Building the Nightcrawler

[tieren]

I want to make an AL legal character based loosely on the x-man nightcrawler.

Horizon Walker sounds like a good fit, but you don't really get to teleporting around until 7th or 11th level, other than misty step. Steel wind strike fits great, but comes so late I doubt I'll reach it as a straight ranger.

I would also like to pick up blink if at all possible.

I am considering adding some fey lock for blink and misty escape.

Another interesting option may be trickery cleric which I've always wanted to try and might fit well here.

Shadow monk is another way to go.

Any thoughts?

[Drazhar]

I want to make an AL legal character based loosely on the x-man nightcrawler.

Horizon Walker sounds like a good fit, but you don't really get to teleporting around until 7th or 11th level, other than misty step. Steel wind strike fits great, but comes so late I doubt I'll reach it as a straight ranger.

I would also like to pick up blink if at all possible.

I am considering adding some fey lock for blink and misty escape.

Another interesting option may be trickery cleric which I've always wanted to try and might fit well here.

Shadow monk is another way to go.

Any thoughts?

An Eladrin Shadow Monk would fit your build thematically, as Nightcrawler was a holy character and teleported around, which with Shadow Monk would give you more opportunities to do so.

However your original idea is also sound, but I would not agree is as thematically accurate of the character, if that is what you are going for. And if Steel Wind Strike is an overall goal, then I would suggest Bladesinger instead. You get the spell quicker and it better fits with the character. IMHO.

[nickl_2000]

When I think of nightcrawler I immediately think of a Shadow Monk. Monks are all over the place, they are fast, they are agile, and then fight well without armor. Plus they are going to be the best class for teleport at will. As for race, I would choose either Black colored Tabaxi or Tiefling with a forked tail. Frankly you don't need much else.

However, this has the a similar issue in that it doesn't let you bampf until level 6.



Edit: Actually Shadar-kai would be even better, you would just need to fluff in a tail.

[Vogie]

The only way to get blink on a martial-esque class early would be Bladesinger wizard, who gets the spell blink at 5. You're also wielding a rapier, which is nice, and locked into light armor (or mage armor), which fits Nightcrawler's aesthetic. Just ask the DM to waive the elf-only requirement, and refluff the "song" into a Stance or Technique.

Another 6th-level option is Lore Bard - you've already got longswords & rapiers to use, and you can pick up Blink via Additional Magical Secrets. Your successful Cutting Words could be reluffed as Acrobatic avoidance.



Another option is refluffing the spell Zephyr Strike (XGtE) as a teleport - by RAW it's just avoiding opportunity attacks & increased speed - But you can refluff it as blink to a target-Strike-blink away. Mechanically, it'd be exactly the same, but only in combat - No blinking through windows.

However, it's a ranger only spell, and they're really light on spell slots... but it could certainly hold the phone for a Horizon Walker build until the superblinking comes online at 11. On the other hand, it's a first level spell, thus the only option that's available at level 2.

[tieren]

I was thinking of using zephyr strike as a stand in.

Shadow monk feels good, can describe spinning kicks or something for the martial arts. I just worry I'd become too focused on constantly asking about lighting conditions and feel limited since our DM tends to ignore that.

I was even looking at swashbuckler fancy footwork could be fluffed as little bamfs out of the way.

[nickl_2000]

I was thinking of using zephyr strike as a stand in.

Shadow monk feels good, can describe spinning kicks or something for the martial arts. I just worry I'd become too focused on constantly asking about lighting conditions and feel limited since our DM tends to ignore that.

I was even looking at swashbuckler fancy footwork could be fluffed as little bamfs out of the way.

So check with the DM, say you want to do that and have them make a larger deal with it. Most DMs will adjust based on the players (for example in one campaign I played, the DM didn't much care about lighting. Then as characters we started expending resources on darkvision and all the sudden he realized we cared about it as characters). On the other hand, if he doesn't care about lighting, just ask if you can bampf from the shadow of one character to the shadow of another. That should be fitting enough and easy to handle in game without to much digression.

[Beechgnome]

It depends what matters more to you. If you mostly like the idea of weaving and bobbing in and out of combat, Shadow monk works best.

But if teleporting is your bag, and you want to do it as quickly as possible, a conjurer wizard who later dips a more combat oriented class like fighter or rogue may get you where you want to go sooner. You get Misty Step at 3rd level, spider climb at 4th, Thunder Step at 5th, teleporting you and allies every time you cast a conjuration spell at 6th (which will be often) , dimension door at 7th, steel wind strike at 9th, (and if you go that high as a wizard Scatter at 11th or Teleport at 13th.)

If you focus on buffs you don't need your Int to be that high to be effective and you can bump up your Dexterity and Constitution to stay in a fight.

Say a Glasya Tiefling (minor illusion, disguise self, invisibility) with:

Str 10 Dex 16 Con 15 Int 13 Wis 10 Cha 10

at 1st and boost Int/Con at 4th then alternate between Int and Dex.

Take cantrips like booming blade or green flame blade and shocking grasp and spells like Fog cloud, grease, mage armor, protection from good/evil, Misty Step, mirror image, spider climb etc etc.

[MagneticKitty]

Too bad it's al I was going to suggest nomad mystic. Feral tiefling might be good for you.

[Crgaston]

An Eladrin Fey Bladelock with Relentless Hex gets to teleport around quite a bit, but that invocation doesn’t com online until L7.

[NorthernPhoenix]

I was going to "just" say tiefling shadow monk, but the others are right that the archdevil variant tieflings can add even more so have a look at those.

[Mortis_Elrod]

I’ve been struggling to find a suitable build for this as well. Sadly the issue is it’s hard to get some good teleports early.

I’m fairly certain that you want the following:
Blink
Misty step
Extra attack
And some form of at will teleportation

Sad thing is Blink requires 5 levels in Sorcerer or wizard or Hexblade or Fey patron warlock. And the earlier at will teleportations would be with conjurer 6. However that takes up your action so you can’t really attack with weapons afterward.

6 in feylock gives you a reactionary teleport, which is very cool. But it’s not at will either and warlock has the least slots so your not gonna be teleporting with those spells very often in combat until blink.

And let’s face it if you want extra attack that requires 5 levels too. 6 for bladesinger.

Essentially you need to compromise to get it. You could take 6 levels of monk, which is at will actionless teleport, but it’s tied to lighting conditions which are in the Dm Fiat zone of 5e. Also if you wanted to create darkness it’s best to be either Shadow Sorcerer or a warlock.


So ideally if you wanted all of this it would look something like
Shadow Sorcerer 5/Shadow Monk 6. But there’s an issue here.

1. That’s very awkward leveling wise
2. MAD as the hatter tho thematically sound.
3. Most importantly it’s 11th level build. So instead of this you could just be a horizon walker and have literally the best teleport you could ask for.

Basically with the options currently, your better off asking for a magic item that lets you cast blink a few times a day. Like a belt of blinking perhaps. Or just take the 11 ranger levels and grab a teleporty race.

[Vogie]

You could take 6 levels of monk, which is at will actionless teleport, but it’s tied to lighting conditions which are in the Dm Fiat zone of 5e. Also if you wanted to create darkness it’s best to be either Shadow Sorcerer or a warlock.

Not actionless - Shadow monks require a bonus action to bounce around


I had forgotten that blink is on the Hexblade list - That definitely moves it to the top of the options for a rapid-teleporting character.

Which gives the OP a great spread of class to get the "low-level teleporting melee with extra attack" concept going

If they want a wisdom teleporter with martial weapons: Horizon Walker Ranger with refluffed Zephyr Strike (2)

If they want a wisdom teleporter with simple weapons: Shadow Monk (6)

If they want a charisma teleporter: Hexblade Warlock (blink at 5, Relentless hex at 7)

If they want an Intelligence teleporter: Bladesinger (6)

Runners up:
Lore Bard (6, no extra attack)
Conjuration wizard (5, or 6 for benign transportation, no extra attack)
Eldritch Knight (13 for Blink, 15 for Arcane Charge)

[zminseo]

I want to make an AL legal character based loosely on the x-man nightcrawler.

Horizon Walker sounds like a good fit, but you don't really get to teleporting around until 7th or 11th level, other than misty step. Steel wind strike fits great, but comes so late I doubt I'll reach it as a straight ranger.

I would also like to pick up blink if at all possible.

I am considering adding some fey lock for blink and misty escape.

Another interesting option may be trickery cleric which I've always wanted to try and might fit well here.

Shadow monk is another way to go.

Any thoughts?


At the beginning levels, there are not a lot of character classes that can teleport a lot.
One thing you can do is build a coffeelock (warlock x/sorcerer 3, convert warlock slots into metamagic then to regular slots) and have the character spend most of its magic on teleports. It would be good if you took pact of the blade for warlock. But check with your DM first as s/he might consider this as breaking the game.

[Mortis_Elrod]

Not actionless - Shadow monks require a bonus action to bounce around


I had forgotten that blink is on the Hexblade list - That definitely moves it to the top of the options for a rapid-teleporting character.

Which gives the OP a great spread of class to get the "low-level teleporting melee with extra attack" concept going

If they want a wisdom teleporter with martial weapons: Horizon Walker Ranger with refluffed Zephyr Strike (2)

If they want a wisdom teleporter with simple weapons: Shadow Monk (6)

If they want a charisma teleporter: Hexblade Warlock (blink at 5, Relentless hex at 7)

If they want an Intelligence teleporter: Bladesinger (6)

Runners up:
Lore Bard (6, no extra attack)
Conjuration wizard (5, or 6 for benign transportation, no extra attack)
Eldritch Knight (13 for Blink, 15 for Arcane Charge)

wold probably add Sorcerer, no extra attack but quickened GFB/BB is probably solid, plus you can use spell points to get more misty steps in, and you also get Haste. Storm maybe? so you can fly around too? Might be worth it to go Hexblade/Storm Sorcerer.

[tieren]

Anyone think about trickery domain Cleric in this context?

Wis synergy with horizon walker, domain spells include blink and dimension door, cloak of Shadows channel divinity to vanish can look like teleporting out.

Thinking horizon walker 12/ trickery cleric 8 would be really cool, just all the coolest toys come on so late.

Also, I have never played a bard before, am I correct that a 10th level bard can use magical secrets to take a 5th level ranger spell (steel wind strike), even though an actual ranger can't take it until 17th level?

[tieren]

Narrowing in on the crunch of this idea.

I am trying to decide between fey lock 9/ horizon Walker 11 or shadow monk 7/ blade singer 13.

Taking bladesinger would lock out the xanathars spells (AL), but I think would be more useful over the characters life than taking conjuration for benign transposition.

[Mortis_Elrod]

Narrowing in on the crunch of this idea.

I am trying to decide between fey lock 9/ horizon Walker 11 or shadow monk 7/ blade singer 13.

Taking bladesinger would lock out the xanathars spells (AL), but I think would be more useful over the characters life than taking conjuration for benign transposition.

i agree, Personally id go with Ranger/Warlock for the long term investment. But i see the merits of bladesinger. i also think 14 bladesinger is better than the extra level of monk. unless you just really want evasion and stillness of mind. That potentially extra 5 damage would be pretty good since it also applies to unarmed strikes.

[Dimglow]

First post here, but this is surprisingly close to a theme for a character I made so I felt like contributing. This is not AL legal due to UA and mixed sources, but maybe it will give you ideas.

A Goblin Cloud Giant Soul Sorc 8 / Horizon Walker Ranger 12. Cloud Giant Soul is currently UA, but the important bits are it gives you access to some melee cantrips, sorc spells like Dimension Door, Mirror Image, etc and the 6th level feature lets you teleport when you cast minor illusion.

I chose Goblin because of Nimble Escape. Early gameplan is run at enemies, Booming Blade (or as she sees it Time Stop Slash) them and Nimble Escape disengage, run away. Eventually develop haste, and boom and swing and run away with all of your speed. Mid game as you transition into Ranger you can move to rapier/shield/mage armor. Pick up dueling and favored enemies. At this point pick up Mobile so you can use your bonus action on Planar Warrior vs Nimble Escape. By the time you develop distant strike you can move nearly a hundred feet a turn while hasted, more if Longstriding. Nevermind that Haste can be twinned and/or extended. Party members will definitely enjoy a little Goblin Time Travel Juice.

With Squat Nimbleness for 18 dex and some speed, Mobile, War Caster, and an ASI for 20 DEX you're left with one feat left, or take only 6 sorc and use your last 2 levels however you'd like.

My take on the character is a goblin who thinks she can time travel, who fights with a clock face for a shield and a minute hand stolen off a clock tower as a rapier. The Cloud Giant soul gives you on command teleporting, and gives you a good flavor faster than the Horizon Walker develops. Being able to look into a window, or slip between bars, all while leaving an illusionary time shadow of yourself behind is fantastic.

Plus Sorc gets you mirror image, expeditious retreat, spider climb and greater invisibility/dimension door. Running up walls, moving so fast you vanish or split into multiple copies, etc are all great spice for time/space manipulation. Starting sorc for con save helps you a lot for holding Haste, too.

A goblin running at you with up to 3 teleport attacks a round, an extra hasted attack and effectively 120 or so feet of speed is fantastic. The Horizon Walker side of it takes FOREVER to come online, since it naturally comes at 11, and in this build wouldn't come until at least 17, but I feel like if you want to have that hit and run/run amok in enemy lines effect this build gets there earlier thanks to Nimble Escape, Haste and move speed.

Definitely be checking in here to see what other ideas people come up with since this character is next on my list to play if I can find a good game allowing UA.

[tieren]

I was actually looking at goblin as an interesting race choice, but I definitely don't want Volo's as my PHB+1. If AL wasn't an issue I'd probably be going feral tiefling (dex, int) bladesinger/ shadow monk.

As it is I'm planning on conjuration wizard/ shadow monk. I really want to get to cast thunder step, far step, and steel wind strike. Racially I'm thinking high elf (moon elf fluff for bluish skin and hair).

Weird part is without bladesinger INT just doesn't seem that important if most spells are teleport and buffs. It's already pretty MAD needing high Dex for stabbing, Wis for unarmored defense, Int to multiclass and Con to have decent hp.

[Greywander]

Maybe the best solution in this case is to merely fluff your regular movement as a series of short-ranged teleports. Mechanically, you still move through the intervening space, and things like difficult terrain still slow you down, but you can describe your character as blinking in and out as they move. If, for example, you fall into a pit trap, that just means that you happened to blink back in right over the pit. Mechanically, nothing has changed, but you get to have the flavor of it, at least. Not sure an AL DM will allow this, though.

Now, some people might be coming to this thread wanting to know a solution for themselves, and don't care about being AL legal. I think I can whip up a bit of homebrew that will do the trick without being overpowered, but before we do that we need to understand what advantages teleportation has over standard movement.

1. Teleportation extends your range of movement. This is most noticeable once you get to the more powerful teleportation spells like Dimension Door, but even Misty Step can get you a bit of extra distance for classes that can't Dash as a bonus action. Then there's the high level magic like Plane Shift, but that's far beyond the scope of what we're going to be considering here.

2. Teleportation lets you move to a location without traversing the intervening space. Traps, obstacles, and enemies don't slow you down, as you can just appear on the other side of them. You can teleport to the top of a structure you wouldn't be able to climb, or cross pits and gaps you couldn't jump across. In some cases, you may even be able to teleport through walls.

With this in mind, we can come up with a reasonable homebrew option. In this case, since we want a Nightcrawler-like character, lets take the tiefling as a base and replace their Infernal Legacy trait with this:

Sulfurous Step. As part of your movement, you are able to teleport short distances, disappearing for a split second before reappearing in your new location with a slight burst of ash and smoke and the smell of sulfur and brimstone. When you teleport this way, you can appear in a location you can see up to 10 feet away from you. Each time you do this, it costs you 10 feet of your movement, regardless of how far you teleport. When another effect or feature allows you to move a certain distance, you may use this teleportation for that movement as well.

As you can see, this doesn't extend our movement, in fact, it can shorten it if we don't teleport a full 10 feet (not sure why you wouldn't, though). As far as crossing the intervening space, because we have to see where we're teleporting, and because the range is so short, there isn't much of an advantage here. You could probably jump the same distance. Really, this would be a ribbon feature, and probably require adding some other racial feature if we replacing Infernal Legacy. I also thought about giving advantage on checks to escape grapples and restrains, or making OAs have disadvantage, but that's going a bit beyond the original goal.

[Twigwit]

Has anyone mentioned Nomad Mystic? There's a reason I used Nightcrawler as the image for that archetype in my Mystic guide. It specializes in lots of short range teleporting, sneaking,and not getting cornered or caught by anything. If you want to make it as close to NC as possible pick Tiefling as your race as well, and see if you can get your hands on a Cape of the Montebank.

[tieren]

The more I work on this the more I am liking straight horizon walker.

I statted out a shadow monk/conjuration wizard, and it works, can get a ton of teleports, almost all using the bonus action. When it can use bonus action to fight the diluted flurry of blows from multiclass does less damage than planar warrior.

Benign transposition is cool, but basically just doubles number of misty steps, still using that bonus action.

Straight blade singer is another option I haven't dug too far in yet but it looks like it's most effective using the melee cantrips which don't really fit my concept.

I just wish I could figure out an efficient way to get blink on horizon walker.

[Vogie]

Has anyone mentioned Nomad Mystic? There's a reason I used Nightcrawler as the image for that archetype in my Mystic guide. It specializes in lots of short range teleporting, sneaking,and not getting cornered or caught by anything. If you want to make it as close to NC as possible pick Tiefling as your race as well, and see if you can get your hands on a Cape of the Montebank.

Because it isn't AL legal


Straight blade singer is another option I haven't dug too far in yet but it looks like it's most effective using the melee cantrips which don't really fit my concept.

I mean, it'll be better than most Wizards wielding Rapiers. You can't use melee cantrips if you don't pick them.

After you hit Bladesinger 6, so you have Misty Step, Blink and an extra attack, you could also:

Drop 2 levels into Rogue for just the Sneak attack damage and Cunning action
Drop 3 levels into Hunter Ranger for more raw damage (Colossus Slayer) or more attacks (Horde Breaker)
Drop 3 levels into Deep/Gloom Stalker Ranger for superDarkvision (matches the character) and the additional attack action on the first turn (for a pseudo surprise round)
Drop 3+ levels into Rogue for that and just going up a tree, following Assassination (Actual Surprise round), Swashbuckler (Increase one on one prowess), Scout (Reaction-based disengages) or Thief (climbing!).


When you think about it, you don't actually care about more wizard levels, outside of wanting MOAR BLINKING. If you're okay with only 3 blinks and 3 misty steps per long rest (plus whatever you grow back via Arcane Recovery), then you don't really have to go more than 6 levels into wizard.

Even though it doesn't fit the character precisely, you could even go Bladesigner 6/ Arcane Trickster X to get more lower-level spell slots as you level up. Normally people don't MC AT's because it cuts down on the higher level spell slots... but your concept wants ONLY 2nd and 3rd level spells, so it works for you more than most.

[tieren]

I'll give you an example:

1. In my multiclass monk/wizard, by level 12 it had blink, misty step, haste, benign transposition,thunder step, shadow step, martial arts (2d6 bonus action attack with flurry).

2. A straight Horizon Walker by 12 has distant strike (the real gold standard for the concept), misty step, haste, ethereal step, planar warrior (2d8 bonus action attack).

3. A blade singer at 12 would have all of the magic for the blink, haste, misty step, thunder step, and higher slots for steel wind strike, far step, banishment, dimension door, arcane gate, etc...Has great AC, but needs a way to pick up a decent bonus action attack (assuming BA available with all of the spell options for its use).

In #1 above 'free" teleportation comes from shadow step and benign transposition.

In #2 above "free" teleportation comes from distant strike.

In #3 above there is no "free" teleportation, but it probably has enough slots and magic to do whatever you want anyway.


edit:
It also occurred to me that the PHB ranger ability that I generally consider a ribbon (favored enemy) could be quite flavorful to pick up fiends, fey, celestials/elementals to get adv on knowledge checks and tracking them about interdimensional beings, grabbing their languages, it starts to fluffy feel like a guy wandering the planes mastering his prey etc...