#ranged

/tea emote.

Head: Witch's Hat - pastel purple / pumpkin orange Body: Queen of Hourne Bliaud - pastel purple / pumpkin orange Hands: Crocodileskin Armguards of Casting - pumpkin orange / pastel purple Legs: Skirt of Light - pastel purple / pumpkin orange Feet: Summertide Formal Dress Shoes - pumpkin orange / pumpkin orange

Alt Hands: Crocodileskin Armguards of Healing/Aiming (aiming version should swap dyes)

Earring: Pearl Earrings Neck: Dravanian Choker of Casting Wrists: The Emperor's New Bracelet Right Ring: The Emperor's New Ring Left Ring: The Emperor's New Ring

Main Hand: Figment of Teatimes Past - pastel purple / pumpkin orange Off Hand: --

Facewear: -- Fashion Accessory: -- Minion: -- Mount: -- Location: Faeberry Atelier

so! Habetrot! she’s going to be an Ancients Paladin to literally be an ancient paladin (as well as to sew some sick wedding dresses), and she’s also a Witherbloom Warlock because literally no one in this lostbelt can keep their hands off weapons that will kill them. realistically she should be a hexblade, but a) we literally just did a hexadin, and b) the black barrel strikes me less as a sentient weapon and more as just. a giant ball of radioactivity.

so with that out of the way, let’s get building!

(as usual, a character sheet can be found here, and next up: sword baby)

Ancestry and Background

Habetrot is obviously a Fairy, unless you spell it correctly, then she’s a Faerie. who has Fairy Magic including Faerie Fire at third level. make it make sense. that makes the creatures in an area glowy if they fail a save, giving everyone else advantage to hit them, it’s a big boost to your crit star generation. off the bat though you have access to the Druidcraft cantrip, which is a more themed prestidigitation, just a billion tiny effects rolled into a single spell. and at level five you can Enlarge/Reduce creatures, and if you grow larger you can hit harder than usual, because a person-sized baby hits harder than a person-sized person. you can also shrink, but then you deal less damage with melee attacks. your faerie fire and enlarge/reduce share a single free cast per day, but you can also cast them (using your Charisma) with your existing spell slots. you can also fly, which makes your dirigible kind of pointless but we’ll get it anyway.

oh right, almost forgot. as a faerie you have free reign over your ability increases, but I picked +2 Dexterity and +1 Charisma here.

while I could use Habetrot’s waybackground, I’ll keep things kind of recent and call her a Guild Artisan. that gives her proficiency in Insight and Persuasion, and also means she has to pay regular dues to her guild boss. Boggart runs a tight ship, better not be late.

Ability Scores

Boggart hasn’t eaten you yet for some reason, so I bet your Charisma is super high. that and your Dexterity. balancing on a giant balloon is hard, and you’re also a crack shot with a gun. we have to make your Strength the third highest for multiclassing, but if you can convince your DM to ignore this you should dump it instead. she is literally a baby. physically, anyway. that being said your Constitution is still above average, babies can bounce back from just about anything. that means your Wisdom and Intelligence are low, having trouble learning things was your defining trait for quite a while.

Class Levels

1. Paladin 1: I promise this will make sense in the long run, just go with me here. starting off you’re good at Wisdom and Charisma saves, because magic doesn’t work on faeries that well. you’re also good at Medicine, it’s kind of like how Carpenters also used to be Surgeons, and you’ve got Religion down pat. the closest thing to a god in this land is rotting in a pit. there, that’s religion. you still know more than most people, tbh.

you can use Divine Sense to detect a couple types of creatures around you, but uh, spoiler alert! they’re faeries. they’re all faeries, you’re surrounded by faeries for thousands of years.

you can also Lay on Hands as an action, mending someone’s dress to give them some HP. you have a pool of five times your level each day to use, and spending five HP can heal someone from a poison or disease. when you say debuff immunity, you mean it.

2. Paladin 2: second level paladins can pick a Fighting Style, and you’re not really into fighting that much, so I guess you’re a Blessed Warrior. with this you can pick up two cleric cantrips of your choice and can even swap them out on level-ups, though for my money there’s only two we need. grab Thaumaturgy for the second of the three “do what you want” cantrips, and Mending, because making a character whose entire thing is sewing without the ability to mend would be a crime.

while we’re talking about Spells, you can cast those now. you get some spell slots, and your Charisma powers them. I’d grab Cure Wounds for your first skill, and Ceremony so you can finally find a use for all these stupid dresses you keep making since nobody actually gets married in britain. if they refuse to marry, you will make them marry. and get a +2 bonus to their AC for a week to boot!

you can also add a Divine Smite to a melee attack by spending a spell slot, but you don’t really use melee weapons. the only smite that doesn’t care what weapon you use is Branding Smite, and we won’t get that until fifth level. stay strong, habbe.

3. Paladin 3: but enough doom and gloom, let’s talk subclasses! as an Oath of Ancients paladin, you have an extended spell list, which now includes Ensnaring Strike to tie up an enemy with sewing supplies, or Speak with Animals to speak with animals. fey animals seem to be able to talk anyway, but still.

you can also Channel Divinity once a short rest in one of two flavors. you can spend an action to incur Nature’s Wrath on a foe, forcing a strength or dexterity save or they become restrained by vines I mean thread. you can also Turn the Faithless as an action, forcing every fey/fiend in thirty feet of you to make a… Wisdom save, or they become turned for a minute and have to run away from you.

you are a fey. huh.

this is the closest I could get to the downside of Habetrot’s third skill, WotC still isn’t big on players hurting themselves, even if they can’t get enough of shooting themselves in the foot.

4. Paladin 4: use your first Ability Score Improvement to bump up your Dexterity. if you have to pick up a weapon, you might as well be decent at it.

5. Paladin 5: fifth level paladins get an Extra Attack each attack action, as well as second level spells! as mentioned, Branding Smite is the only smite you get that is okay with ranged weapons, and it adds an effect to the enemy for up to a minute if it hits, preventing them from going invisible- kind of like faerie fire, in a way!

in a similar vein, your oath spell Moonbeam deals extra damage to shapechangers, and Misty Step is just a good utility spell to have. if you’re in a bad situation, stop being there.

you can also buff up your friends’ dresses with Aid to give them extra HP for the day, or you can Find Steed to get a balloon to ride on. it can’t fly yet, so I guess we’re still trying to find some helium.

6. Paladin 6: sixth level paladins exude an Aura of Protection, adding your charisma modifier to all saves you or nearby friends make, no limitations (aside from you being conscious). when you said debuff immunity, you meant it.

7. Paladin 7: seventh level ancient paladins finally get something that is 100% unequivocally useful- the Aura of Warding. you and all your nearby friends have resistance to spell magic. there’s a reason nobody in britain uses magecraft.

8. Paladin 8: I think we’re late enough in the build to break out the serious spoilers now. use this ASI to pick up the Squire of Solamnia feat and become one of Aesc/Tonelico’s most trusted knights. now you can mount or dismount for only five feet of movement, and you can make a Precise Strike when you attack with any kind of weapon, giving yourself advantage plus an extra d8 of damage. you can do this proficiency times per day, once per turn, though you only burn through uses if the attack actually hits.

9. Paladin 9: ninth level paladins don’t get much, but they do get third level spells! your freebies are Plant Growth and Protection from Energy, but I’d say your best fit atm is Crusader’s Mantle. it might not be crit stars, but it will make everyone’s weapons a lot shinier as they do radiant damage. this also works on ranged weapons, yay!

10. Paladin 10: if that’s not enough auras, here’s one more! with the Aura of Courage, you and nearby allies never have to worry about being frightened! I know, Morgan’s scary, but it won’t help any if her allies get frightened too!

11. Warlock 1: we’ve covered Morgan’s fall from… errr, “grace” doesn’t quite sound right, plus she actually became queen, so it’s more of a rise… whatever. she’s queen now, you’re hanging out with boggart when this pretty young thing walks in with a god-killing weapon on her back. it’d be best if you take that off her hands, right?

obviously the “best” fit for this would be making it a Hexblade patron, but we just did that and it’s not sentient, so we’ll make do with Witherbloom. starting at level one you learn some Pact Magic, a separate set of spell slots you can cast using your Charisma. there’s not a lot of them, but they recharge on short rests!

right now you can cast Eldritch Blast for a quick burst fire, Prestidigitation to fulfill our “do anything” cantrip trio, and you can either Hex an enemy to further empower the black barrel against them or craft an Armor of Agathys to make a protective gown out of ice for a lucky maiden. oh this spell’s actually just for you. you look nice in it though, and we’ll get something else later.

you also get an extended spell list of Witherbloom Spells, including Spare the Dying and Cure Wounds for more dress patching. you also get Inflict Wounds, which both feels out of character and also is a melee attack.

of course the real reason we’re going to college is for Witherbloom’s Essence Tap. as a bonus action up to proficiency times per day, you can empower yourself in one of two ways for up to a minute. Overgrowth is nice, letting you spend your bonus actions healing yourself by spending hit dice, but we’re here to make a black barrel, and for that we need to make Withering Strikes. when you deal any kind of damage, you can turn it into necrotic damage while ignoring the typical resistances.

12. Warlock 2: at second level you get two Eldritch Invocations to help make your warlock levels tailor-made to your needs. we’re saving one for next level as usual, but pick up Armor of Shadows now for free mage armor… also on yourself though. darn. the warlock spell list is a little greedy, huh? Charm Person is nice though. that one’s barely magic, you’re just personable.

13. Warlock 3: at level three we’re taking the Pact of the Blade to make an Improved Pact Weapon. I would love to give you the heavy crossbow option for the black barrel, but sadly you’re too small and babyish for DND to let you use the big guns. so instead, you can spend an action to summon a light crossbow of any design you wish to your hand. it gets +1 to all attacks and damage rolls, deals magical damage, and can be used to cast your warlock spells. you can also turn magic weapons into your pact weapon if you like, so if you come across a real black barrel mid-adventure feel free to scoop it up.

speaking of spells though, you get plenty. as a witherbloom student you get Lesser Restoration and Ray of Enfeeblement for free, so… I guess giving an enemy weaker attacks is kind of like giving your friends defense buffs? we’re also stretching by grabbing Earthbind, helping you tie flying enemies to the ground with your sewing equipment.

14. Warlock 4: at fourth level you can bump up your Charisma with an ASI for stronger spells and auras. if your balloon is light enough, maybe Mage Hand will help it fly? if not, wait until next level. also, probably use Invisibility to stay safe in the meantime. it would be terrible to die right before a build comes together.

15. Warlock 5: at fifth level warlocks get third level spells. Fly will finally help your balloon leave the ground, while Revivify and Vampiric Touch… are free.

the real reason we stuck around this long was for the invocation Eldritch Smite, which finally lets your black barrel do the kind of damage you’d expect. it’s similar to divine smites, but they can only use warlock slots, deal force damage instead of radiant, and they knock stuff over instead of dealing extra damage to zombies.

16. Paladin 11: I don’t think that’s enough pain though. with Improved Divine Smite all your weapon attacks deal an extra 1d8 radiant damage! all your… melee… attacks. dammit, not again.

17. Paladin 12: okay, okay, we can save this. we just need to make a gun that can kill a god no matter what their health is in four levels. I’ve got it. Use this last ASI to pick up Metamagic Adept for two sorcery points and two kinds of metamagic you can use. we’re here for Distant spell to make your gun have some proper range, but Careful is nice too. I don’t think you have many AoE spells, it just feels in character.

18. Paladin 13: you’ve finally got fourth level spells, congrats! Ice Storm and Stoneskin are nice, but we’re here for two things. Find Greater Steed will give you a flying mount so you can finally stop wasting concentration on a balloon, and Banishment will help you kill gods.

well, not so much kill is permanently relocate them back to their home planes, but tomato tomatl. you can also use this on creatures from the plane you’re already on, but that’ll only banish them for a good minute.

19. Paladin 14: you can now use your Cleansing Touch as an action charisma modifier times a day, ending one spell on you or a willing creature. there is a reason. faeries don’t use magecraft.

20. Paladin 15: our final level of ancients paladin turned you into an Undying Sentinel. when you drop to 0 HP without dying you can drop to 1 instead once a day. you’re Mash’s guardian faerie, after all.

also, you don’t suffer the drawbacks of old age and can’t be magically aged. I don’t think faeries really have a “natural” lifespan, but if they did you’ve long since exceeded it.

Pros and Cons

Pros:

there’s a dearth of enemies in D&D with ranged options, so being a ranged fighter is always a smart move. a smarter move is being a ranged fighter who can fly. and you excel at that, with plenty of cool ways to pump out damage from a distance and keep even the winged bastards you have to fight from ever getting close. being able to ignore a semi-common resistance doesn’t hurt either.

you also come packing a ton of support options thanks to your auras and healing spells basically nullifying most-if not all- magical effects on your party, up to and including magical damage.

as a paladin faerie you’ve got plenty of tools in your kit for dealing with fae, demons, and undead, who tend to be the biggest troublemakers in the forgotten realms.

Cons:

while you have plenty of damage options, the best are reserved for melee paladins, which you aren’t. unless you risk getting close, you straight-up cannot use divine smite, improved divine smite, turn the faithless, or inflict wounds.

speaking of your support, guess how much of that requires you to be right next to your party! just about all of it, that’s right! having a gun is fun, but actually using it hampers both your offense and defense.