#especially since they have to be fey fiend or celestial and that just. doesn’t fit my boy lmao

[borifle]

not me making a homebrew familiar for my special boy dnd character just to match his aesthetic and class theme 🫣

[grailfinders]

Fate and Phantasms #114: Minamoto-no-Raikou

Today on Fate and Phantasms, we're making the leading mystic slayer of Japan, the leader of Lava Swimmers Anonymous, and Arjuna's half-sister, Minamoto-no-Raikou! Mama Raikou certainly has a unique personality, but thankfully we don't have to build that! We're here to make her fighting style more than anything, and that means we need to be able to mix around any weapon in the game, maybe slap some lightning into it, and then hand it off to one of our retainers and let them have fun.

Check out Mama Raikou's build breakdown below the cut, or her character sheet over here!

Next episode: Our heroes face their greatest challenge yet: making a motorcycle in D&D! Will they ride eternal, shiny and gold? Or will they spin out? Also, will Onigashima ever get added to the rerun shop?? Find out next time on Fate and Phantasms!

Race and Background

Remember how I said we were keeping things simple with Xuanzang and her being human? Yeah, that's not going to work here. Raikou's part got and part demon, so there's a lot of ways you can go about this one. If any sort of lightning smite existed I might have gone with Zariel Tiefling, but the Fallen Aasimar fits her best flavor-wise, if not in gameplay. Thanks to Tasha's, we can customize your bonuses to better fit your classes, giving you +1 Wisdom and +2 Strength, as well as some Darkvision, Celestial Resistance against necrotic and radiant damage, Healing Hands to pass out a delicious, nutricious snack once per long rest, and the Light cantrip from your Light Bearer feature. Your sword isn't electric yet, but at least you can make it look the part.

Mystic slaying is certainly the most interesting part of your resume, but you had to pad out the day-by-day stuff by being a Soldier (well, Samurai, but tomato tamamo), giving you Athletics and Intimidation proficiencies. You ever see Raikou mad? Exactly.

Ability Scores

Standard warning: we generally use the standard array for character creation; roll if you want, but keep multiclassing in mind. Make Strength your highest score-you're a berserker, this shouldn't be new to you by now. Your Dexterity should be next, you're as good with a bow as you are with a sword, and calling your outfit light armor is generous. Third is Constitution because making a berserker with mental abilities higher than physical ones just feels wrong. Unfortunately we have to make your Wisdom a little higher than I'd like for multiclassing, but you are good at stalking people, so I guess that works out. Your Charisma is pretty low, you have a forceful personality but not a lot of self-awareness, but we're dumping Intelligence. I'm not calling Mama Raikou dumb, but I doubt her kids are coming to her with their maths homework.

Class Levels

1. Ranger 1: I was tempted to go paladin to get electric weapons, but since none of the smites deal lightning damage we might as well focus on the nitty gritty of demon hunting. As a ranger, you get proficiency with Strength and Dexterity saves, as well as three ranger skills-grab Animal Handling for a riding skill, and Perception and Stealth to help stalk Gudao.

You also gain a Favored Enemy in Fiends, giving you advantage on Survival and Intelligence checks involving demonic hordes. I know missing out on that Favored Foe is rough, but we'll have more flavorful ways to use your concentration later.

As a Deft Explorer, you're Canny when it comes to Intimidation, letting you use someone's middle name to double up your proficiency bonus.

2. Ranger 2: Your Archery skills give you +2 to ranged weapon attack rolls. You can also start casting Spells this level using your Wisdom. While we're waiting on your lightning weapons you can use Hunter's Mark to deal more damage and stalk people more easily. You can also use Zephyr Strike for another way to deal damage and gain a bit more speed.

3. Fighter 1: You don't just have some skill with weapons though, you have a lot of skill. That's why you have a second fighting style. Great Weapon Fighting will make your attacks with your longsword a bit more consistent, especially useful when you're sticking a bunch of extra damage on your attacks.

You also get a Second Wind, so you can pack yourself a bento as well, and you can channel every mother ever to unleash your Necrotic Shroud once per long rest. After you transform, creatures have to make a Charisma save (DC 8 plus your proficiency plus your charisma modifier) or be frightened of you until the end of your next turn. Also, once per turn while your transformation is up you can deal extra necrotic damage to a creature you hit with an attack. Again, not lightning, but still scary.

4. Ranger 3: Third level rangers join a conclave, and the Monster Slayer conclave will.. help you slay monsters. It's right on the tin, come on. Your Hunter's Sense will let you know the immunities, resistances, and vulnerabilities of a creature you target as an action. You can use this a number of times per long rest equal to your wisdom modifier, so... once. You can also use your bonus action to activate your Slayer’s Prey, adding another bit of damage to a targeted creature the first time you hit it each turn. It doesn’t use your concentration, and lasts until your next rest or until you target someone else.

Your Primeval Awareness will help you sense demonic presences within a mile of you for each minute per spell level you burn. Also aberrations, celestials, dragons, elementals, fey, and undead presences, but you’re a demon hunter.

You can use your sword as a lightning rod to Absorb Elements, reducing your own damage to add even more damage to your next strike. This will also make swimming through lava slightly less of a bad idea, if you’re interested. As part of your conclave you can also cast Protection from Evil and Good to make your fight against Shuten even more one sided.

5. Ranger 4: Use your first Ability Score Increase to round up your Strength and Constitution to hit people even harder and take more hits.

6. Ranger 5: Fifth level rangers get an Extra Attack each action, and you can cast second level spells too. You’re not Kiyohime, but feel free to help her out with your Zone of Truth, courtesy of your conclave. You can also Locate Object this level. That hair clip you gave Gudako? Not just a thoughtful gift.

7. Ranger 6: Speaking of stalking the Gudas, your Favored Enemy improvement helps you stalk Humans and Tieflings. You also become a Roving ranger, giving you an extra bit of speed, including a climbing and swimming speed.

8. Ranger 7: Your Supernatural Defense gives you an extra boost to your saves and grapple escapes against creatures you’re targeting with slayer’s prey. You can also cast Protection from Poison this level. You don’t have this explicitly in canon, but you hang out with Serenity a lot and you’re not dead yet, so you’ve got something going for you.

9. Ranger 8: Grab the Warcaster feat with this ASI to empower your concentration spells and let you cast them even with both hands full. You’re also Fleet of Foot to help you move through difficult terrain unharmed.

10. Ranger 9: Ninth level rangers get third level spell slots. You get Magic Circle as a freebie from your conclave, but you also get Elemental Weapon to finally add some lightning to your weapon attacks. Now that we have a lore-correct thing to spend most of your concentration on, we’ll also drop hunter’s mark for a Lightning Arrow. This is also the only spell you have that cares about your wisdom score, though you can still do plenty of damage with the normal attack.

11. Fighter 2: Now that your signature weapons are ready, it’s time we worked on your Noble Phantasm. Before that, though, you get an Action Surge- a free extra action you can tack on your turn once per short rest.

12. Fighter 3: You’ve got to be able to summon your retainers to beat down demons, and that means we’re heading back to the Echo Knight subclass for Manifest Echo. As a bonus action you can make a copy of yourself that’s a bit more fragile than most berserkers (It’s a copy of you, but I’m not sure if it gets a copy of your shocking weaponry. Slayer’s Prey will definitely work). While active, you can attack and make attacks of opportunity from its position, and you can swap places with the echo by using 15 feet of movement.

You can also Unleash Incarnation while your echo’s out on the field, giving them an extra attack as part of your attack action. You can use this a number of times per long rest equal to your constitution modifier.

13. Fighter 4: Your swordplay is fine, but you could stand to brush up on your archery. Use this ASI to grab more Dexterity.

14. Fighter 5: You get extra attack again, but it doesn’t stack with your ranger skill, so... enjoy the extra HP, I guess.

15. Fighter 6: Speaking of HP, use this ASI to bump up your Constitution for 15 more HP and another use of Unleash Incarnation.

16. Fighter 7: You can now use your Echo as an Echo Avatar, letting you scout out the area through its eyes up to 1000′ feet away from your regular body for up to 10 minutes. Despite the distance between you two, it still costs only 15′ to teleport! Now that’s convenience!

17. Fighter 8: For your final ASI, bring your Dexterity up so it can match your strength.

18. Fighter 9: You become Indomitable, letting you re-roll a failed save once per long rest. You might not be that reasonable, but that doesn’t mean you’re easy to charm.

19. Fighter 10: Our final echo goody lets you turn your echos into Shadow Martyrs, spending your reaction to throw an echo in front of an ally that’s being attacked, switching the target of the attack. You can do this once per short rest. Protect your darling Kintoki by... throwing a spiritual copy of him to its death... that looked better in your head, you swear.

20. Fighter 11: Your capstone level gives you yet another Extra Attack that actually does stack this time. That means you get three attacks per action, or four with Unleash Incarnation.

Pros:

Thanks to your Great Weapon Fighting powering up all your damage dice, your critical hits with your longsword can be pretty scary. Add in all your attacks, and you’ve got a good chance of dealing a lot of damage at once.

As expected of the premiere mystic slayer of the Heian period, you have plenty of demonic defenses to make fighting and tracking fiends a cakewalk.

With you and your echo out at the same time, you can lock down a larger area to abuse your once-per-turn Slayer’s Prey a bit more.

Cons:

You don’t have many spell slots, so you’ll have to be careful about using them, especially your third level slots. Burning through that slot on a single attack would be bad enough, but Lightning Arrow also uses your concentration, which leads directly to con #2.

Like most rangers, you have problems when it comes to concentration. It’s not that your save is bad, but you still have to balance out your various spells and play smart.

Also like most rangers, your bonus action is crowded, which can make things complicated as well. Echo Knight does not help here either.