Apr 15

Apr 15 Character Creation Interpretation

Before you can play Dungeons and Dragons, you’ll need to create your character. It’s a crucial and delightfully fun part of the game. Your newly minted alter-ego embodies your hopes and dreams for becoming the grand hero of the upcoming adventure. You've delved deep into your imagination to create the character you want and are ready to send them off into the fantasy world before you.

Many people will look towards the future when going through this process, knowing exactly what type of character they want to build. Maybe they want to develop the best sniper ranger in the history of sniper rangers, while others want to create a fighter-wizard that isn't the same old eldritch knight. Sometimes, people draw inspiration from movies, comics, and other literary characters. We then proceed in session 0 to create the character using these ideas and references.

Over the years, I have created several builds and subclasses that are my interpretation of how certain characters could be built. The internet is full of such creations, and lengthy debates exist on Reddit on who's right and who is wrong when it comes to building a specific character. Here's the thing. There is no right way to make a character.

There's just your way.

Getting the assistance and opinions of random people on the internet can be an excellent idea and give you some ideas you may never have thought of. Of course, this is the internet we are talking about, so people can be…overly passionate with their opinions. Telling someone they are flat-out wrong is utter bullshit. Telling someone they're stupid for their concepts isn't constructive, helps no one, and may discourage someone from playing the game. The world is already full of smug, overly opinionated, ignorant people. Don't be one more jerk on this blue marble or our community. Back to our regularly scheduled programming

This got me thinking about alternative options to what I've already created. In each article, I've tried to communicate that they are my thoughts on any given topic, and I'm always interested in what other people think. I wanted to look at some of my creations and provide additional options, thoughts, and ideas. Some are from what I've read, others from feedback on Dump Stat, and a few of I've thought of myself. These aren’t complete builds but thoughts on different ways to think about going in another direction. Links will be included to the original articles.

Magic Arrows for all my Friends - The Arcane Archer

This build was one of my earlier low-level builds, focusing on the variant human race and how you can come out of the gate insanely powerful. If you skip through my rant about the variant human, you'll see that the build relies heavily on taking the sharpshooter feat at level 1 and creating the archer around it. It's a Fighter build, and while I never gave it a hard look on how it would scale past the 5th level, I'm confident it had the potential to continue to get stronger as you traveled on your quest to become a level 20 superhero.

A Ranger build would be more traditional and is undoubtedly an option to explore. Instead of using the variant human race, I'd recommend high elf since a +2 to Dexterity and a +1 to Intelligence can't be oversold. Once you've hit 3rd-level fighter and taken the Arcane Archer martial archetype, transition to the Ranger class. I know there are many multiclass builds focused around the Gloomstalker archetype, and there is absolutely nothing wrong with going that route. I'd go Drakewarden. You can always dip into Rogue and use your drake to provide you with advantage as needed, but I'm not a big fan of putting my flying best friend in harm's way. What I want to do is rain arrows from above while riding my drake. It takes a while to come online (you cannot use your drake as a mount until level 7), and you don't gain any archetype spells to complement your spell list. But you do get spells, and hunter's mark is a potent 1st-level spell that might make you feel better early on.

I found a fascinating build on Reddit by u/Myithic. I love this build because it doesn't require the Arcane Archer archetype. He takes advantage of the custom lineage option to take the Fey Touched feat and starts as a Hexblade Warlock. As the archer progresses, he starts taking levels in Bard at 6th level, going College of Whispers and eventually adding up as a 6th level Hexblade Warlock/14th level College of Whispers Bard. It's a fantastic flavor build, combining spells and various class abilities and feats to instill fear and deliver massive damage to its foes. Hats off to you, sir, for a fantastic outside-the-box build.

My Dear Watson - The Detective

It was a purely skill-based build, and I was surprised so many people were interested in it. I'll admit that creating a character like this is not my strong point, but I felt that my Lore Bard/Knowledge Cleric was a more original look than others out there. The Detective is a fantastic character for a roleplay-heavy campaign, but I tend to enjoy one where you hit things more than talk. My Detective wasn't for everyone, but I enjoyed making it and thought it fit the flavor of what I was looking to accomplish.

There's nothing wrong with following a more straightforward build. Inquisitive Rogue exists for a reason and works to a certain extent. You get a crap ton of skill-based abilities that you'll need. You also get the stab the crap out of somebody at 17th level, so that's nice. I would take the Observant and Keen Mind feats early on if I played this character. You may also want to take a dip into Fighter if you're going to hit things more or Wizard to take such low-level spells as comprehend languages, disguise self, and detect thoughts, to name a few.

There's a great thread on D&D Beyond discussing some options for building a Detective without being an Inquisitive Rogue. I enjoyed mentally sketching out the Vengeance Paladin for those that wanted a different style. Readers of Robert Parker's Spenser series (only the older ones before he died, and certainly not the godawful movie on Netflix) will see the possibilities with this character. You'll take the same feats as above, assisting you to seek out the truth, but you'll also dispense a righteous justice once the perpetrators have been revealed.

Always be Batman

My Batman build was that of an older Bruce Wayne, skewed towards Ben Affleck's Justice League Batman. This greying Batman had a sportscar/tank hybrid Batmobile and armor strong enough to go to battle with Superman. He also fought with more brute strength to overpower his enemies. This led the Armored Batman to be an Artificer/Fighter build, which I had a blast creating.

The problem is, this is just one of the many incarnations of the Batman. Batman was introduced in Detective Comics #27 (May 1939) and was labeled the World's Greatest Detective. Batman Beyond (1999-2001) was a young technophile, raw and unskilled, who was mentored by Bruce Wayne. I've always thought of Batman as a ninja, and he was one in Batman Ninja (2018). Batman was all these and more, meaning there are several ways to create a Batman character, all of which are correct.

Shadow Monk is the most obvious way to build Batman. The description in the PHB talks about monasteries where ninja clans lived and trained, so the parallels to Ra al Gul and the League of Shadows are undeniable. Every ability granted when you select Way of Shadows fits perfectly; teleporting 60 feet in the darkness, invisibility, counter attacks are perfect when building a hand-to-hand combat-focused Batman. Where I get hung up on this build is the fact that you cannot wear armor. My take is that without the Batsuit, there is no Batman, only Bruce Wayne. The concept works in many ways, but it's a no-go for me.

The Detective we spoke about above also provides another option for Batman. An Inquisitor Rogue/Open Hand Monk is a character that can find the clues and decipher the riddles they contain. In turn, this Batman can hunt down and capture the villain with extreme prejudice. I know I spoke about the Batsuit being an essential part of Batman as far as I'm concerned, but the light armor proficiency you have via the rogue class can work here. Not all Batman suits could repel bullets, provide night vision or withstand being punched in the chest by Superman. In Batman: The Animated Series (1992-1995), the suit was more of a costume than a suit of armor. Leather armor accomplishes what we'd need in this build and perfectly fits the character's flavor. You can forgo the armor to utilize your monk abilities whenever required.

There are many other directions you can take that all work. Swap out the Inquisitor Rogue for Mastermind Rogue and be the brains behind the Justice League. Be the angry Batman from the Nolan series and become an Oath of Vengeance Paladin. Create an Oath of Conquest Paladin and strike fear in the hearts of your foes. Lurk in the shadows as a Gloomstalker Ranger, hitting hard, fast, and first. It all depends on whether you want to play Adam West's Batman from the 1970s or the aging superhero from the Frank Miller The Dark Knight Returns (1986) comic.

Have some strong feelings about these builds? Have a build idea of your own? Share it in the comments below!

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