I'm a little late to the party given that this character released last week, but it was a fun one to puzzle out. As always, this build is conceptualized entirely in a vacuum, with choices made in my best attempt to fit the character. These choice may not hold up in a campaign with different themes and should be adjusted accordingly.
Naturally, you can check out a video on the character over here on YouTube.
Let's get into the build for Aurora, the Witch Between Worlds from League of Legends!
AURORA, THE WITCH BETWEEN WORLDS
SOURCE League of Legends
BUILD GOALS
o A Freljordian vastaya who was born with the ability to see spirits, a difference that made her feel isolated from her kin though this gift was encouraged by her great-aunt
o She began befriending these spirits, which led her to encountering Ornn, a Freljordian deity. She managed to befriend him by tending to his Hearth-Home, and he forged her wand for her
o Mechanically, she is a battlemage who is focused on damaging and eliminating enemies more through raw damage than locking them down
o Her passive is Spirit Abjuration. Her attacks and abilities apply stacks to enemies – on the third stack, she consumes the stacks, deals extra damage, and enters spirit mode, healing and gaining increased speed
o With her Twofold Hex, she fires a blast of cursed energy that damages and marks enemies. She can recast the hex to pull back the cursed energy, dealing damage to those it passes through
o She draws upon her lapine nature as well as her magic with Across the Veil, hopping into the spirit realm and temporarily turning invisible
o The Weirding blasts an area with spirit magic that damages and slows enemies. If fires with such force, that she is knocked back a short distance by the blast
o Her last ability is Between Worlds, where she hops to a location and unleashes a pulse of spreading spirit energy that damages and slows enemies. This creates an area that none can leave – Aurora is teleported to the opposite side of the circle when touching the border while enemies are knocked back towards its center
Summary of Goals: Aurora is a nimble caster who keeps out of reach of enemies with her enhanced speed, invisibility, and rabbit-like hops. She throws out powerful area effects, some of which have secondary triggers, and also lays down entrapping areas where she can dart around while slinging these spells.
LEVEL 1
Ancestry & Heritage: Beastkin Human
o Ability Boosts & Flaws: +Dexterity, +Intelligence
o Ancestry Feat: Natural Ambition
Background: Willing Host
o Ability Boosts: +Wisdom, +Dexterity
o Skill Increase: Spirit Lore (trained)
o Background Ability: Host Spirit
Class & Subclass: Laughing Shadow Magus
o Class Ability Boost: +Dexterity
o Skill Increase: Skill (trained)
o Class Feat: Magus’s Analysis
o Spellbook: Cantrips – ray of frost, telekinetic projectile, warp step; 1st – hydraulic push
Details
o Ability Boosts: +Dexterity, +Intelligence, +Wisdom, +Charisma (Str +0, Dex +4, Con +0, Int +2, Wis +2, Cha +1)
This build is going to get a little weird but before we dive into what might be some controversial decisions on my part, we can start with Aurora’s ancestry. The human ancestry will play a mechanical role in this, imparting upon it some import, and her beastkin heritage is equally important to demonstrate her vastayan nature. Obviously, we’ll be using rabbit as her animal, which makes her jaws Strike from Change Shape rather amusing though her feat will draw from her human side though we’ll discuss what she gets from her Natural Ambition when we get to her class. Aurora’s ability to see and interact with spirits is a prominent aspect of her backstory and I tried to tie that in with the willing host background. This makes her trained in Spirit Lore but rather than giving her another skill and a skill feat to go with it, it gives her the Host Spirit ability to briefly gain knowledge of a skill as long as she aids the helpful spirit afterwards. If there was any issue I had with this background, it would be the bonuses it grants - this build would much prefer a background that can boost both Dexterity and Intelligence. This is all pretty basic, pretty aboveboard…
But that brings us to Aurora’s class. In League, Aurora is a ranged mage and I initially set out to accomplish that. I looked at going options such as thaumaturge, which I think is a flavorful fit and has a few nice aspects, but I couldn’t quite cover her abilities. Ultimately, I had to settle on a magus with the laughing shadow hybrid study. Right off the bat, this gives Aurora dimensional assault, which will help set up her Across the Veil, as well as her Arcane Cascade, which will help represent her passive, Spirit Abjuration. Her third stack triggers extra magic damage and speeds her up - which is exactly what her Arcane Cascade does as a laughing shadow magus. This is a solid start and there is much more down the line, but the issue with this is that it locks Aurora into largely being a melee character. She can still use ranged weapons - with a focus on Dexterity, she’ll have the same bonus as any other martial - but her class features won’t really interact with them. This is one of the reasons that I would have preferred a Int-based background, so that she could potentially normally sling spells, but you could also go for something like a rapier pistol to represent her wand and give her some ranged options. Moving onto what else she actually gets from this, Aurora uses Natural Ambition to take Magus’s Analysis since she seems to be a rather studious sort. More important are her spells - ray of frost fits in with her Freljordian home and can potentially slow enemies while hydraulic push can, well, push enemies. While separate, both of these aspects can play into The Weirding by respectively looking at its slowing effect and the recoil from it that pushes her backwards - though this is just going in reverse. I do think hydraulic push in particular makes for a fun Spellstrike though mostly against melee combatants without reach. On a success, you’re knocking them back, which means that they’re going to have to spend at least one action to close on you again. There’s also warp step, which features some speed enhancement along the line of Spirit Abjuration’s spirit mode.
LEVEL 2
o Class Feat: Force Fang
o Skill Feat: Quick Jump
o Spellbook: 1st – fleet step
o Gear: ring of discretion
LEVEL 3
o General Feat: Feather Step
o Skill Increase: Occultism (expert)
o Spellbook: 2nd – floating flame
o Gear: +1 rapier, cloak of feline rest, ring of discretion
LEVEL 4
o Class Feat: Exorcist Dedication
o Skill Feat: Root Magic
o Gear: rime crystal, +1 rapier, flask of fellowship, ring of discretion
LEVEL 5
o Ability Boosts: +Dexterity, +Constitution, +Intelligence, +Charisma (Str +0, Dex +4.5, Con +1, Int +3, Wis +2, Cha +2)
o Ancestry Feat: Witch Warden
o Skill Increase: Athletics (expert), Crafting (trained)
o Spellbook: 3rd – haste
o Gear: +1 striking rapier, bracelet of dashing, rime crystal, flask of fellowship, cloak of feline rest, ring of discretion
I have a player that dislikes Force Fang but in addition to adding another focus point, it gives guaranteed damage without increasing the MAP, which I think is something important to consider. Dimensional assault and a lot of other damage-dealing conflux spells use an attack, which means you don’t want to follow them up with a Spellstrike, but force fang is free of that. I’m gonna stop gushing about the crunch of this though to instead talk about the fluff of the Exorcist Dedication. With Aurora’s relation to spirits and use of them, some of her abilities even talk about exorcising, this feels like an excellent addition to her arsenal, and opens up some great options down the line. Quick Jump is an early skill feat that is entirely based on Aurora being a bunny - or bryni, if you want to be accurate. Does this make me racist? I don’t know, but it does make me chuckle, so I’m sticking with it. Root Magic is a little more rooted (heh) in her magical abilities and allowing her to protect herself or her allies. To recreate The Weirding, we will be using some area blasts that she can follow up with a Step and to better facilitate that, she will take Feather Step so that such efforts aren’t limited by difficult terrain. As a witch herself, according to her title, who has a nurturing aspect as largely seen with her spirits and her tending to Ornn’s home, Witch Warden feels appropriate to include in her build.
Looking at spells for this block, fleet step will be handy in representing the speed boost of her spirit mode as will haste though this one is more generally useful. It is difficult to represent Twofold Hex with its ability to call back the hex for extra damage but a friend of mine pointed out a possibility in floating flame. I wish Aurora’s Intelligence was a little higher for this, and maybe it’s worth starting her with a 16 in both Dexterity and Intelligence to make those spells a bit more effective, but this is still a basic save that has been improved with the remaster. However, this spell can be used to roll out the fire and then Sustain it on following turns to recast Twofold Hex and have it roll back to her, damaging all creatures that it passes through.
LEVEL 6
o Class Feat: Spirit’s Absolution
o Skill Feat: Powerful Leap
o Gear: +1 leather, +1 striking rapier, wand of crushing leaps, rime crystal, flask of fellowship, Jack’s tattered cape
LEVEL 7
o General Feat: Consult the Spirits
o Skill Increase: Occultism (master)
o Spellbook: 4th – flicker, wall of fire
o Gear: endless grimoire, +1 leather, wand of shardstorm (1st-rank), +1 striking rapier, bracelet of dashing, rime crystal
LEVEL 8
o Class Feat: Spirit’s Anguish
o Skill Feat: Break Curse
o Gear: boots of bounding, endless grimoire, wand of rolling flames (2nd-level), +1 leather, +1 striking rapier, wand of crushing leaps
LEVEL 9
o Ancestry Feat: Multitalented – Witch Dedication (Baba Yaga)
o Skill Increase: Athletics (master), Diplomacy (trained)
o Spellbook: 5th – blink charge, wall of ice
o Gear: +1 resilient leather, boots of bounding, ethersight ring, endless grimoire, wand of shardstorm (1st-rank), +1 striking rapier
LEVEL 10
o Ability Boosts: +Dexterity, +Intelligence, +Wisdom, +Charisma (Str +0, Dex +5, Con +1, Int +4, Wis +3, Cha +3)
o Class Feat: Dimensional Disappearance
o Skill Feat: Wall Jump
o Gear: wand of shardstorm (3rd-level), +1 resilient explorer’s clothing, greater rime crystal, boots of bounding, endless grimoire, +1 striking rapier
While we have managed to create the speed boost from Aurora’s spirit mode, we’ve been missing the healing aspect. This damage usually occurs overtime, being a boost to health regeneration more than anything, but this build will represent it as a singular burst heal in the form of Spirit’s Absolution. She further expands on the Exorcist Dedication with Spirit’s Anguish, this allowing her to create an area blast per The Weirding and one that I think that fits particularly well with the flavor of this ability. She returns to her magus class for the Dimensional Disappearance feat and this is probably the best way to represent her Across the Veil. This features a teleport and the ability to disappear, just like the hop and invisibility of her spell and mechanically, recharges her Spellstrike while keeping her unseen, letting her unleash a Spellstrike against an unawares enemy. Before talking about her skill feats, one of the main reasons that I took the human ancestry is so that Aurora can take Multitalented and pick up a Witch Dedication. This plays into her title while also being an Int-based caster that can pick up the occult spell list, which will be important for a few options down the road. As for the familiar this grants her, I’d flavor it as the spirit she befriended, Haestryr. Back on her skill feats, Powerful Leap and Wall Jump are again based on Aurora being a rabbit while Break Curse is more about her quelling spirits and entreating with them. She’ll also spend a general feat on Consult the Spirits, which may very well be the most important skill feat she could pick up, given her story.
Aurora has a number of abilities that are difficult to represent, including her ultimate, but we start to see an idea of it forming at seventh level as Aurora gets her first wall spell, wall of fire. A nice aspect of this is that there’s no save against the wall, it just deals damage, though it’s not quite as impermeable as that of her Between Worlds. For the ability to teleport from side to side, specifically without recasting abilities, an option to consider is flicker, a spell that was brought to my attention by the MM Discord. This is a random teleport, but with proper positioning, Aurora can make use of it - either teleporting to the other side of the fire or behind an enemy. Other spells in this block include wall of ice, which is a bit sturdier and harder to pass through while blink charge is another way to teleport that features an empowered Strike.
LEVEL 11
o General Feat: Fleet
o Skill Increase: Spirit Lore (expert)
o Gear: +2 striking rapier, chain of the stilled spirit, wand of shardstorm (3rd-level), +1 resilient explorer’s clothing, boots of bounding, ethersight ring
LEVEL 12
o Class Feat: Basic Witch Spellcasting
o Skill Feat: Aura Sight
o Familiar: 1st – force barrage; 2nd – inner radiance torrent
o Gear: +2 resilient explorer’s clothing, +2 striking rapier, greater endless grimoire, wand of shardstorm (3rd-level), greater rime crystal, wand of rolling flames (3rd-level)
LEVEL 13
o Ancestry Feat: Hardy Traveler
o Skill Increase: Spirit Lore (master)
o Spellbook: 7th – force cage, interplanar teleport
o Gear: +2 greater striking rapier, +2 resilient explorer’s clothing, master magus ring, greater endless grimoire, chain of the stilled spirit, wand of shardstorm (3rd-level)
LEVEL 14
o Class Feat: Hasted Assault
o Skill Feat: Calm and Centered
o Gear: wand of shardstorm (5th-rank), +2 greater striking rapier, ghostcaller’s planchette, +2 resilient explorer’s clothing, greater endless grimoire, wand of rolling flames (4th-level)
LEVEL 15
o Ability Boosts: +Dexterity, +Constitution, +Intelligence, +Charisma (Str +0, Dex +5.5, Con +2, Int +4.5, Wis +3, Cha +4)
o General Feat: Fast Recovery
o Skill Increase: Occultism (legendary)
o Spellbook: 8th – arctic rift, polar ray
o Gear: +2 greater resilient explorer’s clothing, major rime crystal, wand of shardstorm (5th-rank), +2 greater striking rapier, horn of exorcism, master magus ring
Aurora dives into Basic Witch Spellcasting, netting some spells that we will get into in just a sec, as well as Hasted Assault. The extra focus point is almost more important than the conflux spell and it’s really up to you how you want to use it - whether to pull off more Across the Veils with Dimensional Disappearance or simply recharge with force fang. Given her spirit vision, Aura Sight feels like a nice addition to her repertoire. Calm and Centered is a new skill feat from an AP that I mostly wanted to take the chance to show off with this build. This block also features some focus on speed with Fleet increasing her Speed and thereby her ability to Jump and Leap as well as Fast Recovery, a reference to the enhanced healing of her spirit mode. She also has Hardy Traveler as her ancestry feat, increasing her overland travel speed and helping her make her way in the hostile habitats of the Freljord.
There’s quite a number of spells at this block as Aurora begins unlocking her witch spells. Force barrage is always handy to have for guaranteed damage with no reliance on her Intelligence while also giving her ranged options, more accurately resembling her auto attacks. Her second level occult spells gives her access to inner radiance torrent, which might vie with Spirit’s Anguish as the best way to represent The Weirding with its line effect and dealing some solid damage though she’ll probably want to use its two-action state to include her hop back afterwards. For her Between Worlds, she picks up force cage as another way to entrap people while interplanar teleport is based on her ability to leap between metaphysical realms. Arctic rift is another damaging line that also happens to include a slowing effect, which makes for a nice option while polar ray is a spell attack roll that she can Spellstrike with. Both fit with the arctic nature of her homeland, which is always fun to fit in.
LEVEL 16
o Class Feat: Expert Witch Spellcasting
o Skill Feat: Disturbing Knowledge
o Familiar: 4th – chromatic ray; 5th – savant’s curse; 6th – spellwrack
o Gear: greater astral weapon rune, +2 greater resilient explorer’s clothing, major endless grimoire, wand of shardstorm (5th-rank), +2 greater striking rapier, ghostcaller’s planchette
LEVEL 17
o Ancestry Feat: Animal Swiftness
o Skill Increase: Athletics (legendary)
o Gear: +3 greater striking rapier, greater astral weapon rune, greater thunderblast slippers, +2 greater resilient explorer’s clothing, major rime crystal, wand of shardstorm (5th-rank)
LEVEL 18
o Class Feat: Master Witch Spellcasting
o Skill Feat: Cloud Jump
o Gear: artificer spectacles, +3 greater striking rapier, wand of rolling flames (7th-level), greater astral weapon rune, +2 greater resilient explorer’s clothing, major endless grimoire
LEVEL 19
o General Feat: Incredible Investiture
o Skill Increase: Spirit Lore (legendary)
o Gear: +3 greater resilient explorer’s clothing, artificer spectacles, wand of shardstorm (7th-rank), +3 greater striking rapier, greater astral weapon rune, greater thunderblast slippers
LEVEL 20
o Ability Boosts: +Dexterity, +Constitution, +Intelligence, +Wisdom (Str +0, Dex +6, Con +3, Int +5, Wis +4, Cha +4)
o Class Feat: Supreme Spellstrike
o Skill Feat: Comforting Presence
o Gear: +3 major striking rapier, +3 greater resilient explorer’s clothing, archivist’s gaze, wand of shardstorm (7th-rank), grimoire of unknown necessities, wand of rolling flames (7th-level)
Expert and Master Witch Spellcasting ensure that Aurora can heighten inner radiance torrent and any other occult spells that she wants to use, but the most exciting class feat this block is likely her Supreme Spellstrike - and to be completely honest, it isn’t even that exciting. The class feats this block are solid and useful but all simply add spells or enhance her baseline capabilities without really adding anything new. I tried to avoid it since Aurora seems to have a softer touch, but I do think Disturbing Knowledge is a decent fit as Aurora did disturb others of her clan when she revealed that she could see spirits. This lets her weaponize that to make enemies more vulnerable. To balance that out, she takes Comforting Presence to help her allies, freeing them from effects that she can reduce more easily with Calm and Centered. She also has Cloud Jump since, as I’ve mentioned in the past, she’s a bunny. Enhancing her mobility, both for her spirit mode and letter her jump farther is Animal Swiftness, which will add 10 feet to her movement speed since her animal form doesn’t have a climb, fly, or swim speed. This means that she should have a speed of 50-feet while in Arcane Cascade while unarmored, which ain’t bad for a non-monk. She rounds out her feat options with Incredible Investiture to carry more magical items, since she’s so chummy with the god of the forge.
I’ve gotten most of the spells I want out of the witch archetype, so I’d look for some other attack spells to use as a magus or curses, since she is a witch and one of her abilities is named Twofold Hex that inflicts her foes with curse energy. Spellwrack is probably the best of these with the extra damage that it deals, but I have issues with this spell. I mostly don’t like the fact that players can activate it with guidance with ease, but some of that consternation was an initial misread of the spell on my part.
FREE ARCHETYPE SUGGESTIONS: In a free archetype game, Aurora can more deeply dive into both of the archetypes that she uses while also further exploring her magus class. From the exorcist archetype, Spiritual Sense and Enticing Dwelling are the most obvious options with the former matching her story and the latter just being mechanically useful. For her witch archetype, I like Basic Witchcraft mostly to expand her familiar and Patron’s Breadth for more spells. Expanding on her magus, I’d look at choices such as Striker’s Scroll, Attack of Opportunity, and Conflux Focus. If you could find a way to recharge focus points for the magus, that would be a great way to represent the way Aurora’s Across the Veil recharges on a takedown.
BUILD CONCLUSION
Aurora, the Witch Between Worlds, is a rabbitkin human magus of the laughing shadow hybrid study and the willing host background. Her heritage directly references her vastayan ancestry that is also touched on with a number of jumping feats and Animal Swiftness. The willing host background is based on her ability to see spirits, which is further explored through her Exorcist Dedication. Aurora can of course use a wand, but this build unfortunately makes her a melee combatant, meaning her gift from Ornn may be better represented as a rapier or similar finesse weapon. The extra damage of Aurora’s Spirit Abjuration can come from her Arcane Cascade while the speed aspect of it comes not only from the laughing shadow specific Cascade, but also from spells like warp step, fleet step, and her Animal Swiftness feat. The healing will have to come from her Spirit’s Absolution, which comes in as a burst rather than the over time effect it actually is. Twofold Hex is another difficult effect, mainly due to its recast effect, but floating flame and its Sustain ends up covering that rather nicely even if it does eat into her action economy. The laughing shadow magus grants Aurora the Dimensional Disappearance option to recreate her Across the Veil, allowing her to make a leap and disappear while she collects conflux spells to have the focus points to pull it off a couple of times. She hunts for area blasts to recreate The Weirding, looking at choices such as Spirit’s Anguish or inner radiance torrent for the most flavorfully fitful whereas arctic rift can inflict the slowed condition, per the reduced speed of the effect. Once more, Between Worlds is a rough one and ultimately takes some set-up on her part - she has to create a ring with spells such as wall of fire, wall of ice, or force cage and can then use dimensional assault or flicker to teleport about the entrapped area. She stays mobile with speed-enhancing feats and spells as well as dimensional assault, which can also turn her invisible thanks to Dimensional Disappearance. Her rabbit-like hops come from her skill feats and might go beyond what you’d call rabbit-like. Spirit’s Anguish, inner radiance torrent, and arctic rift give her some solid area options while reaching into wall spells help her entrap foes to punish properly.
A herald of haunts, this hearty hare has a home in a hoarfrost habitat where she helps at the Hearth-Home, but has heaps of horror to harass and hound hoodlums.
Let me know what you think and what other builds you would like to see.
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 nerds, check out the Discord server. We also have a Twitter where we try to post teasers for the blog. I had to pivot for next Friday, which will feature a character bad to the bone.
Have a fantastic Friday!
Comments