Growing up, I was a big fan of the 1987 Teenage Mutants Ninja Turtles cartoon. It was one of my staples and I loved a lot of the characters - the bumbling buffoons Bebop and Rocksteady chief among them. When the 2003 TMNT cartoon came about, I was hoping they'd show up in there but never really made an appearance, their position instead filled by Hun. When the IDW comic, which started in 2011, started coming out, I wasn't sure we'd see them in it. But when they did appear, it was spectacular. While keeping their same dim-witted nature, they were turned into legitimate threats able to menace the turtles and even emerge victorious in some of their scrapes. Now, some of you may already know this, but there is actually a TMNT RPG published by Palladium in existence though I'm not sure if it's still in print. With you want to play a more exact Bebop, you'll probably want to look at that.
But for a Pathfinder 2e build for Bebop from Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, just look below!
BEBOP
CHARACTER Bebop
SOURCE Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles
GOAL Bebop is a mutant warthog from the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles series who always appears alongside Rocksteady, his best and only friend. Unlike the turtles, Bebop was originally human that was mutated into a strong soldier for Shredder’s forces. While the duo initially appeared in the 1987 cartoon, they have appeared in several other instances since then and I’ll mainly being basing this particular build off of the Bebop that appears in IDW’s ongoing Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles comic book series. This version of Bebop is probably the deadliest he has ever been, being a brutal brawler who favors using a chainsaw that he’s nicknamed Roberta.
LEVEL 1 While it’s questionable whether Bebop knows them, we have to go through our ABCs – ancestry, background, and class. First up is ancestry, which will be orc with the beastkin heritage to give us boar features. Now, Bebop is a human to start with, but orc has some things that work really well for the characters. As an orc, we receive an automatic boost to Strength, which is a good fit, and then we’ll get a free boost to Constitution. The first ancestry feat we pick, since this one does have to be taken at first level, is Tusks, granting us a tusk Strike and making us more like a boar.
There were a few things I considered for the background, per usual, but given that pretty much every incarnation of Bebop has been a criminal of some sort, I settled on bandit. I picked that over criminal because the skills and feats are a better fit for Bebop. The first boost from this background goes to Charisma while the free boost bumps up our Strength further. We become trained in Intimidation, a good fit for Bebop, as well as City Lore since that’s where he tends to operate. The skill feat we get is Group Coercion so that we can Coerce multiple creatures at once.
I think there’s really only two good class choices for Bebop – barbarian or fighter. For this build, I’m going to go with fighter, which nets us an automatic boost to Strength. We’ll take our four free boosts to Strength, Dexterity, Constitution, and Charisma (Str 18, Dex 12, Con 14, Int 10, Wis 10, Cha 14). We get the option of being automatically trained in Athletics or Acrobatics, and we’ll go for the former to start. However, we’re just going to pick Acrobatics to be one of our trained skills, along with Performance and Stealth. Performance might seem like an odd choice, but Bebop was part of a band with Rocksteady in the IDW comics and I like playing up that aspect. Finally, our class feat will be Power Attack because of course Bebop is going to try to hit things as hard as he possibly can.
LEVEL 2 To play around with the Performance skill, we’ll start off with the Impressive Performance skill feat so that we can Make an Impression using Performance. This will be handy as I have little interest in investing in the Diplomacy skill for Bebop even though I think he does have a sort of charismatic flair to him. Brutish Shove is a class feat that has the press trait, meaning that Bebop has to follow up another attack with this. But, it allows him to make a Strike with a two-handed weapon and then automatically attempt to Shove that creature, even if the weapon wouldn’t normally allow it. Bebop is a brutal bully who loves pushing around people weaker than him, making this a good fit.
Gear: predictable silver piece
LEVEL 3 To help Bebop bully and push around other creatures, we’ll take this skill increase to Athletics, making us an expert in it. In the comics, Bebop and Rocksteady is nigh impossible to put down, so even with a decent amount of HP, we’ll be getting the Toughness general feat to give us more HP.
Gear: +1 greatsword, predictable silver piece, ring of discretion
LEVEL 4 Even if it might be a sort of bile fascination, the Fascinating Performance skill feat feels like an appropriate feat. Bebop is typically outnumbered in the fights he takes part in – it’s him and Rocksteady versus the four turtles plus whatever allies are with them. So, Swipe feels like a good class feat to take for him, letting us take two actions to roll a single Strike and hit two creatures.
Gear: lesser maestro’s instrument, +1 greatsword, +1 crossbow, predictable silver piece
LEVEL 5 We’ll take these four ability boosts to Strength, Dexterity, Constitution, and Charisma (Str 19, Dex 14, Con 16, Int 10, Wis 10, Cha 16). This skill increase will pump Performance up to expert proficiency so that Bebop can jam out harder. Bebop has talked about having sharper senses than normal, it is specifically mentioned in Bebop and Rocksteady Hit the Road, so we’ll take the Animal Senses beastkin feat to gain the Scent ability. There aren’t a lot of beastkin feats I like for Bebop, but this is one that brings him closer to his mutant self.
Gear: +1 striking greatsword, bracelet of dashing, lesser maestro’s instrument, +1 crossbow, predictable silver piece, ring of discretion
LEVEL 6 While Bebop usually likes to pick on smaller targets, the Titan Wrestler skill feat lets him make a go at larger targets as well. While we don’t have too many ways to activate this yet, Advantageous Assault allows Bebop to take advantage of the people that are grabbed, prone, or restrained, dealing extra damage to them and even more because he’s wielding a two-handed weapon. This works well with his preferred fighting style of being a bully though he might look to his allies to help him activate it.
Gear: +1 hide armor, +1 striking greatsword, demon mask, lesser maestro’s instrument, +1 crossbow, necklace of knives
LEVEL 7 Getting up to 7th level, we can now increase our skills to Athletics to master proficiency. We’re gonna keep making Bebop hard to kill by taking the Diehard feat.
Gear: ring of the ram, +1 hide armor, folding drums, +1 striking greatsword, lesser maestro’s instrument, +1 crossbow
LEVEL 8 We’ll start picking up some Intimidation skill feats now, starting with Intimidating Glare so that Bebop doesn’t take a penalty to Demoralize a creature just because he doesn’t share a language with it. To set up our Advantageous Assault, we take Knockdown. For two actions, we get to hit somebody and then try to Trip them even if we don’t have a hand free or a weapon with the trip trait. Since Advantageous Assault is a single action with the Press trait, we can then follow up Knockdown with that for some sweet damage.
Gear: wounding weapon rune, ring of the ram, insistent door knocker, +1 hide armor, +1 striking greatsword, +1 striking crossbow
LEVEL 9 To make use of our Intimidating Glare, we take this skill increase to Intimidation to reach expert proficiency. With how tenacious Bebop is, Orc Ferocity feels like a good feat for him. As a reaction, he can keep conscious when he should go down once per day. Since this is very limited, we don’t have to worry about it competing with our Attack of Opportunity reaction too much.
Gear: +1 resilient hide armor, wounding weapon rune, boots of bounding, ring of the ram, +1 striking greatsword, +1 striking crossbow
LEVEL 10 Another round of ability boosts will go into Strength, Constitution, Wisdom, and Charisma (Str 20, Dex 14, Con 18, Int 10, Wis 12, Cha 18). With Bebop’s considerable strength, we can take advantage of the Intimidating Prowess skill feat, which grants us a bonus to Demoralize when we can physically menace our victims. Since we have Knockdown, we can pick up the Improved Knockdown class feat so that we don’t even have to roll to Trip anymore. As long as our Strike hits, we bring our target down.
Gear: armbands of athleticism, +1 resilient hide armor, electricity-resistant armor rune, wounding weapon rune, ring of the ram, +1 striking greatsword
LEVEL 11 This skill increase will get our Intimidation to master proficiency. Bebop has had an entire building collapsed on him and was able to dig himself out without much trouble. Keeping that in mind, I liked the Fast Recovery general feat, which lets us heal up naturally quicker and recover from poisons and diseases faster.
Gear: +2 striking greatsword, armbands of athleticism, horn of blasting, +1 resilient hide armor, wounding weapon rune, boots of bounding
LEVEL 12 Since we already have Group Coercion, we’ll take Lasting Coercion as our skill feat so that we can Coerce somebody to help us for a week. If we’re having trouble putting people on the ground, we can combine Power Attack with this level’s class feat – Brutal Finish. This is another Press action that deals extra damage dice, but since it’s a single action, we can follow up Power Attack with Brutal Finish for a ton of damage dice. With that in mind, it is probably a good idea to use combat flexibility to pick up Furious Focus, so that we can make that our Brutal Finish at less of a penalty.
Gear: +2 resilient hide armor, +2 striking greatsword, serrated weapon rune, armbands of athleticism, electricity-resistant armor rune, deafening music box
LEVEL 13 Since we already have Athletics and Intimidation up to master proficiency, we’ll get Performance up there as well with this skill increase. We pick up Incredible Ferocity for our ancestry feat so that we can use Ferocity once per hour instead of once per day, making Bebop a little harder to put down.
Gear: +2 greater striking greatsword, +2 resilient hide armor, greater insistent door knocker, serrated weapon rune, armbands of athleticism, horn of blasting
LEVEL 14 The skill feat Battle Cry allows us to Demoralize as a free action as soon as combat begins, meaning that we don’t have to waste an action on it before we jump into the fray. Following the same reasoning as picking up Swipe, we’re going to grab Whirlwind Strike, allowing Bebop to make a Strike against every creature that he can reach.
Gear: greater ring of the ram, +2 greater striking greatsword, +2 greater striking crossbow, +2 resilient hide armor, serrated weapon rune, moderate maestro’s instrument
LEVEL 15 We’re going to apply these ability boosts to Strength Dexterity, Constitution, and Wisdom (Str 21, Dex 16, Con 19, Int 10, Wis 14, Cha 18). At 15th level, we get the chance to increase our skills to legendary proficiency, and we’re going to do just that with our Athletics skill. As this point, we’re running out of general feats that I like for Bebop, so we’ll take Ancestral Paragon to gain a 1st-level ancestry feat, which will be Quick Shape. One thing that kinda messes with the idea that Bebop’s a mutant is that he has to change into his form, but this feat will allow us to get into it quicker whenever we’re not for some reason.
Gear: +2 greater resilient hide armor, greater ring of the ram, keen weapon rune, +2 greater striking greatsword, greater insistent door knocker, bag of holding (type III)
LEVEL 16 Despite his total lack of subtlety, Bebop is part of a ninja clan and I have little doubt that he and his partner are sometimes used for a distraction. That idea is what prompted me to pick the Distracting Performance skill feat, which will let us Create a Diversion with Performance rather than Deception. Beforehand, I was suggesting to use combat flexibility to gain Furious Focus, but at this level, we’ll just take it ourselves. Doing so reduces the MAP from using Power Attack.
Gear: greater thundering weapon rune, +2 greater resilient hide armor, greater boots of bounding, greater ring of the ram, +2 greater striking greatsword, +2 greater striking crossbow
LEVEL 17 Our next skill to reach legendary status will be Intimidation. Our last ancestry feat will be Rampaging Ferocity. When we trigger Orc Ferocity now, we can swing out at a foe as a free action. If this slays the foe, we don’t count as expending our Orc Ferocity for that hour. This, again, helps keep Bebop in the fight, which is fighting for the nigh-invulnerable mutant.
Gear: +3 greater striking greatsword, greater thundering weapon rune, dragonscale amulet, +2 greater resilient hide armor, greater ring of the ram, keen weapon rune
LEVEL 18 There is never a time I will not take this feat if I qualify for it. Scare to Death doesn’t match up to any of his displayed abilities exactly, but he has demonstrated the ability to be very terrifying. With the Savage Critical class feat, we now auto crit on a 19. Part of my reason for picking this is simply the naming convention, the other part is that Bebop packs a wallop and this helps him land them more regularly.
Gear: belt of giant strength, +3 greater striking greatsword, +3 greater striking crossbow, greater thundering weapon rune, +2 greater resilient hide armor, greater boots of bounding
LEVEL 19 We receive one final skill increase and while we could potentially get something up to expert, we’re just going to get Performance up to legendary, which might honestly be giving Bebop too much credit. As mentioned before, none of the general feats really suit Bebop here, so we’ll use it to pick up Terrifying Resistance, a skill feat that bolsters our saves against creatures we’ve frightened. This makes us a little bit more durable in a fight.
Gear: +3 greater resilient hide armor, belt of giant strength, greater dread blindfold, +3 greater striking greatsword, greater thundering weapon rune, dragonscale amulet
LEVEL 20 This final array of ability boosts goes, as you can probably guess, to Strength, Dexterity, Constitution, and Wisdom (Str 22, Dex 18, Con 20, Int 10, Wis 16, Cha 18). Our last skill feat is Terrified Retreat so that Bebop can send foes running through sheer Intimidation. Then, our class feat will be Boundless Reprisals. I was considering the one that makes Bebop quickened and that might actually be a better choice, but something I like with this idea is that when Bebop gets into dire straits, as long as he’s taking foes down with Rampaging Ferocity, he can stay in the fight for a while. He also doesn’t have to worry about activating Attack of Opportunity or Orc Ferocity since he’ll have options to do both in a round.
Gear: +3 major striking greatsword, +3 greater resilient hide armor, greater maestro’s instrument, belt of giant strength, +3 greater striking crossbow, speed weapon rune
CONCLUSION With that, we have the brutal brawler Bebop. We favor heavy, two-handed weapons though probably wouldn’t mind picking up some firearms when those are fully released. One big thing is picking up the serrated weapon rune as the description of it literally turns his greatsword into a chainsaw. Even after we can no longer fit it in the automatic magic items, which I honestly just do for simplicity’s sake, I’d keep it around. Combat flexibility allows us to pick up other good feats here and there, like Shatter Defenses to take advantage of frightened foes, but I doesn’t need the proper choices constantly spelled out. Bebop is one of my favorite characters from Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, especially the IDW version of him, and this was a fun build to do!
Just look at all that violence. Glorious.
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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