Full Build Friday - Esdeath

I'm not particularly big into anime as a genre or style, but I know that plenty of people are. Therefore, I'm here to fulfill some requests and do some builds outside of my comfort zone. 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 Esdeath from Akame Ga Kill!

ESDEATH

SOURCE Akame Ga Kill

BUILD GOALS

o    Wields an artifact called Demon’s Extract that allows her to conjure and manipulate ice

o    Among its more standard powers, it can create piercing icicles or freeze people or objects solid

o    She can call upon greater power to summon an army of ice soldiers with Ice Calvary

o    By drawing the power stored in her Ice Calvary, Esdeath can trigger her Ice Commander in Chief, creating a vast area of harsh winter, which increases her own powers

o    For some reason, she can freeze time with Mahapdama

o    A general in her nation’s army, she is considered its strongest member – both physically and mentally

o    Tremendously adept with a rapier

o    Grew up hunting intensely dangerous beasts and is known to be a skilled survivalist and cook

Summary of Goals: Esdeath is an incredibly deadly warrior and strategist whose connection to an artifact affords her vast cold and ice powers that she has mastered. Outside of the more typical uses of this power, she can create soldiers of ice and then consolidate them into a vast winter storm. She can also freeze time, but the process by which she does so seems a little ridiculous and outside the purview of what her powers actually are.

LEVEL 1

Ancestry & Heritage: Undine Human

o    Ability Boosts & Flaws: +Dexterity, +Intelligence

o    Ancestry Feat: Rimesoul

Background: Hunter

o    Ability Boosts: +Intelligence, +Dexterity

o    Skill Increase: Survival (T), Tanning Lore (T)

o    Background Feat: Survey Wildlife

Class & Subclass: Laughing Shadow Magus

o    Class Ability Boost: +Dexterity

o    Skill Increase: Acrobatics (T), Arcana (T), Athletics (T), Crafting (T), Intimidation (T), Society (T)

o    Spellbook: Cantrips – frostbite, gouging claw, glass shield; 1st – chilling spray, snowball

Details

o    Ability Boosts: +Strength, +Dexterity, +Constitution, +Intelligence (Str +1, Dex +4, Con +1, Int +3, Wis +0, Cha +0)

This build will start with the human ancestry but tries to tie into her association with ice through the undine heritage and the Rimesoul feat. Another option is going for the wintertouched heritage if the more mystical heritage doesn’t click with you. She leans into her youth for her background as a hunter, referencing how she used to hunter incredibly dangerous beasts alongside her father. These two aspects are pretty straightforward and basic and while her magus class itself is a little complicated, it fits her quite nicely by combining her fearsome combat capability with the icy magic of her Demon’s Extract. Given her use of a rapier in a single hand, her best hybrid study options were aloof firmament or laughing shadow. I went for the latter because, as my friend Decaff pointed out, its dimensional assault could simulate the idea of her time stopping powers – essentially, flavor the teleportation not as actual teleportation but her freezing time and then moving into position for a Strike.

To match this character, we will have a heavy focus on cold-based spells, which starts with the likes of frostbite from her cantrips. While the remastered magus can Spellstrike with DC-based spells, attack spells are still better – though I did pump as much into Esdeath’s Intelligence as I could to make them a bit more functional since there are few cold attack spells. To help her out a little bit, she grabs the gouging claw cantrip so that she can deliver deadlier sword strikes but also has glass shield, which she be flavored as a shattering shield of ice. From her 1st-rank spells, snowball is at least one cold spell that requires an attack roll and as such will be included in her spellbook.

LEVEL 2

o    Class Feat: First Frost

o    Skill Feat: Forager

o    Gear: psychopomp mask

LEVEL 3

o    General Feat: Fleet

o    Skill Increase: Intimidation (E)

o    Spellbook: 2nd – elemental zone, summon elemental

o    Gear: +1 rapier, psychopomp mask, ring of discretion

LEVEL 4

o    Class Feat: Snowcaster

o    Skill Feat: Quick Jump

o    Spellbook: 2nd – rime slick

o    Gear: rime crystal, +1 rapier, necklace of knives, psychopomp mask

LEVEL 5

o    Ability Boosts: +Strength, +Dexterity, +Intelligence, +Charisma (Str +2, Dex +4.5, Con +1, Int +4, Wis +0, Cha +1)

o    Ancestry Feat: Natural Ambition – Arcane Fists

o    Skill Increase: Acrobatics (E), Diplomacy (T)

o    Gear: +1 striking rapier, rime crystal, golden legion epaulet, necklace of knives, psychopomp mask, ring of discretion

The gelid shard archetype is almost perfect for representing Esdeath’s use of the Demon’s Extract and she begins dipping into it here with First Frost and Snowcaster. This earns her even more ice magic and more spells is always good on a magus given their limited selection. Forager further reflects her history as a highly capable hunter and Quick Jump is just generally useful. Being able to jump as a single action and then still having the actions to Spellstrike is handy. Fleet is going to be useful for letting her jump further and teleport farther with her dimensional assault whereas using Natural Ambition to get Arcane Fists means that she remains deadly even when deprived of her blade. As for her spells, the big ones in this block are elemental zone and summon elemental. The first will help her create empowering zones that she can use to buff up her spells, akin to the secondary effect of her Ice Commander in Chief. Meanwhile, the ability to summon ice-themed elementals will be important for representing her Ice Calvary though it’ll be hard to form a full frozen fighting force.

LEVEL 6

o    Class Feat: Reactive Strike

o    Skill Feat: Intimidating Glare

o    Gear: +1 leather, +1 striking rapier, demon mask, rime crystal, Jack’s tattered cape, necklace of knives

LEVEL 7

o    General Feat: Incredible Initiative

o    Skill Increase: Intimidation (M)

o    Spellbook: 4th – ice storm

o    Gear: lesser dread armor rune, +1 leather, lesser boots of free running, +1 striking rapier, rime crystal, golden legion epaulet

LEVEL 8

o    Class Feat: Runic Impression

o    Skill Feat: Cat Fall

o    Gear: ring of wizardry (type I), lesser dread armor rune, endless grimoire, +1 leather, +1 striking rapier, demon mask

LEVEL 9

o    Ancestry Feat: Marid Magic

o    Skill Increase: Acrobatics (M)

o    Spellbook: 5th – howling blizzard, mantle of the frozen heart

o    Gear: +1 resilient leather, wounding weapon rune, ring of wizardry (type I), lesser dread armor rune, lesser boots of free running, +1 striking rapier

LEVEL 10

o    Ability Boosts: +Strength, +Dexterity, +Constitution, +Intelligence (Str +3, Dex +5, Con +2, Int +4.5, Wis +0, Cha +2)

o    Class Feat: Frozen Breadth

o    Skill Feat: Kip Up

o    Gear: bravery baldric (haste), +1 resilient explorer’s clothing, greater rime crystal, ring of wizardry (type I), endless grimoire, +1 striking rapier

The class feats here are useful but not the most exciting. Reactive Strike demonstrates her martial skill, allowing her to take advantage of her foes’ missteps, and Frozen Breadth just gives her more spells. Runic Impression is probably the most interesting. While it’s taken with the intent of ensuring that she can always deal cold damage by applying the frost weapon rune to her blade, she could potentially use it for some other options to account for the enemies that she faces. For her skill feats, she does give some pretty Intimidating Glares, which will also allow her to Demoralize the sorts of beasts that she once hunted. Cat Fall is handy and anime feels like it obeys fall damage about as well as comic books do. Finally, action economy is paramount to the magus, so something like Kip Up to get up as a free action is hugely important. She also has Incredible Initiative to demonstrate how gung-ho and bloodthirsty she is, always ready for a fight. She rounds out her feats for this block with Marid Magic affording her a few innate spells, of which hydraulic push is of particular note as it is a spell attack that she can use to Spellstrike with.

Ice storm and howling blizzard are useful for generating the storm associated with her Ice Commander in Chief, and mantle of the frozen heart is just a super cool buffing spell with an ice theme. I love the mantle spells even if they’re not always the best.

LEVEL 11

o    General Feat: Feather Step

o    Skill Increase: Survival (E)

o    Spellbook: 6th – freezing rain, frost pillar

o    Gear: +2 striking rapier, bravery baldric (haste), guise of the smirking devil, +1 resilient explorer’s clothing, boots of bounding, ring of wizardry (type I)

LEVEL 12

o    Class Feat: Expert Snowcasting

o    Skill Feat: Battle Cry

o    Gear: +2 resilient explorer’s clothing, +2 striking rapier, ring of wizardry (type II), bravery baldric (haste), tome of scintillating sleet, greater rime crystal

LEVEL 13

o    Ancestry Feat: Summon Water Elemental

o    Skill Increase: Survival (M)

o    Spellbook: 7th – frigid flurry

o    Gear: +2 greater striking rapier, +2 resilient explorer’s clothing, master magus ring, ring of wizardry (type II), bravery baldric (haste), guise of the smirking devil

LEVEL 14

o    Class Feat: Overwhelming Spellstrike

o    Skill Feat: Additional Lore – Warfare Lore

o    Gear: major rime crystal, +2 greater striking rapier, ring of wizardry (type III), +2 resilient explorer’s clothing, greater endless gimoire, ring of wizardry (type II)

LEVEL 15

o    Ability Boosts: +Strength, +Dexterity, +Intelligence, +Charisma (Str +4, Dex +5.5, Con +2, Int +5, Wis +0, Cha +3)

o    General Feat: Toughness

o    Skill Increase: Intimidation (L), Nature (T)

o    Spellbook: 8th – arctic rift, wall of ice

o    Gear: +2 greater resilient explorer’s clothing, keen weapon rune, major rime crystal, +2 greater striking rapier, master magus ring, moderate boots of free running

She continues expanding on her snowy spells with Expert Snowcasting, which actually brings up a point I’d like to make. I haven’t been including details on what spells to take for her gelid shard archetype because it’s still stuck to the arcane list – so she’ll mainly just be taking the same sort of ice spells she already would as a magus. Speaking of all the cold, Overwhelming Spellstrike might be handy for the fact that Esdeath is a little focused on a specific damage type and this will help her penetrate the resistances of those that have them. She has Battle Cry as a skill feat to represent her combat capability while also helping her soften up enemies in the first round of combat bwithout requiring an action from her. Additionally, she uses Additional Lore for Warfare Lore to get scaling Warfare Lore based on her being a general in the army. With all of Esdeath’s ice and snow turning the battlefield into difficult terrain around her, Feather Step will be a handy general feat to include in her repertoire. She also uses Toughness to her general feats since she is a melee combatant with only 8 as her class Hit Points – this will help her hang in the fight. There’s also Summon Water Elemental from her ancestry feats, which could potentially be used for summon elemental to call forth some form of cold elemental.

As for actual spells gained this block, there’s frost pillar so that she can freeze victims solid. Frigid flurry is another fun one, combing cold and slashing damage while also enhancing her mobility, which all fits her fairly fantastically. I also made a note of arctic rift, but see if your GM will let you take polar ray. This is apparently supposed to somehow be the premaster version of arctic rift despite them being very different spells with the latter working much better for the magus with it actually being a spell attack roll.

LEVEL 16

o    Class Feat: Hasted Assault

o    Skill Feat: Battle Planner

o    Gear: greater frost weapon rune, +2 greater resilient explorer’s clothing, ring of wizardry (type IV), major rime crystal, +2 greater striking rapier, ring of wizardry (type III)

LEVEL 17

o    Ancestry Feat: Heroic Presence

o    Skill Increase: Survival (L)

o    Gear: +3 greater striking rapier, greater thunderblast slippers, greater frost weapon rune, +2 greater resilient explorer’s clothing, keen weapon rune, major rime crystal

LEVEL 18

o    Class Feat: Master Snowcasting

o    Skill Feat: Legendary Professional

o    Gear: cloak of swiftness, +3 greater striking rapier, quickstrike weapon rune, greater frost weapon rune, +2 greater resilient explorer’s clothing, ring of wizardry (type IV)

LEVEL 19

o    General Feat: Diehard

o    Skill Increase: Athletics (E)

o    Gear: +3 greater resilient explorer’s clothing, cloak of swiftness, dread blindfold, +3 greater striking rapier, greater thunderblast slippers, greater frost weapon rune

LEVEL 20

o    Ability Boosts: +Dexterity, +Constitution, +Wisdom, +Charisma (Str +4, Dex +6, Con +3, Int +5, Wis +1, Cha +4)

o    Class Feat: Supreme Spellstrike

o    Skill Feat: Scare to Death

o    Gear: +3 major striking rapier, +3 greater resilient explorer’s clothing, true endless grimoire, cloak of swiftness, wand of clinging rime (7th-rank), greater ashen weapon rune

There’s a few spells in Esdeath’s arsenal that need to be sustained and to make that a bit easier, she can use Hasted Assault – which she might want to retrain after gaining Supreme Spellstrike since it has similar effects and on a permanent basis. In between those two is Master Snowcasting for even more ice and snow. Battle Planner allows her to take advantage of her Intelligence and Warfare Lore investment and is followed up with Legendary Professional so that she can make more money off of it. She also gets Scare to Death because it’s the best skill feat in the game. Heroic Presence doesn’t play into her true nature but her perceived nature within her country and allows her to bolster those under her command.

FREE ARCHETYPE SUGGESTIONS: In a free archetype game, Esdeath can take more magus feats with the likes of Striker’s Scroll, which is always handy, and Spell Parry since she’s already fighting one-handed. On that topic, you could go into a Duelist Dedication with Duelist’s Challenge if you want to focus more on the martial side of her. If you instead want more magic, I’d go for a primal witch archetype and pick up a few of the cold spells on it that aren’t on the arcane list, which is mainly moonlight ray and purifying icicle. Still, it’s something.

BUILD CONCLUSION

Esdeath is an undine human laughing shadow magus with the hunter background. This plays directly into her history hunting and surviving in the harsh landscapes of her homeland. She's risen from those humble beginnings to the rank of general as we can see with her Warfare Lore and Legendary Professional skill feat. I feel like the Gelid Shard archetype fits rather perfectly when it comes to resembling her Demon's Extract though much of her cold magic comes from the magus class itself. Between her piercing blade and freezing spells, we're pretty set on making icicles while she has frost pillar to let her freeze people solid. While it's a bit of an odd pick for a magus, she could use Summon Elemental to summons the snowy soldiers of her Ice Calvary. Options like freezing rain and ice storm might serve best as her Ice Commander in Chief though the buffing effects of elemental zone are also handy in representing some of the more empowering effects left by it. Unfortunately, the closest we get to her Mahapdama is through flavor with the teleport of dimensional assault potentially representing her freezing time before swiftly moving into position and freeing time from its frozen flow.

Fearsome and frigid, this fencer flenses flesh from her foes with frightful finesse and flaying frost, forcing them to flee lest the feel her full, ferocious fury.

Please let me know what you think and what other builds you'd like to see!

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Have a fantastic Friday!