banthafett
2018-04-04, 09:26 AM
Shadowscales, in the Elder Scrolls lore, are members of the lizard race Argonians who are born under the astrological sign of the Shadow, and presented to the Dark Brotherhood guild of assassins for training and service.
I enjoy playing Argonians, specifically assassin-types, in Elder Scrolls games, so I thought I would try my hand at adapting the lore/playstyle for D&D 5e.
Race
Black (edit: or Green) Dragonborn. The dark skin fits with the shadow theme, and like Argonians black dragons are native to swamps. Lizardfolk are thematically, and mechanically more similar to Argonians, but monster races (edit: non-PHB races) aren’t allowed.
Playstyle
In the Elder Scrolls games, especially Skyrim, one of the most effective tools for assassination was sneak attacking. If you snuck up on someone and stabbed them with a one handed weapon you could do absurd damage with a single hit, and almost certainly kill your opponent. This concept doesn’t really translate that well to D&D 5e given the peculiarity of the way it handles the idea of a player trying to sneak up on and stab an opponent. However, volumes have been written on that particular subject, and I have no wish to reproduce them here. Suffice to say, dealing large amounts of damage with a melee weapon in a single turn is a bit more complicated than just getting the Sneak Attack class feature. As a result these builds try to replicate the playstyle of sneaking up on and dealing a large burst of damage to a character in a way that is both thematically and mechanically effective.
Builds
Trusts-His-Steel
Swashbuckler/Battlemaster
17/15/14/8/10/9
Rog 1-4 Putting Expertise into Stealth and Athletics, and taking +1 Str and Dex for our ASI
Ftr 1-6 Getting Two Weapon Fighting style, Riposte, Precision Attack, and one other maneuver, proficiency in Alchemist’s Tools, and taking +2 Str, and +2 Dex for our next two ASIs respectively.
Rog 5...
Dragonborns’ stat bonuses do not lend themselves particularly well to sneaky characters, so we have to get a little creative. Thus we initially specialize in Strength so that our damage output is strong, and increase our Dexterity as we are able.
Expertise at first level helps us mitigate the impact of unusually low Dexterity on our Stealth checks so that we are only slightly behind the curve. Our high strength and Expertise in Athletics means that not only will we be very adept at climbing and swimming, both thematically and mechanically appropriate, but we will also have the option of grappling, which gives us creative options for dealing with targets, especially once we get Extra Attack and Action Surge later on.
Cunning Action lets us hit and run when needed, but also has synergy with Grappling in that it gives us extra movement which we can use to reposition our opponent.
Fancy Footwork lets us hit and run without using a bonus action so we can more consistently attack with our off hand.
Rakish Audacity third level allows us to consistently get Sneak Attacks in melee when we are fighting a target one on one, which meshes well with our playstyle.
Everything we get from fighter is excellent for us. Our fighting style gives us increased damage on our offhand attack, Action Surge gives us greater damage potential and flexibility that really shines when combined with Extra Attack, Superiority Dice grant us flexibility, increased burst damage, and the potential to get an extra Sneak Attack per round when someone misses us, Extra Attack is, of course, amazing, and finally two ASIs mean that at Fighter level 6 we will have maxed both our Strength and Dexterity.
This build features solid sustained damage progression from 1-20, solid burst damage which really climbs from level 6 to 9, good stealth, flexible combat options, and thematically appropriate skills.
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Waves-His-Hands
Rogue/Hexblade
12/14/14/8/10/16
Rog 1 Putting Expertise into Stealth, and Thieves’ Tools
Hex 1-5 Getting the Devil’s Sight/Darkness combo, Pact of the Blade, Thirsting Blade, Eldritch Smite, and +2 Charisma via ASI.
Rog 2-4... or Hex 6-8... +2 Charisma via ASI.
Our Dragonborn racial bonuses synergize a bit better with this build. Hex Warrior allows us to use our Charisma for attacks and damage with a single weapon, so we are able to improve our casting and melee at the same time. (However, an argument could be made for minimizing Charisma in favor of Strength given that we will mostly be using saveless spells, and dual wielding is a bit more thematic. If we go that path we would simply set our Strength to 16 and Charisma to 13 and use ASIs on Strength. Also, it might be good to dip into Fighter for one level to get Two Weapon Fighting style.)
Once again we take Rogue first in order to get Expertise in Stealth. This is especially important for us since we can’t afford to improve Dexterity until very late, and a sneaky assassin who is constantly spotted before he gets into position isn’t really a sneaky assassin at all.
Next it’s straight to Hexblade for the aforementioned Hex Warrior and Hexblade’s Curse, effectively a concentration-less Hex which also increases our crit range.
Devil’s Sight/Darkness allows us to consistently get Sneak Attacks, and just generally improves our damage, though a bit thematically suspect given that there’s nothing similar in the Elder Scrolls games.
Pact of the Blade adds flavor in the form of a conjured weapon, and enables key Invocations later on.
Thirsting Blade gives us a second attack with our pact weapon
Eldritch Smite gives us a huge spike in burst damage by letting us burn a warlock slot for 4d8 damage when we land an attack.
After that we just try to get our next ASI as soon as possible. Going farther into Rogue allows us to pick up Arcane Trickster which gives us non-warlock slots to use for spells, and Mage Hand Legerdemain which lets us perform very thematic telekinetic trickery.
Staying in Warlock gives us Accursed Spectre, which is very flavorful for us, and 4th level spell slots. If we continue at least one more level we upgrade to 5th level slots and max out the damage Eldritch Smite can do in a single turn.
This build has decent sustained damage, high burst damage which spikes very hard at level 6, decent stealth, and spell based flexibility.
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Walks-In-Shadow
Swashbuckler/Gloom Stalker/Battlemaster
16/14/14/8/13/9
Rog 1 Putting Expertise into Stealth, and Thieves’ Tools
Rgr 1-5 Picking up Two Weapon Fighting style, Hunter’s Mark, Pass Without Trace, and +2 Strength via ASI.
Ftr 1-4 Getting Duelist Fighting Style, Riposte, Precision Attack, and one other maneuver, proficiency in Alchemist’s Tools, and taking +2 Str for our ASI
Rog 2... Go Swashbuckler and start increasing our Dex.
This build is pretty similar to the first, but due to needing to have a 13 Wis for multiclassing we can’t afford to level Str and Dex at the same time with our first ASI, so we don’t end up improving Dex at all until level 14.
I talked about the Rogue and Fighter features a lot in the first build, so I won’t rehash them.
Ranger gives us a fighting style, ASI, and Extra Attack, and Gloom Stalker gives us Umbral Sight which gives us darkvision, and makes us invisible to others relying on darkvision to see us, and Dread Ambusher which grants us an extra attack with bonus damage in the first round of combat as part of our attack action resulting in a huge increase in our burst damage. Dread Ambusher synergizes incredibly well with Action Surge because the extra attack is part of the attack action, and so we can benefit from it twice resulting in six attacks in the first round of combat at level 8. Taking the Duelist fighting style from Fighter means that if we attack with a single one handed weapon in the first round, we get the +2 to damage on every attack, and we can use our bonus action for Hunter’s Mark which will give us another 1d6 on every attack. We can then go back to dual wielding for the remainder of the fight.
This build decent sustained damage, very high burst damage starting at level 4 and leveling out a bit at level 8, decent stealth (great with Pass Without Trace), and some spell utility.
So which do you prefer? Do you see any obvious flaws, or room for improvement? How well do you think these represent the theme?
I enjoy playing Argonians, specifically assassin-types, in Elder Scrolls games, so I thought I would try my hand at adapting the lore/playstyle for D&D 5e.
Race
Black (edit: or Green) Dragonborn. The dark skin fits with the shadow theme, and like Argonians black dragons are native to swamps. Lizardfolk are thematically, and mechanically more similar to Argonians, but monster races (edit: non-PHB races) aren’t allowed.
Playstyle
In the Elder Scrolls games, especially Skyrim, one of the most effective tools for assassination was sneak attacking. If you snuck up on someone and stabbed them with a one handed weapon you could do absurd damage with a single hit, and almost certainly kill your opponent. This concept doesn’t really translate that well to D&D 5e given the peculiarity of the way it handles the idea of a player trying to sneak up on and stab an opponent. However, volumes have been written on that particular subject, and I have no wish to reproduce them here. Suffice to say, dealing large amounts of damage with a melee weapon in a single turn is a bit more complicated than just getting the Sneak Attack class feature. As a result these builds try to replicate the playstyle of sneaking up on and dealing a large burst of damage to a character in a way that is both thematically and mechanically effective.
Builds
Trusts-His-Steel
Swashbuckler/Battlemaster
17/15/14/8/10/9
Rog 1-4 Putting Expertise into Stealth and Athletics, and taking +1 Str and Dex for our ASI
Ftr 1-6 Getting Two Weapon Fighting style, Riposte, Precision Attack, and one other maneuver, proficiency in Alchemist’s Tools, and taking +2 Str, and +2 Dex for our next two ASIs respectively.
Rog 5...
Dragonborns’ stat bonuses do not lend themselves particularly well to sneaky characters, so we have to get a little creative. Thus we initially specialize in Strength so that our damage output is strong, and increase our Dexterity as we are able.
Expertise at first level helps us mitigate the impact of unusually low Dexterity on our Stealth checks so that we are only slightly behind the curve. Our high strength and Expertise in Athletics means that not only will we be very adept at climbing and swimming, both thematically and mechanically appropriate, but we will also have the option of grappling, which gives us creative options for dealing with targets, especially once we get Extra Attack and Action Surge later on.
Cunning Action lets us hit and run when needed, but also has synergy with Grappling in that it gives us extra movement which we can use to reposition our opponent.
Fancy Footwork lets us hit and run without using a bonus action so we can more consistently attack with our off hand.
Rakish Audacity third level allows us to consistently get Sneak Attacks in melee when we are fighting a target one on one, which meshes well with our playstyle.
Everything we get from fighter is excellent for us. Our fighting style gives us increased damage on our offhand attack, Action Surge gives us greater damage potential and flexibility that really shines when combined with Extra Attack, Superiority Dice grant us flexibility, increased burst damage, and the potential to get an extra Sneak Attack per round when someone misses us, Extra Attack is, of course, amazing, and finally two ASIs mean that at Fighter level 6 we will have maxed both our Strength and Dexterity.
This build features solid sustained damage progression from 1-20, solid burst damage which really climbs from level 6 to 9, good stealth, flexible combat options, and thematically appropriate skills.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Waves-His-Hands
Rogue/Hexblade
12/14/14/8/10/16
Rog 1 Putting Expertise into Stealth, and Thieves’ Tools
Hex 1-5 Getting the Devil’s Sight/Darkness combo, Pact of the Blade, Thirsting Blade, Eldritch Smite, and +2 Charisma via ASI.
Rog 2-4... or Hex 6-8... +2 Charisma via ASI.
Our Dragonborn racial bonuses synergize a bit better with this build. Hex Warrior allows us to use our Charisma for attacks and damage with a single weapon, so we are able to improve our casting and melee at the same time. (However, an argument could be made for minimizing Charisma in favor of Strength given that we will mostly be using saveless spells, and dual wielding is a bit more thematic. If we go that path we would simply set our Strength to 16 and Charisma to 13 and use ASIs on Strength. Also, it might be good to dip into Fighter for one level to get Two Weapon Fighting style.)
Once again we take Rogue first in order to get Expertise in Stealth. This is especially important for us since we can’t afford to improve Dexterity until very late, and a sneaky assassin who is constantly spotted before he gets into position isn’t really a sneaky assassin at all.
Next it’s straight to Hexblade for the aforementioned Hex Warrior and Hexblade’s Curse, effectively a concentration-less Hex which also increases our crit range.
Devil’s Sight/Darkness allows us to consistently get Sneak Attacks, and just generally improves our damage, though a bit thematically suspect given that there’s nothing similar in the Elder Scrolls games.
Pact of the Blade adds flavor in the form of a conjured weapon, and enables key Invocations later on.
Thirsting Blade gives us a second attack with our pact weapon
Eldritch Smite gives us a huge spike in burst damage by letting us burn a warlock slot for 4d8 damage when we land an attack.
After that we just try to get our next ASI as soon as possible. Going farther into Rogue allows us to pick up Arcane Trickster which gives us non-warlock slots to use for spells, and Mage Hand Legerdemain which lets us perform very thematic telekinetic trickery.
Staying in Warlock gives us Accursed Spectre, which is very flavorful for us, and 4th level spell slots. If we continue at least one more level we upgrade to 5th level slots and max out the damage Eldritch Smite can do in a single turn.
This build has decent sustained damage, high burst damage which spikes very hard at level 6, decent stealth, and spell based flexibility.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Walks-In-Shadow
Swashbuckler/Gloom Stalker/Battlemaster
16/14/14/8/13/9
Rog 1 Putting Expertise into Stealth, and Thieves’ Tools
Rgr 1-5 Picking up Two Weapon Fighting style, Hunter’s Mark, Pass Without Trace, and +2 Strength via ASI.
Ftr 1-4 Getting Duelist Fighting Style, Riposte, Precision Attack, and one other maneuver, proficiency in Alchemist’s Tools, and taking +2 Str for our ASI
Rog 2... Go Swashbuckler and start increasing our Dex.
This build is pretty similar to the first, but due to needing to have a 13 Wis for multiclassing we can’t afford to level Str and Dex at the same time with our first ASI, so we don’t end up improving Dex at all until level 14.
I talked about the Rogue and Fighter features a lot in the first build, so I won’t rehash them.
Ranger gives us a fighting style, ASI, and Extra Attack, and Gloom Stalker gives us Umbral Sight which gives us darkvision, and makes us invisible to others relying on darkvision to see us, and Dread Ambusher which grants us an extra attack with bonus damage in the first round of combat as part of our attack action resulting in a huge increase in our burst damage. Dread Ambusher synergizes incredibly well with Action Surge because the extra attack is part of the attack action, and so we can benefit from it twice resulting in six attacks in the first round of combat at level 8. Taking the Duelist fighting style from Fighter means that if we attack with a single one handed weapon in the first round, we get the +2 to damage on every attack, and we can use our bonus action for Hunter’s Mark which will give us another 1d6 on every attack. We can then go back to dual wielding for the remainder of the fight.
This build decent sustained damage, very high burst damage starting at level 4 and leveling out a bit at level 8, decent stealth (great with Pass Without Trace), and some spell utility.
So which do you prefer? Do you see any obvious flaws, or room for improvement? How well do you think these represent the theme?