Defense of the Ancients: Building Heroes

[malloc]

I'm running a game with some friends and I decided to introduce some of the characters from the popular video game DotA into the world. I'd like to hear some thoughts about what you might do to re-create some of the heroes from the game in D&D (3.5, all non-homebrew).

I'm not necessarily looking for perfect fits, or fully built characters. More just ideas of PrCs that might fit the theme of a character, or ways to bring iconic abilities into the game within the game's mechanics, or even plays on the character's concept.

For example, I've used a Blade of Orien build to create Antimage, a character like Phantom Lancer could use Body Outside Body (Wu Jen) or Split (from oozes), and Legion Commander might make good use of some of the "duel" features of Test of Mettle from the Knight.

Any thoughts would be more than welcome, even if they aren't complete ones :)

[tedcahill2]

I'm running a game with some friends and I decided to introduce some of the characters from the popular video game DotA into the world. I'd like to hear some thoughts about what you might do to re-create some of the heroes from the game in D&D (3.5, all non-homebrew).

I'm not necessarily looking for perfect fits, or fully built characters. More just ideas of PrCs that might fit the theme of a character, or ways to bring iconic abilities into the game within the game's mechanics, or even plays on the character's concept.

For example, I've used a Blade of Orien build to create Antimage, a character like Phantom Lancer could use Body Outside Body (Wu Jen) or Split (from oozes), and Legion Commander might make good use of some of the "duel" features of Test of Mettle from the Knight.

Any thoughts would be more than welcome, even if they aren't complete ones :)

Well Lone Druid is easy, he's a druid with bear wild shape, a bear companion, and throw axes.

Beastmaster is a ranger/barbarian that dual wields returning throwing axes.

Omniknight is every cleric with a warhammer.

Phantom Assassin is a crit fishing dagger tosser. I would say ninja because the ninja invis thing could be sort of like blink strike.

[GilesTheCleric]

Bouncing "Glaives": A character that attacks like Luna from DotA (moon glaives (https://dota2.gamepedia.com/Luna#Abilities)), where they throw a weapon that bounces between foes and objects. Mechanics might include Chakram Riccochet (FR something) + Manticore Sting Dm, Ricochet Drag343 93, Aptitude Boomerang Daze + Boomerang Ricochet RoE 108.

Finger of Death: A character like Lion that specialises in Finger of Death and other single-target, fort-based SoDs (preferably that include disintegration or loss of soul). I've been hitting some real roadblocks in optimising this, but I also haven't tried very hard yet.

[malloc]

Well Lone Druid is easy, he's a druid with bear wild shape, a bear companion, and throw axes.

Beastmaster is a ranger/barbarian that dual wields returning throwing axes.

Omniknight is every cleric with a warhammer.

Phantom Assassin is a crit fishing dagger tosser. I would say ninja because the ninja invis thing could be sort of like blink strike.

Looking for some of the more exotic mechanics, ideally. For example, how might you bring CK's reality rift (his pull) into the game? What wild magic mechanics can be found to give Ogre Magi the feel of his multicasting? There's a class that rolls to see what its caster level is for each spell it casts, for example--I can find it with some digging, but I'm looking for ways like that to bring some of the more memorable aesthetics into D&D.


Bouncing "Glaives": A character that attacks like Luna from DotA [LINK BREAK because I can't quote links], where they throw a weapon that bounces between foes and objects. Mechanics might include Chakram Riccochet (FR something) + Manticore Sting Dm, Ricochet Drag343 93, Aptitude Boomerang Daze + Boomerang Ricochet RoE 108.

Finger of Death: A character like Lion that specialises in Finger of Death and other single-target, fort-based SoDs (preferably that include disintegration or loss of soul). I've been hitting some real roadblocks in optimising this, but I also haven't tried very hard yet.

What might you use for Lion's Earth Spike, or his Mana Drain though? I also considered Bloodstorm Blade or some variant on that for Luna, but those solutions look much cleaner. Thanks!

[GilesTheCleric]

What might you use for Lion's Earth Spike, or his Mana Drain though? I also considered Bloodstorm Blade or some variant on that for Luna, but those solutions look much cleaner. Thanks!

There's plenty of things for those. Earth Spike: Tremor, Phantom Plow, Earth Reaver, etc. Mana Drain: Symbol of Spell Loss, Stars of Arvandor, Spellfire, etc.

[malloc]

There's plenty of things for those. Earth Spike: Tremor, Phantom Plow, Earth Reaver, etc. Mana Drain: Symbol of Spell Loss, Stars of Arvandor, Spellfire, etc.

Excellent list. My knowledge of the depths of spell lists is lacking, and so these types of things are especially helpful. Probably should've included that in the OP >.<

[GilesTheCleric]

Excellent list. My knowledge of the depths of spell lists is lacking, and so these types of things are especially helpful. Probably should've included that in the OP >.<

No worries. It's easier to plumb the depths of spells if you focus on just one class at a time, since the big three each have lists in the vicinity of 1500 spells. Learning all ~4000 spells in the game would be a bit much (plus who is ever going to use the Blackguard-exclusive spells, aside from some really overeager Wyrm Wizard?).

I've got a bunch of projects I've got to work on right now, but maybe if I take a break I'll see if I can flesh out Lion. I've been meaning to make that character for a while.

[malloc]

No worries. It's easier to plumb the depths of spells if you focus on just one class at a time, since the big three each have lists in the vicinity of 1500 spells. Learning all ~4000 spells in the game would be a bit much (plus who is ever going to use the Blackguard-exclusive spells, aside from some really overeager Wyrm Wizard?).

I've got a bunch of projects I've got to work on right now, but maybe if I take a break I'll see if I can flesh out Lion. I've been meaning to make that character for a while.

Excited to see what you come up with! I've been doing some basic searches on spell lists and found Vile Darkbolt (BoVD), which would be a nice way to approximate several of the point-and-click stuns, like SK/WK's Wraithfire Blast and CK's Chaos Bolt.

Something like Emerald Burst (BoED) might work for Lina's LSA, and Disintegrate describes Lion's Finger and Lina's Laguna Blade (didn't have to search for that one :smalltongue:).

Energy Substitution gets around a lot of the fluffy stuff with spells. Let's talk about some of the less spellcasty classes, though. Juggernaut seems perfect for the Dervish, but what about Templar Assassin, or Sven's God's Strength?