Trying to make G (SFV) in my next game.

[strangebloke]

Okay so I'm playing again for the first time in years. I've DMed a lot but I haven't kept up with new releases and I was wondering if I could get some input.

Lately I've been watching/playing a lot of SFV and I want to adapt a character from that game into DND 5e. The character is "G," a delusional(?) warrior who believes himself to be a hero chosen by the earth itself to guide humanity into a golden age.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bvc69jTXe_0

Now I'm not actually trying to play this obvious Abe Lincoln expy. But I do intend to play a character with a similar delusion who keeps claiming to being the 'king of the planet' and playing to the people. I also want to capture a bit of his style in terms of how he fights.

So to Summarize his Flavor:
-should have fire/metal-related powers but be primarily a martial character
-should be tall, strong moreso than agile, and very resilient.
-should be able to “power up” in some way
-should be a fist-fighter (gauntlets?)
-should not be armored (mage armor reflavored as metallic skin is fine.)
-Charismatic if it can be fit in. Natural/Divine Connection is nice too.

Here are my current ideas. Let me know which you think works best, how you would improve on them, if you think there are any 'must have' spells, or if you have an alternate build that I should check out:

Eldritch Knight

Pros: Shield and Mage Armor are very on-brand for G. TWF and Gauntlets work fine even if they're not great.

Cons: Fire theming is weak as hell outside of refluffing stuff to an absurd degree. INT as a secondary stat feels off-brand.

Zealot Barbarian

Pros: Definitely tough. Barbarians like TWF reasonably well at low levels. Good flavor. Could make the radiant damage fire damage. Lots of free stat points to boost WIS or CHA on the side. Definitely has a 'power up' sequence.

Cons: Even worse fire theming than the EK.

4e Monk

Pros: Look, Fangs of the Fire Snake may not be efficient but it is perfect flavoring. High WIS is also very appropriate. Fist fighting and armor is there.

Cons: Fixation on speed and no use for STR. Stat starved

Tasha's Ranger (Fey Wanderer)

Pros: So, uh... flavor is great actually? Searing strike as a fire themed spell, enhance ability and glamour let me schmooze people with my bizarre, delusional charisma...

Cons: Still weak fire theming. Feels like the damage could be weak but I haven't done the math. No way to go armorless without high DEX or feats. There might already be a ranger in the party.

For races, I'll be honest and say that there's a lot of options. Goliaths and Half-Orcs are tall and tough so that fits with the flavor. Humans are always a solid pick ofc. Fire and Earth Genasi are reasonably tough and also have some good flavor (Except for PWT which is strong but way off brand)

Other stuff I looked at: Storm Herald just doesn't feel good to me and the larger aura and switch your totemic storms around and... yeah overall its just janky even if it might technically be strong. Paladins just do not want to use two light weapons under any circumstance. Hexblades work perfectly from a mechanical perspective but the flavor is really not there. Any of these might work with more thought but at the moment I'm not feeling it.

[Zevox]

Hm... I feel like trying to capture both him being a martial fist-fighter and having his weird earth/fire quasi-magical attacks is going to require multiclassing, especially if you're not willing to switch from him looking more like a strength/con type to a dexterity type to play a Four Elements Monk. Paladin (either Ancients for the nature theme, or perhaps Devotion for the Sacred Weapon channel divinity option, which could work as one representation of his "presidentiality" power-up) with a dip in Sorcerer (gold dragon, probably - the scales could even work for the odd markings on his arms) actually feels like one of the most obvious choices given the desire for a more strength/con/charisma type of stat array. Fire Bolt feels like the best representation of his qcf+P special (and/or V-trigger 1 modification to his V-skill), you can favor Searing Smite over normal divine smites and eventually get Elemental Weapon as an option for more constant fire damage on your attacks, and there's any number of buff spells between the two that could be him powering up his "presidentiality."

I don't know, I feel like fully capturing him would require Four Elements Monk, but if you're not willing to bend on the kind of stats he seems like he should have, yeah, that's a problem given they need dexterity/wisdom and lack reasons to have strength/charisma, and it's very hard to have all of those barring doing rolled stats and getting very good results.

[MaxWilson]

I don't know, I feel like fully capturing him would require Four Elements Monk, but if you're not willing to bend on the kind of stats he seems like he should have, yeah, that's a problem given they need dexterity/wisdom and lack reasons to have strength/charisma, and it's very hard to have all of those barring doing rolled stats and getting very good results.

There's no particular reason (if you're playing with Tasha's) that you couldn't model him as a high-Strength Bladesinger (e.g. Fighter 2/Bladesinger 6ish+ in plate armor, throwing out elemental cantrips and Shatter spells and Fireballs and later on Walls of Fire and whatnot).

[Unoriginal]

Fighter with Unarmed Fighting Style multiclassed with Dragon Sorcerer gives you everything.

EDIT: Gold dragon specifically.

[strangebloke]

I don't know, I feel like fully capturing him would require Four Elements Monk, but if you're not willing to bend on the kind of stats he seems like he should have, yeah, that's a problem given they need dexterity/wisdom and lack reasons to have strength/charisma, and it's very hard to have all of those barring doing rolled stats and getting very good results.
I mean to be totally honest four elements has another problem besides the stats: Its really bad if you just use it to chuck fireballs. Sun Soul might arguably better for my purposes but yeah I'm not feeling it.

There's no particular reason (if you're playing with Tasha's) that you couldn't model him as a high-Strength Bladesinger (e.g. Fighter 2/Bladesinger 6ish+ in plate armor, throwing out elemental cantrips and Shatter spells and Fireballs and later on Walls of Fire and whatnot).
I mean, I did say that I wanted my guy to be unarmored and primarily a martial character so this is kind of a ways away from what I asked for.

Fighter with Unarmed Fighting Style multiclassed with Dragon Sorcerer gives you everything.

EDIT: Gold dragon specifically.

Ah! Unarmed fighting style is pretty good, thanks, that's exactly what I was looking for. Assuming all source books are on the table can I use unarmed with GFB? That's a particular rules nuance I'd forgotten.

[Unoriginal]

Ah! Unarmed fighting style is pretty good, thanks, that's exactly what I was looking for. Assuming all source books are on the table can I use unarmed with GFB? That's a particular rules nuance I'd forgotten.

GFB specifically requires a weapon, if you go by the book.

EDIT: Scourge Aasimar is a good way to get the "super mode" you want.

Otherwise Variant Human Barbarian with Fighting Initiate (Unarmed) could work pretty well.

As an alternative to Sorcerer, Celestial Warlock can give you pretty nice firepower (& radiantpower too).

EDIT 2:

Regardless of if you go Human, Aasimar or Genasi, I would say the Eldritch Claw Tattoo magic item is a must-have. Both so that your unarmed strikes are magic and for the super-mode it grants the user.

This thread inspired me. Would you be interested by me posting the different builds I thought about for this concept?

I think that as a basis, Battlemaster Fighter with the Commanding Presence manoeuvre is your best bet. You can refluff the superiority dice added to your damages as the lava-empowered strikes, too.

[Zevox]

I mean to be totally honest four elements has another problem besides the stats: Its really bad if you just use it to chuck fireballs. Sun Soul might arguably better for my purposes but yeah I'm not feeling it.
Uh, sure, but I don't see G as chucking fireballs (in the D&D sense of the term) much anyway. His attacks aren't big blasts of flame covering a huge area (with the sole exception of his super move, which he obviously can't do often), he's mostly punching, kicking, and grabbing people, just with added flame effects. His qcf+P and V-system mechanics are the main things he has that seem like you want some magic to represent them outside of just something to add fire damage to his unarmed strikes.

[strangebloke]

GFB specifically requires a weapon, if you go by the book.
Ah bummer. I can still probably make it work (the DM is a former player of mine and pretty permissive) but its always nice to not even have to ask.


EDIT: Scourge Aasimar is a good way to get the "super mode" you want.

Otherwise Variant Human Barbarian with Fighting Initiate (Unarmed) could work pretty well.

As an alternative to Sorcerer, Celestial Warlock can give you pretty nice firepower (& radiantpower too).

Scourge Aasimar is a great pick, yeah, I hadn't considered it.

Human Barbarian works well enough, yeah. The major issue is that lack of fire theming.

Sorcerer and Celestial Warlock are too magical for my taste, and neither works well with unarmed attacks except as a dip. I could see myself going "Golden" Draconic Sorcerer because the flavor is perfect and you can get the scales with a 1-level dip.


EDIT 2:

Regardless of if you go Human, Aasimar or Genasi, I would say the Eldritch Claw Tattoo magic item is a must-have. Both so that your unarmed strikes are magic and for the super-mode it grants the user.

This thread inspired me. Would you be interested by me posting the different builds I thought about for this concept?

I think that as a basis, Battlemaster Fighter with the Commanding Presence manoeuvre is your best bet. You can refluff the superiority dice added to your damages as the lava-empowered strikes, too.
Yeah Eldritch Claw looks basically perfect. Gives a power-up mode, ranged attack, magical fists.... basically a huge portion of what I need. Absolute asking for one.

Commanding presence and battlemaster in general works well, although I find myself thinking that Eldritch Knight works better overall in other respects. Perhaps I could just take the prodigy feat to get absurd persuasion?

And yeah, post whatever builds you have in whatever level of detail, I'd love to see it! FWIW I'm starting at 5th level.


Uh, sure, but I don't see G as chucking fireballs (in the D&D sense of the term) much anyway. His attacks aren't big blasts of flame covering a huge area (with the sole exception of his super move, which he obviously can't do often), he's mostly punching, kicking, and grabbing people, just with added flame effects. His qcf+P and V-system mechanics are the main things he has that seem like you want some magic to represent them outside of just something to add fire damage to his unarmed strikes.

Well he also has the magic bubble, which is basically "absorb elements" or "shield" depending on how you fluff it. I've been planning on getting a mage-armor-like effect to refluff as his golden skin. (the details of how mage armor works are wonderfully vague)

[Zevox]

Well he also has the magic bubble, which is basically "absorb elements" or "shield" depending on how you fluff it.
Yes, that's part of his V-system that I mentioned, his V-Trigger 1.


I've been planning on getting a mage-armor-like effect to refluff as his golden skin. (the details of how mage armor works are wonderfully vague)
No need for Mage Armor for that if you just take one level of Gold Dragon Sorcerer for the scales - which also conveniently gets you Shield (VT1) and Fire Bolt/Chromatic Orb/maybe Burning Hands (qcf+P). No Absorb Elements though sadly; I thought that was a Sorcerer spell, but it looks like I was wrong.

Either Dragon Sorcerer or Mage Armor does mean needing at least some dexterity for a decent AC, though, which becomes rough if you also want good strength, charisma, and decent constitution.

[strangebloke]

Yes, that's part of his V-system that I mentioned, his V-Trigger 1.

Oh derp I see what you meant.


No need for Mage Armor for that if you just take one level of Gold Dragon Sorcerer for the scales - which also conveniently gets you Shield (VT1) and Fire Bolt/Chromatic Orb/maybe Burning Hands (qcf+P). No Absorb Elements though sadly; I thought that was a Sorcerer spell, but it looks like I was wrong.

Either Dragon Sorcerer or Mage Armor does mean needing at least some dexterity for a decent AC, though, which becomes rough if you also want good strength, charisma, and decent constitution.

AA is a sorcerer spell but it comes from EE players companion so its not listed in the PHB.

and yes, that's why I said "mage armor like effect" although arguably the best one would be the Barbarian unarmored feature since it scales with constitution.

I might have to end up going with Medium armor at least. :/ not super happy about it but even with me rolling good stats this build is super MAD.

[Zevox]

AA is a sorcerer spell but it comes from EE players companion so its not listed in the PHB.
Okay, double-checking things, we're both getting something wrong here. I originally consulted a spellbook app that I have for it, which had Absorb Elements based on the EE Player's Companion, where it was not a Sorcerer spell, just Wizard, Druid, and Ranger. However, it occurred to me that it had been printed more recently in Xanathar's, and checking there, that one does show it as being a Sorcerer spell. So it is a Sorcerer spell, but only because Xanathar's added it to them.

[strangebloke]

If anyone is curious, I ended up bending on the issue of armor. It just hurts too much to put one of my best stats in DEX and finding a method for getting unarmored AC and still only having 16 AC. I decided to play a battlemaster in splint. I went Variant Human and picked up tavern brawler and skill expert (athletics) so that I can do the lovely combo of grapple + shove + action surge which works really well with the unarmed fighting style.

My DM did give me the claw tattoo which was nice as heck.

My only regret is that my stats ended up not lining up well with scourge Aasimar, but even so, my fully "powered up" mode can do 1d6+1d4+1d6(fire)+STR per attack four times in a row with advantage, which isn't game breaking but should feel nice.

Oh yeah, chosen maneuvers were Commander's Strike (to play nice with the party rogue and potentially help me at range), Commanding Presence (to shore up mediocre charisma in social encounters), and Trip Attack(to get people prone without losing an attack)

Overall feels like it should be really fun and make me feel like I'm hitting combos.