I still have lots of ideas that I want to explore with the inventor and gunslinger, so here's another one off that list! In particular, this let me test out the possibility of a dual-weapon gunslinger and I have to say - I'm not entirely sold on it. Reload slows combat down and having to reload two weapons slows things down even more. I took as many feats that allowed Lucian use his turn as effectively as possible, with stuff like Running Reload and his Raconteur's Reload. 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 Lucian from League of Legends!
LUCIAN, THE PURIFIER
CHARACTER Lucian
SOURCE League of Legends
GOALS
o Lucian is a ranged marksman who dual wields a pair of fantasy firearms that launch bolts of light
o They are represented in his passive, Lightslinger, which allows him to fire an additional shot with his next basic attack after he uses an ability
o Another aspect of his passive empowers his next attacks after he is healed, shielded, or buffed by an ally
o Piercing Light causes Lucian to fire a laser in a line that damages all enemies within that line
o Ardent Blaze has Lucian fire a shot that explodes in a burst, dealing damage and marking enemies. Lucian gains bonus movement speed if he or allies are damage by a marked target
o Lucian’s considerable mobility is achieved through his Relentless Pursuit ability, which allows him to dash in a direction and has its cooldown reduced by landing shots from his Lightslinger
o Finally, Lucian’s ultimate is The Culling in which he fires a barrage in a target direction, dealing damage to the first enemy hit
o In his lore, Lucian was born in Demacia as the son of a Sentinel of Light who longed to follow in his father’s footsteps, but was refused
o When his father died, his apprentice, a woman named Senna, explained the happenings to Lucian and ventured with him to hold a vigil for fallen Sentinels
o They were attacked by wraiths and Lucian took up his father’s weapon, proving his worth to take a place within the Sentinels and becoming Senna’s apprentice
o The two married but the wraith Thresh entrapped Senna’s soul, separating them and driving Lucian to take up her lightslinger in his quest for vengeance
o While they were eventually reunited, Lucian remains dedicated to the eradication of wraiths and all manners of similar horrors
LEVEL 1
Ancestry & Heritage: Skilled Human
o Ability Boosts & Flaws: +Dexterity, +Charisma
o Ancestry Feat: Gloomseer
o Skill Increase: Crafting (trained)
Background: Squire
o Ability Boosts: +Strength, +Dexterity
o Skills: Athletics (trained), Warfare Lore (trained)
o Background Feat: Armor Assist
Class & Subclass: Way of the Pistolero Gunslinger
o Class Ability Boost: +Dexterity
o Skills: Acrobatics (trained), Intimidation (trained), Stealth (trained), Survival (trained)
o Class Feat: Dual-Weapon Reload
Details
o Ability Boosts: +Dexterity, +Strength, +Wisdom, +Charisma (Str 14, Dex 18, Con 10, Int 10, Wis 12, Cha 14)
Lucian was taken on by Senna as her apprentice following the death of Lucian’s father and I sought to reflect that with the squire background even if Armor Assist doesn’t exactly fit the theme of it. The idea behind the Gloomseer ancestry feat is mainly to allow Lucian to fight his enemies that often lurk in the dark. The dive into Crafting from his heritage is to actually help accomplish some of his abilities further down the line. Since Lucian dual wields firearms but isn’t a gunslinger that wants to be in the thick of it or be hiding and shooting from the side, the way of the pistolero seemed the best fit and the slight Intimidation focus matches his intensity. Dual-Weapon Reload mainly helps out in emergency situations when Lucian has to reload in the middle of combat, which is more likely when he is using double-barreled pistols with only four total shots, but might not be as necessary once he gets his dual slide pistols with their 10 total shots. He’ll start off using double-barreled pistols as a pair of slide pistols are slightly out of his starting price range.
LEVEL 2
o Class Feat: Champion Dedication - Paladin
o Skill Feat: Intimidating Glare
o Skill Increase: Religion (trained), Thievery (trained)
o Gear: psychopomp mask
LEVEL 3
o General Feat: Feather Step
o Skill Increase: Intimidation (expert)
o Gear: +1 slide pistol, psychopomp mask, ring of discretion
LEVEL 4
o Class Feat: Paired Shots
o Skill Feat: Alchemical Crafting
o Gear: blazons of shared power, +1 slide pistol, necklace of knives, psychopomp mask
LEVEL 5
o Ability Boosts: +Dexterity, +Constitution, +Wisdom, +Charisma (Str 14, Dex 19, Con 12, Int 10, Wis 14, Cha 16)
o Ancestry Feat: Darkseer
o Skill Increase: Crafting (expert), Religion (expert)
o Gear: +1 striking slide pistol, blazons of shared power, immaculate holsters, necklace of knives, psychopomp mask, ring of discretion
Lucian’s sworn vendetta against the undead and creatures of the Black Mist is covered with his Champion Dedication with his offensive style being a best fit for the paladin cause. Paired Shots is a good early way to capture the feel of the Lightslinger passive, giving him two shots both at the same MAP. There isn’t any fear in Lucian’s kit, but given his way and the personality of the character, the focus into Intimidation with skill increases and feats works well. Meanwhile, Alchemical Crafting gives Lucian the knowhow to make his own ammunition. Finally, Darkseer means that his prey can no longer hide in darkness and his dive into the Religion skill allows him to more readily identify them.
LEVEL 6
o Class Feat: Running Reload
o Skill Feat: Quick Coercion
o Gear: +1 leather armor, +1 striking slide pistol, hunter’s brooch, blazons of shared power, holy steam ball, necklace of knives
LEVEL 7
o General Feat: Fleet
o Skill Increase: Crafting (master)
o Gear: lesser dread armor rune, +1 leather armor, disrupting weapon rune, +1 striking slide pistol, blazons of shared power, immaculate holsters
LEVEL 8
o Class Feat: Champion’s Reaction
o Skill Feat: Magical Crafting
o Gear: boots of bounding, lesser midday lantern, lesser dread armor rune, +1 leather armor, +1 striking slide pistol, hunter’s brooch
LEVEL 9
o Ancestry Feat: Witch Warden
o Skill Increase: Intimidation (master)
o Gear: +1 resilient leather armor, boots of bounding, bag of holding (type II), lesser dread armor rune, disrupting weapon rune, +1 striking slide pistol
LEVEL 10
o Ability Boosts: +Dexterity, +Intelligence, +Wisdom, +Charisma (Str 14, Dex 20, Con 12, Int 12, Wis 16, Cha 18)
o Class Feat: Basic Devotion – Ranged Reprisal
o Skill Feat: Lasting Coercion
o Gear: phylactery of faithfulness, +1 resilient leather armor, lover’s gloves, boots of bounding, lesser dread armor rune, +1 striking slide pistol
Throughout this build, I’ve tried to work in decent mobility for the build with Feather Step and the like, but Running Reload is my main play at achieving Relentless Pursuit, letting Lucian ready himself for another attack even as he repositions. Champion’s Reaction doesn’t start being useful until Lucian gets ahold of Ranged Reprisal, which plays into the effects of his passive when a marked enemy hurts his allies, drawing his ire. As mentioned earlier, there was a reason to taking Crafting and Lucian reaches it upon gaining Magical Crafting. This feat allows him to create magical items and the main things that he’ll be looking at is fairy bullet and meteor shot, which help to achieve the effects of his Ardent Blaze in two separate ways. The former marks the target, making them visible to enemies, and the latter deals damage in an area. It’s worth mentioning at this point that it is worth keeping up both the blazons of shared power and immaculate holsters even if they’re no longer on the list due to level constraints. Both are extremely valuable to him with the blazons copying his runes onto the firearm in his offhand while the holster lets him fully reload his slide pistols once per day. Finally, Witch Warden is designed to reflect Lucian’s rearing in Demacia where there is a prejudice against magic. In particular, the resistance against evil magic, though admittedly those only cast by witches, feels like him learning how to defend against similar effects.
LEVEL 11
o General Feat: Keen Follower
o Skill Increase: Acrobatics (expert)
o Gear: +2 striking slide pistol, lucky draw bandolier, phylactery of faithfulness, +1 resilient leather armor, boots of bounding, bag of holding (type II)
LEVEL 12
o Class Feat: Penetrating Fire
o Skill Feat: Pilgrim’s Token
o Gear: +2 resilient leather armor, +2 striking slide pistol, greater demon mask, phylactery of faithfulness, lover’s gloves, flaming weapon rune
LEVEL 13
o Ancestry Feat: Natural Skill
o Skill Increase: Occultism (trained), Religion (master), Society (trained)
o Gear: +2 greater striking slide pistol, +2 resilient leather armor, greater blazons of shared power, greater demon mask, lucky draw bandolier, phylactery of faithfulness
LEVEL 14
o Class Feat: Dance of Thunder
o Skill Feat: Terrain Stalker -Rubble
o Gear: boots of speed, +2 greater striking slide pistol, brilliant weapon rune, +2 resilient leather armor, greater demon mask, cape of the mountebank
LEVEL 15
o Ability Boosts: +Dexterity, +Constitution, +Wisdom, +Charisma (Str 14, Dex 21, Con 14, Int 12, Wis 18, Cha 19)
o General Feat: Toughness
o Skill Increase: Intimidation (legendary)
o Gear: +2 greater resilient leather armor, boots of speed, bag of holding (type IV), +2 greater striking slide pistol, greater blazons of shared power, holy weapon rune
Penetrating Fire allows Lucian to achieve the effect of his Piercing Light while Dance of Thunder is the closest thing to The Culling, allowing Lucian to Strike and Step three times in a single turn. The idea for picking up Keen Follower is meant to play into his former role as an apprentice to a more experienced Sentinel, Senna. Toughness is just to make the character a little sturdier since Constitution isn’t a big focus for his ability boosts. Meanwhile, Pilgrim’s Token gives Lucian an edge against enemies as quick as he is whereas Terrain Stalker will allow him to creep through ruins that undead like to inhabit slowly but securely.
LEVEL 16
o Class Feat: Two-Weapon Fusillade
o Skill Feat: Scare to Death
o Gear: greater flaming weapon rune, +2 greater resilient leather armor, greater disrupting weapon rune, boots of speed, +2 greater striking slide pistol, brilliant weapon rune
LEVEL 17
o Ancestry Feat: Heroic Presence
o Skill Increase: Religion (legendary)
o Gear: +3 greater striking slide pistol, dragonscale amulet, greater flaming weapon rune, +2 greater resilient leather armor, boots of speed, bag of holding (type IV)
LEVEL 18
o Class Feat: Piercing Critical
o Skill Feat: Battle Cry
o Gear: anklets of alacrity, +3 greater striking slide pistol, speed weapon rune, greater flaming weapon rune, +2 greater resilient leather armor, greater disrupting weapon rune
LEVEL 19
o General Feat: Incredible Scout
o Skill Increase: Crafting (legendary)
o Gear: +3 greater resilient leather armor, anklets of alacrity, greater phylactery of faithfulness, +3 greater striking slide pistol, dragonscale amulet, greater flaming weapon rune
LEVEL 20
o Ability Boosts: +Strength, +Dexterity, +Intelligence, +Charisma (Str 16, Dex 22, Con 14, Int 14, Wis 18, Cha 20)
o Class Feat: Perfect Readiness
o Skill Feat: Group Coercion
o Skill Increase: Thievery (trained)
o Gear: +3 major striking slide pistol, +3 greater resilient leather armor, mercurial mantle, greater phylactery of faithfulness, major crown of the fire eater, greater disrupting weapon rune
Two-Weapon Fusillade is sort of an improvement of Paired Shots but with several differences. Two-Weapon Fusillade lets him pop off two quick shots as a single action, but MAP affects them normally. Paired Shots is two actions but the attacks are made at the same MAP and their damage is added together before applying resistances. Both are good in different circumstances. It’s been a while since I’ve played League much less Lucian, but after a quick check, it looks like he builds crit, making Piercing Critical a good fit, especially with fatal and how firearms work in Pathfinder. Finally, Perfect Readiness helps Lucian’s mobility and gives him the chance to reload an additional time per round. If you guys have been checking out a build for a while, you know I’m never going to pass up on a chance to grab Scare to Death when I can. Meanwhile, Battle Cry is mainly just taking advantage of Lucian’s high Intimidation while also saving on his actions in the first round. Finally, Heroic Presence doesn’t have an effect related to his abilities but does seem like something that’d be appropriate for the current leader of the Sentinels of Light.
CONCLUSION Starting off with the gunslinger class, we already have a gunslinger class that we can have dual wield firearms to capture the basics of his character. The primary aspect of his Lightslinger is accomplished through feats such as Paired Shots or Two-Weapon Fusillade but there’s no real way to accomplish the Vigilance part of the passive. Piercing Light is covered by Penetrating Fire, Running Reload and the other mobility built into his kit meets the effects of Relentless Pursuit, and the multi-shots of Dance of Thunder is the closest thing I can figure for The Culling while wielding firearms. However, his Ardent Blaze ability is the hardest to capture and the only way I could figure out to do it was with equipment – fairy bullet and meteor shot. I made sure that Lucian could build these items with his skills and Magical Crafting. In regards to his lore, I feel like Witch Warden is a nice little shoutout to the antimagic beliefs of Demacia while squire is the closest I could find to him being taken in as an apprentice of an order like the Sentinels of Light. His champion archetype does a good job of capturing that though I really struggled with not taking the Shining Oath champion feat to really sell it.
Be sure to lemme know what you think of the build!
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 is a character who is equal parts monstrous and mechanical, consumed by a robotic rage.
Have a fantastic Friday!
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