Had this request for a build a while back and finally got around to stat it up. I had to do a bit more research than normal as I was completely unfamiliar with this character though this isn't the first time I've done a build from the Fate series. It ended up being an interesting build with a fun focus on combat maneuvers and manipulating the battlefield while still putting out decent damage. It's worth noting that this build and the gear for it is picked in a vacuum without consideration for what adventure it may be in, so certain options might be better in specific situations.
With that out of the way, let's get into the build for Mordred from the Fate series!
MORDRED, SABER OF RED
CHARACTER Mordred
SOURCE Fate
GOAL Made by Morgana Le Fay through magical means, Mordred is a spawn between her and Artoria. She was raised to one day join the Knights of the Round Table and was eventually given a place there though she desired more after discovering her heritage. This ultimately led her into conflict with Artoria even as she wanted to be respected and liked by her. In the Fate game, she is a Saber class, which includes agile and powerful melee warriors that are adept at swordsmanship and boast high rating in all their categories. Mordred is a heavily armored combatant who has a varying grip on her heavy sword, but is a savage, almost feral fighter who relies on her instinct during battle and isn’t afraid to use unconventional methods. Her skills include Magic Resistance (B Rank), Riding (B Rank), Instinct (B Rank), Mana Burst (A Rank), Battle Continuation (B Rank), and Charisma (C- Rank). She is able to wield crimson lightning through her sword and can unleash it in a blast with her Noble Phantasm.
LEVEL 1 We’ll start as the same place we always do with our ABCs – our ancestry, background, and class. The subject of Mordred’s birth is certainly a complicated one and I was struggling how best to express her sort of unnatural nature. I had initially considered fleshwarp, but the rest of the build worked better by building Mordred as a half-orc human. This gives us two free boosts, one for Strength and one for Constitution, as well as the Orc Ferocity ancestry feat to reflect her Battle Continuation ability and the part of her story talking about how she still struck out at Artoria even after being fatally wounded.
As with the ancestry, there’s a few ways you could go for Mordred depending on what aspect of her you wanted to play up. I settled on martial disciple because it suggests more regimented training to me over something like warrior, and that idea is a better fit for one who trained to be a knight. Her first boost will go to Strength while the second and free boost will bolster our Charisma. We’ll start out trained in Athletics, which means we’ll get Quick Jump for our skill feat, and Warfare Lore.
We kicked around what class Mordred should be over in the Monster Monday Discord a bunch. We considered barbarian, champion, and several combinations thereof before I settled on fighter. I landed on this option over others because it grants her access to heavy armor without tying her into an alignment and its feats, and Combat Flexibility class feature, help evoke that sort of highly adaptable, somewhat dirty fighting style she employs. We’ll take our automatic ability boost to Strength and then assign our four free boosts to Strength, Dexterity, Constitution, and Charisma (Str 18, Dex 12, Con 14, Int 10, Wis 10, Cha 14). We have our choice of being automatically trained in Acrobatics and Athletics, but since our background already gave us the latter, we’ll go ahead and pick up the former. We’ll also become trained in Diplomacy, Intimidation, and Society. As our main weapon will be a bastard sword, which we can wield in one or two hands, I’m going to start with Snagging Strike for Mordred’s first class feat, allowing her to push foes off balance and leave them open for a heavier blow.
LEVEL 2 In my first run-through of this build, I took a different background and had Quick Jump here as our first skill feat, but with the change, I decided to take Hefty Hauler since Mordred has to lug around all that armor and heavy gear. I’ve mentioned before how I like taking archetypes on the fighter chassis because Combat Flexibility really helps you feel like you aren’t missing out on as much stuff from it. The archetype for this build will be the Barbarian Dedication with the Superstition Instinct to reflect her high Magic Resistance and will also make us trained in Nature.
Gear: everburning torch
LEVEL 3 This level’s skill increase will grant Mordred expert proficiency in Athletics so that she can push people around with greater proficiency. For her general feat, we’ll pick up Ride mostly just to cover the fact that she has that ability though I’m still not sure what it does in her home game.
Gear: +1 bastard sword, everburning torch, genealogy mask
LEVEL 4 With that expert proficiency in Athletics, we’ll take Powerful Leap to extend the range of Mordred’s leaps. From the barbarian archetype, Mordred can pick up Basic Fury to get Raging Intimidation, giving her the Intimidating Glare skill feat for free and allowing her to Demoralize while raging. This is again sort of playing into the underhanded and wild tactics that she employs to claim victory.
Gear: golden legion epaulet, +1 bastard sword, necklace of knives, everburning torch
LEVEL 5 Mordred will take this set of ability boosts to her Strength, Constitution, Wisdom, and Charisma (Str 19, Dex 12, Con 16, Int 10, Wis 12, Cha 16). Since Mordred can’t increase her Athletics skill for another two level, we’ll use this increase to bump her Intimidation up to expert proficiency. Mordred also receives the only human ancestry feat I ended up taking for this build – Natural Ambition gives her Power Attack so that she can dish out heavy blows. If you’re not a fan of Power Attack, the other 1st level class feat I’d suggest is Sudden Charge, which lets her get into the thick of combat and deliver a blow. For her Fighter Weapon Mastery, we’ll pick weapons in the sword group for Mordred as she favors her blade.
Gear: +1 striking bastard sword, bracelet of dashing, golden legion epaulet, necklace of knives, everburning torch, genealogy mask
LEVEL 6 Mordred’s armor is heavy and clunky and while we can occasionally have the ready rune to make it easier to don, Armor Assist is going to help her get it on in a pinch. The barbarian’s Instinct Ability gives us some more damage against spellcasters, possibly representing strife between Mordred and her mother Morgan or at least knowledge on how to contend with such casters, while also granting us a status bonus on saves against their spells while we’re raging, which is the big part of the Magical Resistance I was aiming for.
Gear: +1 half plate, +1 striking bastard sword, demon mask, golden legion epaulet, goz mask, necklace of knives
LEVEL 7 With the advent of being able to increase skills to master proficiency, the first of Mordred’s skill to receie that benefit will be Athletics, once again to let her better make use of combat maneuvers. She’s mentioned as being fairly fast, but the heavy armor of this build ends up slowing her down, so we’ll give Mordred Fleet for her general feat to counteract that penalty a little bit.
Gear: ready armor rune, +1 half plate, stalwart’s ring, +1 striking bastard sword, bracelet of dashing, golden legion epaulet
LEVEL 8 Jumping around is very anime, so we’ll go ahead and give this girl the Wall Jump skill feat. We will actually return to fighter to pick up Dual-Handed Assault, a class feat that will allow us to switch from one-handing our sword to two-handing it for a single strike at the cost of no extra actions. This does have the flourish trait, which means Mordred will only be able to do it once per turn, but it is a good follow-up to Snagging Strike as that leaves foes flat-footed and therefore at a lower AC.
Gear: boots of bounding, crown of the companion, ready armor rune, +1 half plate, +1 striking bastard sword, demon mask
LEVEL 9 Right on the heels of the Athletics increase will of course be an Intimidation increase, pumping it up to master proficiency. From Mordred’s orc heritage, we’ll pick up the Death’s Drum ancestry feat, which gives us a bonus on Fortitude saves whenever Mordred is taking persistent damage or is wounded, like she would be upon using Orc Ferocity.
Gear: +1 resilient half plate, boots of bounding, wounding weapon rune, ready armor rune, stalwart’s ring, +1 striking bastard sword
LEVEL 10 This level’s ability boosts for Mordred are going to look pretty similar to last level because they are once again going to Strength, Constitution, Wisdom, and Charisma (Str 20, Dex 12, Con 18, Int 10, Wis 14, Cha 18). With this next feat, we’re going to further bolster Mordred’s resistances against effects other than simply attacks because Terrifying Resistance provides her with a circumstance bonus on saves against spells of enemies she’s Demoralized while the bonus against spells from her superstition instinct is a status bonus, meaning that hey will stack. The Brutish Shove fighter class feat has the press trait, meaning that Mordred as to use it as a follow-up to other attacks, but it gives her additional ways to control the battlefield and help keep enemies away from her allies, if needed.
Gear: armbands of athleticism, +1 resilient half plate, shock weapon rune, boots of bounding,ready armor rune, +1 striking bastard sword
LEVEL 11 Since Athletics and Intimidation can’t be increased any further until 15th level, we’ll pick up an increase to Society for Mordred here so that she can better identify knights, brigands, and other heroes that she might encounter. Further playing into Battle Continuation and her resiliency, we’ll take Diehard for a general feat, staving off perma-death a bit longer.
Gear: +2 striking bastard sword, armbands of athleticism, mask of the banshee, +1 resilient half plate, boots of bounding, wounding weapon rune
LEVEL 12 With all the battle tricks that Mordred has, she might find it difficult to take the time to Demoralize her enemies, but with the Battle Cry skill feat, she can start the fight with an enemy already quaking in their boots. I think this is actually one of the fighter builds where I’ve advised a few more feats from it than usual and I’ll continue that trend with Knockdown. This is a very handy fighter feat since they automatically have Attack of Opportunity, meaning that Mordred can spend her first action switching to a two-hand grip, hit with Knockdown for that higher damage while also putting them prone, and then be at the ready with that d12 base damage for when they stand up – if they even do.
Gear: +2 resilient half plate, +2 striking bastard sword, greater demon mask, armbands of athleticism, greater rhinoceros mask, shock weapon rune
LEVEL 13 Mordred does have some leadership capabilities and while the Fate wiki seems to suggest they come entirely from her sword, I wanted to represent those skills with an increase to her Diplomacy skill, giving her expert proficiency. I debated her next ancestry feat a bit and eventually asked somebody more knowledgeable than myself, which led me to picking up Lifeblood’s Call. Once again, this mainly serves as a reference to her Battle Continuation, but this lets her strike harder and more ferociously even when her life is waning, which I feel does a good job of capturing her final slash at Artoria, even when impaled. We do have another ancestry feat coming up that kind of better captures that, but this gives her a circumstance bonus to all her damage when she finds herself in those situations.
Gear: +2 greater striking bastard sword, +2 resilient half plate, greater ready armor rune, greater demon mask, armbands of athleticism, grievous weapon rune
LEVEL 14 I want to reflect Mordred’s time in Artoria’s court because while she may be a berserker on a battlefield, she once held aspirations there, and I like reflecting that in Courtly Graces, even if it doesn’t end up doing much for her. With a quick little dip back into Mordred’s archetype, we’ll use Advanced Fury to get her Brutal Bully, letting her deal damage whenever she pulls off one of her combat maneuvers. This actually could have been taken a level earlier and feel free to do that if you’d like, I personally just felt like it made more sense to take if after Mordred already had Knockdown.
Gear: hellfire boots, +2 greater striking bastard sword, fortification armor rune, +2 resilient half plate, grail of twisted desires, greater demon mask
LEVEL 15 Once again, the four free ability boosts will slot into Mordred’s Strength, Constitution, Wisdom, and Charisma (Str 21, Dex 12, Con 19, Int 10, Wis 16, Cha 19). She can finally increase her Athletics skill to legendary proficiency and will also finally pick up the Toughness general feat to make her just a bit sturdier.
Gear: +2 greater resilient half plate, bag of holding (type IV), hellfire boots, +2 greater striking bastard sword, greater ready armor rune, greater goggles of night
LEVEL 16 We’ll round out Mordred’s anime-esque jumping feats with Cloud Jump so that she can leap those impossible distances. Mordred can use Overwhelming Blow from the fighter feats to dedicate all three of her actions to a single attack that becomes a crit on a success and becomes deadly on a crit, but then leaves her weary. This all-or-nothing, desperate blow fits with everything I’ve been told about this character, by people and wikis alike.
Gear: greater shock weapon rune, +2 greater resilient half plate, greater boots of bounding, bag of holding (type IV), +2 greater striking bastard sword, fortification armor rune
LEVEL 17 Normally, I’d take this sooner, but Mordred is all about surprising opponents with different tactics, so I wanted to increase Athletics first. Now, however, we get an increase to Intimidation, raising it to legendary so that Mordred also automatically receives Scare to Death, which is still my favorite skill feat. Reveal Machinations is a close second, but Paizo needs to bring in some more fun skill feats like these two because everything else is a distant third. This last ancestry feat, Rampaging Ferocity, is perfect for the scenario when Mordred was slain by Artoria because it allows her, when she uses Orc Ferocity, to savagely strike out. If she kills something, she doesn’t actually spend the once-per-day usage of her Orc Ferocity but still receives its benefits.
Gear: +3 greater striking bastard sword, dragonscale amulet, greater shock weapon rune, +2 greater resilient half plate, bag of holding (type IV), keen weapon rune
LEVEL 18 Building out of Courtly Graces and the fact that Mordred was able to raise a rebellion around her, we’ll take Connections for her skill feat this time around. I’m not completely sure about this last class feat. There’s not really an ability she has that I can point to and use as my justification aside from maybe Magic Resistance, but her character and story makes Determination from the fighter feel very appropriate.
Gear: belt of giant strength, +3 greater striking bastard sword, speed weapon rune, greater shock weapon rune, +2 greater resilient half plate, greater boots of bounding
LEVEL 19 To help get better use out of her Courtly Graces and Connections, we’ll take this skill increase to Society. That way it reaches master proficiency to make up for the fact that she has 10 Int. The last of her general feats will be another of the traditional tanky sort of feats, Fast Recovery. There is a use in it increasing her nightly recovery, but I think there’s greater value in its ability to help her recover from poisons and diseases.
Gear: +3 greater resilient half plate, belt of giant strength, dread blindfold, +3 greater striking bastard sword, dragonscale amulet, greater shock weapon rune
LEVEL 20 Mordred’s final array of ability boosts will go as they have for the last four ability boosts to Strength, Constitution, Wisdom, and Charisma (Str 22, Dex 12, Con 20, Int 10, Wis 18, Cha 20). In her own stories, Mordred seems to more commonly face foes of her own size or only slightly larger, but the Titan Wrestler skill feat will allow her to push around much larger foes that she might come across. If the adventure you’re trying this build in has bigger foes, feel free to take this much sooner, possibly by swapping out Hefty Hauler or wherever else you have space. One of the big issues that caused a discussion on what class to settle on was determining how to achieve Mordred’s Noble Phantasm. I personally liked the champion’s sun blade focus spell, but it was hard nailing her down into a specific alignment for that class, which led to the abandonment of that idea. While not exact, I ultimately settled on the fighter’s Sever Space. This isn’t a massive beam from her sword, but it is another very anime ability that lets her hit a foe with her blade at a great distance and then get right up next to them.
Gear: +3 major striking bastard sword, +3 greater resilient half plate, titan’s grasp, dread blindfold, speed weapon rune, greater shock weapon rune
CONCLUSION After reading up on Mordred, my goal was to build a heavily-armored combatant who fights with a ferocity that extends even beyond natural life. Her Battle Continuation is represented through Orc Ferocity and similar feats, Magic Resistance is covered by the ability of her Spirit Instinct, which I have covering her Instinct ability as well, though mostly as a pun. I gave her the Riding feat to cover that ability but as it didn't seem a big part of her character, I didn't go any further with it. While it takes some imagination, I aimed for Sever Space and the critical effect of the greater shock weapon rune to cover her Noble Phantasm. As it talks about her being a combatant who wields a variety of tactics, even some that might be considered underhanded or insane, in effort to achieve victory, I tried to reflect that through her use of Intimidation and combat maneuvers such as Shove, Trip, and the like. I'm not super familiar with this character, so I made sure to pass it around to a couple of guys on the Discord who were more familiar with it before I was satisfied with the build.
Be sure to let me 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. Coming up next week, I'm going to try to do a build for Mordred from actual mythology if I can find enough defined characteristics to build off of!
Have a fantastic Friday!
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