Grailfinders

D&D servants: 1 2 3 4

Roles

Mash Kyrielight

Artoria Pendragon

Artoria Alter

Artoria Lily

Nero Claudius

Siegfried

Julius Caesar

Altera

Gilles de Rais

Chevalier d'Eon

EMIYA

Gilgamesh

Robin Hood

Atalante

Euryale

Arash

Cu Chulainn

Elisabeth Bathory

Musashibou Benkei

Cu Chulainn (Prototype)

Leonidas I

Romulus

Medusa

Georgios

Blackbeard

Boudica

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

I’m.. pretty sure this is the first Eli-chan we’ve made since they introduced the gem dragonborn, which is why I’m so thrilled we can finally right the wrongs of the past and make Eli a Sapphire Dragonborn instead of a tiefling. ...Sapphires can be pink, don’t judge me. This gives you a Thunder Breath Weapon that you can use instead of an attack as part of your attack action proficiency times per day. You also get a Draonic Resistance to the same damage type (can’t out-sing the singer, after all), plus a Psionic Mind, letting you speak telepathically to someone within 30’ of you. as a gift. you can also use Gem Flight for a minute per day starting at level 5. oh right, also: +2 Constitution, +1 Charisma.

Since this Eli is now one of the Mount Liang outlaws, it’s pretty obvious that we can change her background to Criminal, despite not usually doing that for variants. that gives her proficiency with Deception, Stealth, and Thieves’ tools.

Ability Scores

Eli’s highest stat is Charisma. Say what you want, she has a big presence. after that is Dexterity- you don’t wear a lot of armor, so avoiding death entirely is best. We have to make Strength pretty high though since you still wear more armor than a monk would. After that is Constitution. you haven’t been allowed to drink yet so you can’t work on that, but you’re a rambunctious kid, you bounce back from everything. speaking of being a kid, that’s why your Wisdom and Intelligence are so low. I don’t think the outlaw had a teacher among them. probably. I mean there were a lot of them… we’re getting off topic.

Class Levels

1. Sorcerer 1: we’re starting with sorcery because you were part dragon waaayyy before you met that stick. and also because the Constitution and Charisma save proficiencies you get here are super important- the Arcana and Insight skill proficiencies are nice too. but also because as a Draconic sorcerer you get a bunch of scales, giving you Draconic Resilience- that’s an extra HP now and every time you level up, plus you get a base AC of 13! (Pink and Red are kind of the same, right? so that’s your Draconic Ancestor. it doesn’t matter right away.)

the important thing is that when you’re a sorcerer you learn spells! a whole bunch, right away. Bright Sparks, Fire Bolt, Dancing Lights, and Burning Hands for some fireworks; Friends to just be the ray of sunshine you already are; and Disguise Self to actually act like an outlaw at times, wild right?

2. Sorcerer 2: second level sorcerers become a Font of Magic- you get your level in sorcery points every day, and you can spend them to make new spell slots, plus other stuff later. you can also turn slots into points, but that’s not an even trade, plus you have nothing else to do with the points right now. Just consider it an extra casting of Feather Fall for the moment- you can’t fly yet, but you’ll get there!

3. Sorcerer 3: at level three you get the actually useful part of sorcery points, where you can spend them to make Metamagic happen, boosting your spells’ power. An Empowered spell costs 1 point, but you can reroll a couple of damage dice if you roll low. meanwhile, a Heightened spell costs three points, but it forces disadvantage on one target’s save. Eli doesn’t strike me as the kind of person to hold back on someone.

speaking of saves and damage, you can now cast Dragon’s Breath, giving anyone you want a different kind of breath weapon! truly it’s the gift that keeps giving.

4. Sorcerer 4: fourth level sorcerers get their first Ability Score Improvement, but improving scores is for neerrrrds! well, we will do that a little bit, but most importantly we’re grabbing the Crusher feat to make your stick a really cool stick when you beat people with it. that rounds up your Strength score for stronger and more accurate attacks. Also, once per turn upon hitting a creature with bludgeoning damage, you can push it around- and when you score a crit, you can give everyone advantage on their attacks against that person! team players, all around.

5. Sorcerer 5: fifth level sorcerers get Magical Guidance, which lets you spend sorcery points on rerolling skill checks, but who cares about that when you can cast Fly! Sure it’s a little redundant, but it’s 1. faster 2. lasts longer and 3. can also be used on others. That last part’s a little OOC, but more options is always better.

6. Sorcerer 6: with our last level of sorcerer you gain an Elemental Affinity for Fire damage. stars are fire, you’re a star, it makes sense if you don’t think about it. You now add your charisma modifier to all spells that deal fire damage (but only to one person if it’s a multi-person hitting spell). when you cast a fire spell, you can also spend a sorcery point to get resistance to fire damage for an hour. Now, you might be thinking, “hey what situation could I possibly be in where I need to cast a fire spell and get fire resistance? most things that are gonna spit fire at me will resist fire too!” and yeah that’s true, but the real strength of this feature is that it doesn’t specify a leveled spell. so you can cast fire bolt at a wall and get the benefits of the defense with almost no resource cost.

you can also cast Melf’s Minute Meteors, a spell certain to ruin the day of any nearby casters as you pelt them with tiny shooting stars. minute stars, one could say. like the water margin.

7. Warlock 1: okay, enough of the normal eli stuff. let’s get dangerous. starting as a warlock gets you nothing new since you’re not actually starting as a warlock, but you do get to make a pact with a Genie, specifically an Efreeti, right away! this gets you Pact Magic, which is like regular magic except it recharges on short rests. it doesn’t really mesh with your normal magic slots, so you don’t need to worry about the multiclassing spell sheet this time- though you can cast warlock spells with sorcerer slots and vice versa. Working with the efreeti gives us an extended spell list, which we’re not using right away but it’s nice to have. you do get Booming Blade and Green-Flame Blade for your dragon stick which we technically don’t have yet, plus Distort Value to actually do some criminal activity, and Charm Person to basically just be Elisa. she’s clearly charmed the devs at least.

8. Warlock 2: second level warlocks get Eldritch Invocations, little ways to customize your play-acting. With the Thief of Five Fates, you can cast Bane once a day, making up to three people who fail their charisma saves a little bit worse for up to a minute. unlike a lot of other debuff spells, this one doesn’t come with extra saves afterwards! ...hey, I know it’s a bit out of Eli’s wheelhouse, but we gotta steal something to be an outlaw. as usual, we’re saving the other invocation for level three, when we can grab a pact-specific one. you can also Cause Fear now, and spread a little chaos for the other outlaws to take advantage of.

9. Warlock 3: finally, time for a magic dragon stick! with Pact of the Blade and Improved Pact Weapon, you can summon any weapon you can think of as an action, but it’ll disappear if you leave it alone for a minute. you can also bind a magical weapon to you if you wanna for an hour. it also counts for your spellcasting focus so you can use your quarterstaff two-handed without issue, and it gets a +1 bonus to all attack and damage rolls. you can also make it a ranged weapon, but obviously that’s not a priority for us in this build, especially with the extra fireworks you can fire off this level thanks to Scorching Ray.

10. Warlock 4: fourth level warlocks also get an ASI, so bump up that Charisma for flashier fireworks and an even cuter Eli. oh, you can also use Mage Hand (your dragon grabbing something off the high shelf for you) and Borrowed Knowledge (asking the other outlaws for help with something) now.

11. Warlock 5: fifth level warlocks get third level spells, and we all know what you’ve been waiting for: Fireball! it fire. it ball. what are you, jokester? your dragon is also a Thirsting Blade despite not drawing blood nor being a blade, letting you attack twice per action.

12. Warlock 6: at sixth level, genie warlocks are given an Elemental Gift! you now resist your own fireworks, and as a bonus action you can ride on your dragon staff for up to ten minutes at a time. you can activate this proficiency times a day, which is kind of wild to get that much flight at level six. or, well, it would if we weren’t multiclassing. still, like, half an hour of flight isn’t bad even at level 12. you can also Create Food and Water to throw a proper banquet for your friends!

13. Warlock 7: fourth level spell time! Phantasmal Killer is the closest we can get to actually summoning any outlaws of Mount Liang, sad to say. still, an imaginary friend is better than none at all, right? you also get Trickster’s Escape, letting you cast freedom of movement for free once a day. getting arrested is just kind of a job hazard as an outlaw, but actually staying arrested sucks! don’t do that!

14. Warlock 8: eighth level warlocks get another ASI so bump up that Strength because we are not hexblade warlocks! also I lied earlier! you can now Summon the Thing with the Writhing Tail, aka Tamamo Cat. it can see invisible creatures, attack multiple times per turn, hiss at people to make them run away, or pseudo-stun someone for a turn!

15. Warlock 9: ninth level warlock, meet fifth level spells! Flame Strike is just about the biggest firework you can have, and you can also summon some Minions of Chaos once a day. these elementals might run wild, but that’s just kind of how these sorts of parties go, y’know?

16. Warlock 10: At tenth level, you can use your genie’s vessel as a Sanctuary Vessel, bringing up to five creatures inside with you! finally, a proper meeting hall for the mount liang outlaws! you and everyone else inside can also short rest a bit faster, and they heal a bit better in there too. must be all the free booze.

17. Warlock 11: eleventh level warlocks get another weird kind of spell this level, the Mystic Arcanum. basically you can pick one spell at each level (right now sixth) and you can cast it once per day- but it doesn’t count as a spell slot, so you can only use it for that one specific spell, for example, Tasha’s Otherworldly Guise. there’s way too much in that spell to go into detail, but it’ll make you a shooting star, just like your NP.

18. Warlock 12: use your last ASI on some Dexterity so you don’t die, and grab Lifedrinker to deal even more damage with your funny stick friend.

19. Warlock 13: our last spell: Crown of Stars. it’s a shame this spell does radiant damage instead of fire damage, but I picked it up more for the name than the actual effect.

20. Warlock 14: I lied again! you should see the look on your face! our real last spell is Limited Wish, which admittedly is kind of cheating since it’s actually any spell, as long as it’s sixth level or lower, and has a casting time of exactly one action. on the upside, it skips all the other requirements, like actually being one of the classes that can cast the spell and material components! as another downside, it recharges every 1d4 days instead of daily. this is the worst compliment sandwich I’ve ever seen.

Pros & Cons:

Pros:

once again, being a spellcaster that flies is amazing in terms of just never getting hit by anything. a clever DM will use this against you, but if you’re playing in an adventurer’s league game or something there’s a good chance you’ll just be immune to a good chunk of the enemies, while still being able to rain hellfire down on them.

speaking of fire, yours is a little hotter than most, with all sorts of neat tricks added to your spells thanks to your subclasses. it’s nothing flashy, but it’s efficient.

despite the overall focus on damage, this build still ended up with a lot of utility as well, helping the party with traversal, survival, and social situations. a real eli of all trades!

Cons:

we used our two subclasses to specialize in fire, the most-resisted damage type in the game outside of nonmagical weapons.

this feeds into the build’s general inconsistency when it comes to its most useful powers. your damage is often blocked or resisted, your most powerful ability recharges over multiple days, and you have a lot of utility- tied to warlock spell slots, the smallest amount of magic you can have at one time.

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.

Ancestry & Background

Iyo is, of course, a Human-ish. at the very least she’s a variant of one, so that means she gets +1 Strength & Wisdom, as well as proficiency in Nature, and the feat Scion of the Outer Planes (Evil). thankfully there’s no alignment requirements for this, so you don’t actually have to play an evil character to get your resistance to necrotic damage and a free Chill Touch cantrip. We’re not getting the follow-up feat this time, but it felt like a nice nod to Iyo’s backstory.

Speaking of backstories, Iyo is an Acolyte, which gives her proficiency in the skills Insight and Religion. Your skill with the former probably explains why you cut ties with your previous religion, come to think of it.

Ability Scores

Iyo’s highest ability score is Wisdom, as both of your classes use it extensively. After that is Dexterity, as Iyo doesn’t wear armor and manages to survive doing so, as well as needs it for multiclassing. Third is Strength. You’re nowhere near as powerful as Himiko, but you do get some solid kicks in from time to time. we’re of course giving you a positive Constitution because we don’t hate ourselves, so that means your Intelligence is nothing to write home about, and your Charisma is abysmal. you were almost literally raised by wolves, I think. it’s been a while since her event.

Class Levels

1. Ranger 1: starting off as a ranger gets you plenty of goodies- you’re proficient in Strength & Dexterity saves, as well as Animal Handling, Perception, & Stealth. you also get your first Favored Enemy, which gives you bonuses to track and recall information about Celestials. you were raised to fight them and work for them, so it works out no matter how you slice it. that’s also why you’re Canny when it comes to Religion since you’re a Deft Explorer. it’s just doubled proficiency.

2. Ranger 2: at second level, rangers can finally use Spells, like Beast Bond and Hunter’s Mark. the latter adds extra damage to your attacks against a single target and you can track them more easily, which is nice since we still only have your kicks to deal damage with, and Sanji you certainly are not. meanwhile, the former lets you form a psychic link with a friendly beast for up to ten minutes. as long as you two are in line of sight, you can share telepathic messages, and the beast gets advantage on attack rolls against enemies you both can see.

you also get the Blind Fighting fighting style, letting you instantly know the exact location of any creature within ten feet of you. turns out being the oracle of darkness means you’ll be in the dark a lot, and your puny human eyes can’t really see in that.

let’s fix that.

3. Ranger 3: third level rangers gain a Primal Awareness of the world around them, letting you cast a whole bunch of cool spells. right now you learn Speak with Animals for free, but more will come with time.

speaking of spells, you can cast Detect Poison and Disease now, which is just kind of a neat thing for a ruler to be able to do. sure wish our rulers could do that, they’d probably have way less issue with vaccines if they could.

but you’re also a Gloom Stalker, which gets you yet another freebie spell- Disguise Self. this 100% doesn’t fit the build it’s just a bonus for joining up with the subclass.

the stuff we do want are the gloomstalker abilities like Dread Ambusher, which adds your wisdom to your initiative and speeds up your first turn in terms of literal speed and extra damage, and Umbral Sight, which gives you 60 of Darkvision plus invisibility against other darkvision-using creatures. which is… everyone but humans and dragonborn, basically.

4. Ranger 4: use your first Ability Score Improvement to bump up your Strength a little. you mostly use magic, but we don’t really have a good spammable magic option yet, so your feet will have to pick up the slack for now.

5. Ranger 5: in that same vein, your Extra Attack this level lets you attack twice per action. Iyo does have two feet, after all.

your oracle abilities now expand to let you Locate Objects, and you also get Rope Trick and Beast Sense for free from your subclass and class, respectively.

6. Ranger 6: at sixth level you can pick another Favored Enemy, and we’re grabbing Fiend this time. that’s probably the closest description to your old boss, and you definitely end up fighting him plenty too.

you’re also a Roving Deft Explorer now, granting you a slight boost in movement speed, as well as a significantly faster climbing and swimming speed. Just ‘cause we’re not going with monk levels doesn’t mean we can’t get some mobility options.

7. Ranger 7: seventh level gloom stalkers gain an Iron Mind, giving you proficiency on Wisdom saves. you can’t be fooled by illusions if it’s too dark to see them, duhhh.

also you can cast Aid now, giving up to three creatures an extra 5 HP for the day.

8. Ranger 8: at level eight you get another ASI, so bump up that Constitution for more not-dying. you can also use your Land’s Stride now, letting you move through nonmagical difficult terrain like it wasn’t there, and you have advantage on saves against, specifically, magical plants. I’m sure there’s plenty of those in the void.

9. Ranger 9: with our last level of ranger, we finally get third level spells! your freebies are Fear & Speak with Plants, but we’re here for the one we can choose- Conjure Animals. now you can use wild beasts to fight divinities, just like your weirdly specific toolkit was meant to do! for some reason. to be fair thanks to the action economy 24 squirrels can take on just about anything.

10. Cleric 1: now for a change of pace: time to rule! as acleric you can cast and prepare spells using your wisdom, including your freebies Faerie Fire and Sleep. for cantrips, grab Guidance and Resistance to make yourself a bit better (or to… ugh, help people, I guess.), plus Toll the Dead to finally have a spammable magic option! bells, rocks, same difference really.

since you can prepare your cleric spells each day, you don’t need to worry too much about specifics, but make sure to keep an eye out for any spells that start with Detect, as well as Protection from Evil and Good for more magical defense, and Purify Food and Drink to, y’know, actually help your country. also for your poison resistance.

but! you’re not just a cleric, but a Twilight cleric! that gives you some extra armor proficiencies, as well as granting you the Eyes of Night. now you can use darkvision up to 300 feet away, and you can share that boon with nearby creatures for up to an hour each day. you can also grant yourself or others a Vigilant Blessing for advantage on their next initiative roll. this can be used as often as you like, but only one person can use it at a time.

11. Cleric 2: second level clerics can Channel Divinity once per short rest, and once per long rest they can use one of their channel divinity uses to recharge their spell slots. on top of that, you can use channel divinity in one of two ways- Turn Undead forces nearby undead to flee from you if they fail a wisdom save. alternatively, you can create a Twilight Sanctuary as an action, making a 30’ radius bubble that’s always centered on you for up to a minute. every creature that ends its turn in the bubble can be granted either temporary HP, or removal of one charming/frightening effect.

12. Cleric 3: third level clerics get second level spells. your freebies are Moonbeam and See Invisibility, but I’d also look into Prayer of Healing, Spiritual Weapon, and Augury. the first for more support, the last for your oracle-ness, and the middle one to better serve as those prayer beads or w/e you’re always throwing around.

13. Cleric 4: use this ASI to bump up your Wisdom for stronger spells and more options to prepare. you also get another cantrip, and since you’re definitely working for gods now, pick up Thaumaturgy.

14. Cleric 5: fifth level clerics can Destroy Undead instead of turning them if their CR is ½ or less. you also get third level spells, like Aura of Vitality and Leomund’s Tiny Hut, though we’re more interested in the ones you can choose like Bestow Curse, Magic Circle, Mass Healing Word, Spirit Guardians, and Clairvoyance. yeah, you have a lot of options this level. almost like Iyo’s some kind of powerful spellcaster or something.

15. Cleric 6: sixth level clerics can channel divinity twice per short rest, or recharge using it twice per day. you also learn how to take Steps of Night, letting you fly as a bonus action as long as you’re in dim light or darkness. each use lasts a minute, and you can use this proficiency times per day. interestingly, this feature only checks the light level when you use it, so you can fly through a brightly lit area as much as you wish. I wouldn’t say Iyo really has flight, but pretty much every NP involves its user floating into the air by this point so I won’t lose sleep over it.

16. Cleric 7: you know the deal, it’s an odd level so we get more magic. your freebies are Aura of Life and Greater Invisibility. you’re already in darkness so much you might as well be invisible, but we’re here more for the choice spells, like Doomtide and Divination. obviously the latter is just more oracle stuff, but the former is a new spell from… *shudder* the new ruleset. translated to 5e, it makes a 20’ radius sphere of fog-induced darkness, which is basically regular darkness but strong winds can dispel it. each creature that enters the sphere or starts their turn in it makes a wisdom save. on a failure, they take 5d6 psychic damage and have their saves reduced by 1d6 until the end of their next turn, with half damage and no extra effects on a success. each turn, the sphere drifts ten feet away from you.

it’s a shame that it can’t stick in one spot, but the flavor of it was too good to pass up on.

17. Cleric 8: at eighth level you can max out your Wisdom, and Destroy Undead hits CR 1 creatures now. you also gain Divine Strikes- once per turn, you can add radiant damage to one weapon attack. with this and hunter’s mark, your kicks are a weapon worth fearing, if an impractical one to actually use.

18. Cleric 9: time for fifth level spells! Circle of Power and Mislead are your freebies, but we’re here for Commune to get answers straight from the source, and Hollow to make a little slice of the void here on earth. or heaven. guess it depends on how far along your character arc is at this point.

19. Cleric 10: tenth level clerics get Divine Intervention, where you beg god to help your specific problem and there’s a 1/10 chance they’ll actually help. if you fail, you can try again tomorrow; but if you succeed, you have to wait a whole week. it’s potentially super powerful. but only potentially. a 1/10 shot shouldn’t be counted on, but it might just save you as a literal hail mary shot.

20. Cleric 11: eleventh level clerics can destroy CR 2 undead, but you’re here for the final level of spells! unfortunately there aren’t many I actually like for Iyo at sixth level. the only one that sticks out to me is Dirge, also from the new ruleset. when cast, you make a 60’ bubble around yourself for up to a minute, choosing any creatures you like to be unaffected by the spell. while active, creatures within can’t regain HP, and whenever the spell and a creature overlap (or the creature starts its turn inside), they’re forced to make a constitution save. on a failure, they take 3d10 necrotic damage and fall prone. on a successful save, the damage is halved, as is the creature’s speed. of course, this only happens once per turn, so you can’t just walk back and forth hitting one guy over and over again.

Pros & Cons:

Pros:

just like her fgo form, this Iyo has plenty of Magic Resistance, with proficiency in the two most common magic saves in the game, plus further resistances to the most common status effects.

unsurprisingly, picking two different subclasses that specialize in hanging out in the darkness makes you pretty dang good at stealth, no matter what your actual abilities are. slip into darkness and become literally invisible to just about everything in the game, and if there’s no darkness, you can easily make some for yourself.

we didn’t go too much into detail about the cleric spell list, but it gives you some of the best support spells in the game for your party, and this build is largely about helping everyone out, whether through buffs or overwhelming numbers via summoned animals.

Cons:

rushing to get conjure animals left us without a good combat spell for almost ten levels, with nothing else to work with except monkless unarmed strikes. if you actually plan on playing this character I highly recommend either swallowing your pride and using actual weapons, or add a cleric level or two earlier in the build.

on a related note, you won’t actually get much of a chance to kick people what with your squishiness making melee combat a rough sell for you. you have a decent amount of HP, but if we’re playing to character you wouldn’t be wearing armor, which means you have a grand total of 12 AC. again, this is only playing to character- obviously you could just wear armor if you want.

Ancestry & Background

keisuke is, shockingly, still a Human, so he gets +1 Dexterity and Intelligence, as well as proficiency with Acrobatics for anime-style sword-fighting and the Martial Adept feat, which gives you a d6 of superiority that you can spend once per short rest on either Evasive Footwork (adding the roll to your AC as long as you keep moving for a turn) or a Tactical Assessment (adding it to an investigation, insight, or history check). you’re only wearing a haori, you need all the extra AC you can get.

speaking of, as a member of the City Watch keisuke gets proficiency with Insight and Investigation.

Ability Scores

keisuke is the most learned of the shinsengumi but I like living, so the top three ability scores are Dexterity, Wisdom, and then Intelligence. we’ll also have a positive Constitution since we’re not Okita. that means our Charisma is a bit low. he’s not quite as good at talking as he should be, but Guda would let someone on their team even if they outright said they’d betray them later, so the check isn’t that high. finally, we’re dumping Strength. we’ll get athletics proficiency later, we really just don’t need it here.

Class Levels

1. Monk 1: speaking of not needing strength and getting athletics proficiency, starting off as a monk gives you proficiency in Strength and Dexterity saves, as well as two skills from the monk list like Stealth and Athletics. furthermore, your Martial Arts lets you use dexterity instead of strength to punch/stab things, you’ll always deal a minimum of 1d4 damage with monk weapons, and you can punch as a bonus action after attacking with said weapons. man this game is easy when a class just deletes the need for a whole ability score.

you also get Unarmored Defense, adding your wisdom to your AC as long as you’re-get this-not wearing armor.

2. Monk 2: at level two, monks can use Ki, which they get a max amount of equal to their level that refreshes every short or long rest. right now you can spend one ki as a bonus action to dodge, disengage, dash, or attack twice with unarmed attacks. it’s more tactics, y’know, because keisuke’s a smort guy.

you also get Unarmored Movement which adds to your movement while you’re unarmored! this won’t be quite as fast as Okita’s, but you can keep up with the criminals at least. speaking of Okita, if you want to swing a long-sword like she does in her build you’ll have to settle for making it your Dedicated Weapon, which you can do over a short or long rest. at least, you will be able to, after we multi-class.

3. Monk 3: third level monks join their monastery, and as a Shadow monk you learn to just never play fair, ever. thanks to your Shadow Arts, you can spend 2 ki points to cast darkness, darkvision, pass without trace, or silence, and you learn the minor illusion cantrip for free. lightning round- these spells: make an area of darkness few things can see through, let you see better in non magical darkness, travel without being tracked, prevents any sound from entering or exiting an area, and make small illusory effects.

all monks at third level can also Deflect Missiles as a reaction, blunting ranged attacks and letting you throw them back at the enemy if you block all damage and are willing to spend ki on it. speaking of spending ki (you’ll hear that a lot in this class) you can also make a Ki-Fueled Attack after spending ki as your action, letting you make a regular attack as a bonus action for free.

4. Monk 4: fourth level monks get their very first Ability Score Improvement, so bump up that Wisdom for stronger spells, investigatory powers, and armor! you can also Slow Fall this level, reducing all falling damage for free!

finally, as an optional rule you can spend even more ki as an action to activate your Quickened Healing, healing hp equal to a roll of your martial arts die plus your proficiency bonus.

5. Monk 5: fifth level is when monk really gets silly. you can make an Extra Attack every turn, and you can turn any one of those attacks into a Stunning Strike. if you spend a ki point, and they fail a constitution save, they’re stunned until the end of your next turn. this gives all melee attacks against them advantage. so you can stun them even easier next turn, they automatically fail strength and dexterity saves, and they don’t even get their next turn!

6. Fighter 1: being able to zip around like an anime character is nice, but to really be a saber we need to- no, not shoot beams, don’t be silly. we have to use a better sword! as a fighter you get proficiency with every kind of weapon, so you can go nuts! you also get a Fighting Style, and the Superior Technique Parry adds a second superiority die to your pool, and you can now use them to block incoming melee damage as well!

you also start off your fighting career with a Second Wind, letting you heal yourself as a bonus action. it’s starting to get a bit crowded in there, but you don’t have much HP anyway, so any extra you can get is a nice bonus.

7. Fighter 2: second level fighters can use an Action Surge once per short rest, adding an extra action to your turn. now you can hit people up to six times in a turn! most fighters have to wait another four levels before they can do that!

8. Fighter 3: as a brand new purple dragon knight- sorry, a Banneret, we’re not in the champagne region of France, your Rallying Cry lets you heal up to three creatures around you when you use your second wind. what a kind boy, that keisuke. almost like that’s one of his skills or somethin’.

9. Fighter 4: at fourth level we get another ASI, so bump up that Wisdom again. they don’t call him “the literate one” for nothin’! the fact that it also helps us not die is a nice bonus.

10. Fighter 5: fifth level fighters get… nothing! they would get an extra attack this level, but it doesn’t stack with the one we get from monk. we’re still ahead of the curve when it comes to hitting stuff though, and the extra HP is nice.

11. Fighter 6: sixth level fighters get yet another ASI, and while we’re on the ‘HP is Nice’ train, let’s grab some more Constitution. that means you get an extra 11 HP right away, plus an extra point of HP each time you level up!

12: Fighter 7: as a seventh level banneret, you become a Royal Envoy, which really just means you’re proficient in Persuasion now. so it’s easier to weasel your way back onto the team after you literally just betrayed us you- sorry. sorry, I’m fine. but it’s not just a proficiency bonus, because you actually get expertise, i.e. a doubled proficiency boost.

13. Monk 6: moving back to monk to finish things up real quick, your Ki-Empowered Strikes make your unarmed attacks magical, though you’ll have to find magical swords for your weapons. but you also get our last shadow monk goodie, letting you Shadow Step as a bonus action! who cares about what your speed is when you can literally teleport between spaces in dim light? it even gives you free advantage on your next attack!

14. Monk 7: our last level of monk gives you Evasion, making your dexterity saves super-powered. now failing is as good as succeeding in any other class, and succeeding completely negates the incoming damage! you also get a Stillness of Mind, letting you spend an action to do the cool anime glasses thing (you know the one) to end one effect charming or frightening you. it’s very helpful if you’re going to work with that tea seller for any length of time.

15. Fighter 8: back at fighter, your next ASI maxes out your Wisdom score, for the strongest stunning strikes, spells, and AC. I mean, not the strongest AC, that would require us improving your dexterity.

16. Fighter 9: ninth level fighters are Indomitable- you can re-roll a failed save at no cost to you, outside of having to wait til the next day to do it again. given how long it takes to recharge, I recommend using it on saves you’re good at. which means just. not charisma saves, I guess. I didn’t realize how good this build was at saving itself, neat.

17. Fighter 10: tenth level bannerets have an Inspiring Surge- when you use your action surge, you can also let an ally attack with their reaction. all the shinsengumi have some crazy bullshit they can pull off, letting them do it more often is just good tactics.

18. Fighter 11: eleventh level fighters get another Extra Attack, and this one does stack! that means you attack three times per action, for up to a total of eight times in a single turn with action surge and a flurry of blows! it really says something about the shinsengumi when even their designated nerd can kick this much ass at a time.

19. Fighter 12: we got wisdom all the way up, so now we have no excuse… we can finally bump up your Intelligence! it doesn’t help the build at all, but it is in character! maybe grab dexterity instead if you want an actually intelligent move here.

20. Fighter 13: thirteenth level fighters get another roll of Indomitable per day. it’s not flashy, but not getting disintegrated is pretty nice, not gonna lie.

Pros & Cons

Pros:

you only have two saving throws that are less than +3, none that have any negative modifiers, and you even get two uses of indomitable for extra insurance. if someone wants to hurt you, they’ll have to hit you directly.

of course, hitting you directly is easier said than done. you have a base AC of 18, monk’s natural defenses (being faster than most enemies and dodging available without having to stop attacking), as well as battle master maneuvers giving you even more AC or blocking what little damage can get through. and then we get into your shadow monk shenanigans with being able to teleport out of bad situations or just set up smokescreens to get away.

you’re a great second string as the party’s face in case the bard’s out sick a session. banneret giving you expertise in persuasion is a huge boon, and monk’s focus on wisdom and insight means it’ll be hard to get anything past you.

Cons:

you’re certainly not bad at dealing damage by yourself, but one of your subclasses is literally built around having a party, your swords don’t innately get magical damage, and your best attacking stat never got any bonuses since character creation. you can probably solo some enemies, but expect the fight to drag on if you have to do any rescue missions.

you’re also really bad a prolonged fights thanks to the extremely restrictive amount of stuff you have to work with. only seven ki points, two indomitables, and two superiority dice at a time! thank goodness you usually end up fighting Okita.

Abilities and Background

Rikyu is still… kind of? human? so they’ve got +1 Constitution and +1 Wisdom, as well as proficiency in Nature to find the best leaves, and you get the Chef feat, adding another +1 Wisdom. this gives you proficiency in using cooking utensils, and you can create tea as part of your short or long rests- with a short rest, you can add 1d8 hp to any your party heals, and with a long rest (or one hour) you can create a few to-go cups that last 8 hours. during that time, a creature can spend their bonus action to drink your tea, gaining temporary hp. technically the feat says this is food, but I doubt anyone will really worry about the flavor of this one.

you’re still a Guild Merchant as you were in life, so that’s proficiency in Insight and Persuasion. outside of magically forcing people to drink your tea, charisma is still the best way to get new customers.

on a related note…

Ability Scores

your Wisdom should be as high as possible. that’s how you force people to drink your tea after all. after that is Dexterity. this one has less of an FGO reason attached, but you fight in a dress and you don’t die in one hit. ...well actually you’re a berserker, so you might die in one hit. but that would be boring in D&D, so. Dexterity. third up is Constitution. if you’ve ever been to a tea ceremony, you know those things go on forever, so. a little extra health doesn’t help. after that is Intelligence. tea ceremonies are complex, so you gotta be a little smart to do it once. this means your Charisma is neutral. bringing in customers is more Guda’s job anyway. finally, we’re dumping Strength. we’ve got ways to lift anything we need for the shop.

Class Levels

1. Monk 1: we’re starting off as monk mostly so you don’t die, because monks at level one can use Unarmored Defense, adding their wisdom modifier to their AC as long as they aren’t wearing armor or shields. they can also use Martial Arts to use their dexterity on monk weapon attacks instead of strength, and they’ll always do a minimum of 1d4 damage, though that will go up as you level. the downside of starting as monk is that you’ll have to rely on your noodle arms to do damage for a level, though at least after spending an action to attack you can then spend your bonus action to attack again with an unarmed strike.

starting off as a monk also gets you proficiency with Strength and Dexterity saves, as well as Stealth and History. you are a ghost of the past, so all that fits.

2. Druid 1: now that your survival is more assured, we can start the build proper. bouncing over to the first level of druid, you can pick up Druidic. it’s a language. you can also cast and prepare Spells, using your Wisdom score.

you can Produce Flame and use Druidcraft as your cantrips to make tea whenever you wish. if you need customers you can also Charm Person to get them to sit down and drink- if you need more supplies you can use Goodberry to fill up your party, or use Create or Destroy Water and/or Purify Food and Drink. shockingly, our low-level spells are pretty heavily wabi-sabi.

3. Druid 2: second level druids can use Wild Shape or Wild Companion, though tbh we don’t really need either one for this build. you also join the Witherbloom circle this level, one of the funky strixhaven subclasses that are class-agnostic. this means that right away you get Cure Wounds, Inflict Wounds, and Spare the Dying for free- I doubt the wisdom of pouring hot tea into an unconscious person’s mouth, but that’s why we’re using magic tea, I guess. you can also drink from an Essence Tap proficiency times per day, either letting you heal yourself as a bonus action for up to a minute, or changing all damage you do to necrotic while also ignoring resistances for the same amount of time. you’re good with tea and curses, it’s the duality of hot leaf juice.

4. Druid 3: third level druids learn second level spells, including your freebies Lesser Restoration and Ray of Enfeeblement. a nice cuppa is great for minor illnesses, and do you really want to fight people when there’s tea to be had?

you can also pick up more spells- for stronger herbal teas, Enhance Ability gives the drinker advantage on one kind of ability check for a time. for more curses, Hold Person can force someone to stick around and have more tea, regardless of what they’re in the middle of. for both, Wither and Bloom is basically Essence Tap in a spell- deal necrotic damage, and heal a party member, all in the same go.

5. Druid 4: fourth level druids get a Wild Shape Improvement, but better yet, they have an Ability Score Improvement, which you can use on your Dexterity for a better AC and more coordination when balancing tea cups. you can also Shape Water now, which makes for a fun party trick while pouring tea.

6. Druid 5: fifth level druids get third level spells, like your freebies Revivify and Vampiric Touch. the latter is more of what we’ve seen so far, and the former is a further escalation of the healing powers of tea you already have at your disposal. for something truly new, check out the spell Protection from Energy, which will give you resistance to one type of elemental damage for a bit- perfect to avoid burning yourself.

7. Druid 6: sixth level witherbluids can make a Witherbloom Brew, giving you proficiency with herbalism kits just in case the cooking utensils don’t cover everything you need for teas already.

oh right, you can also use said kit over a long rest, making a tea that lasts for 24 hours. when drunk, the tea will either fortify the drinker, giving them resistance to a particular damage type for an hour; quicken them, healing a few hit points and curing them of a disease or a minor status effect; or act as a toxin- when applied to a weapon, this brew will add poison damage to a weapon’s next successful attack, and forcing a constitution save to apply the poison status for a minute.

8. Druid 7: seventh level druids get fourth level spells. Blight is your next freebie but for once it doesn’t fit the build- who heard of tea dehydrating someone? get out of here with that fancy “diuretic” talk. that being said, Greater Restoration is much more in your wheelhouse. or, teahouse, I guess.

for other spells, use Confusion to make your tea a little stronger if you know what I mean, and Divination to read tea leaves.

9. Druid 8: eighth level druids get another WSI, but use your ASI to become a bit more Resilient. this improves your Wisdom score by one, and gives you proficiency with those saves! another reason we didn’t start as druid.

10. Druid 9: ninth level druids get fifth level spells, including our last freebies Antilife Shell and Mass Cure Wounds. not sure about the former, but we’re halfway through the build now, we’d better be able to whip up a bunch of tea quickly by now. by now your tea’s good enough to Reincarnate a certain someone to act as your host, and nasty enough that you can curse someone with a Contagion for a week if they’re not careful.

11. Druid 10: tenth level witherbloom druids become Witherbloom Adepts- once per turn, you can add your proficiency bonus to an instance of necrotic damage or healing you do. a +4 bonus doesn’t sound like a lot, but it’ll add up.

you can also use tasseography more often now thanks to the Guidance cantrip. shockingly, seeing the future makes everything a bit easier to do. aside from beating Chaldea, I guess.

12. Druid 11: we don’t get any freebies for our sixth level spells, but we do get Heroes’ Feast! okay the description of the spell explicitly mentions food, but it also mentions magnificent drinks, and that’s what we do best! it takes an hour to drink, and afterwards participants gain temporary HP for a day, immunity to poison and being frightened, advantage on all wisdom saves, and they’re cured of all diseases and poisons currently affecting them! hell of a tea ceremony, I’d say.

13. Druid 12: one last ASI before we finally get back into monk- bump up your Wisdom for a better AC and better punching once we get your subclass. turns out spooky gost hands don’t care about your physical capabilities, who knew?

14. Druid 13: yes, we did spend another two levels in druid just to get your seventh level spell Mirage Arcanum, which lets you set up your tea shop wherever you want. technically it’s an illusion, but it feels and looks like the real thing so at a certain point it’s just kind of a technicality.

15. Monk 2: finally back where we started, second level monks can use Ki to dash, disengage, or dodge as a bonus action. you get your monk level in ki per short rest. your Unarmored Movement also lets you speed up a bit for free, with the same caveats as unarmored defense. it’s great for when your shop’s got a line out the door.

16. Monk 3: at third level monks can invite a spirit into their body to become their Astral Self, letting you summon the Arms of the Astral Self as a bonus action with a bit of ki. for ten minutes, you can use the arms to attack and make strength checks, turning them into wisdom-based rolls instead- they also deal force damage instead of bludgeoning, though you can even swap that to necrotic with your witherbloom abilities. you also get a bit more range this way, which makes sense given that they’re not quite attached to you.

you can also Deflect Missiles as a reaction, reducing ranged attack damage and possibly getting a chance to throw it back at whoever shot you, though I don’t think it’ll do much at level 16.

17. Monk 4: fourth level monks get their first (and to you, only) ASI, so bump up that Dexterity for when we don’t have the spirit arms. that being said, you can freely use them to Slow Fall, greatly reducing fall damage you take.

18. Monk 5: fifth level monks can make an Extra Attack each attack action, and you can turn those attacks into Stunning Strikes if you wish- this forces a constitution save on the person you hit, and if they fail they’re stuck in place for a round, and melee attacks against them are at advantage.

19. Monk 6: at sixth level your Ki Empowered Strikes mean that even your regular fists are magical weapons now, and you can summon the Visage of the Astral Self at the same time as your arms. this lets you see in darkness (vital for any cursed ghost), gain advantage on insight and intimidation checks, and you can use the word of the spirit to either only speak to one person or as a megaphone to reach a lot of people. tea ceremonies are supposed to be quiet, and tea shops are gonna be loud- make sure you don’t mix up which word you use for which.

20. Monk 7: seventh level monks can protect their fragile flesh bodies with Evasion, potentially blocking all the damage of any dexterity-based saves coming your way. you can also use a Stillness of Mind to immediately end effects that are charming or frightening you. you are the one who frightens.

Pros and Cons

Pros:

even when using melee attacks, you have access to plenty of damage variety- unlike most necrotic focused builds, you won’t be completely shut down by constructs or the undead.

similarly, unlike charm or poison focused builds, you have multiple different kinds of debuffs at your disposal, which can weaken any enemy you come across. poison, charm, stunning, enfeeblement, and fear are all at your command.

while your HP total is admittedly a bit on the squishy side, you’re still heavily protected from damage, with an AC of 19, great dexterity and wisdom saves, and multiple ways to block or shut down elemental damage and status effects.

Cons:

we spent a long time getting all your spells together, so your ki total is rather limited. this means avoiding fights would be helpful- not such an issue, thanks to your ability to work underhandedly, but still something to keep in mind.

Thanks to fontloading all the druid levels, this build also has a Slow Start to it in general, being both a level behind other spellcasters, yet not physically useful until late in the game.

Ancestry & Background

the Valkyrie are still Protector Aasimar, so they get +1 Wisdom and +2 Dexterity, plus they get Darkvision to find dying warriors, Celestial Resistance against radiant and necrotic damage. Valkyrie are holy robots, so they’re not going to be phased by holy damage or rot. if y’all meet a warrior who isn’t quite dead yet, y’all can use your Healing Hands to get them back on their feet. y’all also get the Light Bearer feature which is just the Light cantrip, partly negating the whole darkvision thing y’all just got this paragraph.

there’s also one more thing but we’ll talk about that at level 3 when y’all get it.

y'all’re slightly different than the regular Acolytes, so y'all’re getting slightly different bonuses, specifically proficiency in Perception and Religion instead of insight and religion, bc it turns out there’s a lot of overlap between cleric skills and acolyte skills, who knew. at least y'all can scan the battlefield a little better now.

Ability Scores

your number one score is Wisdom- that is powering most of your guns and your job is to search for stuff, that’s wisdom. second up is Dexterity in case y'all want to pick up an actual gun for funsies. y'all also don’t wear armor, so your best defense is not getting hit at all. your Constitution certainly isn’t bad though, since these robots are built fjord tough. your Strength is still above average because even if the build isn’t using it, y’all’re still warriors who are good with every weapon. this means your Intelligence is neutral (there’s a reason all of the valkyrie need to team up to write part of a manga), and your Charisma is negative. the valkyrie are pretty easily persuaded, and their job isn’t one where they meet a lot of people.

Class Levels

1. Cleric 1: at level one, clerics get their domain, and as a Zeal cleric, y’all are, appropriately, Priests of Zeal. this gives y’all proficiency in all weapons and armor, and if you attack with your action you can attack again with your bonus action Wisdom Modifier times per day. (right now, that’s three.)

you’re also proficient in Wisdom and Charisma saves, plus History and Insight, so it’s easier to pick the right fighters for valhalla.

finally, you can cast and prepare Spells using your Wisdom, plus you get free spells as a zealot cleric- Searing and Thunderous Smite. Both add extra damage to your next successful melee attack, with the former doing damage over time and the latter pushing the target back if they fail a strength save. We just know your bayonet’s are glowy, we don’t know for a fact they deal radiant damage.

for the rest of your spells, Light, Resistance, and Spare the Dying are great cantrips to pick up, and I highly recommend looking into Inflict Wounds for raw damage and Protection from Evil and Good for some basic protective runes. there’s at least three of you available, so you could even make a delta of runes. I promise that will be the only time I’ll make a deltarune reference this build. probably.

2. Cleric 2: Second level clerics can Channel Divinity once per short rest, either Turning Undead to repel the living dead away from your party or Consuming Fervor to maximize your fire or thunder damage from any source. the former option is an action, and the latter is just free. if I asked god for a hand grenade that thing had better do max damage.

3. Cleric 3: at third level Protector Aasimar become Radiant Souls, letting you fly for up to a minute, and once per turn you can add your level in radiant damage to an attack or spell. the whole kit and kaboodle can only be done once per day.

you also get second level spells! your freebies are Magic Weapon and Shatter. again, holy hand grenades, think about it. you can also use your connection with the other valkyrie to get Borrowed Knowledge for temporary proficiency in a specific skill. you can also summon one of them in a fight to be your Spiritual Weapon. on the “obtaining the dead” front, you can use Gentle Repose so you can collect everyone in one go later.

4. Cleric 4: fourth level clerics get the Thaumaturgy cantrip, as well as their first Ability Score Improvement. to start off, we’re getting the Magic Initiate feat for some extra Warlock power. yeah we’re really just here for Eldritch Blast, but a walkie talkie Message and extra speed via Expeditious Retreat aren’t bad either.

5. Cleric 5: at fifth level, clerics can Destroy Undead when turning CR ½ or lower creatures. they also get third level spells, like your freebies Haste and Fireball. hit fast, and hit hard. for some more options, Clairvoyance and Sending let you communicate with further away valkyrie for a little recon, and you can stick one down in a specific spot by making them Spirit Guardians. it’s not quite your noble phantasm, but it sure is close.

6. Cleric 6: at sixth level, you can channel divinity twice per short rest, and you can make a Resounding Strike whenever you hit a large or smaller creature with a thunder attack, pushing it ten feet away with no save.

7. Cleric 7: I’ll be honest, the fourth level spells we get at level seven aren’t my favorite. I mean Freedom of Movement is a nice freebie, and I won’t complain about Fire Shield being free, even if it’s only half the spell, but the only other spell of note this level is Locate Creature. I’m sorry, I know I’m harping on your day job a lot in a summer build, but this build really doesn’t need anything else from this level. maybe upcast some smites, that’ll be fun.

8. Cleric 8: this is our last level in cleric for a bit, and good news! we’re actually using our ASI for its intended purpose, specifically boosting wisdom for more and harder hitting spells. Destroy Undead also hits up to CR 1 creatures now, and you can add a Divine Strike to your weapon attacks, dealing a bit of extra damage once per turn.

9. Rogue 1: bouncing over to rogue, you get not only a free proficiency, but also some Expertise, doubling your proficiency with up to two skills. grab and boost Stealth first, you can’t really be an assassin without it, and also boost Perception.

rogues come pre-built with Sneak Attacks, adding 1d6 damage to an attack once per turn if it’s done with a finesse or ranged weapon and you have advantage or an ally nearby. it’s not a lot, but every bit helps.

you can also speak Thieves’ Cant! admittedly, I still don’t know what they can’t do.

10. Rogue 2: at second level, rogues can use Cunning Actions on their bonus action. this lets you Dash, Disengage, or Hide without having to spend your whole action making it happen.

11. Rogue 3: third level rogues can stop to take Steady Aim, giving you advantage on your next attack roll for the low low cost of your bonus action and all your movement. again, staying out of trouble is your best chance to not get squashed, but I won’t deny you the chance to bet it all on one good shot.

you also get your specialty this level, and as a Soulknife you get all kinds of goodies. you get 4d6 to represent your Psionic Power each long rest, and you can get one die back per short rest as a bonus action. you even get multiple ways to spend them right off the bat!

if you fail a skill check you’re proficient in, you can use a psi die to boost your roll- the best part is, it only gets spent if you succeed. you can turn literally any skill check into a proficient one if you want, so this’ll be used plenty, I’m sure.

you can also set up a walkie talkie system with several valkyrie thanks to your Psychic Whispers. you can link up to four creatures as an action, letting all of you speak telepathically to the others for up to six hours (based on your roll). the first shot’s free, but everything past that costs a die.

yeah we’re not even done yet. you also get Psychic Blades, letting you make weapons out of nothing that leaves no mark when it hits. you can even attack with your bonus action for free, albeit with a weaker weapon!

oh right, also your sneak attack deals 2d6 now. staggering, I know.

12. Cleric 9: it feels good to be back, not least of which because we get fifth level spells! Flame Strike is the closest to your NP, but Destructive Wave isn’t a bad option either. you can also Hallow areas, or craft Holy Weapons that you can overload and make expload. explode. whatever.

13. Cleric 10: all tenth level clerics get Divine Intervention, letting you call odin directly to solve whatever problem lies in your way. I don’t know how much a 3 star caster can help, but your DM will. it’s only got a ten percent chance to succeed, and if it does, you can’t use it again for a week. on the plus side, it recharges each day otherwise.

14. Cleric 11: Destroy Undead hits CR 2 creatures now. you also get sixth level spells like Heroes’ Feast. it heals the party, prevents frights, and improves everyone’s wisdom saves.

15. Cleric 12: use your penultimate ASI to improve your Dexterity one last time. I don’t know what Brynhildr was going on about, not dying is awesome!

16. Cleric 13: thirteenth level clerics gain access to the incredible power of seventh level spells. Plane Shift lets you take people directly to valhalla, or you can erect a Temple of the Gods over the course of a year, creating a space that opposes creatures of your choice, weakening them while inside.

17. Cleric 14: Destroy Undead hits CR 3 creatures now. yippee.

18. Cleric 15: fifteenth level caster, eighth level spells. Holy Aura is the best runic protection money can buy, giving yourself and nearby creatures advantage on all saves, and creatures targeting them have disadvantage to attack them, all for up to a minute. furthermore, fiends and undead creatures attacking the affected have to make a constitution save to avoid being blinded every time they hit someone. Sunburst is the final form of our noble phantasm, dealing tons of radiant damage in a large circle and possibly blinding creatures hit by the spell. you wouldn’t think a giant flash of light would be stealthy, but it would keep you from being spotted.

19. Cleric 16: one last ASI, so grab the Mobile feat for an extra ten feet of movement. because flight wasn’t busted enough as-is.

20. Cleric 17: with our last level, destroy undead hits cr 4 creatures, and you can cast ninth level spells. Gate is just a more permanent plane shift, creating a direct path to a specific location on another plane for up to a minute.

wow, what a great build! well we’re done here, so it’s time to throw this out and start the next one. thankfully the valkyrie are zeal clerics, so at least they can go out in a Blaze of Glory. when reduced to zero HP (including death), you can hold off on dying to move towards your attacker and make a melee weapon attack with advantage. hitting this attack deals a total of 10d10 extra damage to the target. you can use this once a day, assuming you don’t die in the process.

Pros & Cons

Pros:

Flight is never bad to have, especially when it comes with a speed advantage. your mp might not be accurate, but if you can hit someone and they can’t hit you, you’re going to win eventually.

while the in-character options are a bit limited, just being a cleric grants you access to one of the most powerful spell lists in the game, and I highly recommend using everything in your arsenal when you can.

Consuming Fervor lets you pump out some truly absurd damage basically at will, hitting large crowds for over 70 damage a pop with fire storms and fireballs. a holy hand grenade indeed!

Cons:

you have negative charisma, so it’s a good thing you can bring yourself back from whatever plane of existence you get banished to. even if we ignore social situations, this still means your eldritch blasts which should be a reliable source of damage just. aren’t.

your flight is one of the best things keeping you alive, given your low HP and absolutely pathetic AC when playing to character. but that’s okay, because:

Ancestry & Background

for once we can say Aoko is a Human and actually mean it, so she gets +1 Constitution and Charisma as well as proficiency in Persuasion and the Martial Adept feat for some sick fighting game moves, specifically Evasive Footwork for better AC and Parry to style on the haters.

she’s also a Hermit, what with wandering the world after root shenanigans, so that’s proficiency in Medicine and Religion.

Ability Scores

we use Charisma for everything, so that should be as high as possible. after that is Dexterity. your best armor is a t-shirt, so I’d suggest not getting hit too much. third is Constitution- your fighting style is a bit more up-close than most mages get, so not evaporating on the first hit is important. Wisdom is just kind of whatever, she does the wise mentor shtick that one time. This means your Strength is neutral and your Intelligence is low. almost certainly not really in character but we don’t need intelligence for anything in this build and on paper Aoko’s not actually that good of a mage.

Class Levels

1. Sorcerer 1: starting off as a Draconic sorcerer gives you all sorts of neat bonuses thanks to your Draconic Resilience giving you an extra point of HP each level and a bonus to your AC while unarmored. so all the time. you also learn Spells that you can cast using your Charisma, including our most important options, Thunderclap, a cantrip (which means its free!) for some unfocused fire, and Magic Missile for rapid-fire shots that can’t miss. I’m not going into too much detail on Aoko’s spell list this time since most of her spells are just. “deal damage” in a variety of ways, so from here on we’re just bringing up the spells that break that trend.

and now for the controversial move. like we said earlier, Aoko is focusing on thunder or force damage- while there are dragon types that cover those, (Amethyst or Sapphire to be specific,) wotc never updated the sorcerer subclass to cover those. but we’re just gonna pretend they did for some minor buffs. right now that doesn’t actually change anything, but give it time.

also since you’re a sorcerer you get proficiency in Arcana and Insight, plus Constitution and Charisma saves.

2. Sorcerer 2: second level sorcerers are a Font of Magic, giving them Sorcery Points equal to their level each day. you can spend points to make new spell slots, or spend slots to make more points. You can also spend points on other stuff, but right now it’s just an extra spell slot.

3. Sorcerer 3: oh hey its the other stuff I just mentioned. you can now spend sorcery points on Metamagic, further empowering your magic- literally! Empowered spells let you re-roll damage dice to get a better amount, and Heightened spells force disadvantage on the save of one person getting hit by the attack.

4. Sorcerer 4: use this Ability Score Improvement to bump up your Charisma for more damaging spells. shocking, I know.

5. Sorcerer 5: fifth level sorcerers get third level spells! sadly this is about the time we outrgrow force spells for the time being, but it’s just in time to get the ol’ classic Fireball. you can also pick Lightning Bolt if you’re a stickler for theming, but when are a bunch of enemies ever gonna be in a big line?

6. Sorcerer 6: hey remember that tweak we made? here’s where it pops up. when you use a spell associated with your dragon’s damage type (that being force for amethyst dragons), you can use your Elemental Affinity to add your charisma to one damage roll of that spell, and you can spend a sorcery point to resist that damage type for an hour. this isn’t really game-breaking, though force is one of those damage types you aren’t really supposed to resist, so I’m sure you can find something fun to use it with.

7. Warlock 1: speaking of fun stuff, let’s get that second class set up now. as a Hexblade warlock you can invoke a Hexblade’s Curse on someone as a bonus action, letting you add your proficiency bonus to all damage rolls against someone, double your critical hit chance on them, and when they die you gain some HP back! this is a once-per-short-rest thing, but you can’t deny it’s pretty spicy.

you’re also a Hex Warrior, which lets you turn one weapon into a charisma-based attack instead of the usual strength. importantly, it doesn’t specify melee or ranged, or simple or martial, so your unarmed weapons (that is, your fists) are totally on the table here! they’ll still only do like, five damage per hit but it’s something. thankfully the curse doesn’t care about whether you use an actual weapon or not.

speaking of attacks that aren’t weapons, you get a second spell list this level. it still uses your Charisma, but it has its own spell slots that recharge on short rests, though you can use warlock slots for sorcerer spells and vice-versa.

and yeah of course we’re getting Eldritch Blast, what did you think we were doing here? you also get Hex to pile on even more damage-per-hit.

8. Warlock 2: second level warlocks get Eldritch Invocations, which make your eldritch blasts even better. Repelling Blast lets you knock enemies back with a blast once per turn, and Agonizing Blast adds your charisma modifier to the damage of all your eldritch blasts.

9. Warlock 3: third level warlocks get a Pact Boon, an additional gift from your patron the Root. you get the Pact of the Tome, basically entirely due to process of elimination. blade isn’t gonna work, you don’t run around with a sword even in your fighting game, and this isn’t madoka magica so the chain is right out. you could maybe use the talisman, but Aoko’s whole thing is raw damage, so skill checks aren’t that important. free cantrips at least gives you more damage options.

10. Warlock 4: use this ASI to max out your Charisma. now your fists deal 6 damage per hit- terrifying, huh?

11. Warlock 5: fifth level warlocks get third level spells, but they also get another invocation! with Maddening Hex, you can make your cursed enemy explode as a bonus action, dealing five damage to it and every creature you choose around it.

12. Sorcerer 7: seventh level sorcerers get fourth level spells. surprise, it’s one that does damage, moving on.

13. Sorcerer 8: use this ASI to bump up your Dexterity for even more AC. you’ve done a good job not dying up to this point, but that’s no reason to get complacent.

14. Sorcerer 9: fifth level spells! Bigby’s Hand is a bit more complicated than your usual repertoire, but it’s the first spell that uses force damage since level 3, so we’ll take what we can get.

15. Sorcerer 10: tenth level sorcerers get another Metamagic option, and Twinned spells can hit twice as many people! as long as the number of people it could hit before was one. this blocks out most of the fun stuff, but give it a sec, it’ll be a lot more useful later.

16. Sorcerer 11: with sixth level magic, force spells come back in a big way thanks to Disintegrate. a creature hit by this spell that fails its dex save takes a metric ton of force damage, and if this kills it, the entire creature ceases to exist and can only be brought back by true resurrection or wish. and of course it can be twinned, that just makes it twice as fun!

17. Sorcerer 12: another ASI- bump up your Dexterity again. as we just learned, it’s real important sometimes.

18. Sorcerer 13: thirteenth level of a caster, seventh level of spell. Draconic Transformation is the closest we’re getting to Aoko’s super mode here- you can see in the dark, fly, and blast people with force attacks as bonus actions for up to a minute. the flight bit is a little out there, but she is the unidentified flying idol…

19. Sorcerer 14: I really hope that stretch of an explanation was satisfying, because fourteenth level draconic sorcerers can grow Dragon Wings as a bonus action, and they last until dismissed. you can’t use them while wearing armor, but that’s not really an issue, is it?

20. Sorcerer 15: our final and fifteenth level gives you an eighth level spot on your spell list. sadly we can’t fill it with force damage, but Sunburst is still a nice substitute. big radiant damage, maybe blind people, it’s a good time for all. also, unlike certain other spells, this does count as daylight.

Pros & Cons:

Pros:

you can use nigh infinite power to blast your enemies apart. it’s not complicated, but why would it have to be? oh, right. just a quick rundown if you’re not familiar with the setup- sorcerers can turn warlock spell slots into points, so you can take all your pact slots, turn them into points, turn those points into new spell slots, and then short rest, rinse, and repeat for as much magic as you’re willing to wait around charging up.

force damage is one of those damage types you aren’t really supposed to resist, so specializing in it means you’ll just about always be helpful in any fight.

flying spellcasters are strong. it’s a simple fact of life that if you can hit an enemy, and they can’t hit you, you’ll eventually win. a surprising amount of enemies don’t have any ranged options, so on-demand flight is super powerful for a ranged attacker.

Cons:

the highest level spell slot you can make using the cheese method is fifth level. that’s nothing to sneeze at, but by the time you can reliably pull that off a fifth level spell won’t be that impressive. also it’s not like you can take infinite actions in a turn, so this “infinite power” thing really just smooths out logistics.

on top of that, said infinite power comes at the cost of never sleeping. hopefully your cleric is understanding.