Building Deckard Cain. Need some help

[FoxWolFrostFire]

Okay, So. Here is the deal about Deckard Cain. He is a wise and smart person. Who people for some reason will sit to listen too for hours about stuff. Which makes me very much question which class I could pick. I've got alot of choices

Knowledge Cleric, Arcane Cleric, Transmutation Wizard, Divination Wizard, Lore Bard, Glamour Bard, artillerist artificer, Celestial Warlock, or Divine Soul Sorcerer

They all have parts which are just very Deckard Cain. The knowledgeable sage of supporting the true frontline heros of the world. The master of the horadric and their artifacts.

Lets start with the Clerics. As a believer of Angels and the Horadric he clearly has the faith to be a cleric. Knowledge domain is right up his field of expertise and it is hard to get better support spells than the cleric. Tapping into the Arcane Cleric has his study focus a bit more in how to repel all of humanities foes and fixing those cursed by others

Now the Wizard. Cain is a smart man. While we don't see him actively casting magic in the games he clearly understands the Arcane. Both Transmutation and Divination can help explain his wide knowledge of the Horadric Cube and how to identify and fuse items together


The Bards! These seem the hardest to explain upfront but when you look at it. Cain is a man who knows just about everything in the world. Alot of different set of skills which use his mind over his body which would fit Lore bard and no one can make you "STAY AWHILE AND LISTEN!" Like a Glamour bard. Plus when it comes to spells no one is as uniquely suited to supporting. Able to pick up spells from any other lists.

The three solo options for classes. Lets start with the Artillerist Artificer. What else to say than as a man who isn't magical on his own but understands how magic works and able to use the horadric artifacts as a master like no one else. The Artificer can use those Horadric items and even make items enchanted akin to those artifacts.
Celestial warlock, as a man who is boarderline blessed by Angels and made personal enemies of all types of demons, who said he couldn't have made a pack with a force of good to understand all writing and better share wisdom?
Then the Divine Sorcerer. When it comes to support classes it might be the best in the game. Plus what is a horadrim if not a divine people from birth selected by the forces of good to contain evil?

Anyways. I'm leaning towards Knowledge cleric and Artificer. But I wanted to bounce the idea off of strangers on the internet. So what do you guys think. Maybe some type of multi classing?

[JackPhoenix]

Cain's not a PC material. He knows a lot.... but that's it. He doesn't cast spells, he's got no combat skills, he doesn't solve practical problems adventurers usually face.

The best representantion would be expert sidekick from sidekick UA, also published in essentials kit. High mental, low physical stats, expertise in Int skills. Thief rogue would also be good, especially for UMD, but would require you to ignore part of the base class (Sneak Attack).

[Chronos]

He needs the Identify spell, and also... well... No, that's really about it.

[KorvinStarmast]

He needs the Identify spell, and also... well... No, that's really about it.

Needs legend lore spell also, and expertise in Arcana and History.

[loki_ragnarock]

Straight Knowledge Cleric. The expanded spell list gets you everything you need for divining the dark of things you don't know, and because they're always prepared you can use several as a ritual. The expertise in history and arcana mean you know alot to begin with, so you might not even need to cast a spell.

Dump all physical stats. Max all mental stats. He's a frail old man who knows things.

[FoxWolFrostFire]

Cain's not a PC material. He knows a lot.... but that's it. He doesn't cast spells, he's got no combat skills, he doesn't solve practical problems adventurers usually face.

The best representantion would be expert sidekick from sidekick UA, also published in essentials kit. High mental, low physical stats, expertise in Int skills. Thief rogue would also be good, especially for UMD, but would require you to ignore part of the base class (Sneak Attack).

{Scrubbed}. Also no combat skills? Heros of the Storm would like a word with you. You just need to put a bit of spit and polish on it. Seems like a Straight Knowledge Cleric has a Human with Dragon Mark of Making would be very Cain friendly.

[FoxWolFrostFire]

As an overall update to the thread. So far thanks to house rules. I've got a human; Dragonmark of making knowledge cleric. With Double pro in Arcana and History. One of which also gets a D4 added to it. The official stats I got for him are 4str, 4dex, 11con, 18 int, 18wis, and 16 cha

[JackPhoenix]

{Scrub the post, scrub the quote} Also no combat skills? Heros of the Storm would like a word with you. You just need to put a bit of spit and polish on it. Seems like a Straight Knowledge Cleric has a Human with Dragon Mark of Making would be very Cain friendly.

Making him into something he's not (a spellcaster) has nothing to do with imagination. And HotS is not good representation of anything.... actually, it is: all his abilities there are results of magic items he's got, not any skill on his part.

[FoxWolFrostFire]

Making him into something he's not (a spellcaster) has nothing to do with imagination. And HotS is not good representation of anything.... actually, it is: all his abilities there are results of magic items he's got, not any skill on his part.

So a vote for Artificer then?

[Man_Over_Game]

Straight Knowledge Cleric. The expanded spell list gets you everything you need for divining the dark of things you don't know, and because they're always prepared you can use several as a ritual. The expertise in history and arcana mean you know alot to begin with, so you might not even need to cast a spell.

Dump all physical stats. Max all mental stats. He's a frail old man who knows things.

This was my thought. Deckard lacks pretty much any offensive abilities, as would a Knowledge Cleric. It'd be a lot more durable than I'd expect Deckard Cain to be, so I'd envision it as more of a young Deckard, the one that traveled the world and got directly involved with the Horadrim.

Which would be an awesome setting for a Diablo spinoff.


Alternatively, if you were going for Deckard's classic Old Man style, Divination Wizard would be the way to go. They have the most incentive to cast non-combat spells than any other Wizard, and Deckard's primary power is gathering information (which is what Divination magic does best).