Making - Doom (Dota 2) 5E

"YOU ARE DOOMED!" - Doom

One of my favorite things about Dota 2 are all the unique heroes, there are over 110, and the creative different abilities for each one. I find myself trying to mechanically make many of these heroes work in 5e DnD. So today we are talking about Doom a fallen celestial, tortured for his arrogance and disobedience and cast out of the heavens. You can read about his story and his abilities here.

Race - Fallen Aasimar

So it was a bit of a debate between this or a tiefling. I think tiefling might have a bit more mechanical benefit to the build we are going for but I went for story here. I really like the necrotic shourd representing Doom's charred wings. An if your DM is letting you play an evil character I'm sure you can talk with them about flavoring your look to suit.

Here is the stat distribution:

Str: 15  Dex:10  Con: 13  Int: 8  Wis: 12  Cha: 16

we then add our +1 to STR and +2 to CHA bringing it to:

Str: 16  Dex:10  Con: 13 Int: 8  Wis: 12  Cha: 16

This will set us up well for our class but next lets talk background.

Background - Acolyte

I thought briefly about going Far Traveler, but I thought Acolyte fit better. Being apart of this order of celestials and then cast out. It makes sense he has knowledge of this order he now wants to tear down.
This gives us proficiency in Insight and Religion even though your not great at them I think it makes sense. For the additional languages I went with Infernal and Primordial to represent the nature of Doom's powers now.

Class - Paladin - Oathbreaker

I like the themes here, and fits the fallen being. The Oathbreaker Spells will cover our skills, and help round out the flavor for making Doom. So lets get started.

Level 1 -

HP - 11
Armor - All
Weapons - All
Tools - None 
Saving Throws - Wisdom & Charisma

Skills - Athletics & Intimidation

 Here I wanted to play to our strengths so we have to good skills. So Athletics to take benefit of our STR score, and Intimidation which depending on the DM you can probably take advantage of with STR an CHA scores.

Equipment Choices - 
Greatsword
Halberd
Javelins - 5
Explorers Pack
Chain Mail
Holy Symbol

Divine Sense
Lay on Hands

Level 2 -

Fighting Style - Great Weapon Fighting - Being able to re-roll the 1's and 2's will help raise your average damage.

Spellcasting - On top of using your slots for Smites, the Searing Smite spell is going to represent Doom's Infernal Blade skill.

Divine Smite - If you can talk to your DM, and see if they would let you rework your smite to fire or necrotic damage. Otherwise you can flavor as a radiant vengeance, and a remnant of your celestial past.

Level 3 - 

Racial - Necrotic Shroud - These will represent Doom's skeletal burned wings. Also you get a nice necrotic buff, and a chance to frighten.

Oathbreaker - 

Oath Spells - You get two pretty good spells here inflict wounds does a good amount of damage, but Hellish Rebuke gives you an option to damage out of turn which is always great. Hellish Rebuke is also going to represent Doom's Scorched Earth skill. While a spell like Fire Shield would work better I try to keep these builds to level 10, and would lose what makes up the rest of the build going just for Fire Shield.

Channel Divinity - 
   Control Undead - While not raising the dead yourself, this can be representative of the Raise Dead skill you get for devouring the Troll Shaman Neutral Camps.
   Dreadful Aspect - Another option to frighten those around you, probably wont use this to often.

Divine Health - You are immune to disease. No more flu shots for you -_-

Level 4 - 

Ability Score Increase/Feat - +2 to Strength, bumps us up to 18 and +4 bonus.

Level 5 - 

Proficiency Increase - goes up to +3

Extra Attack - Two swings now pretty good.

Spells - Slots increase to 4, and level 2 spells! You also get Crown of Madness, and Darkness as Oathbreaker spells.

Level 6 - 

Okay for level 6...... A NEW CLASS APPROACHES!!!!!!!!!!

Multi-Class - Warlock - Hexblade

Spells: Hexblade
As a Hexblade warlock you get access to the Shield spell and get to have it always prepared along with wrathful smite.

Cantrips: Were going with Eldritch Blast to represent the Satyr Tormentor, Shockwave ability. An Thunderclap for the Hellbear thunderclap.

Spells: We get one a warlock slot now, and 2 spells. Taking Armor of Agathys to represent the Ogre Frostmage's Ice Armor skill, and Hex is just a good spell.

Hex Warrior: For our build this we don't get much use of this. We already have all these proficiencies and using the Great-sword negates the using the charisma but we got good strength so its all good.

Hexblade's Curse:  Just like in Dota 2 we are getting our ULT at level 6! This curse will act as our the Doom skill, and gaining the hit points for killing the target also serve as a light version of the Devour skill.

Level 7 - 

Another warlock slot and a new warlock spell, take whichever spell fits the flavor or usefulness for the campaign you are playing in.

Eldritch Invocations - Cursebringer - works great for our build, since we already aren't making use of Hex Warrior. So being able to take to move our Curse will be useful. Also might be a good alternative to smiting if you find yourself fighting celestial creatures that are resistant to radiant.

Burning Hex - More fire damage to help represent the Infernal Blade skill.

***Another Option - Mask of Many Faces -  depending on the campaign your playing you might need ready access to disguise yourself to go into town without people immediately calling for the town guard.

Level 8 - 

Here we take another level of warlock and our warlock spells are now 2nd level. For the new spell you get to learn, I'd recommend misty step. The utility is great and probably easier than trying to get your DM to give you a  blink dagger.


Pact Boon - Pact of the Blade
I think this is a good option if magic items are few you can take the improved pact blade invocations with this or if you stick with warlock long enough the Lifedrinker invocation. Also it can help you in similar RP situations as and Eldritch Knights when you have to go into places but leave your weapon behind.

Beyond -

With that that about covers it for this build at level 9 I would take the 4th level of warlock for the ability score increase or to pick up Great Weapon Master Feat. Beyond that go with whatever you seem to be enjoying or base it on the flow of the campaign. If you don't need to or get to short rest a lot maybe go for more Paladin. If you find your party short resting quite often might take advantage of it and take more warlock levels. Either way you will be terrifying towns people in no time and getting revenge on the celestials that did this to you in the first place.

Thanks for checking out this build, and if you give it a try I hope you enjoy!

Also I made an update to the Oath of the Dragon Knight Paladin I made you can get the updated version on the post here.

Starting with a Bang

You are in the Morning Glory Inn, a large gathering spot on the edge of Andel for adventurers. We see a particularly odd party, [insert each player describing their character]. A mysterious figure walks in the room, and spots the party. He approaches throws a bag of coins on the table and says "I have need of escort over the mountains. The journey is perilous but there is another bag of coin waiting for you on the other side."

Sizing up the occupants of the table he says "What say you?"

For many people who have played a fantasy RPG before, you may have had a similar experience when starting a campaign. While this is a perfectly fine start it can get old, rehashing the same beginning experience.

Well I would like to challenge everyone to try and start their next campaign with a bang! This may be some of your players first time make it memorable! You may be playing with seasoned gamers, but why not give them a reason to remember why they love playing. Here are a couple examples of what I like to do to kick things off with more than just a pint.

Roll Initiative

These words typically are good at getting your players attention. Why not start your campaign off in the middle of some action! This will get your tactical and combat focused players paying attention from the beginning, and gives your players a quick chance to test drive their new characters.

The flickering light of your make shift fire illuminates part of the derelict temple. This former house of worship is your parties chosen place of rest for the night. Though in disrepair it provides a feeling of safety ... until you hear the cracking. Bones pulling themselves together. Grabbing up their old discarded weapons and armor, brought back from death by the curse that plagues this land. Their hollow eyes turn to look at you gathered around your fire as they approach with cruel intent...

Roll For Initiative!

I did a intro similar to this for a gothic horror themed campaign. Not only do I get to start the campaign with a fight, but get to give some cinematic setting information. This will help give the players a feel of what to expect on this first adventure. After this fight we flashed back to the city they came from, and they found out what their mission was. This derelict temple became a rest stop on their travel, and where we caught back up to "real time".

You can leave it like that as a place on the road to anywhere so it can fit in no matter what first adventure your players choose to go on. Or if you want you could maybe play out the first room of the first dungeon if you have the first adventure in mind already. Maybe the players could get a glimpse of a challenge they will have to deal with there, and when you flash back they could buy items in town like ropes or pitons to help deal with it.

You definitely don't have to use this as a flashback though, you could just continue on the adventure from their letting the players figure out what quest they are on as they go. Maybe the players could even tell you!

Cinematic Open

These are great they give you a chance to introduce your players to elements in world that they may not get to directly interact with until later in the campaign. However make sure that whatever it is affects the players in some way or why bother talking about it. Maybe you could show the event that sets up the central tension of your world.

As Arioc struck the Dusk Emperor with Sunfall, his celestial maul, a thunder crack rang out shattering the fabric of the world. Decimating the bastions of evil the Emperor had built over the past century. An for the first time in just as long a ray of sunshine shone through the clouds. Though the world was still broken, hope that existed once again.

10 years later...

Short and sweet you could explain the battle a bit more, but it gives a little background on the world an what the players can expect. There is a world that was under the thumb of tyranny but now its being rebuilt. How will the players shape that new world! Maybe you could then start in a tavern but the tavern is in one of the Dusk Emperor's old forts. This takes a trope that many players know but uses it to illustrate how the central tension of the world will effect what the players encounter.

Then again maybe something more direct is in order. You can find lots of these on the internet one of my personal favorites....

Its dark, you feel a great weight pressing upon you. You begin to push the debris off of you, it's heavy and awkward but movable. You start to crawl out of this pile when you finally see some light and a pair of still eyes staring at you. Staring from all around you, panicked you push through the rest of the bodies as quickly as you can. Finally you get yourself free to see a few others standing their traumatized from a similar experience. Were you mistakenly tossed in this mass grave, or were you supposed to be there. If so why are you back now, what do you do?

Another cinematic opening that immediately raises a ton of questions for the players. Why them? Why are they there? Where is there? You can see the difference as well. Both events effect the characters. The first in an indirect way in how it affects the whole world, the other in a much more personal way for the players.


I hope reading these will jump start your creativity and get your gears moving on how to start your next campaign with a bang. Also pull from your favorite movies, comics, books,and video games. If there is a beginning that really grabbed you see if it could translate to the kind of story you want to experience with your players.