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grailfinders · 5 months

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Grailfinders #328: Mysterious Ranmaru X

today on Grailfinders, we’re combining gudaguda and the servantverse into one dangerous Mysterious Ranmaru X-shaped cocktail. she’s an Echo Knight to sword while you sword, and an Aberrant Mind Sorcerer to get some cool servantverse tech and a sword to ride around on.

check out her build breakdown below the cut, or aer character sheet over here!

next up: how to marry your dragon

Race and Background

for once we can ignore the “yeah they’re technically magical copies now but they used to be human” thing we deal with with every other servant since MRX comes from the Servantverse, meaning she’s 100% not a human at all! they’re from space, and xe has PTSD from Nobu’s actual death, which would make her at least 450 years old, so calling him an Astral Elf isn’t too far off. you kind of live forever, but more importantly for gameplay you learn Dancing Lights which uses your Charisma, you have Darkvision, Fey Ancestry, which helps against being charmed, Perception proficiency, a bonus action teleport thanks to Starlight Step for sick swordboarding moves, and you can fall into an Astral Trance instead of sleeping. it’s like normal trance, but you get a proficiency for the day when you do it. all that, plus you get +2 Dexterity and +1 Charisma!

also, you’re a Far Traveler (space edition), giving you proficiency in Insight and Arcana.

Ability Scores

first, Charisma. advanced sci-fi tech is normally intelligence, but servantverse stuff is just based on what sounds cool at the moment. like literally, the whole universe has seasons and episodes, their tech might literally run on phlebotinum. second highest is Dexterity. balancing on a literal sword’s edge is hard, let alone one that can fly. also, I hate to bring this up every time, but you don’t wear armor. third is Constitution. you don’t seem particularly tough, but you’re good at saving against flashbangs, and that’s usually constitution. your Intelligence is a bit lower than I’d like. yeah, you’re goofy, but you’re “hyper-advanced sci-fi universe” goofy. this means your Strength is only average. B rank strength is great, but it’s hard to get leverage while you’re floating, y’know? that means we’re dumping Wisdom. not only are you a gudaguda, but you literally half-blind yourself at all times.

Class Levels

1. Fighter 1: starting off, you’re a fighter. you have the eye of a ranmaru! this means in addition to rising up straight to the top, you can use a Second Wind once a short rest to regain some HP as a bonus action. you also get a Fighting Style, and Blind Fighting lets you get away with wearing an eyepatch in a combat zone. now you’re always aware of any unseen creatures within 10’ of you unless they’re hiding. I assume this is also why you were able to lead Guda out of the flashbang with no issue, but maybe that’s why you have an eyepatch?

you also get proficiency in Strength and Constitution saves, as well as Acrobatics and Athletics. being a 16th century warlord is a pretty physical job! and so is being a ranmaru, I assume.

2. Fighter 2: second level fighters get an Action Surge, so now you can make two actions in a turn once a short rest. now you can sword while you sword!

3. Fighter 3: I thought a lot about how to make it so you can attack from multiple angles at once, and also how to make a flying sword, and eventually I decided to keep things simple and go Kuroko mode with the Echo Knight. you can send your longsword off to stab people when you Manifest Echo, but it can only take one point of damage before coming back to you. that being said, there’s no limit to how many times you can send it out, so it’s no big loss. while it’s out and about, you can Unleash Incarnation Constitution Modifier times a day to attack an extra time as an attack action, as long as said attack is from the spot of your echo.

4. Fighter 4: fourth level fighters get their first Ability Score Improvement. Improve your Dexterity, and you’ll get hit less and do hit more! win/win!

5. Fighter 5: fifth level fighters get an Extra Attack every attack action, so now you can attack up to five times in a turn, using your action surge and unleash incarnation. that’s not quite the macross missile massacre you use in your NP, but it’s respectable!

6. Fighter 6: our last level of fighter is another ASI, this one to bump up your Charisma.

7. Sorcerer 1: you’ve got a floating sword, now you just need eye lasers, an NP, and the ability to ride it. and for that reason, we’re turning to spellcasting once again. as an Aberrant Mind Sorcerer, you get Spells you can cast with Charisma, but some of them are also Psionic Spells. these are bonus spells, and while we don’t use them too often, I’ll bring them up if they’re in-character. you can also replace the ones you don’t like with other divination or enchantment spells.

finally, you get some futuristic walkie-talkies via Telepathic Speech. mark someone nearby, and then you can speak to each other in your minds up to four miles away, and it lasts for a number of minutes equal to your sorcerer level, or if you hand a commlink to another person.

but, you still get spells normally, and those we can choose. grab Booming Blade and Sword Burst to space up your swordplay, Message for another walkie-talkie, Friends to be ranmaru-shaped, and Feather Fall because you’re already floating. finally, you get Ray of Sickness for your very first eyebeam! it’s not super strong, but it’s a start!

8. Sorcerer 2: second level sorcerers become a Font of Magic, giving you Sorcery Points that you can turn into spell slots and vice-versa. just know that you don’t get as many points from destroying slots as you need to make them, so right now this pretty much just gives you an extra slot to cast something like Magic Missile. while this fits the aesthetic of your NP, it’s not nearly the right power level yet, but again- it’s a start.

9. Sorcerer 3: third level sorcerers get Metamagic, two ways of spending sorcery points to add some flair to your spells. or remove it, in the case of Subtle Spells. with that, you can remove all external tells of magic- no verbal or somatic components, and you just need to have the materials on you to cast it. you can also use Extended Spells, doubling the duration of a spell for ease of use.

spells like Calm Emotions from your psionics to get in good with the ruling class, or Warp Sense. despite sounding like something that happens every gudaguda, this spell just lets you sense nearby portals. getting you out of the multiverse is a long-term goal, but finding a portal lying around would speed things up a lot!

10. Sorcerer 4: Fourth level sorcerers get their own ASI, and grabbing a feat like Telekinetic is cool. while you can’t attack easily this way, it does give you access to mage hand, so at least you can start lifting your sword yourself.

you can also cast Air Bubble now. it might be jumping the gun, but riding through space on a sword probably isn’t easy for people that need to. you know, breathe. now you don’t have to worry about that.

11. Sorcerer 5: fifth level sorcerers get Magical Guidance, letting you spend a sorcery point to get advantage on any skill check. but I’d rather spend points casting Melf’s Minute Meteors, which creates a bunch of swords that float around you, and every turn you can fire a few off to explode your enemies. still a bit slower than I’d want for your NP, but it’s getting there!

(also your psionic spell Sending is pretty good. it’s basically another walkie-talkie)

12. Sorcerer 6: sixth level aberrant mind sorcerers have Psionic Sorcery- now whenever you cast a psionic spell you can either cast it with a spell slot as normal or by spending sorcery points, with the latter removing all components for the spell as long as they aren’t consumed. you also have Psychic Defenses, giving you resistance to psychic damage and being frightened.

there’s not much else we want at level three, but we can still go back and grab a spell we missed. Alter Self is what makes a ranmaru a ranmaru, letting you change gender pretty much whenever you want.

13. Sorcerer 7: seventh level sorcerers get fourth level spells like Confusion! that one’s practically not even magic, it’s just the general effect gudaguda tends to have on people. if you hang on to nobu’s head you can also make mini nobus with Summon Aberration.

14. Sorcerer 8: eighth level sorcerers get another ASI, and this one makes you a Scion of Elemental Air. with this, you can cast Minor Illusion using your charisma for a hologram, but more importantly you can use the Wind’s Glide to fly for a turn. you’re a little shaky, but you’re finally riding your sword! you can use this ability proficiency times a day.

you also gain access to your penultimate eyebeam, Raulothim’s Psychic Lance! with this, you can target a creature you can see, or even one you can name within range- this forces an intelligence save, and if they fail they take psychic damage and become incapacitated for a round.

15. Sorcerer 9: ninth level sorcerers get fifth level spells, and for once we like everything we have- Rary’s Telepathic Bond is basically a group chat, and Telekinesis lets you lift up a sword with you on it. alternatively, you can use our chosen spell Freedom of the Winds to fly instead. with this you gain a flying speed of 60’, and you have advantage against being grappled, restrained, or paralyzed. you’re one of the few servants that can properly take on Tlaloc, and this is why. also, you can end the spell early by using it to teleport out of the way of an attack.

16. Sorcerer 10: there’s one last thing we need for this build to be complete- a way to get to the regular world. to train up to that, grab Far Step for some teleportation for up to a minute. you can also cast Distant spells to double their range, though that doesn’t help here.

17. Sorcerer 11: okay, I lied- one more eyebeam. I mean can you blame me? Disintegrate is pretty cool! it deals a ton of damage if it hits, and can instakill anything knocked out by it in a way that makes resurrection pretty hard to do.

18. Sorcerer 12: with this last ASI, you can round up your Constitution for more HP and unleashed incarnations and your Charisma for stronger spells.

19. Sorcerer 13: finally, with seventh level spell slots in hand, you can Plane Shift to go join your master in the regular world. I mean, right now it’s just a cue ball, but it’ll be regular eventually. probably.

20. Sorcerer 14: there is one more way to ride a sword I wanted to grab- the spells and feats are cool, but they lack longevity. once you learn the Revelation in Flesh, you can fly to your heart’s content! by spending a sorcery point as a bonus action, you can fly and hover for ten minutes at a time. you can spend more points for more bonuses, but those aren’t in character. I’m pretty sure, at least. I don’t remember ranmaru becoming a slime monster at any point.

Pros and Cons

Pros:

being able to fly is always huge when it comes to avoiding damage, especially when you’re playing a character with ranged attack options. flight completely negates the threat of a lot of enemies, and seriously reduces the danger of many more.

you have access to all sorts of instant communication options that work over extreme distances- being in contact with whoever just ran off and split the party can be super helpful! and when they inevitably die it’s entertaining as well!

you also come packing a lot of way to ignore or resist common debuffs used to neutralize casters. silence doesn’t matter because you have subtle spell. paralysis doesn’t matter for the same reason, taking all your gear won’t stop you because you have psionic spells, etc. the point is, if you want to cast something, it’s not easy to stop you from doing it.

Cons:

all sorcerers burn through sorcery points fast, but you’re burning the candle at both ends- you’ve got metamagic, sure, but you’re also eating most of your points in one go every time you use psionic spells. while you can cast anything anywhere, it’s best to practice discretion.

you also use a Sword, which negates your flight since you’ll have to enter melee range to do most of your damage.

you use your bonus action both for a ton of spells and to summon your echo knight, which dies real damn fast. that means you’ll often have to choose between using the spell you spend a high level slot on or keeping your distraction alive, and having to choose between features isn’t that fun.

#fgo #fate grand order #mysterious ranmaru x #dnd 5e #D&D #Fighter #sorcerer

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