This is a slight deviation for me as most of the things I make are on the other side of the DM screen. But this is a level 1 through 20 build for a Pathfinder Second Edition character. The characters featured in these posts will typically be drawn from various franchises and media because I want to focus more on the building and worry less about the character. Having a character gives me an end goal to work towards to instead of getting lost along the way. It’s also a bit of a challenge for the system, seeing how close I can build to the original vision of the character. I’m gonna try to find a balance between making an effective character and mimicking the chosen character’s abilities.
Related to that, these characters are gonna be created in a vacuum – skills and the likes are picked for what seems best without the context of the adventure. Heist-type adventures might call for Stealth and Thievery on a character that otherwise wouldn’t take it, so keep that in mind. At a friend's suggestion, I'm gonna start including gear in these builds but I'm gonna keep it basic - just picking magical gear based on what level of equipment a character should have at that level.
I’m gonna go level by level for these builds but only cover actual choices – such as skill increases, feats, and ability score boosts. Stuff that automatically increases due to level, such as an increase in saving throws, more HP, and the like, are going to go unmentioned.
So with that, let’s get into the build for Kled, the Cantankerous Cavalier!
CHARACTER Kled, the Cantankerous Cavalier
SOURCE League of Legends
GOAL Kled is a diver from League of Legends, using mobility to get onto high priority target and force their allies to focus upon them. Allied with Noxus, he is a fierce warrior who fights atop the reptilian and immortal Skaarl, using a halberd as his main weapon. While mounted, Kled can throw out a bear trap with a rope to reel foes in, unleash 4 quick successive strikes, dash in and out of combat, and charge headlong into combat to chase down foes. When dismounted, he wields a double-barreled pistol that fires in a cone and launches him backwards. Since firearms haven’t been added into PF2e, we’re gonna work around that.
LEVEL 1 Start with the ABCs – ancestry, background, and class. While gnomes seem closer to the general concept of yordles, goblin feels like a much better fit for Kled and taking the unbreakable heritage helps make him tankier. As a goblin, we get a boost to Dex and Cha and a flaw to Wis. Our free boost will go towards Strength since we’re predominantly a melee combatant. Our ancestry feat will be Twitchy, which helps capture the feel of Kled’s paranoia and his readiness to fight.
We select Warrior as our background after all of Kled’s military campaigns. Our first boost goes to Strength while our free boost goes to Con. We become trained in Intimidation and the Warfare Lore skill while also receiving the Intimidating Glare skill feat, which lets us Demoralize with only a look.
Finally, we take fighter as our class though I could see barbarian being appropriate for Kled well with his madness. However, to Command Skaarl, we need to be able to use actions with the concentrate trait, which we can’t do while raging without taking other stuff. Our boost from being a fighter will go to Strength and then we have another four, which will go towards Strength, Constitution, Wisdom, and Charisma, letting us start with this array: Str 18, Dex 12, Con 14, Int 10, Wis 10, Cha 14. As a fighter, we become trained in Athletics, and then receive the trained proficiency in Acrobatics, Nature, and Survival. While fighters have a good array of feats, none really feel good for Kled to start with, the most appropriate being Power Attack, letting him whack foes with considerable damage.
LEVEL 2 The Titan Wrestler skill feat lets us use combat maneuver type things on larger creatures, which is helpful since we’re Small. Then we grab the Cavalier Dedication, which will give us a young dromaeosaur to represent Skaarl. Normally, you can only choose creatures with the mount special ability but can get other options depending on your GM’s discretion. In addition, if the animal usually starts Small, you can have a Medium creature with unchanged statistics.
Gear: predictable silver piece
LEVEL 3 Our first skill increase will go to Athletics, so that we become an expert in it. To help match up with Kled’s tankiness, which admittedly is mostly Skaarl but that doesn’t translate well over to PF, we take Toughness, granting us additional HP.
Gear: +1 halberd, predictable silver piece, dull gray aeon stone
LEVEL 4 Since we survive out in the wilds of Noxus’s plains with nothing but a lizard, we take the Forager skill feat so that we can acquire more food with Survival. Dragging Strike is a fighter feat that, with our combat grapnel, can help represent Kled’s Bear Trap on a Rope, but unfortunately, it can only affect creatures of our size or smaller.
Gear: coyote cloak, +1 halberd, necklace of knives, predictable silver piece
LEVEL 5 We take these boosts to Strength, Dexterity, Constitution, and Wisdom, putting us here: Str 19, Dex 14, Con 16, Int 10, Wis 12, Cha 14. This skill increase goes to Survival so that we can become an expert in that, and then take Kneecap as an ancestry feat, letting us hit our foes’ legs to slow them down. With our Fighter Weapon Mastery, we choose polearms to reach master proficiency in.
Gear: +1 striking halberd, coyote cloak, everyneed pack, necklace of knives, predictable silver piece, dull gray aeon stone
LEVEL 6 We can grab the skill feat Quick Jump, allowing us to make jumps as a single action just in case we need to vault over something without Skaarl. Going back to the Cavalier Dedication, we take Impressive Mount, so that Skaarl becomes mature and grows stronger.
Gear: +1 hide armor, +1 striking halberd, demon mask, coyote cloak, necklace of knives, wayfinder
LEVEL 7 By this level, we can increase skills to master level, which we are going to do with Athletics. When it came to general feats, I didn’t feel like a lot of them fit Kled, but Diehard is another of the classic tanky feats.
Gear: ring of the ram, +1 hide armor, moderate rope of climbing, +1 striking halberd, coyote cloak, bracers of missile deflection
LEVEL 8 Powerful Leap is a skill feat that allows us to leap further when we jump. Another grab from our Cavalier Dedication is Incredible Mount, which we use to make Skaarl nimble, since that is a better fit for the faint-hearted lizard over savage. This also gives Skaarl access to his advanced maneuver, Darting Attack, which helps mimic Kled’s Jousting.
Gear: wounding weapon rune, ready armor property rune, ring of the ram, +1 hide armor, +1 striking halberd, demon mask
LEVEL 9 Some might want to do this sooner, but we plug this skill increase into Intimidation to achieve expert proficiency. We can pick up the Bouncy Goblin ancestry feat, which while not entirely appropriate, does help set us up for some other good feats down the line.
Gear: +1 resilient hide armor, wounding weapon rune, boots of bounding, ready armor rune, moderate rope of climbing, +1 striking halberd
LEVEL 10 Another array of boosts, this time going to Strength, Constitution, Intelligence, and Charisma to give us this array: Str 20, Dex 14, Con 18, Int 12, Wis 12, Cha 16. With our increase to Intelligence, we become trained in Society and learn Orcish. Since Kled seems to live in a relatively craggy environment, I like the Combat Climber skill feat for him which makes it easier for him to fight while climbing. Taking Cavalier’s Charge as our class feat from the Cavalier Dedication lets us Strike while Skaarl Strides, helping build towards the idea of his Chaaaaaaaarge!!!
Gear: armbands of athleticism, +1 resilient hide armor, thundering weapon rune, boots of bounding, ring of the ram, +1 striking halberd
LEVEL 11 Another skill increase to Intimidation bumps our proficiency in it up to master. The Fleet general feat makes us a tiny bit faster, helping us get into the fighter faster when Skaarl isn’t with us.
Gear: +2 striking halberd, armbands of athleticism, greater coyote cloak, +1 resilient hide armor, wounding property rune, boots of bounding
LEVEL 12 With Rapid Mantel, we can catch a ledge with Athletics and then pull ourself back up quickly. Finally returning to fighter for our next class feat, Brutal Finish helps capture the feel of the final strike of Violent Tendencies.
Gear: +2 resilient hide armor, +2 striking halberd, greater demon mask, armbands of athleticism, thundering property rune, fire-resistance property rune
LEVEL 13 This skill increase goes back to Survival, increasing it to master proficiency. Since we took Bouncy Goblin, we can now take Unbreakable-er Goblin, an ancestry feat that gives us even more HP.
Gear: +2 greater striking halberd, +2 resilient hide armor, bag of holding (type III), pearlescent pyramid aeon stone, armbands of athleticism, mask of the banshee
LEVEL 14 With our increased Intimidation, we can take the thematically appropriate Battle Cry so that we can Demoralize as part of rolling initiative. With the cavalier’s Specialized Mount feat, we can make Skaarl a racer mount, making the lizard even faster and a little bit tougher.
Gear: greater fearsome property rune, +2 greater striking halberd, fortification property rune, +2 resilient hide armor, greater demon mask, talisman cord
LEVEL 15 We slot these boosts into Strength, Dexterity, Constitution, and Wisdom, giving us this: Str 21, Dex 16, Con 19, Int 12, Wis 14, Cha 16. At 15th level, we can increase our proficiency in Athletics to legendary. Since we have Fleet and a high enough Dex, we can pick up Skitter as our general feat, letting us low crawl swiftly upon our foes.
Gear: +2 greater resilient hide armor, hellfire boots, greater ring of the ram, +2 greater striking halberd, greater ready property rune, bag of holding (type III)
LEVEL 16 As part of making Kled more resilient, we can take Terrifying Resistance so that we have bonuses against saves from those we’ve Demoralized. Continuing with the fear-based things, we can grab Fearsome Brute from our fighter feats so that we deal more damage to frightened targets.
Gear: antimagic property rune, +2 greater resilient hide armor, major ring of fire resistance, hellfire boots, +2 greater striking halberd, pink rhomboid aeon stone
LEVEL 17 Since Kled spends so much time out in the wilds, we’ll put this skill increase towards Nature, so that we’re an expert in it. I think Warfare Lore would also be a fitting choice here, based on what is happening in the campaign. The Reckless Abandon ancestry feat just feels appropriate to Kled and also lets us dive into the fray without too much fear.
Gear: +3 greater striking halberd, antimagic property rune, dragonscale amulet, +2 greater resilient hide armor, hellfire boots, greater ring of the ram
LEVEL 18 I love the idea of Kled roaring long lists of obscenities to foes to send them running, so Terrified Retreat is a must-have as far as I’m concerned. This might seem an odd choice when it comes to class feats - Savage Critical increases the crit range for all our weapons, which is gonna be handy in dishing out big hits.
Gear: belt of giant strength, +3 greater striking halberd, speed property rune, antimagic property rune, +2 greater resilient hide armor, 14th
LEVEL 19 We can get Intimidate to legendary with this skill increase, and if you know these builds, you know what our next skill feat is going to be. Fast Recovery is a general feat that lets us heal well on our own since we’re a crazy little man that lives out in the plains with just a lizard. Not a lot of medicine and stuff out there.
Gear: +3 greater resilient hide armor, belt of giant strength, major insistent door knocker, +3 greater striking halberd, antimagic property rune, dragonscale amulet
LEVEL 20 Our last boosts go to Strength, Dexterity, Constitution, and Charisma, giving us this as our final array: Str 22, Dex 18, Con 20, Int 12, Wis 14, Cha 18. Naturally, our last skill feat is going to be the best of all of them - Scare to Death. It’s ridiculous and I love embracing that. Our final class feat will be Weapon Supremacy, making us permanently quickened though the extra action can only be used for a Strike – which actually kinda works out because then we can actually make four Strikes in a single turn!
Gear: +3 major striking halberd, +3 greater resilient hide armor, greater fortification armor property rune, belt of giant strength, greater talisman cord, dragonscale amulet
CONCLUSION There we are, an insane, diminutive scrapper who fights alongside his reptilian mount. We didn’t get as close as I would like to his Bear Trap on a Rope, but I’m pretty content with the rest of it. When Paizo finally releases some stuff for Pathfinder, it should hopefully be only one or two things that need swapped out to make Kled work. When Kled is using his stand-in for his firearm, I would use Combat Flexibility to grab Parting Shot to copy the effect of it knocking him back. Furious Focus might not be a bad grab with Improved Flexibility.
Thanks for taking the time to check out this build and please let me know what you think. Does this build work? Does it represent the character? What would you change about it? Is it something you’d like to play?
Lemme know what other characters you might like to see and if you’re so inclined, join the blog’s Discord server.
Have a great day!
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