Full Build Friday - Gorilla Grodd

This entry for Ape-ril is a bit more sinister than our other entrants. 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.

Please check out the video on Grodd - I had fun making it.

Let's get into the build for Gorilla Grodd from DC Comics!

GORILLA GRODD

CHARACTER Grodd

SOURCE DC Comics

BUILD GOALS

o    Grodd is an intelligent gorilla from Gorilla City and typically its ruler

o    Even outside of the physical capabilities of a gorilla, he is particularly tough and powerful

o    He is a capable telepath able to read and control minds or launch telepathic assaults

o    He sometimes demonstrates telekinesis powers as well

o    By consuming the brains of others he can gain their knowledge and capabilities

o    Has briefly – and through others – wielded the Speed Force, augmenting his speed and similar features, and the Still Force, letting him slow and drain others

Summary of Goals: Grodd is an intelligent ape that has wielded a wide variety of powers. Outside of his own enhanced physical capabilities as a gorilla, he is perhaps best known as a telepath, but has wielded fundamental forces of Speed and Stillness as well as some telekinesis.

LEVEL 1

Ancestry & Heritage: Climbing Awakened Animal

o    Ability Boosts & Flaws: +Constitution, +Wisdom, +Intelligence, -Intelligence

o    Ancestry Feat: Learn by Watching

o    Size: Large

o    Skill Increase: Crafting (T)

Background: Royalty

o    Ability Boosts: +Intelligence, +Strength

o    Skill Increase: Society (trained)

o    Background Feat: Courtly Graces

Class & Subclass: Psychic – Precise Discipline Subconscious Mind & Silent Whisper Conscious Mind

o    Class Ability Boost: +Intelligence

o    Skill Increase: Acrobatics (T), Athletics (T), Intimidation (T), Nature (T), Religion (T), Thievery (T)

o    Spell Repertoire: Cantrips – daze, join pasts, message, telekinetic projectile, warp step; 1st – mindlink, phantom pain

Details

o    Ability Boosts: +Strength, +Dexterity, +Intelligence, +Wisdom (Str +2, Dex +1, Con +1, Int +3, Wis +2, Cha +0)

The build for Grodd obviously starts with the awakened animal ancestry and of course uses the climbing heritage as a brachiating beast. One of the unique aspects of the awakened animal is that it can be a variety of sizes, so Grodd will be Large. Many sites list him as 6’6” but they certainly don’t portray him as that height and gorillas in Pathfinder 2e are already Large. With his habit of borrowing the powers of others, Grodd uses the Learn by Watching ancestry feat. We settle on the royalty background based on the incarnations of him that are the rulers of Gorilla City as he sometimes legitimately is rather than being an usurping despot. Finally, to represent his telepathic powers, we use the psychic class and hone in on his powers further with the silent mind conscious mind. This grants him an enhanced daze to inflict telepathic attacks and a message that he can amp to command his troops. From his actual spells, join pasts could serve to reference his ability to consume brains to gain the minds of others, telekinetic projectile represents the telekinetic powers that he sometimes wields, and warp step is a nod towards the times that he has claimed the Speed Force. He also gains phantom pain to leave a lasting mental effect that he might be able to take advantage of the weakness left by his amped daze through its persistent mental damage.

Akin to the Detective Chimp build, this build lags behind slightly due to flaw that awakened animals have to Intelligence. You could fix this by going for a Charisma-based psychic – though I do personally think that the precise discipline subconscious suits him best – or using the alternative ability scores. However, I personally dislike the option to just take two free boosts, which is why I avoided it entirely.

LEVEL 2

o    Class Feat: Martial Artist Dedication

o    Skill Feat: Quick Jump

o    Gear: stalk goggles

LEVEL 3

o    General Feat: Toughness

o    Skill Increase: Athletics (E)

o    Spell Repertoire: 1st – phantom pain*; 2nd – stupefy, umbral extraction*

o    Gear: handwraps of mighty blows (+1), stalk goggles, genealogy mask

LEVEL 4

o    Class Feat: Gorilla Stance

o    Skill Feat: Intimidating Glare

o    Gear: polished demon horn, handwraps of mighty blows (+1), dweomerweave robe, stalk goggles

LEVEL 5

o    Ability Boosts: +Strength, +Constitution, +Intelligence, +Wisdom (Str +3, Dex +1, Con +2, Int +4, Wis +3, Cha +0)

o    Ancestry Feat: Fierce Grasp

o    Skill Increase: Arcana (T), Thievery (E)

o    Spell Repertoire: 3rd – heroism, impending doom*

o    Gear: handwraps of mighty blows (+1 striking), polished demon horn, golden legion epaulet, dweomerweave robe, stalk goggles, genealogy mask

While Grodd is a mental menace, his capability as a physical threat cannot be denied. As such, this block has a focus on that, starting with the Martial Artist Dedication and then taking Gorilla Stance – as that felt almost mandatory for Grodd. Quick Jump also plays into this whereas Intimidating Glare is more about trying to debuff foes so that his spells, which will be slightly behind on DCs, are more likely to land. His general feat and ancestry feat get back on the track with Toughness letting him hopefully survive in combat a bit longer whereas Fierce Grasp enhances his ability to grapple and lockdown foes. While he might not be the greatest threat to martials, he can become an absolute menace to other casters and lock them down.

As for his spells, stupefy comes by naturally through his conscious mind whereas umbral extraction will let him steal spells from other creatures, based on the way he consistently tries to usurp the powers of others. This spell is the whole reason that he takes any increases to his Thievery skill so that he can better snag spells from his foes. Impending doom is just a really fun spell that has some solid debuffing options with its only drawback being its incapacitation trait.

LEVEL 6

o    Class Feat: Psi Burst

o    Skill Feat: Powerful Leap

o    Spell Repertoire: 3rd – slow

o    Gear: +1 explorer’s clothing, handwraps of mighty blows (+1 striking), mentalist’s staff, polished demon horn, necklace of knives, dweomerweave robe

LEVEL 7

o    General Feat: Fleet

o    Skill Increase: Athletics (M)

o    Spell Repertoire: 4th – telepathy, tortoise and the hare

o    Gear: staff of impossible visions, +1 explorer’s clothing, wand of shardstorm (5th-rank), handwraps of mighty blows (+1 striking), polished demon horn, golden legion epaulet

LEVEL 8

o    Class Feat: Brain Drain

o    Skill Feat: Titan Wrestler

o    Gear: boots of bounding, phantasmal doorknob, wand of shattering images, +1 explorer’s clothing, handwraps of mighty blows (+1 striking), mentalist’s staff

LEVEL 9

o    Ancestry Feat: Wild Stride

o    Skill Increase: Thievery (M)

o    Spell Repertoire: 5th – mind probe, synaptic pulse*

o    Gear: +1 resilient explorer’s clothing, boots of bounding, enigma mirror, staff of impossible visions, wand of shardstorm (5th-rank), handwraps of mighty blows (+1 striking)

LEVEL 10

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

o    Class Feat: Mental Static

o    Skill Feat: Dirty Trick

o    Spell Repertoire: 5th – stagnate time

o    Gear: wand of shardstorm (3rd-rank), +1 resilient explorer’s clothing, greater mentalist’s staff, boots of bounding, phantasmal doorknob, handwraps of mighty blows (+1 striking)

Psi Burst is a nice third action with some decent versatility, being able to deal bludgeoning damage with a Reflex save or mental damage with a Will save, able to represent his telepathic or telekinetic assaults. This block also features Brain Drain, which is a fantastic way to represent his ability to take from others for his own power as we see with him eating brains or trying to steal the Speed Force. His final class feat for the block is Mental Static, which is in part to take advantage of his Wisdom and also to demonstrate his superiority as a telepath. His Powerful Leap and Titan Wrestler feats do a bit more to emphasize his physicality whereas Dirty Trick is meant to take advantage of the investment he’s put into Thievery. His remaining feats for the block, Fleet and Wild Stride, are focused on speed given his desire to usurp and claim the Speed Force with these feats representing those instances a bit.

Opposite the Speed Force is the Still Force and Grodd can represent that with speed, stagnate time, and tortoise and the hare, which is also handy for playing into that subtheme he has of stealing from others to empower himself. He dips deeper into mental spells with mind probe, which will be handy for reading the minds of others and finding their secrets, and telepathy to mentally communicate with others.

LEVEL 11

o    General Feat: Fast Recovery

o    Skill Increase: Occultism (E)

o    Spell Repertoire: 6th – dominate*, sending

o    Gear: handwraps of mighty blows (+2 striking), greater pendant of the occult, wand of shardstorm (3rd-rank), +1 resilient explorer’s clothing, boots of bounding, enigma mirror

LEVEL 12

o    Class Feat: Psi Catastrophe

o    Skill Feat: Hefty Hauler

o    Gear: +2 resilient explorer’s clothing, handwraps of mighty blows (+2 striking), wand of dumbfounding doom (4th-rank), wand of shardstorm (3rd-rank), greater polished demon horn, greater mentalist’s staff

LEVEL 13

o    Ancestry Feat: Sharpened Senses

o    Skill Increase: Occultism (M)

o    Spell Repertoire: 7th – telekinetic bombardment*, visions of danger

o    Gear: handwraps of mighty blows (+2 greater striking), +2 resilient explorer’s clothing, mind’s light circlet, greater staff of control, greater pendant of the occult, wand of shardstorm (3rd-rank)

LEVEL 14

o    Class Feat: Conscious Spell Specialization

o    Skill Feat: Disturbing Knowledge

o    Spell Repertoire: 7th – warp mind

o    Gear: greater desolation locket, handwraps of mighty blows (+2 greater striking), major mentalist’s staff, +2 resilient explorer’s clothing, wand of tormented slumber, wand of dumbfounding doom (4th-rank)

LEVEL 15

o    Ability Boosts: +Strength, +Dexterity, +Constitution, +Intelligence (Str +4.5, Dex +3, Con +3, Int +5, Wis +4, Cha +0)

o    General Feat: Diehard

o    Skill Increase: Athletics (L), Survival (T)

o    Spell Repertoire: 8th – devour life*, uncontrollable dance

o    Gear: +2 greater resilient explorer’s clothing, greater desolation locket, propulsive boots, handwraps of mighty blows (+2 greater striking), envisioning mask, mind’s light circlet

Psi Catastrophe follows a similar idea as his Psi Burst except for the fact that it’s two actions and covers an emanation, which honestly might make it harder to use. It might be handy for when he’s running low on spells and surrounded or when he needs to hit a Reflex save instead of a Will, but it will often be competing with his spells. He takes Conscious Spell Specialization because he does have some solid picks from his conscious mind spells that he can make use of here. Honestly though, these two picks are the ones that I’m shakiest on, so if you want to go for something else, I think that’s fair. Hefty Hauler and Fast Recovery are solely to cover more of his brawn whereas Disturbing Knowledge is based on his habit of eating brains – he can regale folks with talks of that rather than needing to call on Occult knowledge. Diehard feels like a must have for a comic book character because at this point, there aren’t many characters that haven’t died at least once and come back.

There’s a few nice mind-manipulating spells here with the likes of dominate, visions of danger, and warp mind. On the telekinetic side of things, there’s obviously telekinetic bombardment but he also takes devour life, which might seem a bit strange but is inspired by his habit of taking from others to empower himself.

LEVEL 16

o    Class Feat: Target of Psychic Ire

o    Skill Feat: Aura Sight

o    Gear: major phantasmal doorknob, +2 greater resilient explorer’s clothing, wand of dumbfounding doom (6th-rank), greater desolation locket, handwraps of mighty blows (+2 greater striking), major mentalist’s staff

LEVEL 17

o    Ancestry Feat: Fearsome Form

o    Skill Increase: Thievery (L)

o    Spell Repertoire: 9th – telepathic demand

o    Gear: handwraps of mighty blows (+3 greater striking), major phantasmal doorknob, greater astral weapon rune, +2 greater resilient explorer’s clothing, greater desolation locket, propulsive boots

LEVEL 18

o    Class Feat: Cranial Detonation

o    Skill Feat: Lead Climber

o    Gear: crown of intellect, handwraps of mighty blows (+3 greater striking), major staff of impossible visions, major phantasmal doorknob, +2 greater resilient explorer’s clothing, major staff of control

LEVEL 19

o    General Feat: Robust Health

o    Skill Increase: Occultism (L)

o    Spell Repertoire: 10th – freeze time

o    Gear: +3 greater resilient explorer’s clothing, crown of intellect, wand of shardstorm (7th-rank), handwraps of mighty blows (+3 greater striking), major phantasmal doorknob, greater astral weapon rune

LEVEL 20

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

o    Class Feat: Mind Over Matter

o    Skill Feat: Combat Climber

o    Gear: handwraps of mighty blows (+3 major striking), +3 greater resilient explorer’s clothing, archivist’s gaze, wand of shardstorm (7th-rank), major staff of impossible visions, wand of dumbfounding doom (7th-rank)

Target of Psychic Ire and Cranial Detonation both provide Grodd with some extra damage though there’s a party of me that suspects that the brain-eating ape might consider the latter of these two to be a waste. Mind Over Matter helps to further exhibit his mastery over mentalism by giving him a second 10th-rank spell. Aura Sight is meant to further cover some of his telepathic powers while Lead and Combat Climber lean into his identity as an ape. Fearsome Form provides him with another mental spell though it makes it a primal spell rather than an occult spell. He finishes off his spells with telepathic demand as another way to seize control of others and freeze time. The last of these is based off of Grodd finally seizing the Speed Force and gaining the ability to move so fast that everything else seems to be standing still to him.

FREE ARCHETYPE SUGGESTIONS: While this build makes use of a martial artist archetype, I think the best option would be an Int-based occult caster. Witch probably works the best out of the possible picks though I’m not sure what familiar Grodd would use. Wanting to focus on his physical capabilities, there are two options that stand out to me – aside from the martial artist, he could consider the Wild Mimic Dedication as another way to gain the Gorilla Stance while also playing into his more primal aspects. He could also look at the Wrestler Dedication to focus more on the grappling subtheme in his build.

BUILD CONCLUSION

Gorilla Grodd is a climbing awakened animal psychic with the silent whisper conscious mind and the royalty background. As a Large awakened animal, he resembles a gorilla while his background reflects his role as a ruler. Putting as much as we can into his Strength as well as feats like Toughness, Diehard, and Robust Health help sell his impressive physicality though the psychic class and silent whisper conscious mind makes him a mental monster. He has mind probe to read them, daze and phantom pain to assail them, and dominate to take control of them. Telekinetic projectile and bombardment, as well as Target of Psychic Ire, give some hints to his telekinetic powers as well. Between Brain Drain and umbral extraction, he can pull from the minds of others to empower his own, which is a good bit less squicky than his brain eating habit. He can steal speed from foes with tortoise and the hare and also generally exercise the Still Force with slow or stagnate time whereas freeze time is more indicative of his connection to the Speed Force.

Sure to seek speed and secure sovereignty, this sinister simian shatters psyches, sundering smarts in a smug sense of superiority while snacking on the cerebellums of suckers in a sickening showing.

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

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Have a fantastic Friday!