This is a slight deviation for me as most of the things I make are on the other side of the DM screen. But this is a level 1 through 20 build for a Pathfinder Second Edition character. The characters featured in these posts will typically be drawn from various franchises and media because I want to focus more on the building and worry less about the character. Having a character gives me an end goal to work towards to instead of getting lost along the way. It’s also a bit of a challenge for the system, seeing how close I can build to the original vision of the character. I’m gonna try to find a balance between making an effective character and mimicking the chosen character’s abilities.
Related to that, these characters are gonna be created in a vacuum – skills and the likes are picked for what seems best without the context of the adventure. Heist-type adventures might call for Stealth and Thievery on a character that otherwise wouldn’t take it, so keep that in mind. At a friend's suggestion, I'm gonna start including gear in these builds but I'm gonna keep it basic - just picking magical gear based on what level of equipment a character should have at that level.
I’m gonna go level by level for these builds but only cover actual choices – such as skill increases, feats, and ability score boosts. Stuff that automatically increases due to level, such as an increase in saving throws, more HP, and the like, are going to go unmentioned.
So with that, let’s get into the build for Aloy from Horizon: Zero Dawn!
CHARACTER Aloy
SOURCE Horizon: Zero Dawn
GOAL I mentioned this somewhat in my build with Link, but building RPG characters can be a little tough in a TTRPG format because there’s so many different ways to build the character. Keeping that in mind, I am going to try to capture the essence of Aloy’s character in this build. Main things that I’m looking at are making her a highly physically capable individual who makes use of her combat and acrobatic prowess as she fights. She is skilled in crafting a variety of traps, arrows, and other tools, and is a skilled hunter who uses her tools to analyze enemies and discover weak points. She also gains access to a device that allows her to tame some of the beasts she encounters. As for the variety of builds within her game, the primary four is the stealth-focused Prowler, the combat-oriented Brave, the crafting-based Forager, and the explorative Traveler.
LEVEL 1 Covering our ABCs – our ancestry, background, and class – is the first step in building a character. For our ancestry, we’re going to stick with human and take the skilled heritage to cover the variety of skills we’ll need for this character. With our skilled heritage, we’re going to become trained in Survival. With our free boosts, we’re going to bump up Dexterity and Wisdom. Then we use our ancestry feat to take Natural Ambition, which will allow us to grab an extra 1st-level class feat.
Picking out a background is a little rough – I wouldn’t say that any of them fit exactly right – but the one that feels most right to me is hermit. We’re actually going to use both boosts from hermit to go towards Constitution and Intelligence, and also become trained in the Nature skill as well as the Mountain Lore skill. Finally, we receive the Dubious Knowledge skill feat, which means we still get some information even on a failure. I picked hermit over other choice as Aloy was raised as an outcast by an exile who led her in a hermit-esque lifestyle.
Finally, we come to our class, which I feel is a natural choice – ranger. Our class boost will go towards Dexterity, and then we get a set of four free boosts. These are going towards Strength, Dexterity, Wisdom, and Charisma to give us this set: Str 12, Dex 16, Con 12, Int 12, Wis 14, Cha 12. Our high Intelligence allows us to pick up the Sylvan language, representing something otherworldly. Since our class would make us trained in Nature and Survival, which we got earlier, we’re going to apply those trained proficiencies towards Arcana and Athletics. Our other five skills will be Acrobatics, Crafting, Diplomacy, Society, and Stealth. The main choice for our class will be hunter’s edge and while I know that some dislike it or consider it weak, the hunter’s edge that makes the most sense to me for Aloy is the outwit hunter’s edge. This lets her better identify her prey, pick out weaknesses, as well as gain other advantages over them. Since we get two ranger class feats, the second one thanks to Natural Ambition, our first is going to be Hunted Shot. This lets us make two Strikes against our hunted prey as a single action, freeing up actions to do stuff such as reposition, take cover, or similar actions. For our second feat, we’re gonna work along our outwit path and pick up Monster Hunter, letting us call out weakness to our allies.
LEVEL 2 Our first skill feat is going to be Snare Crafting, which will allow us to build snares using Crafting and also learn a few formulas. For our class feat, we take Wild Empathy, allowing us to attempt to Make an Impression and make requests of animals.
Gear: everburning torch
LEVEL 3 Our first skill increase goes to Crafting, bumping it up to expert, which is mostly to set us up for future feats we’ll be taking. For a general feat, we can take Incredible Initiative giving us a bonus on any initiative checks we make, so that we can get into the fight faster.
Gear: +1 composite shortbow, ring of discretion, everburning torch
LEVEL 4 Building into the idea of the staff Aloy makes from the corruptor, we pick up Train Animal, letting us begin to train animals. To reflect the use of the snarecaster, which started with Snare Crafting, we pick up Snare Specialist, letting us make traps for free that we can then deploy.
Gear: coyote cloak, +1 composite shortbow, +1 spear, everburning torch
LEVEL 5 We receive ability boosts here, which are going to Strength, Dexterity, Intelligence, and Wisdom, giving us this array: Str 14, Dex 18, Con 12, Int 14, Wis 16, Cha 12. With our increase to Intelligence, we’re going to become trained in Medicine and gain a language that’s appropriate to whatever is happening in the adventure. Another skill increase, which is gonna go to Nature, making us an expert in it. Due to our heritage, we also automatically become an expert in Survival. We receive an ancestry feat, which we’ll use to pick up Clever Improviser – Aloy is good at picking up different skills, but this also helps reflect that RPG aspect of the game that she came from.
Gear: +1 striking composite shortbow, coyote cloak, lesser rope of climbing, +1 spear, everburning torch, ring of discretion
LEVEL 6 With the assistance of the focus, Aloy is an exceptional tracker, which we will try to replicate through Experienced Tracker. Then, since we have Snare Specialist, we’ll take Quick Snares, letting us build snares on the fly as we need them.
Gear: +1 studded leather armor, +1 striking composite shortbow, +1 striking spear, coyote cloak, wondrous figurine (onyx dog), wayfinder
LEVEL 7 Part of me feels like I should have taken this sooner, but we will put this skill increase to Stealth so that we can be an expert in it. Then we’ll use our general feat to gain Toughness and become a bit sturdier and able to sustain in a fight longer.
Gear: traveler’s any tool, +1 studded leather armor, +1 striking composite shortbow, +1 striking spear, lesser rope of climbing, coyote cloak
LEVEL 8 With our training in Survival, we can take Survey Wildlife, which lets us figure out the creatures living in a habitat. Then we grab Powerful Snares so that we can use our class DC for our snares instead of their regular DC, letting us use basic snares even at later levels.
Gear: slippers of spider climbing, pathfinder’s pouch, diplomat’s badge, +1 studded leather armor, +1 striking composite shortbow, +1 striking spear
LEVEL 9 To set up for another feat I want to take down the line, we’ll apply this skill increase to Stealth and become a master in it. Then, we’re going to take the very thematic Hardy Traveler, an ancestry feat that feels like a perfect fit for Aloy and her far-traveling ways.
Gear: +1 resilient studded leather armor, slippers of spider climbing, wondrous figurine (jade serpent), pathfinder’s pouch, +1 striking composite shortbow, +1 striking spear
LEVEL 10 Some more ability boosts, which we use to increase Strength, Dexterity, Constitution, and Charisma, leaving us with this array: Str 16, Dex 19, Con 14, Int 14, Wis 16, Cha 14. Then, since we made it up to master in Stealth, we can pick up Swift Sneak for our skill feat so that we can move at full speed while sneaking. Then, we take Master Monster Hunter as a class feat, a fun little ability that lets us use Nature to identify any type of creature and gain the benefits of Monster Hunter on a success.
Gear: greater tracker’s goggles, +1 resilient studded leather armor, wondrous figurine (jade serpent), slippers of spider climbing, +1 striking composite shortbow, +1 striking spear
LEVEL 11 To increase our effectiveness in identifying creatures, we place this level’s skill increase in Nature to become a master in it. As I figure its something appropriate to Aloy, we grab Incredible Scout, letting us give our allies a +2 bonus on initiative checks when we scout.
Gear: +2 striking composite shortbow, greater tracker’s goggles, +1 resilient studded leather armor, wondrous figurine (jade serpent), slippers of spider climbing, +1 striking spear
LEVEL 12 We set this up a while back when we took Train Animal, but now we can take Bonded Animal so that a creature we train remains at our side until it has a reason not to. For class feats, we look at Lightning Snares to ready a snare on the fly.
Gear: +2 resilient studded leather armor, +2 striking composite shortbow, +2 striking spear, greater tracker’s goggles, slippers of spider climbing, wondrous figurine (jade serpent)
LEVEL 13 Part of me almost wanted to take rogue just so we could get all that sweet skill stuff for this character, but ranger was a much better fit, so we’re increasing our proficiency in Athletics to expert later than I would like. Continuing along the line we started with Clever Improviser, we pick up Incredible Improvisation with our next ancestry feat to become even better at skills that we aren’t trained in.
Gear: +2 greater striking composite shortbow, +2 resilient studded leather armor, greater goggles of night, +2 striking spear, armbands of athleticism, greater tracker’s goggles
LEVEL 14 We got a good array of skill feats building up the core idea of the character, so now I’m looking towards some that are a bit less important but nevertheless a good fit for her. That leads us to Quick Jump so that we can make a jump as a single action. Then we’re going to use our class feat to take Far Shot, upping the range of our weapons, which get ridiculous once we Hunt Prey.
Gear: wondrous figurine (marble elephant), +2 greater striking composite shortbow, +2 greater striking spear, +2 resilient studded leather armor, cloak of the bat, wondrous figurines (golden lions)
LEVEL 15 We’ll put this next set of ability boosts to Strength, Dexterity, Constitution, and Charisma so that we have: Str 18, Dex 20, Con 16, Int 14, Wis 16, Cha 16. This skill increase will push Nature to legendary, our first skill to reach that level of proficiency. Aloy knows the value of a careful and assured search, so we take Thorough Search to increase the time it takes to search something while giving us a bonus on doing so.
Gear: +2 greater resilient studded leather armor, wondrous figurine (marble elephant), +2 greater striking composite shortbow, +2 greater striking spear, greater goggles of night, bag of holding (type III)
LEVEL 16 Continuing the line of less important skill feats, Powerful Leap lets us jump even further. We also get to pick up Legendary Monster Hunter, which improves the effectiveness of our 1st-level Monster Hunter feat.
Gear: wondrous figurine (obsidian steed), +2 greater resilient studded leather armor, greater boots of bounding, wondrous figurine (marble elephant), +2 greater striking composite shortbow, +2 greater striking spear
LEVEL 17 This will be the last skill increase to Athletics, bringing it to master. Since we’re a human, we can pick up Heroic Presence, which I think I took on the last RPG character build I did. This just feels like a fun feat for a protagonist-type character, letting you inspire allies in combat.
Gear: +3 greater striking composite shortbow, wondrous figurine (obsidian steed), greater boots of bounding, +2 greater resilient studded leather armor, wondrous figurine (marble elephant), +2 greater striking spear
LEVEL 18 Another Athletics skill feat, this time we snatch Quick Climb so that we can climb faster. I would’ve wanted to grab this sooner, but we needed Athletics to be master before we could. Since our damage seems a little light, we can go ahead and grab Manifold Edge with our class feat and gain the benefit of the precision hunter’s edge.
Gear: anklets of alacrity, +3 greater striking composite shortbow, +3 greater striking spear, wondrous figurine (obsidian steed), +2 greater resilient studded leather armor, greater boots of bounding
LEVEL 19 I absolutely wish I had increase this skill sooner or higher, but we’re finally getting Survival to master proficiency. Befitting the benefit that the focus gives to Aloy, we can take True Perception, which effectively puts us under the effects of a constant true seeing spell.
Gear: +3 greater resilient studded leather armor, anklets of alacrity, +3 greater striking spear, +3 greater striking composite shortbow, wondrous figurine (obsidian steed), greater boots of bounding
LEVEL 20 Our final set of ability boosts will go to Constituion, Intelligence, Wisdom, and Charisma, leaving us with this final array: Str 18, Dex 20, Con 18, Int 16, Wis 18, Cha 18. This boost to Intelligence will net us training in Thievery as well as another relevant language depending on the adventure. Quick Swim will be our last skill feat, allowing us to swim faster. Lacking the prerequisites for some of the other class feats, we take Impossible Snares, so that we can craft a snare for free, without using up our daily limit, once per minute.
Gear: +3 major striking composite shortbow, +3 greater resilient studded leather armor, greater armbands of athleticism, anklets of alacrity, +3 greater striking spear, wondrous figurine (obsidian steed)
CONCLUSION This Aloy isn’t the biggest damage dealer, but she wields a variety of skills and exercises her knowledge of enemies to lead allies and attain victory in combat. You might notice that I picked up quite a few wondrous figurines for her throughout the build, which felt appropriate to me as a sort of representation of the machines that she overrides. As I mentioned in the course of the build, I thought about going for Rogue Dedication to get some more skill stuff and also considered Snarecrafter, but while I enjoyed using the snares, I understand some people didn’t use them as much. A build that has a much heavier focus on the bow seems just as valid to me – but this more represents my playstyle.
Thanks for taking the time to check out this build and please let me know what you think. Does this build work? Does it represent the character? What would you change about it? Is it something you’d like to play?
Lemme know what other characters you might like to see and if you’re so inclined, join the blog’s Discord server at the following link: https://discord.gg/W4THAs5
Have a great day!
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