Builds - Armored Batman
There are several incarnations of Batman throughout his storied literary existence. When you attempt to recreate the Batman via your character build, there are many ways to go, depending on which version of the Caped Crusader you want to build. Anyone of them can be fun, but they all vary wildly when building the character in Dungeons & Dragons.
I decided to go with the Zack Synder/Dark Knight Returns Batman from the movies for my character creation. He is much older and grizzled, relying more on his tech and gadgets than raw strength and hand-to-hand combat. He has become the Armored Batman, wearing the best Bat Suit yet. Don’t get me wrong, Batman still enjoys thrashing his foes with his fists. But if you’re going to fight Superman and alien creatures and your only superpower is being rich, you better bring some weapons and protection to the fight.
The Armored Batman - Fighter/Artificer
Race - Variant Human. I know, I know. I’m just as tired as you are of the majority of the builds using this race. Batman is definitely human, so why not get the feat?
Starting Class - Fighter
ASI Increase - Strength & Intelligence
Stats - Str. 13, Dex. 12, Con. 12, Int. 14, Wis. 11, Cha. 14.
This Batman is not jumping all around like a monk. When he does make such a maneuver, it is often augmented by one of his gadgets and/or his suit. He’s strong but has limitations because he is just a mere mortal. The Bat Suit is essentially the modern version of plate mail, but we won’t have to worry about the heavy armor Strength requirement thanks to the Artificer. He is brilliant, building all sorts of gadgets and equipment, whether a kryptonite gas to immobilize Superman or do maintenance on the Batmobile, which is now essentially a tank. Finally, through sheer force of will, he can either rally those around him to his cause or intimidate the hell of them.
Skill Proficiencies - Acrobatics, History, Intimidation, Perception, Persuasion.
Feat - Sentinel. Nope, I didn’t go Tavern Brawler like everyone else. You may be thinking how this can be since we’re not a monk. We don’t know kung fu, and Batman punches many people. Welp, we have Tasha’s to thank for this, as we’ll see below.
Languages - Common, Elvish, Dwarvish
Bruce Wayne is a worldly man, and while we don’t see him speak many other languages, one has to imagine that he can.
Background - Noble. Having a corporation with your last name on it and being a billionaire is the equivalent of being a prince of an incredibly wealthy nation.
Weapons - Hand Crossbow 1d6, +3 to hit, +1 damage / Longsword 1d8 (1d10), +3 to hit, +1 damage.
Our Batman is ready to roll. Nothing leaps off the page that makes our character build seem amazing, but we’re only 1st level. The fun is coming shortly.
Fighter 1
Fighting Style: Unarmed Fighting - You get to punch people and do almost twice the damage than if we took Tavern Brawler. 1d6+1 bludgeoning damage or 1d8+1 if you aren’t wielding weapons or have a shield vs. 1d4 bludgeoning is a no-brainer. Thank you, Tasha.
Second Wind - Batman can get beat down, but he keeps coming at you.
Sentinel - Opportunity attacks slowing creature's speed becomes 0 for the rest of the turn, ignoring that pesky Disengage action when people realize you’re the Batman, and being able to use your reaction to punch someone in the face who dares to hit one of your allies all seem perfect for our Batman.
Artificer 1/Fighter 1
Proficiencies - Build stuff with Tinker Tools and do sneaky stuff with Thieves’ Tools. It doesn’t seem exciting, but it’s essential for what we are trying to do.
Magical Tinkering - Batman’s tech is magic in this world.
Spells - Two cantrips and two first-level spells. For the cantrips, take Fire Bolt to add another offensive attack and Resistance since Batman is one tough bastard. For 1st level spells, I recommend taking Catapult -mainly because I love the spell, and it feels like some cool magical Batman tech and Feather Fall since it seems like Batman falls a lot. In truth, many of the 1st level spells fit this build, but these are my two.
We will level up in artificer first because, once again, this Batman build is about cool gadgets and an armored Bat Suit and not extremely angry, punch my way out of everything Batman.
Artificer 2/Fighter 1
Infuse Item - Our Batman arcane tech has begun in earnest. Magical Tinkering is neat in a quaint sort of way, but infusing two items takes it to a whole new level. Your four infusions choices are:
Enhanced Defense: +1 to AC. It doesn’t require attunement, which is important.
Mind Sharpner: Use your reaction to maintain concentration when you’d otherwise lose it. No attunement.
Repeating Shot: We lose the hand crossbow and upgrade to a light crossbow. A+1 bonus to attack and damage rolls, ignoring the loading property if it has it, and never needing to carry ammo are all fantastic.
Replicate Magic Item: Either Rope of Climbing or Goggles of Night, neither of which require attunement. Both are perfect for Batman at lower levels.
Artificer 3/Fighter 1
Artificer Specialist - Armorer. We can now create our most critical item for this build, Arcane Armor, aka our Bat Suit. If you haven’t already, get Plate Mail since you can ignore Strength requirements. It’s your spellcasting focus, so think of that as your tool belt from which you can pull your spells. This line makes me think of the Bat Suit that he wears when he fights Superman.
The armor attaches to you and can’t be removed against your will. It also expands to cover your entire body, although you can retract or deploy the helmet as a bonus action.
Tasha’s Cauldron of Everything
Since you now have proficiency with smith’s tools and can switch out the Armor Model after a rest, make sure you have smith’s tools and carry them with you at all times. Batman would or did use every single feature between the two armor models (Guardian & Infiltrator) in the movies. Infiltrator provides a simple ranged weapon attack, negates your stealth disadvantage, and lets you walk 5 ft. faster, so use this armor type most of the time.
Finally, we get some armorer spells that happen to fit our character's mold; Magic Missile and Thunderwave.
Artificer 3/Fighter 2
Action Surge - Batman can push himself beyond his normal limits for a moment when he really needs to.
Artificer 3/Fighter 3
Martial Archetype - Battle Master. There really isn’t any other choice now, is there? Take the following maneuvers to stay in character:
Commanding Presence - Use that gravel voice of yours to intimidate your opponents.
Menacing Attack - I’m sensing a theme here.
Tactical Assessment - Batman is the Justice League leader, drawing up the plans and handing out assignments. The brains of the organization should get a bonus to Intelligence (Investigation), an Intelligence (History), and Wisdom (Insight) checks.
These are not the sexiest of the maneuvers available, and let’s be honest. No one ever takes Tactical Assessment. But for this version of Batman, it’s less about strength in battle but fighting the battle wisely.
Student of War sounds totally like Batman, so it’s too bad all you get is one additional tool proficiency.
Artificer 4/Fighter 3
Feat - Tough. We can bulk up our hero’s hit points. Batman takes a lot of punishment, but he never stops coming for you.
Artificer 5/Fighter 3
Extra Attack - Two attacks are always better than one.
Artificer 6/Fighter 3
Artificer Infusions - Time to take two additional infusions.
Resistant Armor - Since our armor is our character’s main item, we’ll be taking this infusion for sure. There is some confusion about arcane armor. When you make your normal old plate mail into your arcane armor does that mean it’s magical? (No) Can you make magical armor into arcane armor (that’s a little fuzzy), and then, if you can, is the armor no longer technically magical since arcane armor is not magical in nature? (No f*&king clue) Let’s assume our armor was not magical before with made it our arcane armor, therefore allowing us to add the infusion to it without going down that rabbit hole.
Boots of the Winding Path - We don’t have a grappling hook gun, so we can’t fire it off and zip up, down, and all around the battlefield like the Caped Crusader does. Teleporting up to 15 feet as a bonus action to an unoccupied space is the next best thing.
Replicable Items - You can now replicate some additional magic items. A cloak of elvenkind is handy, but it requires attunement, so it may not be an option.
Artificer 7/Fighter 3
Flash of Genius - While our Batman’s tactical prowess would make even the greatest generals in history green with envy, things don’t always go according to plan. By being cool under pressure, you can help your allies and use your reaction to add your Intelligence modifier to their ability checks.
Artificer 7/Fighter 4
Feat - Athlete. We talked above about Batman not having a grappling gun. Climbing not costing extra movement and jumping after moving only 5 feet help compensate for not having this item. Increase Strength, raising our modifier to +2. Alert is also an excellent option here, but the Strength modifier pushes the Athlete feat over the finish line.
Artificer 8/Fighter 4
ASI - It’s time to start boosting our stats. Put both in Constitution. I can’t say it enough. More hit points are always better than fewer hit points.
Artificer 8/Fighter 6
ASI - Between the Tough Feat and increasing our Constitution two levels ago, we can feel comfortable adding both points to Strength, increasing your modifier to +3.
Artificer 9/Fighter 6
Armor Modifications - This feature allows you to add more infusions to your armor. Each piece of armor, including the breastplate, boots, helmet, and the armor’s special weapon, is considered an individual item that can be infused. As a bonus, when you which the armor model, the infusions carry over. The best part of the feature is that now you can fully deck out your Bat Suit, as the maximum number of items you can infuse at once increases by 2, but the extra infused items are required to be on your arcane armor. That gives you a total of 5 items at the 9th level, so you can infuse each piece of your armor and have one leftover!
Artificer 10/Fighter 6
Artificer Infusions - Two more infusions! Time to take more armor infusions for your now badass Bat Suit.
Armor of Magical Strength - 6 charges per day to let you add your Intelligence modifier to Strength saving throws or be knocked prone.
Helm of Awareness - Helms don’t get much love, but our armored Bat Suit’s helmet will. No one surprises Batman. For flavor, see if your DM will let you use Magical Tinkering to make the eyepieces of your helm shed bright light and still see out of them (see header picture).
Magic Item Adept - We alleviate some of your attunement issues by now being able to attune up to four magic items at once.
The remaining levels will be taken in Fighter, so we’ll jump straight to the end.
Artificer 10/Fighter 10
Fighting Maneuvers - Four more ways to mess with your enemies, you get an additional two at 7th level and two more at 10th.
Disarming Attack - Watch and see how many times Batman either knocks a weapon out of someone's hands or takes it away from them. It’s more than you think.
Evasive Footwork - Everyone gets tired of being hit, including our Caped Crusader. Even though our bat suit is buffed up, it’s always better not to get hit with a sword. The flavor also works because Batman is constantly bouncing around the battlefield, and this AC bonus only occurs as long as you keep moving.
Precision Attack - Batman doesn't miss.
Sweeping Attack - The more enemies you can hit at once, the better. It’s sort of like the more hit points.
ASI - Increase your Intelligence by 2. Your modifier is now +3, which helps with spell attacks, and your Armor of Strength feature.
Indomitable - Batman gets out of deadly situations a lot. Re-rolling a saving throw once per long rest may do that for your character.
Improved Combat Superiority - More powerful superiority dice for a more powerful Batman.
Our Batman build is complete! You can find the character sheet link below if you want to see our completed character as a whole. Our Armored Batman is a force to be reckoned with. A couple of items of note before I depart for another week:
There is no equipment, other than required items needed to accomplish the items above, listed on the character sheet.
For a level 20 character, an AC 20 may seem low. Discuss with you DM if you make your Arcane Armor from an existing magical armor you are allowed to infuse it (See above). The rules are ambiguous at best, so it’s a DM’s call. If that’s not an option, boost it through other items (remember you have 4 attunement slots!) if you feel your AC is too low.
There are no magic items listed. Unless your DM hates you, you’ll have some, one of which is hopefully a weapon. Attunement slots will quickly become an issue, so weigh your options carefully.
Speaking of magic items, you can recreate a number of excellent items as a 10th level artificer. A headband of intellect would allow you to increase your Constitution instead of Intelligence when you reach 10th level in the Fighter class. A cloak of protection helps with your AC issues. Both require attunement.
The spell list isn’t set in stone, but there are a few must-have spells if you’re staying true to the build. Pyrotechnics (smoke is a Batman must), Spider Climb (another workaround for the grappling gun), and Haste (Additional action. Even old Batman is fast on his feet) are all spells that need to be in your arsenal.
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