I'll be honest, I'm not sure how many of you are going to be familiar with this character. But, it's one that I know and like, and I want to expand the base of characters I do a little bit. As usual, I wanna preface that this build is the closest approximation I can get to the character within the game's system while still being functional. In this one more than others I've done lately, I make some choices that prefer form over function. Also, the gear I pick and skills I take are done in a vacuum, so different choices might need to be made in different adventures.
With that out of the way, let's get into the build for Armstrong from Valiant Comics!
ARMSTRONG
CHARACTER Aram Anni-Prada
SOURCE Valiant Comics
GOAL One of four immortal siblings, Armstrong is a loud-mouthed hedonist who gained powers when a machine consumed the life force of thousands and fed it into him and his brothers. It made him immortal and enhanced all his physical capabilities. However, that long life has made Armstrong somewhat jaded and he drowns his sorrows and regrets in hedonism. A heavy drinker, Armstrong works as a bouncer at a bar in modern times and goes on adventures with Obadiah Archer as the adventuring duo, Archer and Armstrong.
LEVEL 1 Step one through three is our ABCs – ancestry, background, and class. Armstrong is a human in the comics, specifically one from long ago, but I wanted an ancestry that was more long-lived. Elf was a really poor fit, so I picked ancient-blooded dwarf for his heritage and ancestry as it feels appropriate for him and can live fairly long. Ancient-blooded means he’s slightly more resilient to certain effects. As a dwarf, we receive a boost to Constitution and Wisdom but take a flaw to Charisma. This is an issue as Armstrong is typically quite gregarious but he can be a bit off-putting at times as well. Our free boost goes to Strength as Armstrong is a brawler with incredible might. Armstrong is a bit of collector of various things, so we’ll pick up Eye for Treasure as our ancestry feat, which makes us trained in Crafting and gets us Crafter’s Appraisal as a bonus feat. Crafting works well for Armstrong as he has a poetic streak and even managed to produce the Epic of Gilgamesh, which he claims is loosely based on his early life.
Armstrong has a long life, so we could pick just about any background for him, but given his current position as a bouncer at a bar, I’m liking barkeep for his background. The first boost from this will be to Constitution while the free boost goes to Strength. As a barkeep, we are trained in Diplomacy and Alcohol Lore, which is a perfect fit for him. He also receives the Hobnobber skill feat so that he can Gather Information faster.
Part of this build is trying to make Armstrong as tanky as possible to play with his whole idea of being immortal. As another part of that, he often throws himself recklessly into combat as he can survive whatever is thrown at him, so we’ll take barbarian with the fury instinct for our class. This nets us an automatic boost to Strength. Our next four boosts will go to Strength, Dexterity, Constitution, and Charisma (Str 18, Dex 14, Con 16, Int 10, Wis 12, Cha 10). We’ll automatically become trained in Athletics, and will then also become trained in Deception, Society, and Survival. Since we picked the fury instinct, we receive two class feats which will be Adrenaline Rush, allowing us to lift more and give us a bonus to certain Athletic actions while we’re raging. We can also pick up Sudden Charge so that Armstrong can charge heedlessly into battle and get right into the thick of it.
LEVEL 2 With the Seasoned skill feat, we become better at making food and alcohol and given Armstrong’s love of both, this seems like a good place to start. Instead of going into our barbarian feats, we’re going to take the Monk Dedication since Armstrong mainly fights with his fists in modern times. I know that we aren’t getting the full benefit of rage with this, but this is one of those instances where flavor comes before function. And I picked monk over martial artist because there’s some specific monk feats that I like for this build.
Gear: ring of discretion
LEVEL 3 The first skill increase we receive will bump Athletics up to expert proficiency. The dwarf ancestry doesn’t have a lot of feats that really help sell the idea of being long-lived so we’ll take Adopted Ancestry (Elf) just to get some of their ancestry feats that reflect that.
Gear: handwraps of mighty blows (+1), ring of discretion, predictable silver piece
LEVEL 4 So that we can better battle against foes that outsize us, we’ll pick up Titan Wrestler as our skill feat. With our Monk Dedication, we’ll pick up Basic Kata – Stumbling Stance, which seems to be Pathfinder’s approximation of drunken boxing, and that is a very fitting fighting style for Armstrong.
Gear: hat of the magi, handwraps of mighty blows (+1), brooch of shielding, ring of discretion
LEVEL 5 Our ability boosts will apply to Strength Constitution, Intelligence, and Charisma (Str 19, Dex 14, Con 18, Int 12, Wis 12, Cha 12). With our increased Intelligence, we gain another language and then become trained in Stealth. We still get a skill increase, which we will apply to Deception, raising it to expert proficiency to make use of our Stumbling Stance. For our ancestry feat, we’re going to get a chance to make use of our Adopted Ancestry to pick up Ancestral Longevity, which lets us remember our past studies to become trained in different skills that we have picked up over our lifetime.
Gear: handwraps of mighty blows (+1 striking), hat of the magi, bracers of missile deflection, brooch of shielding, ring of discretion, predictable silver piece
LEVEL 6 We’re going to be putting a slightly heavier focus on Deception over Diplomacy to better use Stumbling Stance, so we’ll pick up the Charming Liar skill feat so that we can Make an Impression with Deception. For our class feat, we’ll pick up Attack of Opportunity so that we get a reaction that we can use.
Gear: +1 hide armor, handwraps of mighty blows (+1 striking), belt of good health, hat of the magi, brooch of shielding, hand of the mage
LEVEL 7 At this level, we can raise Athletics up to master proficiency. To make us harder to kill and play into that invulnerability and immortal angle, we’ll pick up Toughness and get some extra HP.
Gear: choker of elocution, +1 hide armor, belt of good health, handwraps of mighty blows (+1 striking), hat of the magi, bracers of missile deflection
LEVEL 8 Armstrong literally has a bag of holding in his comic and while I try to grab one in his gear as often as I can, with the Hefty Hauler skill feat so that we can carry even more than normal. For our class feat, we’ll grab Renewed Vigor so that we can spend an action to regain some temporary HP while raging. That way we can stay in combat even when things are looking grim.
Gear: bag of holding (type II), choker of elocution, ring of the ram, +1 hide armor, handwraps of mighty blows (+1 striking), belt of good health
LEVEL 9 Much like we did with Athletics, we’ll take an increase to Deception to get it up to master proficiency. Being a dwarf gives us access to Mountain’s Stoutness, which has much of the same effect as Toughness and stacks with it.
Gear: +1 resilient hide armor, bag of holding (type II), ring of sustenance, choker of elocution, handwraps of mighty blows (+1 striking), belt of good health
LEVEL 10 For these ability boosts we’ll increase Strength, Constitution, Wisdom, and Charisma (Str 20, Dex 14, Con 19, Int 12, Wis 14, Cha 14). This level is going to be a lot about helping out our action economy between Quick Jump, so that we can leap as a single action while the Monk’s Flurry from our archetype allows us to make two unarmed attacks as a single action.
Gear: armbands of athleticism, +1 resilient hide armor, thundering weapon rune, bag of holding (type II), choker of elocution, handwraps of mighty blows (+1 striking)
LEVEL 11 To help us out in some social situations, we’ll increase Diplomacy to expert proficiency for when Deception doesn’t work. By taking Diehard for our general feat, so that we are harder to kill and won’t get to the dead state until we reach Dying 5.
Gear: handwraps of mighty blows (+2 striking), armbands of athleticism, belt of the five kings, +1 resilient hide armor, bag of holding (type II), ring of sustenance
LEVEL 12 With the Group Impression skill feat, we’ll be able to influence multiple people at once. Since we have Monk’s Flurry and thus Flurry of Blows, we can use Advanced Kata to pick up Stumbling Feint, so that we can wail on people better and confuse them with our drunken stumbling.
Gear: +2 resilient hide armor, handwraps of mighty blows (+2 striking), greater choker of elocution, armbands of athleticism, thundering weapon rune, lover’s gloves
LEVEL 13 We’ll take another skill increase to Diplomacy to get it up to master proficiency. Continuing along the line from our Ancestral Longevity, we’ll grab Expert Longevity, so that when we pick up a skill with the former, we can increase one of our other skills to expert proficiency.
Gear: handwraps of mighty blows (+2 greater striking), +2 resilient hide armor, bag of holding (type III), greater choker of elocution, armbands of athleticism, belt of the five kings
LEVEL 14 Armstrong has a charming air about him and Glad-Hand is a good way of demonstrating some of that. We’re finally getting into the barbarian feats that let us lure people in, fitting his invulnerable nature, and the first of them is Come and Get Me, letting us put enemies off balance so that we can swing back at them and gain some temporary HP.
Gear: bag of holding (type IV), handwraps of mighty blows (+2 greater striking), ring of climbing, +2 resilient hide armor, greater choker of elocution, greater ring of energy resistance
LEVEL 15 This time around, we’ll take our ability boosts to Strength, Constitution, Wisdom, and Charisma (Str 21, Dex 14, Con 20, Int 12, Wis 16, Cha 16). This skill increase will get Athletics up to legendary proficiency. Fast Recovery lets us heal up faster and recover from things such as poison quicker than normal.
Gear: +2 greater resilient hide armor, bag of holding (type IV), greater ring of the ram, handwraps of mighty blows (+2 greater striking), greater insistent door knocker, greater spectacles of understanding
LEVEL 16 With Powerful Leap, we can jump greater distances. Similar to Come and Get Me, we’ll take Embrace the Pain so that we can leave ourselves open so that we can grab a hold of foes that attack us.
Gear: dragonscale amulet, +2 greater resilient hide armor, major ring of energy resistance, bag of holding (type IV), handwraps of mighty blows (+2 greater striking), ring of climbing
LEVEL 17 Since we have Athletics up there, we’ll do the same with Deception, getting it to legendary proficiency to make use of Stumbling Feint. Rounding out our ancestry feats will be Universal Longevity so that we can spend an action once per day to change the skills we picked with Ancestral Longevity and Expert Longevity.
Gear: handwraps of mighty blows (+3 greater striking), dragonscale amulet, greater thundering weapon rune, +2 greater resilient hide armor, bag of holding (type IV), greater ring of the ram
LEVEL 18 I could absolutely see Armstrong using something like Reveal Machinations purely to mess with somebody. We’ll use Advanced Kata again, this time to pick up Whirling Throw since it works well with Embrace the Pain. It could be fun to let somebody hit you, grab them with Embrace the Pain, hit them twice with Flurry of Blows on our turn, hurl them with Whirling Throw for our second action, and then move up to them with our third and final action. Then, when they stand up, we can potentially use Attack of Opportunity to take another swing at them.
Gear: belt of regeneration, handwraps of mighty blows (+3 greater striking), speed weapon rune, dragonscale amulet, +2 greater resilient hide armor, major ring of energy resistance
LEVEL 19 Our final skill increase will get Crafting up to expert proficiency. Then for our last general feat, we can take A Home in Every Port to cover the fact that Armstrong’s immense lifespan has allowed him to make connections just about everywhere.
Gear: +3 greater resilient hide armor, belt of regeneration, greater armbands of athleticism, handwraps of mighty blows (+3 greater striking), dragonscale amulet, greater thundering weapon rune
LEVEL 20 This is our final ability boosts and they’ll be going to Strength, Dexterity, Intelligence, and Charisma (Str 22, Dex 16, Con 20, Int 14, Wis 16, Cha 18). Once more, we got an increase to Intelligence so we’ll gain another language as well as the trained proficiency in Medicine. There’s not a lot of skill feats leaping out at me at this point, but we’ll take Combat Climber so that we are more capable of fighting even while in the middle of climbing. Finally, we’ll pick up Unstoppable Juggernaut so that we have resistance to all damage and even more while we’re raging. Furthermore, we can end our rage as a reaction to stop us from going down when we would be reduced to 0 HP.
Gear: handwraps of mighty blows (+3 major striking), +3 greater resilient hide armor, belt of regeneration, greater armbands of athleticism, speed weapon rune, dragonscale amulet
CONCLUSION There we have it, the highest HP of any build I have ever done, which is perfect for an immortal character. This build lets Armstrong fight with just his fists and I tried to mix in some of his hedonistic qualities. While he doesn't really use a defined fighting style, Stumbling Style feels real appropriate given his proclivity for drink.
Be sure to lemme know what you think of the build. Does it work? Does it represent the character? Would you ever use it? What other characters should I build?
If you want to join in on the discussion of these builds and the ones I do for monsters or just hang out with a bunch of fellow TTRPG nerd, check out the Discord server. We also have a Twitter where we try to post teasers for the blog and are trying to get some milestones made up for. I'm still trying to figure out a good build for Katarina from League of Legends with the big issue being the replication of her ultimate. If you have any ideas, please let me know!
Have a fantastic Friday!
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