Copycat: D&D builds of popular characters!

[Lavaeolus]

The Discworld: for a fantasy setting with its beginning roots in swords-and-sorcery parody, it's pretty hard it to build a Discworld character in D&D. The wizards and witches avoid casting spells. The barbarians have been swallowed up by civilisation. Although on the bright side, the thieves and assassins are now official institutions.

This post presents two builds. One is intended to be a vaguely viable, albeit perhaps not optimal, build. It's also one I'm a little unsure about, but decided hey, may as well throw it out there. The other should for all that is holy never be played, which is perhaps fortunate given the character would rather avoid being put into a campaign.

----

Sam Vimes

Spoiler

Show

Race: The ever-rare Standard Human

Starting stats (Point Buy): Str 16, Dex 14, Con 14, Int 9, Wis 14, Cha 12
Explanation: A generally well-rounded but physically fit guy, Vimes is a character who, for once, can benefit from a +1 to everything. You're not amazingly Charismatic, and you have situation-based disadvantage on interacting with most of the upper-class, but you start off with a relatively poor education. That +1 to Intelligence? I guess you got that for being a blackboard monitor. Congrats.

Background: Urchin (customised)
You're not an orphan, but your origins are solidly lower-class and the City Secrets feature is on-point. You can feel free to swap out your tool proficiences, and you won't be taking Urchin's default equipment. Consider swapping out Sleight of Hand for Intimidation.

Goals:
* Good grappler
* Decent, but not necessarily superhuman, detective skills
* An understated rage

Final build: Rogue (Thief) 7 / Fighter (Battle Master) 12 / Barbarian 1


Humble beginnings: levels 1-3

The fact you have Strength 16 at this juncture is a something of a compromise that this'll ultimately be a STR-focused build. Young Sam was assuredly not a wrestler, and in fact that's partly why we start as a Rogue for your first two levels. Pick up proficiency in Athletics, Investigation, Perception and Insight, along with Expertise in the first two. In the case of Investigation, it'll help cover your poor Intelligence.

Why, those are decent skills for a copper! At level 3, you join the City Watch for "free food and a uniform" and "the extra dollar here and there". Take a level in Fighter: they train you in medium armor, give you a shortsword, and you pick up Unarmed Fighting.

(In another time, this build would've used Variant Human and Tavern Brawler, but this is a bit of a compromise for the sake of mechanics. Vimes can use both, but often there aren't that many benefits to using an improvised weapon if you've already got a decent unarmed strike.)


Rising from a drunken stupour: levels 4-13

You're going to take your next batch of levels in Fighter. As Vimes spends more time in the Watch, he becomes both a more experienced and a dirtier fighter, shedding some of the romanticism of being a copper. That means becoming a Battle Master and picking up the following three maneuvers: Grappling Strike, Trip Attack, and Disarming Attack.

At this point, Vimes is a bit of an odd duck, but not an unplayable one. If he has a source of Sneak Attack he prefers to hit with shortsword, of course, but when needed he can put his sword away and still keep up in the fight. His decent Dexterity score lets him use a crossbow if necessary. His Rogue start put him a little behind on Fighter progression.

He'll keep continuing down the Fighter path until he hits Fighter 11, developing a solid martial core and capping out his Strength.

During these level gains, though, Vimes is going to undergo a lot of life changes: promotion to commander of the City Watch, a marriage to Lady Ramkin, and a growing importance to all citywide affairs. As he gets higher-level not only does his range of maneuvers increase, then, but so does his sense of self, gaining abilities like Indomitable that could, say, help him throw off any mind-controlling effects or, uh, alcoholism. Accordingly, pick up your choice of Resilient (Wisdom) or Resilient (Charisma) for your final ASI/feat. Good timing too, because...


Developing a rage: level 14

Some people cope with responsibility well. Vimes, on the other hand, develops a bit of a rage issue as the books go on. The important thing is that, at this point in your life, you should always be in control of it. The beast is part of you, but you're not the beast.

With your anger both intense but leashed, take a single level in Barbarian. You're not going to use Rage in every fight, but when you need it, it'll be there.


Going back to your roots: levels 15-20

At this point, I think I'd gotten what I wanted out of Fighter, but you could certainly take it further levels. From now on, we're just shoring things up, really. That said, quick question, no reason: is your DM okay with you applying manacles in combat to a grappled foe?

"Yeah, probably." Take your next level in Rogue, increasing what you can do with that ol' Watch-issued shortsword. There's a subclass based around detectiving -- and I'm going to recommend Thief instead. I alluded at the start that Vimes is a good detective, but it's mainly through doggedness than being anything like Sherlock Holmes. Additionally, your strategy of grappling doesn't really necessitate Insightful Fighting. Instead, Thief's Second-Story Work will help you when in pursuit and its Fast Hands will let you disarm-and-restrain people.

"I doubt it." Ignore what I just said. We're only dealing with 3rd-level subclass abilities here, and Ear for Deceit isn't out of character for Vimes. Inquisitive isn't wrong and Fast Hands might be a little wasted here.

You'll want to take Fighter 12 after picking up your subclass. In any case, I'd spend your last feats beefing up your CON and would wrap things up by taking your final few levels in Rogue. You'll get a few extra Expertises, and I guess I'd use them to increase your detective skills.

Optionally, in a nod to Snuff, you could consider sacrificing Rogue 6-7 for two levels in Warlock: the Summoning Dark will be a Great Old One, and we're primarily here to pick up the Devil's Sight invocation. I haven't made this an "official" part of the build, though, due to some of the other Warlock abilities feeling a bit out of place.

----

Bonus: The Rincewind Build

Spoiler

Show

Race: Variant Human
Free feat: Unfortunately for Rincewind, he's a favourite of the Lady. Your (both good and bad) luck will thus come into play through the ever-useful feat Lucky.

Background: Custom (Guild Artisan feature)
We're not an artisan by any means, but we'll still be nabbing its Guild Membership feature. Pick up two languages, and Athletics/Perception proficiency.

Starting stats (Point Buy): Str 12, Dex 16, Con 14, Int 13, Wis 12, Cha 8
Explanation: It might seem like I've gone Int 13 just for multiclassing, but the truth is Rincewind's generally not too extraordinary in ability, beyond an Athleticism that'll mostly be represented by Expertise. Rincewind's not good at casting spells, but he's otherwise not unintelligent; he's impressively able to memorise a lot of languages as an example. He is, however, not particularly Charismatic. I think for the most part Twoflower's the only person who's friendly with him on an extended basis.

First level: Wizard
Proficiencies: Arcana and Insight. You still know a bit more about magic than the man on the street, and you've become pretty good at reading whether people are about to try and kill you.

Spells: None. Mechanically, you never prepared any spells before you lost your spellbook. I can't come up with a mechanical reason why you don't know three cantrips, but if you like you can pick the Wizard cantrips you think can most easily be reflavoured as 'mundane human action'. "Why not just a pick a non-spellcaster class?" Look. You're a Wizard. If there is any mechanic that depends on you being a Wizard -- such as the ability to see a certain colour -- you count. It's official, by the laws of the universe. What does casting spells have to do with it?

Every other level: Rogue (Scout)
Explanation: So for the rest of your levels, you'll be taking a small Rogue 19 dip. First, you'll pick up a new, ahem, language, Thieves Cant and pick up Acrobatics proficiency. You'll spend your action and bonus-actions Disengaging and Dashing, relying on your athleticism to get you out of the fight. Rogue and Scout's later features will help you in this evasive goal. The Expertise in Nature and Survival, of course, represents both your (unwilling) travels and your position as Egregious Professor of Cruel and Unusual Geography. Oh, and don't worry about Sneak Attack. You don't carry a weapon.

Feat progression: Linguist, Mobile, Alert. Your goal is to win initiative and then flee the scene first-thing. You can consider picking up Athlete, but you might prefer to just boost up DEX and CON.

[Emmerlaus]

I promised a ranger so there it is! A little gift for our Buffy the Vampire Slayer fan in the thread, Angelalex242 lol


Buffy, The Vampire Slayer!


Goals of the build:

1) S-Lay the Undead: You need to be able to handle any undead that have a level you can handle
2) Stake Well Done : You need to have a weapon that will become insanely good with the undead
3) Power of the Chosen one : You need to be a chosen one, plain and simple.


Stats:

Str: 8 (Simply because you dont really need it, you are an agile warrior)
Dex: 14 (You were a cheerleader before becoming a warrior, that requiere some dexterity!)
Con: 13 (You can tank a few hits and growing in the countryside made you as healthy as you can be!)
Int: 10 (A bit low, you leave the smart stuff to your mentor and your friends)
Wis: 15 (You are perceptive and would not fall to the evil side.... they fall before you instead.)
Cha: 12 (You are charming enough to make the undead fall for you, that requiere some serious charisma)

Race: Variant Human (that will represent how you are special)
(+1 Dex, +1 Wis)
Skill Bonus: Acrobatics
Feat: Athlete (+1 Dex and a lot of extra bonus)

Background : Similar to the Urban Bounty Hunter (You track down necromancers, undead and vampires) for Athletics and Insight.
Trained in musical instrument (I would allow it to be vocal so you can sing) and thieves tools cause why not lol

Class Progression:

Level 1: Ranger
Skills: Perception, Stealth, Survival
Favored Ennemy: Undead
Deft Explorer (Canny: Stealth)

Level 2 : Ranger
Fighting Style (Blind Fighting)
Spellcasting (Hunter's Mark, Zephyr's Strike)
+ Spellcasting Focus (Duidic): Now you have a WOODEN STAKE as spellfocus for your spells! AND as a weapon!

Level 3: Monk
Unarmored Defense
Martial Art

Level 4 : Ranger
Primal Awareness
Hunter Conclave (Hunter's Prey: Horde Breaker)
+1 spell: Jump

Level 5 : Ranger
Ability Improvement (+2 Dex)

Level 6 : Ranger
Extra Attack
+1 lvl 1 spells: Cure Wounds (on Wiki, it says you have extra health regeneration, I'll count it as that)
+2 lvl 2 spells: Magic Weapon, Darkvision

Level 7 : Ranger
Favored Ennemy (Fiends)
Deft Explorer (Roving): +5 walking speed and now you have a climbing and swimming speed.

Level 8 : Ranger
Ranger Conclave Feature (Multiattack Defense)
+1 lvl.2 Spell: Enhance Ability

Level 9 : Ranger
Ability Improvement (+2 Dex)
Fleet of Foot

Level 10 : Monk
Ki
Unharmored Movement
Dedicated Weapon


Level 11 : Monk
Monastic Tradition (Way of the Kensei)
Deflect Missile

Level 12 :Monk
New Feat: Tough (Wisdom): Put that wisdom at 16 and get you a bonus on Wis saves

Level 13 to Level 20: Monk
Boost that wisdom in the Ability Improvement given and that's it!

Maybe you would want to mix up the levels a bit more but I felt like giving her a wooden stake early on was fitting AND the Monk level at level 3, just the first level, to get her really started. You could switch level 2 and 3 together if its what you prefer

[Angelalex242]

Well, if a Vampire's base stats are:

18 (+4) 18 (+4) 18 (+4) 17 (+3) 15 (+2) 18 (+4)

Buffy's Stats might look like this:

20 (+5) 20 (+5) 20 (+5) 14 (+2) 18 (+4) 16 (+3)

Buffy is clearly superior to a vampire, so she has capped out physical stats. ...Also, I've had a major crush on Sarah Michelle Gellar for decades, so you're lucky I didn't make her Charisma 20 too. :P

Now, Feats she probably has:

Piercer (She focuses on stakes!), Alert, Observant, Athlete, Charger, Lucky, Defensive Duelist, Durable, Grappler (Yes, it's useless, but...) Inspiring Leader, Mobile, Sentinel, Tavern Brawler, Tough

Keep in mind her opponents have legendary actions, lair actions, and more. Slayers have more abilities than normal characters. And she typically solos these legendary creatures.

[RossN]

Buffyverse vamps clearly aren't standard D&D vampires. For one thing they don't get any boost to their mental stats except maybe Charisma - we've seen vamps run the gamut from bestial predators (freshly out of the grave fledglings) to basically average (the vast majority of them we see who have any lines) to 'smart but essentially like a smart human' (Darla, Angelus and so on.)

I do like your version of Buffy Emmerlaus even if it takes a few liberties (I'd definitely boost her Intelligence and lower her wisdom even if I can concede mechanics make that tricky.) I do wonder if she's actually workable in D&D as is though.

I'll see if I can cook something up.

[Emmerlaus]

Buffyverse vamps clearly aren't standard D&D vampires. For one thing they don't get any boost to their mental stats except maybe Charisma - we've seen vamps run the gamut from bestial predators (freshly out of the grave fledglings) to basically average (the vast majority of them we see who have any lines) to 'smart but essentially like a smart human' (Darla, Angelus and so on.)

I do like your version of Buffy Emmerlaus even if it takes a few liberties (I'd definitely boost her Intelligence and lower her wisdom even if I can concede mechanics make that tricky.) I do wonder if she's actually workable in D&D as is though.

I'll see if I can cook something up.

I agree on the vampire of Buffy being weaker then D&D vampires... For exemple, they die from ONE well-placed stake in the heart instead of being paralysed... in his resting place... Yeah very weak when you have such Achille's talon weakness like that to exploit.

Well I was using the standard point build: 15, 14, 13, 12, 10, 8 ... Hard to make a perfect character like that.

I could maybe use the point buy set... 13, 13, 13, 13, 13, 10.

But that wouldn't be productive I think? It was already hard enough to max her two major stats, Dex and Wis. And also, she does need the proficiency in both Dex and Wis saves I believe. I couldnt even find room for Mage Slayer! I REALLY wanted it in the build!

But yeah, she needs BOTH ranger or monk levels, hard to make it work with low wisdom.

If you want to use only one of those class, I would make a Monk/Fighter build I suppose? But Rangers ARE flavorful for a VAMPIRE slayer. AND YOU WOULDN'T GET THE WOODEN STAKE WEAPON!

If you take only Ranger class... She wont get Monk class?! This is IMPOSSIBLE! She literally proven she has Monk levels!

Personnaly, I dont want to sacrifice the wooden stake weapon no matter what... English is not even my first language, it was hard to come with those stake puns LOL ... More seriously, an 12 Monk - 8 Ranger build seem like what she can do, flavorwise. It's not a perfect build I admit but I suppose the Favored Ennemy feature giving her advatage on INTELLIGENCE save to recall information toward her favored ennemies (undead and fiends) will have to do?

[Damon_Tor]

There's absolutely no reason, even by pure RAW, a stake can't just be treated as a wooden dagger. Under improvised weapons it states that anything that approximates a given weapon can be treated as that weapon.

I would build her as a monk 4/ranger 4/paladin 4/fighter 8. I feel like "dusting" a vampire in 1 hit is best expressed as a smite applied to a crit, and the fighter's extra ASI helps us get our stats where we need them.

[Angelalex242]

Sure...

But consider the upgrade Angel and Spike get for being D&D vampires.

That's a LOT, just by upgrading their Vampire Breed from Buffy to D&D. It's giving 'em all of Dracula's powers, plus a few nifty things.

And these are her boyfriends, both of whom she can take in a fight, despite them having class levels of their own.

...Work backwards, then...

Perhaps we should start with an Angel and Spike build, and then gauge where Buffy has to be to keep up with a couple dudes with 3 legendary actions and 3 legendary resistances. :P

[Emmerlaus]

Damon_Tor is probably right once again... let’s try this again!
PS: I still don’t think Buffy was very smart... please enlighten me on that regard.

Buffy, The Vampire Slayer! V.2


Goals of the build:

1) S-Lay the Undead: You need to be able to handle any undead that have a level you can handle
2) Stake Well Done : You need to have a weapon that will become insanely good with the undead, enough to destroy them in one hit that turn them into ashes.
3) Heart Breaker: You stake them in the heart and kill undead in one hit.


Stats:

Str: 13
Dex: 13
Con: 13
Int: 10
Wis: 13
Cha: 13

Race: Variant Human (that will represent how you are special)
(+1 Con, +1 Cha)
Skill Bonus: Acrobatics
Feat: Athlete (+1 Dex and a lot of extra bonus)

Background : Similar to the Urban Bounty Hunter (You track down necromancers, undead and vampires) for Athletics and Persuasion.
Trained in musical instrument (I would allow it to be vocal so you can sing) and thieves tools cause why not lol

Class Progression:

Level 1: Ranger
Skills: Perception, Stealth, Survival
Favored Ennemy: Undead
Deft Explorer (Canny: Perception)

Level 2 : Ranger
Fighting Style (Blind Fighting)
Spellcasting (Hunter's Mark, Zephyr's Strike)
+ Spellcasting Focus (Duidic): Now you have a WOODEN STAKE as spellfocus for your spells! AND as a weapon! No need for the Tavern Brawler feat!


Level 3: Monk
Unarmored Defense // Martial Arts

Level 4 : Ranger
Primal Awareness
Hunter Conclave (Hunter's Prey: Horde Breaker)
+1 spell: Searing Smite

Level 5 : Ranger
Ability Improvement (+2 Dex)

Level 6 : Monk
Ki // Unarmored Movement

Level 7 : Monk
Deflect Arrow// monastery tradition (Way of the Kensei)

Level 8 : Monk
Ability Improvement ( +2 Dex)

Level 9 : Paladin
Lay of Hand, Divine Sense

Level 10 : Paladin
Fighting Style (Mariner)
Divine Smite
Spellcasting ( Protection from Evil and Good, Compelling Duel, Command)

Level 11 : Paladin
Divine Health// Oath of the Watchers

Level 12 : Paladin
New Feat: Resilient (Wis) +1 Wisdom and now get proficient with Wisdom Save DC.

Level 13: Fighter
Fighting Style (Tunnel Fighting), Second Wind

Level 14: Fighter
Action Surge

Level 15: Fighter
Martial Archétype (Champion) for Improve Crtitical

Level 16: Fighter
New Feat: Lucky


Level 17: Fighter
Extra Attack

Level 18: Fighter
New Feat: Defensive Duelist

Level 19: Fighter
Martial Archetype: Remarkable Athlete

Level 20: Fighter
Ability Improuvement (+2 Dex)


With this build, at level 20, she has a lot of bonus on all physical traits thanks to Remarkable Athlete AND the Order of the Watchers allows her to gain advantage on all mental trait save for 1 minute. I could not get all the feat we wanted to give her but I think that with Remarkable Athlete, it covers her Slayer status pretty well.

[Diovid]

About Buffy
I'm just not a big fan of giving her spells. She is innately magical, sure, but spells do not sit well with me, just like abilities that function like spells (Monk stuff for example).

Now I'm not an expert on all things 5e but I feel like the build below like should cover her decently. It goes in quite a different direction that the earlier builds I know. Note: I'm a huge fan of expertise and rogues so that skews my perception.

Ranger 1 / Barbarian 1 or 2 / Champion Fighter 11 or 12 / Rogue (Inquisitive or Swashbuckler or Thief) 6 or 7 (aside from starting with Ranger I do not know what the optimal order of levels would be).

Starting stats: 14 + 1 str, 13 dex, 15 + 1 con, 8 int, 13 wis, 9 cha
Level 20 stats: 20 str, 14 dex, 16 con, 8 int, 14 wis, 9 cha

Fighting styles: Two-Weapon Figting and Unarmed Fighting

Skill proficiencies: Athletics, Acrobatics, Perception, Survival, Insight, Investigation and 1 free (possibly a social skill to counteract her low Cha? maybe History for vampire lore and to counteract her low Int?)
Expertises: Athletics, Acrobatics, Perception, Survival

Use 2 stakes as either Daggers or Short Swords and use some kicks and punches from time to time. Ranger is there for the Favored Enemy of course and for getting Str and Dex as her good saves, Barbarian is there mostly for the Unarmored Defense (although those level 2 abilities are pretty decent, Rage is just there as a bonus), Fighter gives action surge and 2 extra attacks and 2 fighting styles and a nice number of ASI's and also Remarkable Athlete which fits her very well and then finally Rogue provides her with expertise in Ahtletics, Acrobatics and Perception which means her movement and reflexes will be well beyond that of any mortal (Sneak Attack, Cunning Action and Uncanny Dodge are a nice benefit as well).

It's probably not very optimal but I think it does the job alright.

[RossN]

PS: I still don’t think Buffy was very smart... please enlighten me on that regard.

Several teachers in the series comment that Buffy is very smart but 'doesn't apply herself' (you know because she's busy saving the world every night.) She also did very well on her SATs (standardised tests used for college admissions in the USA.) Plus she's really clever with her quips.

I'd say in a 'random roll' method she'd be looking at a 12 or 13 Int. She isn't a genius but she's definitely a little above average.

It hadn't occurred to me before but Diovid's idea of going the Swashbuckler route is actually a very interesting way of looking at it - her 'one stake thrust' kills could work well as a Successful Sneak attack. Plus the feel of the quippy, nimble Swashbuckler rather suits her.

Actually about those one-hit kills, most of the time they come at the end of a few rounds of kicks and punches so in game terms we could say Buffy already took a lot of hit points off her enemies and the staking just represents the killer blow.

The Discworld: for a fantasy setting with its beginning roots in swords-and-sorcery parody, it's pretty hard it to build a Discworld character in D&D. The wizards and witches avoid casting spells. The barbarians have been swallowed up by civilisation. Although on the bright side, the thieves and assassins are now official institutions.

This post presents two builds. One is intended to be a vaguely viable, albeit perhaps not optimal, build. It's also one I'm a little unsure about, but decided hey, may as well throw it out there. The other should for all that is holy never be played, which is perhaps fortunate given the character would rather avoid being put into a campaign.

----

Sam Vimes

Spoiler

Show

Race: The ever-rare Standard Human

Starting stats (Point Buy): Str 16, Dex 14, Con 14, Int 9, Wis 14, Cha 12
Explanation: A generally well-rounded but physically fit guy, Vimes is a character who, for once, can benefit from a +1 to everything. You're not amazingly Charismatic, and you have situation-based disadvantage on interacting with most of the upper-class, but you start off with a relatively poor education. That +1 to Intelligence? I guess you got that for being a blackboard monitor. Congrats.

Background: Urchin (customised)
You're not an orphan, but your origins are solidly lower-class and the City Secrets feature is on-point. You can feel free to swap out your tool proficiences, and you won't be taking Urchin's default equipment. Consider swapping out Sleight of Hand for Intimidation.

Goals:
* Good grappler
* Decent, but not necessarily superhuman, detective skills
* An understated rage

Final build: Rogue (Thief) 7 / Fighter (Battle Master) 12 / Barbarian 1


Humble beginnings: levels 1-3

The fact you have Strength 16 at this juncture is a something of a compromise that this'll ultimately be a STR-focused build. Young Sam was assuredly not a wrestler, and in fact that's partly why we start as a Rogue for your first two levels. Pick up proficiency in Athletics, Investigation, Perception and Insight, along with Expertise in the first two. In the case of Investigation, it'll help cover your poor Intelligence.

Why, those are decent skills for a copper! At level 3, you join the City Watch for "free food and a uniform" and "the extra dollar here and there". Take a level in Fighter: they train you in medium armor, give you a shortsword, and you pick up Unarmed Fighting.

(In another time, this build would've used Variant Human and Tavern Brawler, but this is a bit of a compromise for the sake of mechanics. Vimes can use both, but often there aren't that many benefits to using an improvised weapon if you've already got a decent unarmed strike.)


Rising from a drunken stupour: levels 4-13

You're going to take your next batch of levels in Fighter. As Vimes spends more time in the Watch, he becomes both a more experienced and a dirtier fighter, shedding some of the romanticism of being a copper. That means becoming a Battle Master and picking up the following three maneuvers: Grappling Strike, Trip Attack, and Disarming Attack.

At this point, Vimes is a bit of an odd duck, but not an unplayable one. If he has a source of Sneak Attack he prefers to hit with shortsword, of course, but when needed he can put his sword away and still keep up in the fight. His decent Dexterity score lets him use a crossbow if necessary. His Rogue start put him a little behind on Fighter progression.

He'll keep continuing down the Fighter path until he hits Fighter 11, developing a solid martial core and capping out his Strength. During these level gains, though, Vimes is going to undergo a lot of life changes: promotion to commander of the City Watch, a marriage to Lady Ramkin, and a growing importance to all citywide affairs. As he gets higher-level not only does his range of maneuvers increase, then, but so does his sense of self, gaining abilities like Indomitable that could, say, help him throw off any mind-controlling effects or, uh, alcoholism. Accordingly, pick up your choice of Resilient (Wisdom) or Resilient (Charisma) for your final ASI/feat. Good timing too, because...


Developing a rage: level 14

Some people cope with responsibility well. Vimes, on the other hand, develops a bit of a rage issue as the books go on. The important thing is that, at this point in your life, you should always be in control of it. The beast is part of you, but you're not the beast.

With your anger both intense but leashed, take a single level in Barbarian. You're not going to use Rage in every fight, but when you need it, it'll be there.


Going back to your roots: levels 15-20

At this point, I think I'd gotten what I wanted out of Fighter, but you could certainly take it further levels. From now on, we're just shoring things up, really. That said, quick question, no reason: is your DM okay with you applying manacles in combat to a grappled foe?

"Yeah, probably." Take most of the rest of your levels in Rogue, increasing what you can do with that ol' Watch-issued shortsword. You'll also get a few extra Expertises, and I guess I'd use them to increase your detective skills. There's a subclass based around detectiving -- and I'm going to recommend Thief instead. I alluded at the start that Vimes is a good detective, but it's mainly through doggedness than being anything like Sherlock Holmes. Additionally, your strategy of grappling doesn't really necessitate Insightful Fighting. Instead, Thief's Second-Story Work will help you when in pursuit and its Fast Hands will let you disarm-and-restrain people.

"I doubt it." Ignore what I just said. We're only dealing with 3rd-level subclass abilities here, and Ear for Deceit isn't out of character for Vimes. Inquisitive isn't wrong and Fast Hands might be a little wasted here.

You'll want to take Fighter 12 sometime after picking up your subclass. In any case, you could either start beefing up your CON or, in a nod to Snuff, take one last feat: Eldritch Adept, picking up the Devil's Sight invocation.

----

Bonus: The Rincewind Build

Spoiler

Show

Race: Variant Human
Free feat: Unfortunately for Rincewind, he's a favourite of the Lady. Your (both good and bad) luck will thus come into play through the ever-useful feat Lucky.

Background: Custom (Guild Artisan feature)
We're not an artisan by any means, but we'll still be nabbing its Guild Membership feature. Pick up two languages, and Athletics/Perception proficiency.

Starting stats (Point Buy): Str 12, Dex 16, Con 14, Int 13, Wis 12, Cha 8
Explanation: It might seem like I've gone Int 13 just for multiclassing, but the truth is Rincewind's generally not too extraordinary in ability, beyond an Athleticism that'll mostly be represented by Expertise. Rincewind's not good at casting spells, but he's otherwise not unintelligent; he's impressively able to memorise a lot of languages as an example. He is, however, not particularly Charismatic. I think for the most part Twoflower's the only person who's friendly with him on an extended basis.

First level: Wizard
Proficiencies: Arcana and Insight. You still know a bit more about magic than the man on the street, and you've become pretty good at reading whether people are about to try and kill you.

Spells: None. Mechanically, you never prepared any spells before you lost your spellbook. I can't come up with a mechanical reason why you don't know three cantrips, but if you like you can pick the Wizard cantrips you think can most easily be reflavoured as 'mundane human action'. "Why not just a pick a non-spellcaster class?" Look. You're a Wizard. If there is any mechanic that depends on you being a Wizard -- such as the ability to see a certain colour -- you count. It's official, by the laws of the universe. What does casting spells have to do with it?

Every other level: Rogue (Scout)
Explanation: So for the rest of your levels, you'll be taking a small Rogue 19 dip. First, you'll pick up a new, ahem, language, Thieves Cant and pick up Acrobatics proficiency. You'll spend your action and bonus-actions Disengaging and Dashing, relying on your athleticism to get you out of the fight. Rogue and Scout's later features will help you in this evasive goal. The Expertise in Nature and Survival, of course, represents both your (unwilling) travels and your position as Egregious Professor of Cruel and Unusual Geography. Oh, and don't worry about Sneak Attack. You don't carry a weapon.

Feat progression: Linguist, Mobile, Alert. Your goal is to win initiative and then flee the scene first-thing. You can consider picking up Athlete, but you might prefer to just boost up DEX and CON.

I forgot to mention these earlier but I like this take on these characters.

[BerzerkerUnit]

I did a series of videos for X-Men builds back when Dark Phoenix came out. Here’s a few links:

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=lzQnR-gIIvM

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Xpuw0EGTt8c

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Q7Bmmn6WTIE

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=BvOQP0hDZOc

[Emmerlaus]

Several teachers in the series comment that Buffy is very smart but 'doesn't apply herself' (you know because she's busy saving the world every night.) She also did very well on her SATs (standardised tests used for college admissions in the USA.) Plus she's really clever with her quips.

I'd say in a 'random roll' method she'd be looking at a 12 or 13 Int. She isn't a genius but she's definitely a little above average.

Swashbuckler could work but Fighter levels hit dice are better to represent how sturdy she is right? You need to sacrifice something to gain something else. And it would mean one less ability improvement or feat as well.

If so, would it be better to give her a Strenght of 10 ? But to give her Canny ability coming from Ranger to be Athletic? This could solve maybe the issue so she could be a all around good character... right?

[Damon_Tor]

Several teachers in the series comment that Buffy is very smart but 'doesn't apply herself'

That's what teachers say about kids with average intelligence.

Plus she's really clever with her quips.

That's CHA.

[Emmerlaus]

That's what teachers say about kids with average intelligence.

That's CHA.

Yeah that’s what I thought as well!

Her mentor that I don’t remember the name was the one who was covering Buffy weakness if you ask me.

Also, love the Paladin Order I gave her. Oath of the Watcher is literally perfect for her as she went to oppose demonic entities as well! So I would not sacrifice those. Monk is a given too, as well as Ranger.

And I’m not sure eight levels of Swashbuckler work with her... the three fighting style on the other hand my v.2 build gives her does if you ask me. The Tunnel fighter one replace the
Opportunist feat quite well!

[Angelalex242]

Well...here's the the thing. No matter what build you're giving Buffy...

Here's Angel.

Medium undead (shapechanger), lawful good (Chaotic Evil when Angelus)

Armor Class 16 (natural armor)
Hit Points 144 (17d8 + 68)
Speed 30 ft.

STR DEX CON INT WIS CHA
18 (+4) 18 (+4) 18 (+4) 17 (+3) 15 (+2) 18 (+4)
Saving Throws Dex +9, Wis +7, Cha +9
Skills Perception +7, Stealth +9
Damage Resistances necrotic; bludgeoning, piercing, and slashing from nonmagical attacks
Senses darkvision 120 ft., passive Perception 17
Languages the languages it knew in life
Challenge 13 (10,000 XP)

Special Traits

Shapechanger: If the vampire isn’t in sunlight or running water, it can use its action to polymorph into a Tiny bat or a Medium cloud of mist, or back into its true form. While in bat form, the vampire can’t speak, its walking speed is 5 feet, and it has a flying speed of 30 feet. Its statistics, other than its size and speed, are unchanged. Anything it is wearing transforms with it, but nothing it is carrying does. It reverts to its true form if it dies. While in mist form, the vampire can’t take any actions, speak, or manipulate objects. It is weightless, has a flying speed of 20 feet, can hover, and can enter a hostile creature’s space and stop there. In addition, if air can pass through a space, the mist can do so without squeezing, and it can’t pass through water. It has advantage on Strength, Dexterity, and Constitution saving throws, and it is immune to all nonmagical damage, except the damage it takes from sunlight.
Legendary Resistance (3/Day): If the vampire fails a saving throw, it can choose to succeed instead.
Misty Escape: When it drops to 0 hit points outside its resting place, the vampire transforms into a cloud of mist (as in the Shapechanger trait) instead of falling unconscious, provided that it isn’t in sunlight or running water. If it can’t transform, it is destroyed. While it has 0 hit points in mist form, it can’t revert to its vampire form, and it must reach its resting place within 2 hours or be destroyed. Once in its resting place, it reverts to its vampire form. It is then paralyzed until it regains at least 1 hit point. After spending 1 hour in its resting place with 0 hit points, it regains 1 hit point.
Regeneration: The vampire regains 20 hit points at the start of its turn if it has at least 1 hit point and isn’t in sunlight or running water. If the vampire takes radiant damage or damage from holy water, this trait doesn’t function at the start of the vampire’s next turn.
Spider Climb: The vampire can climb difficult surfaces, including upside down on ceilings, without needing to make an ability check.
Vampire Weaknesses: The vampire has the following flaws:
Forbiddance: The vampire can’t enter a residence without an invitation from one of the occupants.
Harmed by Running Water: The vampire takes 20 acid damage if it ends its turn in running water.
Stake to the Heart: If a piercing weapon made of wood is driven into the vampire’s heart while the vampire is incapacitated in its resting place, the vampire is paralyzed until the stake is removed.
Sunlight Hypersensitivity: The vampire takes 20 radiant damage when it starts its turn in sunlight. While in sunlight, it has disadvantage on attack rolls and ability checks.
Actions

Multiattack (Vampire Form Only): The vampire makes two attacks, only one of which can be a bite attack.
Unarmed Strike (Vampire Form Only): Melee Weapon Attack: +9 to hit, reach 5 ft., one creature. Hit: 8 (1d8 + 4) bludgeoning damage. Instead of dealing damage, the vampire can grapple the target (escape DC 18).
Bite (Bat or Vampire Form Only): Melee Weapon Attack: +9 to hit, reach 5 ft., one willing creature, or a creature that is grappled by the vampire, incapacitated, or restrained. Hit: 7 (1d6 + 4) piercing damage plus 10 (3d6) necrotic damage. The target’s hit point maximum is reduced by an amount equal to the necrotic damage taken, and the vampire regains hit points equal to that amount. The reduction lasts until the target finishes a long rest. The target dies if this effect reduces its hit point maximum to 0. A humanoid slain in this way and then buried in the ground rises the following night as a vampire spawn under the vampire’s control.
Charm: The vampire targets one humanoid it can see within 30 feet of it. If the target can see the vampire, the target must succeed on a DC 17 Wisdom saving throw against this magic or be charmed by the vampire. The charmed target regards the vampire as a trusted friend to be heeded and protected. Although the target isn’t under the vampire’s control, it takes the vampire’s requests or actions in the most favorable way it can, and it is a willing target for the vampire’s bite attack. Each time the vampire or the vampire’s companions do anything harmful to the target, it can repeat the saving throw, ending the effect on itself on a success. Otherwise, the effect lasts 24 hours or until the vampire is destroyed, is on a different plane of existence than the target, or takes a bonus action to end the effect.
Children of the Night (1/Day): The vampire magically calls 2d4 swarms of bats or rats, provided that the sun isn’t up. While outdoors, the vampire can call 3d6 wolves instead. The called creatures arrive in 1d4 rounds, acting as allies of the vampire and obeying its spoken commands. The beasts remain for 1 hour, until the vampire dies, or until the vampire dismisses them as a bonus action.
Legendary Actions

The vampire can take 3 legendary actions, choosing from the options below. Only one legendary action option can be used at a time and only at the end of another creature’s turn. The vampire regains spent legendary actions at the start of its turn.

Move: The vampire moves up to its speed without provoking opportunity attacks.
Unarmed Strike: The vampire makes one unarmed strike.
Bite (Costs 2 Actions): The vampire makes one bite attack.

Add to that:

7 Levels of Paladin. I'm thinking...hmmm...Oath of Devotion when Angel, Oathbreaker when Angelus. He uses his ASI for Charisma 20 (The one with the Angelic Face.) This affects his charm gaze ability (Which he didn't have in the original show) and now it's DC 18.

That takes him to CR 20, as the base vampire is CR 13. (Unlike Buffy, Angel actually does cast the occasional spell, if rarely. He just prefers to let specialists handle it when possible. Angel was (ironically!) capable of performing an Exorcism in one episode, and his Turn Undead channel Divinity will support that.)

For Spike, same thing, only 7 levels of Bear Totem Barbarian, and he used his ASI for Con 20, as befits a guy who seems to enjoy pain.

[Emmerlaus]

Angelalex242 : Yeah but no build will be perfectly perfect for her then...

What I do notice though is that to make her able to face vampires, she needs a something that might V.2 build forgot to include: the proficiency to the Wisdom save. Although I edited my V.2 build for that (removed the Mage Slayer feat and put the Resilient(wis) feat at level 12), The order of the Watcher WILL provide a significant boost to that though:

Spoiler

Show

Channel Divinity
When you take this oath at 3rd level, you gain the following two Channel Divinity options. See the Sacred Oath class feature for how Channel Divinity works.

Watcher's Will You can use your Channel Divinity to invest your presence with the warding power of your faith. As an action, you can choose a number of creatures you can see within 30 feet of you, up to a number equal to your Charisma modifier (minimum of one creature). For 1 minute, you and the chosen creatures have advantage on Intelligence, Wisdom, and Charisma saving throws.

Here's what you seem to need to beat a vampire:

1) Radiant Damage: Like it or not, it's the only way to beat their regeneration. They need to make at least one hit of radiant damage. Which the Paladin Smite provide.

2) A High Wisdom save DC: Simply because she needs to resist their charm ability

3) A high enough AC to avoid their bite attack... or high enough DC to face undead of her challenge rating.

Let's see... LetS, count that she has the Resilient feat now... At level 2, she has Hunter's Mark and Zephyr's Strike to do more damage to a zombie. Zombies are not most difficult challenge. At level 4, she has Searing Smite to turn Zombies into ashes.

A normal vampire, without being special or having class level. A normal CR challenge rating of 13 huh? At level 12, she has the Resilient WIS feat to help her boost her AC AND her wisdom saving throw... With Dex 18 and Wis 14, The Mariner fighting style AND the Agile parry feature from Kensei Monk, its 20 AC. Not bad at all!

And that's not even counting the fact that the Channel Divinity of Paladin will give her advantage on her mental saving throught, that she could cast Protection from Evil to give the vampire disavantage on his attacks agaisnt her.

Bigs stats arent everything. A High STR character will eventually be less proficient in a grapple then a Rogue with Expertise (Athletic) for exemple.

That's also not considering your GM might want to give you that big red axe from the last Season of Buffy or at least a good magic weapon or magic defense against vampires by that point at level 12-13.

The only thing I could see doing more would be to get the Lucky Feat at level 16... This would help her defeat a vampire against the odds. We would just have to cap her Dex at level 20.

[Emmerlaus]

I did a series of videos for X-Men builds back when Dark Phoenix came out. Here’s a few links:

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=lzQnR-gIIvM

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Xpuw0EGTt8c

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Q7Bmmn6WTIE

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=BvOQP0hDZOc

I only had time to watch the Cyclope one. You had some interesting ideas but giving him Loki was not a good one. Give him the pact of the Talisman so that its less obvious in his build. The X-Men serie is so old that everything happened to them, no need to go obscure. At least that's my opinion lol!

I tend to always go by 4th level for the Ability Improuvement or feats too when I make my build too... Would have given him 4 ranks in Warlock.

But yeah, he is pretty much a warlock + sorcerer mix. Tulok mentionned it as such in his build.

I'll try to watch the other videos when I have the time.

[Angelalex242]

Well. There's two potential weapon choices here.

Mr. Pointy: A +3 wooden dagger, it also deals 1d6 radiant damage. If it reduces a vampire to 0 HP, the vampire is destroyed.

The Scythe: A 'double weapon', with a battle axe on one side, and a spear on the other. Both ends are +3. The 'axe' part has the Vorpal Quality, the stake part has the same properties as Mr. Pointy, and similar to a Holy Avenger, it deals 2d10 radiant damage to undead and demons, and offers advantage on saving throws. ...All saving throws. All of them.

The Scythe is purposefully OP.

[Lavaeolus]

I forgot to mention these earlier but I like this take on these characters.

Thanks, I'm glad you liked them. I had thought about other characters, but either they didn't translate well, or they translated well enough but weren't really interesting as builds. Ridcully, for example, commits the cardinal multiclassing sin of having a whole bunch of Wizard levels, and then not at all synergising it with his main front: being independently strong, healthy and a good shot with a crossbow. Probably rolled for his stats, the lucky bastard.

Vimes probably isn't level 20, and he probably doesn't raise his stats beyond that initial starting array. But I like to think you could take that baseline, and make it into a build that, if a little odd, nonetheless flows well enough mechancially without feeling too off from the character.

Still, for some extra City Watch fun. These builds are a lot looser and thrown together:

Spoiler

Show

Nobby: Nobby's not too hard. He might have a level or two of Fighter for medium armour, but then it's all Rogue, perhaps Thief though he's not high-level. Whenever anyone asks you for what race you're playing exactly, just smile and say "Custom Lineage".

Carrot: Carrot feels like a Paladin, but does not, strictly speaking, have any of a 5e Paladin's abilities. Carrot, then, might just be a full Fighter; simple, but simple doesn't mean ineffective. Your Charisma is sky-high, you probably have Inspiring Leader, and I'd recommend being a Banneret if that subclass wasn't a little naff. You probably also rolled for stats.

Detritus: My instinct was Warforged, but thinking on it, the Goliath fit better than I expected. Mountain Born could be taken as a reflection of how Discworld trolls tend to originate from nice, cold mountains, and Stone's Endurance topped with Powerful Build do a good job at representing a troll's bulkiness. In any case, an odd character: Detritus is a bulky high-STR powerhouse who carries a ranged weapon, not something the system is well-adapted for.

Consider a Barbarian 1 / Fighter (Champion); Barbarian gives you an Unarmored AC and extra damage-resistance, but could be dropped. With a heavy crossbow, Crossbow Expert, and Sharpshooter -- as in the books, Detritus won't necessarily be hitting his targets a lot when he takes aim, but anything he does hit will be taking a lot of damage. Of course, when not using his crossbow Detritus is still a troll carrying around a sword and a truncheon, so things aren't all bad. So long as he's in Ankh-Morpork's temperatures, his mental scores are dumped; his array might be 15-15-15-8-8-8.

[Teklese]

For the buffy problem why not include magic items to help with the stats. Something like belt of giant Strength. This would help more with the problem of not having enough feats, and give her the power to stand up to dnd vamps. you would need to work with the gm to flavor them a little and also when and how you get them. lvl 1 buffy just can not stand up to a vamp with extra help.

[Emmerlaus]

For the buffy problem why not include magic items to help with the stats. Something like belt of giant Strength. This would help more with the problem of not having enough feats, and give her the power to stand up to dnd vamps. you would need to work with the gm to flavor them a little and also when and how you get them. lvl 1 buffy just can not stand up to a vamp with extra help.

Of course she cannot, hence why I went with starting with zombies in general at that level. Unless a GM is ultra mean, he wont put a vampire as enemy when it come to a lvl.1 party.

And magic items are at GM discretion anyway. You cannot put them in the build unless the Gm approuves of it. ALSO... Stats aren't everything. As I said, a Rogue with Expertise (Athletic) is a better athlete then someone with high stats who doesnt have it.

I'll try to post another build in the coming days, not sure what character though. The easiest one would be Crane, from Kung-Fu panda lol! We will see.

[Angelalex242]

The trouble with many of these magic items is, they're attunement.

Even if you use an amulet of health, and a belt of...

Well, we'd have to decide what level of belt is accurate.

Hill Giant? Stone Giant? Frost Giant?

[Emmerlaus]

The trouble with many of these magic items is, they're attunement.

Even if you use an amulet of health, and a belt of...

Well, we'd have to decide what level of belt is accurate.

Hill Giant? Stone Giant? Frost Giant?

Sorry if Im blunt but after two Buffy build, I think I'm done working on her character. Im pretty satisfied with the V.2 version myself.

I have a few Kung-Fu panda build I could add but Im not sure how much you guys would be interested in seeing them though... Otherwise, I also made another character from My Hero Academia... Minato , the small purple pervert LOL

EDIT: I could also make a Cyplop build from X-Men. I saw a few build idea but they werent optomized for what Cyclop does best: blasting people (at least in my humble opinion)... so... Im tempted in giving it a shot? I wouldn't give him a lot of close-combat skill though. He can I suppose if needed but I'll rather have him have a few more things like the Close-Quarters Fighting style... cant believe no build I saw of him had it! O_O Sure its from Unearthed Arcana but still! At least give him Blind Fighting to represent his training!

[Emmerlaus]

Scott Summer (Cyclops) :


Race : Half-Elf
Stats gained : (+1 Dex, +1 Wis, 2 Cha)
Skilled (History, Investigation)
Skill Gained : Insight
Background : Sailor (Athletics, Perception), get trained in having his own « flying » ship lol.

Stats (total at level 1):

Strenght 8, Dex 15, Con 10, Int 12, Wis 13, Cha 14

LEVEL 1 : Sorcerer (lvl.1)
Skill Proficiency : Persuasion, Arcana
Sorcerous Origin (Divine Soul)
Spellcasting :
-Cantrips (Sacred Flame (laser hitting from above), Light, Mage Hand (concussion lazer, precise application to move things) and Fire Bolt
Level 1 spells : Mage Armor (you are wearing tight jumpsuit, no need for bigger Armor), Shield
BONUS : Protection from Good and Evil

Level 2 : Warlock (lvl.1)
Otherworldly Patron (The Undying) (cause you have Omega level potential and great destiny.)
Feature : Among the Dead
Spellcasting
-Cantrips (Eldritch Blast, True Strike)
Spell Known : Charm Person, Comprehend Language

Level 3 : Warlock (lvl.2)
Eldritch Evocation (Agonizing Blast, Repelling Blast)
+ spell: Expeditious Retreat

Level 4 : Warlock (lvl.3)
Pact Boon (Pact of the talisman)
+ Mind Spike (So that you know where to send your Eldritch Blast. Scott Summer received Blind Fighting training after all ! And to reflect how his spawn is so compatible with jean Grey DNA)

Level 5 : Warlock (Lvl.4)
Ability Improvement (+2 Cha)

Level 6 : Sorcerer (lvl.2)
Font of Magic
+1 Magic Massile

Level 7 : Sorcerer (lvl.3)
Metamagic (Quickened Spell, Empowered Spell)
Spellcasting ( Knock, See Invisibility)

Level 8 : Sorcerer (lvl.4)
Ability Improvement (+2 Dex)

Level 9 : Fighter (lvl.1)
Second Wind, Fighting Style (Close Quarters Shooter from UA)

Level 10 : Fighter (lvl.2)
Action Surge (x1)

Level 11 : Fighter (lvl.3)
Martial Archetype (Battle Master)
- Manoeuver (Evasive Footwork and Tactical Assessement)

Level 12 : Fighter (lvl.4)
New feat : War Caster

Level 13 : Sorcerer (lvl.5)
Spellcasting (change Magic Missile to Motivational Speech, get Haste)

Level 14 : Sorcerer (lvl.6)
+ 1 spell : Tongues
Sorcerer Origin feature (Empowered Healing)

Level 15 : Sorcerer (lvl.7)
+ 1 spell lvl.4… Nah lets take Fireball !

level 16 : Sorcerer (lvl.8)
Ability Improuvement (+2 Cha)
+1 Spell : Protection from Energy

Level 17 : Sorcerer (Lvl.9)
+1 Spell (lvl6) : Animate Object (to reflect how your beams can move objects)

Level 18 : Sorcerer (Lvl.10)
Metamagic (Seeking Spell)

Level 19 : Sorcerer (lvl.11)
+1 spell (Desintegrate)

Level 20 : Sorcerer (lvl.12)
Ability Improvement (+2 Dex)
+1 spell (Sunbeam)

CONCLUSION: That was an interesting build to make... Used both Tulok and BerzerkerUnit build as inspiration, I made this Cyclops build about being the best Eldritch Blast user he could be. Had to use Unearthed Arcana fighting style for it. Love Warlock in general so I love the build !

[Emmerlaus]

Spoiler: OH HELL YEAH!

Show

SPOILERS: Hexblade is a defenitely a shame but I can see how it fit, to make your daughters. I wouldn't change a lot of the build, except getting the stone giant rune instead.

... trust me, I checked if something should be changed. Hard to get everything right with this build. If you dont mind not changing into your true form at level 20 or have daughter, a few level of Barbarian (Pact of the Beast) could have being fitting. But you would need to sacrifice so much for it that it's not worth it lol

But making a Lady Denitrescu without magic is tempting. Barbarian/Fighter mix. Would allow her to stay in a dress instead of wearing an armor too... I might just make that build!

===========

On another note, what build would you like me to do next?

Side-Note: I being watching Buffy the Vampire Slayer with my GF. We are at the second season now and yeah, Intelligence is not as high as everything else if your worst nightmares are surprise quizzes LOL She is intuitive though, more then knowledgeable

========

I have a Minato build ready to post but it seem My Hero Academia arent popular here on this thread...

But I was also tempted to make a " Spiderman Noir " build, from Spiderman: Into the Multi-Verse. I would take some liberties on this one though, simply because I want to LOL For exemple, want to give him some levels of Shadow tradition Monk, mixed with Inquisitive Rogue LOL

I could easily make a Ralph build, From Wreck it Ralph. And a build for Spiderpig. Clearly an Artificer LOL

[Emmerlaus]

Disclaimer: Althought Tulok build was close to perfect for the character of Lady Demitrescu, she is pretty much build like the villain she is, with all those warlock level representing her devotion to Mother Miranda and her corruption. But if we prefer Lady Demistrescu as the giant vampire lady with sword fingers with a long dress, noble clotches instead of having to wear armor... the look is kinda ruined with his build. And his build include her having a whip instead of claws. So here's an alternative way to build her... and her daughters as a bonus!

Spoiler: Lady Demitrescu

Show

Lady Demitrescu :

Race : Damphir (Goliath Dhampir to start at 8 feet tall)
Stats gained : (+2 Str, +1 Con)
Darkvision
Spider-climb
Deathless Nature
Vampiric Bite
Background : Noble (History, Persuasion)

Stats (total at level 1):

Strenght 15, Dex 12, Con 14, Int 10, Wis 8, Cha 13

GOALS FOR THE BUILD :
1) Giant forever : You need to be PEMANENTLY bigger then most if you want to be able to look down on them
2) Freddy Krueger hands : Have hands that can shred you into pieces
3) Dressed for the occasion : No Armor, you are wearing a dress at all time and that’s all you need !

LEVEL 1 : Warlock (lvl.1)
Skills : Arcana, Intimidation
Otherworldly Patron (Undying)
Spells : Cantrips (Infestation, Frostbite) // Lvl.1 (Hex, Expeditious Retreat)

LEVEL 2 : Barbarian (lvl.1)
Rage, Unharmored Defense

LEVEL 3 : Warlock
Eldritch Invocations : Armor of Shadow and Eldritch Sight
Spell known : Protection from Evil and Good

LEVEL 4 : Barbarian (lvl.2)
Reckless Attack (hence why we took the time to get Armor of Shadow at the level before), Danger Sense

LEVEL 5 : Barbarian (lvl.3)
Primal Path (Path of the Beast to get claws), Primal Knowledge (get Athletics)

Level 6 : Barbarian (lvl.4) // +2 Strenght

Level 7 : Barbarian (lvl.5) // Extra Attack, Fast Mouvement

Level 8 : Barbarian (lvl.6) // Path Feature (Claws are now considered magical and bonus on distance for jumps or breath and swim in a blood bath if you want)

Level 9 : Barbarian (lvl.7) // Feral Instinct, Instinctive Pounce

Level 10 : Barbarian (lvl.8) // New feat ( Resilient-Con)

Level 11 to level 20 : Fighter
Fighting Style (Dueling, wearing as shield with the Demitrescu family crest on the other hand for style points), Martial Archetype (Rune Knight for Frost Rune, Stone Rune, Storm Rune and Cloud Rune, in that order), Giant Might to become larger and Great Stature at level 20 to become permanently at least 9 foot tall !). As for the ability or feat gain, make sure you get the SLASHER feat to Max that Strenght and cripple your opponents !

CONCLUSION : I Love this build ! In my version, she free herself from her evil « mother » and is a player character on her own and her three retainers from the noble background could be her three adoptive daughters… Or you could make them player character on their own !

Spoiler: Lady Demitrescu's daughters

Show

Race : Dhampir (base race could be anything… Human or Elves, your choice)
Stats gained : (+2 Wis, + 1 Dex)
Background : Haunted One (Investigation, Survival)
Stats (total at level 1):

Strenght 10, Dex 15, Con 12, Int 8, Wis 14, Cha 13




Level 1 : Ranger (lvl.1)
Skill trained : Athletic, Nature, Survival
Favored Enemy (Humanoid), Deft Explorer (Canny-Perception)
Level 2 : Monk (lvl1)
Unarmored Defense
Martial Art

Level 3 : Ranger (lvl.2)
FIghting Style (Blind Fighting)
Spellcasting (Jump, Zephyr’s Strike)

Level 4 : Ranger (lvl.3)
Ranger Conclave (Swarmkeeper) – Now THAT’S why I went ranger !
+ spells : Mage Hand + Cure Wounds

Level 5 : Ranger (lvl.4) // New Feat : Magic Initiate (Eldritch Blast, Infestation and Hex)

Level 6 : Ranger (lvl.5) // Extra Attack
+1 spell Magic Weapon

Level 7 : Ranger (lvl.6)
Deft Explorer (Rover), Favored Foe (1d6)

Level 8 : Ranger (lvl.7) // Writhing Tide
+1 spell : Pass Without Trace

Level 9 : Ranger (lvl.8) // +2 Wisdom, Lands Stride,

Level 10 : Ranger (lvl.9) // +1 Spell : Enhance Ability

Level 11 : Ranger (lvl.10) //Deft Explorer(Tireless), Nature’s Veil

Level 12 : Ranger (lvl.11) // Mighty Swarm, +1 spell (Water Walk)

Level 13 : Ranger (lvl.12) // +2 Wisdom

Level 14 : Ranger (lvl.13) // +1 spell (Freedom of Mouvement)

Level 15 : Ranger (lvl.14) // Favored Foe (1d8), Vanish

Level 16 : Ranger (lvl.15) // Swarming Dispersal

Level 17 : Ranger (lvl.16) // +2 Dex

Level 18 : Rogue (lvl.1) // Thieves Cant, Sneak Attack (+1d6), Expertise (Stealth, Nature)

Level 19 : Rogue (lvl.2) // Cunning Action

Level 20 : Rogue (lvl.3) // Roguish Archetype (Assassin), Sneak Attack (+2d6)

CONCLUSION: First time building a character with so many levels of ranger. Gave her Eldritch Blast to send creepy bug stream toward your opponents and a ranged option at higher levels. Favored Foe can be use to increase that vampire bite attack damage so its somewhat nice. Clearly not the strongest build but I think its very fitting.

[Emmerlaus]

Sorry for the lack of builds posting but I was hoping more people would join and so do as well lol!

My next build is kinda simple so I'll only post the important stuff:

Spoiler: Wreck-it Ralph

Show

GOALS FOR THE BUILD :
1) Huge Arms : You need to get huge arms and fists to hit your ennemy with
2) Snake and Ladder : Expert at climbing and falling down without getting hurt
3) Hit Hard : That say it all.

Race : Bugbear (+2 Str, +1 Dex) for the long arms and powerful build traits
Stats :
Str 15 (Obviously)
Dex 13 (You strangely can dodge magma cola like a champ or stealth you way to pass guards)
Con 15 (You eat garbage and you are never sick)
Int 8 (You never went to school)
Wis 12 (You are are headstrong and wise enough to know you should deserve more out of life)
Cha 8 ( You smell bad and you are bad when interracting with people)

Background (Outlander) : Athletic, Survival

SPOILERS: This is a level 20 Barbarian (Totem Warrior path). Here's the important stuff:

Level 1 : Barbarian
Skills : Intimidation, Survival
Rage
Unarmored Defense

======

Level 3 : Barbarian
Totem Spirit (Bear)

======

Level 4 : Barbarian
New Feat (Martial Initiate for Fighting Style : Unarmed Attack)

======

Level 6: Barbarian
Aspect of Beast (Bear)

======

level 8: Barbarian
Ability Improvement (+1 Str, +1 Con) We dont like odd number here, they are the true villain!

======

Level 12: Barbarian
New Feat: Martial Initiate (Fighting Style: Mariner)

======

Level 14: Barbarian
Spirit Walker (Eagle): So now you can fall any height

======

Level 16: Barbarian
Ability Improuvement (+2 Str)

======

Level 19: Barbarian
Ability Improvement (+2 Con)


Pro: You hit like a truck and you are quite good at what you do.
Cons: No magic damage and weak to psychic damage

VARIANT: The main thing about Ralph is that he doesnt use any magic and that the Totem Warrior Barbarian gives him a conditionnal flight speed to either "jump" and climb on surfaces and fall without receiving damage at level 14. And if you take 14 levels of Barbarian, might as well take 16 levels for Persistant Rage and additionnal stat boost. You could give him 4 levels of Fighter (Champion) if you wanted but it seems like a waste.

[Damon_Tor]

Wolverine
Wolverine needs a few abilities to be definitively Wolverine: a top-notch healing factor, super senses, and claws. He's a savage and a survivalist, but also a noble warrior trained by one of the noble houses of Japan. Our Wolverine will be a ranger, a barbarian, and a monk.

Race: The Hill Dwarf actually fits Logan nicely, giving us a lot of what we want: poison resistance is a core part of his healing factor, and dark vision is a must-have. The con and wis bonuses align nicely with our goals, and the hill dwarf gets an additional hitpoint at every level reflecting Wolverine's status as one tough mother****er Bonus: Wolverine is actually very short in the comics, so even that matches up nicely.

Background: Outlander fits nicely, giving us Athletics and Survival proficiency and makes him a capable woodsman.

Starting Ability Scores:
Strength 14- Wolverine is much stronger than he looks, as his healing factor keeps his muscles at top condition. Our attack score, this will be 20 before we're done.
Dexterity 14- Wolverine's heightened senses and centuries of experience give him heightened reflexes.
Constitution 17- Here we go, our big seller, Wolverine is as tough as they come. We'll also get this to 20.
Intelligence 8- Repeated brain damage has left Wolverine much of his memory gone, and he's also impulsive, emotional, and prone to thoughtless action.
Wisdom 13- His super-senses give him a keen edge when it comes to spotting trouble. We're going to be augmenting this with class features.
Charisma 8- A loner, Wolverine doesn't make friends easily.

Level 1 - Ranger 1
Wolverine's first level reflects his youth in the frontier of Canada, giving us Perception, Insight, and Stealth proficiency, with expertise in Perception, patching our lower-than-desired wisdom. Our favored enemies will be humans and mutants.

Levels 2-5 - Barbarian 1-4
Wolverine's powers manifest! We're going to be taking Logan down the Path of the Beast to get us his signature claws. And at our first ASI he'll get his first feat, Dwarven Fortitude. This brings his constitution up to 18, but it also allows him to heal himself, spending a hit dice when using the dodge action.

Magic Item Suggestion- Blessing of Wound Closure
Found on page 228 of the Dungeon Master's guide, the Blessing of Wound Closure is a permanent version of the Periapt of Wound Closure, which stabilizes you automatically if you are dying, and doubles the amount of hitpoints you recover when you spend a hit dice. In combination with Dwarven Fortitude, this is an extremely potent self-healing combo.

Levels 6-17 - Monk 1-12
At this point in his life, Wolverine rejects his savage nature and finds himself in Japan where he trains in the martial arts. This suits our purposes well due to several synergies:

• The Claws provided by the Path of the Beast count as simple melee weapons, and so qualify as monk weapons: this means we can use our monk levels to increase their damage dice to 1d8.
• Patient Defense allows us to dodge as a bonus action for the price of 1 ki. This combines with Dwarven Fortitude to let Wolverine heal himself while still attacking.
• The Monk's Evasion combines nicely with the Barbarian's Danger Sense.
• At 10th level we become immune to disease and poison, which fits our theme nicely.

We're going to be selecting the Way of the Long Death for Wolverine, enhancing his nature as an unstoppable super-tank. Touch of Death is a nice way to collect temporary hitpoints as we tear apart our enemies, and Hour of Reaping is nice because Wolverine can be scary AF, but the real reason we want this is for Mastery of Death: for the price of 1 ki with no action at all required, you can ignore a lethal hit, leaving you at 1 hp. You can do this again and again and again as long as you have the ki. I find this a better feature than the similar Relentless Rage, which quickly builds to an impossible DC after only a few uses.
Our 3 ASIs here will give us +6 to Strength giving us 20 strength.

Levels 18-20 - Ranger 2-4
Our healing factor and claw attacks are well taken care of, which brings us back to the Ranger, which fills out our role as a stalker.
Ranger 2 gets us the Blind Fightning style and the spells Hunter's Mark and Zephyr Strike
Ranger 3 gets us Gloom Stalker, with extended dark vision, dark vision immunity, a bonus to initiative rolls, and an extra attack on the first round of combat.
Ranger 4 gets us our final ASI, +2 to constitution, leaving us with 20 constitution.

Other Ways to Build It
If you don't care much about modeling Wolverine's super-senses, you can skip the ranger levels and stick with Barbarian 8/Monk 12, which would give you one additional rage per day, as well as more hitpoints and more of the 1d12 hit dice you like to use with your Patient Defense/Dwarven Fortitude/Blessing of Wound Closure combo. Overall this would make you a much stronger tank, but at the cost of the hyper-senses modeled by perception expertise, blind fighting and the gloom stalker features.

[Emmerlaus]

Wow, perfect Wolverine build!

It's almost funny how some of Tulok build can be improved so much!

Thanks for posting again!

[RedMage125]

With the Netflix reboot around the corner, I'd like to see a build of He-Man.

A few notes to consider:
He-Man lore fits 100% with the fluff of a Hexblade Warlock. The Sword of Greyskull (while it does not speak) is sentient enough to be the means of choosing the Champion of Castle Greyskull.
Blade pact means that he can use 2 handed weapons as his Hexblade weapon.
However, He-Man certainly seems STR, and nor CHA primary. Especially in the trailer for the new series, we see him catching and throwing a siege engine sized ram.
Armor? Some make He-Man have some Barbarian levels, for CON based Unarmored Defense, if nothing else. I can see the point in this. However, I would argue that this is unnecessary, since the metal chest piece he wears COULD be considered "armor" by the same logic of Bikini Chainmail.
It may be necessary to have his transformation be an actual transformation (especially since the new Prince Adam is of very slight build). If not, "Prince Adam" could be a disguise from Mask of Many Faces invocation.
I don't think it's necessary to have Cringer/Battle Cat be a part of He-Man's build, so BM Ranger levels are not needed. Battle Cat is more of a talking mount than an aid in combat. Perhaps a Sidekick, using TCoE rules.

Given how good the builds here are, I'd like to see what people can come up with.

Bonus points for also building Skeletor!