We're tapping into a new source of characters this week while also building another monster-inspired character. This is a subtle one, but Corin, like other members of her faction, is based on a classic creature feature. In her case, Frankenstein's monster! The classic green of Frankenstein's skin is brought into her hair, his neck bolts into her outfit, and bears a large scar based on the stitched scars of Frankenstein's monster. There's one more build to go for our Halloween horrors before I go on a little break, so look forward to next week's mummy! 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.
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Let's get into the build for Corin from Zenless Zone Zero!
CORIN
CHARACTER Corin Wickes
SOURCE Zenless Zone Zero
BUILD GOALS
o A young maid that fights with a giant buzzsaw on the end of a pole who bears serious scars across her body
o She is an attack based, physical agent whose basic attack is called Wipeout. During her attacks with it, she can run the buzzsaw to deal multiple hits with it as part of a single strike
o Her Oopsy-Daisy and Nope dodges incoming attacks that she follows up with a slice and detonation to deal further damage
o Her defensive assist is Quick Sweep, which unleashes a series of slashes with an explosively charged buzzsaw
o She can use her special attack, Skirt Alert, to make a series of slashes that she can run her chainsaw during to extend the slashes before detonating it
o Very, Very Sorry is her ultimate, in which she slashes at all enemies in a small area, activating the chainsaw to extend the hits
o Running her chainsaw to extend her hits increases Corin's damage
o Expanding her Mindscape Theater causes her special abilities to erode the defense of her target. They will also cause her to gain charges, which she can expend when she detonates her chainsaw for additional damage
Summary of Goals: Corin is a capable combatant who is able to run her strange weapon to inflict multiple hits at once before detonating her buzzsaw for a big burst of damage. Sawing into an enemy allows her to reduce their defenses and build up for a bigger boom.
LEVEL 1
Ancestry & Heritage: Skilled Human
o Ability Boosts & Flaws: +Strength, +Intelligence
o Ancestry Feat: Gloomseer
o Skill Increase: Arcana (trained)
Background: Cook
o Ability Boosts: +Intelligence, +Strength
o Skill Increase: Crafting (trained), Cooking Lore (trained)
o Background Feat: Seasoned
Class & Subclass: Inventor with Weapon Innovation
o Class Ability Boost: +Intelligence
o Skill Increase: Acrobatics (trained), Athletics (trained), Medicine (trained), Nature (trained), Occultism (trained), Society (trained), Stealth (trained)
o Class Feat: Variable Core – Electricity
o Initial Modification: Pacification Tools
Details
o Ability Boosts: +Strength, +Dexterity, +Constitution, +Intelligence (Str +3, Dex +1, Con +1, Int +4, Wis +0, Cha +0)
Like the rest of the Victoria Housekeeping Company, Corin is a reference to a classic horror character. In her case, she is based on Frankenstein’s Monster – they bring the green into her hair, his bolts into her outfit, and she bears a deep scar under her outfit. Given that reference, I was looking at using the fleshwarp ancestry, but she both isn’t off enough for it to really suit her and the ability boosts don’t really suit her. She settles on human instead with a skilled heritage to become trained in Arcana, mainly as it will be an important skill for her down the line. She does references a bit of her horror homage with Gloomseer as her ancestry feat netting her low-light vision. Servant looked like the obvious choice for her build, but the ability scores were a bit off, which led to her having to take the cook background instead since that is at least a role of a maid, serving as a reference to that. After much debate (internally if not elsewhere), Corin settles on inventor as her class so that she can build her buzzsaw on a stick. She starts with a weapon innovation that, due to the lack of particularly interesting ones, she adds pacification tools to, which at least plays into her status as an apologetic attacker. Corin herself is a physical agent, but her Variable Core turning her Explode into electricity damage serves as a reference to her patchwork progenitor.
It is worth noting that inventor itself gives us a few aspects of Corin’s kit. A number of her abilities involve her unleashing an explosion from her buzzsaw, and that is covered by the inventor’s Explode action here. Additionally, running her buzzsaw briefly increases her damage. Her Overdrive fits with that concept and could even be flavored as her triggering it to get the blade running.
LEVEL 2
o Class Feat: Magus Dedication
o Skill Feat: Additional Lore – Labor Lore
o Skill Increase: Labor Lore (trained), Thievery (trained)
o Spellbook: Cantrips – gouging claw, live wire
o Gear: ring of discretion
LEVEL 3
o General Feat: Toughness
o Skill Increase: Athletics (expert), Crafting (expert), Labor Lore (expert)
o Gear: +1 greataxe, psychopomp mask, ring of discretion
LEVEL 4
o Class Feat: Spellstriker
o Skill Feat: Experienced Professional
o Gear: crafter’s eyepiece, +1 greataxe, necklace of knives, ring of discretion
LEVEL 5
o Ability Boosts: +Strength, +Dexterity, +Constitution, +Intelligence (Str +4, Dex +2, Con +2, Int +4.5, Wis +0, Cha +0)
o Ancestry Feat: Unconventional Weaponry – butchering axe
o Skill Increase: Society (expert)
o Gear: +1 striking butchering axe, crafter’s eyepiece, bracelet of dashing, necklace of knives, psychopomp mask, ring of discretion
To capture the multi-hit effects of Corin running her buzzsaw, my intent is to trigger multiple instances of damage on a single Strike, and one of the ways to do that is with the Spellstrike of the magus, which leads to Corin taking both a Magus Dedication and Spellstriker. This is only one Spellstrike per minute but with something like gouging claw, Corin can Spellstrike to deal her weapon damage, then her spell damage, and then some bleed damage. This is a solid start to exploring this aspect of Corin that will be expanded upon as we get deeper into this build. Her skill feats focus on her job as a maid and where the servant background has the Labor Lore background, she has Additional Lore for that and then Experienced Professional to ensure that she doesn’t critically fail in her service. With Unconventional Weaponry, she’ll switch out her greataxe innovation for a butchering axe innovation, which mainly just adds the shove trait to her weapon and has a name better befitting a buzzsaw.
Quick note, for her starting spells, gouging claw and live wire feel like the best fits, being slashing damage with the latter having electricity damage to, once more, reference the storm that animated Frankenstein’s monster.
LEVEL 6
o Class Feat: Basic Magus Spellcasting
o Skill Feat: Alchemical Crafting
o Spellbook: 1st – horizon thunder sphere; 2nd – oaken resilience
o Gear: +1 hide, +1 striking butchering axe, lifting belt, crafter’s eyepiece, Jack’s tattered cape, necklace of knives
LEVEL 7
o General Feat: Diehard
o Skill Increase: Arcana (master), Crafting (master), Labor Lore (master)
o Gear: lesser grub gloves, +1 hide, fearsome weapon rune, +1 striking butchering axe, crafter’s eyepiece, bracelet of dashing
LEVEL 8
o Class Feat: Basic Martial Magic – Cantrip Expansion
o Skill Feat: Magical Crafting
o Spellbook: Cantrips – ignition
o Gear: ring of wizardry (type I), endless grimoire, lesser grub gloves, +1 hide, +1 striking butchering axe, spiny lodestone
LEVEL 9
o Ancestry Feat: Darkseer
o Skill Increase: Athletics (master)
o Offensive Boost: Saws (Slashing)
o Gear: +1 resilient hide, ring of wizardry (type I), boots of bounding, endless grimoire, fearsome weapon rune, +1 striking butchering axe
LEVEL 10
o Ability Boosts: +Strength, +Constitution, +Intelligence, +Charisma (Str +4.5, Dex +2, Con +3, Int +5, Wis +0, Cha +1)
o Class Feat: Megaton Strike
o Skill Feat: Quick Jump
o Skill Increase: Intimidation (trained)
o Spellbook: 3rd – haste
o Gear: armbands of athleticism, +1 resilient hide, greater spiny lodestone, ring of wizardry (type I), endless grimoire, +1 striking butchering axe
Taking Basic Magus Spellcasting opens up some more spells for Corin but she’ll likely want to just use her cantrips to Spellstrike with, so she mainly wants to look at buffing sort of spells. Oaken resilience is a standout effect to grant her some resistance, akin to the damage reduction that she gains while using Skirt Alert. She takes Basic Martial Magic mainly to set up for an Advanced Martial Magic down the line. Cantrip Expansion is still useful for her, getting her some different damage types as a just-in-case effect. Megaton Strike is just a big burst of damage, resembling some of her heavier hits. Almost entirely due to the Seasoned feat that she got from her background, she takes Alchemical Crafting and Magical Crafting. This is outside the purview of the game, which doesn’t entirely explore the skills of the characters and mostly just fits with her background, which is fun. She also has Quick Jump to help her navigate treacherous terrain with astounding speed. Diehard further covers her durability and may also serve as a reference to her surviving the rough surgery that she underwent. Then, Darksser just builds out of her Gloomseer.
Additionally, this block features an offensive boost. Obviously, she’ll takes the saws boost for an extra 1d6 slashing damage and if my read on this is right, this counts as a separate instance of damage. Combining this with a Spellstrike should be three different instances of damage, which only really matters against a creature with a resistance or weakness to her slashing damage. But it is another step in adding to the multiple hits that she gets when running her buzzsaw.
LEVEL 11
o General Feat: Fleet
o Skill Increase: Society (master)
o Gear: +2 striking butchering axe, armbands of athleticism, grievous weapon rune, +1 resilient hide, ring of wizardry (type I), wounding weapon rune
LEVEL 12
o Class Feat: Expert Magus Spellcasting
o Skill Feat: Quick Repair
o Gear: +2 resilient hide, +2 striking butchering axe, serrating weapon rune, armbands of athleticism, greater spiny lodestone, shock weapon rune
LEVEL 13
o Ancestry Feat: General Training – Courtly Graces
o Skill Increase: Acrobatics (expert)
o Gear: +2 greater striking butchering axe, +2 resilient hide, greater crafter’s eyepiece, serrating weapon rune, armbands of athleticism, grievous weapon rune
LEVEL 14
o Class Feat: Unstable Redundancies
o Skill Feat: Wall Jump
o Spellbook: 4th – seal fate
o Gear: propulsive boots, +2 greater striking weapon, moderate grub globes, +2 resilient hide, greater endless grimoire, serrating weapon rune
LEVEL 15
o Ability Boosts: +Strength, +Constitution, +Intelligence, +Charisma (Str +5, Dex +2, Con +4, Int +5.5, Wis +0, Cha +2)
o General Feat: Fast Recovery
o Skill Increase: Arcana (legendary), Crafting (legendary), Additional Lore (legendary)
o Gear: +2 greater resilient hide, propulsive boots, keen weapon rune, +2 greater striking butchering axe, greater crafter’s eyepiece, greater ash gown
By taking up Expert Magus Spellcasting, she will eventually unlock seal fate, a spell that will allow her to inflict an enemy with a weakness to a damage type of her choosing. In most cases, this should be a weakness to slashing to resemble the way that her Mindscape Cinema lets her reduce the defenses of her targets. She’ll actually have a solid DC for this, since Intelligence is her primary ability score, and she makes considerable use of it by virtue of having multiple instance of damage. She can take advantage of her offensive boost and her Spellstrike to potentially trigger this weakness that she creates three times, which even at small amounts can get crazy. Her other class feat is Unstable Redundancies, which is based on the detonation that a number of her abilities trigger. Given that she has multiple effects that can cause an explosion, this feat helps her pull it off a bit more frequently in combat. Quick Repair and Wall Jump both reference some of the story moments with the Victoria Housekeeping Company. She’s able to fix her buzzsaw with surprising ease when getting a proper introduction to the Cunning Hares and while trying to escape the Hollow, she leaps off of Ellen’s weapon as well as several rocky outcroppings to represent her Wall Jump. She also uses General Training to grab Courtly Graces, since all skill feats are general feats, since maids are usually a symbol of the genteel and she likely has learned the decorum to operate around them. This block also features her breakthrough modification for her innovation, and there is a serious lack of good options here. Being completely straight with you all – I wish the Tian Xia Character Guide had added some new modifications rather than new feats. Maybe it’s just that they lack something to resemble her weapon, but Corin kind of just settles on Manifold Alloy to be more effective against otherworldly creatures, sort of like the ethereals that she hunts.
LEVEL 16
o Class Feat: Advanced Martial Magic – Spell Swipe
o Skill Feat: Legendary Professional
o Gear: greater shock weapon rune, +2 greater resilient hide, major endless grimoire, propulsive boots, +2 greater striking butchering axe, moderate grub globes
LEVEL 17
o Ancestry Feat: Heroic Presence
o Skill Increase: Athletics (legendary)
o Gear: +3 greater striking butchering axe, greater shock weapon rune, ring of wizardry (type IV), +2 greater resilient hide, propulsive boots, keen weapon rune
LEVEL 18
o Class Feat: Master Magus Spellcasting
o Skill Feat: Craft Anything
o Gear: bracers of strength, +3 greater striking butchering axe, quickstrike weapon rune, greater shock weapon rune, +2 greater resilient hide, major endless grimoire
LEVEL 19
o General Feat: Feather Step
o Skill Increase: Society (legendary)
o Gear: +3 greater resilient hide, bracers of strength, greater tradecraft tattoo, +3 greater striking butchering axe, greater shock weapon rune, greater thunderblast slippers
LEVEL 20
o Ability Boosts: +Dexterity, +Intelligence, +Wisdom, +Charisma (Str +5, Dex +3, Con +4, Int +6, Wis +1, Cha +3)
o Class Feat: Devastating Weaponry
o Skill Feat: Leverage Connections
o Gear: +3 major striking butchering axe, +3 greater resilient studded leather, titan’s grasp, greater tradecraft tattoo, quickstrike weapon rune, greater thunderblast slippers
Several of Corin’s attacks and abilities feature wide, sweeping swings and while the sweep trait of her weapon helps with this, she can also tap into Advanced Martial Magic for Spell Swipe as well as her Devastating Weaponry. Unfortunately, the former can only happen when she has a Spellstrike charged and since she can only do that once per minute, she ends up kind of requiring the latter. A much harder choice actually comes from her class feat in between those two. She needs Master Magus Spellcasting to increase the DC of her spells and heighten her seal fate, but Persistent Boost is so perfect for increasing the tics of slashing damage and representing the running of her blade. This is a case where it’s hard to pick and the build would benefit hugely from the free archetype rule. Legendary Professional is obviously based on making her more of a maid, ensuring that she can find work anywhere. Though, I’ll admit, I’m not quite sure how that works for a maid. Leverage Connections is also inspired by her work as a maid though not something that I imagine Corin does on her own without somebody requesting it of her.
FREE ARCHETYPE SUGGESTIONS: The biggest advantage of a free archetype game is that it just lets Corin explore her magus archetype without having to give up anything from her inventor class. Persistent Boost is a big get, but something like Clockwork Celerity is very good for her and she can also look at some of the area options from the inventor that she didn’t take here. She could also dip into a barbarian or fighter archetype mainly so that she can pick up Swipe for her arcing strikes.
BUILD CONCLUSION
Corin Wickes is a skilled human inventor with a wild and whirling weapon innovation and a background as a cook. This is meant to serve as a stand-in for her role as a maid with the Victoria Housekeeping Company, given that it is another task often tended to by maids though she does express her professionalism in the service through Additional Lore as well as Experienced and Legendary Professional. She starts with a greataxe as her weapon innovation before switching to a butchering axe, thanks to Unconventional Weaponry, and turning it into her buzzsaw through the sawing offensive boost. Having survived a serious and dangerous surgery, Corin has feats such as Toughness, Diehard, and Fast Recovery to reflect her durability. Corin has a high focus on physical damage types with this build and I sought to explore the idea of her multi-hit saw, triggering on the third and fifth attacks in the chain or with her Skirt Alert, coming from stuff like the Spellstrike of the magus as well as her offensive boost inflicting separate hits during her Strike. For her Oopsy-Daisy and Nope, she stays light on her feet with Fleet and Feather Step, but can also recreate the detonation she'll do with this through the inventor's Explode activity. This isn't the only way that she'll trigger an explosion with her buzzsaw, so since this particular effect shows up a couple of times, she'll use Unstable Redundancies to make some more regular use of it. For example, Quick Sweep lets her charge up her buzzsaw with explosive force, which we see a bit with her Megaton Strike or her ignition Spellstrike. The wide, sweeping swings of Corin's Very, Very Sorry can either just be Strikes taking advantage of her sweep trait, a Spell Swipe as long as she's got that charged, or her Devastating Weaponry. The actual triggering and spinning of her buzzsaw can be compared to Corin kicking it into Overdrive, increasing her damage while she can use seal fate to make her targets more vulnerable to her preferred damage type to cover the way she can decrease the defenses of her foes.
Sweet as sugar, this shy but sublime servant slices and slashes with supreme skill, sundering shields and severing security with the swift spinning of her sizable saw.
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 forgot to announce the winner of the latest rebuild vote - tread carefully through the jungle in November lest you run afoul of Rengar the Pridestalker! Before that though, we have a build you're sure to get wrapped up in next week.
Have a fantastic Friday!
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