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 Link from Legend of Zelda. This particular iteration is going to be based off of the Link from Ocarina of Time.
CHARACTER Link
SOURCE Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time
GOAL This is quite an undertaking – Link wields a wide array of weapons and tactics, including magic. His primary weapon is a sword accompanied by a shield, but he also makes use of a bow, bombs, and even a magical instrument. I am going to try to capture his character the best I can, but it might be difficult to get it all. As the bearer of the Triforce of Courage, Link should be a particularly courageous character though that often comes down more to roleplay than gameplay. Given that he comes from an RPG, it can be hard to settle on an exact route to take for the character, so I’m also going to try to spread out his skills to cover that idea while still being functional.
LEVEL 1 The first step in building a character is going through our ABCs – ancestry, background, and class. Despite his elfin feature, Link’s ancestry seems closer to human and one with the skilled heritage is gonna help us build up the vast array of skills the character needs. Our skill from our heritage will be Crafting, granting us the trained proficiency in it. Our free boosts for human will be Strength and Dexterity. We’re also going to pick up Natural Skill to get trained proficiency in Performance and Stealth.
There were a couple of things I was looking at for background, but given that this version of Link was raised by the kokiri, who largely seem to rely on horticulture, I decided on farmer. The first boost is going to Constitution while the free boost will go to Wisdom. It gives us training in Athletics and Farming Lore as well as Assurance (Athletics).
Depending on how you play Link, I could see the argument of making him different classes, but I think the best choice for Link is fighter, giving us a boost to Strength. Our next four boosts are going to Strength, Dexterity, Wisdom, and Charisma, leaving us with this array: Str 16, Dex 14, Con 12, Int 10, Wis 14, Cha 12. We only become trained in three skills, so we’re going to pick Diplomacy, Society, and Survival. Then we get a single fighter feat, which we’re going to use it to gain Exacting Strike, letting us make a Strike that doesn't add to our multiple attack penalty if it misses.
LEVEL 2 Two feats – one skill and one class. With the former, we can take Alchemical Crafting, allowing us to make bombs. I think the argument could be made to go into Alchemist Dedication, but I feel like this covers Link’s use of bombs and the like. We’re going to gain four formulas: lesser alchemist’s fire, minor elixir of life, and two others that are dealer’s choice. Our class feat will be Lunge, reflecting Link’s leap attack, and allowing us to increase the range of our attacks.
Gear: ring of discretion
LEVEL 3 This first skill increase will go towards Athletics, allowing us to gain expert proficiency in it. The Untrained Improvisation general feat lets us use skills we’re untrained with greater ease and capability.
Gear: +1 longsword, ring of discretion, everburning torch
LEVEL 4 Our skill feat will let us nab Survey Wildlife, allowing us to identify creatures that dwell in various habitats. The fighter feat is a harder choice with the top two contenders being Swipe or Double Shot – and I’m going to go for Swipe to represent Link’s sweeping sword strikes.
Gear: maestro’s instrument, +1 longsword, +1 longbow, everburning torch
LEVEL 5 The four boosts at this level is going to go to Dexterity, Constitution, Intelligence, and Charsima, giving us this array: Str 16, Dex 16, Con 14, Int 12, Wis 14, Cha 14. The increase in Intelligence lets us gain the trained proficiency in Nature and gives us the Sylvan language. Then we’re going to put our skill increase towards Acrobatics to become expert proficiency in it. For our fighter weapon mastery, we’re going to pick sword, giving us master proficiency in such weapons. We receive an ancestry feat, which is going to lead us to pick up Natural Ambition so that we can than get another fighter feat – Point-Blank Shot. This lets us use our bow with greater proficiency, ignoring the volley trait while in the stance.
Gear: minor sturdy shield, lesser maestro’s instrument, +1 longsword, +1 longbow, ring of discretion, everburning torch
LEVEL 6 With a skill feat, we can pick up Quick Swim, which is pretty basic – it lets us move faster when we Swim. We also get a class skill that we’re going to backtrack a bit to pick up Shielded Stride, allowing us to move slowly without triggering reactions while we have our shield raised.
Gear: +1 studded leather armor, minor sturdy shield, +1 striking longsword, lesser maestro’s instrument, +1 longbow, everburning torch
LEVEL 7 We can finally increase skills up to master proficiency, so we’re going to do just that with Athletics. Link is able to carry a wide array of gear and equipment, able to pull out whatever he needs for a situation, so we’re going to pick up Prescient Planner, which lets us do just that.
Gear: traveler’s any-tool, +1 studded leather armor, +1 striking longsword, minor sturdy shield, lesser maestro’s instrument, +1 composite longbow
LEVEL 8 There’s a few options available to Link in part based off of how somebody would play the character or the gear you use, but I think the best option here is Quick Repair, so that we can fix our shields. With the fighter feat, I looked through a few before selecting Resounding Bravery, giving us bonuses when we critically succeed on a Will and also represents the Triforce of Courage.
Gear: lesser sturdy shield, ring of fire resistance, traveler’s any-tool, +1 studded leather armor, +1 striking longsword, +1 striking longbow
LEVEL 9 To diversify our skill options a little bit, we’re going to take this increase to Stealth, getting up to expert proficiency. We receive an ancestry feat, which we will use to take Multitalented and then pick up a Bard Dedication, giving us access to some magical effects linked to music from our ocarina.
Spells: guidance, know direction
Gear: +1 resilient studded leather armor, lesser sturdy shield, boots of bounding, traveler’s any-tool, +1 striking longbow, +1 striking longsword
LEVEL 10 Another four set of boosts that we are going to run through Strength, Dexterity, Constitution, and Wisdom. This gives us an array of: Str 18, Dex 18, Con 16, Int 12, Wis 16, Cha 14. In a similar vein to Quick Swim, we’re also going to take Quick Climb. We can take Basic Bard Spellcasting, giving us a spell slot for 1st, 2nd, and 3rd level spells which also grants us a spell in our repertoire for each of those levels.
Spells: endure, faerie fire, haste
Gear: armbands of athleticism, +1 resilient studded leather armor, bag of holding (type II), lesser sturdy shield, +1 striking longbow, +1 striking longsword
LEVEL 11 We’re going to slot the next skill increase towards Diplomacy because even though Link never speaks, he sure gets a lot of folks to like him. This is going to make us an expert in Diplomacy. Building off of Prescient Planner, we can now grab Prescient Consumable, increasing the range of things we can pull out of our pack for different situations.
Gear: +2 striking longsword, eyes of the eagle, armbands of athleticism, +1 resilient studded leather armor, lesser sturdy shield, +1 striking composite longbow
LEVEL 12 We’ll take Cat Fall as our skill feat, allowing us to effectively reduce damage from falling. Then we grab Inspirational Performance from our bard dedication to gain the inspire courage composition cantrip, letting us spend an action to bolster the courage and offensive capabilities of ourself and allies.
Gear: +2 resilient studded leather armor, +2 striking longsword, +2 striking composite longbow, armbands of athleticism, bag of holding (type II), lesser sturdy shield
LEVEL 13 We get a skill increase that we are going to put towards Crafting, making us a master in it and making it easier for us to craft or fix various items. For our ancestry feat, we take one appropriate for a hero that won’t back in the face of adversity even when exhausted – Stubborn Persistence, which essentially lets us try to ignore the fatigued condition.
Gear: +2 greater striking longsword, +2 resilient studded leather armor, moderate sturdy shield, +2 striking composite longbow, armbands of athleticism, eyes of the eagle
LEVEL 14 With this skill feat, we grab Magical Crafting to let us make a magical items as long as we learn the formula. There’s a good variety of options available, but I don’t think listing the variety of stuff we would initially take is important. What is important is learning formulas for different types of ammunition and the like to emulate his different arrows. I know they’re usually found around the environment, but they can be harder in certain adventures. For our class feat, we grab Whirlwind Strike to replicate Link’s spin attack, attacking every enemy around us as a 3-action activity. This isn’t always going to be effective depending on the circumstances, but feels fitting for the character.
Gear: greater sturdy shield, +2 greater striking longsword, +2 greater striking composite longbow, +2 resilient studded leather armor, daredevil boots, moderate maestro’s instrument
LEVEL 15 We receive four boosts that we will put towards Strength, Dexterity, Wisdom, and Charisma to leave us at this array: Str 19, Dex 19, Con 16, Int 12, Wis 18, Cha 16. Our skill increase goes to Athletics since we’re now able to achieve legendary proficiency, which is where we’re going to end at. We also receive a general feat and it might be a bit late, but we just took the time getting the heart containers so that we could get Toughness, bumping up our HP.
Gear: +2 greater resilient studded leather armor, greater sturdy shield, +2 greater striking longsword, +2 greater striking composite longbow, bag of holding (type III), greater goggles of night
LEVEL 16 With this level’s skill feat, we grab Group Impression, allowing us to use our heroic nature and charisma to impress multiple people at once. While we have a bow for using against ranged foes, we still favor our longsword, so we’re going to take Felling Strike. This lets us make an attack against a flying target in an attempt to bring them down.
Gear: dragonscale amulet, +2 greater resilient studded leather armor, greater boots of bounding, greater sturdy shield, +2 greater striking longsword, +2 greater striking composite longbow
LEVEL 17 As we enter into the home stretch of the build, we choose to apply this skill increase to Stealth, achieving master proficiency in it. While not exactly appropriate or reflective of Link’s abilities, the Heroic Presence ancestry feat feels like a good fit for the Hero of Time.
Gear: +3 greater striking longsword, reforging shield, dragonscale amulet, +2 greater resilient studded leather, bag of holding (type IV), +2 greater striking composite longbow
LEVEL 18 I like diversifying Link’s builds because there’s different ways to play, so while it doesn’t exactly make sense, I like taking Swift Sneak here, allowing us to Sneak at full speed. We’re gonna reach back a bit to take Spring Attack as our class feat, improving our action economy as we can Stride and then Strike as a single action as long as we start next to an enemy.
Gear: belt of giant strength, +3 greater striking longsword, +3 greater striking composite longbow, reforging shield, +2 greater resilient studded leather armor, greater boots of bounding
LEVEL 19 There’s a couple of ways to go here although it is admittedly a little late in the build, but we’re going to bump our proficiency in Acrobatics up to master. Then we also get our last general feat, which will be Canny Acumen (Will), which increases our proficiency in Will to master. By increasing the bonus to Will, we become more resilient to fear and other mental effects, hopefully getting more use out of Resounding Bravery.
Gear: +3 greater resilient studded leather armor, belt of giant strength, +3 greater striking longsword, +3 greater striking composite longbow, reforging shield, dragonscale amulet
LEVEL 20 At the end of it all, we’re going to slot the last set of bonuses in Strength, Dexterity, Intelligence, and Charisma leaving us with this as our final array: Str 20, Dex 20, Con 16, Int 14, Wis 18, Cha 18. With this increased Intelligence, we’re going to learn the Celestial language and then become trained in Religion since we are the avatar of a deity. Our last skill feat is going to be Kip Up, which we can take because of last level’s Acrobatics increase. This feat lets us stand up as a free action without provoking any reactions, further improving our action economy. Then to get even better, our final class feat is going to be Weapon Supremacy. This fun little feat makes us permanently quickened, but the extra action can only be used to Strike.
Gear: +3 major striking longsword, +3 greater resilient studded leather armor, greater maestro’s instrument, belt of giant strength, +3 greater striking composite longbow, major sturdy shield
CONCLUSION And there we go! We have completed the build for Zelda from the classic game series Legend of Zelda. I tried to make a character that can wield a wide array of weapons and other tools, making them when unable to find them. I tried focusing on abilities and effects built around bravery and courage, but I do feel like I somewhat missed out on not taking the blessed one archetype, but while thematically it makes sense, it isn’t a great fit mechanically.
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 at the following link: https://discord.gg/W4THAs5
Have a great day!
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