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 some 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 Nikara, Lair Scavenger and her good boy Yannick, Scavenging Sentinel!
NIKARA, LAIR SCAVENGER
CHARACTER Nikara, Lair Scavenger
SOURCE Magic the Gathering
GOAL There’s not much lore to go off of for Nikara, but she is a mono-black ‘Human Cleric’ from with 2/2 power and toughness. She is partnered with Yannik, Scavenging Sentinel, a monstrous hyena that works alongside her. Nikara possesses Menace and an ability that lets the player draw cards when certain creatures leave the battlefield.
LEVEL 1 We’re going to run through our ABCs – our ancestry, background, and class. We’re gonna start off human, just like her card says, and then pick the versatile heritage, granting us an extra general feat. Our two free boosts will go to Wisdom and Charisma. We’ll also take Gloomseer as our ancestry feat, having spent our time growing up in dark places to scavenge. Then, our general feat from our heritage will be Incredible Initiative, which grants us a bonus to initiative checks so that we can go first and dole out some buffs or penalties before others act.
Scavenger will be our background since we are, after all, the Lair Scavenger. The first boost will go towards Wisdom while the second is going into Con – while not totally reflective of the card, Nikara’s only shown weapon is her staff, which means she’s gonna be up in melee. We need that boost. We automatically become trained in Survival and Drannith Lore, since there isn’t too much information on other settlements in Ikoria where she’s from, and we’re also going to get the Forager skill feat.
Finally, just like it says on the card, our class is going to be cleric, granting us another boost to Wisdom before we get into our four free boosts. Those are going to Strength, Intelligence, Wisdom, and Charisma, leaving us with this array: Str 12, Dex 10, Con 12, Int 12, Wis 18, Cha 14. I didn’t pick out an exact deity for her as I went with the idea that she serves an aspect over a specific god. So Intimidation is her domain skill, she automatically becomes trained in Religion, and then our other skills are gonna be Athletics, Medicine, and Nature. Given her lower power, I felt like cloistered was a better doctrine for her, granting us the Domain Initiate class feat and access to the pain domain, since I couldn’t find anything good for a sacrifice-sort of domain. We’re also going to have a harmful font though I feel like Nikara’s beliefs could also grant access to heal as well.
LEVEL 2 To replicate Nikara’s Menace ability, I decided to focus in on Intimidation a little bit, and started with Intimidating Glare so that we don’t need our words to frighten people. Instead of taking another cleric feat, we’re going to grab Beastmaster Dedication and get a hyena animal companion to represent Yannick.
LEVEL 3 With the aforementioned focus on Intimidation, that’s what our first skill increase is going to, raising it to expert. Since a scavenger would likely have to jury-rig equipment on the fly, we grab Improvised Repair. The fact that this isn’t a Crafting skill feat feels kinda weird to me.
LEVEL 4 Since we aren’t using our powers to heal as much, we take Battle Medicine so that we can at least tend to the injured in the middle of combat. We also grab Mature Beastmaster Companion to make Yannick stronger.
LEVEL 5 First after-character-creation set of boosts! These will go to Dex, Con, Wis, and Cha, granting us Str 12, Dex 12, Con 14, Int 12, Wis 19, Cha 16. We also plug our skill increase into Survival to become an expert in it and increase our scavenging capabilities. The ancestry feat we receive will be Darkseer, building out of Gloomseer to give us darkvision to better search the caves we trawl.
LEVEL 6 This time, our skill feat will be something that’s a little more useful outside of combat - Group Coercion, which will let us coerce multiple people at once. Sap Life feels like a fitting feat for a scavenger, making our harm spells heal us a little bit as well.
LEVEL 7 For when Nikara needs to scavenge in a settlement, we increased Society to trained. We use our general feat to grab Toughness to give us more sticking power in melee situations.
LEVEL 8 Continuing the trend from the last skill feat we took, we take Lasting Coercion to bump up the effectiveness of when we Coerce people. Another dip into beastmaster grants us Incredible Beastmaster Companion, further empowering Yannick by making him savage, though I think the argument could just as easily be made for making him nimble.
LEVEL 9 This skill increase will get Intimidation to master proficiency while our Natural Ambition ancestry feat lets us gain an extra 1st-level class feat – Harming Hands in this case to up the damage of our harm spells and also give us more healing with our Sap Life feat.
LEVEL 10 This time the boosts will go to Strength, Dexterity, Wisdom, and Charisma, which leaves us here: Str 14, Dex 14, Con 14, Int 12, Wis 20, Cha 18. With the skill feat Terrified Retreat, we can send foes running with Intimidation. Advanced Domain lets us gain further power from our domain, granting us another focus point and spell.
Gear: mask of the banshee, wand of teeming ghosts (3rd-level), +1 resilient explorer’s clothing, ring of sustenance, staff of necromancy, +1 striking staff
LEVEL 11 Since it’s our only real means of healing outside of preparing heal in regular spell slots, we take a skill increase to Medicine to become an expert. Due largely to the fact that Nikara has a melee weapon with piddly defenses, we grab Diehard from general feats since we don’t want to go down as quick.
LEVEL 12 With the same thought in mind as that skill increase, we take Continual Recovery to Treat Wounds more frequently. Then, since I forgot about it earlier, we grab Selective Energy now so that we can use our three-action harm with less worry about others.
LEVEL 13 Our proficiency in Survival goes up to master with this skill increase. Then to tie in with our Diehard feat, we can take Bounce Back, an ancestry feat that lets us come back once per day from dying without gaining the wounded condition.
LEVEL 14 With Battle Cry, we can receive a free action to Demoralize somebody at the start of combat. Another grab from Beastmaster grants us Specialized Beastmaster Companion, which we use to make Yannick a bully, since none of them seem to give him the Attack of Opportunity that would be nice to represent his Vigilance.
LEVEL 15 These boosts go towards Strength, Intelligence, Wisdom, and Charisma, putting us at this array: Str 16, Dex 14, Con 14, Int 14, Wis 21, Cha 19. This is the first time we can increase a skill to legendary, and Intimidation will be the first to receive that treatment. Since it feels fitting for a spellcaster, even if not totally reflected in the magic gear I ended up giving her, we take Incredible Investiture as a general feat so that we can invest in more gear.
LEVEL 16 There are very few builds in which I get Intimidation to legendary that I won’t take Scare to Death. I love the basic concept of this skill feat. Then, since I’m not terribly impressed with the class feats offered by cleric, at least for this particular build, we take Heal Animal, giving us another focus point and a way to heal Yannick outside of using Medicine.
LEVEL 17 Speaking of Medicine, that’s where our skill increase is going, raising it to master. I hadn’t really considered the usefulness of this ancestry feat before, but I guess it would make sense for her to use Sense Allies so that she can target sneaking friends with 3-action heals or select to avoid them with a 3-action harm.
LEVEL 18 As part of the idea of taking a little bit of pain for a potentially greater benefit (I looked I couldn’t find anything good to represent her card’s second big ability), we grab Risky Surgery, letting us hurt people to potentially heal for more when we Treat Wounds. Then we can take Enlarge Companion to get a focus spell that lets us empower Yannick.
LEVEL 19 I feel like we should raise our proficiency in Medicine to legendary so that our cleric can do some decent healing. Then since a bunch of others don’t feel like a good fit for her, we take Fast Recovery as a general feat since creature in MtG fully heal by the next turn if not killed before then.
LEVEL 20 Our last set of boosts will be to Dexterity, Constitution, Wisdom, and Charisma, leaving us at this set: Str 16, Con 16, Dex 16, Int 14, Wis 22, Cha 20. To increase her survivability, we take Terrifying Resistance granting a bonus on saves against those we’ve frightened. Since I couldn’t figure out a good way to mimic Nikara’s ability to get stuff out of sacrificing creatures, I took Maker of Miracles as our class feat. Part of that ability is card draw, which in MtG, usually means you’re getting more spells, so that’s what this is replicating.
Gear: +3 major striking staff, +3 greater resilient explorer’s clothing, wand of teeming ghosts (8th-level), headband of inspired wisdom, staff of power, orange prism aeon stone
CONCLUSION There we have, a fearsome cleric who works alongside a savage hyena beast to slay foes. I couldn’t exactly replicate her third ability or really any of Yannick’s abilities (why isn’t there an animal companion specialization that gives AoO?), but I feel like this is a good gist of the character. I imagine she would take stuff like animate dead and final sacrifice when she prepares spells so that she can sacrifice creatures and get some effect out of it. Her gear is real basic, especially at early levels, which leaves her open to do things like pick up scrolls, likely of heal, since she’s using her divine font to cast harm.
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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