GoT character builds.

[GuestEleven]

A friend and I intend on making Game of Thrones themed characters in a future campaign. I am making Ser Bronn of the Blackwater and my friend is going to make Sandor Clegane aka "The Hound". Our group freely uses both Pathfinder and 3.5 material, I was hoping for help interpreting these characters into D&D. I'd like to start by asking what people's takes on their alignment may be. I was thinking that they both seem to fall under CN, CE, or NE. The reason I believe it may be under these alignments is that they're both extremely willing to kill(I'd even say that they enjoy it). They both seem fairly self centered at times and Bronn has made it quite clear that he is a greedy person. Despite all this though they don't seem to be paragons of evil, they have on several occasions showed that they do have hearts. I know that one alignment can't define a complex person, I just want to know which would be most central to be played around.

Next I wish to look at character classes and equipment. The Hound seems like a straight forward Fighter, can't think of much else to really sprinkle on him but if anyone has any suggestions he could branch out to I'd love to hear suggestions. For his gear I'd say some heavy armor and a great sword pretty much covers him. Bronn on the other hand might be a bit trickier to hammer out. Swashbuckler, Rogue, Slayer, and Ranger all seem like they could fit him well. He has displayed great skill at swordsmanship, knife throwing, and archery. For gear I'd say Bronn would wear light armor, use a bastard sword/long sword, probably could use a longbow, and am I wrong or does his dagger appear to be very kukri-like?

Thanks in advance for any input and advice!

[Baldin]

Hi there,

Cool idea! I however need to disagree with your alignment observation. For the hound I would put im on eighter TN or even LN. My reasoning for lawfull doesn't mean that he follows the laws of the kingdom, but that he strongly values promisses and vows. Even though the Hound seems self centered and says he only cares about himself, his actions prove otherwise. Even though killing is second nature to him, he never killed someone who he thought didnt need killing. I would even say that to the end of the series he would start leaning towards the good alignment. If I would be to make the character myself I would put him on LN (at the end of season 7).

Bronn is a different case. I would make him CN, but not evil in any way. Bronn fights for himself, but does value friendship and is seen caring about the population of Westeros. He isn't there only for the gold, as shown in his loyalty to Tyrion and later Jaime.

As for classes:
The Hound has a pritty streight up fighting style. Walk to enemy and overpower him by brute force. I would build him as a fighter with a dip in barbarian.

Bronn fights way smarter. I would build him as a Swashbuckler Fighter (daring warrior) into a duelist.

Cheers
Baldin

[ArendK]

Because of the lack of true magic, we have to get really fancy with the archetypes and feat selections to make them feel separate from each other. Build to the heart of the character as opposed to trying to replicate specific abilities. Alignment, with it not being a tangible concept in Westeros, I'm not even going to fight with for them. Also, 3.5 is so littered with prestige class craziness I can't really stand, I'm talking exclusively Pathfinder no my end. And level 7 is usually my reference point of having it completely "ready"

Bronn of the Blackwater- He fights dirty, he's cunning, he's greedy, and he's selfish. But he's funny as can be. He's charming, quick, and happy go lucky. His fighting style emphasizes his one-handed blades and light to no armor. To me, he is pure Swashbuckler. A few feats for dirty trick to blind, nauseate, or other nasty status effects and he's suddenly very dangerous. Piranha strike/Power attack (whichever, it's not going to make a difference for this build really) and the customary Slashing Grace.

The Hound- Big, strong, brute force and heavy armor; he's not about to fight pretty, he's about fighting effectively. Fairly typical greatsword build, maybe as a two-handed fighter archetype, maybe a splash of Improved Unarmed Strike/or a few level dip of Brawler for some versatility. The biggest problem is ensuring he is still different enough from Gregor to feel mechanically different; they both need intimidate out the wazoo. So my suggestion for that Mountain (pun intended) is make the Mountains blade bigger and build around that feeling. So instead of greatsword, take EWP for the bastard sword and Two-hand a large bastard sword (while you're still medium size, this is important). Get the lunge, Furious Focus, and Sunder feats isn't a bad option. If you can dip the resources magically, enlarge person is good if you can build it without sacrificing Dex. Combat Reflexes is another good feat if you can keep Sandors Dex above 14.

I did a version of Oberyn Martell recently for my own use (Swashbuckler 5/Investigator 2); Bladed Brush feat chain combined with crazy high dex and 13 strength for Power Attack and lunge gets significant reach and Combat Reflexes. 2 level investigator dip gets poison, a !@#$ ton of knowledge skills, and extracts (long-arm being particularly handy)

[GuestEleven]

Hi there,

Cool idea! I however need to disagree with your alignment observation. For the hound I would put im on eighter TN or even LN. My reasoning for lawfull doesn't mean that he follows the laws of the kingdom, but that he strongly values promisses and vows. Even though the Hound seems self centered and says he only cares about himself, his actions prove otherwise. Even though killing is second nature to him, he never killed someone who he thought didnt need killing. I would even say that to the end of the series he would start leaning towards the good alignment. If I would be to make the character myself I would put him on LN (at the end of season 7).

Bronn is a different case. I would make him CN, but not evil in any way. Bronn fights for himself, but does value friendship and is seen caring about the population of Westeros. He isn't there only for the gold, as shown in his loyalty to Tyrion and later Jaime.

As for classes:
The Hound has a pritty streight up fighting style. Walk to enemy and overpower him by brute force. I would build him as a fighter with a dip in barbarian.

Bronn fights way smarter. I would build him as a Swashbuckler Fighter (daring warrior) into a duelist.

Cheers
Baldin

Fantastic observations and ideas. I completely agree.


Because of the lack of true magic, we have to get really fancy with the archetypes and feat selections to make them feel separate from each other. Build to the heart of the character as opposed to trying to replicate specific abilities. Alignment, with it not being a tangible concept in Westeros, I'm not even going to fight with for them. Also, 3.5 is so littered with prestige class craziness I can't really stand, I'm talking exclusively Pathfinder no my end. And level 7 is usually my reference point of having it completely "ready"

Bronn of the Blackwater- He fights dirty, he's cunning, he's greedy, and he's selfish. But he's funny as can be. He's charming, quick, and happy go lucky. His fighting style emphasizes his one-handed blades and light to no armor. To me, he is pure Swashbuckler. A few feats for dirty trick to blind, nauseate, or other nasty status effects and he's suddenly very dangerous. Piranha strike/Power attack (whichever, it's not going to make a difference for this build really) and the customary Slashing Grace.

The Hound- Big, strong, brute force and heavy armor; he's not about to fight pretty, he's about fighting effectively. Fairly typical greatsword build, maybe as a two-handed fighter archetype, maybe a splash of Improved Unarmed Strike/or a few level dip of Brawler for some versatility. The biggest problem is ensuring he is still different enough from Gregor to feel mechanically different; they both need intimidate out the wazoo. So my suggestion for that Mountain (pun intended) is make the Mountains blade bigger and build around that feeling. So instead of greatsword, take EWP for the bastard sword and Two-hand a large bastard sword (while you're still medium size, this is important). Get the lunge, Furious Focus, and Sunder feats isn't a bad option. If you can dip the resources magically, enlarge person is good if you can build it without sacrificing Dex. Combat Reflexes is another good feat if you can keep Sandors Dex above 14.

I did a version of Oberyn Martell recently for my own use (Swashbuckler 5/Investigator 2); Bladed Brush feat chain combined with crazy high dex and 13 strength for Power Attack and lunge gets significant reach and Combat Reflexes. 2 level investigator dip gets poison, a !@#$ ton of knowledge skills, and extracts (long-arm being particularly handy)

Sadly we aren't doing a full cast of GoT characters, it will just be my friend and I play Sendor and Bronn. I really do like your idea for the Mountain, it seems really accurate.

[Anxe]

If Bronn isn't an Evil character I kind of struggle to think who you would consider Evil. This is the same guy who killed his disabled wife so he could steal her family's land, right? And he sold out his loyalty to Tyrion for the marriage to this disable wife too. He only cares about himself and his position and he's willing to kill and betray whomever he can to do so.

I agree with the Hound's alignment being Neutral but probably leaning more towards Evil than Good.

I'd probably make Bronn a Warblade. He does some dirty tricks in fighting and it might be best to capture that using Tome of Battle stuff. Swashbuckler, Rogue, or even Hexblade also work. I don't play PF, but Slayer looks like an excellent fit.

I'd make the Hound a Fighter. Slayer and Vigilante are tempting, but I don't remember him Sneak Attacking anyone. Bloodhound for finding Arya? I'm not super sure. Fighter feels a little simple, but maybe I'm overthinking it.

[Geddy2112]

The hound is probably any grab bag of fighter and maybe some barbarian in him. The whole abusive childhood left physical and mental scars and some deep seeded anger issues. He is TN/CN, and good/evil leaning depending on where you are in the series. Evil at the beginning but working towards good.

Bron is fairly complex. I second some kind of fighter, with elements of rogue, swashbuckler, and/or slayer. He is not one to use heavy armor, fights dirty, and excels at swordplay. For alignment, he is certainly nonlawful and a major scumbag, but I don't know if he is capital E evil. He leans evil for sure, but you could write him off as TN neutral greedy scumbag. He has risked his life for others before and is capable of having friends and allies, and while he will do a lot for money he is no bloodthirsty monster. Being a filthy mercenary scumbag is not evil at the end of the day. He is probably TN, but with chaotic and evil leanings, so I could see an argument for cN and Ne and Ce.

[Eladrinblade]

Sandor is neutral, Bronn is neutral evil.

Sandor is a fighter, Bronn is a rogue/fighter (but with PF I'd go swashbuckler).

[Mehangel]

If using Spheres of Might (a 3rd party Pathfinder supplement), I would probably build them as follows:

The Hound, a LN human Sentinel, with the Knightly Arts martial tradition, focusing most of his combat talents spread between the Brute and Dueling spheres. My reasoning is as follows
- The Hound is introduced as a bodyguard to Prince Joffrey who follows him around wherever he goes (hence Sentinel).
- Despite hating lords, he follows orders, but not out of malice and usually doesn't go out of his way to help others (hence LN).
- The Hound is human (hence human)
- While despising his brother, knights, and the hypocrisy of his brother being a knight; the Hound has received the same or atleast very similar swordsmanship training as his brother (hence Knightly Arts martial tradition).
- The Hound, while not as large as the Mountain is still a large man, who uses his size to his advantage. He also has a vendetta and trains so that one day he might take down his brother in one-on-one combat (hence Brute and Dueling spheres).

Sir Bronn, a CN human Conscript, with the Thief martial tradition, focusing most of his combat talents in the Scoundrel sphere, but most probably has dips into the Athletics, Dual Wielding, and/or Fencing spheres. My reasoning is as follows:
- Sir Bronn appears to have a variety of abilities at his disposal, as a conscript, Sir Bronn can have his class built as seen fit, such as being given Sneak Attack while still remaining a full-BAB class (hence Conscript).
- While evil can choose to do good and still remain evil, I have to agree with others on this forum and say that Sir Bronn more likely fits under the description of CN or TN over CE or NE. Especially in this last season it is shown that he is willing to sacrifice wealth to save others (although he does try, albeit poorly to explain that it was done for a bigger pay-off). Bronn also doesn't immediately betray those closest to him at the first opportunity. That isn't to say he hasn't betrayed anyone, but he doesn't do so maliciously.
- Sir Bronn is human (hence human)
- Sir Bronn is not an honorable man and his fighting style is much like that of a thief (hence the Thief martial tradition).
- Sir Bronn while preferring a single blade has been shown to carry a dagger behind his back which he uses in pair with his main sword. Sir Bronn is also a scoundrel of sorts and isn't against the use of dirty tricks. He is also an agile combatant preferring light armor over medium or heavy (although no where near as acrobatic as Oberyn Martell). It is for these reasons that I believe that he focuses his talents in the Scoundrel sphere.

[GuestEleven]

I'd probably make Bronn a Warblade. He does some dirty tricks in fighting and it might be best to capture that using Tome of Battle stuff. Swashbuckler, Rogue, or even Hexblade also work. I don't play PF, but Slayer looks like an excellent fit.

Sadly my group exiled Tome of Battle long ago and it doesn't appear to ever be making a come back.


If using Spheres of Might (a 3rd party Pathfinder supplement)

Sadly my group tries to avoid 3rd party when possible.