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tigerkirby215 · 2 years ago

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5e Ashley J. Williams, The Hero from The Sky / El Jefe build

(Artwork from Evil Dead: The Game.)

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(So I found this track by accident when trying to search for the Evil Dead Movies main themes, but it turns out the original movies have kinda boring music so you can have this instead.)

Of course I’m rounding out my Evil Dead characters with the main main himself! Ashley Joanna “Ash” Williams played by the one and only Bruce Campbell. Even if you haven’t watched an Evil Dead movie the imagery of chainsaw arms and double-barrel shotguns have been solidified in horror media thanks to Campbell and Rami’s genre-defying work.

It also helps that Ash is probably the textbook horror movie protagonist, helped even more by the fact that he’s gone through every horror movie trope available. From terrified fish-out-of-water to expert man-of-action to grizzled disgruntled veteran of evil. Oh and we can’t forget his brief stunt as more of a walking punchline in the body of Duke Nukem than a proper protagonist.

But regardless of your opinions on Ash one thing’s for sure: he’s a very compelling character and character archetype to play in D&D. The grizzled, charming hero with a blade (attached to) one hand and a gun in the other. Up to you if you’ll run from evil or face it head on.

GOALS

What? Never saw a guy with a chainsaw hand before? - Chainsaws are a bit hard to come by in D&D, but you’re certainly talented with various cutting implements.

And this is my BOOMSTICK - Ranged backup is always nice to have, and a sawn-off shotgun pulls double duty of being quick to grab while also scaring any primitive screwheads who might want to lock you in a pit.

Hail to the King, baby - If you were just some cripple with good aim you wouldn’t be the Chosen One, now would you? No we need fate itself to keep you fighting Deadites. Yeah building a D&D character with literal protagonist powers will be hard.

RACE

Ashley J. Williams is just a man, but he’s also the Chosen One as written in the Book of the Dead, so I think making him a Variant Human is justified. Increase both your Charisma and your Strength by 1, the Deception skill (I guess since you can get Persuasion from elsewhere) to make a convincing argument why you’re covered in blood, and the Infernal language to recite ancient arcane texts... as long as you remember the words.

5e has a particular way of making ranged weapons needlessly unwieldy but the Crossbow Expert feat helps alleviate some of that. You can ignore the loading property of any weapon with that property, and you can also shoot enemies within 5 feet to make sure they “Swallow this.” But most importantly if you make an attack with a one-handed weapon on your turn you can shoot a Hand Crossbow with your Bonus Action: this not only includes shooting your Hand Crossbow but also includes any one-handed melee weapon you may be using.

Even if your DM allows firearms in their setting Crossbow Expert might be more useful than Gunner due to the Bonus Action attack. Depending on the types of firearms the DM allows and the rules your DM has for dual-wielding a melee weapon and a gun take either Gunner, Dual-Wielder, or possibly just bump up your Constitution with Resilient Constitution if you don’t need any feats to get around 5e’s arbitrary rulings.

ABILITY SCORES

You need to be particularly suited to take on the forces of darkness, which is my way of saying that if I built Ash with Standard Array this build would be incredibly lacking in stats. So for the first time in (awhile? ever? I actually don’t know if I’ve ever used Point Buy before) we’re going to make our character with Point Buy instead of Standard Array!

15; STRENGTH - Ash is a fairly lithe fellow but you need Strength to operate heavy machinery, which is my way of saying “we need Strength for the chainsaw”, which is my way of saying “5e makes melee Finesse characters needlessly weak unless you’re playing a Rogue and if you were to opt for full Dexterity instead of Strength it would make some aspects of the build better but the main classes flat-out wouldn’t function.”

12; DEXTERITY - Ash is no acrobat but he’s fit enough to dodge some hits.

13; CONSTITUTION - Ash has been through three movies and a TV show’s worth of battering; it’s safe to assume he can take a few hits.

8; WISDOM - Ash is easy to fool, especially by demons who dedicated their lives to manipulating the living. I mean really how many times can you fall for the same “pretend not to be possessed” trick?

8; INTELLIGENCE - Ash is also quite forgetful and prone to dumb ideas. But hey: “dumb” is the first half of “dumb luck!”

15; CHARISMA - Ash is played by Bruce Campbell, a man who has an IRL 20 in Charisma.

BACKGROUND

If there’s any background for Ashey Slashy, Elk Grove’s boogeyman who went up to a cabin and murdered all his friends with a chainsaw, Haunted One is probably the way to go. You get proficiency with a handful of skills but I personally opted for Survival and Arcana. You can also learn one regular language (Elvish, I guess? Look just take whatever you think fits) and an exotic language (Abyssal, in case the magic words aren’t actually in Infernal.)

Your feature Heart of Darkness will ensure people listen to you instead of throwing you into the cellar. “Though they might fear you” (and trust me: they probably will) most folk will try to help you, unless you're swinging a chainsaw and boomstick around in their face. They will even fight alongside you if you’re facing an enemy alone.

(Artwork from Evil Dead: The Game)

THE BUILD

LEVEL 1 - PALADIN 1

Weird choice to make Ash a holy man perhaps, but I’m sure as shit not going to make him a Champion Fighter. I’m not that boring. Regardless I’m starting with Paladin levels primarily for saving throws, but proficiency with Athletics and Persuasion is also nice.

As a Paladin you get Divine Sense to know if any demons, deadites, zombies, or monsters are around. (Well, celestial, fiend, or undead.) The ability extends to 60 feet but doesn’t go through walls, and while you know where they are you don’t know who they are. You also get Lay on Hands, because I hope you learnt some basic first aid before heading out for a night in the woods.

LEVEL 2 - BARBARIAN 1

Grabbing Barbarian levels to be indestructible, much like that bright blue shirt. Speaking of that shirt: Unarmored Defense will let you wear that shirt with pride with AC equal to 10 + your Dexterity and your Constitution, with your poster-ready muscles protecting you perfectly from the rips in your shirt.

Additionally if you’re in the thick of things Rage will let you go a bit insane with that chainsaw. You can enter Rage as a Bonus Action for advantage on Strength checks and saving throws, a bonus to melee damage, and resistant to Bludgeoning, Piercing, and Slashing damage. Most Deadites aren’t going to be doing Fire damage anytime soon so this will give you resistance to most damage you’ll be taking! You can only Rage a limited number of times though, so be sure to use them when you need them.

LEVEL 3 - PALADIN 2

Now that your AC has gone from mediocre to... still mediocre (look you’re still allowed to wear Medium armor) it’s time to grab a Fighting Style from the second level of Paladin. Because WoTC hates the idea of ranged Paladins the only option that’s really available for you is Dueling: it’s still an incredibly good option though, giving you a flat +2 to all damage rolls with your “chainsaw.”

I may as well mention this now: the weapon that best fits a “chainsaw arm” would probably be a longsword, as it does slashing damage and can be wielded in one hand.

Depending on if your DM is cool though there’s a Common Magic Item from Eberron known as the Armblade, which is meant to be exclusive to Warforged but you could probably justify it as an arm attachment of sorts for your weapon. Basically if your DM knows you’re playing Ash and are okay with it then hopefully they will buy into the fantasy.

You also get access to Spellcasting, which is admittedly a bit weird for Ash but you can probably justify it with enhanced Chosen One abilities. You can prepare a number of spells equal to your Charisma modifier plus half your Paladin level (rounded down), so 4 for now. Grab spells that don’t rely too much on your spellcasting modifier to be good, like Bless, Cure Wounds, Heroism, and Shield of Faith. Okay some of those spells do still need a good casting modifier, and it’s also important to mention that you can’t cast spells or concentrate on spells while Raging as a Barbarian.

Of course you could ignore all that for Divine Smite, which is what I’d do if I was playing Ash. Instead of going through all that “spellcasting” jazz turn your spell slot into extra Radiant damage on melee hit. A 1st level spell slot will do 2d8 Radiant damage and every spell slot above that will do an extra d8 of damage. Additionally if you hit a fiend or undead (so what Ash is likely fighting) you’ll get another d8, for 3d8 baseline! Flavor it as revving your chainsaw real hard before digging into whatever respective Deadite you’re fighting and letting blood fly!

LEVEL 4 - PALADIN 3

3rd level Paladins get to choose their Sacred Oath, and while Ash isn’t really one to make an oath to anyone Oath of Devotion actually has some good abilities for us. For a start you get Protection from Evil and Good added to your spell list, as well as Sanctuary. (One of these spells is likely going to be far more useful than the other.) But more notably you gain access to Channel Divinity with a few options:

Turn the Unholy is a good way to keep the evil dead off you for a scene or two, working much like the Cleric’s Turn Undead feature but... well actually it basically works exactly like a Cleric’s Turn Undead, except it also works on Fiends. Tasha’s Cauldron of Everything also gives you access to Harness Divine Power once per Long Rest to exchange your Channel Divinity for a spell slot equal to half your proficiency bonus. So for now that’s only a 1st level slot, but hey more chainsaw fuel never hurt!

Most notably however as an action you can turn one of your weapons into a Sacred Weapon. Along with making the weapon glow in the dark (which may or may not be helpful) you get a bonus to attack rolls equal to your Charisma modifier, allowing you to hit a deadite right between the eyes when this counts! Since this scales off your Charisma and can be applied to any weapon it can be a good boost to both your boomstick or your chainsaw; you probably aren’t going to hit any ranged shots without this boost (what with your measly +1 to DEX) but going all-in with the melee weapon is probably a good idea too, especially this early on.

Regardless of what you choose remember that your Channel Divinity is only available once per Short Rest, so use it wisely! And to top it off you get Divine Health, because it sure would suck if the Hero from the Sky died to the plague.

(Image from Entertainment Earth.)

LEVEL 5 - PALADIN 4

4th level Paladins get our first Ability Score Improvement and you probably noticed our uneven Constitution score. Let’s nip that in the bud right away and grab Resilient Constitution to round out some scores and also ensure no deadite puke gets us feeling funky.

You can also prepare another spell but I’m going to wait for...

LEVEL 6 - PALADIN 5

5th level Paladins get a bunch of fun stuff! For one you can swing your chainsaw twice thanks to Extra Attack! Secondly you get, well, 2nd level spells. As a Devotion Paladin you gain access to both Lesser Restoration (which can be good) and Zone of Truth (which is less immediately useful for the character.)

You can also prepare Find Steed to always have a getaway at the ready. But what might steed would Ash Williams ride into battle? Why the Delta of course! A good ol’ Oldsmobile Delta 88 Royale. Which is my way of saying “just grab a damn warhorse.”

LEVEL 7 - WARLOCK 1

You probably noticed your godawful Dexterity modifier and were wondering “how the hell am I going to hit with this Hand Crossbow?” Well here comes my favorite part of D&D character building: “um akchually” time, otherwise known as “scouring through classes to find a way to make this build works”, or “multiclassing madness for short.”

Anyways funny Warlock levels! Even if you’re against the Book of the Dead you did still read it, and it eternally changed you for the better. For convenience’s sake we’ll say it made you a good shot! The Hexblade patron is the best martial class thanks to Hex Warrior which does a bunch of stuff that doesn’t matter, but more importantly allows you to “touch one weapon that you are proficient with and that lacks the two-handed property�� to allow you to shoot it with Charisma.

Notice that wording? Hex Warrior says nothing about ranged weapons. And you know what’s a one-handed ranged weapon? The Hand Crossbow! So thanks to Hex Warrior you can now shoot your Hand Crossbow with your Charisma!

Other than that Hexblade’s Curse will let you mark a target with your Bonus Action. During that time you do extra damage to the target on-hit equal to your proficiency bonus, you crit on a 19 or 20 against them, and if they die you regain health equal to your Charisma modifier plus your Warlock level (so... not much.) It’s a nice trick to have in your back pocket, and much like your Channel Divinity it comes back on a Short Rest, meaning that you need only settle down with a beer for a minute before you can come back swinging!

Is there something I’m missing? Oh yeah Warlocks have Pact Magic which means you’ll have a 1st level spell slot that comes back on a Short Rest due to multiclassing madness. It does also mean you can grab 2 cantrips and 2 spells from the Warlock list: for cantrips take Mind Sliver to borrow some tricks from Eligos, and Mage Hand because you have a particular knack for dropping your weapons mid-fight. For leveled spells meanwhile Shield is universally useful even with your limited spell slots, and Hex can be good if you want to lay in even harder onto a particular Deadite.

LEVEL 8 - PALADIN 6

Hey look at that: the main reason we went for Paladin. Aura of Protection makes you so awesome you just don’t get hit by things, adding your Charisma to your saving throws and the saving throws of allies within 10 feet of you. The stuff that would scare the pants off a regular Joe Shmo? It don’t bug you as much anymore!

Additionally you can prepare another spell and oh boy you sure do have real spell slots. Take Thunderous Smite I guess for more burst damage in a pinch as you saw into your foe before blasting them away with your boomstick.

(Artwork from Evil Dead: The Game)

LEVEL 9 - BARBARIAN 2

Now that fate wants you to die slightly less it’s time to abuse that privilege as much as possible. Reckless Attack will let you swing your chainsaw around like an idiot with advantage, all for the low low price of making it easier for a deadite to grab you. Buuuut if you’re only rocking a blue dress shirt maybe it’s better to go all-out.

Additionally Danger Sense is like having proficiency with Dexterity saving throws, except only when you can see them coming. If you know an attack is coming your way you’ll have advantage on the DEX save, which combined with your Aura of Protection will keep you safe from a lot of fireballs. Relatively.

LEVEL 10 - BARBARIAN 3

3rd level Barbarians get to choose their subclass, and Path of the Zealot is funny because you get literal protagonist powers. Warrior of the Gods will let anyone with the power to revive you do so easily, not having to spend expensive diamonds to do so. It won’t let you leave!

Well at least it also gives you Divine Fury, letting you deal extra Radiant or Necrotic damage (trust me: take Radiant damage) the first time you hit someone with your chainsaw (not your boomstick) equal to a d6 plus half your Barbarian level. More fuel for more bloody kills, especially with one more daily Rage in case of those dire circumstances!

And to top it off Tasha’s Cauldron of Everything gives you Primal Knowledge for more skill proficiencies. Intimidation is the only thing you’re going to truly make an impact with currently, so proficiency with more Charisma skills can help to get control over a room.

LEVEL 11 - BARBARIAN 4

4th level Barbarians get another Ability Score Improvement and what’s fun about this build is that you can actually spec around what you want to do with your Ash. Want a more deadly chainsaw? Take more Strength. Want to be able to take more hits? Well Constitution can help with that. Want a prettier face that doesn’t get scratched up by saving throws? Charisma will help with that and also make your Channel Divinity better.

I’d personally recommend more Strength but the choice is entirely up to you as to the Chosen One you want to be.

(Image from CBR.com)

LEVEL 12 - BARBARIAN 5

5th level Barbarians get an Extra Attack... that doesn’t stack with your other Extra Attack. Oops. Well at least you get Fast Movement for 10 extra feet of movement while not wearing heavy armor.

LEVEL 13 - BARBARIAN 6

Were you failing saving throws? I sure hope not, because Fanatical Focus will let you reroll a failed Saving Throw once per Rage. More life insurance for the Chosen One to accommodate more uses of Rage!

LEVEL 14 - BARBARIAN 7

7th level Barbarians have been hunted by evil for so long fighting it has become a Feral Instinct. You have advantage on initiative rolls, and if you are surprised at the beginning of combat (and aren’t incapacitated) you can act normally on your first turn as long as you enter Rage before doing anything else.

Speaking of Rage: Tasha’s Cauldron gives you an Instinctive Pounce to move up to half your movement speed when you take the Bonus Action to Rage, letting you jump up for that decapitation!

LEVEL 15 - PALADIN 7

Quickly taking a value level in Devotion Paladin for Aura of Devotion. Possession sucks, and while charms aren’t quite possession this aura will keep your mind from being tampered with. Also you can now use Harness Divine Power twice per Long Rest, giving you a few more 2nd level spell slots to play with!

LEVEL 16 - BARBARIAN 8

8th level Barbarians get another Ability Score Improvement. Again: Strength, Constitution, or Charisma. Take whatever you think will help you the most. Probably Strength really but it’s up to you.

(Artwork from Evil Dead: The Game)

LEVEL 17 - BARBARIAN 9

9th level Barbarians can get even more blood! Brutal Critical lets you roll 3 damage die when you crit instead of just two. And if you don’t happen to crit? Well your Rage now deals 1 more damage per hit, I suppose.

LEVEL 18 - BARBARIAN 10

10th level Zealot Barbarians can be a source of inspiration without being a Bard. With the use of a Bonus Action your Zealous Presence will give up to ten(?!) other Survivors you choose that can hear you in 60 feet advantage on attack rolls and saving throws until the start of your next turn. You can only use this feature once per Long Rest, but in the face of hell you can show the demons the mettle of man.

Additionally you gain another skill proficiency from Primal Knowledge: take Perception I guess? By this point your proficiency bonus is probably enough to make this meaningful. Your low Wisdom won’t make you the main source of insight in the party, but I won’t look a skill proficiency horse in the mouth.

LEVEL 19 - BARBARIAN 11

11th level Barbarians get knocked down, but they get back up. Relentless Rage will let you roll a Constitution save when you hit 0 HP (while raging, as long as you don’t immediately die) to instead drop to 1 hitpoint. The first time you do this the DC is only 10 but it increases by 5 every time you have to use it until you take a Long Rest (when it resets to a 10 again.)

Aura of Protection does help you with this, along with your proficiency thanks to Resilient Constitution. You actually have a fairly good chance to survive being knocked dead quite a few times thanks to this ability!

LEVEL 20 - BARBARIAN 12

Our final level is the 12th level of Barbarian for one last Ability Score Improvement: again Strength, Constitution, or Charisma.

But the real capstone is having 5 total uses of Rage! Maybe.

FINAL BUILD

PROS

Shop Smart, Shop S-Mart - Despite not having maxed out combat stats you can both swing a chainsaw and shoot a shotgun (crossbow) pretty well, as long as you have some time to rev up the chainsaw first and give it a Charisma boost to hit. Having the flexibility to shoot and swing in the same round is also an obvious boon, giving you more combat pressure at all ranges. And of course being able to put full-gas in your chainsaw swings will really let you get to the blood and guts.

Hey granny! I hope you took your Geritol, 'cause it's time to dance! - The tricks you have up your sleeve can really augment your standard combat. While your Channel Divinity is likely going to be your bread-and-butter for tougher foes the few spells you can cast while not raging can really come in handy. Not to mention your Smites.

Who's laughing now? Who's laughing now?! - It wasn’t really my intention but it turns out when you built towards “fate literally not allowing you to die” you get some really good saving throw protection, which also translates nicely onto your party! If you fight against witches or magical deadites you’ll have plenty of confidence knowing you can shrug off most dangerous magical effects, and dodging any thrown chairs or bodies helps as well.

CONS

Klaatu, Barada, Nikto! - You have spell slots, yes. But they are extremely hard to use since you can’t cast or concentrate while Raging. And if you instead want to use them for Divine Smites you’ll also find yourself lacking over a long day as your chainsaw runs low on fuel.

And I don’t pay my taxes, so all I know is death - I can not stress enough how genuinely bad Unarmored Defense is. Like, you’d get so much more mileage out of just putting on a breastplate. But then you wouldn’t get to show off that lovely blue shirt now would you? Honestly unless you can get a decent CON from somewhere I’d just go for 14 DEX and accept the flavor confusion of putting on some proper armor.

Your shoelace’s undone - This build has to go through a lot of contrivance to work: you need high stats in multiple abilities to use both melee and ranged weapons, you can’t cast spells while Raging which limits your options for backup ranged attacks, weapon swapping rules are archaic meaning you can’t easily swap to two-handed ranged weapons, and the loading property gives you even more to dance around if you want to fire both barrels of your boomstick...

Look there’s a lot of simpler ways to get the theme of Ash (chainsaw in one hand and boomstick in the other.) My recommendation if you’re playing a low level character (which you probably are) is to take a level (or three to get Pact of the Blade) into Hexblade Warlock and invest the rest into some form of Paladin. This would let you concentrate on just Charisma (which best fits Ash) while rocking Medium armor and Agonizing Blast to take place of your boomstick (dealing as much damage as a Heavy Crossbow per shot.) (Heck you could even take a Greatsword for the chainsaw.) But on this blog I strive for A. level 20 builds and B. as much character accuracy as possible, meaning a lot of sacrifices have to be made for flavor. I can’t just make it easy for myself by picking Warlock all the time (despite what the general trend of this blog may indicate) and for Ash in particular it felt all types of wrong to say “oh yeah invest in Warlock use Shadow Blade as your chainsaw to rip and tear until it is done!”

tl;dr this build is meant to make a level 20 Ash Williams, not exactly a good build I’d play at a real table. If you want to play Ash in a campaign that doesn’t go to level 20 I’d probably make a Hexblade / Paladin multiclass and flavor Eldritch Blast as your boomstick.

But hey: just because you were the Chosen One doesn’t mean you were built to be a hero. You built yourself through all the highs and lows, and now are a one-man force against evil. But one man doesn’t have to do it alone: Ghost Beaters never leave a man behind and an alone wolf winds up dead by dawn. Be the face everyone can look up to when faced with any demon, deadite, or she-b#!% evil may throw at you. “Groovy.”

(Artwork from Evil Dead: The Game.)

#dnd #dnd 5e #dnd build #dnd guide #Evil Dead #Ash Vs Evil Dead #Ash Williams #Ashley J. Williams #the chosen one #El Jefe #The Hero from The Sky #deadite #chainsaw #arm #chainsaw arm #boomstick #halloween #Youtube

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