Doing builds for Magic cards can be a little rough because there isn't always a lot to go off of or their abilities simply don't translate over to Pathfinder. Nevertheless, I decided to take a crack at this character as she does have plenty of lore and two cards. This build goes level-by-level and is created in a vacuum - skills and feats are chosen for what I think fits the character best, not what would work in a specific campaign. It also features items based off of the magical items a character should have at their level.
Let's get into the build for Ashling the Pilgrim/Extinguisher from Magic the Gathering!
ASHLING
CHARACTER Ashling the Pilgrim // Ashling, the Extinguisher
SOURCE Magic the Gathering
GOAL Ashling is from the plane of Lorwyn and is featured in two different cards – Ashling the Pilgrim and Ashling, the Extinguisher. The former is a mon-red 1/1 Elemental Shaman with the ability to use mana to put a +1/+1 counter on her. When this happens three times in a single turn, she removes all her +1/+1 encounters and deals that much damage to everything. Ashling, the Extinguisher is a mono-black 4/4 Elemental Shaman who makes a player she damages sacrifice a creature. According to her lore, Ashling was a pilgrim in search of a greater elemental until she was manipulated to meet it before she was ready. The power overwhelmed Ashling and when other forces began to move around her, she lashed out.
LEVEL 1 First things first is our ABCs – ancestry, background, and class. To represent that Ashling is a flamekin, a sort of fire elemental with a humanoid form, we’ll pick a human with the ifrit background. As a human, we receive two free boosts which will go to Charisma and Dexterity. Finally, we get Ember’s Eyes as our ancestry feat, which gives us low-light vision and the opportunity to get darkvision further down the line.
It’s right there in her name – Ashling is a pilgrim. This gets us another important boost to Charisma, and a free boost that we will slot into Constitution. We become trained in Religions and Elemental Lord Lore as that kinda fits with some of Ashling’s descriptions. The background skill feat that we get from this is Pilgrim’s Token, helping Ashling get an edge to go first when rolling initiative.
Looking back on Ashling’s lore, I’m gonna pick oracle for her class with the flames mystery. As an oracle, we get an automatic boost to Charisma, which we’ll follow up with four free boosts to Strength, Intelligence, Wisdom, and Charisma (Str 12, Dex 12, Con 12, Int 12, Wis 12, Cha 18). Since we’re already trained in Religion from our background, we’ll become trained in Nature instead. We also automatically become trained in Acrobatics, and then pick Athletics, Society, Stealth, and Survival as our skills. As a spellcaster, we aren’t getting any feats at first level, but we are getting some spells – including the extra cantrip of produce flame and the focus spell incendiary aura, which we can use to light foes on fire. The aura effect is somewhat like Ashling the Pilgrim’s effect in that she can affect creatures around, but we will get other abilities that are closer to it.
Spell Repertoire: Cantrips – detect magic, know direction, light, message, produce flame, read aura; 1st – bless, ray of enfeeblement
LEVEL 2 As a pilgrim often required to survive on her own in the wilds of Lorwyn, Ashling can definitely get some use out of the Forager skill feat, which lets her find more food when she searches for it. Since the divine spell list is a little light on fire spells, we’ll use the Domain Acumen skill feat to gain access to the fire domain with its fire ray focus spell.
Gear: dull grey aeon stone
Spell Repertoire: 1st – fear, heal*
LEVEL 3 To help Ashling navigate in her journeys and find food, we’ll put this skill increase towards Survival to achieve expert proficiency in it. The Fleet general feat increases Ashling’s Speed, letting her travel over greater distances and move faster in combat. We also start getting Signature Spells at this point, which I will mark with a *.
Gear: +1 morningstar, dull grey aeon stone, ring of discretion
Spell Repertoire: 2nd – death knell, resist energy*
LEVEL 4 Since we didn’t invest in the Medicine skill, we’ll pick up Natural Medicine so that we can patch up our allies with our Nature skill. For our class feat, we’ll take Vision of Weakness, which gives us an awesome focus spell allowing us to see the weakness of our foes and take advantage of it.
Gear: dusty rose prism aeon stone, +1 morningstar, wayfinder, dull grey aeon stone
Spell Repertoire: 2nd – faerie fire, sudden blight
LEVEL 5 The ability boosts at this level will go to Dexterity, Constitution, Wisdom, and Charisma (Str 12, Dex 14, Con 14, Int 12, Wis 14, Cha 19). To better use Natural Medicine, we’ll use this skill increase to get Nature up to expert proficiency. For our ancestry feat, we’ll take Heatwave, which gives us a reaction that we can use whenever we would take fire damage. Using this reaction makes us concealed until the beginning of our next turn.
Gear: +1 striking morningstar, bracelet of dashing, dusty rose prism aeon stone, wayfinder, dull grey aeon stone, ring of discretion
Spell Repertoire: 3rd – heroism, searing light*
LEVEL 6 Just to help with action economy when we’re in a pinch, we’ll pick up Quick Jump so that we can leap as a single action. Our class feat will be Advanced Revelation, which will give us the whirling flames revelation spell. We always need more fire spells and whirling flames is a nice one that creates areas of fire that damages indiscriminately, ala Ashling the Pilgrim’s ability.
Gear: +1 leather armor, +1 striking morningstar, staff of healing, dusty rose prism aeon stone, wayfinder, necklace of knives
Spell Repertoire: 3rd – crisis of faith, vampiric touch
LEVEL 7 We can achieve master proficiency in skills, which is what we’ll do with this skill increase getting Survival to master. While Ashling the Pilgrim is somewhat fragile, before using her ability, Ashling the Extinguisher has a decent toughness of 4, so we’ll grab Toughness to bolster her HP a bit.
Gear: ring of the ram, +1 leather armor, necklace of fireballs I, +1 striking morning star, dusty rose prism aeon stone, bracelet of dashing
Spell Repertoire: 4th – seal fate*, freedom of movement
LEVEL 8 Since Ashling is an elemental and ends up merging her plane with its shadow, Shadowmoor, I like the idea of taking Planar Survival as a skill feat for her, which lets her better survive in extreme conditions. Going along with that sort of idea, Read Disaster is a class feat that can give Ashling glimpses of woe – like the horrible fate that she inflicts upon Lorwyn.
Gear: necklace of fireballs II, staff of necromancy, ring of the ram, +1 leather armor, +1 striking morning star, staff of healing
Spell Repertoire: 4th – enervation, vital beacon
LEVEL 9 Just like we did with Survival, we’ll be increasing Nature to master proficiency with this skill increase. Charred Remains is a very neat ancestry feat that is also actually a metamagic feat that we can use once per day to turn areas afflicted by our fire spells with hazardous terrain that is guaranteed to deal fire damage to creatures moving through it.
Gear: +1 resilient leather armor, necklace of fireballs II, boots of bounding, ring of the ram, necklace of fireballs I, ring of the weary traveler
Spell Repertoire: 5th – breath of life, flame strike*
LEVEL 10 With another array of ability boosts, we’ll take them to Strength, Constitution, Intelligence, and Charisma (Str 14, Dex 14, Con 16, Int 14, Wis 14, Cha 20). This increase to Intelligence will get us an extra language and make us trained in Arcana. Now that we have a few spell tradition related skills under our belt, we’ll pick up Trick Magic Item for our skill feat so that we can use staves, wands, and otherwise to wield magic outside of the divine tradition. For our class feat, Quickened Casting is a super handy feat for spellcasters to have in a pinch even though we can only use it once per day to hasten the casting of a spell.
Gear: elemental wayfinder (fire), +1 resilient leather armor, greater staff of fire, necklace of fireballs II, ring of the ram, +1 striking morning star
Spell Repertoire: 5th – banishment, shadow blast
LEVEL 11 To make Ashling better at navigating the wilds that she has to trek across, we’ll use this skill increase to get Athletics to expert. For another general feat, we’ll take Pick Up the Pace, so that Ashling can ensure that her traveling companions don’t slow down her pilgrimage.
Gear: +2 striking morning star, elemental wayfinder (fire), mask of the banshee, +1 resilient leather armor, necklace of fireballs II, boots of bounding
Spell Repertoire: 6th – blinding fury, spirit blast*
LEVEL 12 Ashling’s transition into the Extinguisher started with her receiving visions or cryptic missives from a greater elemental, and the idea behind that makes Consult the Spirits feel like an appropriate skill feat for her to reach out and seek guidance. We also receive our final revelation spell from Greater Revelation, granting us the flaming fusillade focus spell, which buffs our produce flame cantrips after casting, reducing it to a single action for its duration. This means we can cast one of the typical two-action spells and still be able to fling a produce flame, which is very handy for the amount of fire we want to be spreading.
Gear: +2 resilient leather armor, +2 striking morning star, fire-jump ring, elemental wayfinder (fire), flaming property rune, greater staff of fire
Spell Repertoire: 6th – true seeing, zealous conviction
LEVEL 13 Ashling feels decently lithe and nimble from her art, so we’ll increase Acrobatics to expert though I could also see plugging this into Athletics to get that up to master. With the Summon Fire Elemental ancestry feat giving us a once-per-day casting of a 5th-level summon elemental, we can kind of capture the idea of Ashling calling forth the greater fire elemental she once followed.
Gear: +2 greater striking morning star, +2 resilient leather armor, greater insistent door knocker, fire-jump ring, elemental wayfinder (fire), mask of the banshee
Spell Repertoire: 7th – eclipse burst, sunburst*
LEVEL 14 As a wanderer, Combat Climber makes sense to me when styled as Ashling learning to defend herself even in adverse conditions such as climbing a cliff face. The Forestall Curse class feat has no direct correlation to her cards, but is handy as an oracle, allowing her to hold back her curse for a brief moment.
Gear: necklace of fireballs V, +2 greater striking morning star, major staff of fire, +2 resilient leather armor, fire-jump ring, greater ring of fire resistance
Spell Repertoire: 7th – energy aegis, finger of death
LEVEL 15 We’re on the final stretch at this point, and these ability boosts will go to Strength, Dexterity, Constitution, and Charisma (Str 16, Dex 16, Con 18, Int 14, Wis 16, Cha 21). We can finally use our skill increase to get Survival up to legendary proficiency so that Ashling can survive in almost any situation. Following Pick Up the Pace, we’ll take Caravan Leader so that Ashling can encourage her allies to Hustle longer for normal in Exploration mode without harming them.
Gear: +2 greater resilient leather armor, necklace of fireballs V, hellfire boots, +2 greater striking morning star, greater insistent door knocker, bag of holding (type III)
Spell Repertoire: 8th – divine inspiration*, moment of renewal
LEVEL 16 Just like Caravan Leader and Pick Up the Pace, the Legendary Guide skill feat lets us lead our allies through the wilderness easier. Our class feat is building off of another feat, with Domain Acumen leading to Domain Fluency and granting us the flame barrier spell in our focus spell pool, which lets us grant fire resistance to a creature as a reaction in a pinch. While I don’t see us getting too much use out of this, it help in extreme circumstances where a fire effect would kill an ally unless we mitigate some of that damage.
Gear: greater flaming property rune, +2 greater resilient leather armor, rod of negation, hellfire boots, +2 greater striking morning star, major staff of fire
Spell Repertoire: 8th – antimagic field, spiritual epidemic
LEVEL 17 Since it’s another skill that’s already there, we’ll use this skill increase to get Nature to legendary proficiency. Finally, Blazing Aura is what really captures the second part of Ashling’s card, allowing us to explode in fire and deal damage to everything around us though it does specifically hurt enemies, not allies. Instead, it makes all our allies quickened, which doesn’t fit her card at all but is super awesome!
Gear: +3 greater striking morning star, greater flaming property rune, necklace of fireballs VI, +2 greater resilient leather armor, necklace of fireballs V, hellfire boots
Spell Repertoire: 9th – crusade, massacre*
LEVEL 18 With Survival at legendary, we are also going to pick up Legendary Survivalist so that we no longer need food, water, or protection against the heat or cold, ascending to an almost inhuman being. Our class feat has a very appropriate name – Blaze of Revelation lets us hold off our curse for an entire minute and cast revelation spells without expending focus points during that time. However, after that minute, we have to attempt a Fort save or die, which I like for the idea of burning bright but fast.
Gear: circlet of persuasion, +3 greater striking morning star, staff of power, greater flaming property rune, +2 greater resilient leather armor, rod of negation
Spell Repertoire: 9th – overwhelming presence, wail of the banshee
LEVEL 19 Our final skill increase from leveling improves our Athletics skill to master proficiency. We can grab Incredible Initiative to help us act earlier in combat so that we can get out buffs or stuff like vision of weakness early.
Gear: +3 greater resilient leather armor, circlet of persuasion, necklace of fireballs VII, +3 greater striking morning star, greater flaming property rune, necklace of fireballs VI
Spell Repertoire: 10th – gate, miracle
LEVEL 20 Our final set of ability boosts will go to Strength, Intelligence, Wisdom, and Charisma (Str 18, Dex 16, Con 18, Int 16, Wis 18, Cha 22). Once again, this increased Intelligence gives us another language and makes us trained in Intimidation. With that, we’ll also get Intimidating Glare so that we can Demoralize creatures even if we don’t share a language with them. Our final class feat will be Paradoxical Mystery so that we can tap into mysteries that we don’t normally have access to, which kinda captures the feel of Ashling in her form of the Extinguisher, tapping into a much darker power then what she usually wields.
Gear: third eye, +3 greater resilient leather armor, major staff of nature’s vengeance, circlet of persuasion, +3 greater striking morning star, orange prism aeon stone
Spell Repertoire: 9th – foresight, telepathic demand
CONCLUSION This was a hard build to try to do and I feel like I ended up leaning more into the lore of her rather than the actual effects of the card – largely because I couldn’t really think of a good way to capture the effects of her second card. She starts off with powerful magic, but lacking in most other areas before developing into a well-rounded character that wields powerful magic. Obviously, she has a very heavy focus on fire, but I did try to dip into some negative energy and darker sort of spells, such as wail of the banshee and eclipse burst, to capture the feel of Ashling, the Extinguisher. Beyond that, I looked for a lot of feats that would allow her to better travel across the land as a pilgrim.
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?
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Have a fantastic Friday!
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