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grailfinders · 3 months

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Grailfinders Viewers' Choice: Beast IV L

if anything's getting my icon blurred out, it's this one. anyways!

it's that time of the month once again, and this time I feel like an absolute beast. well, to be more accurate, y'all felt like getting an absolute beast. a beast (fgo definition) that summons beasts (D&D definition). I'm sure this won't be confusing at all.

as usual I highly doubt this build is even remotely balanced for actual PvE play, but beasts are supposed to be world ending threats, so that shouldn't be a surprise.

the build itself will be under the cut, because hoo boy there's a lot to go over.

first up, beast IV can show up in her standard Koyanskaya form, which is the one primarily used when outside her lair. this is effectively a suped-up version of Koyanskaya of Dark, with access to unlimited weaponry and NFF-brand grenades, all of which work like standard "weapons of <x> slaying" do in D&D- they deal extra damage to humanoids, and can knock humanoids prone.

the big addition here aside from standard high-level-boss resistances is her Add to the Collection ability, where once per day she can try to forcibly plane shift a non-humanoid creature into a demiplane of her creation, basically putting them in suspended animation. this will be important for later.

form two is effectively Koyanskaya's big shadowy fox form. I didn't make any hard and fast rules about how these forms connect to one another, but I would probably say her masked form can turn into this combat form once a day, probably for a couple minutes at a time.

the gimmick for this fight is her Seasonal Cycle, which both reduces the number of legendary actions she gets to actually attack people each round, but also gives her buffs. I tried to keep this close to her lostbelt-based buffs in her final fight, but I also changed the names to be less FGO-centric if you want to use this build in a game. there's not a ton to say about this one that isn't regurgitating the seasonal cycle, it's just Masked Form with a bigger focus on kicking humanoid ass.

The big nipply form shown in the build picture has a lot of text, but I'll do what I can to break it down. This is Beast IV's final form, and it's the one that sets up the Tunguska Sanctuary in the first place, so there's a lot going on. Once again her humanoid-slaying effect grows larger, but she can only take this form in her lair, plus her speed is cranked wayyy down at this point. I just. cannot imagine that thing moving any faster than a crawl. if you need something done fast, that's what your lackeys are for.

speaking of lackeys, let's Reveal the Collection. this is a ten-minute ritual, which upon completion can summon copies of creatures that were stored by the Masked Form. The higher the CR of the creatures being made, the less you can make at a time, and the shorter your range is. there's also a lesser version of this you can do as a legendary action, and it's restricted to one creature at a time, of up to CR 10.

but of course, you need a place to put all those creatures! that's why she's got Regional Effects too! it's a whole lot of text, but it basically boils down to making a life zone and a death zone around her lair. half of your collection will tend towards the life zone, and half towards the other. in the life zone, the area is choked by plants, slowing down all humanoids in the area, and also healing effects targeting non-humanoids are more powerful. the death zone has extreme heat, and humanoids have disadvantage on saves against it. also, all summoned creatures in this region have double their normal perception distance when it comes to perceiving humanoids.

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So overall, this build isn't a world-ending threat like Tiamat, or an orbital laser like Goetia, but she's not supposed to be a full-grown beast yet, so I'd cut her some slack. plus, if your party includes non-humanoid players you can make a dozen clones of them to fight the party which sounds like a really fun time. that being said, I do pity any DM who as to keep track of her seasonal buffs in a fight.

#fgo #fate grand order #D&D 5e #DND build #DND boss build

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nerdythebard · 7 months

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#58: Echo [Overwatch 2]

Always ready to learn!

This fun idea comes to us from a user by the name "deduqzaru". Today, we build the ultimate adaptoid. Echo, the creation of Doctor Liao - founding member of Overwatch - is a capable Damage hero, programmed with an advanced AI to fulfill variety of roles in combat and outside of it.

Next Time: Whosoever holds this hamm— NO! Not you! We're going back to the original!

Let's list the three main directives of this build:

Jill of All Trades: Echo was created with the goal of being able to fit into many situations, whether in combat or outside of it. In-game, her kit makes her a great scout, engager and damage-dealer.

I am Thou: Echo's Ultimate skill, "Duplicate" allows her to assume the form and copy the abilities of other characters on the battlefield.

Self-Sustainable: As a robot, Echo is unaffected by many statuses and effects that would affect humans: hunger, sleep, diseases, etc.

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There were two options to start with Echo; one very obvious, the other - not so much... so I went with the obvious one and made her a Warforged. We get a +2 Constitution and +1 to one ability of our choice (Dexterity), 30 feet walking speed, and also immunity to being aged by magic. With Constructed Resilience, we gain several benefits to our fortitude:

Resistance to poison damage and an advantage on saving throws against being poisoned

We don't need to eat, drink or sleep

We are immune to diseases

We don't need to sleep, and magic cannot put us to sleep

Stemming from that last one, thanks to Sentry's Rest we can spend our long rest (shortened to a minimum of six hours) in a sort of energy-saving mode by remaining in a motionless (but still aware) state rather than unconscious sleep.

Another set of benefits we're granted by our Integrated Protection. We gain a +1 to our AC and can integrate any armour we're proficient in into our own body (and it cannot be removed against our will). Finally, Specialised Design gives us one skill proficiency (Performance) and one tool proficiency (perhaps Tinker's Tools could help us heal/repair).

Because of her learning matrix, Echo holds a huge amount of information. We will make her a Sage, giving us proficiencies in Arcana and History, three languages of our choice, and the Researcher feature - whenever we must recall a piece of lore, we know exactly where to look for the relevant information (library, archive, people of interest, etc.)

ABILITY SCORES

We'll start with Dexterity to move around the battlefield and position ourselves to different roles. Constitution will be next, our body is made of quality materials. After that, we're taking Intelligence, as recording information is what we're all about.

Charisma will be next; we're an adaptoid who can also impersonate others, we need to be convincing. Wisdom is on the lower end, we're still learning after all. Finally, we're dumping Strength.

CLASS

I've had a few ideas here, depending on which race I was going to pick for Echo. In the end, I've decided on something interesting and went Rogue start-to-finish. Rogues get the d8 as their Hit Dice, [8 + our Constitution modifier] initial Hit Points, proficiencies with light armour, simple weapons, hand crossbows, longswords, rapiers, shortswords, and thieves' tools. Let's give Echo a studded leather set and a hand crossbow (and maybe darts) to integrate into her body, the latter to represent her primary tri-shot attack. Our saving throws are Dexterity and Intelligence, and we get to pick four skills from the class list (Acrobatics, Deception, Insight, and Perception).

Level 1: We begin this build by gaining Expertise in two skills we're already proficient in, or one skill and thieves' tools. We can double our proficiency bonus for any checks we make using those skills. Let's apply that to Deception and Insight. We can also apply Sneak Attack to strikes that we make with advantage; once per turn, if we attack with an advantage (or our target is within 5 feet of another creature hostile to it), we can add extra 1d6 damage (the value changes as we level-up).

We also learn Thieves' Cant (can't what?), a series of special code phrases and symbols that is recognisable only to us and those who operate in the same circles as us (so, like... Python, C++, HTML, pick your poison) to decode or encode messages.

Level 2: We can now use Cunning Action to take the Dash, Disengage, or Hide actions as bonus actions.

Level 3: Our Sneak Attack bonus is now 2d6. We also pick our subclass, the Roguish Archetype. Since Echo needs several abilities that are similar to magic, despite my dislike of MagiTech, we will make her an Arcane Trickster. We gain Spellcasting, with Intelligence as our casting ability. We learn cantrips and a fixed number of regular spells. We gain the Mage Hand cantrips and two others of our choice (Light and Shocking Grasp) and three 1st-level spells: Disguise Self, Feather Fall, and Magic Missile. With those three, we have covered Echo's ultimate (to a degree), her passive ability to glide, and her primary tri-shot.

Additionally, with Mage Hand Legerdemain, we can make our Mage Hand invisible and use it to perform additional tasks (pickpocketing, using thieves' tools with it, etc.).

Level 4: Time for the first Ability Score Improvement, and we will use it to bump up our Dexterity by two points. We can also grab the Identify spell to access our vast database.

Level 5: Our Sneak Attack bonus is now 3d6. We can now activate our extra jet boosters and make an Uncanny Dodge; doing so, we can use our reaction to halve the damage of an attack hitting us (if we can see it).

Level 6: We get an upgrade to our Expertise, by selecting two more skills that will benefit from the effect: let's choose History and Perception.

Level 7: Our Sneak Attack bonus is now 4d6. We also unlock 2nd-level spells, so let's grab Aganazzar's Scorcher to replicate Echo's Focusing Beam ability.

Here, we also gain a very useful maneouvre ability: Evasion. When we are forced to make a Dexterity saving throw against an effect that would result in us taking half damage on a success (such as the Fireball spell), we instead take no damage. On a failure, we take half damage instead of full damage.

Level 8: Another ASI. We can cap our Dexterity to 20 for even better AC and Initiative bonus. To replicate Echo's Sticky Bombs ability, let's use the spell Snilloc's Snowball Swarm.

Level 9: Our Sneak Attack bonus is now 5d6. We gain a new subclass feature: Magic Ambush. If, while casting a spell, we are hidden from our target, the creature has a disadvantage if the spell requires them to make a saving throw.

Level 10: Halfway through the build and we get a new cantrip (Light) and another spell. Let's get Detect Thoughts to improve our impersonations. We also get another ASI; let's put two points into Constitution here.

Level 11: Our Sneak Attack bonus is now 6d6. We now gain a Reliable Talent, which makes our proficient skills even more refined; whenever we make a skill check using a skill we're proficient in, we treat every roll of 9 and below as 10. We also get another spell; let's pick See Invisibility to upgrade our visual sensors.

Level 12: For this level's ASI, instead of increasing any traits, we're gonna pick a feat that furthers Echo's specialisation: with the Actor feat we get a +1 to our Charisma, an advantage on Deception and Performance checks used to impersonate another person, as well as the ability to mimic the speech and sound of another person or creature (if we hear them speaking for at least 1 minute).

Level 13: Our Sneak Attack bonus is now 7d6. We also unlock another class feature; Versatile Trickster lets use use our invisible Mage Hand to distract a target within 5 feet of it as a bonus action. Doing so, gives us an advantage on attacks against that target until the end of the turn.

Additionally, we unlock 3rd-level spells and we can finally become the aerial support with Fly.

Level 14: At this level, we install some new update to our sensors and gain Blindsense. If we're able to hear, we are aware of the location of any hidden or invisible creature within 10 feet of us.

For our next spell, we're going to grab Melf's Minute Meteors for some cover fire/carpet bombing.

Level 15: Our Sneak Attack bonus is now 8d6 and our software gets some patches, because thanks to Slippery Mind we gain proficiency in Wisdom saving throws (and oh, we desperately need it).

Level 16: For another ASI, we can round up Charisma and Intelligence with one point each. We can also grab another spell, so let's disappear from the enemy's radar with Nondetection.

Level 17: Our Sneak Attack bonus is now 9d6.

Time for our final subclass feature; Spell Thief allows us to hack the system and steal the knowledge of how to cast the spell from another once per long rest. Immediately after being targetted by a spell (or being in the area of one), we can use our reaction to force the caster to make a saving throw. On a failed save, the spell is cancelled and we steal the knowledge behind it. For the next 8 hours, we can cast the spell using our spell slots and the original caster cannot access that spell.

Level 18: We become the most Elusive target there is. If we aren't incapacitated, attacks against us cannot be made with an advantage.

Level 19: Our Sneak Attack bonus is now 10d6. With the final ASI of the build, we will cap our Constitution to a 20. We also unlock 4th-level spells for the endgame; let's take Locate Creature to be an even better pursuer.

Level 20: Our capstone is Rogue 20, which gives us Stroke of Luck. Once per short or long rest, we can turn a failed attack or ability check into a success. For the final spell of the build, let's grab Ice Storm and re-flavour it into carpet bombing.

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And that is Echo, carrying the spirit of one of the founders of Overwatch. Let's see what we came up with:

First of all, we have all the boxes of being the cutting edge automaton checked; we do not require food and water or sleep, we are immune to diseases, and can still keep watch even during stasis. We have good detection skills thanks to spells, mobility, and good Insight. Finally, we have also covered Echo's mimicking ability thanks to Disguise Self and proficiency in Deception and Performance.

Our AC is 18, wew have a +5 to our Initiative, and the average of 176 Hit Points.

Although we have hit two 20s in this build (Dexterity and Constitution), we don't have much in terms of other abilities. Our Strength modifier is still a negative, and our Wisdom is pretty low; even with proficiency in saving throws, it may be challenging to resist some crowd control effects. Sometimes, hackers might get the better of us.

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Wow, it's been some time since I've typed the ending words. I enjoyed this one, the Overwatch characters have a really good potential to use in your D&D game; let me know if I should do more of those. It's good to do this again, and I saw that you guys wanted more gods, so I shall deliver.

I'll see you in the next one, darlings! - Nerdy out!

#dnd #dungeons and dragons #character building #d&d 5e #dnd 5e #overwatch #echo #overwatch 2 #warforged #rogue #blizzard #video gaming #dnd character #dnd5e #dnd build #echo overwatch

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scxvnger · 3 months

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here's a study of my most recent DnD build: cheeky little fuckwit tiefling lore bard. pls lmk if u want to know more <3

hello friends it's been a minute since I've have art to throw down here, between breaking my laptop, running out of my clip studio license, and injuring my hands at my kitchen day-job. Though I now have a perpetual license, amidst the device change even with CSP's cloud service I have lost every single work I have drawn over the past two years and it's been quite difficult to cope with. Truly feeling like a fanfic author atp

for now I suppose this is first drawing on what I'm optimistically choosing to call a "clean slate" :/

#i also forgot this was fundamentally an art account #and i WILL be posting consistently from here on out #art #personal art #dnd #dnd build #dnd art #tiefling #lore bard #bard #college of lore #digital art #clip studio #clip studio paint #csp #wacom intuos #self taught artist #artists on tumblr

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poldraws · 5 months

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'What do you mean you want me to step on you?' 🤨

Another fun DnD illustration I've cooked up a while back. I'm still open for commissions, so feel free to Dm me if you're interested!

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tigerkirby215 · 2 years

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"Tumblr is a toxic platform full of shippers and SJWs!"

Meanwhile Tumblr:

#normal #I feel weird #being #a #Tumblr #user #like I usually just post #dnd #dnd 5e #dnd build #dnd guide #and nothing else

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leftsidebonfire · 9 months

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Help me Build a DnD character, part 2!!

We're gonna be running a new campaign running simultaneously to our current campaign, and I have no characters on standby. Basically all of my OCs were old dnd characters that I'd grown insanely attached to, but I've either:

A. Already played them

Or B. Not allowed in this game

#Dnd #Dungeons and Dragons #Dnd build #Oc tag #New oc #Dnd oc #Dnd tag

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rosexknight · 1 year

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Everyone please look at this really stupid meme crit build I made for D&D.

https://www.tiktok.com/t/ZTRn6SNa5/

#DnD #dnd build #DnD 5e

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chromatophorium · 1 year

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How to play Ginko from Mushishi in D&D 5e

Right, the easiest way to make Ginko, or a Ginko-esque character, in D&D 5e pretty simple, all things considered. This is the build I would choose to play a character like Ginko. His character can be simplified into these goals for the purposes of character building: - Sees things invisible to others - Cures people’s magical diseases and solves their magical problems

Race: Custom lineage Creature type: Humanoid Size: Medium Speed: 30 ft Ability score increase: +2 to Wis (For base stats just do what you want but keep wisdom highest, and intelligence somewhere good) Variable trait: Choose Darkvision with a range of 60 feet (Tokoyami darkvision as seen by Nui in episode 12) Languages: Common (and another language that is appropriate) Feat: Eldritch Adept: Learn one Eldritch Invocation option from the warlock class. Choose Eldritch Sight, which gives the ability to cast detect magic at will, without expending a spell slot or material components (A basically permanent way to see things few others see. This is the first version of Ginko’s ability to see mushi.)

Background: Custom Skill Proficiencies: Arcana, Nature Tool Proficiencies: Herbalism kit, Alchemist's tool Work with your DM to make a custom background, maybe based on the Hermit or the Haunted One background, in terms of features.

Class: Choose Cleric with the Divine domain of Twilight, it gives access to the spell See Invisibility in a few levels, which is essential to this character build. Choose the skill proficiencies in Medicine and Insight. As for spells, Cleric is a prepare-class which means that one has access to all the spells on the cleric spell list, when you choose spells on a long rest. Many of the spells on the cleric spell list fit with things that Ginko can do. Like Cure Wounds, Lesser Restoration, Dispel Magic and Remove Curse for his healing people from Mushi and magical health problems. There are also spells for Mushishi gear and methods, like Sending for the Uro-san, Scrying for tapping into the Mugura network and Magic Circle and Protection from Evil and Good for the Mushi-dispersing smoke. Just look around the spell list for some nice in character spells, which you can take if you want.

Lore: Work with your DM to fit your character into their setting. For example in the Forgotten Realms. Is the things your Ginko-character sees expressions of the weave of magic which he interprets as creatures? Are they some kind of Feywild fauna and flora that he can see through the closeness of the material plane to the Feywild? Are they elementals of magic? Are they pieces of chaotic creation left over from when the material plane was created? Are they aberrations, traveling unnoticed through the Ethereal Plane? Lots of options and that’s just some, for just one setting.

More: I have made another more detailed, actually totally different, character build for Ginko, which I will post later. I will link it here then.

#mushishi #ginko #ginko mushishi #dnd 5e #DnD stuff #dnd character #dnd build #d&d build

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mothmanisthiccaf · 2 years

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my guilty pleasure is creating barbarian characters that are too smol to be barbarians

and when you encounter them theyre all cute and smol and stuff but they they pull out a giant axe and beat the shit out of you with a manic grin

#dnd #barbarian #dnd build #behold! this tiny child!#dnd oc

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skyberia · 6 months

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workarounds to having a vampire as your partner in crime

#baldur's gate 3 #bg3 #astarion #néphos #bg3 tav #doodles #néphos used to do crimes for profit pre-game so i like to think that post-game they recruit astarion into it #dnd rules say ''can't enter a residence without an invitation from one of the occupants''#technically. if you squint. someone who's inside the building is an occupant. Break-ins for murder may continue

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kilroyart · 7 months

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After my campaign came to a close, I had time to relax and let my creative gumbo recover. I kept playing of course, and rolled out a few characters for other people's campaigns.

Zoto Clem, Lizardfolk Swarmkeeper Ranger (pictured with yklwa before learning the power of magical bludgeoning damage). I wanted an unconventional build baked in to a character that reflected that strangeness. I put everything into wisdom, intent on shunning ranged weapons while choosing the druidic warrior fighting style to maximize spellcasting. At lv4 Clem had 20 wisdom and was shillelagh crushing enemies while perforating them with bee stings at 1d8 magical bludgeoning +1d6 piercing +1d6 from hunter's mark +1d6 from favored foe in a single hit.

This weirdo was a walking apiary, with beehives built directly on him. The free honey on demand came in handy several times. We lacked a traditional healer, so I split the job with our cycloptic artificer.

Having picked up Resilient (Wisdom) for my 4th level asi, I later snagged Fey Touched (Intelligence) mostly for flavor and story relevance but also for comprehend languages and misty step once a day. At 12th level, which was where the campaign concluded, I chose mobile, and with the roving improvements from Tasha's, Clem was running 45ft a turn with dps that frequently frustrated the DM and made another player self-conscious. I didn't intend to be so powerful, but I the wisdom heavy ranger is truly overlooked.

#digital art #dnd #dnd art #dnd character #dnd story #swarmkeeper #lizardfolk #dnd build

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grailfinders · 2 days

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Grailfinders Viewers' Choice #26: Nrvnqsr Chaos

today on Grailfinders, I’d say we’re due for a big ol’ storm of chaos! Nrvnqsr Chaos specifically, though you’ll have to forgive me if I simply call him Nero throughout the build- I’m not going to remember that alphabet soup of a name.

anyway, our dear friend Keysmash Chaos is an Aberrant Mind Sorcerer to pick up some spicier summons and some flexibility, as well as a Shepherd Druid for summoned beasts out the wazoo that can really pack a punch. check out his build breakdown below the cut, or his character sheet over here!

Ancestry & Background

Nero was a human but now he’s chaos, which is a bunch of animals grafted together in a semi-humanoid shape. you could go Simic Hybrid here if you love the smell of fish, but since there’s no way in hell I’ll find another chance for this I’m going to make him a Plasmoid instead. that gives him +2 Charisma and +1 Constitution, as well as an Amorphous body type that lets you squeeze through small spaces and get advantage on making and escaping grapples. you also get Darkvision up to 60’, and can Hold Breath for up to an hour with no negative consequences. you’ve got 666 pairs of lungs, I’m sure it’ll all work out. your unique body plan also gives you a Natural Resistance against acid and poison damage as well as the poison condition, and you can Shape Self as an action to add or remove limbs and a head from your general shape, or use a bonus action to send a bit of you up to 10’ away in a little cord that can manipulate lightweight objects. chaos doesn’t keep a solid form, go figure.

you used to be part of a reclusive bunch of mages that threw themselves out of normal reality, so calling you a Hermit is pretty spot on. you get proficiency in Medicine and Arcana instead of religion bc I said so, and the Wandering Sea is definitely more about science/magic than gods. I’d argue your backround’s flavor feat Discovery is also pretty in-character for once since it gives you a reason you became goo to begin with, but it’s not totally necessary.

Ability Scores

nero’s highest score is his Charisma. his magic comes from inside, and I mean that literally. next is Wisdom, animals tend to have a high wisdom score, and you are animals. also, mind-controlling you is probably pretty hard given how many you have. third is Constitution, because you don’t die til your beasts do, and your beasts don’t die til you do. a real catch-666 here. this does make your Dexterity a little lower than I’m 100% comfortable giving a caster, but with a healing factor like yours getting out of the way isn’t an issue. your Intelligence is only average- you were smart, and probably still are, but your brain’s been getting eaten by wolves the last millennium, I wouldn’t bet too much on it. that means we’re dumping Strength, which feels weird for a super strong vampire, but we can patch that up with magic better than most other abilities.

Class Levels

1. Sorcerer 1: starting off as a sorcerer gets you proficiency with Constitution and Charisma saves. you can survive the eyes of death perception, which is definitely a high save DC for one of those. you also get proficiency in Intimidation and Insight checks. you have 600+ beasts inside you- that’s a lot of growling and a lot of eyes.

at level one your Aberrant Mind lets you use Telepathic Speech, linking up with a nearby creature for a couple minutes so you can speak with just your minds. you also gain Psionic Spells, which are kind of like a regular extended spell list, but you can swap these out with other divination or enchantment spells as you go. if we do that, we’ll be sure to bring it up.

speaking of, at level one you get Arms of Hadar and Mind Sliver which we’re keeping, but we’re swapping out Dissonant Whispers for Identify. you’ve been around a while, you know what magic is. you also get regular spells this level- Mage Hand lets you send out a lil bird to carry something light for you, Sword Burst flings claws everywhere for some cheap damage, Chill Touch deals damage and blocks healing, and Blade Ward lets you goop up to block the worst of incoming physical damage. for your leveled spells, Mage Armor is practically a necessity since it gives you an extra +3 to AC, and Catapult is nice too, letting you fling a nearby object at a creature, possibly damaging both in the process.

2. Sorcerer 2: second level sorcerers are a Font of Magic, which right now just means you can cast an extra 1st level spell each day by doing some rigamarole. a 1st level spell like Feather Fall perhaps. you’ve got a lot of birds in you, I’m sure they can help break your fall.

3. Sorcerer 3: at third level your font of magic actually becomes interesting, because you can use your sorcery points from that to make Metamagic, altering the effects of your spells to your liking. most of your summons are literally you pulling something out of you, so they’re pretty Subtle. subtle spells don’t require somatic or verbal components, so they’re a lot harder to counterspell too! speaking of, those summons are basically animals when they’re not in you, so they last a while- an Extended spell can help with that, doubling the duration of whatever you cast.

you also get second level spells now! we’re swapping out Calm Emotions for Hold Person for your weak shitty eyes of enchantment, and Detect Thoughts. mortal mages can do that, and you’ve been around ten times as long, so I can’t imagine it’s that difficult for you. you also get Enhance Ability, giving you advantage on one kind of skill check for up to an hour. and all the options are flavored after animals, score!

4. Sorcerer 4: fourth level sorcerers get their first Ability Score Improvement, so bump up that Charisma for stronger spell, like the cantrip Infestation to sic bugs on people and Shatter to break shit! I think adding a swarm of poisonous insects to your chaos would probably bump you up to at least 6,666 beasts but I’ll allow them to all count as one.

5. Sorcerer 5: at fifth level, everything just kind of goes right for you thanks to your Magical Guidance- spend a sorcery point, re-roll a failed check. you’re a villain, so you have plot armor right up to the end of the story.

you also get third level spells- Haste lets you move fast enough to keep up with arcueid (probably), and your freebies Hunger of Hadar and Sending let you blast some goo to slow down enemies and chaos them to death, or use a cell phone. you were born in the 900s, an iphone might as well be magic to you.

6. Sorcerer 6: a sixth level weirdo gets Psionic Sorcery, so any of your psionic spells can now be cast purely through sorcery points, and doing so makes it subtle as well as allowing you to ignore material components unless they are spent by the spell. that’s important for later.

you also get Psychic Defenses, giving you resistance to psychic damage as well as charms and spooks. you have a lot of brains in there, it’s going to be hard to freak all of them out at once. which is good bc the rabbit one is always freaked out.

also you can finally eat people now! with Vampiric Touch, you can touch people and drain their life force, regaining half the damage you deal as HP!

7. Sorcerer 7: seventh level of a spellcaster means fourth level spells! as for nero, it’s Polymorphin’ time! now you can turn into a beast with a CR equal to your level or less for up to an hour, changing all your stats and basically giving you a big beast-shaped shield to your HP. you also get your new psionic spells, Evard’s Black Tentacles and Summon Aberration! the former’s basically hunger of hadar but again, and the latter’s our very first summoning spell for phantasmals! yeah it took a while to get going, but if putting animals in people was easy everyone’d be a furry already. don’t worry, we’ll speed things up next level.

8. Druid 1: bouncing over to druid gives you more Spells that you cast and prepare using your Wisdom. multiclassing spellcasters gets a lil complicated, so check the PHB to see what spell slots you have at any given time.

the important thing is you get Primal Savagery and Shillelagh, giving you more melee options to avoid having to punch people with your puny caster hands. you can further enhance your physicality with spells like Jump and Longstrider, or drag people into your chaos with Entangle. you even learn druidic! it’s a language!

9. Druid 2: at second level you get to enter the Circle of the Shepherd, which teaches you the Speech of the Woods. not only does it teach you Sylvan, famous for being a language, but you can talk to beasts now as well!

more excitingly, you can summon a Spirit Totem as a bonus action, bringing a phantasmal to the battlefield for up to a minute per short rest. you can pick between three options- the bear giving creatures you choose extra HP and advantage on strength checks and saves, the Hawk letting you grant advantage on an attack as a reaction and giving advantage freely to perception checks, and the Unicorn gives advantage on checks to find creatures and extra HP from healing spells.

to get even beastlier, you can now Wild Shape twice per short rest to turn into a beast without using a spell slot. the CR for this one is a lot more limited, but free HP is free HP. alternatively, you can do the more in-character thing and summon a Wild Companion, letting you spend a wild shape use to cast Find Familiar without materials. it’s not that strong, but a flying spy camera can be pretty useful.

10. Druid 3: if you need a long-distance helper, you can always use Animal Messenger or Beast Sense instead. the former will fursonally deliver a message to someone you describe, while the latter lets you see and hear through a beast for up to an hour, but without any control over what it does.

you can also Summon Beast which is nice. we’re still a ways away from mass chaos, but it’s a cheaper summon option. hell, it’s honestly the better option for a fourth level spell slot anyway, unless you’re hyped about having a regenerating chaos.

11. Druid 4: at fourth level you can turn into CR 1 creatures that can swim thanks to your Wild Shape Improvement, and you can also use this ASI to bump up your Charisma and Wisdom to max out the former and set up the latter for later.

you also get another cantrip, so I say weaponize that pseudopod of yours with a Thorn Whip. it whips! it thorns!

12. Druid 5: the real reason we’re here is third level spells, and the only one I care about here is Conjure Animals. by using a third level spell slot, you can summon a single beast of CR 2, or twice as many by halving the CR, all the way to 8 CR ¼ beasts. it says the DM has the stats for whatever you summon, but tbh if you’re going to summon eight extra fighters every combat you should probably just bookmark your own PHB to help out.

13. Druid 6: one last pit stop before we head back to sorcerer- at level six shepherd druids become Mighty Summoners, adding an extra 2 HP per hit die to your summoned beasts/fey, and giving them magical attacks to boot.

14. Sorcerer 8: another ASI, this time you’re Resilient in Wisdom saves, giving you advantage and also rounding up your wisdom score for a cool plus 1 to all your spells and such.

also you can summon a Spirit of Death now, which lets you track whatever it’s zero’d in on anywhere in the material plane.

15. Sorcerer 9: with fifth level spells, it’s time for things to get real spicy. your freebies this level are Scrying to send out a spy bird with none of the fuss (esp. since you can use psionic casting to get around the 1000 gold casting cost) and Telekinesis to lift stuff like the big strong man you’re supposed to be. you can also Summon Draconic Spirits now, giving you access to the most powerful phantasmals available. not only can it deal adequate damage with breath attacks, but it also protects you from elemental damage to boot!

16. Sorcerer 10: now that you’ve spent some time vamping it up, your magic can now be Empowered, forcing disadvantage on one person trying to save themselves from it. you also get the Message cantrip bc I’m running out of good cantrips to give you, and the Enervation spell for a more chaos-flavored way of consuming your prey. you slap a target with a tentacle, and if they fail their first save it latches on, letting you drain their health each turn for up to a minute.

17. Sorcerer 11: I’ll be honest I’m kind of on the fence as to whether Tasha’s Otherworldly Guise should be called your 999th beast or not. on one hand it makes you look more demonic and gives you all kinds of cool abilities, but tbh I think turning into a T rex makes you a lot tougher for less magic cost. either way, you definitely have it now.

18. Sorcerer 12: use your last ASI to bump up your Dexterity to not die as much. yeah you’ve got plenty of spare lives, but it’s a pain to use them, y’know?

19. Sorcerer 13: our final spell of the day is the Finger of Death, which is a big single-target attack that can even turn a person into part of your chaos if it kills a humanoid target. really your whole body is Of Death, but a finger works too I guess.

20. Sorcerer 14: our capstone ability makes you a Revelation in Flesh, letting you transform yourself as a bonus action for ten minutes. for each sorcery point spent to transform, you get one of the four available bonuses. the first lets you see invisible creatures, the second gives you a flying speed, and the third lets you swim and breathe underwater. the last and both most- and least-important turns you into chaos good, letting you and anything you’re wearing move through a 1-inch space, or spend 5’ to break any grapple. it’s technically something you could’ve done already, but now you can do it without getting naked.

Pros & Cons:

Pros:

you have pretty good health for a caster, but it gets even better when you include all the extra health you can get from your uses of Polymorph, Wild Shape, and of course your vampiric spells. unless they can rush you down, you can cling to life in a fight for a good long while.

your spells are also very flexible, as are you. yes, you can summon 32 wolves or transform into a T Rex to cause havoc, but you can also summon or become smaller creatures for the sake of stealth or reconnaissance. and of course while using these spells on just yourself is in-character, a lot of them can be used on teammates as well to help them out.

you’re hard to deal with, magically speaking. you have solid saves in two of the big three saves, and you resist some common status effects really freaking well, so other mages can have a hard time taking out your HP faster than you can regrow it.

Cons:

your AC isn’t great, so melee fighters can still carve you up pretty easily. and if one of those happen to get creative with their mystic eyes of death perception you’ll definitely still be in trouble.

also, almost all of your summons are super weak compared to other spells of the same level. Conjure Animals is great for area denial or dealing with large groups of weak enemies, but using a ninth level spell for 32 wolves that’ll survive all of one turn before being fireballed to death just feels bad. the extra health from Mighty Summons is nice, but you’re getting at most 14 extra HP from that if you’re making CR 2 beasts, and that won’t last long at higher levels.

you yourself isn’t that strong either- while you don’t have to worry much about getting grappled, but you’re still easy to push around or fall into a magical strength-save spell.

#tsukihime #fgo #D&D 5e #DND #dnd build #sorcerer #druid

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nerdythebard · 11 months

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#56: Malenia, Blade of Miquella [Elden Ring]

[Art Credit: Aleksandra Skiba on ArtStation] ---

What's her name again?

This request comes from an anonymous reader. Surely, their goal was to give some of you lovely folks violent flashbacks. It is in fact time to venture into the world of Elden Ring and yet again face Malenia, Blade of Miquella. I'll be completely honest, I do not get the appeal of Souls games, so I never bothered to look into them, but you all very well know that your wish is my command. So let's step into the arena!

Next Time: GODDAMNIT, BARBARA!

Let's see what we need to equip for this fight:

I am Malenia

Blade of Miquella

And I have never known defeat

Um... okay... whatever you say.

---

Malenia, Blade of Miquella, is a demigod, and specifically mentioned to be an Empyrean; in D&D terms, Empyreans are celestials so that will make her an Aasimar. Using the new rules from Mordenkainen's Monsters of the Multiverse, we get a +2 and a +1 to two abilities of our choice (let's get Dexterity and Constitution respectively), speed of 30 feet, Celestial Resistance to necrotic and radiant damage, 60 feet of Darkvision, the Light cantrip, and the Healing Hands ability that lets us heal a creature for [our proficiency bonus x d4] once per long rest as an Action.

Malenia, Blade of Miquella (this is the last time, I promise), is going to have the Soldier background, as we can definitely use those Athletics and Intimidation proficiencies. We also gain proficiency with one gaming set and operating land vehicles, and the Military Rank feature, which will make soldiers related to our former (remember, the concept is that D&D characters begin their new lives as adventurers) organisation recognise us, and may provide us with supplies, shelter, or help.

ABILITY SCORES

We'll start with Dexterity, as we need to be nimble with our moves and swing our weapon better than Benny Goodman. Constitution will be next, since we've never known defeat. Follow that up with Wisdom, for our Rot damage.

After that, we get Charisma - Malenia's got that intimidation skill perfected. Strength will be on the lower end, in case we need to switch weapons, and we're gonna dump Intelligence - we just need others things more.

CLASS

Level 1 - Fighter: We start with the classic, but a useful one. Fighters start with a d10 as their Hit Dice, [10 + our Constitution modifier] initial Hit Points, proficiencies in light armour, medium armour, heavy armour, shields, simple weapons, and martial weapons. Apart from her helmet and prosthetics (the latter of which you can also get, as described in Tasha's Cauldron of Everything), Malenia doesn't appear to use any armour, so we'll skip that for now, and grab her a rapier; it's not exactly a katana, but it's the best finesse weapon we can get for now.

Our saving throws are Strength and Constitution, and we get to pick two class skills from the list (Acrobatics and Perception).

Fighters get to pick their Fighting Style. You could consider picking Blind Fighting since Malenia has no eyes and doing so would make you aware of everything within 10 feet of you, but in this case we need to deal damage and a lot of it; we're going with Dueling. When we're wielding a melee weapon in one hand and no other weapon, we get a +2 to damage rolls.

Fighters also get to tap into Second Wind. As a bonus action, we can regain [1d10 + our Fighter level] once per short or long rest.

Level 2 - Fighter: With Action Surge we can now take one additional Action on our turn once per short or long rest.

Level 3 - Fighter: We choose our first subclass, our Martial Archetype. Malenia uses a long katana/odachi, but because her spirit is essentially unbreakable (and she's never known defeat), we're gonna go with the Samurai archetype. We get a bonus proficiency in one skill from the list (Insight) and we gain Fighting Spirit; as a Bonus Action, we can give ourselves an advantage on weapon attack rolls until the end of our turn and gain 5 Temporary Hit Points. We can use this ability three times per long rest.

We also gain a racial ability - Celestial Revelation. We get to choose a form to transform into for 1 minute as a bonus action (once per long rest). To keep with Malenia's Rot theme, we're gonna get the Necrotic Shroud; creatures within 10 feet of us who can see us must make a Charisma saving throw or become frightened of us until the end of our next turn. Additionally, once per turn we can deal extra [our proficiency bonus] necrotic damage to a single target when making a weapon attack or cast a spell.

Level 4 - Monk: Let's jump classes for some faster and more nimble slashes. Multiclassing into Monk gives us proficiency with stuff we already know, so instead we jump straight into Unarmed Defense. While wearing no armour or shield, our AC becomes [10 + our Dexterity modifier + our Wisdom modifier]. We also learn Martial Arts. When benefitting from Unarmed Defense and using our bare hands or a monk weapon (which the rapier qualifies as), we gain the following benefits:

We can use Dexterity instead of Strength for attack and damage rolls of our unarmed and monk weapon strikes.

We can use a 1d4 instead of the dice used for our unarmed strikes and monk weapon attacks (the value changes as we level up).

When we use our Attack action to do an unarmed strike or a monk weapon attack, we can use our Bonus Action to make an unarmed strike.

Level 5 - Monk: We gain access to the Monk's resource - the Ki energy. We start with a pool of Ki Points (that we recover when we finish a short or long rest), which we can spend to achieve the following effects:

Flurry of Blows: Immediately after making an Attack, we can spend 1 Ki point to make two unarmed strikes as a bonus action.

Patient Defense: Spending 1 Ki point lets us take the Dodge action as a bonus action.

Step of the Wind: Spending 1 Ki point lets us take the Dash or Disengage actions as bonus actions, and doubles our jump distance for the turn.

We also gain Unarmoured Movement. When not wearing armour or using a shield, our speed increases by 10 feet.

Level 6 - Monk: Here, we learn how to Deflect Missiles. Whenever we're a target of a ranged weapon attack, we can use our Reaction to attempt to reduce the damage by [1d10 + our Dexterity modifier + our Monk level]; if the result reduces the damage to 0, we catch the projectile and can use the same Reaction to throw the projectile (range 20/60) and make an attack.

We get to pick our second subclass, our Monastic Tradition. To get better with our only weapon, we're gonna choose Way of the Kensei. We can now make our rapier a kensei weapon, which will give it extra bonuses. We gain proficiency with either caligrapher's supplies or painter's supplies (choose either), and with Agile Parry, if we make an unarmed strike as part of our Attack, we can gain a +2 to our AC by using our weapon to defend ourselves. We also gain Kensei's Shot, but since we're not using ranged weapons, we'll skip that one.

Level 7 - Monk: Finally, we get our first Ability Score Improvement. We're gonna boost our Dexterity and Constitution, as it will be useful in the next level. Here, we also gain Slow Fall, which helps us when falling, reducing fall damage by [our Monk level x5]. I would also ask your DM if you can take the optional feature Quickened Healing from Tasha's (since we didn't get anything when multiclassing), which lets you spend 2 Ki Points to roll a Martial Arts die and heal the rolled number of Hit Points.

Level 8 - Druid: Time to make some things rot. Multiclassing into Druid once again gives us proficiencies we already have, so we'll jump straight into Spellcasting. Wisdom is our casting ability and we know cantrips and rituals. Druids have access to their full spell list, and they can prepare [our Wisdom modifier + our Druid level] spells each day. We start by choosing two cantrips (Infestation and Resistance) and two 1st-level spells (Jump and Longstrider). We also learn Druidic, a language unique to the druids.

Level 9 - Druid: Although druids gain their signature ability, Wild Shape here, we will not focus on that in this build (we will be using the resource for something else), so allow me to skip straight into picking our third subclass - our Druid Circle. There is absolutely no question here, we're picking Circle of Spores.

From the circle conntected to rot and decay, we pick up our first feature: Halo of Spores. We're surrounded by an invisible aura of spores and bacteria, which we can unleash onto a target. Whenever a creature moves into a space within 10 feet of us (or starts its turn there), we can use our Reaction to deal 1d4 necrotic damage (unless the target makes a Constitution saving throw) which increases as we level up (1d6 at lv. 6, 1d8 at lv. 10, and 1d10 at lv. 14).

We can also channel magic into our own spores to create a Symbiotic Entity. By sacrificing one usage of our Wild Shape, we can awaken the spores on our body and gain [4 Temporary Hit Points per Druid level], as well as the following benefits (which last for 10 minutes or until we lose the THP or until we use Wild Shape again):

When we deal damage from our Halo of Spores, we roll the damage die a second time and add it to our attack

Our melee weapon deals extra 1d6 necrotic damage to any target we hit

We can also get another spell; let's grab Protection from Evil and Good.

Level 10 - Druid: Halfway through the build and we don't unlock anything class-related, only 2nd-level spells. Enhance Ability may aid us in case of saving throws for abilities we do not excel at, and we pick up two spells from our subclass: Blindness/Deafness and Gentle Repose.

Level 11 - Druid: Time for another ASI. Putting two points into Dexterity, we now max our primary damage-dealing and evasive ability. We also collect one more 2nd-level spell, Wither and Bloom, and one more cantrip - Primal Savagery.

Level 12 - Druid: Once again, we do not unlock any class features but we get 3rd-level spells. Let's grab Plant Growth, and get Animate Dead and Gaseous Form from our subclass.

Level 13 - Druid: We get our second subclass feature - Fungal Infestation. We can now spread our spores to a recently killed person or beast. If a Small or Medium creature dies within 10 feet of us, we can use our Reaction to animate it for 1 hour (or until defeated or dismissed) with 1 Hit Point. We can use this feature a number of times equal to our Wisdom modifier per long rest. The Cleanrot knights will now serve us!

Level 14 - Monk: Time to get more sword strikes to our build. We get Extra Attack - we can now attack twice, instead of one time, during a single Attack action (plus unarmed strikes as a Bonus Action). We also get Stunning Strike; when we hit a target with our melee weapon attack, we can spend 1 Ki Point to attempt to stun the target. The target has to make a Constitution saving throw or be stunned until the end of our next turn. Additionally, our Martial Arts die becomes 1d6.

Level 15 - Monk: Our Unarmoured Movement bonus is now +15 feet. At this level, we can now deal extra Punchables™ with Ki-Empowered Strikes; our unarmed attacks now count as magical for the purpose of overcoming resistances and immunities. From our subclass, we gain One with the Blade, which gives us the following benefits:

Magic Kensei Weapons: Our kensei weapon attacks now count as magical for the purpose of overcoming resistances and immunities.

Deft Strike: When we hit the target with our kensei weapon, we can spend 1 Ki Point to add extra damage to our weapon equal to our Martial Arts die. We can only do so once per turn.

Level 16 - Monk: At this level, we get two really useful abilities to avoid harm. Evasion allows us to take no damage when failing a Dexterity saving throw would make us take half damage (and half damage if we'd normally take full damage). With Stillness of Mind, we can use our Action to shake off one charmed or frightened effect.

Level 17 - Monk: Time for another ASI. Let's put one point into Wisdom and one into Constitution.

Level 18 - Monk: We gain Unarmoured Movement Improvement. We can now effortlessly move across vertifcal surfaces and liquids without sacrificing any loss of movement.

Our Unarmoured Movement bonus is now +20 feet. With Purity of Body we are now sure that the Rot or any of its strains will touch us, as we're immune to poison and disease.

Level 19 - Monk: For the final ASI, we'll put one point into Constitution and leave the last one into Intelligence.

Level 20 - Monk: Our capstone is Monk 12, which gives us our final subclass upgrade: Sharpen the Blade. We can now imbue our weapon with Ki, spending up to 3 points to increase the weapon's attack force, damage, or both for 1 minute. Our Martial Arts die also changes into 1d8.

---

And that's Malenia, Blade of Miquella, who has never known defeat! (I had to squeeze that last one in!). Let's see what we have here:

First of all, we have a lot of ways to deal damage, depending whether we with to attack with our weapon, our unarmed stikes, or our Rot powers. We have also several ways of sustaining ourselves, whether by gaining Temporary Hit Points, healing with Second Wind, or casting a spell.

Our AC is 17 (+2 if we use Agile Parry), we have 50 feet of movement, a +5 to our initiative, and the average of 163 Hit Points.

This build is also difficult to maintain because of a triple multiclass, which means a lot of resource management: Ki Points, Wild Shape, Spell Slots, Martial Arts die... plus, the many options of attacking and several versions of managing your Action, Bonus Action, and Reaction moveset, this may cause some confusion.

---

Ho boy, that was something. It seems to be a satisfying build, but I also feel like I've spent a bit too much on it. I also had to reschedule the next build, but I'll explain why later. If you want to, I'll also provide commentary on the few controversies with Wizards of the Coast and D&D situation, but all in due time.

Remember that I love you and wish you all a good day or night!

-Nerdy out!

#dnd #character building #dnd build #dnd character #dnd5e #wizards of the coast #elden ring #elden ring malenia #i am malenia #malenia goddess of rot #malenia blade of miquella #fighter #kensei monk #druid #d&d druid #circle of spores

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cephalopodiums · 9 months

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I’m building CHICK HICKS in D&D (Why? ‘Cuz it’s fun and I like the bastard car)

GOALS: - Be fast - Be furious - Get ahead of others by any means - Be a cocky celebrity

STATS: Use point buy for this array: (or use some other method, just keep multiclassing minimums in mind)

STR 14 DEX 14 CON 14 INT 8 WIS 9 CHA 13

RACE:

Centaur (has the most car-like features, and also I am using the version from MP:MotM)

Ability score increase: Increase Strength by 2 and Charisma by 1. Creature type: Fey (more accurate than humanoid at least) Speed: 40 ft Charge: If Chick moves at least 30 feet straight toward a target and then hits it with a melee weapon attack on the same turn, he can immediately follow that attack with a bonus action, making one attack against the target with his hooves attack. (This is the first version of crashing into someone)

Equine Build: Chick counts as one size larger when determining his carrying capacity and the weight he can push or drag. When making a climb that requires hands and feet, each foot of movement costs Chick 4 extra feet instead of the normal 1 extra foot. (Cars are big and strong and also can’t climb very well…)

Hooves: Chick can make an unarmed strike which deals 1d6 + his strength mod in bludgeoning damage. (Let's say these are his tires)

Natural Affinity: Chick gains proficiency in one of the following skills: Animal Handling, Medicine, Nature, or Survival. Choose: Animal Handling (or one of the others, it isn’t really in character)

Languages: Common and Modron (idk, Modrons are mechanical beings with human facial features, like cars in Cars)

BACKGROUND:

Athlete (But switch the language proficiency against a tool proficiency)

Skill Proficiencies: Acrobatics, Athletics (Chick is fit!) Tool Proficiencies: Land Vehicles (of course a build of a car from cars has to have proficiency with land vehicles) and Disguise kit (Chick and Bruiser canonically went to drama class together, where one can typically learn to use costumes.)

Feature: Echoes of Victory: Chick has attracted admiration among spectators, fellow athletes, and trainers in the region that hosted his past athletic victories. When visiting any settlement within 100 miles of where he grew up, there is a 50 percent chance he can find someone there who admires him and is willing to provide information and temporary shelter. Between adventures, he might compete in athletic events sufficient enough to maintain a comfortable lifestyle, as per the "Practicing a Profession" downtime activity in chapter 8 of the Players Handbook. (

LEVEL 1 Rouge 1

Proficiencies: Combat stuff: Light armor, simple weapons, hand crossbows, longswords, rapiers, shortswords Tools: Thieves' tools Saving Throws: Dexterity, Intelligence Skills: Performance (Again, Chick went to drama class), Persuasion (Persuading people not to kick him out for hurting other racers) Deception (to cover up his crimes), Intimidation (Intimidate people not to speak out against him),

Features:

Expertise: Chick gains expertise in two skills, which means the proficiency bonus for skill checks made with those skills have a doubled proficiency bonus. Choose Athletics (for shove checks and other athletic feats) and Performance (Chick has a show, he has to be good at performance)

Sneak Attack: Once per turn, Chick can deal an extra 1d6 damage to one creature he hits with an attack if he has advantage on the attack roll. The attack must use a finesse or a ranged weapon. He doesn'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 he doesn't have disadvantage on the attack roll. (shortsword is the best, flavor it to be like his pointy edged chassis, he is a rectangle after all)

Thieves' Cant: Chick knows thieves' cant is a secret mix of dialect, jargon, and code that allows one 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, he understands 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. (Not in character, but he does hang out with the Delinquent Road Hazards in the games, so maybe he learned some crime stuff from them?)

LEVEL 2 Rouge 2

Features: Cunning Action: Chick can use the Dash, Disengage, or Hide action as a bonus action. (Using Chicks movement and Dash as an action and bonus action, he can move up to 120 ft in a round.)

LEVEL 3 Rouge 3

Features: Roguish Archetype: Choose Scout

Skirmisher: Chick can move up to half his speed as a reaction when an enemy ends its turn within 5 feet of him. This movement doesn’t provoke opportunity attacks. (Using reactions for movement as well is great, at this level Chick could ideally move 140 ft per turn)

Survivalist: Chick gains proficiency in Nature and Survival and has doubled proficiency using these skills. (Not super in character, but maybe Chick takes up camping and nature watching in his free time? Idk)

LEVEL 4 Fighter 1

Proficiencies: Combat stuff: All armor, martial weapons, shields

Features: Fighting Style: Choose Superior Technique: Chick learns one maneuver from the Battle Master archetype and gains one superiority die, which is a d6. The die is regained after a short or long rest and the saving throw DC for maneuvers is 8 + proficiency bonus + strength or dexterity modifier (use strength, of course). Choose:

Trip Attack: When Chick hits a creature with a weapon attack, he can expend one superiority die to attempt to knock the target down. He can add the superiority die to the attack's damage roll, and if the target is Large or smaller, it must make a Strength saving throw. On a failed save, he knocks the target prone. (This is Chick crashing into someone, Prone causes half movement or uses up half movement to get away from prone, the best way to knock someone down with an attack currently. And gets better with a feat later)

Second Wind: On Chicks turn, you can use a bonus action to regain hit points equal to 1d10 + his fighter level. (This is Chick just strengthening his resolve)

LEVEL 5 Fighter 2

Features: Action Surge: Chick can push yourself beyond his normal limits for a moment. On his turn, he can take one additional action. (So this is a great feature, and now the maximum movement that Chick can move is 180 ft in a turn, or do other things with this extra action)

LEVEL 6 Fighter 3

Features: Martial Archetype: Choose Battle Master

Combat Superiority: Chick learns three maneuvers and gains four superiority dice, which are d8s. The die is regained after a short or long rest and the saving throw DC for maneuvers is 8 + proficiency bonus + strength or dexterity modifier (use strength, of course). Choose:

Ambush: When Chick makes a Dexterity (Stealth) check or an initiative roll, he can expend one superiority die and add the die to the roll, provided he isn't incapacitated. (The initiative roll is good, at the start of races, also works well with other Rogue abilities)

Commanding Presence: When he makes a Charisma (Intimidation), a Charisma (Performance), or a Charisma (Persuasion) check, he can expend one superiority die and add the superiority die to the ability check. (This is Chick using his celebrity status to get stuff he wants)

Evasive Footwork: When Chick moves, he can expend one superiority die, rolling the die and adding the number rolled to his AC until he stops moving. (This is good for getting away after crashing someone, we’ll get a feat for this later)

Precision Attack: When Chick makes a weapon attack roll against a creature, he can expend one superiority die to add it to the roll. He can use this maneuver before or after making the attack roll, but before any effects of the attack are applied. (For making sure Chick hits)

Student of War: Chick gains proficiency with one type of artisan's tools. Choose tinker’s tools. (Or something else, but I just thought Chick could tinker a bit with cars)

LEVEL 7 Barbarian 1

Features: Rage: On his turn, he can enter a rage as a bonus action. While raging, he gains the following benefits if he isn’t wearing heavy armor: - He has advantage on Strength checks and Strength saving throws. - When he makes a melee weapon attack using Strength, he gains a bonus to the damage roll, currently +2. - He has resistance to bludgeoning, piercing, and slashing damage. - He can't cast spells or concentrate on them while raging. - His rage lasts for 1 minute. It ends early if he is knocked unconscious or if his turn ends and he hasn't attacked a hostile creature since your last turn or taken damage since then. He can also end his rage on his turn as a bonus action. He can regain his rages at a short or long rest. (We’ll get some improvements to this, for now this is just Chick getting angry)

Unarmored Defense: While Chick is not wearing any armor, his armor class equals 10 + Dexterity modifier + Constitution modifier. He can use a shield and still gain this benefit. (Depends on how one sees the car chassis, as just a part of him or as platemail or a chest plate or something)

LEVEL 8 Barbarian 2

Features: Danger Sense: Chick has advantage on Dexterity saving throws against effects that he can see, such as traps and spells. To gain this benefit, he can't be blinded, deafened, or incapacitated. (One has to be aware of their surroundings while racing)

Reckless Attack: When he makes his first attack on his turn, he can decide to attack recklessly. Doing so gives him advantage on melee weapon attack rolls using Strength during this turn, but attack rolls against him have advantage until your next turn. (This is Chick crashing into someone wrecklessly- excuse me, recklessly. A crash is not often wreckless.)

LEVEL 9 Barbarian 3

Features: Primal Path: Choose the path of the Totem Warrior

Spirit Seeker: Chick gains the ability to cast the Beast Sense and Speak with Animals spells, but only as rituals. (Not in character, but comes with the class, so...)

Totem Spirit: When adopting this path, one can choose a totem spirit and gain its feature. Choose: Elk. While Chick is raging and isn't wearing heavy armor, his walking speed increases by 15 feet. (More speed! YAY!)

LEVEL 10 Barbarian 4

Features: Ability Score Improvement: Choose a feat instead. Choose:

Mobile: Chick gains the following benefits: - His speed increases by 10 feet. - When he uses the Dash action, difficult terrain doesn't cost him extra movement on that turn. - When he makes a melee attack against a creature, he doesn't provoke opportunity attacks from that creature for the rest of the turn, whether he hits or not. (More speed! And makes evasive footwork less useful. Guess it’s useful when not attacking I guess)

LEVEL 11 Barbarian 5

Features: Extra Attack: Chick can attack twice, instead of once, whenever he takes the Attack action on his turn. (More attacks, means more damage in crashes or more chances to use trip attack)

Fast Movement: His speed increases by 10 feet while he isn't wearing heavy armor. (MORE SPEED!)

LEVEL 12 Rouge 4

Features: Ability Score Improvement: Choose a feat instead. Choose:

Magic Initiate: Gain two cantrips and one 1st level spell from the spell list of either bard, cleric, druid, sorcerer, warlock, or wizard. You can only cast the 1st level spell once per long rest. Choose: Bard and the below spells

Cantrip: Vicious Mockery (Insults that hit hard) Friends (Chick using his celebrity status to schmooze, until people find out he’s an asshole)

1st level: Longstrider (MORE SPEED!)

LEVEL 13 Sorcerer 1

Features: Sorcerous Origin: Choose Storm Sorcery

Wind Speaker: Chick gains proficiency in Primordial (Not in character but, whatever he gets it)

Tempestuous Magic: Chick can use a bonus action on his turn immediately before or after he casts a spell of 1st level or higher. Doing so allows him to fly up to 10 feet without provoking opportunity attacks. (For stunts :D Basically a better jumpy)

Spells:

Cantrips: Message (For communicating with his crew chief) Blade Ward (Preparing for an attack and making it hit a less vulnerable part of him) True Strike (For advantage, situationally useful for getting sneak attack) Thunderclap (He is called thunder, we gotta give him some thunder damage)

1st level: Silvery Barbs (Distracting a fellow racer, then giving himself the advantage) Color Spray (Flashing his ka-chicka sticker to blind people)

LEVEL 14 Sorcerer 2

Features: Font of Magic: Chick gains sorcery points, which currently can be used to create spell slots. Spell slots can be turned into sorcery points too. There is a table and all on the link to the class. (Useful later to get more higher level spellslots for the best spell)

Spells:

1st level: False Life (Temporary hit points are often flavored to be resolve and Chick has a lot of resolve)

LEVEL 15 Sorcerer 3

Features: Metamagic: Chick gains the ability to twist his spells to suit his needs. He gains two of the following Metamagic options. Choose:

Extended Spell: When casting a spell that has a duration of 1 minute or longer, Chick can spend 1 sorcery point to double its duration, to a maximum duration of 24 hours. (Useful! So useful! Get more use out of speed spells!)

Empowered Spell: When rolling damage for a spell, he can spend 1 sorcery point to reroll a number of the damage dice up to his Charisma modifier (minimum of one). He must use the new rolls. Can be used even if one has already used a different Metamagic option during the casting of the spell. (More damage!!! HAHA!)

Spells:

2nd level: Kinetic Jaunt (Another speed spell, and useful for getting through a lot of other racers)

LEVEL 16 Sorcerer 4

Features: Ability score improvement: Increase Strength by 2 (Make crash attacks stonger and DC’s harder to beat)

Spells:

Cantrips: Booming Blade (A great crashing spell, encouraging creatures not to move and has thunder damage! The only reason we didn’t get it sooner is because it isn’t on the core spell list of the sorcerer, and added in Tashas.)

2nd level: Shadow Blade (A spell that pairs great with Sneak Attack to get more damage in crashes)

LEVEL 17 Sorcerer 5

Features: Magical Guidance (Optional): When making an ability check that fails, Chick can spend 1 sorcery point to reroll the d20, and must use the new roll, potentially turning the failure into a success. (Saving face)

Spells:

2nd level: Haste (The best spell. Best speed spell. Just great. Don’t need to say anything else.) Ashardalon’s Stride (Replace False Life with this, it's cool. Just like kinda being so fast and using like flame boosts like in the game or something. Not super in character for the movies or something but is a cool speed spell, okay?)

LEVEL 18 Fighter 4

Features: Ability score improvement: Increase Constitution by 2 (For more HP and better concentration checks!)

LEVEL 19 Barbarian 6

Features: Aspect of the Beast: Chick gains a magical benefit based on a totem animal. Choose:

Elk: Whether mounted or on foot, his travel pace is doubled, as is the travel pace of up to ten companions while they're within 60 feet of him and he isn’t incapacitated. (Now he is good at long distance stuff too! And now he and his team won’t ever be late to a race that takes place across the country ever again.)

LEVEL 20 Barbarian 7

Features: Feral Instinct: Chick’s instincts are so honed that he has advantage on initiative rolls. Additionally, if he isn’t surprised at the beginning of combat and isn't incapacitated, he can act normally on his first turn, but only if he enters his rage before doing anything else on that turn. (Advantage on initiative rolls are great for races.)

POST COMMENTARY:

I like this build. I honestly wouldn’t try making any other racers with this... D&D is so combat focused while cars other than Chick do not do much combat. (I guess the spies do. So if I’m ever doing another car then it would probably be Finn or Holly) But yeah. The way I got the speed here, with Rouge and Barbarian, is like the only-ish ways to get movement speed bonuses from classes. Revised Ranger, Monk and Wizard Bladesinger and Transmutation also do get movement boosts. Another way would maybe be Druid or Polymorph if you flavor the transformations to just be a stance or something.

(Man I’m editing this and now I know a way to make him faster with more/better crashing, Monk levels. 5 monk levels for speed and stunning strike, 5 sorcerer levels for haste 5 barbarian levels elk totem for speed 2 rouge levels for cunning action 2 fighter levels for action surge and the trip attack maneuvers then either rouge scout for skirmisher or fighter battle master for more trip attack depending on if one wants more sometimes movement or more crashing BUT that would make this build even more MAD (multi ability dependent) than it already is and the stats needed would make us have to drop Con, making Chick frail.)

Speed: Not the fastest, but definitely fast. Faster than usually needed in D&D games. With Extended Spell and Rages he can consistently be faster than his normal speed, which is and impressive 60 ft (like the fly speed of Fly). And with Cunning Action and Skirmisher he can use basically his whole turn to move.

With Haste and Longstrider: 40 base + 10 mobility feat + 10 fast movement + 10 longstrider then doubled with haste = 140 ft Then using Dash during the normal action, Action Surge, bonus action, Haste action and Skirmisher reaction is 630 ft in one round. More than anyone needs.

With Rage and Longstrider: 40 base + 10 mobility feat + 10 fast movement + 10 longstrider + 15 elk = 85 ft Then using Dash during the normal action, Action Surge, bonus action, Haste action and Skirmisher reaction is 382.5 ft in one round. Also more than anyone needs.

This is how far he can go in 10 min, with prepared Flexible Casting spell slots (five 3rd lvl and 7 sorcery points) and Longstrider, and no enemies: 55300 ft meaning 62.8 mph or 101.1 kph.

Damage:

Right, with Shadow Blade, Sneak attack, Trip attack on both attacks and Hooves, Chick could do 6d8 + 3d6 + 9 damage in a round without using action surge. Pretty good. Could maybe take out a fellow racer to near death status like Strip with a crit? Idk, I’m not good at damage calculation.

Cons and problems:

This build is MAD (multi ability dependent) and that means one can’t super optimize things like DCs for the different abilities. I didn’t really know what to do with the last three levels. Making crashes like in the movie doesn’t really work in D&D. The shove rules are like super specific with pushing creatures away from the attacker, so one can’t really send people flying like in the movie. There is Shoving Aside rules in the DMG, but then the attacker has disadvantage. (Could be solved by taking Clockwork Soul as a sorcerous origin, I guess) Also, Rage, Haste, Kinetic Jaunt, Shadow Blade and Ashardalon’s Stride are fighting for concentration.

______

So yeah, that’s basically it. Chick Hicks in D&D. Building characters is like a jigsaw puzzle to me, just a bit of fun... Let me leave on a non-negative note though. If you actually want to play with a character like Chick, i.e. run in, attack and immobilize your foe and run along without consequences, at low levels... One, get the Mobile feat as soon as possible (maybe through Custom Origin) and two, start with Wizard, get Booming blade as your main cantrip and get Longstrider. Maybe go Bladesinger and a multiclass into Rouge would do you good. Invest in Dex instead of Strength, good for both ac and attack. Or don’t. Just have fun. Have a good one!

#dnd #dnd build #d&d #d&d build #chick hicks #pixar cars

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