Full Build Friday - Hwei, the Visionary

This past Wednesday, people could start playing as Hwei, the Visionary in League of Legends. This Friday, they can also now start playing him in Pathfinder Second Edition as well with this full build! 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.

If you prefer watching over reading, check out the YouTube video on him!

Let's get into the build for Hwei, the Visionary from League of Legends!

HWEI, THE VISIONARY

CHARACTER Lukai Hwei

SOURCE League of Legends

BUILD GOALS

o Hwei is an artistic artillery mage, a type of fragile caster that use long range spells to whittle down foes. He fights by flinging paint from his brush

o The simplest thing about him is his Signature of the Visionary passive. His abilities mark enemies and if he damages them with a different ability while marked, an explosion blooms underneath them

o Instead of typical abilities, he chooses different subjects to paint, each of which have three spells. His subjects are Disaster, Serenity, and Torment

o The Disaster subject focuses on raw damage

o Devastating Fire slings a fireball that explodes on impact

o Severing Bolt calls down a lightning bolt, dealing additional damage to immobilized or isolated enemies

o Molten Fissure summons a line in the ground that slows enemies on it and deals damage over time

o His Serenity subject has a focus on utility

o He can create a current of water that speeds allies with Fleeting Current

o By summoning a Pool of Reflection, Hwei can shield allies within it

o With Stirring Lights, he surrounds himself in swirling flames that empower his next three attacks and restore his mana

o His final subject is Torment, which inflicts debuffs while still dealing damage

o Hwei launches a terrifying face at an enemy with Grim Visage that damages and fears the first enemy hit

o Gaze of the Abyss summons an eyeball that locks onto a nearby enemy. It then launches itself at a target, damaging and rooting them

o His Crushing Maw summons a set of jaws in the ground that snap shut, damaging, slowing, and dragging enemies towards its center

o His ultimate is Spiraling Despair. It launches a blot at a target that sticks to them, dealing damage over time and slowing the target before detonating in a burst of damage

o Born in a temple dedicated to art, his own explorations clashed with more traditional methods. He buried his own style to fit in with the temple until it was destroyed by Jhin

LEVEL 1

Ancestry & Heritage: Ganzi Human

o Ability Boosts & Flaws: +Dexterity, +Intelligence

o Ancestry Feat: Adapted Cantrip – rousing splash

Background: Artist

o Ability Boosts: +Intelligence, +Charisma

o Skill Increase: Crafting (trained), Art Lore (trained)

o Background Feat: Specialty Crafting – Artistry

Class & Subclass: Experimental Spellshaping Wizard of the School of Unified Magical Theory

o Class Ability Boost: +Intelligence

o Skill Increase: Acrobatics (trained), Arcana (trained), Athletics (trained), Intimidation (trained), Occultism (trained), Religion (trained), Society (trained)

o Class Feat: Reach Spell, Widen Spell

o Spellbook: Cantrips – ignition, light, prestidigitation, read aura, rousing splash, shield, tangle vine, telekinetic projectile, telekinetic hand, torturous trauma; 1st – dizzying colors, gravitational pull, scorching blast, thunderstrike

Details

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

Hwei’s eyes are described as shifting in color and appearance, which inspired the use of the ganzi heritage for this otherwise human hero. He will be an arcane caster but he can Adapted Cantrip from his ancestry feats to gain rousing splash, which will likely be the closest he can get to the shield granted by his Pool of Reflection. As somebody who was raised in a temple of artists, the artist background makes the most sense for Hwei and he will apply his Specialty Crafting to Artistry. Appropriately for this artistic arcanist, accomplishing many of Hwei’s abilities comes from using spells with the best matches being found on the arcane spell list. Therefore, he will use the wizard class. There isn’t a school that covers art yet, so Hwei will use the School of Unified Magical Theory while taking up the Experimental Spellshaping arcane thesis, allowing him to put his own flourish, his own signature, on the magic he manipulates. This combination of features nets him Reach Spell and Widen Spell, which can help keep him at a distance.

Among his early level spells, ignition works well for his Devastating Fire while thunderstrike is a ranked but early way to simulate his Severing Bolt, especially when combined with his Reach Spell spellshape feat. He can use gravitational pull as a semi-functional way to cover Crushing Maw by virtue of drawing enemies towards a central point. Unfortunately, for this spell, that central point is Hwei himself. To cover his Stirring Lights, he can use scorching blast though this limits him to two blasts in a round – for now.

LEVEL 2

o Class Feat: Spell Trickster Dedication – Shining Arms, Forceful Push

o Skill Feat: Additional Lore – Art

o Gear: ring of sigils

LEVEL 3

o General Feat: Incredible Initiative

o Skill Increase: Arcana (expert)

o Spellbook: 2nd – loose time’s arrow, sudden bolt

o Gear: +1 staff, cloak of feline rest, ring of sigils

LEVEL 4

o Class Feat: Cantrip Expansion

o Skill Feat: Trick Magic Item

o Spellbook: 2nd – flame wisp, mirror image

o Gear: staff of fire, +1 staff, dweomerweave robe, ring of sigils

LEVEL 5

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

o Ancestry Feat: Creative Prodigy

o Skill Increase: Occultism (expert)

o Spellbook: 3rd – cave fangs, fireball

o Gear: +1 striking staff, mage’s hat, staff of fire, dweomerweave robe, cloak of feline rest, ring of sigils

With many of his abilities covered by spells, Hwei is actually freed up a bit when it comes to feats. The Spell Trickster Dedication gives him a greater way to alter spells in unique and interesting ways, which can be combined with his spellshaping capabilities to really let him explore these spells as an artist. Hwei comes from a game that is all about combat, so I used the feats that are the most combat capable out of the options initially available to him. He takes Cantrip Expansion so that he can use these altered spells along with a more generally useful stable, giving him a wide array of options. He already has Art Lore as an artist but given the heavy themes around the character concerning the matter, he takes Additional Lore to gain scaling Art Lore. His spells cover a wide swath of effects and philosophies, which can be aided by Trick Magic Item allowing him to dip into those other spellcasting traditions. Creative Prodigy fits the character fantastically but the Art Lore it provides is rather superfluous.

Loose time’s arrow is intended to help represent his Fleeting Current in that it enhances the speed of his allies. In the same style, he can use flame wisp to more directly cover his Stirring Lights though the problem I realized with this one is that he doesn’t really want to be making Strikes. They’re not exactly his forte even if this spell is a fantastic match for the ability. He expands on his Disaster subject with sudden bolt being a higher damage and purer representation of Severing Bolt while fireball captures that actual explosion of his Devastating Fire. Cave Fangs creates a sort of maw on the earth that crunches on enemies and then becomes difficult terrain, making it harder for them to move away from it. Again, not exact, but this is another concept towards his Crushing Maw.

LEVEL 6

o Class Feat: Confounding Image

o Skill Feat: Vicious Critique

o Spellbook: 3rd – gravity well, haste

o Gear: +1 explorer’s clothing, +1 striking staff, wand of shrouded step, staff of fire, dweomerweave robe, hand of the mage

LEVEL 7

o General Feat: Toughness

o Skill Increase: Occultism (master)

o Spellbook: 4th – agonizing despair, impending doom

o Gear: staff of elemental power, +1 explorer’s clothing, instructions for lasting agony, +1 striking staff, mage’s hat, crafter’s eyepiece

LEVEL 8

o Class Feat: Split Slot

o Skill Feat: Bizarre Magic

o Spellbook: 4th– airlift, chromatic ray

o Gear: wand of the spider (2nd-rank), wand of rolling flames (2nd-rank), staff of elemental power, +1 explorer’s clothing, +1 striking staff, wand of shrouded step

LEVEL 9

o Ancestry Feat: Anarchic Arcana

o Skill Increase: Arcana (master)

o Spellbook: 5th – blazing fissure, scouting eye

o Gear: +1 resilient explorer’s clothing, ring of wizardry (type I), wand of the spider (2nd-rank), staff of elemental power, instructions for lasting agony, +1 striking staff

LEVEL 10

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

o Class Feat: Quickened Casting

o Skill Feat: Tattoo Artist

o Skill Increase: Nature (trained)

o Spellbook: 5th – wave of despair

o Gear: tradecraft tattoo, +1 resilient explorer’s clothing, tome of scintillating sleet, wand of the spider (2nd-rank), staff of elemental power, +1 striking staff

The mirror image spell doesn’t exactly fit any of the abilities that Hwei demonstrates, but with the Confounding Image, it feels very artsy – a self-portrait of sorts. Split Slot does a bit more accurately represent an aspect of Hwei’s kit in that each of his standard abilities opens up to three options – and using one of those options puts the others on cooldown. This feat allows Hwei to prepare two spells in a slot but ultimately forces him to choose one – losing the other spell and representing his use of an ability locking him out of other options from it. Given the nature of his passive, Hwei is meant to combo his abilities and he can start doing so at this block with Quickened Casting, potentially allowing him to squeeze two spells into a round. Artists are some of the most self-critical people I know and Hwei can apply that to dealing with merchants or other artists with his Vicious Critique. Hwei can disguise his casting of otherwise typical spells through brush strokes and other artistic demonstrations, leading to the use of Bizarre Magic. He also can take Tattoo Artist because he is an artist and this allows him to turn his body and the bodies of others into a canvas. Anarchic Arcana draws on his ganzi heritage and can be flavored as him having a spark of inspiration.

Once again, Hwei tries to create the effect of his Crushing Maw, this time with gravity well, which does let him pick a point to draw enemies towards. By tenth level, he could combo this with cave fangs to probably get the closest resemblance to his ability. For his Fleeting Current, he does have haste and airlift, the latter of which might better reflect his ability through the fact that it keeps people together. Aside from Crushing Maw, this block actually covers the other spells of his Torment subject. With the fear and damage of agonizing despair, he has a good cover for Grim Visage but right now the closest he can get to Gaze of the Abyss is scouting eye. He takes up blazing fissure to very fittingly resemble Molten Fissure though this is more of a resemblance thing as it doesn’t leave behind a damaging area. For the actual damaging ground effect, he could take up spike stones or wall of fire. The gathering debilitations of Spiraling Despair are probably best represented through impending doom though for the area effect of it, wave of despair is a decent option.

LEVEL 11

o General Feat: Fleet

o Skill Increase: Crafting (expert)

o Spellbook: 6th – chromatic image, ravenous darkness

o Gear: shadow signet, greater mage’s hat, tradecraft tattoo, +1 resilient explorer’s clothing, ring of wizardry (type I), wand of the spider (2nd-rank)

LEVEL 12

o Class Feat: Overwhelming Energy

o Skill Feat: Tweak Appearances

o Gear: +2 resilient explorer’s clothing, shadow signet, greater staff of elemental power, tradecraft tattoo, wand of rolling flames (3rd-rank), tome of scintillating sleet

LEVEL 13

o Ancestry Feat: Shadow Pact

o Skill Increase: Crafting (master)

o Spellbook: 7th – entrancing eyes, hungry depths

o Gear: +2 greater striking weapon, +2 resilient explorer’s clothing, wand of refracting rays (4th-rank), greater staff of elemental power, wand of shardstorm (3rd-rank), tradecraft tattoo

LEVEL 14

o Class Feat: Secondary Detonation Array

o Skill Feat: Disturbing Knowledge

o Gear: wand of shardstorm (5th-rank), +2 greater striking staff, wand of rolling flames (5th-rank), +2 resilient explorer’s clothing, wand of rolling flames (4th-level), shadow signet

LEVEL 15

o Ability Boosts: +Constitution, +Intelligence, +Wisdom, +Charisma (Str +0, Dex +4, Con +1, Int +5.5, Wis +4, Cha +4.5)

o General Feat: Incredible Investiture

o Skill Increase: Occultism (legendary)

o Spellbook: 8th – arctic rift, unrelenting observation

o Gear: +2 greater resilient explorer’s clothing, hellfire boots, wand of shardstorm (5th-rank), +2 greater striking staff, wand of refracting rays (4th-rank), wand of the spider (4th-rank)

Hwei’s arcane thesis allows him to pick up lower level spellshaping feats, meaning he doesn’t really need to worry about grabbing lower level spellshaping feats. But he will be picking up more of the higher levels ones, such as Overwhelming Energy, which will be handy in allowing him to punch through resistances. Secondary Detonation Array is another spellshape feat that also happens to play into his Signature of the Visionary by creating an explosion in the area of a spell. This is probably best with cave fangs by virtue of creating an area of difficult terrain but at twentieth level, he’ll be able to combo cave fangs with gravity well and Secondary Detonation Array for some fun shenanigans. Tweak Appearances felt appropriate given his artistic sensibilities while his Disturbing Knowledge may be less esoteric knowledge and more his sheer edgy emoness. Shadow Pact both emphasizes this edginess while playing into his artistic sensibilities of creation.

He already has a lot of spells to represent his abilities, which means this block is a little sparse though hungry depths is another attempt at Crushing Maw. There’s also unrelenting observation for the vision of his Gaze of the Abyss.

LEVEL 16

o Class Feat: Scintillating Spell

o Skill Feat: Legendary Tattoo Artist

o Gear: wand of refracting rays (6th-rank), +2 greater resilient explorer’s clothing, major staff of elemental power, wand of shardstorm (5th-rank), +2 greater striking staff, wand of rolling flames (5th-rank)

LEVEL 17

o Ancestry Feat: Heroic Presence

o Skill Increase: Arcana (legendary)

o Spellbook: 9th – detonate magic, falling stars

o Gear: +3 greater striking staff, necklace of fireballs VI, wand of refracting rays (6th-rank), +2 greater resilient explorer’s clothing, hellfire boots, wand of shardstorm (5th-rank)

LEVEL 18

o Class Feat: Infinite Possibilities

o Skill Feat: Impeccable Crafting

o Gear: artificer specatcles, +3 greater striking staff, major atmospheric staff, wand of refracting rays (6th-rank), +2 greater resilient explorer’s clothing, major staff of elemental power

LEVEL 19

o General Feat: Feather Step

o Skill Increase: Nature (expert)

o Spellbook: 10th – manifestation

o Gear: +3 greater resilient explorer’s clothing, artificer specatcles, greater tradecraft tattoo, +3 greater striking staff, necklace of fireballs VI, wand of refracting rays (6th-rank)

LEVEL 20

o Ability Boosts: +Strength, +Constitution, +Intelligence, +Charisma (Str +1, Dex +4, Con +2, Int +6, Wis +4, Cha +5)

o Class Feat: Spellshape Mastery

o Skill Feat: Unified Theory

o Skill Increase: Diplomacy (trained)

o Gear: +3 major striking staff, +3 greater resilient explorer’s clothing, archivist’s gaze, greater tradecraft tattoo, wand of rolling flames (7th-level), major atmospheric staff

Scintillating Spell simply fits his use of spellshapes while also playing into the artistry of the character. Infinite Possibilities seems like a more powerful version of Split Slot and follows similar reasoning. Finally, with Spellshape Mastery, Hwei can create a true masterpiece by effortlessly applying his own style to the spells he casts. Building out of his Tattoo Artist is Legendary Tattoo Artist which allows him to make more powerful art on people, enhancing their effects. Impeccable Crafting enhances his art even further while Unified Theory lets him use Arcana to Trick Magic Item. In the past, I’ve ranted about taking Heroic Presence too much but it actually kind of works here - the teamwide temporary Hit Points it provides is actually a decent representation of his Pool of Reflection, at least in providing a shield.

FREE ARCHETYPE SUGGESTIONS: In a free archetype game, Hwei will be able to dive much deeper into the Spell Trickster Dedication. The additional feats he can take from this are considerable with options such as Scattered Fire, Lingering Flames, and Smoldering Explosion since he has fireball. He’ll have to pick up more spells to make use of some of the other feats in this archetype, which he can easily do as a wizard and all add some fun effects while letting him put his own artistic flair on a spell. He can also look into the Cathartic Mage archetype as his art is heavily influenced by his emotions though I’m not quite sure what emotion fits him best.

BUILD CONCLUSION

Hwei is a ganzi human wizard and artist who studied at School of Unified Magical Theory and developed an arcane thesis on Experimental Spellshaping. He uses Secondary Detonation Array to represent his Signature of the Visionary, but by level twelve, Hwei can also start taking Detonating Spell through the extra spellshape feat granted by his arcane thesis. His actual abilities come almost entirely from his spells. In the Disaster subject, fireball or ignition can create Devastating Fire, thunderstrike or sudden bolt work well for Severing Bolt, and blazing fissure covers the appearance of Molten Fissure while spike stones can create damaging ground. With the focus on utility in Serenity, he'll use options such as loose time’s arrow, haste, and airlift for his Fleeting Current, the rousing splash and Heroic Presnece for his shield-granting Pool of Reflection, and finally flame wisps or scorching blast for his Stirring Lights. The Torment subject was the hardest to replicate though Grim Visage is the easiest with options such as fear or agonizing despair, the latter of which actually deals damage to better go along with it. Out of all of these, Gaze of the Abyss is the hardest – there are plenty of spells to spy on targets such as unrelenting observation and scouting eye but nothing to make the eye launch at a target and deal damage. Finally, Crushing Maw has a couple of ways to accomplish it, but the best is probably using his Quickened Casting to layer cave fangs for the actual bite with gravity well to drag them to its center. A quicker option is simply hungry depths, which fits the concept but not quite the effect. His final ability, Spiraling Despair, is best represented through impending doom with the way that it builds up debilitating effects before dealing damage. The only component missing is the area damage. His heavy use of spellshapes and the Spell Trickster Dedication allow him to put his own artistic flourish on his spells, which he can also explore through Tattoo Artist and feats such as Specialty Crafting. Finally, Split Slot and Infinite Possibilities are nods to each subject opening up to one of three abilities that he can cast at a time.

This pensive painter peppers prosecuting players with potent pishogue while protecting his patrons, proving himself and his plentiful palette to be pretty powerful despite a petulant personality.

Lemme know what you think and what other builds you would like to see!

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Have a fantastic Friday!