Took a very brief break from League of Legends characters, but now I'm back with one that I thought would be a real interesting build, something a little bit different. Because part of doing these builds is exploring things that are a little different, a little out there, and I enjoy stretching the bounds of this system. I've definitely encountered some that are too out of the game's current capabilities to build, but I personally think it's quite impressive what you can build within it. It's worth noting that this build and the gear for it is picked in a vacuum without consideration for what adventure it may be in, so certain options might be better in specific situations.
Let's get into the build for Camille, the Steel Shadow, from League of Legends!
CAMILLE, THE STEEL SHADOW
CHARACTER Camille Ferros
SOURCE League of Legends
GOAL Camille is a heavily augmented human from the world of League of Legends who has gone as far as replacing her legs with blades that include grapnel lines. Descended from a powerful family line within Piltover, Camille, she took her brother’s place as the family’s intelligencer due to his weak constitution. To better serve in this role, she underwent severe hextech augmentation, even replacing her heart and giving up her chance at a life without the tribulations she would face working for her family. Camille’s passive is Adaptive Defenses, allowing her to gain a shield after striking an enemy champion based on the type of damage they deal. Her Precision Protocol enhances her next attack, increasing its damage and range, and can be recast after a short delay for additional effects. Tactical Sweep deals damage in an arc, dealing additional damage to enemies in the outer half of it and restoring Camille’s health. With Hookshot, Camille fires a grapnel in a direction and pulls herself towards any terrain that she hits. She then gains the ability to cast Wall Dive, bouncing off the terrain towards a target, dealing damage and stunning them. Camille’s ultimate is Hextech Ultimatum where she leaps to an enemy champion, knocking away all other enemies and trapping her target there with her, dealing magic damage with her attacks against them.
LEVEL 1 To start off the build for this technologically augmented assassin, we need to go over our ABCs – ancestry, background, and class. Now Camille was a human – at one point. However, with all the augmentations that she has undergone, she has lost much of her humanity, leading me to pick the technological fleshwarp as her heritage and ancestry, respectively. This heritage means that we’re more resilient to emotion effects, which feels very true for the change in Camille after her heart was replaced. Fleshwarp’s gain an automatic boost to Constitution and a free boost to Dexterity. For our ancestry feat, we’ll pick up Living Weapon to gain a claw attack with the agile and finesse traits. These emulate Camille’s bladed legs since they don’t exactly say where the claws need to be.
I looked around a little bit, trying to find a good fit, but the best one I could find was the noble background. The first boost from this goes to Intelligence while its free boost goes to Dexterity. This will make us trained in Society and Heraldry Lore and also gives us the Courtly Graces skill feat so that we can use our Society skill to Make an Impression in courtly environments, making use of Camille’s higher Intelligence rather than her Charisma.
The idea to do this build started when I realized that the fleshwarp could work as a basis for Camille and how well that worked with the monk class to replicate her abilities. Camille is going to be a Dex-based monk, so there’s where the boost from our class will go. We’ll then apply the four free boosts to Strength, Dexterity, Intelligence, and Wisdom (Str 12, Dex 18, Con 12, Int 14, Wis 12, Cha 10). We’ll also become trained in Acrobatics, Athletics, Crafting, Intimidation, Stealth, and Thievery. For our first class feat, none of the stances really stand out to me so we’ll take Ki Strike, allowing us to empower our next unarmed Strike or Flurry of Blows. This helps mimic the effects of Camille’s Precision Protocol, in part, because she can empower her next two attacks.
LEVEL 2 Our first skill feat obviously has to be Quick Jump, so that we can Leap as a single action, with her Hookshot in mind. From our monk feats, we’ll pick up Stunning Fist to get the effects of her Wall Dive when we hit with at least one Strike from a Flurry of Blows.
Gear: ring of discretion
LEVEL 3 We’ll take our first skill increase to Athletics, getting it up to expert proficiency so that we can jump even further. On that same route, taking Fleet increases our base Speed, which is the hard cap for how far we can jump. I did have to double check, but the increase from Fleet is untyped, which means that it will stack with the status bonus that the Incredible Movement class feature grants us to our Speed.
Gear: handwraps of mighty blows (+1), everburning torch, ring of discretion
LEVEL 4 Much like last level, we’ll be taking something to bolster our ability to leap with the Powerful Leap skill feat. With all this leaping and jumping around, we’ll pick up Flying Kick for our class feat. This allows us to attempt a High Jump or Long Jump and make a Strike at the end of the jump. Unfortunately, this doesn’t quite work with Stunning Fist because we can’t use Flurry of Blows with it. Still, it’s close to how Hookshot functions.
Gear: bracers of missile deflection, handwraps of mighty blows (+1), necklace of knives, ring of discretion
LEVEL 5 We’ll take our four ability boosts to Strength, Dexterity, Constitution, and Wisdom (Str 14, Dex 19, Con 14, Int 14, Wis 14, Cha 10). We’ll apply this level’s skill increase to Stealth, reaching expert proficiency since Camille is supposed to be a figure that operates from the shadows, as per her moniker. Our ancestry feat will be Mutate Weapon – we can spend an action to increase the damage die of our claw attack from Living Weapon and choose to either give it a bonus to attack or increase its range, which is very similar to her Precision Protocol. Using Mutate Weapon and Ki Fist at once gives pretty much the exact effects of that ability in Pathfinder terms.
Gear: handwraps of mighty blows (+1 striking), bracelet of dashing, bracers of missile deflection, necklace of knives, everburning torch, ring of discretion
LEVEL 6 While I don’t really have a way to mimic Camille’s grapnel hooks, since the combat grapnel is a martial weapon and therefore something she is untrained with, we’ll pick up the Combat Climber skill feat. Flavor-wise, this is going to be Camille holding herself in place with her hooks while she uses her limbs to fight. Nothing really leaps out at me among the feats for her, so we’ll take a look back to pick up Brawling Focus as our class feat, meaning that whenever we score a critical hit with one of our unarmed attacks, we run the chance of giving them the slowed condition, which helps mimic her Wall Dive a little bit.
Gear: +1 explorer’s clothing, handwraps of mighty blows (+1 striking), bag of holding (type I), bracers of missile deflection, necklace of knives, hat of disguise
LEVEL 7 For Camille’s first Path to Perfection, I want to go will to represent the hardening of her heart and the sort of loss of her humanity – how much of her mind is now part of the machine that she is becoming? Camille’s Strength is lacking behind her Dexterity, which is part of the reason that I’m increasing Athletics to master proficiency with this skill increase. The other part is so that she can take advantage of her extra speed as a monk and make crazy far jumps. The Feather Step general feat serves to help her get out of sticky situations as it lets her Step into difficult terrain.
Gear: ring of the ram, +1 explorer’s clothing, shadow armor rune, handwraps of mighty blows (+1 striking), bracelet of dashing, bracers of missile deflection
LEVEL 8 While we have Hookshot mostly covered, we will get the final part of it by taking the Wall Jump skill feat, which we can use in concert with Flying Kick because we can Leap as a single action with Quick Jump and then immediately follow it up with Flying Kick. We get everything but the stun unless we critically hit with the attack! For our class feat, we take the Tangled Forest Stance, giving us a higher damage unarmed attack that has slashing damage. It also, in part, replicates her Hextech Ultimatum because enemies within our reach must attempt a check to move away from us.
Gear: boots of bounding, clandestine cloak, ring of the ram, +1 explorer’s clothing, handwraps of mighty blows (+1 striking), bag of holding (type I)
LEVEL 9 We increased Athletics last level, so this level will be an increase to Stealth, getting it up to master proficiency. With the Gripping Limbs ancestry feat, we gain a climb Speed to help with the fantasy of her scaling the cityscape of Piltover and Zaun. I’m not sure how our Incredible Speed class feature interacts with this, but I think, unfortunately, we don’t get its benefit to it.
Gear: +1 resilient explorer’s clothing, bag of holding (type II), boots of bounding, ring of the ram, shadow armor rune, handwraps of mighty blows (+1 striking)
LEVEL 10 Just like last time, we’ll take our free ability boosts to Strength, Dexterity, Constitution, and Wisdom (Str 16, Dex 20, Con 16, Int 14, Wis 16, Cha 10). With that master proficiency in Stealth that we just picked up, we’ll also grab Swift Sneak as our skill feat so that we can move at our full Speed when we Sneak. Our class feat might actually see more use outside of combat than it does within and it might even make our Gripping Limbs obsolete. But Wall Run feels appropriate and can interact well with our Flying Kick to get monsters that keep to the air but within range of vertical surfaces.
Gear: armbands of athleticism, +1 resilient explorer’s clothing, shock weapon rune, boots of bounding, ring of the ram, handwraps of mighty blows (+1 striking)
LEVEL 11 We can’t increase Athletics and Stealth for a bit, so we’ll increase Society this time, raising it to expert proficiency so that she can Make an Impression in noble society easier. We can use the Expeditious Search general feat so that we can case places quicker before continuing our mission. That idea feels like a good fit for Camille and her task as a problem solver for her family.
Gear: handwraps of mighty blows (+2 striking), greater shadow armor rune, armbands of athleticism, +1 resilient explorer’s clothing, bag of holding (type II), boots of bounding
LEVEL 12 With that expert proficiency in Society and Courtly Graces from our background, we can grab Connections, giving us access to friends that we can leverage for favors. With Diamond Soul, we gain a bonus on all saves against magical effects, which I intend to vaguely reflect Camille’s Adaptive Defenses.
Gear: +2 resilient explorer’s clothing, handwraps of mighty blows (+2 striking), greater clandestine cloak, armbands of athleticism, shock weapon rune, Cordelia’s construct key
LEVEL 13 This time around, we’ll take our skill increase to Crafting, boosting it to expert proficiency, because if my reading is correct, she helped design some of her hextech prostheses. For her ancestry feat, we’ll take Deepvision, which grants Camille darkvision. I’m not sure if this is something she naturally has or not, but with how her eyes look, I feel like she would have something at least akin to this.
Gear: handwraps of mighty blows (+2 greater striking), +2 resilient explorer’s clothing, greater crafter’s eyepiece, greater clandestine cloak, armbands of athleticism, eyes of the eagle
LEVEL 14 We’ll grab the Specialty Crafting - Blacksmithing skill feat with this level up though depending on the setting you’re playing in, choosing Hextech for her specialty would be more appropriate. We’ll also pick up Timeless Body as her class feat to represent the fact that all her augmentations have slowed down her natural aging considerably so that she can serve Clan Ferros for longer.
Gear: keen weapon rune, handwraps of mighty blows (+2 greater striking), ring of climbing, +2 resilient explorer’s clothing, greater clandestine cloak, daredevil boots
LEVEL 15 This time, we’ll take our ability boosts to Strength, Dexterity, Intelligence, and Wisdom (Str 18, Dex 21, Con 16, Int 16, Wis 18, Cha 10). This increase to Intelligence will make us trained in Deception and give us another language while our regular skill increase will go towards Athletics, increasing it to legendary proficiency. For this level’s general feat, we’ll go ahead and pick up Improvised Repair so that, flavor-wise, Camille can patch up her own augmentations even when she’s out in the midst of a mission.
Gear: +2 greater resilient explorer’s clothing, keen weapon rune, greater ring of the ram, handwraps of mighty blows (+2 greater striking), greater crafter’s eyepiece, bag of holding (type III)
LEVEL 16 Since we have legendary proficiency in Athletics and have put a focus on jumping, we’ll take Cloud Jump for our skill feat so that we can leap amazing lengths. Just for some action efficiency, we’ll also be taking Stance Savant for our class feat so that we can enter our Tangled Forest Stance as a free action when we roll initiative.
Gear: greater shock weapon rune, +2 greater resilient explorer’s clothing, greater boots of bounding, keen weapon rune, handwraps of mighty blows (+2 greater striking), ring of climbing
LEVEL 17 I personally didn’t want to go too much farther with the Stealth skill since Camille isn’t a stealth-focused champion, so I decided to take this skill increase to Acrobatics, improving it to expert proficiency. We’ll grab Augment Senses as our final ancestry feat, making us immune to flanking and granting us other benefits in seeking out foes or hidden objects. Again, this feels appropriate for what is essentially a special operative like Camille is.
Gear: handwraps of mighty blows (+3 greater striking), greater shock weapon rune, antimagic armor rune, +2 greater resilient explorer’s clothing, keen weapon rune, greater ring of the ram
LEVEL 18 We have a lot of things that can get us up in the air so to mitigate the danger of being up there, we’ll grab the Cat Fall skill feat, reducing the damage we take when we fall. For our class feat, we’ll go ahead and grab Tangled Forest Rake. Originally, I wasn’t planning on grabbing this but then I saw that it allowed you to reposition enemies that you hit with it, which can be used to push foes away from our desired target, ala her Hextech Ultimatum.
Gear: anklets of alacrity, handwraps of mighty blows (+3 greater striking), speed weapon rune, greater shock weapon rune, +2 greater resilient explorer’s clothing, greater boots of bounding
LEVEL 19 This increase to Acrobatics increases its proficiency to master. Our general feat will be Fast Recovery so that we can recover from our injuries more swiftly, as well as diseases and poisons.
Gear: +3 greater resilient explorer’s clothing, anklets of alacrity, greater armbands of athleticism, handwraps of mighty blows (+3 greater striking), greater shock weapon rune, antimagic armor rune
LEVEL 20 Our final ability boosts will go to Dexterity, Constitution, Intelligence, and Charisma (Str 18, Dex 22, Con 18, Int 18, Wis 18, Cha 12). This increase to Intelligence means we learn another language and then become trained in Survival. Since we took that increases to Acrobatics, we’ll go ahead and grab Kip Up so that we can stand from prone as a free action without provoking any reactions. Our final action will be Enduring Quickness to aid us in our mobility as it makes us permanently quickened though this extra action can only be spent on the Stride action or on an action to Leap.
Gear: handwraps of mighty blows (+3 major striking), +3 greater resilient explorer’s clothing, inexplicable apparatus, anklets of alacrity, greater talisman cord, greater shock weapon rune
CONCLUSION With that, we have completed a build for Camille Ferros, the cybernetic assassin and problem solver of her brutal family. Much of her grapnel line stuff is unfortunately just going to be flavor stuff on our part with stuff like Quick Jump and Wall Jump and the like. However, technological fleshwarp makes her a cyborg while Living Weapon gives her those gnarly blade legs. My idea is that we simulate her Adaptive Defenses with the monk's Paths to Perfection, picking the saves that seem common in the situations we end up facing. Unfortunately, this doesn't have quite the adaptive ability of her actual passive and we are locked into our choices after making them. Precision Protocol is covered by Flurry of Blows with their increased range doable through Mutate Weapon. We don't have an exact feat for her Tactical Sweep - the closest thing we can do is attack creatures in an arc, but we still don't heal off of it. This is honestly a rough one, and I would definitely say this is an ability I failed to emulate. We're able to cover Hookshot and its Wall Dive through several abilities - Quick Jump and Wall Jump allow us to bounce off walls for the first part of it while Flurry of Blows and Stunning Fist covers Wall Dive. Finally, we get to the Hextech Ultimatum. I was looking into the Duelist Dedication, seeing if maybe there was something there, but it doesn't gel with unarmed attacks. We did get closer than I originally thought because Tangled Forest Stance lets us lock down opponents while its follow-up feat, Tangled Forest Rake, lets us move foes away from our target. It's very iffy, but it's close to the idea.
Be sure to let me know what you think of the 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. Next week, I'm going back to the barbarian class to build a bruiser that's tangled more than once with a certain spider.
Have a fantastic Friday!
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