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.

Making - Hawkeye (Marvel Avengers) 5E

When you do what Mockingbird and I do -- without powers -- you can't rely on super speed or flight as your weapons. Everything around you is there to help you hit the target. ...We are the weapons!  - Clint Barton

Hawkeye the expert archer/marksman and scout for the Avengers. A capable man skilled enough to go into battle with gods, super-soldiers, and mutants! That's who we are going to be making today.

Race - Human Variant

So we are going to be staying away from magic, and try to get a lot of skills and feats for our build to make use of. So to start we are going with the Human Variant race.

Here is the stat distribution

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

we then add our +1's to Dex and Con bringing it up to

Str: 12  Dex:16  Con: 14 Int: 10  Wis: 13  Cha: 10

We ill take Perception as our skill as Hawkeye especially in the MCU is good at scouting things out and noticing small details.

For the Feat we are taking the obvious one here Sharpshooter. This feat not only has wonderful mechanics but also gives the feel that this guy is a master marksman.

Background - Soldier

So soldier you get athletics which is great for a human at peak physical condition, and Intimidation is good for interrogating the bad guys. Hawkeye also is a pilot though there will probably not be too many air vehicles in the game your playing. So vehicles land here will take the place of that, and for the game proficiency I picked cards.

Background Skills: Athletics, Intimidation

Class - Fighter: Battle Master

Okay lets get to the meat of the class here now, we get a few of the class skills available from Soldier. So here I went with Acrobatics, since again Hawkeye is quite agile and in great shape, and survival since he fits that scout role it should help with tracking and things like that.

Class Skills: Acrobatics, Survival

 Equipment most of the choices are pretty self explanatory, but for choice 2 I took a spear because at times Hawkeye fights with his bow like a short pole-arm so it might be good for melee, and he also does the same thing with a combat knife. At some point you might look into upgrading the light crossbow for a Heavy then you can use it for the higher damage and the longbow for longer distance shots.

Equipment
* Leather Armor, Longbow and 20 arrows
* Spear and Dagger
* Light crossbow and 20 bolts
* Explorers Pack 

Fighting Style: Archery

The +2 to attack is just so good here, and lets you have a shot at hitting with a sharpshooter attack at lower levels. 

Second Wind: Always useful to have a self heal don't forget you have it! 


Level 2:  Action Surge - Make it count as always but don't forget it recharges on short rest.


Level 3: Battlemaster: If we already had the meat for our Hawkeye build this would be the potatoes. The superiority die and maneuvers are going to represent your trick shots and special arrows.

My recommendations would be precision attack to help with those sharpshooter shots. For the other I would take pushing attack for position and extra damage, and disarming strike for the extra damage and to get the enemy to drop a weapon. There are many great choices here but I would pick from these 3.

Student of War: I would talk to your DM here, but If he is willing a Alchemist Supplies, or Poisoners Kit could be cool and allow you to craft some special arrows.


Level 4: Here we are going to bump the DEX up by 2, hit more often and harder


Level 5: Extra Attack, you will start putting out good damage a round now keep positioning yourself well as you will start to draw the ire of creatures. So keep your distance when you can.


Level 6: Here in stead of taking the DEX quite yet I think here would be a good spot to take the feat Observant. This bumps our WIS to a +2 , makes your Passive Perception go through the rough should be at a 20! Also being able to read lips has good role play and fictional positioning uses.


Level 7: Not only do you get another superiority, but two more maneuvers. Two i want to point out here is Distracting Strike, and Trip Attack. Both increase your damage, and allow you to set up members of your party for Advantage on their attacks. One more reliable then the other so take into account what your fighting and who is in your party. If your setting up a rogue Distracting Strike is probably plenty, but if you have another melee fighter with a lot of attacks it might be worth going for trying to knock it prone.

Know your Enemy: If you have the time to study your opponent can be good for trying to figure out what maneuvers to use.


Level 8: Here lets take the DEX score the rest of the way and get i up to the +5, again hit a little more often and a little harder.


Level 9: I really like Indomitable, in world full of magic your a guy with a bow or a sword. This is a chance for will and fortitude to overcome magics control or a stronger creatures physical dominance.


Level 10: Hey D10's for Superiority Dice, and you get another! Two more maneuvers as well still a lot of awesome ones to choose from!


Beyond 10th Level - I feel at 4-5th level this build already feels like Hawkeye but I like to do it out to level 10. Beyond that buff stats, and I would at least stick with fighter to level 11 for the next level of Extra Attack. Martial Adept is good for feat options another Superiority die and more maneuvers. If you are thinking about multi-classing Ranger is a good option the hunter abilities can buff your damage and get some spells to let you do neater things with your arrows.

Well I hope you enjoyed this one, which was suggested by the comments! So let me know if there are others you would like to see. Until next time happy gaming!

Making - Altair Ibn La'Alahd (Assasins Creed) 5E

"Nothing is true and everything is permitted." - Altair Ibn La'Alahd

Love Assassins Creed? Great me to and it's time to make Altair in 5e. Again this is just my take on it and is for fun so even if you don't like every choice I make here it will hopefully get your gears turning to how you would customize it for you.

Okay so Altair is apart of an order of religious like order of assassins. He utilizes a wrist blade, daggers, swords, and various weapons he grabs on the battlefield. So in this situation I think we are going to go with the on brand answer and take him down the rogue class path.

Race

So bit of a tossup here but any race with a bonus to dexterity would serve fine.I chose to go with the Human Variant for the feat, and to choose where I want the stat bumps to go. So for this build I went with the 27 point buy method. Here is what I came up with.

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

With the two plus ones from human variant I bumped up Dex and Cha. Dex since most of his class abilities are based upon it, and Cha so he can effectively intimidate, deceive, and persuade. This gives final stats looking like this.

Str: 12  Dex:16  Con: 13  Int: 10  Wis: 10  Cha: 14

For the Variant feat I went with Dual Wielder. Typically you will just be making the one attack in a round, but just holding the second weapon with this feat gives you the extra 1 AC which is great for low levels. Also if you choose to use the offhand bonus attack, because your surrounded and decide you want to fight or you maybe missed the first strike and want a chance for sneak attack damage still. This feat will let you have the main hand weapon you want, and then maybe a dagger in the offhand that we can flavor as the wrist blade.

Background

In Assassins Creed Altair is apart of a religious like order of assassins, who cause chaos to try and preserve peoples freedom and choice. So to represent that I went with the Acolyte background. You get proficiency in the Insight and Religion skill. You get to learn two languages I would pick two that make sense for the campaign your playing in so I would ask your DM what they suggest for the area of the world you will be playing in. The vestments and other priestly items you get here can also help you blend in with monks and clerics in the city, an effect Altair employs quite often.

Choice: Acolyte

Class

For Altair we are going Rogue, as for the archetype, surprise surprise Assassin is the choice. I will say I did briefly consider Thief for the use magic device feature, since Altair uses the Apple of Eden. However that feature doesn't come until level 13 and typically I like to do these builds with level 10 in mind, and Assassin gives us more tools and earlier to help achieve what we are trying to make.

Choice: Rogue

Level 1:

Stats:  Str: 12  Dex:16  Con: 13  Int: 10  Wis: 10  Cha: 14

 For skills we get to pick 4 on top of the two we get from our background, and the free one from the human variant race. So we are going to grab the things Altair needs for parkour, being sneaky, getting information out of people, noticing thing etc..

Skills: Rogue:Acrobatics, Deception, Sleight of Hand, and Stealth
           Background: Religion & Insight
           Human Variant: Perception

For the equipment we are grabbing the blades! You don't get a scimitar by default but you can always flavor the look of the sword you are using how you want. You may be thinking why now bow, although it would be useful I don't remember Altair using one that much and makes sense if hes trying to keep a low profile. So maybe a crossbow later might fit but you will be mainly sticking to daggers, and darts you pick up later for ranged attacks. An the explorers pack over the rest as Altair ends up traveling quite a bit but the tools in the burglars pack could be used to good effect as well.

Equipment: Rapier, shortsword, explorers pack, leather armor, 2 daggers, and thieves tools


Expertise: Stealth is the first obvious choice here you need to be able to sneak up on the enemy and the better stealth you have the easier that is. The 2nd choice is a little tougher we want something to get into places your not supposed to and to approach targets from unexpected ways. So Acrobatics will help you get up to rooftops and other levels, and Thieves tools will help you get into doors.

     Choice: Stealth, Acrobatics or Thieves Tools

Sneak Attack: Use it whenever you can
Thieves Cant: Dont forget to use this when trying to gather information

Level 2:

Cunning Action: Remember to be using this to hide as a bonus action, I see so many players use this just for disengaging and dashing.

Level 3:

As we discussed earlier we are taking the Assassin archetype here.

Bonus Proficiencies: proficiency in poisoners kit and disguise kit. Take the opportunity to harvest and make poisons when you can. Also start using those priestly vestments to go undercover. Less obvious mechanical benefits here but with some thought you can get more damage from poisons, and use the disguises to get yourself surprise and advantage.

Assassinate: Make sure to pay attention to this. Take note of any time you can get the surprise drop on the enemy a free critical at the start of a fight is a big deal especially as sneak attack scales and if you can get some good poisons prepared. Also the advantage on the first round is good when you don't have time to prepare or setup.

Level 4:

Ability Score Increase: We are going to bump our Dexterity by 2 here, that will bump our mod up by +1. This +1 increase will affect our attack, dmg, AC, a bunch of skills so good value here.

Level 5:

Uncanny Dodge: This ability is going to be your friend. You will want to hang to that reaction for this, however if there is a chance for your opportunity attack to get sneak attack its probably worth doing that.

Level 6:

 Expertise: You get to pick two more skills here, I would say go for the skills that are coming up alot in your campaign, adapt to the environment your playing in.

Level 7:

Evasion: Remember that your saving for no damage instead of half! You will be probably passing alot of your Dex saves too, so this can be life saving to not forget this.
 

Level 8:

Ability Score Increase: At this point finishing bumping the Dex score up to 20 for the +5 is the safest choice. However a feat like mobile or sentinel could also be useful.

Level 9:

 Infiltration Expertise: A neat concept though the situations in which you will actually get to make use of it will probably not be that often.

Level 10:

Ability Score Increase: Here you get an extra ASI compared to other classes besides fighter. I would say bump a stat up to suit your play style, and same if you want to take a feat. I will list out some neat feat ideas. I personally would take Sentinel here to try and get sneak attack off multiple times a round, but depending on party composition or other factors may not fit for your campaign.

Feats:

Alert: More reliably act before enemies for purposes of your assassinate ability
Defensive Duelist: Useful to be able to raise you AC for one attack but, your reaction probably better spent on uncanny dodge
Lucky: This feat is just always good no matter the class
Mage Slayer: If you find your DM throwing a lot of caster at the party could come in handy.
Martial Adept: Having maneuvers not only gives you mechanical benefit but flavors the build more as a master warrior. Feinting attack, Parry, Disarming Attack, Trip attack all useful
Mobile: Lets you easily get to the target you want to be hitting.

Multiclass:

After level 10 you can just keep going on Rogue, but a cool multi-class option is Fighter. Champion gives you the opportunity to crit more often, and Battle Master gives you a lot more of those useful maneuvers, and eventually the ability to make more attacks a round.

So I hope you enjoyed my thoughts on building a character like Altair and you take and make it your own. Comment and let me know if you have any requests for future "Making" posts.

Making - Cloud Strife in 5E

So I have a quirky habit in that when I get a chance to play in a TTRPG, I tend to not be that original when first making my character. I think it stems from pouring all of that into when I am game mastering to try and make original cool NPCs for players to interact with. So when I am making a character to be a player I tend to base their look and in game mechanics on an existing character. Whether it be from video games, anime, books, movies, etc... I enjoy trying to figure out ways to make these characters work in a system. I also see quite a few threads on Reddit by people asking for help trying to do the same thing with various characters. So I thought I would make this an ongoing series of posts about the characters I have come up with. By no means am I saying that the way I make the character is the definitive way, its just the approach I took.

"Stay where you belong; in my memories!" - Cloud Strife

So to kick things off I wanted to do one of my favorite characters. from one of my favorite RPG's. So we are making Cloud Strife from Final Fantasy 7. So to me he seems a fairly obvious candidate for a Great Weapon Fighter. The other 2 things I need to decide are background and race.

Race
Lets start with race so Cloud is obviously pretty strong to be able to lug around the huge Buster Sword, but he is also pretty acrobatic so I want him to have a decent dexterity score as well. So to get some versatility with our Stat Scores I am going to go half- sun elf. The Sword Coast Adventurers guide introduced making your half-elf be a specific type, and we are going to do that to swap the skill versatility for the free cantrip from sun-elf. For the cantrip I am going with firebolt, to have a nice long distance ranged attack.

Choice: Half-Sun Elf , free cantrip = firebolt.


Background
I tend to do the background selection before I fill out what you get from your class that way when you pick your skill proficiency your not picking ones your getting for free from your background. For background it is pretty straight forward here to take Soldier. In the game Cloud is from a military organization called SOLDIER. However two honorable mentions here are the Inheritor background and you could make the item you receive the Buster Sword.

 Choice: Soldier  Honorable Mention: Inheritor


Class
So for class Cloud is pretty archetypal of the Fighter class, and is pretty straight forward to build. So when building these characters I am going to use the standard array of 15, 14, 13, 12, 10, 8. If you play in a group that rolls stats you might be able to make some other cool things work.

Choice: Fighter

So I am going to place those number as follows: 
STR: 15 DEX: 14 CON:12 INT: 13 WIS: 10 CHA:8

We are going to then apply are two +1 to stats to STR and INT and then we get the +2 to CHA it then looks like this.

Stats: STR: 16 DEX: 14 CON:12 INT: 14 WIS: 10 CHA:10


For skills we are getting athletics and intimidation from the Soldier background. So were going to take acrobatics for all the flips, and the second was tough and I think any of them is a decent choice but went with investigation since your trying to track down the bad guy and figure out their plans.

Skills: Acrobatics & Investigation Honorable Mention: any of the other choices


For equipment we are going to take the following.

Equipment: Chainmail
                     Greatsword & a Rapier (no reason for the Rapier, so pick what you like)
                     2 Handaxes
                     Explorers Pack

Fighting Style: Great Weapon Fighting using a great sword you will get a lot of use out of this since your damage dice are 2d6. 

That is it for the level one choices, so from here I will just list out things of note for subsequent levels I will typically not list out all the way to level 20 since most campaigns end before then, so we want to achieve the main part of our build long before that.

Level 2: Nothing here except for Action Surge this will serve as our "Limit Break" so when you describe what you are doing flavor it up and make it sound cool!

Level 3: So I debated on the Martial Archetype a bit between Champion and Eldritch Knight, but ended up falling on the Champion side of the fence. Since in the film Advent Children he doesn't use a lot of magic also most of their magic comes from materia they place in their weapons and armor. So I think just getting magic weapons and armor fills that role nicely. So I went with Champion because Cloud is a heavy hitter and improved critical will hopefully help us crit more often.

                Martial Archetype - Champion


Level 4: This is your first Ability Score Improvement of ASI. However we are going to take our first feat here instead! Taking Great Weapon Master will help you start to mow through the lower AC fluff that get thrown into fights, and you will quickly be starting to buff your + to attack to help offset the -5.

              Feat: Great Weapon Master

Level 5: Extra Attack you will really be able to start laying the hurt down in a fight with the two attacks, and you get the bump in proficiency bonus.


Level 6: The cool thing about fighter is you get way more ASI levels, so now we are going to bump up strength to 18, for a +4. 

             ASI: +2 STR

Level 7: Remarkable Athlete from Champion

Level 8: Another ASI we are going to put 2 more into STR to get us to the max of 20 for the +5.

               ASI: +2 STR

Level 9: Indomitable and an increase in proficiency bonus. Should be at a +9 to hit now with out any magical bonuses, so still at least a +4 when making a Great Weapon Master Strike.

Level 10: You get to take another fighting style my thought here is to take defense to increase your AC by 1 as AC is always hard to come by. However if you want to maybe move into some dual wielding occasionally to mimic Clouds Fusion Sword fighting style two weapon fighitng is also an okay option.

             Fighting Style: Defense Honorable Mention: Two Weapon Fighting

From here on out its however you want to flavor your character from here. You could continue to buff your stats and take more feats as fighter. Magic Initiate can be good for some more magic options, as well as Heavy Armor Master to help mitigate a little bit of damage.

You could also multi-class here a bit Paladin for Divine Smite to add some more punch when you hit, or critical which you should be hopefully doing a lot with improved critical. A 3 level dip in Barbarian is also good if you want to forgo armor, and the Rage/Reckless Attack/Action Surge can make your "Limit Breaks really pack a punch" and the Bear Totem path offers alot of damage reduction as well.

Well I hope you enjoyed the build, and if you didn't totally agree with it that's okay make it your own. Hopefully it at least gets your gears turning to do your own!