Disclaimer: Dungeons and Dragons is owned by WotC/Hasbro. Make sure you discuss with your Dungeon Master (DM) before using template builds. Figure created with HeroForge. With that, sit back and enjoy
Happy Thursday everyone, it’s ya boy Choujin here. Today we’re doing a bit of a new deviation beyond our usual Wednesday. I’ve been getting into Dungeons and Dragons Fifth Edition for those curious and I’ve made some interesting creatures and such. With that..let’s get started.
(The Level goes up to 10, but you can tailor the build to whatever you like it to be or go your own way)
Name: Farina
Race: Aasimar (Fallen)
Bio: Once, there was a radiant Aasimir who once fought for Raziel’s army. She was tasked with repelling the Dark Powers from that domain. One situation ended badly as herself and several others fell in one battle against a dark being. She cried out for Raziel’s help, but nothing came. In one moment, her heart sunk as she cried out for any being to aid her in this time of need. Her cry of help was heard by Surtur, who gave her the strength to defeat the unnamed threat. However, at the cost of her forsaking her realm in the name of an evil demigod, she became fallen and thus became Farina, a loyal knight to her master.
Build origin: When I originally created the character, years ago in high school, I went with my own personal flare and inspired her from Soul Calibur 2’s Nightmare(which fun fact the build made by Youtuber Tulok the Barbrarian let me bring her to life.) I also later incorporated Zelgius into her personality and for armor influence. Anyway after my first character, a Dragonborn Rogue got killed in a Curse of Strahd campaign; I needed to create a new character. Thus enter Farina, the Ebon Knight of Surtur. Using Tulok’s Nightmare build from one of his videos, I added some flare to make an interesting build.
For starters, your build will be using 5e’s Standard Build going as the following.
Str:15 (Farina can basically swing a big ass sword and uses power)
Cha:14 (Farina’s intimidating, really intimidating)
Con:13 (She’s no slouch and can take a few blows)
Int:12 (She may be muscle, ,but she does have some brains)
Wis:10 (Wise enough to know common sense, but not street smart)
Dex:8 (Heavy armor doesn’t let her move fast)
Fallen Aasimar is your go to for a +2 Cha/+1 Str (or you can go Standard Dragonborn or Ravenite, heck even Human if you want). You get some good perks with Fallen Aasimar such as Celestial Resistance for resistance against Necrotic and Radiant damage and access to Healing Hands (You heal up to your total level like 10 HP). Though you do get the Light Cantrip and Darkvision. For background, I suggest Faceless for two reasons: The first is Farina always wears a mask over her face, giving a mystery at what she looks like and two, you get proficiencies in Deception and Intimidation (both Charisma skills).
Level 1-2 Paladin
To start things off, start off as a Paladin so you can get access to the basics like your health and other modifier stats such as Divine Sense and Lay on Hands. By Level 2, you’ll get to choose a Fighting Style. Great Weapon Fighting is a great ability as it lets you re-roll a damage dice if you roll a natural 1 or 2 (Damage delt not whether or not you hit them.) You also get access to Divine Smite, which lets you spend a spell slot to deal 1d8 damage on an an enemy (more if they’re undead and more if they’re a spell). You also gain access to spells, so you can choose what spells you can cast. I suggest Shield of Faith for that +2 AC. However, you can also choose three other spells. My recommendations are Searing Smite if you want to ignite your foes or Wrathful Smite if you want to send some creatures reeling in terror (you also got that with your Aasimar racial trait but if you don’t want your allies screaming this is the way to go.) Thunderous Smite works well if you want to push foes back. Cure Wounds can work if you need some help with survival early on (and be an off-healer to boot.)
Level 1-5 Warlock
Now we get into multiclassing. For Farina, the best option for this is to make her not just a Paladin but a Hexblade Paladin (aka Hexadins). When going into Warlock, make her a Hexblade Warlock. This gets her acccess to Hexblade’s Curse, a useful ability that lets you curse a target and thus letting you crit on a 19 or 20 natural. Hex Warrior lets you add your Charisma modifier to your weapon roll and damage (though by now your charisma and strength will be the same.)
You also gain access to the Warlock spells. Tulock suggests Chill Touch and True Strike. Listen to ya boy (as he has learned.) True Strike sucks! I suggest replacing it with another attack ability like Eldritch Blast. Or if you want true utility, Prestidigitation is your go to. For spells you should get access to an expanded Spell Slot thanks to Hexblade. So you’ll get access to Shield (a reaction spell that gives +5 to your AC when hit) and Wrathful Smite (a spell already accessed due to Paladins). You can also add some spells to if you want. I suggest Hellish Rebuke for some damage if the enemy nails you on a critical. Hex can also be useful should you add a stacking dot on a foe to weaken them or don’t want to waste a Hexblade’s Curse. Level 2 gets you Eldritch Invocations to help you out. Devil’s Sight lets you see in color in the dark and see farther so you can spot foes in the distance. By Level 3, you get a Pact Boon to help you. Pact of the Blade is one helluva thing to go for. Farina is blessed by Surtur to wield his wrath which is a sword. Your weapon is you and thus goes well with Hex Warrior and allows you to hit harder and stronger than ever. Combined with the Improved Pact Weapon Invocation for that +1 to hit and damage, and Farina can do a whopping +7 to hit and damage from Hexblade’s Curse. You should also gain access to 2nd level spells so select Branding Smite to deal some carnage. You can also make some alterations with tpells
Level 4 lets you get Ability Score Improvement for the build. Go for +2 Charisma, as that will make Hexblade really nasty. Level 5 lets you choose another Invocation, so go for Eldritch Smite. It lets you add a d8 to your weapon attacks for expending a warlock slot. Since you should have some level 3 slots by now, you now can do 3d8 damage and prone if it hits.
Level 3-5 Paladin
By Level 3, you can choose your Paladin Oath (just like your Otherworldly Entity). The original build suggested Oathbraker, but during Curse of Strahd, I was suggested Oath of Vengeance. This give you a fear ability of Conquering Presence (forces a Wisdom save or be feared) and Guided Strike (+10 to attack rolls). It also gets you access to spells like Armor of Agathys for Temporary HP and Cold damage on melee hitters and Command, something that can make your enemy do something other than kill themselves (DMs can’t let you do that.) You also gain Divine Health, which protects you from disease. By Level 4, you get the ability score modifier. I suggest you max out Charisma to 20, thus giving you a +5 modifier. This ensures that with your pact weapon, you’re doing +10 to hit and +6 to damage (+10 to damage via Hexblade’s curse)
Finally by Level 5, you’ll gain access to Extra Attack, which means you get to roll two attacks on one action. You also gain access to some more spells but by now you should have some options to hit hard but take the Find Steed spell to bestow Farina her warhorse (call him whoever, but I prefer Catastros. yes yes, unoriginal..but it’s fun.) By now, your character should be up to level 10 in total and ready to get started in higher end campaigns or ready for the final fight with the big bad evil guy.
The build created has its pros and cons. On the Pro side, being a Hexblade makes Farina nasty and can deal some big damage against any foes. with some lucky rolls for health and maybe access to better equipment and armor makes her dangerous and an effective tank against foes. With an arsenal of offensive attacks, flexible survivability, self healing abilities and fearing abilities can add control to boot. With the Hexblade ability, it also makes her use Charisma to basically do +10 to hit and +6 to her damage. So even without magic, she can still hit hard
The problem is that though she is powerful, Farina burns through spell slots like nobody. She can short rest to regain her pact slots, which are your bread and butter. This means that her pally spell slots are six in total (four lvl 1 slots and two lvl 2 slots. Combined with her 2 level 3 slots from her pact). Hexadins hit hard but they burn out quickly. Lastly, her dexterity is garbage meaning that any dex save will hinder her greatly (pray you can get lucky with surviving dragon fire)
In the end, beyond level 10 is what you can do. Hopefully it can help inspire what you can do with character creations.
sources used
- Tulok’s video on making Nightmare (for it wouldn’t have been possible for this to be done)
- HeroForge for creating the Farina image an an example
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