Building a Hexblade Warlock with inspiration to the story of Odin and Fenrir.

[Madd_Hattington]

Hello all, I am planning a character for a new 5e campaign and was thinking of the backstory being an slave being taken into a battle field with a giant wolf hell bend on devouring everything. His master was swallowed whole by this wolf but through the mercy of the gods and a magic sword dropped by his master he bound the beast inside himself. Now he must constantly struggle against the beast devouring possibly both his mind and body. Thankfully this trial has blessed the now ex-slave with magics beyond his wildest dreams. Magic he plans to use to help himself to find a way to subdue the beast within and enjoy a true freedom from his current tortured fate.

I have the backstory mostly set up and cleared with my DM. Mostly what I'm looking for are flavorful race, Feat, and spell options that you guys can come up with.

[Mjolnirbear]

This positively screams shifter to me.

[Sexyshoeless]

Alternatively, a refluffed Dragonborn/variant tiefling with vicious mockery- the rage of the beast escapes you at times in elemental fury or horrid sounds that affect those around you. Tiefling could also be refluffed to be bestial, wolf ish without needing to be the asmodeus flavored standard.

Warforged would also make for a cool scenario- his literal body is the prison of the beast (maybe he was brought to the battle for this very purpose?). As he is wounded/damaged aspects fo the beast may leak out as additional foes, raking attacks against those around him (hellish rebuke!), or just as a dark miasma wounding those around him (armor of Agathys).

I think the key to describing your flavor is to decide what the nature of the binding of the beast and the beast itself is. A creature of smoke and flame? Or just a big ass world eating doggo? That will help decide what spells make sense for his prison. What is the relationship of the sword to his Magic or the beast?

[LeonBH]

I dont think Hexblade is the best way to express this. Beast master Ranger with Find Familiar (raven) gives you a wolf and a raven, which can better fit your theme.

[Honest Tiefling]

I have the backstory mostly set up and cleared with my DM. Mostly what I'm looking for are flavorful race, Feat, and spell options that you guys can come up with.

Well, this is a version of the story I've never heard of. Got a link for more info? That might help.

Otherwise, how closely do you wish to cleave to Nordic mythos? In some versions, Fenrir wasn't malicious...Just hungry. As a Jotun (I think?) he is a force of wild, uncontrolled nature, including things like hunger. Perhaps the spirit desires a way to sate the hunger, which might influence the behavior. The Hunger of Hadar should probably be refluffed to fit the situation.

As a thrall, the ex-slave might have had an opportunity to achieve manumission through service. If he was close to it, that might explain why he was allowed to contain the spirit as opposed to being killed for worry of turning on people. It might also mean he'd be a different race (or have a different origin) than his captors, leading to tiefling/warforged/shifters and other such oddities. Such strange races might be prime canidates for enslavement, due to being considered less then human or not having the same protections as others. If you go with those races, the racial feats are certainly worth a look for flavor.

[Madd_Hattington]

Well, this is a version of the story I've never heard of. Got a link for more info? That might help.

Otherwise, how closely do you wish to cleave to Nordic mythos? In some versions, Fenrir wasn't malicious...Just hungry. As a Jotun (I think?) he is a force of wild, uncontrolled nature, including things like hunger. Perhaps the spirit desires a way to sate the hunger, which might influence the behavior. The Hunger of Hadar should probably be refluffed to fit the situation.

As a thrall, the ex-slave might have had an opportunity to achieve manumission through service. If he was close to it, that might explain why he was allowed to contain the spirit as opposed to being killed for worry of turning on people. It might also mean he'd be a different race (or have a different origin) than his captors, leading to tiefling/warforged/shifters and other such oddities. Such strange races might be prime canidates for enslavement, due to being considered less then human or not having the same protections as others. If you go with those races, the racial feats are certainly worth a look for flavor.


I was more picturing the character being the both Odin-esq and the supposed unbreakable ribbon that bound the hungry beast until the end times when he escaped and devoured Odin. The character himself would be on a quest to gain knowledge and wisdom at any cost to help himself find his freedom.

Odin was known as a lover of knowledge but besides what we know of him as the all father there isn't much we know before that. This is me taking arguable a lot of artistic liberty in how to go about making a character that was inspired by the story of old.

Also Fenrir isn't meant to be to out right malicious in his intentions in my revision of this story either. He is a giant wolf who has gone centuries without eating. Of course he is going to be making a ruckus and eating whatever he can but the people won't understand that. They would only see a monster that must be stopped but they don't have a means of slaying this beast. The most they could hope for would be to bind him again. You can see that Fenrir would not enjoy this in the slightest especially seeing as he is still so very hungry...



This positively screams shifter to me.

There are shifters in this edition?



Alternatively, a refluffed Dragonborn/variant tiefling with vicious mockery- the rage of the beast escapes you at times in elemental fury or horrid sounds that affect those around you. Tiefling could also be refluffed to be bestial, wolf ish without needing to be the asmodeus flavored standard.

Warforged would also make for a cool scenario- his literal body is the prison of the beast (maybe he was brought to the battle for this very purpose?). As he is wounded/damaged aspects fo the beast may leak out as additional foes, raking attacks against those around him (hellish rebuke!), or just as a dark miasma wounding those around him (armor of Agathys).

I think the key to describing your flavor is to decide what the nature of the binding of the beast and the beast itself is. A creature of smoke and flame? Or just a big ass world eating doggo? That will help decide what spells make sense for his prison. What is the relationship of the sword to his Magic or the beast?

Big ass doggo like the old Norse stories. Basically I was wanting the character to both represent Odin's thirst for knowledge and wisdom. While also being the last ribbon holding the world eating beast at bay before the end times. Basically flavored as the magic sword that dealt the final blow was suppose to trap the beast in the weapon but as the wolf had sunk it's teeth into his flesh the magic seal was altered binding both of them together and both of them to the blade. Depending on how the story goes with my character he could learn to work with the beast or he would die and the beast would be something close to a final boss.



I dont think Hexblade is the best way to express this. Beast master Ranger with Find Familiar (raven) gives you a wolf and a raven, which can better fit your theme.

Input noted. I'll look over the class and see if it could work out the way I was originally looking at pulling off.

[Roland St. Jude]

Sheriff: Please avoid double (or triple or quadruple, etc) posting.

[Mjolnirbear]

Shifters? Yes. AL legal? No. Its in unearthed Arcana.

You could also ask for the OP option of a lycanthropy infection.

Odin is a warrior and caster. He sacrificed himself to himself to learn the runes, sacrificed an eye to the well of mimír for wisdom, learned the 'womanly art' of seiðr and is a commander in battle, leader of the einherjar, King of the Aesir and Vanir, trickster, tester of men and rider of the gallows.

All of that? Hard to break down into a single class, but I think you've chosen well. Warlock would work great for the pact for knowledge, Hexblade could cover the fighting, and you could go Tome, blade (spear) or chain (raven). So simply decide which part you want to emphasise for your Pact Boon

[Madd_Hattington]

Shifters? Yes. AL legal? No. Its in unearthed Arcana.

You could also ask for the OP option of a lycanthropy infection.

Odin is a warrior and caster. He sacrificed himself to himself to learn the runes, sacrificed an eye to the well of mimír for wisdom, learned the 'womanly art' of seiðr and is a commander in battle, leader of the einherjar, King of the Aesir and Vanir, trickster, tester of men and rider of the gallows.

All of that? Hard to break down into a single class, but I think you've chosen well. Warlock would work great for the pact for knowledge, Hexblade could cover the fighting, and you could go Tome, blade (spear) or chain (raven). So simply decide which part you want to emphasise for your Pact Boon


I was debating magic initiate or pact book for the find familiar spell actually. I look forward to seeing how this character unfolds in the story the DM thinks up.