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tigerkirby215 · 2 years

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5e Pablo Simon Bolivar, El Brujo Especial build (Ash vs Evil Dead)

(Image from thedeaditeslayer.com)

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I’ve really been getting into the Evil Dead franchise after Ash vs Evil Dead was released on Netflix, and that interest only further increased after playing Evil Dead: The Game. I’m not going to preach the qualities of the TV show nor the game to you and simply say it as I see it: Evil Dead is an iconic of horror with Bruce Campbell’s iconic role of Ash Williams affecting generations of horror enthusiasts and action enjoyers.

The Evil Dead IP has lasted for so long, stretched through so many mediums, and affected so many aspects of popular culture to the point that chainsaws in zombie media go hand-and-hand. This is why I’m going to do my best to release a Dungeons & Dragons build based on one character from The Evil Dead franchise over the next 5 weeks of October, in honor of the franchise and the spirit of Halloween. (Although knowing me I’m probably going to miss a week lol.)

And who else to start with but Pablo? I absolutely loved the supporting cast of Ash vs and I honestly haven’t met a single person who didn’t enjoy the performance of Pablo. Ray Santiago puts so much personality into the character and one could honestly argue that Pablo goes through more of a character arch than Ash himself in the show. I mean, I’m not going to get into that argument, but one thing’s for certain: without the help of Pablito’s El Brujo and his amulets the Chosen One wouldn’t have gotten far. It also helps that Pablo is easily my second most played character in Evil Dead: The Game, right behind TV Show Ash (IE Leader Ash.)

Anyways: Pablo’s a lovable support character who goes through way too much for his own good, and we’re all happy you’re still around buddy. Goddamn it’s going to be so hard to avoid accidentally saying spoilers, assuming calling Pablo “El Brujo Especial” isn’t already a spoiler... Seriously just go watch Ash vs on Netflix.

GOALS

Pablito’s Fish & Chips - Pablo isn’t just some guy who works at an electronics store: he’s got a lotta brains to him. He event built Ash a new hand!

A Foot in Each Door - It sure was nice of your uncle to give you an amulet that makes you invisible to the evil dead. Pretty helpful thing to have!

El Brujo Especial - Leave the beer to Ash and Cheryl: Pablo uses the magical guidance of his uncle to protect himself and his allies.

RACE

Pablo is a human, and trust me: I wish I could reasonably make him something else. But at least Variant Human will carry us to some extent. Increase both your Charisma and your Dexterity by 1, the History skill to see if you can recall anything Ruby might’ve mentioned, and speaking of which I’m sure the Necronomicon gifted you some knowledge of Abyssal with the time you two spent together.

For your Feat of choice I’m actually going to suggest the Inspiring Leader feat! Pablo does his fair share of inspiring for Ash but the main reason I suggested Inspiring Leader is because it lets you play support some more, passing out temporary hitpoints at the end of a Short or Long Rest and generally being an asset to the team. Plus it lets you roleplay as Ray Santiago which is a plus in my eyes.

ABILITY SCORES

15; CHARISMA - Everyone loves Pablo. He’s your little buddy!

14; INTELLIGENCE - As stated above Pablo is the brains of the group. We need it both for roleplay and to multiclass.

13; DEXTERITY - Evil Dead leans on the “dodge out of the way seconds before you’re hit” style of horror. 13 DEX is also enough to get the maximum bonus from Medium armor along with the +1 from our race.

12; CONSTITUTION - Look: there was a point where you literally died and came back to life. Stuff like that will give you some hardiness.

10; STRENGTH - Pablo may be a big strong vagina but we unfortunately need everything else more. Don’t worry: we’ll get a way to use a spiked bat, although you won’t be using a rusty chain at any point.

8; WISDOM - Wisdom is needed to keep a level head, and it’s not that Pablo can’t do that. Just that when evil descends and the dead rise it’s pretty hard to keep calm in the face of demons from hell.

BACKGROUND

Van Richten’s Guide to Ravenloft is going to be a good friend to me during this month. One cool thing about Van Richten’s is that there’s a bunch of generic background traits that don’t come with specific skills or equipment but can still be used for roleplay, and one of those generic backgrounds is the Trauma Survivor background. Put simply Pablo isn’t really the “Haunted One” type but this works quite well for “holy shit demons started murdering people in the streets and this cool old dude is a prophesized hero of legend.”

The Trauma Survivor makes you a bit of a resident expert in whatever shit you’ve dealt with, and in Pablo’s case it would be deadites. Folks know to ask you for advice on what to do and what not to do, and if needed you can find a place for someone to hide out and maybe get an exorcism done. Your uncle didn’t exactly tell you how to open your mind and escape evil, but you can probably find someone willing to take you on a drug trip.

As for your skills take proficiency with Athletics (you’ll need it if something grabs onto you) and Survival because... well yeah duh. You could also grab another language (Infernal fits to some extent) and another tool, which I’m going to use as an excuse to grab Land Vehicle proficiency because Pablo should always be the one driving. (Which is why I never drive as Pablo because I suck at driving in video games.) You could take more tools or more languages as you see fit, I suppose. I won’t tell you what to do.

Starting background equipment? You can figure that out with your DM. If all-else fails just copy-paste the Clan Crafter background or something.

(Artwork from Evil Dead: The Game.)

THE BUILD

LEVEL 1 - ARTIFICER 1

Starting off as an Artificer before you get in-touch with evil. You can grab proficiency in Arcana and Medicine here too.

Your time at ValueStop helped you learn some basic tech tricks that you can manifest in Magical Tinkering. The tricks you can do are pretty small and junky but they may be helpful in a pinch if you use your wits. But if you need something more reliable it would be better to talk about Spellcasting: You can learn two cantrips from the Artificer spell list like Guidance to help El Jefe or anyone else who might need it, and Mending. For Duct Tape.

You can also prepare a number of spells equal to your Intelligence modifier plus half your Artificer level (rounded down), and while you can swap them out on a Long Rest you can only prepare two of them currently. So like, just take Cure Wounds and Detect Magic for now, really. Basic medical knowledge and the ability to sense danger is in fact more than enough to survive many horror movies at first.

Oh and as far as combat goes your best bet currently is probably to stick to a “gun” (IE a crossbow) for now. We didn’t take any damaging cantrips but your “firearms” (crossbow) will do more at this low level anyways, considering that you have the same hit chance anyways. Don’t worry you’ll be getting something better later on but these first few levels will admittedly be on the weaker end.

LEVEL 2 - ARTIFICER 2

Second level Artificers can make artificial hands and other Infusions. You can prepare 4 infusions known and make two of them per day, although you might find some use in swapping them out. Anyways I’d suggest improving your firearms in the form of an Enhanced Arcane Focus and a Repeating Shot weapon, and improving your defenses with a Mind Sharpener and... the Enhanced Defense infusion. Remember that much like Pablo you can share your intellect with your friends, who might get more use out of your inventions than you! And you’re welcome to grab other infusions if you think they’d be more useful.

Speaking of useful: another spell known! Feather Fall is good in-case of an emergency if you’re thrown off a building or your car goes off a cliff or something.

LEVEL 3 - ARTIFICER 3

3rd level Artificers get to choose their specialty, and it may strike you as odd but Artillerists get to provide their team with amulets, and provide themselves with guns! Along with getting proficiency with Woodcarver’s Tools and learning both the Shield and Thunderwave spells (one of which is far more useful than the other) you get the ability to make an Eldritch Cannon!

You can either make a Small or Tiny object (but it would be more in-character to make a tiny one) that you can activate as a Bonus Action. The Force Ballista will fire a shot at a single target, the Flamethrower is... well, a flamethrower that does AoE damage in a short cone in front of it, but the Protector “canon” is the main option you’ll be going for. When you activate it as a bonus action everyone within 10 feet of the turret will get Temporary Hitpoints equal to a d8 plus your Intelligence. Basically this is how Amulets work in Evil Dead: The Game and it was kinda too perfect for Pablo to provide shields to his team. There’s some other nuance to the turrets that you can figure out by reading the subclass feature, but all you need to know is that you’re usually going to be providing shields to the party and also sometimes get the option to shoot with your canon-gun... assuming you can actually hit since its aim is based on your Intelligence.

And to top it off you can make yourself the The Right Tool for the Job with an hour of work. I’ll tell you right now that jerry-rigging a set of lockpicks (IE Thieves’ Tools) is probably your best bet with this ability, but if you think there are other tools that will help you this ability will let you grab them as you need them.

(Artwork from Evil Dead: The Game)

LEVEL 4 - WARLOCK 1

Now that you’ve handed in your resignation letter (reason for leaving: boss got possessed by a demon) it’s time to embrace your roots and channel the magic of drug trips. How? With the magic of the Archfey, obviously! As an action you can force each creature within a 10-foot cube originating from you to make a Wisdom save or be charmed or frightened by your Fey Presence. Either up the charm or channel evil through you as necessary, but you can only do so once per Short or Long Rest.

More importantly however you get Pact Magic: you can learn two cantrips from the Warlock list like Mage Hand to grab things in dangerous locations more safely, and Eldritch Blast to blast your guns with eldritch power instead of just regular old firearm power.

You also get Pact Magic slots which come back on a Short Rest, unlike regular spell slots that come back on a Long Rest. You can use them to cast your Artificer spells, or some Warlock spells... I’m going to be honest: the only 1st level spell I really want is Hex. Other than that you can take something like Hellish Rebuke I guess, but we’ll be ignore the spells you can learn until you can get better ones.

LEVEL 5 - WARLOCK 2

2nd level Warlocks get Eldritch Invocations like Devil’s Sight to see with your dumb human eyes, and Agonizing Blast to agonize your blasts. Yeah you could also learn more spells, but we’re going to wait for...

LEVEL 6 - WARLOCK 3

Third level Warlocks get to choose their Pact Boon and I mean, we’re kinda forced to take Pact of the Talisman for amulets, aren’t we? Currently all it does is provide a d4 when the wearer fails an ability check, and the benefit can be used a number of times equal to your proficiency bonus, regaining all uses at the end of a Long Rest. But what’s cool about the amulet talisman is that you can give it to someone else who might need the bonus. And additionally it stacks with Guidance, which can be pretty big at these low levels.

Much more importantly however your Pact Slots are now at a 2nd level, meaning you can learn 2nd level Warlock spells! Grab Misty Step to get away from danger, Mirror Image to protect yourself, and Hold Person to keep deadites in place! (Remember: Deadites are humans possessed by demons, meaning that they’re technically still humanoids. If you’re dealing with a demon like Ruby however she counts as a Fiend, and won’t be affected by Hold Person. Unless she can be affected by Hold Person because she’s a Half-Demon? Better not to try unless desperate really...)

(Image from cupofmoe.com)

LEVEL 7 - WARLOCK 4

4th level Warlocks get their first Ability Score Improvement (finally by total level 7) and if you haven’t picked up on we’re going to mainly be going down the Warlock route, so more Charisma would benefit us more overall.

You could also learn another spell but truthfully we’re going to be replacing them with 3rd level spells soon, so better not to. You can grab the Prestidigitation cantrip though, to show off your eldritch knowledge with some basic parlor tricks.

LEVEL 8 - WARLOCK 5

5th level Warlocks get another Eldritch Invocation, and to be invisible to demons (and most other things) grab the One with Shadows invocation. It only works if you keep still and keep in the darkness, but invisibility from evil is great to stay alive!

You can also learn 3rd level spells now! I’d probably drop Mirror Image to grab Hypnotic Pattern (for now), Counterspell (for good), and Blink from the Archfey list, which will be a far more effective defensive spell than Mirror Image. (Although it doesn’t upscale so we will ditch that too with time.)

LEVEL 9 - WARLOCK 6

6th level Archfey Warlocks can turn invisible to gather more amulets, as Misty Escape lets you use your reaction to teleport away from danger and turn invisible until the start of your next turn, refreshing on a Short or Long Rest. Use this if you think you’re in the line of fire to get behind Ash.

Additionally you can learn another spell, and if you think we’re going to skip out on this level to get better 4th level spells to cast with your Warlock slots then you’re goddamn right we are.

(Artwork from Evil Dead: The Game)

LEVEL 10 - WARLOCK 7

7th level Warlocks get another Eldritch Invocation and it’s time for your amulet to not be completely worthless thanks to Protection of the Talisman. When the person wearing your amulet talisman fails a saving throw, they can add a d4 to the roll and potentially turn it into a success. They can only do it a number of times equal to your proficiency bonus per Long Rest, but the added protection can be great to keep your party’s El Jefe alive.

Additionally you can now learn 4th level spells: drop Misty Step for Dimension Door as the greater distance traveled far outweighs the use of a full action, and you also might want to drop Hypnotic Pattern for Greater Invisibility from the Archfey list, to keep hidden while you blast away deadites. Heck you might even want to replace Blink with something like Banishment too. Honestly for the most part I just want to wait until we get the big boy 5th level spells to play with.

LEVEL 11 - WARLOCK 8

8th level Warlocks get another Ability Score Improvement so it’s finally time to cap off your Charisma for the best old magic to protect from the worst old evils.

You could also learn more spells but again: going to wait for...

LEVEL 12 - WARLOCK 9

9th level Warlocks get another Eldritch Invocation, and Whispers of the Grave is very in-character, can be very useful, and is a lot of fun! There’s a lot of good info you can get from the dead: your dead uncle, your dead self, the dead that wrote the book of the dead... Just gotta know who to listen to.

Speaking of listening you now have 5th level spells, meaning all the spells known we skipped out on can now be filled up! So I’d suggest you take the following:

Hold Monster is like Hold Person, but better. (But it does affect less targets, so if you think Hold Person will work then use that instead.)

Dominate Person is like Hold Person, but better because you can get them to serve the forces of good instead of the forces of evil. (No it’s not possession shut up.)

Mislead can be good if you need to sneak around to grab Ash’s shit... again. It will also give the demons something to try to attack while you gather more supplies.

And Teleportation Circle can be useful if you need an escape plan.

The last two spells were added to the Warlock list via Tasha’s Cauldron of Everything, so if you don’t see them listed on the Warlock spell list that’s why. Just figured I’d mention it here since it would be kinda weird to mention it alongside those two spells.

LEVEL 13 - WARLOCK 10

10th level Warlocks have seen enough evil to avoid being possessed. Or well, avoid being charmed at least. Beguiling Defenses gives you immunity to the charmed condition and when another creature attempts to charm you, you can use your reaction to attempt to turn the charm back on that creature. They need to make Wisdom save against your spell DC or be... well, charmed by you for a minute! (Unless they take damage.) Considering that you should probably have at least a +1 focus from your Artificer abilities any deadite attempting to persuade you will have to think twice. Ash though...

You can’t grab any more spells yet, but you can get one last cantrip. I’d suggest

Mind Sliver in case you find an armored deadite with a weak mind, or if you just want to make it easier for your teammates to use magic against your enemies.

(Image from Ash vs Evil Dead Season 3, Episode 5)

LEVEL 14 - WARLOCK 11

11th level Warlocks get their 6th level Mystic Arcanum, which looks like a spell slot and acts like a spell slot but isn’t actually a spell slot. The difference is that you can’t upcast any of your Warlock Pact Magic, and you can’t upcast your Mystic Arcanum with higher level slots that you’ll get.

With that explanation out of the way there’s a lot of good 6th level Mystic Arcanum options but... look, Tasha's Otherworldly Guise is just fun. You can finally go in with a bat (or a sword, or a rusty chain) and hit some deadites very hard, getting an extra attack, more AC, some damage resistances and immunity to conditions, and flight! (Because why not.) Sure maybe Eyebite or Soul Cage would be more useful but even the support should upgrade melee damage eventually.

Speaking of more damage: Wall of Light does a good bit of radiant damage and can also be good to blind deadites and generally hide behind while your friends prepare to face off against evil. And if you think you’re not going to cast it well, you just got an extra pact slot little buddy! Congratulations!

LEVEL 15 - WARLOCK 12

12th level Warlocks get another Ability Score Improvement and seeing as your Charisma is maxed out increasing your Intelligence is an option? You could also alternatively grab some feats: I personally opted for War Caster to keep concentration up for longer and to also be able to shoot any anyone who runs past you, instead of just trying to stab them with a knife or something.

You also get more Eldritch Invocations! It’s hard to justify Ascendant Step as anything other than magic, but being able to slowly float around is useful for transportation, evading deadites, or just reaching things in high places.

LEVEL 16 - WARLOCK 13

13th level casters get 7th level spells but you’re special so you get Mystic Arcanum instead. There’s a lot of fun options to take: Crown of Stars, Etherealness, Plane Shift, Power Word Pain... but Forcecage is probably the most useful overall. If you need to keep a particularly nasty deadite in place with (almost) no questions asked? That’s what you have Forcecage for. But even then the other spells I mentioned have their use and you should give them a glance if interested.

Dream is perhaps less relevant, but it will let you send messages to whom it may concern as needed while they sleep. Sure this is maybe more of your uncle’s thing, but El Brujo Especial can afford to borrow some tricks.

LEVEL 17 - WARLOCK 14

Speaking of your uncle: wasn’t it cool when he put you in a coma and forced you to drink from weird bowls alongside a naked lady? Well Dark Delirium will let you force anyone you want into that trial, just like they’re in a hit asymmetrical multiplayer game! As an action you can choose a creature you can see within 60 feet. They must make a Wisdom saving throw or become charmed / frightened of you (your choice for which one), lasting for 1 minute or until your concentration is broken (like a spell.) The effect also ends early if the creature takes any damage.

Until this illusion ends, the creature thinks it is lost in a misty realm, the appearance of which you choose. The creature can see and hear only itself, you, and the illusion. So basically they’ll be lost in their visions unless someone makes you snap them out of it, or if they get hit. But it’s a good way to get some alone time with someone and to potentially lock them down if their friends aren’t willing to punch them awake. A sledgehammer to the face tends to be a good cure for possession.

(Official promotional artwork for Evil Dead: The Game)

LEVEL 18 - WARLOCK 15

15th level Warlocks get their 8th level Mystic Arcanum, and unfortunately unlike the previous levels your options are... kinda trash? I guess Dominate Monster fits the best, although Feeblemind works decently enough as well. Much like before you can also pick up another 5th level spell and... I dunno. Planar Binding works well enough if you find a demon that you want to surround in salt for Ash to talk to.

But the far more notable thing is that you now have access to 15th level Warlock Invocations! For one I would replace One with Shadows with Shroud of Shadow which is all-around a better invocation. And Visions of Distant Realms will let you summon another eyeball out of another asymmetrical multiplayer game to scout ahead and see if any deadites are in any of the rooms ahead. Maybe you’re seeing through an old friend; who knows?

Witch Sight is also a really strong invocation that’s probably far less situational than some of the other ones you have. All the other ones you have fit in-character so I’m not going to tell you to replace any of them, but it stands to reason that higher level abilities are stronger.

LEVEL 19 - WARLOCK 16

16th level Warlocks get one last Ability Score Improvement, and honestly by total level 19 you can pick just about anything you want and it’ll still be good. Get more Constitution, more Intelligence, or a feat for all it matters. It won’t matter if you’re dead by dawn.

LEVEL 20 - WARLOCK 17

We went all the way to level 17 (instead of grabbing more ASIs that you honestly don’t need) because you can get 9th level spells at level 17! Or well, Mystic Arcanum anyways. There’s a lot of options that fit in-character but in my opinion Imprisonment is the ultimate choice to seal away evil forever. Dunno how many hit die Ruby has, yet alone the Book of the Dead, but Imprisonment proves that money can solve all your problems.

Oh and you can learn another spell but by total level 20 you can honestly pick whatever you want. I guess if I have to make a suggestion you can take Synaptic Static? I dunno. But the true ultimate prize is finally having a whole 4 spell slots!

FINAL BUILD

PROS

Arcane Knowledge - Artificer levels surprisingly pull their weight despite your (relatively) lacking intelligence. Proficiency in Constitution saving throws is universally useful, infusions are constantly strong even late-game, and the Arcane Canon gives you a constant use of your bonus action (mostly to shield your allies) as long as you’re good at hiding your fancy gadgets.

Fear No Evil - I’m going to be honest: the last 3 levels of Warlock are kinda worthless, so for all intents and purposes purposes you are a full caster (even if your spell slots are weird) with a strong yet situational 9th level spell and plenty of other strong magics to keep the dead at bay.

Infernal Camouflage - Along with free invisibility being very strong you have plenty of tools to evade evil and protect both yourself and your allies. Teleporting out of danger and turning invisible will keep you alive for awhile, and your amulets can keep your chosen ally (or yourself) safe.

CONS

Wicked Fast - Warlock is a Warlock and Warlock has no spell slots. You have strong tricks up your sleeve yes, and being able to replenish your spell slots after a Short Rest is very strong. But you still have a limited number of shots before you’ll be forced into Eldrtich Blasting.

Weak-Minded - Playing an Artificer with middling Intelligence is obviously not a good idea. If you opt to use any canon other than the shield generator it’ll essentially be useless due to your low hit chance, and your low-level spell slots are incredibly limited and will often be used to either make more canons or cast Shield.

Kandarian Fury - Basically all your stats other than Charisma are kinda bad? While this does mean your magic will be good anything else you try to do will be middling at best: getting grappled will be a tough challenge if you can’t cast Dimension Door, and any skill checks will probably be left to the Leaders of the group. Not to mention that your Wisdom is pretty bad, leaving you quite open to being frightened or possessed.

But you’re not the Chosen One, you’re the one chosen to help the Chosen One! That might not make any sense but what matters is that you’re El Brujo Especial and have all the tools you could ever need to vanquish evil for good. Be the big strong vagina everyone knows you can be and teach them to fear no evil, because evil should fear you! And if you ever find that you’re having trouble do know that a good night’s sleep with a face mask can always help put your head in the game.