To celebrate the relatively recent release of the fantastic Arcane show, I wanted to unveil a Jinx build that I've been ruminating on for a while. This still makes use of a few things from the Guns and Gears book without being redundant with anything I've built from there thus far. I do also have ideas rattling around in the back of my head for a number of the other main characters from that show but I'm not in as much a rush to get them all out and have some other ideas that I want to share first. As always, this build is conceptualized in a vacuum, with choices made in an attempt to fit the character. These choices might not hold up in a campaign with different themes and should be adjusted accordingly.
Let’s get into the build for Jinx, the Loose Cannon, from League of Legends!
JINX, THE LOOSE CANNON
CHARACTER Name
SOURCE League of Legends
GOALS
o Jinx hails from Piltover and Zaun of Runeterra, a city of technological exploration and innovation
o Orphaned from a young age, she was taken in alongside her sister by a man named Vander. From a young age, Jinx showed a knack for invention but struggled to make her creations actually work
o After an accident that resulted in the death of her adopted family caused by one of Jinx’s bombs, she was taken in by Silco, a mob boss who encouraged a darker side of her personality
o When forced into close-quarters combat, Jinx prefers smashing people with her firearms but can fight unarmed in a pinch
o Get Excited, Jinx’s passive, triggers whenever she contributes to the slaying of an enemy champion or objective and grants her an incredible movement and attack speed boost
o She switches between her two primary weapons with Switcheroo! Pow-Pow is a fast-attacking minigun, while Fishbones is a rocket launcher with AoE attacks that cost mana
o Zap! launches a bolt of electricity that damages and slows the first target to be hit by it
o Jinx tosses out three grenades with bear-trap jaws on them with Flame Chompers! They activate for a period, during which they’ll grab any champions that come into contact with them, exploding and rooting them
o Jinx’s ultimate is Super Mega Death Rocket! She fires a single, massive rocket in a target direction that explodes upon impact with an enemy champion, dealing large damage in an area
LEVEL 1
Ancestry & Heritage: Versatile Human
o Ability Boosts & Flaws: +Dexterity, +Intelligence
o Ancestry Feat: Burn It!
o General Feat: Adopted Ancestry (Goblin)
Background: Gunsmith
o Ability Boosts: +Dexterity, +Intelligence
o Skills: Crafting (trained), Engineering Lore (trained)
o Background Feat: Quick Repair
Class & Subclass: Starlit Span Magus
o Class Ability Boost: +Dexterity
o Skills: Acrobatics (trained), Arcana (trained), Athletics (trained), Deception (trained), Society (trained), Stealth (trained)
o Spellbook: Cantrips – acid splash, detect magic, electric arc, gouging claw, produce flame, ray of frost, read aura, telekinetic projectile; 1st – fleet step, magic missile, shocking grasp, snowball
Details
o Ability Boosts: +Dexterity, +Constitution, +Intelligence, +Charisma (Str 10, Dex 18, Con 12, Int 16, Wis 10, Cha 12)
Obviously, Jinx isn’t a goblin and while I occasionally will pick a different ancestry if I feel like it fits the character better, goblin is too off. However, it offers a great assortment of ancestry feats that are a perfect fit for Jinx, starting with Burn It!, which she’s able to grab thanks to the versatile heritage letting her grab up Adopted Ancestry right away. There were a couple options I was looking at for her background, even considering saboteur and street urchin but as the person that built her infamous guns, Pow-Pow and Fishbones, gunsmith fit Jinx best. As for her class, magus remains Intelligence-based, which fits for her character and can use firearms without issues. Gunslinger or inventor were other potential classes that were considered before I realized that all her abilities could be simulated with spells. Her starting weapon is meant to represent Pow-Pow – while the air repeater has low damage, it has the agile and repeating traits, giving her the option of firing it multiple times with ease, which is a way to mimic its attack speed effect. Alternatively, one could pick up a blunderbuss to start with, representing Fishbones thanks to its scatter trait, and have a higher base damage on their weapon with a slower fire rate. Additionally, Jinx can use Zap! by combining shocking grasp with a Spellstrike with the added caveat that it unfortunately doesn’t slow the target.
LEVEL 2
o Class Feat: Expansive Spellstrike
o Skill Feat: Snare Crafting
o New Spells: 1st – hydraulic push, summon construct
o Gear: everburning torch
LEVEL 3
o General Feat: Improvised Repair
o Skill Increase: Crafting (expert)
o New Spells: 2nd – acid arrow, telekinetic maneuver
o Gear: +1 air repeater, everburning torch, cloak of feline rest
LEVEL 4
o Class Feat: Gunslinger Dedication – Way of the Pistolero
o Skill Feat: Magical Crafting
o Skill Increase: Intimidation (trained)
o New Spells: 2nd – dismantle, scorching ray
o Gear: flaming star, +1 air repeater, +1 blunderbuss, everburning torch
LEVEL 5
o Ability Boosts: +Dexterity, +Intelligence, +Wisdom, +Charisma (Str 10, Dex 19, Con 12, Int 18, Wis 12, Cha 14)
o Ancestry Feat: Vandal
o Skill Increase: Intimidation (expert), Thievery (trained)
o New Spells: 3rd – fireball, glyph of warding
o Gear: +1 striking air repeater, flaming star, crafter’s eyepiece, +1 blunderbuss, everburning torch, cloak of feline rest
Picking up Expansive Spellstrike is an important part for Jinx’s build as she’s going to want to use fireball combined with a Spellstrike from one of her guns to create the effects of her Super Mega Death Rocket! Snare Crafting is intended to help with her Flame Chompers!, but unfortunately, doesn’t allow her to deploy them in the midst of combat. That could be accomplished with the Snarecrafter Dedication, but this build didn’t have the room to spare on the necessary feats for that. Since Jinx’s own world is more advanced than the one these rules are designed for, Magical Crafting is meant to give her a way of building ‘technology’ to better simulate her abilities. Initially, the Gunslinger Dedication doesn’t offer her much initially aside from the trained proficiency in Intimidation, but it works well for her down the line and the Way of the Pistolero reload was the best fit for her, even if that’s not something she’ll be picking up until later. Vandal is another goblin ancestry feat that just fits the character perfectly, making her more proficiency at destruction and dismantling.
LEVEL 6
o Class Feat: Basic Shooting – Munitions Crafter
o Skill Feat: Crafter’s Appraisal, Alchemical Crafting
o New Spells: 3rd – magnetic acceleration, pyrotechnics
o Gear: +1 leather armor, +1 striking air repeater, +1 striking blunderbuss, flaming star, hand of the mage, necklace of knives
LEVEL 7
o General Feat: Fleet
o Skill Increase: Crafting (master)
o New Spells: 4th – chromatic ray, winning streak
o Gear: vaultbreaker’s harness, +1 leather armor, necklace of fireballs I, +1 striking air repeater, flaming star, +1 blunderbuss
LEVEL 8
o Class Feat: Striker’s Scroll
o Skill Feat: Inventor
o New Spells: 4th – draw the lightning, weapon storm
o Gear: necklace of fireballs II, vaultbreaker’s harness, warcaller’s chime of blasting, +1 leather armor, +1 striking air repeater, +1 striking blunderbuss
LEVEL 9
o Ancestry Feat: Junk Tinker
o Skill Increase: Thievery (expert)
o New Spells: 5th – blink charge, flammable flames
o Gear: +1 resilient leather armor, gloves of storing, necklace of fireballs II, vaultbreaker’s harness, +1 striking air repeater, +1 striking blunderbuss
LEVEL 10
o Ability Boosts: +Dexterity, +Intelligence, +Wisdom, +Charisma (Str 10, Dex 20, Con 12, Int 19, Wis 14, Cha 16)
o Class Feat: Practiced Reloads
o Skill Feat: Intimidating Glare
o New Spells: 5th – black tentacles, blazing fissure
o Gear: wand of manifold missiles (3rd-level), +1 resilient leather armor, greater flaming star, necklace of fireballs II, +1 striking air repeater, +1 striking blunderbuss
Jinx’s first feat from gunslinger, Munitions Crafter, gives her a guaranteed way to make ammunition as well as some extra bombs that she can potentially Spellstrike with if the mood strikes. While not exactly related to the mechanical aspect of her character, it meshes well with her character in regards to her lore. Similarly, Striker’s Scroll doesn’t replicate a particular part of her kit, but helps make up for the magus’s lack of spells. With her focus on the Crafting skill, she can use downtime to write up scrolls to affix to her weapons so that she can unleash greater devastation more regularly. Practiced Reloads will help her action economy and while it can lead to some tough managing of the action economy, using it to Demoralize a target, which I favored for a build, pairs well with then launching a Spellstrike, especially when it’s laced with a spell that allows a save as the frightened condition lowers their AC and their saves. On the topic of Intimidation, it isn’t a part of her kit and something picked largely for flavor, so Intimidating Glare is the only skill feat that she takes for it, mainly so that she isn’t restricted in who she can target with it. Junk Tinker is another of those goblin feats that match Jinx’s flavor perfectly with her having to scavenge for scraps to build her gear in the depths of Zaun. With haste among her studious spells class feature, Jinx is a step towards having Get Excited!, and Fleet helps with that in the sense that it makes her faster than average.
LEVEL 11
o General Feat: Feather Step
o Skill Increase: Intimidation (master)
o New Spells: 6th – disintegrate, true seeing
o Gear: +2 striking air repeater, necklace of fireballs III, wand of manifold missiles (3rd-level), +1 resilient leather armor, gloves of storing, +1 striking blunderbuss
LEVEL 12
o Class Feat: Advanced Shooting – Munitions Machinist
o Skill Feat: Rapid Affixture
o New Spells: 6th – chain lightning, teleport
o Gear: +2 resilient leather armor, +2 striking air repeater, +2 striking blunderbuss, wand of manifold missiles (3rd-level), greater flaming star, flaming weapon rune
LEVEL 13
o Ancestry Feat: Bounce Back
o Skill Increase: Thievery (master)
o New Spells: 7th – blightburn blast, true target
o Gear: +2 greater striking air repeater, +2 resilient leather armor, greater crafter’s eyepiece, +2 striking blunderbuss, necklace of fireballs III, wand of manifold missiles (3rd-level)
LEVEL 14
o Class Feat: Hasted Assault
o Skill Feat: Wary Disarmament
o New Spells: 7th – power word blind, shadow raid
o Gear: wand of manifold missiles (5th-level), +2 greater striking air repeater, +2 greater striking blunderbuss, +2 resilient leather armor, greater demon mask, wand of noisome acid (4th-level)
LEVEL 15
o Ability Boosts: +Dexterity, +Intelligence, +Wisdom, +Charisma (Str 10, Dex 21, Con 12, Int 20, Wis 16, Cha 18)
o General Feat: Improved Initiative
o Skill Increase: Crafting (legendary)
o New Spells: 8th – earthquake, polar ray
o Gear: +2 greater resilient leather armor, necklace of fireballs V, wand of manifold missiles (5th-level), +2 greater striking air repeater, greater crafter’s eyepiece, +2 striking blunderbuss
Munitions Machinist is a straight improvement to Jinx’s earlier Munitions Crafter, which might be coming online a bit late, but will still be useful to her. Hasted Assault gives her a focus spell that has the effects of a personal haste with the added benefit of recharging her Spellstrike, meaning that it might make sense to use this after slaying somebody – as per Get Excited! Rapid Affixture might seem an odd choice but is actually based off her Striker’s Scroll feat. Scrolls attached via this feat are specifically attached using the Affix a Talisman action, meaning that Jinx can shorten the time needed to do so with Rapid Affixture, being able to attach a new scrolls as 3 actions at level 15. The idea behind taking Bounce Back, the only human ancestry feat that Jinx will have throughout her build, is just the ease with which she comes back from death in the game of League of Legends. It’s a silly idea, which is part of the reason I went with it. Jinx using Thievery to dismantle things is a simple enough concept and while Wary Disarmament doesn’t quite match her character, it is a useful feat on the mechanics side of things.
LEVEL 16
o Class Feat: Runic Impression
o Skill Feat: Craft Anything
o New Spells: 8th – power word stun, prismatic wall
o Gear: greater flaming weapon rune, +2 greater resilient leather armor, wand of noisome acid (6th-level), wand of manifold missiles (5th-level), +2 greater striking air repeater, +2 greater striking blunderbuss
LEVEL 17
o Ancestry Feat: Reckless Abandon
o Skill Increase: Stealth (expert)
o New Spells: 9th – meteor swarm, upheaval
o Gear: +3 greater striking air repeater, greater flaming weapon rune, necklace of fireballs VI, +2 greater resilient leather armor, wand of manifold missiles (5th-level), +2 greater striking blunderbuss
LEVEL 18
o Class Feat: Conflux Focus
o Skill Feat: Quick Unlock
o New Spells: 9th – disjunction, weird
o Gear: anklets of alacrity, +3 greater striking air repeater, +3 greater striking blunderbuss, greater flaming weapon rune, +2 greater resilient leather armor, wand of noisome acid (6th-level)
LEVEL 19
o General Feat: Prescient Planner
o Skill Increase: Stealth (master)
o New Spells: 9th – implosion, prismatic sphere
o Gear: +3 greater resilient leather armor, anklets of alacrity, +3 greater striking blunderbuss, +3 greater striking air repeater, greater flaming weapon rune, necklace of fireballs VI
LEVEL 20
o Ability Boosts: +Strength, +Dexterity, +Constitution, +Wisdom (Str 12, Dex 22, Con 14, Int 20, Wis 18, Cha 18)
o Class Feat: Supreme Spellstrike
o Skill Feat: Swift Sneak
o New Spells: 9th – massacre, power word kill
o Gear: +3 major striking air repeater, +3 greater resilient leather armor, greater ring of maniacal devices, anklets of alacrity, +3 greater striking blunderbuss, orange prism aeon stone
Runic Impression is, admittedly, something of a leftover feat that could easily be swapped out for something else, but it can also be flavored as Jinx making modifications to her weapons on the fly to counter enemies. In a similar vein, Conflux Focus could be swapped out but allowing Jinx to recover 2 Focus Points when she Refocuses is fairly valuable. Finally, Supreme Spellstrike makes her permanently quickened, which can be used for an additional Strike or to concentrate and recharge her Spellstrike. Reckless Abandon matches the character of Jinx perfectly and gives her some protection to help counteract her low HP. The thought behind Prescient Planner is Jinx swiftly cobbling together tools and gear built from scrap and the like. Going for a wider spread of skill mastery for Jinx, she reaches master proficiency in Stealth, allowing her to gain the Swift Sneak skill feat.
CONCLUSION
As an inventor and crafter, a background as a gunsmith feels highly appropriate for Jinx as does reaching legendary proficiency in Crafting. She can further modify her weapons with runic impression and bolsters her effectiveness with them using thanks to her Gunslinger Dedication and its related feats. With hasted assault,haste as a studious spell, and Supreme Spellstrike also make her permanently quickened, Jinx has several ways to Get Excited! The air repeater gives her the ability to make a series of rapid fire attacks like Pow-Pow before she can Switcheroo! to her blunderbuss to mimic Fishbones thanks to its scatter trait. Jinx can unleash electrical blasts with her Spellstrike using spells such as shocking grasp and chain lightning to mimic Zap! Snare Crafting is a step towards Flame Chompers!, but glyph of warding fits with the idea as well, in sense. Finally, Jinx unleashes her full destructive potential by loading a fireball into her gun with a Spellstrike for her Super Mega Death Rocket! though it doesn’t quite achieve the range of it. This build does have a heavy focus on downtime so that Jinx can prep her snares as well as her scrolls.
Be sure to lemme know what you think of the build and the new format!
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 nerd, check out the Discord server. We also have a Twitter where we try to post teasers for the blog and are trying to get some milestones made up for. Next week, I'm finally building an investigator, the only class I haven't done a build for, and I promise that those of you not already in the know won't see what I have coming!
Have a fantastic Friday!
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