Full Build Friday - Largo the Bard Monk [Awakened Animal Bard]

This was a request that came across my desk that I thought I should give a try. I've done a few DotA builds before, but it hasn't become a staple series to draw upon because a lot of the characters feel like they have rather incongruous abilities. That wasn't as much the case with the tympanic toad here, so I thought I'd take a crack at him. As always, this build is conceptualized entirely in a vacuum, with choices made in my best attempt to fit the character. These choices may not hold up in a campaign with different themes and should be adjusted accordingly.

This is the last FBF that will be posted on the blog! We are moving over to the Patreon, and you can also always find the videos over on YouTube.

Check out this tasty lick for Largo the Bard Monk from Defense of the Ancients!

LARGO, THE BARD MONK

SOURCE DotA 2

BUILD GOALS

o    A Murkroot of Velu’Mar, Largo is a toad man who grew up on a living island that could only speak in song

o    He was raised as a shamanic bard and now roams the world with a troupe of frogling disciples

o    He is a melee character that fights with his guitar, but he serves as a support character that disables his enemies

o    His Encore passive extends the duration of buffs that he applies to himself or his team

o    Catchy Lick snaps his tongue out, pulling the target towards him while applying a dispel to them

o    The froglings come into play with Frogstomp where he tosses them to an area where they proceed to deal damage and slow enemies in the area, briefly stunning them

o    Croak of Genius reduces the mana costs of target hero and also causes their attacks to deal persistent damage

o    Upon activating Amphibian Rhapsody, Largo’s abilities are replaced with Bullbelly Blitz to enhance damage, Hotfeet Hustle to increase speed, and Island Elixir to heal his allies

o    Normally, he can only play one of these effects at a time, but he can purchase an upgrade to add two effects at once

Summary of Goals: Largo is meant to be a rather hardy sort, but the bigger component of the characters will be the buffs that he applies to his teams and allies. I’ll want to incorporate his tongue as something that he can make use of and it would be interesting to work in the froglings. At the very least, if I can’t include them since they’re only involved in a single ability, I still need a damaging area effect that can slow or at least disrupt foes.

LEVEL 1 

Ancestry & Heritage: Swimming Awakened Animal (Water-Dwelling)

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

o    Ancestry Feat: Awakened Magic

o    Animal Attack: Tongue (1d6 Bludgeoning; finesse, unarmed)

Background: Animal Whisperer

o    Ability Boosts: +Charisma, +Strength

o    Skill Increase: Nature (T), Swamp Lore (T)

o    Background Feat: Train Animal

Class & Subclass: Maestro Muse Bard

o    Class Ability Boost: +Charisma

o    Skill Increase: Acrobatics (T), Athletics (T), Diplomacy (T), Occultism (T), Performance (T), Survival (T)

o    Spell Repertoire: Cantrip – bullhorn, haunting hymn, musical accompaniment, summon instrument; 1^st – echoing weapon, concordant choir, soothe*

o    Gear: battle lute

Details

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

Starting off the build, I felt like the tripkee wasn’t quite the right size to represent Largo and I felt like that was actually important to potentially differentiate him from his frogling friends. So what I ended up doing is using the awakened animal ancestry and figured that Largo was an awakened giant frog or giant toad, giving him a Medium size. Either way you go for that, he should likely have the swimming heritage with the water-dwelling specification to cover his amphibious nature. Naturally, our toad has to have a tongue attack, which will set us up for some other aspects in a level or two. He takes Awakened Magic as his ancestry feat, and I’d look for something innocuous and generally useful that doesn’t rely on a save. Rousing splash is a solid option, but if you don’t have another caster in the party, picking up a read magic could be handy in identifying magical items. With this whole idea that he comes from a culture that sings to their island, I wanted a background that provided Largo with the Nature skill. None quite speak to the land, but animal whisperer plays into that idea and while I suspect that the froglings are meant to be more than mere animals, Largo could use the Train Animal this provides to add the Perform actions to the creatures he teaches. The easiest choice for this entire build was the use of the bard class and given his passive extending the duration of the buffs that he grants, he obviously had to be a maestro muse bard to gain the Lingering Composition feat and its related focus spell.

Along with that, the bard also provides us with courageous anthem, which can provide us with the damage increasing effects of his Amphibian Rhapsody – Bullbelly Blitz. For thematics, I’d lean into the more musical spells with the likes of bullhorn, haunting hymn, musical accompaniment, and summon instrument. We can get some slightly more useful options with his first-rank spells, which automatically comes with soothe so that he has some healing but can also feature echoing weapon and concordant choir. The second of these is just a standard sonic effect, but the former might somewhat represent aftershock effects of Croak of Genius. I do think persistent damage is a better representation for this effect, but I think this works as an initial effort.

Level 1 Largo, Page 1

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LEVEL 2

o    Class Feat: Thlipit Contestant Dedication

o    Skill Feat: Impressive Performance

o    Gear: mudlily

LEVEL 3

o    General Feat: Toughness

o    Skill Increase: Performance (E)

o    Spell Repertoire: 2^nd – dispel magic*, noise blast

o    Gear: +1 battle lute, mudlily, ring of discretion

LEVEL 4

o    Class Feat: Lassoing Lash

o    Skill Feat: Titan Wrestler

o    Gear: persona mask, +1 battle lute, trusty helmet, mudlily

LEVEL 5

o    Ability Boosts: +Strength, +Dexterity, +Constitution, +Charisma (Str +3, Dex +2, Con +2, Int +0, Wis +1, Cha +4.5)

o    Ancestry Feat: Natural Ambassador

o    Skill Increase: Athletics (E)

o    Spell Repertoire: 3^rd – horde of underlings*

o    Gear: +1 striking battle lute, persona mask, broken tusk pendant, trusty helmet, mudlily, ring of discretion

This level is almost all about recreating Catchy Lick though it’s not something he’ll be able to squeeze into a single turn. Since we have the tongue as a giant toad, Largo lands the Thlipit Contestant Dedication, which leads directly into Lassoing Lash. This is a pretty perfect representation of what Catchy Lick does at first glance, but to really complete it, we also need its dispelling effect. Fortunately for us, this block also features dispel magic for us to signature, though it does compete with noise blast at the same rank, which I think is a decent representation for his Frogstomp with the stunned 1 it inflicts on a critical failure. You could also go for a horde of underlings for Frogstomp to cover the more damaging effects as well as the slowing field they create – by virtue of being difficult terrain for others to move through. I do want to fit in what Performance feats I can for Largo, starting with Impressive Performance, but I want to slip in Titan Wrestler as well so that Largo can get more use out of his Lassoing Lash. Outside of that, Largo is described as decently durable, including the playing of his Amphibian Rhapsody increasing his armor, and so I’ll be relying on general feats like Toughness for that. I opted to take Natural Ambassador for his ancestry feat, figuring that this plays into his ability to communicate with the natural world as described in the brief snippet of his lore.

LEVEL 6

o    Class Feat: Hymn of Healing

o    Skill Feat: Virtuosic Performer – Strings

o    Gear: +1 studded leather, +1 striking battle lute, entertainer’s lute, persona mask, necklace of knives, trusty helmet

LEVEL 7

o    General Feat: Diehard

o    Skill Increase: Performance (M)

o    Spell Repertoire: 4^th – implement of destruction*, pest swarm

o    Gear: lesser grub globes, +1 studded leather, resonating fork, +1 striking battle lute, persona mask, broken tusk pendant

LEVEL 8

o    Class Feat: Triple Time

o    Skill Feat: Inflame Crowd

o    Gear: greater resonating fork, crown of the companion, lesser grub globes, +1 studded leather, +1 striking battle lute, entertainer’s lute

LEVEL 9

o    Ancestry Feat: Animal Summoner

o    Skill Increase: Athletics (M)

o    Spell Repertoire: 5^th – noise blast*, stagnate time

o    Gear: +1 resilient studded leather, boots of bounding, greater resonating fork, lesser grub globes, wand of continuation (1^st-rank), +1 striking battle lute

LEVEL 10

o    Ability Boosts: +Strength, +Dexterity, +Wisdom, +Charisma (Str +4, Dex +3, Con +2, Int +0, Wis +2, Cha +5)

o    Class Feat: Fortissimo Composition

o    Skill Feat: Distracting Performance

o    Gear: wand of thundering echoes (3^rd-rank), +1 resilient studded leather, greater entertainer’s lute, greater resonating fork, lesser grub globes, +1 striking battle lute

Largo can finish out the other ally-buffing aspects of his Amphibian Rhapsody with Hymn of Healing standing in for Island Elixir and Triple Time covering his Hotfeet Hustle. I also wanted to work in Fortissimo Composition, but I’m a little on the fence about it. My idea was that this overall enhances his buffs, making the damage increase from courageous anthem just a bit more noticeable and enhancing the feel of his Bullbelly Blitz. Notably, this can’t be used in conjunction with lingering composition and so I do want to advise a different option if you’re not feeling this one in the form of Rallying Anthem. The reason that I didn’t baseline take this feat is because the protection provided by Amphibian Rhapsody is exclusive to Largo and this isn’t quite that feat. We do stick with Performance feats for this whole block, Virtuosic Performer for the strings being an obvious pick-up whereas Inflame Crowd builds out of his Impressive Performance and lets him further replace his Diplomacy skill. Meanwhile, Distracting Performance starts stepping on the toes of Deception but expands the options of it, letting Largo allow an ally become hidden, which does fit in with his support style. I went for Diehard simply to make Largo a bit more capable of surviving contact with the enemy. The last of the feats for this level is Animal Summoner, which we could use to summon the froglings and I actually have a specific concept for that after we’ve gained a few levels.

As for the spells this level, implement of destruction is a notable callout as it has the ability to inflict persistent mental damage to better befit the DoT provided by his Croak of Genius. There’s also an incarnate spell I like here by the name of pest swarm. It doesn’t heighten, but comes with very adaptable effects that feature damage and debuffs to disrupt enemies. One aspect I appreciate about it is that many of its effects require Reflex saves, which can be a little hard to find on the occult spell list. I favor the rats for this effect because it’s actually a good way to cover Frogstomp. They deal initial damage but upon departing, they can knock a creature prone (giving us a sort of micro-stun) and turning the area they left into difficult terrain, meaning that it will also slow enemies. There’s also just stagnate time as another means of creating a slowing area.

Level 10 Largo, Page 1

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LEVEL 11

o    General Feat: Robust Health

o    Skill Increase: Performance (E)

o    Gear: +2 striking battle lute, armbands of athleticism, greater persona mask, +1 resilient studded leather, boots of bounding, greater resonating fork

LEVEL 12

o    Class Feat: Harmonize

o    Skill Feat: Quick Jump

o    Gear: +2 resilient studded leather, +2 striking battle lute, entertainer’s cincture, wand of thundering echoes (3^rd-rank), thundering weapon rune, greater entertainer’s lute

LEVEL 13

o    Ancestry Feat: Natural Senses (Low-Light Vision)

o    Skill Increase: Nature (M)

o    Spell Repertoire: 7^th – curse of the spirit orchestra, haste, vibrant vibrato*

o    Gear: +2 greater striking battle lute, +2 resilient studded leather, wand of thundering echoes (4^th-level), charlatan’s cape, armbands of athleticism, greater persona mask

LEVEL 14

o    Class Feat: Rallying Anthem

o    Skill Feat: Powerful Leap

o    Gear: propulsive boots, +2 greater striking battle lute, major entertainer’s lute, +2 resilient studded leather, entertainer’s cincture, charlatan’s cape

LEVEL 15

o    Ability Boosts: +Strength, +Constitution, +Wisdom, +Charisma (Str +4.5, Dex +3, Con +3, Int +0, Wis +3, Cha +5.5)

o    General Feat: Fleet

o    Skill Increase: Performance (L)

o    Spell Repertoire: 8^th – musical shift, uncontrollable dance*

o    Gear: +2 greater resilient studded leather, propulsive boots, wand of thundering echoes (5^th-level), +2 greater striking battle lute, accompaniment cloak, wand of thundering echoes (4^th-level)

We do have another spellshape effect for this block, which can’t be used alongside Lingering Composition, but Harmonize is based off of an upgrade that Largo can get that allows him to activate two effects of his Amphibian Rhapsody at once. I did then decide to go for Rallying Anthem here, allowing Largo to enhance his own chances of survival while also happening to bolster his allies as well. If you already took it earlier, I’d dip into his archetype once more to gain a Slingshot Maneuver since Catchy Lick does also let him move his allies around. For his skill feats, we do lean a bit more into his nature as a toad man this time because fret-flicking frog should probably have Quick Jump and Powerful Leap, which is further enhanced by Fleet at this level. Maybe I should have taken Fleet earlier, but I was a little more focused on getting the classic suite of durability-enhancing general feats, such as Robust Health from this block as well. I did admittedly start running low on awakened animal feats that stood out to me, and I couldn’t do Adopted Ancestry into tripkee because the feats I wanted from it were heritage-gated, so I landed on Natural Senses for low-light vision as it is a very handy pick-up.

I don’t have too much to talk about when it comes to spells, but one thing of note outside of the new ranks of spells is his Animal Summons. By thirteenth level, it is automatically heightening to 7^th-rank, which would allow him to summon level 9 or lower creatures. This could allow him to call forth a concert frog, a creature that seems almost custom-made to serve as accompaniment for him. One neat aspect is that you don’t have to use the concert frog as a combatant. Instead, you could have it sit back and provide two of its three buffs with Conduct whenever Largo Sustains the spell that called it forth. In addition to that, this block has seventh rank spells where curse of the spirit orchestra and vibrant vibrato give some great flavor but a heightened haste allows him to quicken his whole team for a full minute. Musical shift is another fantastically flavorful option that simultaneously buffs allies and debilitates foes. Honestly, it even gives us another way to represent the persistent damage of his Croak of Genius through the sharp key signature option.

LEVEL 16

o    Class Feat: Powerful Lash

o    Skill Feat: Legendary Performer

o    Gear: wand of thundering echoes (6^th-level), +2 greater resilient studded leather, greater primeval mistletoe, propulsive boots, +2 greater striking battle lute, major entertainer’s lute

LEVEL 17

o    Ancestry Feat: Fearsome Form

o    Skill Increase: Athletics (L)

o    Spell Repertoire: 9^th – unfathomable song

o    Gear: +3 greater striking battle lute, greater thundering weapon rune, wand of thundering echoes (6^th-level), +2 greater resilient studded leather, wand of thundering echoes (5^th-level), propulsive boots

LEVEL 18

o    Class Feat: Eternal Composition

o    Skill Feat: Cloud Jump

o    Gear: troubadour’s cap, +3 greater striking battle lute, fiddle of the maestro, wand of thundering echoes (6^th-level), +2 greater resilient studded leather, greater primeval mistletoe

LEVEL 19

o    General Feat: A Home in Every Port

o    Skill Increase: Nature (L)

o    Spell Repertoire: 10^th – shadow army

o    Gear: +3 greater resilient studded leather, troubadour’s cap, greater armbands of athleticism, +3 greater striking battle lute, greater thundering weapon rune, wand of thundering echoes (6^th-level)

LEVEL 20

o    Ability Boosts: +Strength, +Constitution, +Wisdom, +Charisma (Str +5, Dex +3, Con +4, Int +0, Wis +4, Cha +6)

o    Class Feat: Discordant Voice

o    Skill Feat: Consult the Spirits (Nature)

o    Gear: +3 major striking battle lute, +3 greater resilient studded leather, mask of allure, greater armbands of athleticism, fiddle of the maestro, amplifying aeon stone

Honestly, this is coming in pretty late, but Powerful Lash could enhance the lash attack that Largo gained from his Thlipit Contestant archetype, simply enhancing it as an option and giving it damage on par with his tongue. I do actually think this is misprinted as it has an action icon associated with it but doesn’t actually describe taking any action. Another option you could consider is Allegro, but I do feel like a seventh-rank haste is almost better given its duration and ability to affect multiple allies at once. However, there could be a point in taking that instead when his eighteenth level class feat is Eternal Composition. This greatly helps his action economy as it will let Largo do something like Harmonize into a Courageous Anthem, adding in a Rallying Anthem or Triple Time, and then Sustaining a spell or moving as needed. Finally, to further exemplify the damage boost of Amphibian Rhapsody’s Bullbelly Blitz, I close out the build on Discordant Voice, allowing Largo to add sonic damage to all the attacks of his allies. The 1d6 might not seem like much, but there is little that is immune much less resistant to sonic damage and it’s a nice little bonus on those critical hits. On the topic of discordance, his skill feats are a little scattered this block. Legendary Performer is obvious for this maestro and I added in Cloud Jump given his froggy nature, but Consult the Spirits reaches all the way back to his lore that establishes his people communicating with their living island. I couldn’t quite find a way for him to do so through Performance, but I think this still works with that concept as a whole. His nature as a renowned performer does lend itself able to A Home in Every Port and it also fits in with his wandering habits.

I listed two spells for this block. Unfathomable song is just another musical, magical effect, but shadow army is something I hadn’t really considered until I realized that it could work for his Frogstomp since you can choose to have the army inflict slowed 1 in their area.

Level 20 Largo, Page 1

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FREE ARCHETYPE SUGGESTIONS: You could possibly expand further on Thlipit Contestant in a free archetype game. I mentioned Slingshot Maneuver up above and Snap Falling Fruit does provide him with some more protection, but outside of that, you’re looking at options that don’t fit him quite as well. A druid archetype could let him explore his connection to the natural world some more, or he could go into a Celebrity Dedication and lean more into his performer aspects. Operatic Adventurer would save him a few skill increases that he could use to explore some other ideas and Perfect Pitch gives him another spellshape that could increase the range of some of his spells. Primadonna is also a fun effect for the team though one I’d wait to use until it’s hard for an enemy to get at you.

BUILD CONCLUSION

Largo the Bard Monk is a swimmer awakened animal bard with a maestro muse and a background as an animal whisperer. This is meant to lean into the idea of he and his people communicating with their living island, but I think the very late Consult the Spirits for Nature might be even a better way of representing that. I couldn’t quite cover Largo’s frogling disciples wholly, but you could easily imagine them being part of the concert frog he calls forth through Animal Summoner. With the battle lute as his weapon, he’s ready to rock on stage or in a brawl while the bard gives him the support options that he needs. His maestro muse as a bard provides him with Lingering Composition, giving him a way to extend the duration of the buffs that he applies as long as those buffs are his compositions. To represent his Catchy Lick, we need two things. The Lassoing Lash from the Thlipit Contestant Dedication will let him pull people in, but for the dispelling aspect, we’ll go ahead and signature the dispel magic spell. With us lacking the froglings, I at least tried to recreate the effects of Frogstomp and honestly, we’ve got a good range of options for it. Noise blast inflicts damage and can leave a foe stunned on a critical failure while pest swarm fits the idea of calling forth creatures that deal damage, can limit actions by knocking enemies prone, and leave behind difficult terrain that’s harder to move through, effectively slowing them. I will admit, Croak of Genius presents another tough aspect as mana doesn’t really figure into Pathfinder, but I was able to represent the persistent damage it inflicts through the likes of echoing weapon, implement of destruction, or even a musical shift. That just leaves us with Amphibian Rhapsody and with that having three different aspects, we need three different effects. Courageous anthem, especially once Largo gets Discordant Voice, fits in for Bullbelly Blitz, a heightened haste or just triple time gives the speed boost of Hotfeet Hustle, and then a hymn of healing provides the restoration of his Island Elixir. We can even capture the upgraded Amphibian Rhapsody with Harmonize allowing him to combine two of these effects together, weaving a devastating array of buffs to bring down the house.

This traveling toad and his tadpole twerps trade toe-tapping, terpsichorean tunes for a terrific tango that targets troublemakers and touches up his team to their tantamount top.

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

A special notice - this will be the last Monster Monday that I post here. The site will remain up for looking through things, but we're moving fully over to the Patreon, so you should check it out! 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. I'm gonna take a croak at a really hopping build next week!

Have a fantastic Friday!