Full Build Friday - Fiddlesticks, the Ancient Fear
- bjacobt1
- Jun 6
- 13 min read
This was a request, but there was no way I wasn't getting to it at some point. I love me some fear-focused builds! Before we get into it, quick note - I'm taking a vacation starting next week and will be back on the 16th. See you then and have a good week! 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.
Do me a favor and check the video over on YT if that's more your style than reading.
Let's get into the build for Fiddlesticks, the Ancient Fear from League of Legends!
FIDDLESTICKS, THE ANCIENT FEAR
SOURCE League of Legends
BUILD GOALS
o Fiddlesticks is a primordial demon of fear, formed from negative energy endemic to life and nourished by the terror of others
o It is often seen in the form of a scarecrow though its actual self seems to be the sludge in its cage
o Within League, Fiddlesticks is a ranged, magic-based specialist despite wielding a sickle that it drags around
o In place of a trinket, Fiddle gains A Harmless Scarecrow that can be placed to stand watch over an area and will take an action against enemies that come within sight. Fiddlesticks can mimic these effigies
o Passively, Fiddlesticks’ abilities after being out of vision fears enemies. It can activate Terrify to launch a crow that damages and fears a target
o With Bountiful Harvest, it tethers to nearby enemies to drain enemies and heal Fiddlesticks
o It uses its sickle for Reap¸ damaging and slowing enemies in an area and silencing those in the center
o Its ultimate is Crowstorm. It channels and then teleports to a target location as crows surround it and damage nearby enemies
o For Legends of Runeterra, Fiddlesticks is a 8/7 with Fearsome that afflicts enemies with Gloom, which inflicts -1/-1 on them. His cards can Terrify, removing cards from the enemy’s deck
Summary of Goals: Fiddlesticks is an ancient demon that feeds upon and spreads fear though at first glance, it resembles a strange scarecrow. It sends shadowy crows – even flocks of them - to attacks foes, drain their health, and send out slashes that can slow or silence them. However, it also heavily focuses on terrifying others.
LEVEL 1
Ancestry & Heritage: Born of Item Yaoguai
o Ability Boosts & Flaws: +Constitution, +Charisma, -Intelligence, +Dexterity
o Ancestry Feat: Twilight Dweller
Background: Night Watch
o Ability Boosts: +Charisma, +Dexterity
o Skill Increase: Intimidation (T), Legal Lore (T)
o Background Feat: Quick Coercion
Class & Subclass: Aberrant Bloodline Sorcerer
o Class Ability Boost: +Charisma
o Skill Increase: Acrobatics (T), Deception (T), Occultism (T), Stealth (T)
o Spell Repertoire: Cantrips – daze, figment, haunted hymn, void warp; 1st – enfeeble, fear, phantom pain
Details
o Ability Boosts: +Strength, +Dexterity, +Intelligence, +Charisma (Str +1, Dex +3, Con +1, Int +0, Wis +0, Cha +4)
My initial thought was to use conrasu for this build – envisioning its demonic core in its cage as the piece of cosmos at the core of a conrasu. However, Charisma is important for the building of this character and conrasu take a penalty to that. Keeping with the idea of representing Fiddlesticks as a scarecrow, I pivoted to using the yaoguai ancestry with the born of item heritage, letting Fiddlesticks be a scarecrow that has grown beyond that. Twilight Dweller grants it low-light vision and can eventually be built into darkvision, which is important for demon of dread as it often dwells in darkness. Speaking of, it uses the night watch background to reference its role as a scarecrow though I also considered Tall-Tale based on the legends surrounding Fiddlesticks. As hinted with the use of Charisma, it takes the sorcerer class as I knew that I wanted to use the occult spell list but psychic and bard both felt off – and witch doesn’t quite fit it either. This left sorcerer, which even had a demonic bloodline!
. . .
That I couldn’t use because that gave the divine list, and there’s some things there that don’t quite fit. The aberrant bloodline is close enough and honestly comes with some spells that suit Fiddlesticks quite well. Case in point, void warp can be used to represent its basic attacks, and enfeeble resembles the -1/-1 inflicted by the Gloom of its LoR card. However, perhaps more important than either of those is fear. It needs enemies to crit fail to get the full benefit of foes fleeing like they do in League, but this will be a central aspect of its kit and many of the spells it takes will focus on debuffing – mainly looking for drained, enfeebled, frightened, and stupefied.
LEVEL 2
o Class Feat: Bleed Out
o Skill Feat: Intimidating Glare
o Gear: psychopomp mask
LEVEL 3
o General Feat: Adopted Ancestry - Hobgoblin
o Skill Increase: Intimidation (E)
o Spell Repertoire: 2nd – stupefy, teeth to terror*
o Gear: Jack’s tattered cape, psychopomp mask, ring of discretion
LEVEL 4
o Class Feat: Occult Evolution
o Skill Feat: Reveal True Name
o Skill Increase: Religion (T)
o Gear: polished demon horn, Jack’s tattered cape, necklace of knives, psychopomp mask
LEVEL 5
o Ability Boosts: +Dexterity, +Constitution, +Wisdom, +Charisma (Str +1, Dex +4, Con +2, Int +0, Wis +1, Cha +4.5)
o Ancestry Feat: Immobile Form
o Skill Increase: Deception (E)
o Spell Repertoire: 3rd – fear, overwhelming memory, vampiric feast*
o Gear: frightful hag eye, skinsaw mask, polished demon horn, Jack’s tattered cape, psychopomp mask, ring of discretion
One thing of note in regards to this build is that many of the abilities will be replicated through spells rather than feats – as such, many of the feats taken are simply generally solid options and ones that could probably be swapped out. Getting into it, Bleed Out works some extra damage into Fiddle’s kit and even gives persistent damage to being a persistent thorn in the sides of enemies. Liandry’s Torment is apparently a core item for Fiddle, so this works for that if nothing else. Occult Evolution is nice for getting more spells and swapping in a mental spell as needed, which is what Fiddlesticks will mostly be looking for. Intimidating Glare and Reveal True Name are both Intimidation feats. While it will get more use out of the former, I like the latter for a demon that has the ability to see the deep fears of its targets with but a glance. It also increases its Deception for the sake of Immobile Form, which is based on the way that Fiddlesticks will go stock still when left to idle, resembling the scarecrows it can leave standing around. Between the class feats and that, it also slips in Adopted Ancestry for hobgoblin since they have a few, super-solid fear-focused feats for us to poach.
From spells, we’re going to want to use the stupefied condition to represent the silence of Reap since the silence spell can only target willing allies. To that end, this block features spells such as stupefy and overwhelming memory – the latter of which can also potentially make a creature frightened and makes it a good combo. Teeth to terror is another fun fear effect and we do take fear again at third level for the multi-target effect. Finally, vampiric feast is a step towards representing Bountiful Harvest though it lacks the ability to affect multiple foes at once.
LEVEL 6
o Class Feat: Advanced Bloodline
o Skill Feat: Terrifying Resistance
o Gear: +1 explorer’s clothing, frightful hag eye, demon mask, polished demon horn, Jack’s tattered cape, necklace of knives
LEVEL 7
o General Feat: Ancestral Paragon – Twilight Dweller
o Skill Increase: Intimidation (M)
o Spell Repertoire: 4th – vision of death*
o Gear: staff of impossible visions, +1 explorer’s clothing, skeleton key, frightful hag eye, skinsaw mask, polished demon horn
LEVEL 8
o Class Feat: Crossblooded Evolution – Demonic
o Skill Feat: Terrified Retreat
o Gear: ash gown, staff of impossible visions, wand of teeming ghosts (2nd-level), +1 explorer’s clothing, frightful hag eye, occult scroll case of simplicity
LEVEL 9
o Ancestry Feat: Agonizing Rebuke
o Skill Increase: Occultism (E)
o Spell Repertoire: 5th – scouting eye
o Gear: +1 resilient explorer’s clothing, ash gown, lesser queasy lantern, staff of impossible visions, skeleton key, pipe of dancing smoke
LEVEL 10
o Ability Boosts: +Dexterity, +Constitution, +Wisdom, +Charisma (Str +1, Dex +4.5, Con +3, Int +0, Wis +2, Cha +5)
o Class Feat: Quickened Casting
o Skill Feat: Battle Cry
o Gear: guise of the smirking devil, +1 resilient explorer’s clothing, greater polished demon horn, lesser queasy lantern, wand of teeming ghosts (2nd-level), staff of impossible visions
Through the Advanced Bloodline feat, Fiddle gains aberrant whispers to create an emanation that can leave foes stupefied or confused. Furthermore, Fiddlesticks can take Crossblooded Evolution, which has changed since the premaster. Back then, it allowed you to get spells from a different list, but now it grants you the blood magic of a different bloodline. While this throws a wrench in my Tahm Kench build, it does work nicely for Fiddlesticks as it allows it to access the demonic bloodline – referencing that aspect of it – and make use of the +2 Intimidation that it grants. Quickened Casting is generally useful, which is a fairly consistent theme in its design, but some neat stuff in regards to its use is potentially unleashing a quickened fear and then immediately following up with a damaging or otherwise more potent spell to take advantage of the fleeting flaw inflicted by frightened. For skill feats, we’re sticking entirely to Intimidation feats with special mention going to Terrified Retreat potentially letting Fiddlesticks send foes fleeing with just a skill check. This block features two ancestry feats, one of which is accrued through Ancestral Paragon. Taking Twilight Dweller again while grant darkvision to this crepuscular creep while Agonizing Rebuke is one of those fear-based hobgoblin feats and a personal favorite of mine. The build I originally used it on had a solid way of keeping a foe frightened to make the most of it, but the might require spending some fear themed spells to make sure it sticks.
Such as vision of death! This might actually be my go-to for Terrify – it deals damage, it inflicts fear, and it’s a single target effect, which all fit in line with this ability. This block also has scouting eye, which will be used to scry and watch over other areas, akin to A Harmless Scarecrow though Fiddle might need to tap into something like illusory creature or similar spell for the visual effect.
LEVEL 11
o General Feat: Fleet
o Skill Increase: Occultism (M)
o Spell Repertoire: 6th – poltergeist’s fury*, vampiric exsanguination
o Gear: wand of teeming ghosts (4th-level), guise of the smirking devil, greater ventriloquist’s ring, +1 resilient explorer’s clothing, lesser queasy lantern, boots of bounding
LEVEL 12
o Class Feat: Signature Spell Expansion – impending doom*
o Skill Feat: Disturbing Knowledge
o Gear: +2 resilient explorer’s clothing, wand of tormented slumber, wand of teeming ghosts (4th-level), guise of the smirking devil, greater polished demon horn, wand of teeming ghosts (3rd-level)
LEVEL 13
o Ancestry Feat: Unnerving Terror
o Skill Increase: Deception (M)
o Spell Repertoire: 7th – tempest of shades
o Gear: greater staff of impossible visions, +2 resilient explorer’s clothing, greater skeleton key, wand of teeming ghosts (4th-level), guise of the smirking devil, greater ventriloquist’s ring
LEVEL 14
o Class Feat: Explosion of Power
o Skill Feat: Bizarre Magic
o Gear: propulsive boots, greater staff of impossible visions, major polished demon horn, +2 resilient explorer’s clothing, wand of tormented slumber, wand of teeming ghosts (4th-level)
LEVEL 15
o Ability Boosts: +Dexterity, +Intelligence, +Wisdom, +Charisma (Str +1, Dex +5, Con +3, Int +1, Wis +3, Cha +5.5)
o General Feat: Diehard
o Skill Increase: Athletics (T), Intimidation (L)
o Spell Repertoire: 8th – canticle of everlasting grief
o Gear: +2 greater resilient explorer’s clothing, propulsive boots, rainbow prism aeon stone, greater staff of impossible visions, greater skeleton key, greater ash gown
Similar to a number of other sorcerer feats, Signature Spell Expansion just let’s Fiddle upcast more spells without having to relearn them. Impending doom is a pretty solid pick for it since it has the incapacitation trait. Explosion of Power is mainly taken for another emanation effect and because Fiddle often ends up in the middle of enemies. Disturbing Knowledge is a non-Intimidation skill feat that can inflict frightened, which is why Fiddles takes it, and its other skill feat is Bizarre Magic based on the idea that it is an ancient demon, possibly from a time before humanity existed and therefore may be wielding magic entirely unknown to them. For another fear effect, the yaoguai has Unnerving Terror to potentially frighten or off-guard multiple enemies all at once. The two big spells for this block are poltergeist’s fury and vampiric exsanguination. The former creates a damage-dealing emanation that comes with a sustained duration and can be thought to resemble its Crowstorm – something this build was struggling with putting together a little bit. The latter is taken for similar ideas as vampiric feast but comes with the added benefit of affecting an area, just as Bountiful Harvest can drain multiple enemies at once.
LEVEL 16
o Class Feat: Effortless Concentration
o Skill Feat: Scare to Death
o Gear: greater countering charm, +2 greater resilient explorer’s clothing, wand of teeming ghosts (6th-level), propulsive boots, major polished demon horn, greater staff of impossible visions
LEVEL 17
o Ancestry Feat: Remorseless Lash
o Skill Increase: Deception (L)
o Spell Repertoire: 9th – unspeakable shadow
o Gear: major staff of impossible visions, greater countering charm, fossil fragment (triceratops frill), +2 greater resilient explorer’s clothing, propulsive boots, rainbow prism aeon stone
LEVEL 18
o Class Feat: Echoing Spell
o Skill Feat: Reveal Machinations
o Gear: bangles of crowns, major staff of impossible visions, wand of teeming ghosts (7th-level), greater countering charm, +2 greater resilient explorer’s clothing, wand of teeming ghosts (6th-level)
LEVEL 19
o General Feat: Fast Recovery
o Skill Increase: Occultism (L)
o Gear: +3 greater resilient explorer’s clothing, bangles of crowns, greater sanguine pendant, major staff of impossible visions, greater countering charm, fossil fragment (triceratops frill)
LEVEL 20
o Ability Boosts: +Strength, +Intelligence, +Wisdom, +Charisma (Str +2, Dex +5, Con +3, Int +2, Wis +4, Cha +6)
o Class Feat: Tenacious Blood Magic
o Skill Feat: Aura Sight
o Skill Increase: Nature (T)
o Gear: locket of sealed nightmares, +3 greater resilient explorer’s clothing, mask of allure, dread blindfold, major staff of impossible visions, wand of teeming ghosts (7th-level)
Since the last block featured a sustained spell, Fiddle can save on some actions through the use of the Effortless Concentration feat. It can possibly use that saved action economy to unleash an Echoing Spell to save on spell slots. This will work well with its debuffing spells such as enfeeble, fear, and stupefy especially when there are groups. The builds rounds out with Tenacious Blood Magic as I like the idea of Fiddle gains a +2 on Intimidation checks for a full minute – or just slapping that -1 on Will saves for the same duration on a target. Scare to Death is a must on this build for obvious reasons, but Reveal Machinations is also a good one with it allowing yet another skill be used to frighten foes. Aura Sight closes out its skill feats and is taken with the idea of Fiddle seeing the terrors of a target with a single glance – as well as a bunch of other random info. Remorseless Lash is another good fear feat from the hobgoblin ancestry though it’s a bit better on martials and not so much casters. But with how much debuffing that Fiddle should be throwing out, it might be able to make a Strike every now and then. The biggest spell to bring up in this entire block is unspeakable shadow as it eats up a creature’s actions and prevents a foe from reducing their frightened condition below 1 for 1 minute – it might be good to throw on a boss after hitting them with a Demoralize that triggers Agonizing Rebuke.
FREE ARCHETYPE SUGGESTIONS: Taking this build into a free archetype game is a little difficult. There aren’t really any fear-focused archetypes so I would instead consider something along the lines of a Druid Dedication. Through this, Fiddlesticks could pick up the animal allies spell, which summons pests and birds (such as crows) in a 5-foot emanation around it. This is a good way to demonstrate Crowstorm at an earlier point given its limited size, duration, and damage. Alternatively, while it may better suit a martial build, a rogue archetype could be fun and also help it gain some more skill increases – maybe increasing its Stealth. There’s also some decent fear-focused feats, such as You’re Next and Dread Striker, which it can take advantage of with its sickle.
BUILD CONCLUSION
Fiddlesticks, the Ancient Fear is a born of item yaoguai sorcerer descended from an aberrant bloodline while having a background as part of the night watch. Through Crossblooded Evolution, we tap into the demonic bloodline to represent that aspect of Fiddlesticks. The born of item heritage serves to represent its current scarecrow incarnation and Immobile Form can help it pull off the utter stillness of its idle 'animations.' Void warp will serve as its dark magic for the time being though daze might be better sometimes - and if all else fails, it has its trusty sickle! It can use scouting eye to create the vision afforded by its Harmless Scarecrow though it might need a spell like illusory creature to create the visual representation of this ability. There's a heavy focus on fear within Fiddlesticks kit, ranging from its Intimidation, Reveal Machinations, and many of its spells, which calls to mind its Terrify whereas the fear and damage is perhaps best represented through vision of death. For Bountiful Harvest, vampiric feast has the initial health drain effect while the area aspect comes from vampiric exsanguination. With Fiddle's Reap potentially leaving a creature silenced, we'll want spells that stupefy targets such as overwhelming memory or stupefy but these will have to be coupled with a damaging effect to really capture the extent of this effect. The best fit for Crowstorm appears to be poltergeist's fury given its duration, area, and the way it moves with Fiddlesticks. We even manage to fit in some of the Gloom from LoR with the likes of enfeeble and any other spells you find that can make a creature enfeebled.
A foul fiend formed from the first fear, Fiddlesticks is frequently found in the flats and farther of farmers - the fertile fields fraught with its flock and frights that forces feeble foes to flee lest they face their fatality in a furious finale.
Please let me know what you think and what other builds you'd like to see!
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Have a fantastic Friday!
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