Original Video:
*This article is an edited version of the script for this video
Build 1:
Ridgeborne Orc Guardian
Level 1:
Ancestry: Orc, this gives us a 1/3 chance to not consume an armor slot when we use our armor to reduce damage
Community: Ridgeborne, +1 to Armor Score
Class: Guardian
Subclass: Stalwart, raises all of our damage thresholds and allows us to spend hope instead of armor slots
Traits: I think the only thing that really matters for the build is taking the +2 to Strength, for the two plus ones and the minus one you can pick whichever traits you’d like
Starting Equipment:
-Mace
-Round Shield
-Take any armor and sell it or give it to a friend
Domain Cards:
-Bare Bones: I like this and the round shield the best because they give us good armor without subtracting from our evasion. Our armor score will be pretty high but we have to spend armor slots or hope to use it. For that reason I don’t think its worth lowering our evasion and getting hit more to make our armor score higher.
-I Am Your Shield: This lets you mark a stress to take damage for one of your allies.
Level 2:
Level Up Options:
-Increase Major Threshold
-Increase Minor Threshold
—I think these will give us the most mileage compared to the other defensive options.
Domain Card: Soldier’s Bond, gives 3 hope to you and an ally that you compliment. Cool flavor that will make some great moments during your game and very powerful since we can use hope instead of armor slots
Level 3:
Level Up Options:
-+1 to Evasion
-+1 HP Slot
Domain Card: Scramble, lets you completely avoid damage from an attack. Ideally you use this with a severe damage attack and prevent yourself from losing 3 hit points.
Level 4:
Level Up Options:
-Increase Traits: Boost Strength and whatever else you’d like. With the Bare Bones card this will increase our armor score as well.
-+1 Stress Slot
Domain Card: Fortified Armor: Increases our armor score by 2 and you can use an armor slot without marking it once per short rest.
Build 2:
Firbolg Primal Sorcerer
Level 1:
Ancestry: Firbolg, our subclass ability will require us to mark stress. With this we will be able to mitigate some of that
Community: Seaborne, this lets us take an additional downtime action once per session. This will help us clear our stress and still be able to do other things during rests
Class: Sorcerer
Subclass: Primal Origin, allows us to take stress to modify our spells in different ways. The best one is likely going to be targeting an additional creature with a spell
Traits: I think the only thing that really matters for the build is taking the +2 to Instinct, for the two plus ones and the minus one you can pick whichever traits you’d like
Starting Equipment:
-Dualstaff
-Quarterstaff
-Breastplate
Domain Cards:
-Unleash Chaos: This one is going to be your big blast spell that you get once for free every session and you can refill it by taking stress.
-Rune Ward: This is a nice defensive spell gives us an item that we can keep ourselves or give it to an ally and it lets the one holding it subtract a d8 from damage they take but once it rolls an 8 it can’t be used until you rest.
Level 2:
Level Up Options:
-Increase Traits: Boost Instinct and whatever else you’d like. Most of the things we can do are based on our spellcasting ability so we’ll want to increase it as much as we can
-+1 Stress Slot: An additional slot will give us more uses of our abilities and let us take a bit more damage
Domain Card: Midnight Spirit, not a bad damage option especially for its range but the utility of being able to summon a spirit that can help you carry things or scout ahead will be really good as well
Level 3:
Level Up Options:
-Increase Proficiency
-+1 to Evasion
Domain Card: Counterspell, fairly self explanatory, counters a spell or magical effect, but I do find the wording of this counterspell interesting compared to other games. This isn’t limited use so you can do it as much as you want as far as I can tell and the GM tells you how many Stress you can take to counter it, so if it’s too high or you don’t think it’s worth it you can just not go through with it and not take any stress
Level 4:
Level Up Options:
-+1 HP Slot
-Increase Major Threshold
Domain Card: Blink Out or Flight, both great movement options. Pick whichever one you like better or you think would work better in your campaign.
Build 3:
Giant Whirlwind Warrior
Level 1:
Ancestry: Giant: This gives us an additional hit point slot and more importantly increases our melee range to very close
Community: Ridgeborne, +1 to Armor Score
Class: Warrior
Subclass: Call of the Slayer
Traits: The most important one for the build is taking the +2 to Agility, for the two plus ones and the minus one you can pick whichever traits you’d like but you may want to consider putting one of your +1s in Knowledge for a feature you could take later on.
Starting Equipment:
-Shortsword(Primary)
-Shortsword(Secondary)
-Breastplate
Domain Cards:
-Whirlwind: We can spend hope after we hit with a melee attack to hit all other creatures within range at half damage. This will be the builds main ability. With giant increasing our melee range we should be able to more creatures with this
-Not Good Enough: This lets us reroll 1s and 2s on our damage dice.
Level 2:
Level Up Options:
-Increase Traits: Boost Agility and whatever else you’d like.
-Increase Proficiency
Domain Card: Reckless or Strategic Approach. Since we can use one roll for multiple attacks with whirlwind, advantage is a very good thing to have. I prefer Reckless since you’ll likely be able to use it more often but Strategic Approach has some other uses than just granting advantage and doesn’t require you to spend stress so it could be a good pick in terms of utility and survivability if you’re willing to put a lot of points into Knowledge.
Level 3:
Level Up Options:
-+1 to Evasion
-+1 Stress Slot
Domain Card: Versatile Fighter. This lets us take a Stress to make one of our damage dice deal maximum damage. We can get a lot more mileage out of this with Whirlwind as well since the same roll will be used against multiple creatures.
Level 4:
Level Up Options:
-+1 HP Slot
-Increase Major Threshold
Domain Card: Boost. A very cool ability in terms of flavor and very useful as well letting us mark a stress to get thrown into melee by one of our allies and we get advantage on our attack and the attack does additional damage.
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