It's the first day of the last month and to celebrate this new beginning, I have a couple firsts. It's the first cleric build I've done in over a year, the first warpriest I've ever built, and the first build to start using the remaster rules. This is also one of my favorite characters from League and I'm very happy to finally bring her into Pathfinder Second Edition. 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.
Head over to YouTube to check out the video for her, I had fun making it.
Let's get into the build for Illaoi, the Kraken Priestess from League of Legends!
ILLAOI, THE KRAKEN PRIESTESS
CHARACTER Illaoi
SOURCE League of Legends
BUILD GOALS
o Illaoi is a melee juggernaut in game, a class defined as being able to both tank and dish out damage but are lacking in mobility options
o Prophet of an Elder God passively spawns tentacles near Illaoi, attacking in conjunction with some of her abilities. Tentacles heal Illaoi when they damage enemy champions
o Her first activated ability is Tentacle Smash, which increases the damage of her tentacles and can be triggered to have her slam down a tentacle in a direction
o With Harsh Lesson, she leaps a short distance and slams down her idol, dealing extra damage and causing tentacles in the area to strike her target
o Test of Spirit throws out a tendril that grabs and pulls a spirit out of the enemy. If Illaoi can slay the spirit, the target becomes a vessel, causing tentacles to spawn and slam down on them
o Leap of Faith causes Illaoi to briefly jump up before slamming down, dealing damage, and summoning tentacles. For the duration, the cooldown of Harsh Lesson is halved
o True to her name, Illaoi is the head priestess of Nagakabouros, a goddess of life, chaos, the ocean, and storms who is often depicted with a multitude of tentacles and one who Illaoi has served her whole life
o Her weapon is the Eye of God, a heavy sphere made of unknown material that she wields with ease
o Illaoi is also a party member in Ruined King: A League of Legends Story where she wields many of the same powers but can also heal her allies
NAGAKABOUROS
Areas of Concern life, chaos, the ocean, and storms
Edicts follow your desires, take your life into your own hands
Anathema stagnate, deny your desires, create undead
Divine Attribute Strength or Wisdom
DEVOTEE BENEFITS
Cleric Spells 1stgrim tendrils; 3rd haste; 5th black tentacles/slither
Divine Fontharm or heal
Divine Sanctification can choose holy
Divine Skill Athletics
Domains freedom, water, soul, zeal
Favored Weapon gada
AVATAR
When casting the avatar spell, a worshipper of Nagakabouros gains the following abilities.
Nagakabouros Speed 70 feet, swim Speed 70 feet, ignore difficult terrain and greater difficult terrain; Melee tentacle (grapple. reach 60 feet0; Damage 5d10+6 bludgeoning plus Grab
LEVEL 1
Ancestry & Heritage: Versatile Human
o Ability Boosts & Flaws: +Strength, +Wisdom
o Ancestry Feat: Natural Ambition
o General Feat: Toughness
Background: Acolyte
o Ability Boosts: +Wisdom, +Strength
o Skill Increase: Religion (trained), Scribing Lore (trained)
o Background Feat: Student of the Canon
Class & Subclass: Warpriest Cleric of Nagakabouros
o Class Ability Boost: +Wisdom
o Skill Increase: Acrobatics (trained), Athletics (trained), Intimidation (trained), Occultism (trained)
o Class Feat: Domain Initiate – Soul
o Divine Font: Harm
Details
o Ability Boosts: +Strength, +Dexterity, +Constitution, +Wisdom (Str +3, Dex +1, Con +1, Int +0, Wis +4, Cha +0)
Without any insult meant, I think orc could function well enough as an ancestry for Illaoi but honestly, none of its feats really stand out for her. She’ll stick with the human ancestry and use the versatile heritage to start the game with Toughness, increasing her survivability right off the bat. Since she was raised in the faith of Nagakabouros, she uses the acolyte background though she likely won’t be getting much use out of the Scribing Lore. However, the other Religion based backgrounds didn’t really feel like they fit her either. While Illaoi is a brutal brawler, I wanted to represent her title – and also expand my repertoire for cleric builds. She sticks with the warpriest doctrine to be a bit of a brawler and she uses her Natural Ambition to take Domain Initiate for the soul, netting the eject soul focus spell, which is a wonderful representation of her pulling out the souls of enemy with Test of Spirit.
But before we dive further, we need to discuss Nagakabouros. Cleric builds have been difficult for Full Build Friday, in part because religious characters often don’t have their deities represented in Pathfinder 2e. So while I like staying as close to the baseline as possible, for the sake of having more cleric builds, I am going to start building gods when appropriate. Nagakabouros is a goddess of storms, the sea, change, and life who stands against undead as she views them as being entirely stagnant. Her tendrils are still able to affect the living, which is why her fonts can harm or heal and her favored weapon is the gada as despite its oddity, it is the closest representation to the truthbearer that Illaoi wields. Finally, she provides spells based on representing her tentacles with grim tendrils and black tentacles (which has become slither in the remaster and doesn’t quite fit) and then haste based on her demand for motion and action.
LEVEL 2
o Class Feat: Sap Life
o Skill Feat: Underwater Marauder
o Gear: necklace of knives
LEVEL 3
o General Feat: Diehard
o Skill Increase: Religion (expert)
o Gear: +1 gada, everburning torch, psychopomp mask
LEVEL 4
o Class Feat: Channel Smite
o Skill Feat: Intimidating Glare
o Gear: shining symbol, +1 gada, necklace of knives, everburning torch
LEVEL 5
o Ability Boosts: +Strength, +Dexterity, +Constitution, +Wisdom (Str +4, Dex +2, Con +2, Int +0, Wis +4.5, Cha +0)
o Ancestry Feat: Natural Skill
o Skill Increase: Athletics (expert), Nature (trained), Survival (trained)
o Gear: +1 striking gada, shining symbol, channel protection amulet, necklace of knives, everburning torch, psychopomp mask
Illaoi heals from blows landed by her tentacles, which will at least partially be represented by her harm spell, justifying the use of her Sap Life feat. She combines this with Channel Smite to capture the feel of her Harsh Lesson, allowing her to combine a blow from her gada with tentacles/harm and healing from it. As a lifelong inhabitant of the Serpent Isles and a follower of a water goddess, Underwater Marauder feels like a natural fit for Illaoi, especially where her weapon isn’t piercing. Illaoi has a forceful and domineering personality, which she’ll represent at least partially with Intimidating Glare. Befitting her tankiness, she uses Diehard and then takes Natural Skill for her ancestry feat to shore up her lacking skills.
At third level, Illaoi can start preparing spiritual weapon, which may actually be the best way to represent her spawning tentacles.
LEVEL 6
o Class Feat: Living Vessel Dedication
o Skill Feat: Quick Jump
o Gear: +1 hide, +1 striking gada, lifting belt, shining symbol, brooch of shielding, necklace of knives
LEVEL 7
o General Feat: Fast Recovery
o Skill Increase: Religion (master)
o Gear: lesser grub gloves, +1 hide, disrupting weapon rune, +1 striking gada, shining symbol, channel protection amulet
LEVEL 8
o Class Feat: Domain Initiate – Zeal
o Skill Feat: Battle Prayer
o Gear: wand of spiritual warfare (2nd-level), spiritsight ring, lesser grub gloves, +1 hide, +1 striking gada, demon mask
LEVEL 9
o Ancestry Feat: Multitalented – Fighter Dedication
o Skill Increase: Athletics (master), Medicine (trained)
o Gear: +1 resilient hide, boots of bounding, wand of spiritual warfare (2nd-level), lesser grub gloves, disrupting weapon rune, +1 striking gada
LEVEL 10
o Ability Boosts: +Strength, +Constitution, +Wisdom, +Charisma (Str +4.5, Dex +2, Con +3, Int +0, Wis 20, Cha 12)
o Class Feat: Emblazon Armament
o Skill Feat: Sacred Defense
o Gear: armbands of athleticism, +1 resilient hide, astral weapon rune, wand of spiritual warfare (2nd-level), spiritsight ring, +1 striking gada
Illaoi seems to be a direct conduit to her god given that she can create its limbs with her mere presence, and given the somewhat Cthuluian themes of Nagakabouros, the Living Vessel Dedication feels like a great fit. Initially, this build took Entity’s Strike for a tentacle Strike at eighth level, but as I came to like spiritual weapon to better represent her tentacles, I dropped it for a second Domain Initiate, netting her a second Focus Point as well as weapon surge from her zeal domain to fit her more warrior nature. Then since her weapon is a symbol of her deity, being the Eye of God, it felt right for her to take Emblazon Armament, which doesn’t do much but at least increases the damage of her weapon. She takes Quick Jump as two of her abilities, Harsh Lesson and Leap of Faith involve at least small jumps and then uses her increased Religion to take Battle Prayer and Sacred Defense, which fits nicely with her focus on faith while still being a juggernaut. She can pick up Multitalented to gain a Fighter Dedication, which makes her trained in martial weapons, but doesn’t give her scaling proficiency with them. She does still at least become trained in Medicine, but she takes this to get some feats from fighter down the line.
During this block, she can also start preparing black tentacles, which is a solid representation for the multitude of tentacles that she summons with her Leap of Faith. Additionally, rip the spirit is at the same level and can be flavored as her Test of Spirit. With its variable action economy, it could actually be used in concert with eject soul.
LEVEL 11
o General Feat: Intimidating Prowess
o Skill Increase: Intimidation (expert)
o Gear: +2 striking gada, armbands of athleticism, greater shining symbol, +1 resilient hide, boots of bounding, wand of spiritual warfare (2nd-level)
LEVEL 12
o Class Feat: Emblazon Energy
o Skill Feat: Terrifying Resistance
o Gear: +2 resilient hide, +2 striking gada, greater demon mask, armbands of athleticism, extra lung, astral weapon rune
LEVEL 13
o Ancestry Feat: Hardy Traveler
o Skill Increase: Intimidation (master)
o Gear: +2 greater striking gada, +2 resilient hide, devoted vestments, greater demon mask, armbands of athleticism, greater shining symbol
LEVEL 14
o Class Feat: Basic Maneuver – Vicious Swing
o Skill Feat: Powerful Leap
o Gear: wand of overflowing life (5th-level), +2 greater striking gada, moderate grub gloves, +2 resilient hide, greater demon mask, greater symbol of conflict
LEVEL 15
o Ability Boosts: +Strength, +Constitution, +Wisdom, +Charisma (Str +5, Dex +2, Con +4, Int +0, Wis +5.5, Cha +2)
o General Feat: Pick Up the Pace
o Skill Increase: Religion (legendary)
o Gear: +2 greater resilient hide, greater helm of underwater action, wand of overflowing life (5th-level), +2 greater striking gada, devoted vestments, horn of exorcism
Following out of Emblazon Armament is Emblazon Energy as Nagakabouros is associated with several of the elements. From the fighter feats that she can gain access to, Power Attack is probably a better representation of her Harsh Lesson, just being a slam with her weapon that only involves her tentacles if they are present. A Quick Jump followed by a Power Attack almost matches the move perfectly. Channel Smite is still probably the best representation of her Tentacle Slam, as the tentacle heals her, much like Sap Life will through the casting of harm done as part of the Channel Smite. Illaoi starts increasing her Intimidation with her other skills of Athletics and Religion already at master and takes advantage of it to gain Intimidating Prowess to leverage her considerable brawn as well as Terrifying Resistance to increase her durability. Powerful Leap follows a similar reasoning as the Quick Jump she took earlier. Illaoi is always about chasing after one’s wants and desires and demands the same of others, which will be represented through her Pick Up the Pace general feat.
Additionally, during this block, Illaoi gains access to spellwrack. This may seem an odd choice, but the persistent damage of it could help to represent the tentacles following and slamming down on a vessel following her Test of Spirit.
LEVEL 16
o Class Feat: Vessel’s Form
o Skill Feat: Divine Guidance
o Gear: greater cloister robe, +2 greater resilient hide, greater boots of bounding, wand of overflowing life (5th-level), +2 greater striking gada, moderate grub gloves
LEVEL 17
o Ancestry Feat: Heroic Presence
o Skill Increase: Athletics (legendary)
o Gear: +3 greater striking gada, wand of spiritual warfare (6th-level), greater cloister robe, +2 greater resilient hide, greater helm of underwater action, wand of overflowing life (5th-level)
LEVEL 18
o Class Feat: Advanced Maneuver – Furious Focus
o Skill Feat: Quick Swim
o Gear: bracers of strength, +3 greater striking gada, speed weapon rune, greater cloister robe, +2 greater resilient hide, greater boots of bounding
LEVEL 19
o General Feat: Scare to Death
o Skill Increase: Intimidation (legendary)
o Gear: +3 greater resilient hide, bracers of strength, major shining symbol, +3 greater striking gada, wand of spiritual warfare (6th-level), greater cloister robe
LEVEL 20
o Ability Boosts: +Dexterity, +Intelligence, +Wisdom, +Charisma (Str +5, Dex +3, Con +4, Int +1, Wis +6, Cha +3)
o Class Feat: Avatar’s Protection
o Skill Feat: Battle Cry
o Skill Increase: Society (trained)
o Gear: +3 major striking gada, +3 greater resilient hide, titan’s grasp, major shining symbol, speed weapon rune, antimagic armor rune
Vessel's Form is a big buffing effect on Illaoi and while it doesn’t spawn a bunch of tentacles, I liked it for her Leap of Faith ultimate, specifically with its effect of reducing the cooldown of Harsh Lesson, as all her attacks are enhanced. Additionally, the temporary Hit Points could be thought of as all the healing she gains from the tentacle slams. While it requires her to specifically be wielding the gada two-handed, Illaoi can use Advanced Maneuver to gain the Furious Focus for her Power Attack. This means that her Vicious Swing only counts as one attack so she can Vicious Swing and then Sustain her spiritual weapon at only a -5 instead of a -10. This is probably the best representation of her Harsh Lesson – a big slam with her weapon followed by her spell striking down on an enemy. Even in the remaster, the cleric doesn’t seem to have great capstone feats, but given her focus on mixing it up in melee, Avatar’s Protection is probably the best. This lets her channel Nagakabouros’s full fury, which similar to Vessel’s Form, can help to represent her Leap of Faith and the mass of tentacles that it summons. Heroic Presence probably fits better on her than most other builds I’ve used it on, given the nature of the spell it creates. Divine Guidance probably goes a little against the teachings of her god, who tends to demand her followers forge ahead based on their own convictions, but she has the legendary in Religion and might as well make use of it. She can also gain Quick Swim given her rearing in in Bilgewater and then her increases to Intimidation benefit her with Scare to Death (my favorite skill feat) and Battle Cry.
Obviously, the big spell at this level is gonna be avatar, which hopefully she’ll only ever have to cast as a reaction thanks to her capstone feat.
FREE ARCHETYPE SUGGESTIONS: In a free archetype game, rush gaining the Living Vessel Dedication and follow it up with Entity’s Strike and Tap Vitality. This gives her a tentacle Strike and the ability to heal herself, like her tentacles. Then, she should take her Fighter Dedication and again pick up Power Attack through her Basic Maneuver. She can also make use of Fighter Resiliency to greater effect than in the build above and could also take Opportunist. From the fighter feats, she can consider options such as Dual-Handed Assault, Furious Focus way earlier, Knockdown to really capture the weightiness of her blows, and then feats such as Intimidating Strike, and Shatter Defenses. With her freed up cleric feats, I would take the Emblazon feats earlier as well as Harming Hands, Versatile Font, possibly Advanced Domain, and Divine Weapon. If you can find a place for it, Replenishment of War is also nice to consistently keep her health shored up and really sell her tankiness.
BUILD CONCLUSION
Illaoi is a versatile human warpriest of Nagakabouros of the acolyte background. She’s a burly bruiser that uses her early general feat to gain some Toughness and prioritizes her Strength, Constitution, and Wisdom. As the Prophet of an Elder God, she can spawn tentacles through the use of the spiritual weapon spell but can flavor a number of her spells as tentacles, with harm being a notable callout. This directly plays into the healing from her tentacles with Sap Life. She inflicts her Tentacle Smash with effects such as Channel Smite and the grim tendrils granted by Nagakabouros, with the former being a good smash that can heal her through Sap Life while the latter covers the line effect area and creates those tentacles. Harsh Lesson is a short leap and a slam that triggers tentacles to attack and there’s a few ways she can do that – Channel Smite could pull double duty but given the lack of magic this particular strike, Vicious Swing might better suit it, especially when combined with her Sustaining a spiritual weapon to mimic the tentacle slam part of it. Alternatively, she could Quick Jump or Powerful Leap to a target, make a Strike, and Sustain a spiritual weapon. Domain Initiate grants her eject soul from her soul domain, which can represent the ripping of a spirit from her Test of Spirit though rip the spirit covers it in a more violent concept while spellwrack could be flavored as tentacles rising up to slam down on enemies. Leap of Faith is almost sort of a set-up ability for Illaoi – covering the battlefield in tentacles and reducing the cooldown of her Harsh Lesson. She can use a three-action harm to cover the initial damage burst, excluding herself from the emanation. For the following state she enters, the avatar spell and Vessel’s Form serve well to empower her while infusing her with the might of her god. To represent her Eye of God, she uses the gada, which is the favored weapon of Nagakabouros and still has a whole host of divine spells, allowing her to heal allies, like in Ruined King.
Dauntless and durable, this dynamic deacon of the deep delivers herself from destruction while dealing devastating damage, dredging the depths of her disputants in a drastic display of devotion.
Lemme 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. You folks should know I hate doing characters from the same source multiple times in a row, but unfortunately, there's a release I'm going to try to coincide with next week. Oh, and as one final treat, I have some statistics and numbers relating to builds I've done, things that I know we as RPG players enjoy.
Have a fantastic Friday!
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