Warden Archetype (Open Legend RPG)

This month I wanted to create a post that looks into an open source roleplaying ruleset called Open Legend RPG. I wanted to share some of the character options that Open Legend has to offer and present a character build to showcase the customization and possibilities of this new RPG system.

Archetype: Warden

The main idea behind this build is an extremely tanky front-line support. It focuses on static defenses for attribute scores and uses support and defensive based feats, boons, and banes to give you and your allies a constant edge in battle. This fits a similar role to that of a paladin or battle-cleric, but synergizes well with them.

By stacking up on all of the main attributes that determine defenses, you can produce a character that has a greater ability to stand on the front lines of battle and stay alive long enough to be available to support your allies.

The Attribute scores

We want the main ability scores that are used to calculate defenses, so we can take the well-rounded score distribution to have a decent defense in each one.

Note: Attribute dice are written here as  ‘attribute dice/explosion chance’ or #d#/%; for example an attribute score of 4 is (1d10/10%) to represent the attribute dice 1d10 and the chance it will explode (10%)

Agility 4 (1d10/10%) – Agility is an important attribute for defense and to be able to dodge attacks (against precise weapons and supernatural projectiles). Agility also has a large array of debilitating banes associated with it and can be used for damaging attacks, using precise weapons.

Fortitude 4 (1d10/10%) – Contributes to both hit points and toughness (against forceful weapons, supernatural melee and area attacks).

Will 3 (1d8/12.5%) – Contributes to both Resolve and hit points.

Presence 3 (1d8/12.5%) –Like Will this ability score contributes to both Resolve and hit points, and gives some benefits to social encounters.

Creation 3 (1d8/12.5%) – Access to important support Boons such as Heal, Regeneration, and Restoration.

Prescience 1 (1d4/25%) – Access to divination-like boons, giving some utility options like Augury and Detection

Protection 1(1d4/25%) – Access to Dispel, which allows you to further control enemies in battle, by making them less effective.

Note: Why put 1 point into anything? Explosive dice happen 25% of the time with 1d4s, making it more likely that you will actually have a 4+1d4 with attribute dice, an average bonus of a 6.5 which is slightly worse than the average of 2d6 (or a score of 5) which is slightly above 7. This strategy, although a viable one, shouldn’t be relied on completely – also the boon and bane availability is limited when using attribute scores of 1. I also should mention that an attribute score of 5 is a significant increase, since the explosive dice is only slightly lower than 20% chance (much better than 1d10/10%).

The Feats

Battlefield Defender  - A small amount of damage while defending, also it opens up the possibility for more powerful feats, later on.

Armor Mastery I (Scale Mail) – Scale mail is very strong armor. This feat helps enforces your front-line presence

Hospitaler – A great support feat that helps with healing.

The Boons and Banes

Possible Banes

Blinded

Demoralized

Disarmed

Dispel

Immobile

Persistent Damage

Silenced

Slowed

Stunned

Possible Boons

Genesis

Heal

Light

Regeneration

Restoration

Augury

Detection

The Strategy

A main strategy for this archetype is to use close range disabling banes by applying conditions such as Demoralize and Immobile to make enemies less effective in combat. This is to give you and your allies that edge and emphasizes the idea of damage mitigation over healing. Although you are able to easily tank and heal when needed, letting your allies focus on dealing as much damage as possible.

In a pinch you can still deal a relatively decent amount of damage using your agility and precise weapons, such as longswords or switch to ranged weaponry.

The Weaknesses

The weaknesses of this build are the relatively low Might and social skillset. Because it is a close combat-style idea, Might could be a useful attribute that isn’t found in this build - so be wary of that. Additionally, social encounters will likely be more challenging for you since your limited to your presence in regards to social skills.

Conclusion

In summary, Open Legend gives character building an excellent array of options allowing players to bring almost any concept into reality. I purposefully left out perks, flaws, and a few other options that lend to the roleplay aspect of the character building experience, which should be unique to each character you make.

Are there any powerful tweaks you’d like to add to this Archetype build? Or maybe you have a few questions? Please comment below and thank you for reading!

Source: http://www.openlegendrpg.com/

Archer Build (Fighter, Ranger and Rogue builds 5e)

This post will be split into three short builds and will address 3 powerful Archer builds:

Each build is based around the ability to negate the drawbacks of ranged weaponry, while also increasing damage dealt. As we can see in an earlier post about two-handed damage, attack bonuses largely increase the average damage of two-handed damage and Archery attacks (mainly because of the Sharpshooter feat).

Also, with ranged weapon attacks, positioning matters quite a bit. So each build will have some decent mobility to evade melee combat.

Fighter (Battlemaster)

Core abilities: Archery fighting style, Maneuvers, Extra attacks and Ability score improvements

Melee Evasion: Negate the disadvantage with Feinting attack, or use Evasive footwork

Increased attack bonuses: Take Archery fighting style, use Precision attack on important attacks

Increased Damage: Take Dexterity increase as often as possible, increase ability score improvements also allow for more feats

Ranger (Hunter)

Core abilities: Archery fighting style, Horde Breaker/Volley, Escape the horde/Uncanny Dodge

Melee Evasion: Escape the horde gives enemies disadvantage, so you can exit melee easily

Increased attack bonuses: Take Archery fighting style

Increased Damage: Horde breaker vastly increases damage potential, along with spells like Hunter's Mark, Hail of thorns, Cordon of Arrows, Lightning Arrow, and Conjure Volley

Rogue (Assassin or Arcane Trickster)

Core abilities: Sneak attack, Stealth, Cunning Action, Uncanny Dodge/Elusive

Melee Evasion: Disengage as a bonus action with your Cunning Action.

Increased attack bonuses: You can gain advantage more often by using stealth and sneaking/hiding whenever possible.

Increased Damage: You naturally scale damage quite well as long as you pick your targets properly with sneak attack

Powerful Additions to each of these builds:

Melee Evasion
-Halfling race is a surprisingly good choice for an archer build, halfling nimbleness will help you get in potentially sticky situations, naturally stealthy can let you hide more often (lightfoot subrace), and lucky is always a good trait to have. Plus an extra +2 bonus to Dexterity. To a lesser degree, woodelfs allow you to hide more often in a more natural setting (like jungle or foggy terrain)
- Fighter: An alternative to evasive footwork could be using a pushing attack or maneuvering attack (with a unarmed attack) to hit a creature and move it or yourself away , this is generally a more risky move unless the enemy does a lot of damage and you don't want to risk an attack of opportunity
- Rogue (arcane trickster): spells like invisibility or misty step can be useful to get out of melee combat
- Fighter/Ranger: Mobile feat; this feat allows you to make an unarmed attack at close range and then leave an enemies reach to get another attack, because of extra attack (level 5+)
- Crossbow Expert; this feat allows you to use crossbows without worrying about the loading quality, negates the disadvantage of enemies within 5 feet - an excellent pick for any archer build

Increased attack bonuses
- Taking the feat Magic initiate will allow you to gain a couple cantrips and a 1st level spell. Taking bless is a good option here, increasing your attack power and two allies.
- Rogue (arcane trickster): True strike is excellent, and any spell that gives you advantage, like invisibility
- Skulker; this feat increases your ability to hide and land attacks with advantage, this is particularly good for rogue who relies on stealth more than other builds.

Increased Damage
- Sharpshooter feat; this is an obvious choice to increase your ability to shoot targets behind cover and gives increased damage roll at the expense of your attack roll, taking the human variant and getting this early is a great pick especially if your going fighter for the +2 to ranged attack rolls.
- Rogue (Assassin): The alert feat gives you a better chance of going before other enemies, giving you a better chance to get advantage on an attack (and sneak attack).

Have any comments or additions that make a powerful Archer build? Please share them!

Hexblade (Melee Warlock Pure Build)

Warlocks can be a melee class. This might be counter intuitive when initially glancing over the class, but by picking options that compensate for their lack of physical toughness you can produce a character that is both strong on the front lines, and has a powerful arsenal of magic at your disposal.

This post will discuss a viable melee warlock build, for a unique character play style and aesthetic. There are generally two directions to go with when choosing the type of hexblade you can create: Strength-based two-handed (mountain dwarf suggested) or dexterity-based two-weapon fighting (drow suggested);but other interesting builds are possible.

The core abilities of this build are:
- Pact of the Blade - creates a weapon that you are automatically proficient with
- Defensive options (feats, spells, and invocations)

The strategy
- At the beginning of a combat encounter, or right before, buff yourself with defensive abilities.
- Use modifier independent spells to increase the value of your character's less than optimal charisma ability score.

The weakness
Unfortunately this build is a bit more difficult to optimize, since you benefit quite a bit from multiple ability scores.

The warlock has a pool of limited resources. It recovers spell slots quickly, but can leave you with little option from time to time.

Powerful additions to this build
- Hex - if you want to do a two-weapon warlock, this is especially good, otherwise a good source of extra damage
- The Fiend Patron - getting extra temporary hit points each time you kill an enemy is very nice for some extra tenacity
- Fiendish Vigor - extra tenacity
- Armor of Agathys - very good defensive spell that scales well with level
- Races
Half elf - Has a big +2 bonus to charisma and a +1 in two other ability scores
Mountain Dwarf - a +2 in strength and constitution, plus proficiency in medium armor
Stout halfling - +2 in dex and +1 in consituttion
Drow - +2 in dex and +1 in charisma and extra benefit to charisma score
- Multiclassing - its not a bad idea to dip a few levels into other classes for a little bit of extra benefit. Provided they synergize well with the warlock class.
Paladin - As seen in an earlier post (the Corrupted Paladin) there is some good synergy with the divine
Fighter - Getting a fighting style at level one and action surge at level 2 can be a good way to get a few extra actions at the beginning of combat. Especially if you are doing a dual wielding style of warlock.
Sorcerer - If you want a bit of extra flavor to your spells, sorcerer isn't a bad pick. It synergizes well if you have a decent charisma score, the draconic bloodline is quite durable, and sorcery points can be created quickly with your warlock spell slots.

Suggested level progression to 10 
(Strength Based, Mountain Dwarf/Drow or stout halfling - Favor Str/Dex>Con>Cha)
Level 1 - Fiendish Patron, Spells (Armor of Agathys, Hex), Cantrips (True Strike, Blade Ward) - if you have access to Sword Coast Adventurers Guide use cantrips from there, they are more melee based.
Level 2 - Eldritch Invocations (Fiendish Vigor, Devil's Sight(STR)/Armor of Shadows(DEX)), Spell (Expeditious Retreat)
Level 3 - Pact boon (Pact of the Blade), Spell (Darkness(STR)/Mirror Image(DEX))
Level 4 - Ability Score increase (feat - heavily armored(dwarf)/war caster (two-weapon)), Spell (Misty Step), Cantrips (Eldritch Blast)
Level 5 - Invocation (Thirsting Blade), Spell (Fly)
Level 6 - Spell (Remove Curse)
Level 7 - Invocation (One with Shadows), Spell (Dimension Door)
Level 8 - Ability Score increase (Great weapon Mastery, or Heavy Armor Master (STR)/ ), Spell (Counterspell)
Level 9 - Spell (Gaseous Form)
Level 10 - Invocation (Otherwordly leap), Spell (Tongues)

What do you think? Have any additions or alternatives you'd like to add? please comment and let us know!