spell on it, the creature has disadvantage on any saving throw it makes against the spell this turn.

At Rogue 10, Blue gets her third ASI and lets use that to bump her Intelligence by +2 (raising it to 16) for better saves and and hit rolls. She also gets her fourth cantrip and another spell, which again must be from the enchantment or illusion schools:

Ray of Frost: An evocation cantrip that looses a blast of cold energy like some sort of beam or ray of ice. The book says it’s fired from the caster, but I see no trouble flavoring it as tossing out a pokeball to summon a mighty Blastoise to douse a foe with cold water. Some nice damage at range, since cantrips scale up with level, gaining additional damage dice. Hold Person: A second level enchantment spell that forces a Wisdom saving throw on a foe, restraining them in place if they fail. This is your Whirlpool on Blasty or some sorta weird fairy magic from Jiggly or Clefy. Combine it with Magical Ambush to make it really hard for the enemy to pass the save.

At Rogue 11, Blue gains another spell from the enchantment or illusion schools and another touchstone feature for improving her skills, and let’s just say it’s going to make her a complete monster with the skills she has expertise in. In addition, her Sneak Attack dice go up to 6d6:

Sleep: A first level enchantment spell that uses Sing to put a certain number of hit points’ worth of foes in the area to sleep. This is a little more effective than Color Spray and hits over a wider area, but there are times when blinding a foe may be more useful than simply knocking them out. Regardless, a useful spell to have in her kit. Reliable Talent: Whenever you make an ability check that lets you add your proficiency bonus, you can treat a d20 roll of 9 or lower as a 10.

Seriously, consider this for a second. A Sleight of Hand check from her at this level has a bonus of +13 (5 from Dexterity, 8 from doubled proficiency). That means the lowest she can roll on a Sleight of hand check is 23. Lowest. That’s crazy. And super amazing for stealing her friends’ wallets before casually handing them back to them.

At Rogue 12, Blue gets her fourth ASI and lets use that to bump her Charisma by +2 (raising it to 16) to make her all the more sociable and manipulative.

At Rogue 13, she gets another spell, which can now be of third level. Blue apparently decided that it wasn’t good enough to be stabbing people and casting spells at the same time and decided to make it so she can really fuck up a single person that was getting on her nerves. In addition, her Sneak Attack dice go up to 7d6:

Fear: A third level illusion spell that forces foes to make a Wisdom saving throw or be frightened by some terrifying visage. Why not show her enemies a massive shadowy bird of doom? Oh, they aren’t afraid of birds? Ouch. I suppose ya could spook ‘em with something else though. Versatile Trickster: As a bonus action on your turn, you can designate a creature within 5 feet of your Mage Hand. Doing so gives you advantage on attack rolls against that creature until the end of the turn.

At Rogue 14, Blue gains another spell from any school and a feature that may not be perfectly in character, but it does extrapolate on how low to the ground her ears can be. And I see nothing wrong with giving characters features that build on their canon:

Tidal Wave: A third level conjuration spell that releases a massive wave of crushing water, dealing bludgeoning damage over a wide area should the targets fail a Dexterity saving throw. This is the best approximation of Blasty’s Hydro Cannon I could find. Blindsense: If you are able to hear, you are aware of the location of any hidden or invisible creature within 10 feet of you.

At Rogue 15, Blue gets a really handy way to mitigate that lower Wisdom score, something I’d wanted to deal with since the beginning. In addition, her Sneak Attack dice go up to 8d6:

Slippery Mind: You gain proficiency in Wisdom saving throws.

At Rogue 16, Blue gets her fifth ASI and honestly her stats look pretty fine, so let’s exchange that ASI for a Feat, and I’d recommend a way to give her more skill proficiencies- as in the Skilled Feat. She also gets another spell from either of her restricted schools:

Skilled: You gain proficiency in any combination of 3 skills or tools of your choice. Round off her survival skills by taking Survival, Nature, and Animal Handling. Invisibility: A second level illusion spell that does what it says on the tin, turning Blue invisible for the duration, as long as she maintains her concentration. Really dang handy, and something I suspect could be possible with Ditty, reflecting the light around them to turn invisible or something.

At Rogue 17, Blue gets another Arcane Trickster feature that makes her the bane of enemy casters. Considering her smarts and her knowledge of Pokemon, it does make sense that she’d be able to put her magical know-how to fuck up other people’s days. In addition, her Sneak Attack dice go up to 9d6:

Spell Thief: Immediately after a creature casts a spell that targets you or includes you in its area of effect, you can use your reaction to force the creature to make a saving throw with its spellcasting ability modifier. The DC equals your spell save DC. On a failed save, you negate the spell's effect against you, and you steal the knowledge of the spell if it is at least 1st-level and of a level you can cast (it doesn't need to be a wizard spell). For the next 8 hours, you know the spell, can cast it using your spell slots, and the creature can't cast that spell until the 8 hours have passed. Once you use this feature, you can't use it again until you finish a long rest.

At Rogue 18, Blue gets yet another feature that makes her really damn hard to hit. Kinda terrifying if ya ask me, she’s lookin’ more like a DBZ character with how many options she has to dodge:

Elusive: No attack roll has advantage against you while you aren't incapacitated.

At Rogue 19 Blue gets her sixth ASI and lets also trade that one in for a Feat. I’d recommend Alert, so she’s always making use of her skills to keep an eye on things. She also gets another spell from one of her restricted schools, which can now be of fourth level. In addition, her Sneak Attack dice go up to 10d6:

Alert: Always on the lookout for danger, you gain the following benefits: -You can't be surprised while you are conscious. -You gain a +5 bonus to initiative. -Other creatures don't gain advantage on attack rolls against you as a result of being unseen by you. Charm Monster: A fourth level enchantment spell that does what Charm Person does to people but to monsters. it forces a Wisdom saving throw, and if the monster fails they become Blue’s best friendy-wend. Very handy to stop marauding monstrous beastly Pokemon if ya ask me.

At Rogue 20, Blue gets her another spell from any school, and her capstone feature, and a pretty solid one at that:

Mordenkainen’s Faithful Hound: A fourth level conjuration spell that yes, may seem a bit odd of a pick, but it’s actually kinda nifty. It summons an invisible dog that guards you for eight hours, chompin’ on anything that gets in Blue’s way for 4d8 piercing damage. Now I said that her Familiar could be Snubbull, and I stand by that, so I suggest you use this spell to emulate her Nido instead. The loyal Nidoqueen already behaves like a guard dog, so it seemed pretty dang fitting to me. Stroke of Luck: If your attack misses a target within range, you can turn the miss into a hit. Alternatively, if you fail an ability check, you can treat the d20 roll as a 20. Once you use this feature, you can't use it again until you finish a short or long rest.

See what I mean? A once per short rest instant win button. Call it her Dex Holder plot armor if ya want.

Final Thoughts

Know how I said Clair was terrifying? Blue is just as much, if not moreso. I’ve already talked about just how busted Expertise is and how good it is on someone like Blue, but let’s look at just how many of her skill checks are going to be amazing. There are eighteen skills in the game, and Blue has proficiency in eleven of them. Hell, she practically has proficiency in the hidden nineteenth skill, Initiative! Alert gives her a bonus that’s only one off of her proficiency, so yeah. Not to mention that four of the skills she’s proficiency in will never roll lower than a 20 on the die, seeing as her +12 proficiency bonus stacks on top of Reliable Talent’s ability to turn anything under 10 to 10. That’s just. Really damn good. The few skills she’s not proficient in are just ones she probably wouldn’t need to take anyway. With only seven skills left, her allies could easily handle them. I mean. Yellow definitely has the Medicine and Religion skills covered, both Green and Red have Athletics no doubt. What’s left? Performance? She’s not good at singing. Stealth? Why be sneaky when you can waltz right in and take what you want? Intimidation? That’s more Green’s thing. Insight? That’s more Yellow’s thing. And ah. That’s all the skills left. Yeah. Blue’s a freakin’ skill monkey. And she’s got great damage with her Sneak Attack and plenty of ways to get advantage so she can always get the big damage off. Not to mention her spells make her a threat even at range, mixing in magical damage to boot.

There’s not many cons. I mean… spell slots are a limited resource, sure, but that’s why you gotta be picky about you use them. We also never boosted her Constitution, leaving her with pretty low hit points throughout the build, even with maximum rolls on the hit dice. But that’s why I always say you roll for stats- You’re more than likely going to get a roll you like better to at least get a small bonus. My advice? If you can get a Constitution score of 14 as a Rogue or some sort of caster, then you are perfectly fine as is. And if ya don’t have the Con, Blue still has a ton of ways to avoid damage with all those features from Rogue. Seriously, twenty levels of Rogue makes for a stupidly infuriating game of cat and mouse, and I’m sure Blue would love that.

I hope you enjoyed this. Feel free to tell me how wrong I am with my choices.

#[Memes]#maskedthief

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tigerkirby215 · 4 years

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5e Tahm Kench, the River King build (League of Legends)

(Artwork by Pan Chengwei. Made for Riot Games.)

I guess I’ve still got demons on the mind after Halloween. Truth be told while I do hope to someday make a build for every champ I’m very hesitant to make builds for the “monsterous” champs. Cho’Gath, Kog’Maw, and Tahm Kench were all on that list for one reason and one reason alone: you can’t say “I puke on / eat / lick the enemy” without drawing a few strange glances. But the good folk over at Doran’s & Dragons did a Tahm Kench build and while I get where they were going for I’m personally not the biggest fan.

D’s&Ds tries to capture the flavor of the character much more than their abilities, which I can greatly appreciate. I think if you want a smooth-talking demon who swindles people out of everything, including their lives, than D’s&Ds’ build for Tahm is great. But I’m more interested in the mechanics of Tahm Kench: with literal thick skin to absorb incoming damage, a tongue that can leave our opponents stunned, and the ability to... vore your friends to keep them out of harm’s way.

No there aren’t vanilla rules for eating your friends alive! It’s all going to be reflavoring! See this is exactly why I didn’t want to do Tahm.

GOALS

I am enthralled by your class and refinement - Tahm Kench is a demon of greed, luring in unsuspecting hopefuls with promises of prosperity. We’ll need a tongue as sharp as a sword, and a sword as sharp as our tongue.

You have succeeded only in ruffling my attire! - To walk around looking like a Disney Caricature you need to have some thick skin. While other champs wear armor Tahm just has Thick Skin.

All the world's a river; and I'm its king - With a mouth that big you’ve gotta put it to good use, helping your allies across the river... regardless of if they want to go. (Well, most spells that target allies in D&D have to be willing...)

RACE

While I appreciate D’s&D and their take by making Tahm Kench a Locatha they were made for a Second Life charity module, which means they’re not officially endorsed at Adventurer’s League or other such gatherings. Also the friend who shares content with me on D&D Beyond doesn’t own Locatha Rising.

Also technically this build isn’t AL legal since it uses multiple sourcebooks (Mordenkainen's + others) so uhhhh...

Also this build is going to use a subclass that wasn’t available when D’s&D made their build.

With that being said Two-Coats is a demon so we’ll go for the demon race: Tiefling! More specifically we’ll get acquainted with the icy depths of the river as a Levistus Tiefling. Levistus Tieflings see their Charisma score increase by 2 and their Constitution increase by 1 for some protection thanks to the cold. Additionally you get some innate spells thanks to Legacy of Stygia, which I’ll cover when they come up.

All Tieflings have 60 feet of Darkvision, Hellish Resistance to Fire damage, and the ability to speak Common and Infernal. The only thing that changes with your Tiefling subrace is your ability scores and your innate spellcasting, and truly your brand of demon doesn’t matter much. "Call me king, call me demon - water forgets the names of the drowned."

ABILITY SCORES

15; CHARISMA - For a truly delicious meal you need to soften them up a little first. Take it smooth and let them relax before going in for the kill.

14; CONSTITUTION - Kench is a chunky lad who can take quite a beating. It takes more than a blade to slay the king.

13; STRENGTH - You need quite the strong stomach to hold down tougher meals. “Needs salt!”

12; WISDOM - You need a bit of natural intuition to know how folk tick.

10; INTELLIGENCE - Live long enough and you learn quite a bit. At least enough to promise knowledge to anyone looking for it.

8; DEXTERITY - As said before the river king is a large demon of a man, who can take as much time as he wants to get a meal.

BACKGROUND

No surprises here: Tahm Kench is a Charlatan, swindling folk all across Runeterra out of everything they once owned... including their lives.

Well, maybe a few surprises. You will still be taking Deception but instead of Slight of Hand take Persuasion proficiency, because you’re more of a smooth talker than a con artist. I’m also going to suggest taking two Languages instead of two Tools: take whatever language you think you may need, but to talk your way to your next meal they’ll have to be able to understand you.

Regardless you can’t have them knowing your a demon, so take a False Identity as the king. Most folk think you’re a kind soul, with plenty to back you up. And you can always get any papers they may desire.

(Artwork by Alex “alexplank” Flores. Made for Riot Games.)

THE BUILD

LEVEL 1 - FIGHTER 1

Starting off as a Fighter because funny Constitution saving throws, among other things. "My constitution is unflappable!" Regardless you get proficiency in two skills from the Fighter list so take Insight and Athletics to know who’s ready to be carried down river.

You also get a Fighting Style of your choice and while I’d love to get a Reach weapon or indeed any two-handed weapon one of Tahm Kench’s best assets is the Protection he can provide his allies. For this you’ll need a shield (and you can take a regular Strength weapon along side it) but if an attack is coming their way you can grab them in your maw to give the attack disadvantage... Or you could not vore your allies, and take the Defense Fighting Style instead to get more AC.

Well at least if anyone gets mad at all the vore comments you can tank it with your Thick Skin and regenerate it with Second Wind. (The Fighter ability, not the rune in the Resolve tree.) And to fight back with a lashing of your tongue Ray of Frost from Legacy of Stygia will do some damage at range and slow down your foes. It’s not a stun yet... not yet.

LEVEL 2 - BARD 1

What? Did you think we wouldn’t have some tricks of the charmer’s trade? As a Bard you get one proficiency in any skill and one instrument proficiency. Choose Intimidation because my what big teeth you have! (But truthfully take whatever proficiency works for your party, as Tahm Kench can be whatever you want him to be.) As for instrument I’m going to have to go for Lute: it’s the closest you’ll get to a tongue guitar, and don’t you dare say “tongue guitar” at your D&D table.

Regardless Bards get Bardic Inspiration at first level, to make sure you fulfill the support role through the use of honeyed words and sweet nothings. You get a pool of d6s that you can give to an ally to add to their attack rolls, skill checks, or saving throws. You can give a d6 as an action and have a number of them equal to your proficiency bonus, and regain them all at the end of a long rest.

But wait! There’s more! You also get Spellcasting as a Bard: you get two cantrips from the Bard list. A man of fine tastes needs to keep his outfit in check, so take Mending to do that. Vicious Mockery meanwhile will let you use that trademark Tahm Kench sharp tongue (not the literal sharp tongue) to taunt your foes and make it harder for them to hurt your allies. "The baseness of your appetite repulses me!"

As for leveled spells you can pick four of them at first level: naturally you’ll need Charm Person to tempt mortals with pleasing bargains. To worry them that you’re coming to collect Dissonant Whispers will fill their minds with unease. To open up your foes for your friends to take them down Bane will loosen their resolve. And to make sure everyone laughs at your jokes? Tasha’s Hideous Laughter.

LEVEL 3 - BARD 2

Second level Bards are Jack of All Trades, letting you add half your proficiency bonus to any skill you’re not proficient in. Tahm Kench is a demon, and he needs to be able to help wherever he can to tempt others to ask him for help.

Speaking of help you also get Song of Rest to give allies an extra d6 of healing during short rests. Since I doubt Tahm Kench is much of a singer, consider this more of him telling stories of grandeur that only the king of river would know. Or perhaps you’re cooking everyone some food? Who knows.

And finally you can learn another spell, but I’m actually going to wait for next level since we’ve gotten all the first level spells we really need already. But you do get Armor of Agathys thanks to Legacy of Stygia, for some Thornmail to boost your defenses.

LEVEL 4 - BARD 3

Third level Bards get Expertise in two skills to double your proficiency bonus: naturally we’ll go for Deception and Persuasion to have little trouble striking up a bargain.

But much more importantly you get to choose your Bardic College, and I think it’s safe to say that Tahm Kench is a self-taught master of the College of Eloquence. Eloquence Bards have a Silver Tongue, making any roll below a 10 on a Persuasion or a Deception role default to a 10. Notice how we just gave ourselves Expertise on those checks? This means that the lowest you can get on one of these checks is a 17, which for most folk is an automatic success! "How delectable!"

Additionally, your works make it harder to resist the effects of magic. Unsettling Words lets you spend a Bonus Action to roll Bardic Inspiration on an enemy. The next saving throw they make they have to subtract the number you rolled on the Inspiration die. This has synergy with both yourself and your friends. Honey your words before charming folk to hear you, or soften up a foe for some crazy mage to take them down.

Speaking of crazy mage: more spells! The great part about a character like Tahm Kench is that I am completely justified taking utility / roleplay spells like Gift of Gab, letting you backtrack in case you say something silly during a conversation. (With a small royalty fee to the good folk over at Acquisitions Incorporated, of course.) But if you want something more immediately useful then Hold Person will let you stun foes with your words, keeping them in place for allies to cut them down.

LEVEL 5 - BARD 4

Fourth level Bards get an Ability Score Improvement but I’m going to suggest something a little different. Old Yawn-Belly is a demon with a hunger for fine clothes so there shouldn’t be much issue taking the Eldritch Adept Unearthed Arcana feat, soon to be in Tasha’s Cauldron of Everything! With a Mask of Many Faces you can cast Disguise Self at will. This will let you wear a fine jacket while still being in heavy armor. "How did I leave my jacket pocket unadorned for so long?"

I really like unlimited Disguise Self for Tahm Kench for a number of reasons. It’s said that he can take whatever form he desires to lure in his victims, which makes sense given the nature of his character. Unlimited Disguise Self also obviously has use for a charmer, letting you get away with a lot more discussion than normal. But the most important thing is that while Tahm Kench doesn’t wear anything heavy in-game he’s far from stealthy. But disguising your armor doesn’t make it any quieter, which is unironically perfect for our affairs.

Regardless you can learn another spell at this level, along with another cantrip. For your cantrip Prestidigitation is great for life’s simple pleasures, recreating simple things like heating food, chilling drinks, or making things taste like whatever you desire.

For leveled spells may I make a suggestion of the Suggestion spell? It’ll let you make simple suggestions for things that folks should do, and they’ll be inclined to do it. They won’t do anything dangerous like stand in the jaws of a demon, but asking them to walk alone down river is a pretty harmless ask. Oh and to top it off a Tiefling gets Darkness at 5th level, thanks to Legacy of Stygia.

(Artwork by robynlauart on DeviantArt)

LEVEL 6 - BARD 5

5th level Bards get Font of Inspiration to recover their Bardic Inspiration at the end of a Short Rest, which is good because your Bardic Inspiration also increases to a d8.

Additionally you can learn third level spells like Sending to check up on some old deals. If you can’t tell it’s really hard to translate Bard spells onto Tahm Kench, but we kinda need a few more levels in this class.

LEVEL 7 - BARD 6

6th level Eloquence Bards get Unfailing Inspiration. If an ally uses your Bardic Inspiration but still don’t succeed on their roll, they get to keep the die. Simple! You also get Universal Speech, allowing you to choose a number of creatures equal to your Charisma modifier to understand anything you may say. There’s no reason you can’t strike a deal with the local wildlife. And finally you get Countercharm for some Tenacity against Charms and Frightening effects, or you could not do that.

Unfortunately you can’t understand them when you use Universal Speech, but that’s where the spell Tongues comes in. Along with ha ha Tahm Kench Tongue you can make sure anyone understand what you or an ally might be saying. Keep Universal Speech for the simpletons of the world. "You're strong like bull, and smart like cow."

LEVEL 8 - BARD 7

7th level Bards finally get 4th level spells, and as we know "It is my mouth into which all travels end." Take Dimension Door to grab a friend (in your mouth... or not) and go far and wide.

LEVEL 9 - BARD 8

8th level Bards get an Ability Score Improvement and seeing as our last ASI went to getting a top hat we may as well increase that uneven Strength and Charisma.

You can also learn another spell and there are quite a few nice ones at 4th level. Confusion and Compulsion will let your words do the fighting for you, and Locate Creature will help you find anyone looking for a bargain. Or of course you could take your own spell, since these builds are only suggestions after all.

(Artwork by MirthSpindle on DeviantArt.)

LEVEL 10 - FIGHTER 2

Now that we can get people to sign a contract it’s time to take what’s rightfully ours. But firstly Fighters get Action Surge at second level to take two actions on a turn. Perhaps a Hail of Blades, or maybe a mix of words to sully the mind?

LEVEL 11 - FIGHTER 3

Third level Fighters can choose their Martial Archetype and to master your tongue in more ways than one (not like that you perv) look no further than the Battle Master Fighter. You get d8 Combat Superiority Die that can fuel a variety of manuevers:

To stun a foe with your lashing tongue take Trip Attack, for a little more than just stopping them in their tracks.

To grab an ally in your mouth (or preferably not doing that) Maneuvering Attack will let you get them to move somewhere safe without being in danger of getting attacked themselves.

And to play the tank role of the party Goading Attack will taunt your enemies so that they can only concentrate on you. You can take it: you have Thick Skin!

But of course most importantly you are a Student of War, granting proficiency in an Artisan’s Tool of your choice. If you’re going to write contracts you’re going to need good penmanship, so grab proficiency in Calligrapher’s Supplies as the pen is mightier than the sword and Tulok the Barbrarian memes shall live on eternally.

LEVEL 12 - FIGHTER 4

4th level means more Ability Score Improvements and... you know? I don’t think we’re nearly tanky enough! Infernal Constitution is a feat exclusive to Tieflings that grants resistance to Cold and Poison damage, as well as the poisoned condition. And it increases your Constitution by 1 as well. "My visage was already flawless, now it just has more vigor."

LEVEL 13 - FIGHTER 5

5th level Fighters get an Extra Attack for two attacks instead of one, or four with Action Surge! Quick and easy!

(Artwork by benlo on DeviantArt.)

LEVEL 14 - FIGHTER 6

Hey more Ability Score Improvements! You know despite intending to swing a sword around your Strength is rather subpar, so perhaps increase that. (This also finally lets you put on Platemail.)

LEVEL 15 - FIGHTER 7

A friend is an enemy who hasn’t shown their true self yet, so you can know your friends with Know Your Enemy. By spending a minute studying someone you can learn if they’re worth bargaining with. You can learn their Strength, Dexterity, Constitution, Armor, Hit Points, Level, and Fighter level. Most NPCs don’t have class levels, but knowing how hard you need to hit them could help the whole party.

You also get two more Maneuvers: Evasive Footwork will let you dash off to safety, and while disarming isn’t common in Runeterra Disarming Strike seems quite in flavor for someone as... dexterous as yourself.

LEVEL 16 - FIGHTER 8

Isn’t Fighter fun when you increase your abilities every other level? Your Strength is still kinda godawful so good for that if you’d please.

LEVEL 17 - FIGHTER 9

9th level Fighters get Indomitable. If you fail a saving throw you can reroll it. You only get one of these per Long Rest so use it on a save you’re likely to succeed on like Strength, Constitution, Charisma, or... well yeah basically those three.

(Artwork by davicomodo on DeviantArt. They deactivated their account though: sad.)

LEVEL 18 - FIGHTER 10

10th level Fighters get Improved Combat Superiority. Now your d8s are d10s!

You know what else that means? More Maneuvers! To absorb even more damage Parry will give you some Bone Plating for absorption. If however by this point an ally of yours can do a lot more damage with their weapon then Commander’s Strike will let you set them up for the Pentakill!

LEVEL 19 - FIGHTER 11

11th level Fighters get another Extra Attack for 3 attacks per round. That’s enough for your three-hit passive!

LEVEL 20 - FIGHTER 12

12th level Fighters get our final Ability Score Improvement: for stronger charms and more smooth-talking to both ally and foe, take Charisma. For a different type of stronger tongue with deadlier maneuvers grab Strength instead. And if you just want to be a chunky tanky conman then Constitution is also an option!

FINAL BUILD

PROS

Every heart has its own hunger - Despite not maxing out your Charisma you’re still the king of speech. +16 in Deception and Persuasion with your lowest possible roll being a 10. That means the lowest you can get on these rolls is a 26! Not to mention that Jack of All Trades as a Bard makes you plenty good at any skill the party may need help with, and unlimited Disguise Self letting you take whatever role is needed.

Every river ends in me! - You are also a very good team player. Bardic Inspiration that never fails, tons of different ways to hold the enemy down, and several options to help your friends while they’re in a jam. "Travel awaits."

You have succeeded only in ruffling my attire! - Wow who would’ve guessed that building a tanky character to be a tank would make them tanky? You should have quite the solid healthbar and resistances to three very common damage types is nothing to scoff at, not to mention that you can wear Heavy Armor and a Shield for crazy high AC.

CONS

Are you the waiter of this establishment? - Most of your abilities rely on charges of some kind. While Maneuvers and Bardic Inspiration comes back on a Short Rest spell slots only come back after a Long one, and you don’t have many spell slots to spare.

I wonder who might like to bargain for a little freedom - This build is very ASI greedy which means a lot of your abilities are very subpar. Your low DEX score in particular is rather harsh as many dangerous spells require DEX saving throws.

Might be savory - Because this build is so ASI greedy your stats still aren’t maxed out. +3 to CON and +4 to CHA are great and all but they aren’t +5, ya know? And even with Jack of All Trades your skill checks aren’t going to beat out a specialist.

But you don’t need to be a god to sign a deal; a demon does it just as well. Master your articulation so that you can be sharp with your tongue in whatever means necessary. Bargain with your allies and seal the deal on your foes, and for the love of all that is good in the world don’t vore anyone! Jeeze!

(Artwork by Pan Chengwei. Made for Riot Games.)

#dnd #dnd 5e #dnd build #dnd guide #League of Legends #League of Legends Tahm Kench #Tahm Kench #river king #dnd fighter #dnd bard

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