#Emiya: ‘so if there weren’t other things nearby to give it power you’d be pretty much unstoppable.’

[ziracona]

Oh sorry didn't mean to pressure you to write the fic or anything I get having other stuff going on. Also hope whatevers happenin gets better for ya. Also I would kill for a fic with cu and emiya being frenemies and discussing how they'd each kill pennywise that'd be so cool

You didn’t! Don’t worry! I was just thinking about it. : )

God that would be so funny. Love their weird frenemyship so, so much.

[grailfinders]

Fate and Phantasms #109: Emiya (Assassin)

Today on Fate and Phantasms we’re continuing our trek through Fate Zero with the assassin class Edgemiya, with the ability to alter his own time and everyone’s luck. Despite all his cool powers, he’s still pretty depressed. Oh well, it’s probably nothing a few more builds won’t fix.

Check out Emiya’s build breakdown below the cut, or his character sheet over here!

Next up: “Do I contradict myself? Very well, then, I contradict myself. I am large- I contain multitudes.” -Walt Whitman

Race and Background

Emiya made a deal with the spirit of humanity to protect the human race, which is exactly why he’d make a great Hobgoblin... I’m kidding, he’s a Variant Human, for +1 Dexterity and Charisma, Arcana proficiency (or whatever else a rocket launcher would fall under idk), and the Crossbow Expert feat, allowing you to ignore loading crossbows, fire well with enemies in melee range, and dual wield hand crossbows. You can control the flow of time, you should be able to fire more than once a round.

You’ve fought in plenty of wars, but it’s hard to call a professional assassin anything but a Criminal. This gives you Deception and Stealth proficiencies.

Ability Scores

This is a pretty mono-ability build- make your Charisma as high as possible. You’re a pretty scary guy, and you shoot good. That’s charisma. Somehow. After that is Dexterity- you’re really stealthy, and really, really fast. Your Intelligence isn’t half bad. You can use plenty of fancy modern weapons, and you can hunt down mages to use them on. Constitution doesn’t have to be that high, you don’t need health if you just don’t get hit. Your Strength isn’t great, but it’s enough to get the job done. We’re dumping Wisdom, though-your entire characterization is about how much you regret making that deal with Alaya. You’re not bad at noticing things though, we’ll just have to patch that up with skills.

Class Levels

1. Rogue 1: You have a particular set of skills, and rogues start off with the most, so let’s spend a little time here for now. First level rogues get proficiency with Dexterity and Intelligence saving throws, as well as four rogue skills- Acrobatics to enhance your mobility, Intimidation for that no-nonsense attitude of yours, and Perception and Investigation to hunt down and destroy your enemies.

You also get Expertise, doubling your proficiency bonus for Stealth and Intimidation. Presence Concealment A+ is some good stuff.

You can also add a Sneak Attack bonus to damage done by attacks with advantage or directed at creatures who are occupied with other creatures. Right now, it’s just 1d6. You also learn Thieves’ Cant. It’s a language.

2. Warlock 1: Alaya’s kind of a lot of things to a lot of people, but Hexblades work best for us so a Hexblade it shall be here. As a hex warlock, you learn how to place a Hexblade’s Curse on a creature. It lasts one minute, or until one of you two dies, and you can use it once per short rest. While cursed, you can add your proficiency to damage against the target, all attacks made crit on 19s as well as 20s, and you gain hp when the cursed creature dies.

You also become a Hex Warrior, giving you proficiency with medium armor and martial weapons. You can also use charisma as your attack modifier for one weapon per long rest, as long as it isn’t two-handed. Right now, that means you’re using hand crossbows.

One last benefit of being a warlock is Pact Magic, spells you can cast using Charisma. Grab Eldritch Blast for more shooting and True Strike for more careful shots, Expeditious Retreat for some extra speed, and Cause Fear to drain the luck of one poor sap for up to a minute, rendering them unable to move closer and giving them disadvantage on attacks while you’re in sight for the duration. Sure, making yourself luckier would technically be more directly in line with canon, but it’s a “six in one hand, half a dozen in another” sort of situation.

3. Warlock 2: Second level warlocks get Eldritch Invocations, extra ways to customize the Selling Your Soul Experience! You get two right now, but we’re saving one for The Obvious next level. Grab Thief of Five Fates for yet another way to ruin someone’s day. You can cast Bane once per long rest by using a warlock spell slot. This reduces all the saves and attack rolls of three creatures who failed their charisma saves by 1d4 for up to a minute. The DC on those saves, by the by, is 8 plus your proficiency bonus plus your charisma modifier. You can also cast Hex now, in case your enemies weren’t unlucky enough. This makes your attacks deal extra necrotic damage, they get disadvantage on ability checks with one ability, and you can move the effect to another creature if the first drops to 0 hp, which is nice considering it lasts an hour.

4. Warlock 3: Pact of the Blade time! This level lets you summon a magical pact weapon as an action. This weapon always has the benefits of being a Hex Warrior, and thanks to Improved Pact Weapon it can also be a ranged weapon. Specifically, it has to be a Light Crossbow now, because weapon requirements in D&D are obtuse and terrifying.

On a lighter note, you get second level spells now! You can speed up enough to create a Mirror Image of yourself, creating three copies of yourself on the same square you’re standing. If you’d take a hit, there’s a 75% chance a copy will get hit instead and get destroyed, leaving you with only two, and so on.

5. Warlock 4: Use your first Ability Score Improvement to bump up your Charisma for better... everything, really.

You can also cast Minor Illusion to leave afterimages further away from yourself, and Blur, which gives creatures attacking you disadvantage.

6. Rogue 2: Back in your other class, you learn how to make Cunning Actions, speeding up your Dash, Disengage, and Hide actions so they can fit in a bonus action instead. 

7. Rogue 3: It’s no surprise that you’re an Assassin. I mean, it’s your class, but it’s also your subclass. As an Assassin, you can Assassinate enemies that are surprised and/or slower than you are. You have advantage on creatures who haven’t taken a turn yet, and hits against surprised creatures are instant criticals. Speaking of advantage, you can use your Steady Aim as a bonus action to give your next attack advantage, at the cost of losing al your movement for the turn. Despite this, you’ll have plenty of ways to move in a pinch if you really have to.

Also, your sneak attack goes up to 2d6.

8. Fighter 1: Yes, it’s another 3-class build. Don’t worry though, this one’s just a splash. As a fighter, you get a fighting style- Archery will make your shots even more accurate than they were before. You can also use your Second Wind as a bonus action for a bit of healing. You shouldn’t have any trouble finding time for a breather, after all.

9. Fighter 2: Second level fighters can use an Action Surge once per short rest to add an extra action to a turn. Save up for a burst of gunfire, or cast Mirror Image and Blur at the same time to become almost invincible have fun with it!

10. Warlock 5: Speaking of doubling up on things, at fifth level warlocks get another Invocation. Thirsting Blade lets you attack twice per action. You can also move fast enough to Blink out of existence. On the end of each turn for a minute, you have a 50% chance to enter the ethereal plane until the start of your next turn.

11. Rogue 4: Use your next ASI to grab the Piercer feat, for +1 Dexterity, the ability to re-roll one die of piercing damage per turn, and an extra critical hit die when you shoot somebody. If you don’t plan on wearing medium armor, this will also increase your AC.

12. Rogue 5: Fifth level rogues gain an Uncanny Dodge, spending your reaction to halve the damage of a single attack. I’d think you wouldn’t get hit by this point, but nat 20s happen to everyone eventually. Also, your sneak attack is 3d6 now.

13. Rogue 6: Use your second round of Expertise to double down on Perception and Investigation. You’re a professional, you’ve got to get results.

14. Rogue 7: Seventh level rogues get Evasion, making you fast enough to outrun fireballs. If an effect makes you roll a dexterity save to halve damage, a failure makes you take half damage now, and a success completely negates it. Your sneak attack reaches its final form at 4d6.

15. Warlock 6: Sixth level hexlocks can make an Accursed Specter once per long rest out of humanoids you kill. They stick around until your next long rest. This is very not in character for you, but free help is free help.

To help with all that killing, you can also cast Spirit Shroud, adding extra damage to short-range combat, preventing healing, and slowing down nearby enemies.

16. Warlock 7: You can now burn spell slots to power gunshots thanks to Eldritch Smite, which adds a lot of force damage to a weapon attack. To help maneuver around the battlefield, you can also cast Dimension Door for a quick burst of speed.

17. Warlock 8: Use your last ASI to maximize your Charisma for stronger spells and weapons. You can also cast Shadow of Moil for that dramatic shadowy look you get at higher ascensions. It also works as yet another reason people really shouldn’t hit you.

18. Warlock 9: Ninth level warlocks max out their spell slots at fifth level, allowing you to cast Far Step for a longer speed-up session. While the spell lasts (it’s concentration, up to a minute) you can use your bonus action to teleport 60′. You also get the invocation Trickster’s Escape, which lets you cast Freedom of Movement for free once per long rest. While active, your latent timewarping prevents you from being slowed down by magical effects or difficult terrain. (At least that’s what it looks like from the outside. They don’t need to know you secretly spent two turns getting through those hedges.)

19. Warlock 10: Our final gift from Alaya is the Armor of Hexes. If you’re going to get hit by a hexcursed creature’s attack, you can use your reaction for a 50/50 chance of ignoring the attack completely.

You can also cast the cantrip Friends this level. You’re scary, this’ll make you scarier for a bit.

20. Warlock 11: Having sixth level spells on short rests would be busted, so instead of growing your spell slots warlocks get a Mystic Arcanum. This lets you cast one sixth level spell once per long rest, like those plebeians with spellbooks. Your spell is the Circle of Death, letting you go full on Reaper on a pretty large area, dealing 8d6 necrotic damage to every creature that fails a constitution save in a 60′ radius sphere. It’s not dexterity, purely because there’s that many bullets flying around.

Pros:

You are very, very good at critical hits. With a doubled chance of critical damage and guaranteed crits on surprised creatures, you’ll be rolling a lot of dice pretty often. Especially since you can take advantage of critical hits easily thanks to your smites and sneak attacks.

While you can dish out damage easily, you’re also great at avoiding damage entirely, with plenty of spells that make you harder to hit, teleportation to get out of tricky spots, and multiple ways to dodge attacks even if they’re critical hits. Your mobility also makes it a lot harder to escape from you.

Maxed out charisma, the archery fighting style, and free advantage from Steady Aim means even after the fight starts you can still deal consistent damage over long periods of time. Your shots are going to land more often than not, and they land pretty hard.

Cons:

While you can deal damage over time, your kit is definitely geared more towards short bursts, because most of your skills are on a strict cooldown, with one or two uses per short rest. This is especially true of your spell slots. Warlocks eat up spells fast, especially if you’re using them for offense and defense.

Your low wisdom means you’re going to be fooled by illusions and charmed pretty easily. As a precaution, it might be best to use up your burst damage skills as soon as possible. You really don’t want to have to turn 9d8 + 4d6 + 12 damage on your party members.

Your HP isn’t that high, barely scraping above 100 at higher levels. While you have a lot of ways to make that last a lot longer than you’d think, there’s always the chance your DM’s getting sick of you surviving everything and will just throw someone with Power Word Kill your way.