Making Characters in 5e: XGtE Edition!

[RickAllison]

It has been a while since I've seen a thread like this, but what fun builds would you make to replicate some of your favorite characters using the book material? Especially with the release of Xanathar's Guide to Everything!

I'm excited because I can finally make Bowser! Between the Tortle race for the shell, the new Dragon's Breath spell for a repeatable breath weapon, and Primal Savagery for a melee attack, a Sorcerer/Tomelock does such a great job as Mario's villain! Fire breath, a claw attack, and you can Twin Primal Savagery or use Sword Burst to act as the shell spin attack.

What fun new characters can you make using XGtE? Or just in general?

[Sariel Vailo]

Id like take princess peach in 5e.man that but atack i know id need the tavern brawler feat and maybe a monk or barb also the grappler feat then do some booty damage

[Easy_Lee]

Id like to nake princess peach in 5e

Oh dear...

[DracoKnight]

I've been trying to figure out how to make Robin from Fire Emblem: Awakening in 5e, and I think I've just about got it. This build comes online at 5th level.

You are Variant Human (Spell Sniper). Your additional human skill is Insight.

You want to go Fiend Warlock, with a Pact of the Tome.

For your cantrips you want eldritch blast and toll the dead. Your spell Sniper cantrip is booming blade.

Your stats are:

STR 8
DEX 16 (15 + 1)
CON 14
INT 8
WIS 10
CHA 16 (15 + 1)

Your Eldritch Invocations at 2nd level are Armor of Shadows and Repelling Blast. At 5th level, pick up your Agonizing Blast.

Your cantrips for Pact of the Tome should be produce flame, shocking grasp, and thunderclap. These simulate some of the basic tomes that Robin can use if you make a build that focuses in on magic use. Your eldritch blast with Repelling Blast is the wind tome.

Because we're simulating a magic-oriented Robin, we're gonna need a stand in for the Levin Sword for when Robin mixes it up in melee - which happens from time-to-time, even on a magic build. This is going to be done with a combination of the booming blade cantrip and the shadow blade spell. This is why we took Spell Sniper for our VHuman feat. Your booming blade now has a range of 10 feet, and your shadow blade has a thrown range of 20/60. Ranged attacks in Fire Emblem can happen from 1 square away, instead of being in an adjacent square like for a melee attack, so throwing our shadow blade 10 feet with booming blade works.

Robin's other spells should focus on dealing fire, force, lightning/thunder, and necrotic damage to emulate the Fire, Wind, Electric, and Dark tomes that Robin uses throughout the game.

[Skyblaze]

Im imagining making a Samurai/War Cleric

[Submortimer]

I'm thinking Hexblade/Shadow Monk for some delightful supernatural ninja shenanigans, complete with all kinds of magic Jutsu.

[mr-mercer]

I don't know enough details about it to really make a solid build yet, but I am very interested in making Dungeons and Dragons 5th Edition: featuring Dante (or Vergil) from the Devil May Cry series. I'm pretty certain that both of them would be Hexblade Bladelocks (maybe Dante has a dash of Bard in there somewhere) and I think they'd probably end up being Drow (you'd think Tieflings would be a better fit, but fiends in D&D match up surprisingly poorly with demons in DMC). At least for Vergil, I'd definitely fluff Eldritch Blast to be his Summoned Swords. Grab some teleporty spells as soon as I can and he's pretty much golden. Dante I'm still not 100% confident on, but I do feel like the Bladelock is part of it.

[polymphus]

So, if I'm reading Hexblade correctly, taking Hexblade AND blade pact allows weapon choices that would normally be restricted -- notably, two-handed weapons.

You gain proficiency with medium armor, shields, and martial weapons.

If you later gain the Pact of the Blade feature, this benefit extends to every pact weapon you conjure with that feature, no matter the weapon’s type.
So let's talk about something I'm gonna call the Glaivelock.

Class: Warlock
Archetype: Hexblade
Pact: Blade
Invocations: Lifedrinker, Thirsting Blade, Eldritch Smite, Grasp of Hadar, Improved Pact Weapon

Preferably Variant Human, to get Polearm Master ASAP. You hang out at polearm range, firing away with EB and swinging in with your pact weapon. What makes this guy worthwhile?

Well, check out this nova
Bonus action: Banishing Smite
Main action: Eldritch Blast
Reaction: Glaive Opportunity Attack (with Banishing Smite AND Eldritch Smite)

That's 10d10+5d8+11 damage. If the target drops below 50hp, they're banished. If they're above HP and below Huge size, they're knocked prone.

Obviously you're not gonna roll all of this out very often, but it illustrates just how much damage this guy can put out. In ideal circumstances, burning a lot of resources, he's putting out 85-95 in a single round but he can pretty reliably throw out 50-60 by playing around with that Grasp of Hadar/Polearm Master synergy and the newly buffed pact weapon.

[Sariel Vailo]

I like this idea. I was trying to worm a way out of the heavy property problem with the kensai. I guess use the metal that makes them have the light property .

[Scathain]

Idk about you guys, but the new Mind Spike spell makes me want to play a Diviner Wizard again just so I can regain spellslots with an attack spell.

[Naanomi]

I havn’t worked out the details yet, but I’m very interested in making a Inquisitive Rogue that maximizes Passive Perception, and takes Magic Initiate: Druid to use Magic Stone and Attack with its wisdom...

[Degwerks]

So, if I'm reading Hexblade correctly, taking Hexblade AND blade pact allows weapon choices that would normally be restricted -- notably, two-handed weapons.


So let's talk about something I'm gonna call the Glaivelock.

Class: Warlock
Archetype: Hexblade
Pact: Blade
Invocations: Lifedrinker, Thirsting Blade, Eldritch Smite, Grasp of Hadar, Improved Pact Weapon

Preferably Variant Human, to get Polearm Master ASAP. You hang out at polearm range, firing away with EB and swinging in with your pact weapon. What makes this guy worthwhile?

Well, check out this nova
Bonus action: Banishing Smite
Main action: Eldritch Blast
Reaction: Glaive Opportunity Attack (with Banishing Smite AND Eldritch Smite)

That's 10d10+5d8+11 damage. If the target drops below 50hp, they're banished. If they're above HP and below Huge size, they're knocked prone.

Obviously you're not gonna roll all of this out very often, but it illustrates just how much damage this guy can put out. In ideal circumstances, burning a lot of resources, he's putting out 85-95 in a single round but he can pretty reliably throw out 50-60 by playing around with that Grasp of Hadar/Polearm Master synergy and the newly buffed pact weapon.

I had thought of a similar concept before the changes in hexblade that gave you the Banishing Smite. I thought having 7 levels of EK and the rest in hexblade. W/O using banishing, cast eldritch blast grasp of Hadar, then with PAM get reaction attack and the War Magic bonus action weapon attack. With the reaction attack I'd smite to knock prone and then my bonus action would be at advantage. Maybe have the Mobile feat to move away from him and do it again the following rounds.

[Ganymede]

My great old one warlock is definitely going to be built around dual wielding a pact shortsword and a Shadow Blade.

[vicente408]

Withthe new psychic-damage spell options I think I’d really like to try my hand at a “mind mage” style of character, something like Jace Beleren for those of you familiar with Magic: the Gathering. The Mystic is cool but I’d rather wait until that class gets more balance iterations and polish before using it in a game. So instead I guess I’d probably want to be a wizard, focusing on mainly illusion/enchantment/divination spells with a psychic/ESP sort of flavor. Subclass choice is still up in the air but I’m leaning toward Enchantment.

Sorcerer would be even better for flavor but they have so few spells known, and don’t really have an appropriate subclass to match the character concept. Great Old One warlock also is a great flavor fit, but doesn’t have all the spells I’d want on their list unfortunately.

[Kuulvheysoon]

Withthe new psychic-damage spell options I think I’d really like to try my hand at a “mind mage” style of character, something like Jace Beleren for those of you familiar with Magic: the Gathering. The Mystic is cool but I’d rather wait until that class gets more balance iterations and polish before using it in a game. So instead I guess I’d probably want to be a wizard, focusing on mainly illusion/enchantment/divination spells with a psychic/ESP sort of flavor. Subclass choice is still up in the air but I’m leaning toward Enchantment.

Sorcerer would be even better for flavor but they have so few spells known, and don’t really have an appropriate subclass to match the character concept. Great Old One warlock also is a great flavor fit, but doesn’t have all the spells I’d want on their list unfortunately.

IIRC, one of the new bard colleges in Xanathar's Guide has an archetype that deals psychic damage- it was revised from poison damage from the UA.

[lunaticfringe]

Oath of Conquest Dragonborn w/ the Dragon Fear feat.

Super Mario. Kensei Monk who wields a Warhammer. Take Spell Sniper grab Produce Flame or Magic Initiate (Druid): Produce Flame; Whatever; Jump

[IronMike]

As I'm just now getting back into the game after a decade or more, this may be an ignorant addition to this thread, but what I'd really like to build is a Drunken Monk a la Jackie Chan in this clip:


https://youtu.be/74OBuMA2qEk

I saw in the picture of the contents of XGtE that the Way of the Drunken Master will be included. Already bought the book on Amazon so looking forward to it finally being delivered, especially since my monk just got to level 2 on Friday. ;)

For you lucky few who got the book already, can any of you confirm that this style will match the Way of the Drunken Master from Unearthed Arcana: A Trio of Subclasses?

[qube]

Id like take princess peach in 5e.lvl 20 rogue.

I mean, considering how hard she is to find - always being in another castle and all - she MUST be a rogue.

[lunaticfringe]

For you lucky few who got the book already, can any of you confirm that this style will match the Way of the Drunken Master from Unearthed Arcana: A Trio of Subclasses?

Tipsy Sway is 'always on' it doesnt require a rest recharge & includes being able to stand from prone for 5ft of movement.

Drunkards Luck costs 2 ki and just cancels Disadvantage, it doesn't grant Advantage.

Everything else seems the same.

Edit: Drunkards works on attack rolls & ability checks now too.

[Sariel Vailo]

lvl 20 rogue.

I mean, considering how hard she is to find - always being in another castle and all - she MUST be a rogue.

I was thinking smash brothers peach but legitimate peach definitely rogue

[Maxilian]

lvl 20 rogue.

I mean, considering how hard she is to find - always being in another castle and all - she MUST be a rogue.

I was going to say Celestial Warlock (as it gives you most of the things you can actually do).

Note: I made her along time ago, and now with the Celestial Warlock is easier (last time i needed to MC cause Warlocks lack healing -and she can heal-, the Path would be blade, as it give you the ability to summon your weapon -get a 1d4 and roll it once per encounter to decide what is your weapon-, have the levitate ability, the healing abilities, the sleep, could reflavor EB as the things she gets out of nowhere to throw on her enemies faces (giant turnips), etc....

[Naanomi]

I was thinking smash brothers peach but legitimate peach definitely rogue
But Peach’s defining narrative trait is her powerful magic...

[Caelic]

I think that, so far, people are underrating Eldritch Smite. I've seen very little discussion of the fact that, as far as I can tell, it's an automatic knockdown. No opposed check; no saving throw. If the target's Huge or smaller, it's prone.

That...has very interesting possibilities.

Like...take a Hexblade/Paladin of Conquest with the standard Polearm Master/Sentinel package. Mid-level, say Paladin 8/Warlock 3.

1. The enemy closes with me. When he enters my reach, I whack him with my polearm.
2. I burn a Warlock spell slot to Eldritch Smite.
3. The enemy is automatically knocked down.
4. The enemy's speed is also reduced to zero for the rest of the turn, thanks to Sentinel. He's not getting up.
5. At the start of my turn, the enemy is prone. I step up to him and whack him with advantage. Good time for a paladin smite. Bonus action: Wrathful Smite.
6. If the enemy fails his save against the Wrathful Smite, he's now afraid of me.
7. Thanks to Aura of Conquest, the frightened enemy has a speed of 0. He's still not getting up.
8. He will lay there immobile, taking psychic damage every turn and providing advantage to attackers.
9. In order to shake off the fear, he has to make a Wisdom check as an action--and it's a check, not a save, so he has to make it with disadvantage thanks to being frightened.


Seems like a very solid battlefield control build that can achieve a solid lockdown on a formidable opponent without expending massive resources. Being a Pact of the Blade Hexblade, the build also has the advantage of running almost entirely on Charisma--Charisma to attack, damage, and saving throws? Yes, please.

[Naanomi]

Triton Gloom-Stalker ranger... invisibility to darkvision is mighty powerful in the deepest depths of the ocean?

[Sariel Vailo]

I was going to say Celestial Warlock (as it gives you most of the things you can actually do).

Note: I made her along time ago, and now with the Celestial Warlock is easier (last time i needed to MC cause Warlocks lack healing -and she can heal-, the Path would be blade, as it give you the ability to summon your weapon -get a 1d4 and roll it once per encounter to decide what is your weapon-, have the levitate ability, the healing abilities, the sleep, could reflavor EB as the things she gets out of nowhere to throw on her enemies faces (giant turnips), etc....

So. I like your idea warlock celestial bladelock hmmm maybe go and get some monk kensai levels. Buuuut some of that feels fun. Grab the tavern brawler feat.but what race.aasimar. protector fluff the wings as using her magical parisol

[Vaz]

Triton Gloom-Stalker ranger... invisibility to darkvision is mighty powerful in the deepest depths of the ocean?

Pointless if your party's not.

[Naanomi]

Pointless if your party's not.
Not *pointless* but does reduce the power a bit. Still conceptually neat

[SaurOps]

Triton Gloom-Stalker ranger... invisibility to darkvision is mighty powerful in the deepest depths of the ocean?

Not as much as you might think; an awful lot of oceanic critters rely strongly on other senses to find food, read, you and your party. Sharks are a good category of examples; even if you aren't readily visible, you still have a scent, produce a reaction to waves in the water, and assuming you're not undead, your heartbeat, among other electrical cues of life, is readily evident thanks to their Lorenzini's ampullae. In game terms, this is typically covered by tremorsense, though D&D being the way it is, there's probably a much smaller number of undersea critters that have it than there should be. As in, pretty much every last fish-like monster should have it, or have it in the water for stuff that crawls up on land from time to time like sahuagin or kuo-toa.

[wilhelmdubdub]

I am kicking around how to properly build a wood elf barbarian with the elven accuracy feat, how necessary is max'ed out strength if you have constant triple advantage?

[lunaticfringe]

I am kicking around how to properly build a wood elf barbarian with the elven accuracy feat, how necessary is max'ed out strength if you have constant triple advantage?

Elven Accuracy doesn't work unless it is a Dex, Int, Wis, or Cha based Attack. So good luck boss.

[IronMike]

Tipsy Sway is 'always on' it doesnt require a rest recharge & includes being able to stand from prone for 5ft of movement.

Drunkards Luck costs 2 ki and just cancels Disadvantage, it doesn't grant Advantage.

Everything else seems the same.

Edit: Drunkards works on attack rolls & ability checks now too.

You rock, lunaticfringe, thanks!

[GlenSmash!]

Kurosaki Ichigo as a Hexblade Warlock.

[lunaticfringe]

You rock, lunaticfringe, thanks!

Np also I missed that being able to redirect the Attack with Tipsy Sway costs 1 Ki. Sorry about that.

[Easy_Lee]

Kurosaki Ichigo as a Hexblade Warlock.

Pretty sure he's a DM PC with unspecified statistics.

[lunaticfringe]

Pretty sure he's a DM PC with unspecified statistics.

Pretty much any Shonen main character is.

[Knaight]

Pretty much any Shonen main character is.

Inasmuch as literary characters don't need statistics and an author is superficially similar to a DM this applies to all characters, not just Shonen characters. Using other criteria there are all sorts of exceptions.

[lunaticfringe]

Inasmuch as literary characters don't need statistics and an author is superficially similar to a DM this applies to all characters, not just Shonen characters. Using other criteria there are all sorts of exceptions.

Yeah ok. I was referring more to freezing time in the middle of a fight to train & heal then blowing up the moon with your new powers.Or being downed gives you the benefits of a long rest (to use game terms).

Crazy stuff. Shonen escalates no other.

[Chugger]

The Brain from Pinky and the Brain - Mastermind. Or Mastermind/warlock multi maybe.

[miburo]

I don't know enough details about it to really make a solid build yet, but I am very interested in making Dungeons and Dragons 5th Edition: featuring Dante (or Vergil) from the Devil May Cry series. I'm pretty certain that both of them would be Hexblade Bladelocks (maybe Dante has a dash of Bard in there somewhere) and I think they'd probably end up being Drow (you'd think Tieflings would be a better fit, but fiends in D&D match up surprisingly poorly with demons in DMC). At least for Vergil, I'd definitely fluff Eldritch Blast to be his Summoned Swords. Grab some teleporty spells as soon as I can and he's pretty much golden. Dante I'm still not 100% confident on, but I do feel like the Bladelock is part of it.

Dante would be a high-level tiefling hexblade bladelock. If you don't like tiefling, variant human with the Lucky feat to represent how his demonic side empowers him at just the right times. Str 20 (powerful enough to block blows from giant demons), Dex 20 (he's superhumanly fast and agile), Con 20 (he can get impaled all the way through a blade and, well, keep going), Cha 20 (incredible force of personality and uses this to power his weapons). The only things that are not 20 are Int (he's decently bright, but not a genius) and Wis (tends to be headstrong and not very perceptive with people's true motives).

Greatsword for the pact weapon and eldritch blast fired through dual pistol-like arcane foci. Hexblade patrons are supposed to be the people who make the weapons, so in this case Sparda would be the patron, as channeled through the blades Rebellion and/or Force Edge.

Background: Mercenary(he's a devil hunter for hire)
Skills: Athletics, Acrobatics, Intimidation, Persuasion, Performance
Feats:

If he looks overpowered, that's because he is. This is Devil May Cry we're talking about :smallbiggrin: Statwise if you want to be more player-realistic then focus on improving Cha and Con, keep Dex at 14 to benefit from Medium Armor, and don't worry about Strength.

[mr-mercer]

Aye, it can be tricky to get characters like these down perfectly accurate when they're so powerful. I think your write-up is really good for encapsulating the spirit of Dante in a less overpowered form: I hope you won't mind if I copy this down for further use.

[Arkhios]

"Soul Knife", or "the bane of all barbarians everywhere!"
V.Human
Dual Wielder

Bard (College of Whispers) 3+: Psychic Blades
Sorcerer (Shadow origin) 3+: Twin Metamagic, Shadow Blade, Mage Armor, and Shield as spells known.
*Optional* Fighter 1-2: Two-Weapon Fighting style (and Action Surge).

Str 8, Dex 16, Con 14, Int 8, Wis 10, Cha 16

Twinned Shadow Blade for two Finesse, Light, (thrown) weapons with purely psychic 2d8+Dex damage (and scaling up).
Psychic Blades for even more Psychic Damage.

Two weapons for added defense.

...I'd say it's quite decent build.

[JustAMcGuffin]

Bard (College of Shadows)

Do you mean college of whispers? Or did I just skip a complete subclass? :smallconfused:
I really wouldn't put it past me. :smallbiggrin:

[Arkhios]

Do you mean college of whispers? Or did I just skip a complete subclass? :smallconfused:
I really wouldn't put it past me. :smallbiggrin:

Oops, yeah, Whispers. Got carried away.

[Fishybugs]

"Soul Knife", or "the bane of all barbarians everywhere!"
V.Human
Dual Wielder

Bard (College of Whispers) 3+: Psychic Blades
Sorcerer (Shadow origin) 3+: Twin Metamagic, Shadow Blade, Mage Armor, and Shield as spells known.
*Optional* Fighter 1-2: Two-Weapon Fighting style (and Action Surge).

Str 8, Dex 16, Con 14, Int 8, Wis 10, Cha 16

Twinned Shadow Blade for two Finesse, Light, (thrown) weapons with purely psychic 2d8+Dex damage (and scaling up).
Psychic Blades for even more Psychic Damage.

Two weapons for added defense.

...I'd say it's quite decent build.

By RAW, though, you can't twin a spell with the range of 'Self'. Otherwise, it looks great.

[GlenSmash!]

Pretty sure he's a DM PC with unspecified statistics.

True, but that becomes a long list of fictional characters.

I don't try to build the actual fictional characters, as much as characters that would play like or emulate the hero.

[eastmabl]

I havn’t worked out the details yet, but I’m very interested in making a Inquisitive Rogue that maximizes Passive Perception, and takes Magic Initiate: Druid to use Magic Stone and Attack with its wisdom...

I'm not sure if you can get shillelagh and sneak attack to play nicely together. Neither the quarterstaff nor the club meet the prereqs for sneak attack.

[RickAllison]

I'm not sure if you can get shillelagh and sneak attack to play nicely together. Neither the quarterstaff nor the club meet the prereqs for sneak attack.

That's why the poster mentioned Magic Stone, not Shillelagh. Magic Stone makes attacks with a ranged weapon (sling), which makes it usable with Sneak Attack.

[Easy_Lee]

That's why the poster mentioned Magic Stone, not Shillelagh. Magic Stone makes attacks with a ranged weapon (sling), which makes it usable with Sneak Attack.

Technically. Have to emphasize that since it's the only way (that I know of) to deliver a ranged spell attack with a ranged weapon, and therefore qualify for sneak attack on a spell attack.

[RickAllison]

Technically. Have to emphasize that since it's the only way (that I know of) to deliver a ranged spell attack with a ranged weapon, and therefore qualify for sneak attack on a spell attack.

Technically correct is the best kind of correct!

[Naanomi]

Tribal Kensai with a blowgun?

[Waterdeep Merch]

My first order of business is going to be adding some war wizard levels to my eldritch knight to make Dead Hardington, the Toughest Fighter in the World.

Then I'm thinking S&B halfling cavalier upon a dog named Mutt & Chop, zealot barbarian lizardman considered a 'paladin' by his people's standards, and a violinist whisper bard 'cleaner', if ya know what I mean?

[miburo]

Aye, it can be tricky to get characters like these down perfectly accurate when they're so powerful. I think your write-up is really good for encapsulating the spirit of Dante in a less overpowered form: I hope you won't mind if I copy this down for further use.

Yeah, feel free :smallsmile:

Vergil is probably similar to Dante build-wise except he has improved pact weapon and uses his sword as the focus for his eldritch blast (summon sword). Instead of a greatsword he uses a katana (longsword) in two hands--though if you really wanted to optimize you can fluff Yamato as a nodachi (greatsword) instead so you can use GWF. His skills and background are probably a bit different--doesn't have Performance, probably has Arcana instead as he seems to have a better knowledge of the demonic world.

[mr-mercer]

Oh, certainly. I actually ended up going with sage for Vergil's background and pumping him full of knowledge skills: as far as I can remember, he spends most of his time pre-3 just studying his heritage and various other things related to it, so it makes sense that he'd be able to look at that subject from all kinds of different angles. That invocation that lets you teleport to an enemy you've cursed/hexed was a really nice addition to the book: it's like they knew I wanted to do this.