Zekken

Ancestry and Background

Britomart is a Faerie from Lorwynn: First Light, which is like a fairy from Mordenkainen presents, but spelled properly. that means she’s fey instead of humanoid, and comes with Fairy Magic (...seriously?) so she can cast Druidcraft at will using her charisma. once she hits level 3 she can cast Faerie Fire once a day for free, and also by using spell slots. at fifth level she can also use that freebie casting on Enlarge/Reduce so she actually looks as big as she does in FGO. both spells use the same freebie, but you’ll have plenty of spell slots as we go on, so it won’t be too big a deal. she also gets Flight equal to her walking speed when she isn’t wearing medium or heavy armor. this is going to be a trend moving forward. This is well after the old ancestry rules, so we get bonuses in whatever we want, like +2 Charisma and +1 Dexterity.

anyways, Britomart is obviously a Knight, so she gets proficiency in History and Persuasion checks.

Ability Scores

as a faerie Britomart is skilled with magic and messing with humans, both of which are Charisma based, so bump that up to the highest it can go. after that is Constitution- whether you’re in armor or not, having extra HP is always useful for a spearwoman. third is Dexterity. it’s obviously not important when in armor, but we really need it when you’re out of it, and we’re building for both. this means your Intelligence is so-so, and your Strength and Wisdom are both rather low. your spear is powered by magic moreso than brawn, and you’re a bit sheltered.

Class Levels

1. Fighter 1: starting off in fighter is super important so we can grab heavy armor proficiency off the rip. most starting players can’t afford platemail off the rip, but if you can you should be ready for it. this also nets you proficiency with Strength and Constitution saves, as well as proficiency in Insight (for your fae eyes) and Animal Handling (a must for any knight). grab the Great Weapon fighting style for more consistent damage with your spear- it’s big enough to get the bonus, but light enough for a faerie to wield without those weird penalties for heavy weaponry smaller ancestries have to deal with. you also get a Second Wind as a bonus action, healing you for a bit to stay in the fight longer. healing yourself is basically like not getting hit at all, right? it’s totally an invuln!

2. Warlock 1: bouncing over to warlock immediately so we can actually use that spear well as a Hexblade! starting off, you become a Hex Warrior, which doesn’t give you any proficiencies you don’t already have, but does let you use charisma with a weapon you bond with over a long rest. suddenly your spear goes from using your second-weakest stat to your strongest one!

you can also invoke the Hexblade’s Curse on someone once per short rest, letting you add your proficiency to damage rolls against a specific target, crit on 19s as well as 20s against them, and regain HP equal to your warlock level plus your charisma modifier when they die! again, healing is just retroactive armor!

and of course, you gain access to Pact Magic, Charisma-based spells with slots that recharge on short rests. Eldritch Blast for your standard faerie magic attacks, Sword Burst for some fancy spearwork, Shield to… shield, and Armor of Agathys for a little bit of everything- you get temporary HP, and when someone hits you they take damage equal to the max THP you put on yourself.

3. Warlock 2: second level warlocks get two Eldritch Invocations this level, little bonuses to customize your warlockery to your ideal situation. obviously we’re saving one for next level as per usual, but you can still grab Eldritch Mind now for advantage on concentration saves. usually spellcasting and melee don’t mix, but between this and your proficiency on concentration saves, I’d say you’re pretty safe.

you can also Cause Fear now, your armor is pretty scary looking.

4. Warlock 3: at third level you gain the Pact of the Blade, and alongside your invocation Improved Pact Weapon, you can summon basically any weapon you want as an action, and it’s always a +1 bonus weapon if it doesn’t already have an attack/damage boost! it also works as your spellcasting focus, and it’s always under the effect of your Hex Warrior effect, so it’s always charisma-based!

you can also cast Invisibility now. it’ll help dodge attacks when out of your armor, and it’s just kind of a ‘faerie’ sort of spell.

5. Warlock 4: speaking of, now you get Prestidigitation, which can do a little of everything, alongside a new spell, Fiend Flesh. I mean your armor’s demonic, so it kind of works! for up to an hour you can give yourself or an ally resistance to cold, lightning, and fire damage, as well as immunity to poison damage! not the condition, but it’s still pretty good.

speaking of damage resistance (man I’m on a roll with transitions tonight), use your Ability Score Improvement to grab the Heavy Armor Master feat instead of any spells. with this, your strength goes up by 1, and heavy armor blocks the first three points of nonmagical physical damage you take whenever you take said damage. annoyingly this doesn’t block magical weapons, but hopefully you’ll have properly magical armor by that point anyway.

6. Warlock 5: fifth level warlocks get third level spells! Elemental Weapon lets you add thunder damage to your spear for our first taste of wind power, and for our second taste, the eldritch invocation Eldritch Smite! when you hit a creature with your pact weapon, you can spend a warlock spell slot to deal extra damage and knock the target prone it it’s huge or smaller.

Britomart’s spear is singularly good at knocking a rider off its mount, and in D&D there’s two ways to do it- knocking the one of the two prone, or forcibly moving them. Knocking the mount prone or pushing the rider is the most powerful option, as this doesn’t have a save involved- the rider can react to avoid falling prone themselves, but that’s it. Knocking the rider prone or moving the mount can still knock the rider off, but they at least get a save to prevent it.

7. Fighter 2: now for something a bit simpler- Action Surge gives you a second action once per short rest. you don’t get a second bonus action, but otherwise there’s no strings attached. cast as many spells as you want, dash twice, go ham with your spear, whatever you want.

8. Fighter 3: fiiine, we’ll complicate things again. at third level you become an Eldritch Knight, which is a wizard with waay less magic and more restrictions. read up if you wanna, but basically most of your spells have to be abjuration or evocation. Thunderclap pushes stuff around, Thunderwave is the same damn thing but bigger, Blade Ward and Arcane Aegis are more armor, and Disguise Self is another Faerie-like Thing To Do. you also get a Weapon Bond, letting you summon a specific weapon to your hand as a bonus action. weirdly this doesn’t let you use the weapon as a casting focus, but you should have your other hand free anyway, it should be fine.

9. Fighter 4: at fourth level we get another ASI, so round out your Strength and Charisma for stronger spells and better armor. but if you’d rather not, Mage Armor has your back, giving you an extra 3 points of AC when out of armor.

10. Fighter 5: fifth level fighters get an Extra Attack each action. That’s two on most turns, and up to four if you use action surge!

11. Fighter 6: use another one of fighter’s ASIs to become a Great Weapon Master, specifically the 2014 version. With this, you can make a bonus attack whenever you reduce a creature to 0 HP with a melee weapon attack, or when you score a crit. We’re knocking a lot of creatures prone, we’re getting a lot of advantage, we might as well take advantage of that. there’s also another feature of this feat but that only works with heavy weapons, which our faerie ass isn’t handling.

12. Fighter 7: when you learn War Magic, you can also make a bonus action attack after using your action to cast a cantrip! while Gust of Wind isn’t a cantrip, it can make a line of wind that forces creatures in it to make a strength save or get pushed back 15 feet, while also slowing down anything trying to move closer!

13. Fighter 8: we’re grabbing a newer feat with this ASI, the Nimble Physique. this boosts your Dexterity by one, and will improve your defenses when out of your armor. while not wearing armor, you can dodge as a bonus action, and if you get grappled or restrained, you don’t have disadvantage on attacks, and attacks against you don’t have advantage!

you can also summon a Dust Devil this level for up to a minute, creating a tiny tornado that batters people and pushes them around!

14. Fighter 9: ninth level fighters are Indomitable, letting you re-roll a failed save once per day. I’d save this for something you’re really good at, but you do you.

15. Fighter 10: our final level of fighter teaches you how to make an Eldritch Strike- if you hit an enemy and then hit them with a spell, they have disadvantage on saving against it! that’s very useful since we’re half-wizard with an intelligence of 12!

speaking of saves and spells though, you don’t need to worry about all that with your new cantrip Light and your new spell Warding Wind! you create an aura of wind around you for 10 minutes, deafening creatures in its area, blocking small flames and gasses, slowing down other creatures, and giving disadvantage to ranged weapons that pass by you! it’s wind and armor all in one!

16. Warlock 6: back in warlock, we can finally get the reason I was putting off coming back here- Accursed Specter! when you kill a humanoid, you can make it come back as a ghost, which follows your commands up to once per day.

...I guess you can flavor it as wind, but IDK how to justify it happening after killing someone. it’s definitely the weakest feature we’ve got so far, flavor-wise.

but you also get Blink now! you move so fast you can’t get hit sometimes. Very anime, very fun.

17. Warlock 7: fourth level spells! Backlash is a new one- as a reaction to damage, you can reduce it by 4d6+ your charisma modifier, and if the attacker is within 60 feet they take 4d6 damage as part of a failed save! yes they’re different rolls, which makes it a little weird. wish we had this back when we did spartacus.

you also learn the Relentless Hex invocation, letting you teleport directly to whoever you cursed with your Hexblade’s Curse.

18. Warlock 8: use your last ASI to round out your Dexterity score thanks to Piercer! once per turn, you can re-roll one of the damage dice of a piercing weapon, and critical hits deal an extra die of damage! spears are fun like that.

for even more fun, use Staggering Smite- charge it up on your bonus action, and then the next time you hit someone with your spear, they take an extra 4d6 damage, and need to make a wisdom save! if they fail, they can’t react, and get disadvantage on attacks and checks for a round. Oh hey, those are all things that prevent someone from getting knocked off their horse, wild how that happens.

19. Warlock 9: our last invocation is Minions of Chaos, letting us summon wind elementals. we’ve already got ghosts, might as well, right? also, Scrying. again, just kind of faerie-ish. fae, the adjective is fae, why have I gone the whole build without saying fae.

20. Warlock 10: our last level of warlock contains the whole reason I’m tolerating having Accursed Specter on this build- True Strike! nah I’m just joking, it’s Armor of Hexes, one of the best defensive options there is when you really need to lock in. When the creature you’ve cursed with your hexblade’s curse attacks you, you can react to get a 50% chance to make the attack miss.

Pros and Cons

Pros:

Between your heavy armor and spearplay vs. your flight and spellcasting, you effectively have two ways to play your game at any given time. at least if your DM rules you can teleport out of your armor if you have to- that stuff takes ages to doff. still, you have plenty of freedom when it comes to how you tackle problems.

knocking people around is fun, actually. and it’s also great to break enemy formations, and basically make fights against large groups way easier to manage, especially if you’re in the position to knock a few off a cliff.

you’re also no slouch when it comes to boss fights either, with hexblade’s curse letting you pick one target to do silly amounts of damage to between your doubled and then doubled again chances to crit and all those bonuses we added on, plus Armor of Hexes so you can look your DM in their smug little eyes and tell them no, a natural 20 doesn’t hit my character actually.

Cons:

you’re stuck between two ways to play and thus aren’t that great at any one of them. we don’t have the raw damage a flying spellcaster could put out, and we’re too squishy to really take advantage of all that armor- we take one or two good hits and things get dire real fast.

while we did our best to avoid saves in our wizard spells, the fact is you’re still using intelligence to cast a lot of your best moves- and eldritch strike is only going to help alleviate that a little.

Ancestry & Background

In a stunning turn of events, this grailfinders build is a Variant Human Noble. gasp. so shocking. he gets +1 Dexterity and Wisdom, as well as proficiency in Religion since all his cool gear is from gods and the Resilient feat to round out his Dexterity, as well as giving him proficiency in dex saves. he does wear some armor, so I don’t have to squeeze monk into this build too, but there you go, just a dash of monk for those who prefer a low-ascension Feihu. as a noble he has proficiency with History and Persuasion.

Ability Scores

Feihu’s kids like to use lighter weapons, but a spear is Strength based, so we’re going with that as the highest score- also the busting through checkpoints thing was pretty strength-coded, not gonna lie. After that is Constitution- busting through one checkpoint is strength, but five? that guy’s got health for days. After that is Wisdom, partly because you literally have four people looking out for you at all times, but also so we can multiclass later. Ditto for Dexterity, and again, your kids like the lighter weapons, and it helps with their AC. and yours, for that matter. This means your Charisma is kind of low. I admit trying to talk sense into someone getting Tamamo’d is a tall order regardless, but it still didn’t work out for you. That means we’re dumping Intelligence. once again, this is not a knock on Huang Feihu’s smarts, we just need to dump something, and intelligence is routinely not a useful stat in this game.

Class Levels

1. Fighter 1: starting us off as a fighter gets you all the armor and weaponry you’ll need for the whole family, as well as proficiency in Strength and Constitution saves, and Animal Handling and Acrobatics. you can also grab the dueling feat, so your spear is just as deadly in one hand as it is in two. finally, you can spend a bonus action to gain a Second Wind, healing yourself for a bit once per short rest.

...look it takes time to make four kids, they’ll be here soon, I swear!

2. Fighter 2: second level fighters can add an Action Surge to their turn once per short rest, giving you a second action to use on whatever you want- spells, fighting, dashing, etc. it’s not a second bonus action though, and trust me that’ll be important later.

3. Fighter 3: in a move shocking literally nobody, the guy who is actually several guys is an Echo Knight. You can now Manifest Echo as a bonus action, basically giving you a second character to move and attack with- mechanically the echo isn’t a creature, but any physical attacks you make can come from your space or theirs. So if you magic up your sword, the echo’s sword is magic too, great value is had by all. Echos only have 1 hp and a flat AC determined by your level, but there’s no limit to how many times you can make them, aside from one at a time. You can also swap spaces with them as a bonus action, or Unleash Incarnation as part of your attack action, giving you an extra attack that’s only from your echo’s place. You can only do this 2-3 times a day, but extra attacks are extra attacks, take what you can get.

4. Fighter 4: but of course having better attacks is nice too, so use your first Ability Score Improvement to strum up your Strength for stronger and more accurate strikes.

5. Fighter 5: speaking of extra attacks being good, fifth level fighters get an Extra Attack each attack action, which is good. so now you can attack two times with your action, or three with unleash incarnation. or four with your action surge added in, or even six times with an action surge and both UIs to boot. But that uses up all your UIs… let’s fix that.

6. Fighter 6: fighters get even more ASI’s than most classes, letting us corner the market on Constitution at basically no cost. This adds extra HP whenever you level up, but it’s also retroactive, so you get an instant 6 hp boost too! On top of that, you have a third use of Unleash Incarnation now, go nuts. but only three times a day.

7. Ranger 1: swapping over to ranger gets you free Insight proficiency. You’re the father of like, six children minimum, I’m sure you know how to tell when someone’s lying. Oh right also the whole ‘figuring out Tamamo is Tamamo and getting your family killed’ thing started with a really good insight check. sorry about that.

rangers also get to target a Favored Foe as a bonus action, picking out one target to deal extra damage to using your concentration. it’s like Hunter’s Mark, but it gets better as you level up and doesn’t use a spell slot!

you’re also a Natural Explorer, giving you all sorts of traveling bonuses when in Grasslands. usually this doesn’t come up in most games, but Guda had to walk the entire span of the united states, so… it’s nice to have if you need it.

8. Ranger 2: at second level rangers get their own fighting style, and Two Weapon Fighting lets you add your strength score to your offhand weapon damage! ...yay!

you also get Spells this level, which are a way better use of your bonus action. Searing Smite uses your bonus action to add extra fire damage to an attack when you next hit someone, plus every turn after if they fail a constitution save. and don’t spend an action to end it. or another creature puts them out. or it’s raining. I know that sounds flippant but wasting an enemy’s turn can actually be just as useful as the extra damage.

You can also cast Zephyr Strike, letting you ignore opportunity attacks for up to a minute, possibly ending early to give yourself advantage on an attack, plus extra damage plus increased movement speed + L + ratio.

9. Ranger 3: Third level rangers can have a Primeval Awareness, tuning you into otherworldly creatures near your location. it does not give you the ability to fight those creatures, but good luck with the Tamamo thing.

oh! speaking of the Tamamo thing, we still haven’t gotten you your fancy bird yet! as a Swarmkeeper ranger you have a Gathered Swarm of tiny animals helping you out once per turn, adding extra damage or forced movement to an attack, or helping you move to a better position.

you also learn Swarmkeeper Magic, which is just extra spells. Mage Hand is the bird itself, picking stuff up for you, Faerie Fire is its magical danger sensing ability preventing invisible creatures from sneaking up on you. You also learn Hunter’s Mark as your normal ranger spell. it’s like Favored Foe except it’s a spell, does flat damage, and you can swap it to another creature when the first one dies. It’s a bit redundant but Huang Feihu is pretty low-magic for a chinese servant, I’m doing my best to keep it that way.

10. Ranger 4: speaking of low magic, fighting is still way better than slinging spells, which is why your Strength is maxxed out now. have fun storming the castle!

11. Ranger 5: fifth level rangers don’t get an extra attack if they’re multiclassing from a class that already got one earlier. but you do get second level spells like Magic Weapon so you can do something against the Daiji, and Web to keep your foes tied up in… a net? yeah, a net. nets are cool.

12. Ranger 6: favored foe matches hunter’s mark this level in terms of damage, and you can now travel around Mountains better thanks to natural explorer. that sounds light on bonuses but have you seen how they draw mountains in chinese art? being able to climb that shit at all is wild, let alone well.

13. Ranger 7: seventh level swarmkeepers control a Writhing Tide, letting you spend a bonus action to be picked up by your tiny birds for up to a minute, flying at ten feet per round. This is the most magical magic we’re getting this entire build.

you can also send out Animal Messengers this level, and since you’re never far from your swarm, you’re never far from volunteers to send out letters! I don’t think that works mechanically but honestly I’d give it to you, your backstory is very tragic.

14. Ranger 8: develop that Dexterity a bit this level for a higher AC, and use Land’s Stride to… not get slowed down by plants? I don’t think they ever really got ranger to a ‘good’ place in 5e. maybe if they ever stop releasing servants some day I’ll get to see what how the new version handled them. what do you mean the ‘new’ version is going to be two years old this year. that’s still new, right?

15. Ranger 9: ninth level rangers get third level spells, and now you can Conjure Animals! ...hey, I know teenagers can be rowdy but they’re not that bad… oh you meant for the NP buffalo, right. also you can use Gaseous Form now because you’re a swarmkeeper but it’s also situational and not really for this build but hey that’s true of a lot of ranger stuff.

16. Fighter 7: finally done with that long detour to get your NP, we can return to echo knight for an Echo Avatar, which lets you see and hear through your echo while expanding its range to 1000 feet, all for up to ten minutes. but also this doesn’t shut off the bonus action teleportation, and you can just start it again right after the ten minute mark passes with no issue. this is admittedly completely out of left field since your kids 100% do have to stay near you when they manifest but it’s an upgrade and one of these classes had to have enough levels to reach 20, and I’d rather it be this one than the caster class.

17. Fighter 8: Use your last ASI to become a Medium Armor Master, this removes stealth penalties for wearing medium armor, and you can add a maximum of 3 to your AC while wearing medium armor if your dexterity permits it, which it does. so yes, your medium armor can now easily stand with the fanciest stuff heavy armor has to offer, for half the price.

18. Fighter 9: at ninth level you become Indomitable, letting you reroll a failed save once per day. Presumably, this is how you didn’t get mind-controlled by the Daiji the second she knew that you knew.

19. Fighter 10: tenth level echo knights get another feature that I’m not 100% thrilled about you getting but I doubt anybody’s playing to level 19 anyway normally so it’s probably fine, Shadow Martyr. if a creature you like is being attacked, you can shove your echo next to it, forcing the attack to hit the echo instead, once per short rest. a father should never outlive his children, but you already have so there’s no real harm in using this.

…god that was dark even for me… On the plus side your Echo has an AC of 20 now, so there’s a good chance you just force the attack to miss anyway.

20. Fighter 11: for our final level of fighter, you get an Extra Attack that works again! That means three strikes per action, four with a UI, six with an action surge, or up to eight altogether. it’s like we never even dipped into ranger.

Pros & Cons

Pros:

Searing smite and other spells like it are all limited to melee attacks, but you can now make melee attacks at range, increasing their usefulness tremendously. it’s also useful for attacking behind cover or hitting a prone enemy since they force disadvantage on traditional ranged attacks but you get advantage against them with melee. it’s niche, sure, but you’re playing ranger, you’re used to that.

you have access to echoes and conjure animals, so once again you can wreck the action economy, which is always fun. that’s fun to do to every economy, too- why do you think people keep trying to make crypto and AI a thing?

while we’re not super Gish-y this build, you do have access to spells like Faerie Fire and Web that make your main job as a melee fighter much easier to deal with. you can even use your echo to avoid wading into the web to fight people, that’s another benefit for the first bullet point!

Cons:

you’re supposed to be riding a horse. and that’s not a ‘we couldn’t fit it in’ issue- you only get that during NPs usually- but rather moving on a fast mount completely negates your echo’s abilities since it has to say near you and can only move 30 feet per turn.

you also have very limited power, being stuck with half of a half-caster and three unleash incarnations to be the source of most of your damage. this build’s pretty good at surviving long fights, but don’t expect to do anything too flashy if the battle drags on.

Ancestry & Background

Huyan Zhuo is obviously a human, but this version of her has been mixed with an Empusa, a greek monster that is somehow one-legged, donkey-legged, and a shape-shifter, all at the same time. good job guys, that description is super helpful. the important thing is that she’s a regular person mixed with a shapeshifting monster, which in D&D terms would make her a Dispater Tiefling. that gives her Darkvision, Hellish Resistance against fire damage, and the Legacy of Dis. at first level, you can use Thaumaturgy freely, using charisma to cast the spell. of course what we’re really here for is at third level, where you get one free use of Disguise Self per day. as far as I know Huyan Zhuo doesn’t actually use any shapeshifting, so this is all we’re getting this build. you also get Detect Thoughts once a day when you hit level 5. just because you’re anxious doesn’t mean they’re not dissing you behind your back. now you’ll know for sure! if you can ever work up the nerve to use it.

because you ditched your actual job to join a bunch of rogues, you’re an Anarch (technically of the Gruul variety, but that part can be flexible). all Mt. Liang bandits are Gruul Anarchs, don’t look at Sassyshin’s build. this means you have an extended spell list, but there’s a lot of them so we’ll only bring up the important ones when they show up. the character sheet does have them all though, if you want to keep track.

Ability Scores

Zhuo’s clubs are so feared she gained a nickname from how well she uses them, which is really impressive considering they only deal 1d4 of damage on their own. that means her Strength has to come first. After that is Charisma- the “so insecure she needs constant validation” schtick is hit or miss, but she is part mind-controlling monster, so it still gets a boost. third is Constitution. one of her legs is metal, so that means she has less chance of bleeding out when hit. it’s pure math. fourth is Intelligence, taking up the vaunted “not neutral or negative but not positive enough to be good” slot. it’s literally here just because I figured out where to put everything else first. that means your Dexterity is just neutral. Huyan Zhuo is actually pretty heavily armored for a female servant in FGO, and I’m happy to take any excuse to not have to make every stat an 18. finally, we’re dumping Wisdom, for hopefully obvious reasons. people can control you with flattery already, never mind someone casting Friends on you. if it could get lower, I’d put it lower.

Class Levels

1. Paladin 1: first level paladins get a Divine Sense, which you can use four times a day to detect celestials, fiends, or undead nearby. you are literally celestial by the water margin’s standards, and at least partially demonic in D&D, so either way you’ll be setting this one off on yourself a lot.

you can also Lay on Hands as an action. it doesn’t have a set number of uses, but you do get a set amount of HP you can restore each day equal to five times your level. you can also spend five HP from your total to heal a creature of a disease or poison. now your HP total will be able to swing just as quickly as your mood!

also as a paladin you unfortunately get proficiency in Wisdom saves, but you also get Charisma saves, Intimidation, and Persuasion as well. Huyan Zhuo’s first ascension takes itself pretty seriously ngl.

2. Paladin 2: second level paladins get a Fighting Style, and nothing else really fits here, so Defense will have to do. that’s just an easy +1 whenever you wear armor, which you should be doing a lot. you can also cast and prepare Spells using your Charisma, though we’ll got into that more in a bit.

more importantly, you can turn spell slots into Divine Smites whenever you hit with an attack, turning a spell slot into raw radiant damage. now your clubs are finally useful! for two times a day. and assuming you don’t cast any other spells.

speaking of spells, let’s talk about those. you get quite a few freebies immediately thanks to being an anarch, but we don’t really want any of them just yet. that being said, from the base spell list, Divine Favor lets you deal damage over time. it’s not a huge boost in damage (normally, it still doubles your damage with a club), but if you’re confident you won’t get hit by anything it can be a really save your spell slots. Alternatively, you can use Wrathful Smite. the smite spells add extra effects (in this case frightening your target if they fail a wisdom save) at the cost of not upgrading with higher spell slots, and costing your bonus action.

3. Paladin 3: third level paladins finally join their oath… or at least they would, but your oath is… Oathbreaker. which is a bit awkward. oathbreakers can use Channel Divinity once per short rest to either Control Undead or let out your Dreadful Aspect. the former forces an undead creature to make a wisdom save. if they fail, they’re under your control for a full 24 hours, or until you Control Undead again, though they automatically succeed if their CR is equal or greater to your paladin level. the latter forces every creature you choose within 30’ of you to make a wisdom save- if they fail, they’re frightened of you for a minute, though it’s a little easier for them to break out than usual. finally, you can instead Harness Divine Power once a day, expending one channel divinity use to recharge a spell slot.

like all paladins, you also get a bit of Divine Health, though oathbreakers don’t have an oath with any gods so I don’t know where it’s coming from. real useful in the middle of a pandemic though.

finally, oathbreakers get their own freebie spells, so your potential spell list it truly gargantuan for a paladin. you can either use a Hellish Rebuke to counter an attack with flames or Inflict Wounds at melee range. it’s basically a stronger, but less accurate smite.

4. Paladin 4: fourth level paladins get their first Ability Score Improvement, though we’re using it to grab the Dual Wielder feat. be honest, you were just drawing both clubs in one free action anyway, weren’t you? the only real benefit we get from this feat (unless your DM is a real stickler for rules) is an AC boos, but we’ll take whatever we can get since we can’t do the usual sword & board.

5. Paladin 5: fifth level paladins get an Extra Attack each action, so with two weapons you can get… three attacks per turn! yep, the offhand attack never gets any better throughout the build. it makes sense- actually doubling your attacks per turn would be really broken. still, you have three smite chances per turn, which can still be a lot of damage, especially with your second level spell slots.

oh yeah, speaking of- none of your extended options are more useful than divine smites. you can use Find Steed now though! still not sure why Huyan Zhuo isn’t a rider, to be honest. her story seems to be way more horse-centric than assassination-centric. yeah, for once we’re not picking up magic weapon here- by the time you’re regularly encountering enemies that resist or block nonmagical damage your clubs’ d4s will practically be a rounding error in terms of damage anyway.

6. Fighter 1: moving over to fighter, we can get Two Weapon Fighting as our Fighting Style, which actually is helpful! now you can add your strength to your offhand club damage. that’s a whopping three extra damage per turn, which doesn’t sound like a lot but that’s practically another extra attack on its own.

you could also use that bonus action for a Second Wind, giving you yet another way to heal yourself in a pinch. if I did the math right, you could practically bring yourself up from 1 hp to full health in one turn now!

7. Fighter 2: there is a bigger reason to pop into fighter though- second level fighters can use an Action Surge once per short rest. that is a no-strings-attached extra action: you can cast a second levelled spell in a turn with it, or just pump out more attacks for a grand total of five in one turn. you may not hit for much, but you do hit a lot.

8. Paladin 6: at sixth level, you gain the thing that messed with Astolfo’s build as well, the Aura of Protection, adding your charisma modifier to every save you or a friend within ten feet of you makes for as long as you’re conscious. this is the exact opposite of lowering your wisdom save, but it’s simply unavoidable.

9. Paladin 7: at seventh level, oathbreakers get an Aura of Hate, giving yourself, fiends, and undead near you a +3 bonus to all melee weapon damage. uniquely, you don’t actually have to be conscious for this one. okay, now your clubs are starting to do decent damage again! maybe invest in those magic weapons after all.

you can also use Harness Divine Power twice a day now.

10. Paladin 8: at eighth level, you get another ASI, so bump up that Strength for more accurate and damaging club swings. if we’re gonna pour good money after bad into this, we might as well do it right.

11. Paladin 9: ninth level paladins get third level spells. if you really want to maximize your damage capabilities, the oathbreaker exclusive Animate Dead can help, or you can use the gruul anarch’s Conjure Animals for a more traditional looking herd of horses. if your dm does sign off on letting you make a bunch of undead horses, it would be really funny to have them all under the effect of Crusader’s Mantle. it’s like divine favor- a slow-burn smite- but it affects every friendly creature within 30’ of you. if you can keep that spell up for even a round or two it’ll more than pay for itself.

12. Paladin 10: tenth level paladins get an Aura of Courage, preventing friendly creatures within it from being frightened. fortunately, “demoralized” isn’t “frightened”, so it doesn’t actually mess with Huyan Zhuo’s whole schtick too much.

13. Paladin 11: eleventh level paladins get an Improved Divine Smite, adding a d8 of radiant damage to every melee weapon attack you do.

14. Paladin 12: at twelfth level, use your next ASI to grab the Crusher feat, rounding out your Constitution for an extra HP each time you level up, including retroactively. it also lets you push people around when you hit them with a bludgeoning attack each turn, and crits cause everyone attacking that creature to get advantage to hit them until your next turn. yes, like a surprisingly large number of quick servant builds, this one’s also a crit-fishing bonanza! why did you think we wanted so many attacks?

15. Paladin 13: thirteenth level paladins get fourth level spells, so we can finally get some of Empusa’s mind-controlling effects. from your extended spell lists, Confusion and Dominate Beast work best for this. you can also use Stoneskin thanks to being an anarch, which.. kinda? works. I mean your leg’s metal, not stone, but close enough.

you can also pick up Banishment for your invuln pierce this level- it doesn’t matter how much damage you’re doing if you can just. undo someone in one hit.

16. Paladin 14: ironically, at this level paladins gain a Cleansing Touch- you can use your action to end one spell on yourself or a willing creature three times a day. I mean it makes some kind of sense- you can just hypnotize people to… not be hypnotized? I guess? this is confusing.

17. Paladin 15: what’s less confusing is your last goodie from being an oathbreaker, your Supernatural Resistance, halving the damage you take from non-magical weapons. obviously empusa aren’t in D&D but they feel like the kind of monster to have damage resistances.

18. Paladin 16: use your last ASI to max out your Strength. I mean we might as well. gotta get those damage numbers up for farming.

19. Paladin 17: at long last, we finally get our fifth level spells, including Huyan Zhuo’s noble phantasm, Destructive Wave. for extra authenticity, be sure to conjure up a bunch of horses before using this! your empusa side also lets you use Geas and Dominate Person, and you can invuln pierce without having to save if you use a Banishing Smite- using your strength is also much more accurate than a spell at this point.

20. Paladin 18: our final level of the build causes all your auras to reach out 30’ around you instead of a measly 10 feet. it’s not flashy, but it is pretty dang useful, especially if you’re zipping around the battlefield on a horse.

Pros & Cons:

Pros:

like all paladins, Huyan Zhuo is particularly powerful when it comes to burst damage, though her extra dip into fighter makes her even moreso. with action surge and all your most powerful spell slots, you could deal an average of 173 damage in a single turn, up to a maximum of over 280!

your abilities also make you surprisingly good at leading an army, which fits your noble phantasm being a ton of horses trampling people. admittedly it does work better with undead subordinates, but still.

you are incredibly sturdy when it comes to physical attacks, though you’re no slouch against magic either. your strength and classes let you don the sturdiest of armor, giving you an ac of 20 while your weapons are drawn, plus your resistance to nonmagical attacks making your solid health even tougher to break through.

Cons:

much like Huyan Zhuo herself, this build doesn’t last long in a fight. you can only action surge once in a fight, and if you run at full power you’ll completely exhaust your spell slots in four turns.

this build also lacks a specific focus, just kind of doing a couple things well, but they don’t quite work together. you can raise an undead army and buff them with magic, but that’ll eat into your high level spells for however long you try to keep them for- and as a paladin your spells are already at a premium. your direct damage dealing is also drawing from the same well, and of course, using clubs instead of any other weapon doesn’t help. of course you could use your defense to play the tank, drawing in problem enemies with compelled duels and such, but your constitution isn’t that good, and without something like warcaster, drawing too much attention will likely cause more problems than it sovles.