How to Play as Robin in DnD 5e
I’ve built Raven and Starfire, so now it’s time to move on to the boys, starting with the level-headed leader of the team: Dick Grayson, better known as the first Robin to serve under the caped crusader. We trained under a great detective, and we need to reflect that in the way we build ourselves.
The Boy Wonder is your garden variety human, no reanimated corpses here. So, we’ll treat Robin as a Standard Human. If you want to nitpick that Robin could kick Cinderblock without shattering his leg bones, then I guess go with Variant Human, but I’ll be balancing him as a Standard Human for this build.
Before we were Robin we were part of the Flying Graysons, a circus act. We’ll take the Entertainer Background as an Acrobat for Acrobatics and Performance. But if you’d rather focus on Robin’s tutelage under a master detective, take the Investigator Background for Athletics and Insight (but not Investigation for some reason). As a Rogue, we’ll take Investigation, Stealth, Perception, and Deception for our skills of choice, and put our Expertise into Investigation, Acrobatics/Athletics, Stealth, and Deception.
For Alignment, we can get pretty obsessive and unhinged when dealing with Slade, enough that Raven had to pin us down to keep us from injuring a civilian. We also went undercover as a villain to get close to Slade and fought our own friends to keep up the disguise. We’re Chaotic Good. Stopping the bad guy is all that matters by any means necessary.
Arcane Trickster. While this might seem like an odd choice, as Robin is not a wizard, there are a lot of Wizard spells that could be re-skinned as Robin’s tools, such as Fog Cloud for smokescreens, Jump, Longstrider, Spider Climb, and Haste for mobility. Darkvision for night vision goggles. Even more fantastic spells are within Robin’s skill sets by his building of Red X’s suit with things like teleportation (Misty Step), nets and pastes (Hold Person), Silencers (Silence) or holograph duplicates (Mirror Image).
Inquisitive. The Inquisitive Rogue is a natural detective, with an eye for details and an ear for deceit, they excel at solving mysteries and getting to the truth. You can even analyze your opponent, and develop a strategy to have advantage on an opponent, even without allies flanking the enemy, great for one-on-one combat.
Mastermind. A master of deception and strategy, playing the role of a tactician and a spy. You can pass yourself off as someone else by mimicking their voice and disguising yourself, you can Help an ally as a bonus action, and you can learn when an enemy creature’s INT, WIS, or CHA is higher, lower, or equal to your own.
Kensei. Robin is all about weapon combat. His tool belt is his greatest advantage, and the Kensei Monk hides a few extra tricks up its sleeve. This subclass gives Robin more tactics to employ, not unlike the Maneuvers of the Battle Master Fighter.
Shadow. The ninja subclass of DnD 5e, the Shadow Monk is highly focused on stealth and infiltration, with spells for sneaking and disarming, rather than dealing damage, which is perfect for an espionage-heavy campaign. The ability to teleport between shadows means that no amount of large windows letting in the moonlight will ever expose him.
Battle Master. The Battle Master is all about not just fighting but fighting smartly. You get proficiency with an artisan’s tools, we’ll pick Tinkerer’s Tools to dabble with technology. Later, we can study a creature and whether their Strength, Dexterity, Constitution, Hit Points, Armor Class, total Class levels (if any), and total Fighter Levels (if Any) are greater, less than, or equal to our own.
BATTLE MASTER MANEUVERS
Ambush (UA). Add your superiority die to a stealth check or an initiative roll, helping Robin get the first punch more often.
Bait and Switch (UA). You switch places with a nearby ally, letting you switch the target from you to a teammate who can tank the hit better (like Cyborg, Starfire, or wildshaped Beast Boy)
Commander’s Strike. If it didn’t specify your teammates make a weapon attack, this feature would be great. Because there’s just going to be times when Robin’s not as effective against an enemy, and he can give one of his attacks to a teammate. If your DM is willing to homebrew this to work better, great. but as is, this sin’t a great option for him.
Disarming Attack. A good strategy, making enemies drop their weapons, arcane focus, or magic items. It’s also made with a Strength score, which after Intelligence I’ve tended to find that STR is the second most commonly dropped stat, meaning it’ll likely be an effective tactic.
Feinting Attack. You gain advantage against a creature and add your Superiority die roll to your damage. Thus, giving Robin a way to fight one-on-one and still make use of his Sneak Attack. Granted, you should usually have your party with you, but in the case of tournaments, solo-missions, and party separation, Robin doesn’t lose a cornerstone of his combat capability.
Maneuvering Attack. Decent for repositioning your teammates. Get Starfire or Raven out of Melee range, or help Beast Boy and Cyborg bridge the gap between themselves and other creatures. Robin can also help move low HP character closer to Raven for healing, allowing them to disngage from hostile creatures.
Parry. Reduce melee damage by superiority die + DEX. This plus Evasion will really make Robin hard to take out.
Rally. Basically Inspiring Leader, but Robin’s not Charismatic enough. But you could build him to make better use of it if you want.
Reposte. A counter attack you’ll get great use out of with a high enough AC.
Sweeping Attack. This lets you attack two enemies that are near each other, making it easier to mow through Slade’s robot minions.
FIGHTING STYLE
Blinding Fighting (learned from the snake master in “The Quest”)
Duelist (one-handed quarterstaff)
Great Weapon Fighting (two-handed quarterstaff)
Thrown Weapon Fighting (UA) (darts)
Two-Weapon Fighting (twin shock clubs)
Unarmed Combat (UA) (1d8+STR)
Light. This one’s a bit of a silly option, but potentially viable, a 1 level dip into Cleric can allow Robin to use Warding Flare like a flash grenade equal to his WIS mod, giving enemies that attack him disadvantage.
TACTICAL MASTERMIND
Mastermind Rogue (12)
Battle Master Fighter (7)
Monk (1)
STR 10 DEX 20 CON 14 INT 18 WIS 18 CHA 9
MANEUVERS
Disarming Attack
Feinting Attack
Maneuvering Attack
Parry
Reposte
The benefit of mixing these classes together is two-fold: The Battle Master can pick Maneuvers that aid and utilize their teammates, and the Mastermind’s Master of Tactics is great for Teamwork, allowing you to Aid your teammates. As team leader, Robin needs to be able to direct his teammates, which is why I made sure to give him Maneuvering Attack. Secondly, Robin can read any kind of enemy, getting a feel for their stats, and how best to fight them. I decided to neglect Monk as all it really offers is unarmed combat, a higher AC, and the same Evasion feature Robin already gets as a Rogue and the same Extra Attack he gets from being a Fighter. While Inquisitive Rogue was tempting, Feinting Attack also gives Robin advantage on an opponent, so it’s the best of both worlds. If your DM is willing to alter Commander’s Strike to work for spells and ranged attacks (such as with Cyborg’s Eldritch Canon), it becomes a lot more useful, and can replace either Disarming Attack or Parry, and lets Robin get help from his teammates. Because when the enemy is weak to Fire damage, you want to give Starfire as many attacks as possible.
I find that this build of Robin achieves everything we set out to accomplish. He’s a strategic fighter, with an excellent blend of stealth, sleuthing, and combat prowess. He’s a decisive leader who can direct his teammates on the battlefield, and yet, he can also handle one-on-one fights as well. This results in Robin being exceptionally well-rounded. The Fighter levels also go a long way to making Robin far more durable than a straight Rogue or Monk would have. Higher HP means Robin can fight on the front lines with greater ease.
