#in my giffing baseball for 5 notes era lets go

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Hazel Mae and Ernie Clement after Clement's pinch-hit homer wins the game for the Blue Jays.

Blue Jays @ Yankees | 04.05.24

[homebrewsno1asked4]

Wah

Full disclosure: I played an entire 20-level Dungeons and Dragons campaign as a character based on Waluigi.

An entire campaign

like almost 2(?) years of my life

playing a joke character

I based on Waluigi.

Scratchy nasal voice and going waaa and everything.

I wore a goddamn Waluigi hat.

I’m torn on this, folks. On the one hand, I feel like I should’ve changed my character to a more original creation after a couple levels. Play as a joke character for a little while to get used to 5E, then switch over to one of my brainchildren.

On the other hand, I fucking love Waluigi. I’ve wanted a Waluigi game since the Nintendo 64 era. I despaired when Nintendo failed us again last year (I’M LOOKING AT YOU, SAKURAI).

Well, what’s done is done. My Level Ridiculous Moon Elf Rogue-Ranger is part of our old group’s canon timeline, becoming the kingpin of the Baldur’s Gate underworld.

Strange, the passing of time.

Without further ado, a Waluigi build! After I deleted like half my notes when I shouldn’t have. Not like it was an accident - it was a totally conscious decision I regretted a few days later when trying to figure out why the hell I picked the things I did.

TOO BAD, WALUIGI TIME.

Race

Outwardly, Waluigi’s clearly a half-elf, if I had to pick a Wizards-sanctioned D&D race. Noodle build, big pointy ears, somehow still grows facial hair.

In the campaign I mentioned, I made my boy a moon elf. And his mustache was magical because elves can’t grow facial hair. I never fully fleshed out the magic mustache’s origin.

Functionally, neither elf nor half-elf caters to the Waluigi experience. Half-elves get that major Charisma bump. Waluigi’s not a charismatic fella; doesn’t play nice with others, throws fits. You know the type. Plus the Fey Ancestry feature doesn’t quite match up.

My number one choice? Githyanki.

That little Intelligence increase: Between him and Wario, he’s supposed to be a bit more cunning, more the Snidely Whiplash type.

Strength Boost: Waluigi’s always statted as a heavyweight/high-power character.

Githyanki Psionics: So githyanki get these psionic-flavored spell-like abilities at levels 1, 3, and 5. Mage Hand’s a bit of a stretch. Idk, Waluigi always has an abnormally long reach in Mario Sportball. But githyanki get Jump and Misty Step at levels 3 and 5, respectively. In multiple games, Waluigi has Super Jump abilities, and in at least one of the Mario Strikers titles, he has the ability to kind of Nightcrawler-bamf while he’s running.

Note: I’m aware Gith are kinda… noseless. Maybe your Waluigi Gith wears a false one, or a plague doctor mask, I dunno. Like he’s self-conscious about not having a nose, or the nose and mustache is their shitty disguise and everyone just goes along with it.

Class

Again, I picked Rogue for my way-too-long tenure playing High Fantasy Waluigi.

Looking back, I don’t think that was a bad way to go. He’s highly skilled, has well-rounded stats with an emphasis on Defense and Control (equal to DEX in a D&D framework, I guess?), and a set of special moves focused on sabotaging other characters.

I considered Alchemist (the ENWorld template), because Waluigi and his stages and items and stuff usually have a bomb motif. But beyond the bombs, I don’t think the Alchemist’s abilities are as neat a fit.

Subclass

My version of a D&D Waluigi was an Arcane Trickster. After looking into some of his more obscure abilities, I think that was the best way to go! Unfortunately, I didn’t use my abilities to their full Waluigi-ness.

The Mario Bros. and Wario all need power-ups to give them an edge. (With a few notable exceptions, like in Superstar Saga where Mario and Luigi unlock the ability to wield fire and lightning, respectively.) Waluigi, on the other hand, demonstrates several innate magical abilities. To name a few: surrounding himself with whirlwinds, summoning walls of thorns, filling the arena with water, cloaking his projectiles with illusions, etc. These lend beautifully to an Arcane Trickster, with a suggested spell list below:

Cantrips

gust

mage hand

minor illusion

shape water

true strike

Level 1

catapult

feather fall

fog cloud

jump

magic missile

silent image

Level 2

darkvision

dust devil

gust of wind

levitate

magic weapon

misty step

warding wind

Level 3

fireball

major image

tidal wave

wall of water

Level 4

control water

dimension door

Evard’s black tentacles

Background

The Criminal background seems obvious, but mechanically, I think two other backgrounds fit better:

Gladiator (Entertainer variant) and Harborfolk (Elemental Evil).

Acrobatics because that boy can jump (I’d rather demonstrate with GIFs, but I am lazy) and he can like swim through the air for no reason; and he’s a big ol ham, so Performance.

Gladiator also grants you proficiency in an unusual weapon. In all his appearances, Waluigi doesn’t really use weapons, besides bombs and Bullet Bills and other explosives/ballistics. If your DM allows firearms in their world, that could be his “Unusual Weapon” proficiency. Otherwise, I was thinking if I had the chance to redo a Waluigi-inspired character, I would use bats; baseball bats, tennis rackets, cricket bats (I like the image of D&D Waluigi cracking skulls with a cricket bat, I dunno why), etc. You could probably just borrow stats for clubs.

For Harborfolk: Athletics and Sleight of Hand make sense to me, and because of his high Control in the Mario Kart series, I’d say any vehicle proficiency is a good fit.

Suggested Characteristics

Gladiator

Personality Trait: I get bitter if I’m not the center of attention.

Ideal: Greed. I'm only in it for the money and fame.

Bond: I want to be famous, whatever it takes.

Flaw: I have trouble keeping my true feelings hidden. My sharp tongue lands me in trouble.

Harborfolk

Personality Trait: I'm a fisher, but I secretly detest eating fish. I will do anything to avoid it.

Ideal: I will gain the favor of someone powerful.

Bond: [A gang/faction] killed my friend. I'll get them back somehow, someday.

Flaw: I oversell myself and make promises I can't keep when I want to impress someone.

Suggested Feats

Acrobat

Athlete

Defensive Duelist

Durable

Elemental Adept

Magic Initiate

Resilient

Sharpshooter

Skilled

Spell Sniper

Congrats! You survived my first post! Your reward?

MORE TRASH!!

Stay tuned for just a bit more Waluigi!

“Please no stop with the Waluigi. I will kill myself and then you if you say “Waluigi” one more goddamn time.”

I hear you. I’m not changing my behavior, but I hear your complaints. But let me explain:

For some characters, I’ll be following up the “Canon Builds” (the format of this here post) with a new subclass targeting these characters. I’ll usually make a “Character Class” if some vital part of the character and their abilities feels missing from the Canon Build, if I couldn’t find anything that fit.

For instance, I relied on a lot of stretches of the imagination for Waluigi, relying on stuff like his Mario Sportball stats and specials to select the closest analogous things in D&D. Using Arcane Trickster, I captured some of his weirder, more obscure abilities.

But remember the Snidely Whiplash thing I mentioned earlier? I feel like that’s Waluigi’s core: explosives and sabotage. And other classes known for using explosives – Artificer and Alchemist – I don’t think quite cut it.

So stay tuned for the Dastardly Prankster Roguish Archetype! Unless I come up with a better name! Until then, ta-ta!