Building character based on Ratchet

[Jaganshi Pinion]

Looking to start my first 5e campaign in a few weeks and I'm fumbling through an idea to have a character similar to Ratchet (Ratchet & Clank) and have a thrown returning handaxe.

Echo Knight / Armourer multiclass.

Starting with a Tabaxi with 'Guild Artisan' background (misfit apprentice who had one too many accidents). I don't personally like seeing negative modifiers, so while not optimized I'm starting with either:

Point Buy:
Str 15
Dex 10 (12)
Con 15
Int 12
Wis 10
Cha 9 (10)

Standard Array:
Str 15
Dex 8 (10)
Con 14
Int 13
Wis 12
Cha 10 (11)

Skills: Acrobatics, Athletics, Perception, Insight, Stealth

A quick mind-map of the main beats will look like:
---Keystones: (when using ASI's, max STR then CON/INT)
- 1 - F1 - Second Wind (Bonus Action) ; Thrown Weapon Fighting
- 2 - A1 - Magical Tinkering ; Spell-casting (Smith's Tools focus ; Booming Blade & Spare The Dying ; Absorb Elements)
- 3 - A2 - Infusions (Enhanced Defence ; Returning Weapon (spell focus) handaxe)
- 4 - A3 - Right Tool for the Job ; Tools of the Trade ; Spells (Magic Missile ; Thunderwave) ; Arcane Armour (spell focus ; heavy armour ; Guardian - (d8+str and taunt))
- 5 - F2 - Action Surge
- 6 - F3 - Manifest Echo (flavoured as a hologram) ; Echo Teleport ; Unleashed Incarnation

Note: Echo's primary responsibility is the Thunder Gauntlets taunt mechanic. Bonus as I can throw from it as well and use teleport to be a nuisance.

- 7 - A4 - Slasher (+1 STR)
- 8 - F4 - ASI (+2 CON / +1 CON and INT)
- 9 - A5 - Extra Attack ; Spells (Mirror Image ; Shatter ; Spider Climb)
- 10 - F5 - Extra Attack
- 11 - A6 - Tool Expertise ; Infusions (Enhanced Defence to armour ; Repulsion Shield ; Spell-Refueling Ring)
- 12 - A7 - Flash of Genius

Any other spells or infusions would be given to the party as I am being selfish with the Artificer goodies as I think they're required.

I assume a typical round would look like:

Action → Booming Blade (LVL 2 ; host only melee) → optional (Unleashed Incarnation ; LVL 6)
→ Extra Attack (LVL 9)
→ Extra Attack (LVL 10)
→ Action Surge (LVL 5 ; one per short / long rest ; one per turn) → optional (Unleashed Incarnation if multiples are available)

→ Bonus Action (one per turn)
- 1 - Second Wind (Regain 1d10 + fighter level HP)
- 4 - Defensive Field (if Guardian armour ; Artificer lvl in temp HP)
- 6 - Manifest Echo
- 6 - Echo Teleport - (requires 15' movement)


My questions (and I know it would depend on the campaign itself):
- Am I waiting too long for ASI bumps to be efficient?
- Is there a better way to work around the levelling?
- Is Dueling (via Fighting Initiate) and Sentinel going to impact massively?
- Why are throwing builds so difficult to be useful in 5e?

Any thoughts / help welcomed. Thanks!

[Dork_Forge]

You could use alchemical servant to serve as Clank.



My questions (and I know it would depend on the campaign itself):
- Am I waiting too long for ASI bumps to be efficient?
- Is there a better way to work around the levelling?
- Is Dueling (via Fighting Initiate) and Sentinel going to impact massively?
- Why are throwing builds so difficult to be useful in 5e?

Any thoughts / help welcomed. Thanks!

1&2 - I'd just go Artificer 5 to start with. You don't need anything from Fighter as your 1st level, you get heavy armor from Armorer and the martial weapons don't matter since a handaxe is simple anyway. Going Art 5 means you're not delaying Returning Weapon, subclass, ASI, or Extra Attack. Then the front loaded nature of Fighter means you push into Tier 2 swinging.

3 - Dueling a nice damage bump that multiplies like crazy with all the attacks you can make. I honestly don't see the point of Sentinel in what you're going for, it doesn't feel like it messes well with the build or concept.

Also, ask your DM if Dueling would even apply, since technically Thunder Gauntlets means you'll always have two weapons.

4 - They aren't, there are multiple ways to make a throwing build both viable and effective in 5e. Arguably, going Armorer makes this harder on you since you can't use Int for your handaxe. But I also wouldn't call this 'a throwing build' because I'm not seeing throwing as your primary schtick anyway if you're intending to use the gauntlets for provoking and you have the echo to change origin of attack.

Also imo your stats are going the be a bit rough, your Int is low considering how much of your build it affects.

[No brains]

Are you going for a specific iteration of Ratchet? I would have thought artillerist would better fit having cartoonishly big guns, but then again, I only really know about the first game. Doesn't Ratchet get armor in a later game?

[Jaganshi Pinion]

You could use alchemical servant to serve as Clank.

1&2 - I'd just go Artificer 5 to start with. You don't need anything from Fighter as your 1st level, you get heavy armor from Armorer and the martial weapons don't matter since a handaxe is simple anyway. Going Art 5 means you're not delaying Returning Weapon, subclass, ASI, or Extra Attack. Then the front loaded nature of Fighter means you push into Tier 2 swinging.

I did think of that, but as a new player I'm feel kind of 'out of my depth' with tracking familiars and magic and things of that nature. I figured it would be simpler to just focus on location and (since I'd like to taunt with the gauntlets) be able to hit-and-run. The reason I wanted to take the fighter levels in between was to add the +2 for the throwing weapon and action surge (since I'm going into ASI's later in the game, being able to clear enemies may be my best bet as I'm not bumping CON immediately). The idea was to get the main build online, then see how the campaign unfolds and bolster for survival after.

Other players who had this DM said he's pretty ruthless when it comes to pets and familiars, especially when they're being used efficiently, so that's why I hesitated.


3 - Dueling a nice damage bump that multiplies like crazy with all the attacks you can make. I honestly don't see the point of Sentinel in what you're going for, it doesn't feel like it messes well with the build or concept.

Also, ask your DM if Dueling would even apply, since technically Thunder Gauntlets means you'll always have two weapons.

Yeah, since I get booming blade so early and it scales, I was skeptical on the Sentinel lock-down. I didn't even think of the gauntlets in that way, so good point, I will have to run that by them and see how that goes. Apparently the person DM'ing was a player in two TPKs and had two as a DM in previous campaigns as well so I'm probably barking up the wrong tree anyway.


4 - They aren't, there are multiple ways to make a throwing build both viable and effective in 5e. Arguably, going Armorer makes this harder on you since you can't use Int for your handaxe. But I also wouldn't call this 'a throwing build' because I'm not seeing throwing as your primary schtick anyway if you're intending to use the gauntlets for provoking and you have the echo to change origin of attack.

Also imo your stats are going the be a bit rough, your Int is low considering how much of your build it affects.

This is why I wanted to ask the opinion of more experienced players.

It feels like an idea is forming, but I'm not sure how to make it come online completely. I was just going to go with 'you wipe or you learn'. Instead of Echo Knight, originally I was trying to get a SoulKnife / Artificer going so that I wouldn't have to focus on scaling the damage (thanks Sneak Attack), but the combination of a 60' range and then 20 or 30 for an infused item felt...backwards. With an Echo out, I'm kind of in the 30' range of it either way.

The idea was that I would be throwing around a 20' range and the Echo would main the taunts so that I wouldn't have to be right in the middle of everything that had advantage swarming every encounter. That way I could (hopefully) move around and not get piled on since I wasn't going to invest heavily in ASI's for a while.


Are you going for a specific iteration of Ratchet? I would have thought artillerist would better fit having cartoonishly big guns, but then again, I only really know about the first game. Doesn't Ratchet get armor in a later game?

Not a specific iteration, no. I just liked the idea of throwing the wrench he has since that's how you start in all the games. Since Ratchet gets a bunch of armour skins, I thought it would be interesting to bounce between the two options available. At first I wanted to pull a Leviathan (God of War) but 2 handed weapons don't get the 'thrown' property and I can't get returning.