How To Make Grian In DnD

How to Make Grian in DnD

Welcome to my first guide on making Life SMP members into DnD 5e characters!

I’ll go level by level and explain the reasoning behind my decisions and how I think it fits them in character. This build assumes starting at level 8 but includes notes on differences if you start at level 1 and progress to 8. Keep in mind that this isn’t intended as a guide on how to play dnd, just how to build this character. I also don't explain every feature but I may briefly touch on it and explain my reasoning for taking it.

Class: Fighter 6 (Eldritch Knight)/Cleric 2 (War Domain)

Race: Aarakocra* (can be humanised)

Base Ability Scores:

Str 10 (+0)

Dex 15 (+0) +2 from race = 17 (+3)

Con 13 (+1) +1 from race = 14 (+2)

Int 10 (+0)

Wis 13 (+1)

Cha 12 (+1)

Background: Courtier

Grian is a well-rounded character with no clear weaknesses but a couple of fields he excels at. He’s good at almost all aspects of the game whether it be combat, social interactions or even just survival. I gave him the Fighter/Cleric multiclass because I felt like it would be an interesting build and made him a dexterity-based fighter because Aarakocra cant fly with any armour other than light armour.

Before moving on to classes, let’s go over the race and background features.

Aarakocra race*:

Flight**: Flying speed equal to walk speed, only works with light or no armour.

Talons: Your unarmed attacks do more damage. Not super good because this is a dex build.

Wind Caller: At lvl 3 you can cast Gust of Wind. A cool spell, find some fun situations to use it in.

*The Aarakocra version used here is the nerfed version from “Mordekainnen Presents: Monsters of the Multiverse”.

**If having a flying speed is a problem, a compromise I usually default to is only letting flying speed let you move vertically during your turn, but you cannot end your turn in mid-air or you fall.

Courtier background:

Skill Proficiencies: Insight, Persuasion

Court Functionary: You are good at hearing things about important people, as you are one of them. Perfect for if you want to start wars.

At 1st lvl, we start with a level in Fighter. This grants us:

Proficiency in heavy, medium, and light armour, shields

Proficiency in simple and martial weapons

Proficiency in Strength and Constitution saving throws.

Skill Proficiencies: Take Survival and Athletics.

Fighting Style: Choose Duelling if you want to use a sword mostly. Archery is fine too if you want to use a bow.

Second Wind: Bonus action healing. Nice to have.

As a dex build, Grian will be using light armour and finesse or ranged weapons mostly. Ideal weapon would be a rapier and a longbow. The Courtier background involves knowing what’s happening amongst a group of interest, much like how Grian is involved with many major Minecrafters

At 2nd lvl, we take a second level in Fighter, which grants us:

Action Surge: Have a second action in one round once per short rest. Good early for having another attack and scales very well.

At 3rd lvl, we take a third level in Fighter, which grants us:

Subclass: Eldritch Knight

Eldritch Knight grants:

Weapon Bond: Find a shiny weapon? It’s yours now and no one else can have it!

Two Cantrips: Mage Hand (lots of trickery you can do with this) and Blade Ward (in case taking damage is inevitable)

Three 1st lvl spells: Magic Missile (just in case), Shield (good defensive spell) and Fog Cloud (cause lots of chaos and confusion)

As Grian’s Intelligence stat hasn’t been prioritised, I chose spells that don’t involve any rolls so that it’s not really a problem. He’ll get more chaotic use out of the cleric spells that we get later.

At 4th lvl, we take a fourth level in Fighter, which grants us:

Ability Score Improvement OR Feat. Take the Ability Score Improvement and +1 your Dex up to 18 (+4) and your Wisdom up to 14 (+2).

One more spell: Take Tenser’s Floating disk (Take people’s doors and stack them on the disk and then run away without being weighed down)

The dex is always important, improves your stealth so you’re less likely to be caught placing tnt and the wisdom helps your perception but more importantly helps after becoming a cleric.

At 5th lvl, we take a fifth level in Fighter, which grants us:

Extra Attack: More damage output!

With this fifth level in Fighter, we hit the important damage power spike. Now we can get to the more chaotic side of Grian.

At 6th lvl, we multiclass into Cleric, which grants us:

Three Cantrips: Take Guidance (good spell), Thaumaturgy (fun spell) and Spare the Dying (mainly for Scar)

1st lvl spells: As a prepared caster, Clerics can swap out their spells after a long rest. My suggested default spells are: Bless, Sanctuary and Ceremony (get that marriage buff).

Subclass: War Domain

War Domain grants:

Extra Prepared Spells: Divine Favor and Shield of Faith

Bonus Proficiencies: Martial Weapons and Heavy Armour. Both redundant because we started Fighter.

War Priest: Another attack as a bonus action with number of uses scaling with Wisdom. Goes well with being a fighter.

Ready to start a war? Cleric and this subclass especially makes Grian extra ready to start a war and fight his way to victory. As a Cleric, Grian of course worships the mighty Boatem Pole!

At 7th lvl, we take a second level in Cleric, which grants us:

Channel Divinity: Turn Undead. Good for all the zombies and skeletons that keep spawning around you.

Channel Divinity: Guided Strike. Give yourself a +10 to an attack roll once per long rest. Really good if you just desperately need to land a hit.

One more prepared spell: Command (Need a war started? Just point at a button and tell someone else to “Press”!)

At 8th lvl, we take a sixth level in Fighter, which grants us:

Ability Score Improvement OR Feat: Take the ASI to bring your dex from 18 (+4) to 20 (+5)

Maxed out dex is good. Alternatively, you could bump your wisdom up to 16 instead if you want stronger spells.

Summary:

Final stats:

Str 10 (+0)

Dex 20 (+5)

Con 14 (+2)

Int 10 (+0)

Wis 14 (+2)

Cha 12 (+1)

Two Attacks as an action, a third as a bonus action (limited uses)

Rapier (if Duelling was chosen): +5 (dex) +3 (prof. bonus) = +8 to hit. 1d8 + 5 (dex) + 2 (duelling) piercing dmg.

Longbow (if Archery was chosen): +5 (dex) +3 (prof. bonus) +2 (archery) = +10 to hit. 1d8 + 5 piercing.

And that’s it for Grian! I hope this build captures the chaotic nature of Grian while also maintaining his prowess a just about everything. If you have any feedback or questions, I’d love to read them! ^^

Next will be Scar!