#Not hitting the highs of Jalter's Manga Summer though

[grailfinders]

Fate and Phantasms #219

We finished up on miss goody-two-shoes earlier, so now it's time to build the true protagonist, the dark saint Jeanne Alter (Berserker)! This edition of Jeanne is an Eldritch Knight to bring down dragonfire on your enemies and a Warlock, selling your soul to the awesome power of... you know, I don't think she ever says where her chuuni stuff comes from. I'm going with Silverquill though, if only for the writing themes.

Check out her build breakdown below the cut, or her character sheet over here!

Next up: I feel like we've done this one before...

Race and Background: Jantally was a Custom Lineage, but she was a bit weirder than you, so we're heading back to Variant Human for Balter. This gives her +1 Dexterity and Intelligence, Athletics proficiency since we won't be going that hard into strength this time, and the Tough feat so we don't have to invest too hard in constitution either. It gives you an extra 2 HP per level.

If we want Jalter to be an artist then the Guild Artisan background is a good match, giving her proficiency with Insight and Persuasion, but more importantly with Calligraphy Tools so she can doodle as well as the original.

Ability Scores:

Your Dexterity should be as high as you can get it- when you're only wearing a bikini and have disadvantage against all classes, not getting hit is much easier than tanking damage. Also, we're making your katanas shortswords so they're easier to dual wield. After that is Charisma, then Intelligence. You need a little of both if you want to craft good stories. Your Constitution should be above average if you want to survive those all-nighters. That means we have to leave Strength a little lower than I'd like, but we're dumping Wisdom. You're a berserker, and all those all-nighters you pull are going to have an effect on you.

Class Levels

Fighter 1: Okay, onto the fun stuff! Being a fighter lets you add your proficiency to Strength and Constitution saves, plus you're good at Acrobatics and Intimidation. You're still Jalter, after all. You also get the Dueling fighting style for an extra 2 damage when attacking with a one-handed weapon and nothing else, and you can use your bonus action to chug one of those fruity resort drinks for a Second Wind that heals you for a bit once per short rest.

Fighter 2: Second level fighters get an Action Surge for an extra action once per short rest! It's almost as good as a second sword! Almost.

Warlock 1: Bouncing over to warlock real quick gets you some Pact Magic, spells you can cast with your Charisma and slots that come back on short rests. As a Silverquill warlock you also become an Eloquent Apprentice, giving you Vicious Mockery as a free cantrip and proficiency in Performance and Deception. Good stories need both. You can also turn your words into Silvery Barbs, spending your reaction when a creature succeeds on a save, check, or attack to force a reroll if they aren't immune to being charmed. They must use the lower roll, and if they fail another creature can reroll an attack/save/check they make in the next minute, taking the higher number. You can do this successfully once per long rest, or by burning spell slots. Speaking of spells, you learn Friends so your readers feel a bigger impact from your manga. For all of five minutes. You also pick up True Strike, which lets you spend an action to get advantage on an attack. Next turn. If you maintain concentration. It's not good, but Jalter would absolutely monologue for six seconds before hitting someone, so it balances out. You also get Hex for your cursed dragon arm, or whatever, and Illusory Script. You can write one thing and it'll look like another to other people! Now you can write two manga at the same time! You'll save so much time this way!

Warlock 2: Second level warlocks get two Eldritch Invocations to customize their summer vacation. One of them doesn't really matter since we'll replace it later, but pick up Misty Visions now so you can cast Silent Image at will. Now you can have black fire on your hand without hurting yourself, sick! Speaking of fire, you also get Hellish Rebuke. If a creature hits you, use your reaction to set them on fire.

Fighter 3: Going back to fighter makes you an Eldritch Knight, giving you another set of Spells you can cast with your Intelligence. Most of them have to be abjuration or evocation, but that works out fine for us. Since we're multiclassing with warlock you don't have to use the multiclassing table, just remember the slots from fighter only come back on long rests. Also, over an hour you can create a Weapon Bond with two weapons at a time. Once done, you can't be disarmed of that weapon unless you're unconscious, and you can summon one bonded weapon as a bonus action. Oh right, spells. Grab Control Flames to turn fire black, Minor Illusion if you don't want to concentrate on your illusions, Burning Hands and Absorb Elements for more fire, and Catapult. We might not be able to invest in strength, but you can still weaponize your old books by chucking them at people's heads.

Fighter 4: At fourth level you get your first Ability Score Improvement, and we'll be using it to switch things up a bit. Pick up the War Caster feat so you can cast spells with full hands. You also get advantage on constitution saves, and you can use cantrips for opportunity attacks. To take advantage of that first part, we're also using Martial Versatility to swap out Dueling with the Two-Weapon Fighting style. This lets you add your dexterity to your offhand short sword attacks. Because short swords are light weapons, we don't need the dual wielder feat to use two at once, and hey, weapon bond lets you summon two swords at any time, what a coincidence! You also get Mage Armor. It helps with not dying, so your AC is 13 plus your dexterity now.

Fighter 5: Fifth level fighters get an Extra Attack, so you can make two attacks with one sword, or three with two. If you toss your action surge in, that's four attacks with one sword and one attack with the other. Yeah, it's kinda silly.

Warlock 3: "But whoever you are!" I hear you cry, "Jerker has three swords!" First off, that's a very rude thing to call someone, very naughty. Secondly, we've got you covered. Bouncing back to warlock real quick gives you the Pact of the Blade, letting you summon a third sword to your hand as an action. You can also spend an hour turning any magical weapon you come across into your pact weapon for the same benefit. Summoning this one might take longer, but it's all worth it, since it's an Improved Pact Weapon, giving the weapon a +1 to attack and damage rolls as long as it doesn't already have a bonus. You can also Enthrall a person for up to a minute. As long as they can hear you and can be charmed, they have disadvantage on perception checks to notice anyone but you until the spell ends. You know those parts of battle anime where the enemies practically have soliloquies at each other? This is that.

Fighter 6: Use this ASI for higher dex, for stronger swords and a higher AC. At the end of the day, this build's really all about stabbing people.

Fighter 7: HAHA YOU THOUGHT! Seventh level eldritch knights learn War Magic, so if you spend an action to cast a cantrip you can still make one weapon attack with your bonus action! You also learn Aganazzar's Scorcher for more fire damage.

Fighter 8: Eighth level fighters get another ASI, so bump up that Intelligence for more storytelling inspiration and stronger spells. Also, while we won't be able to make dragon heads appear out of our arm, we can use Dragon's Breath to breath a little bit of fire. Or anything else you want, just in case your DM's getting wise to your theme and throws you into the fire plane.

Fighter 9: Ninth level fighters are Indomitable, giving you one saving throw re-roll per long rest. Everybody makes mistakes sometimes, just stop rolling ones.

Fighter 10: Eldritch Knights can make Eldritch Strikes. When you hit a creature they get disadvantage on the next save you force on them before the end of next turn. You also get the Sword Burst cantrip- it's like swords, but magic- and the spell Warding Wind. Dramatic background wind is a necessity for any chuunibiyou, and this one actually helps out in other ways too! It deafens nearby creatures, extinguishes small fires (great in case you just accidentally set something on fire you didn't mean to), turns the area into difficult terrain, forces disadvantage on ranged weapon attacks that go through the area, and disperses gases, vapors, and fog. It's definitely niche, but it makes you look cool.

Fighter 11: Eleventh level fighters get another Extra Attack, so that's three attacks with one sword, four with two, and up to seven with your action surge. You can also cast Darkness now. If anyone asks, it's totally shaped like a dragon. They're all just too close to get a good look at the shape of it.

Fighter 12: Use this ASI to bump up your Charisma for more compelling reads and stronger spells. Stronger warlock spells, at least.

Fighter 13: At thirteenth level fighters get a second use of Indomitable. It's not reusing a feature, it's stock footage, they're totally different things. You also learn Fireball, because it's fireball.

Fighter 14: Use this ASI to bump up your Charisma again. Intelligence would be the smarter move, but that requires a high intelligence in the first place. You see the dilemma, right? You also pick up Blink, so half the time you pop into another dimension at the end of your turn. The upside is it doesn't go away the first time you'd get hit.

Fighter 15: Fifteenth level eldritch knights can put on an Arcane Charge, teleporting up to 30' away when you use an action surge. Nothing personnel, kid.

Fighter 16: Use your last ASI for higher Dexterity. Better ACs and attacks are both good. Also, for your last spell... sending? I guess? Luluhawa's in modern day, you could get a cell phone if you want one.

Fighter 17: Your capstone level gives you an extra use of both Action Surge and Indomitable. Villains don't really die, so neither should you.

Pros and Cons

Pros:

Your silvery barbs don't care about disadvantage or advantage, which is a huge boost for their usability. Basically, kick an opponent when they're down and now they have to roll 3 dice and take the lowest. Which then translates into an ally rolling three dice and taking the highest.

You're also really hard to hit, with a respectable 18 AC, teleportations, forcing disadvantage, and being in the wrong dimension half the time, you can stick around a lot longer than a frontline fighter in a bikini has any right to.

You have a maxed out attack stat plus five attacks a round, which means you're dealing consistent damage, which means you're consistently weakening their saves against your spells, which feeds right back into pro #1.

Cons:

Focusing on Charisma over intelligence is the more in-character option, but you have far more intelligence-based spells than charisma. I'd highly recommend taking intelligence to 18 instead in an actual game.

Almost all your spells are illusion/charm based or fire based. Both of those are easily resisted, meaning you'll be stuck relying on just a couple short swords in high-level fights.

Your spell list really isn't conducive to gishing, especially not how you'd like to do it. Sword burst is okay if you're surrounded, but most of your other spells are just straight up attacks instead of something that meshes with your swordplay like Spirit Shroud would. Or they're out of combat spells like Illusory script. Except for Hex, I guess. Also, your best defensive option is Blink, which shuts off your ability to use Silvery Barbs.