Having completed the Megatron build a few weeks back, I couldn't go on without doing a build for his counterpart. Expect to see more Transformers builds from me in the future as it is hands-down one of my favorite series. 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 Optimus Prime from Transformers!
OPTIMUS PRIME
CHARACTER Optimus Prime
SOURCE Transformers
GOALS
o Hailing from the planet of Cybertron, Orion Pax typically has a history as a librarian, data clerk, or law officer depending on the source material
o He changed his name to Optimus Prime after he was chosen as the bearer of the Matrix of Leadership, a conduit to Primus, the creator-god of the Cybertronians
o Optimus is a firm believer in freedom for all and a stalwart defender of all, including humans and other races when he finds himself around them
o Incredibly charismatic, Optimus wishes to end the war with as few casualties as possible, hoping for a peaceful resolution to the millennia long conflict
o Despite this desire, Optimus is a highly capable warrior and combatant who leads his Autobot allies from the frontline
o In combat, he wields an ion blaster and an energon-axe
o His alt mode, as a Cybertronian, is traditionally a semi-trailer truck
LEVEL 1
Ancestry & Heritage: Hunter or Warrior Automaton
o Ability Boosts & Flaws: +Strength, +Charisma
o Ancestry Feat: Reinforced Chassis
Background: Scholar
o Ability Boosts: +Intelligence, +Strength
o Skills: Arcana (trained), Academia Lore (trained)
o Background Feat: Assurance - Arcana
Class & Subclass: Redeemer Champion
o Class Ability Boost: +Strength
o Skills: Religion (trained), Crafting (trained), Athletics (trained), Diplomacy (trained), Society (trained)
o Class Feat: Weight of Guilt
Details
o Ability Boosts: +Strength, +Constitution, +Wisdom, +Charisma (Str 18, Dex 10, Con 12, Int 12, Wis 12, Cha 14)
Right off the bat, automaton captures the Cybertronian aspect with the warrior heritage building into appropriate feats down the line. However, I would also consider the hunter heritage and flavor it as Optimus transforming into his vehicle mode. Good backgrounds for a librarian are somewhat limited and I ended up liking the scholar the best for the options that were available. I favored champion given the divine nature of the Matrix of Leadership, but realized that all of the good subclasses could work for him depending on how you look at it. I settled for the middle of the road by going redeemer and picked their specific class feat as none others particularly stood out to me.
LEVEL 2
o Class Feat: Marshal Dedication
o Skill Feat: Group Impression
o Skill Increase: Diplomacy (expert)
o Gear: everburning torch
LEVEL 3
o General Feat: Fleet
o Skill Increase: Athletics (expert)
o Divine Ally: Blade
o Gear: +1 battle axe, everburning torch, psychopomp mask
LEVEL 4
o Class Feat: Inspiring Marshal Stance
o Skill Feat: No Cause for Alarm
o Gear: golden legion epaulet, +1 battle axe, +1 jezail, everburning torch
LEVEL 5
o Ability Boosts: +Strength, +Constitution, +Wisdom, +Charisma (Str 19, Dex 10, Con 14, Int 12, Wis 14, Cha 16)
o Ancestry Feat: Arcane Safeguards
o Skill Increase: Society (expert)
o Gear: +1 striking battle axe, golden legion epaulet, bracelet of dashing, +1 jezail, everburning torch, psychopomp mask
As the leader of the Autobots that stands opposite of Megatron, Optimus Prime also takes up the Marshal Dedication, but will instead focus on Diplomacy and buffing the accuracy of his allies with the Inspiring Marshal Stance instead of the damage-focused Dread Marshal Stance. The focus on Diplomacy fits Optimus’s attempts as a mediator who longs for peaceful resolution. Picking up Fleet is mainly to play into his vehicular alt mode. Unfortunately, Arcane Safeguard doesn’t relate to anything specifically but does offer Optimus additional protections.
LEVEL 6
o Class Feat: Cadence Call
o Skill Feat: Titan Wrestler
o Gear: +1 reinforced chassis, +1 striking battle axe, +1 striking jezail, golden legion epaulet, brooch of shielding, handwraps of mighty blows (+1)
LEVEL 7
o General Feat: Toughness
o Skill Increase: Diplomacy (master)
o Gear: lion’s shield, +1 reinforced chassis, diplomat’s badge, +1 striking battle axe, golden legion epaulet, bracelet of dashing
LEVEL 8
o Class Feat: Smite Evil
o Skill Feat: Shameless Request
o Gear: boots of bounding, lion’s shield, crown of the companion, +1 reinforced chassis, +1 striking battle axe, +1 striking jezail
LEVEL 9
o Ancestry Feat: Arcane Slam
o Skill Increase: Athletics (master)
o Gear: +1 resilient reinforced chassis, boots of bounding, deathless armor rune, lion’s shield, diplomat’s badge, +1 striking battle axe
LEVEL 10
o Ability Boosts: +Strength, +Constitution, +Wisdom, +Charisma (Str 20, Dex 10, Con 16, Int 12, Wis 16, Cha 18)
o Class Feat: Radiant Blade Spirit
o Skill Feat: Glean Contents
o Gear: force shield, +1 resilient reinforced chassis, lover’s gloves, boots of bounding, +1 striking jezail, +1 striking battle axe
While Optimus Prime is large among Cybertronians, he is far from the largest and has faced plentiful foes that manage to outsize him, leading Titan Wrestler to making sense. Cadence Call furthers his leadership skills, but Optimus is a skilled warrior. To exemplify that part of his character, Smite Evil allows him to inflict additional damage to evildoers while Radiant Blade Spirit allows him to add the flaming weapon rune to his blade ally, turning it into an energon axe. While Optimus Prime will mostly be fighting with his axe and shield, when his shield is broken or before his weapon is drawn, he can use Arcane Slam from his warrior heritage to put his foes in the dirt and then attack from an advantageous position. Since Arcane Slam uses the Athletics skill, an increase there helps further its usage.
LEVEL 11
o General Feat: Diehard
o Skill Increase: Society (master)
o Gear: +2 striking battle axe, force shield, thousand-blade thesis, +1 resilient reinforced chassis, boots of bounding, deathless armor rune
LEVEL 12
o Class Feat: Coordinated Charge
o Skill Feat: Powerful Leap
o Gear: +2 resilient reinforced chassis, +2 striking battle axe, +2 striking jezail, force shield, shock weapon rune, lover’s gloves
LEVEL 13
o Ancestry Feat: Core Rejuvenation
o Skill Increase: Academia Lore (expert)
o Gear: +2 greater striking battle axe, +2 resilient reinforced chassis, implacable armor rune, +2 striking jezail, force shield, thousand-blade thesis
LEVEL 14
o Class Feat: Tactical Cadence
o Skill Feat: Courtly Graces
o Gear: greater sturdy shield, +2 greater striking battle axe, +2 greater striking jezail, +2 resilient reinforced chassis, greater choker of elocution, impactful weapon rune
LEVEL 15
o Ability Boosts: +Strength, +Dexterity, +Constitution, +Charisma (Str 21, Dex 12, Con 18, Int 12, Wis 16, Cha 19)
o General Feat: Pick Up the Pace
o Skill Increase: Diplomacy (legendary)
o Gear: +2 greater resilient reinforced chassis, greater sturdy shield, +2 greater striking jezail, +2 greater striking battle axe, implacable armor rune, greater hauling weapon rune
The Coordinated Charge class feat from the marshal archetype is perfect for a classic ‘Autobots, roll out!’ rallying cry from Optimus Prime while picking up Tactical Cadence removes the weakness from his earlier Cadence Call. In the previous iterations of IDW’s Transformers series, Optimus was established to have a habit of leaping from places, making Powerful Leap a good choice. Like many comic book characters, he has a habit of coming back from the very brink of death, which is covered by Core Rejuvenation. With the respect and even reverence that some have for Optimus Prime, Courtly Graces felt like an appropriate pick for him while Pick Up the Pace is mainly sticking with the idea that he can turn into vehicle along with the rest of his allies for long-term travel.
LEVEL 16
o Class Feat: Blade of Justice
o Skill Feat: Legendary Negotiation
o Gear: greater shock weapon rune, +2 greater resilient reinforced chassis, greater boots of bounding, greater sturdy shield, +2 greater striking battle axe, +2 greater striking jezail
LEVEL 17
o Ancestry Feat: Greater Augmentation – Arcane Slam
o Skill Increase: Athletics (legendary)
o Gear: +3 greater striking battle axe, dragonscale amulet, greater shock weapon rune, +2 greater resilient reinforced chassis, greater sturdy shield, +2 greater striking jezail
LEVEL 18
o Class Feat: Instrument of Zeal
o Skill Feat: Connections
o Gear: belt of giant strength, +3 greater striking battle axe, +3 greater striking jezail, greater shock weapon rune, +2 greater resilient reinforced chassis, greater sturdy shield
LEVEL 19
o General Feat: Caravan Leader
o Skill Increase: Society (legendary)
o Gear: +3 greater resilient reinforced chassis, belt of giant strength, major cloak of repute, +3 greater striking battle axe, greater shock weapon rune, reforging shield
LEVEL 20
o Ability Boosts: +Strength, +Intelligence, +Wisdom, +Charisma (Str 22, Dex 12, Con 18, Int 14, Wis 18, Cha 20)
o Class Feat: Radiant Blade Master
o Skill Feat: Quick Contacts
o Skill Increase: Medicine (trained)
o Gear: +3 major striking battle axe, +3 greater resilient reinforced chassis, titan’s grasp, major sturdy shield, speed weapon rune, +3 greater striking jezail
Furthering the combat capabilities of Optimus are his final three class feats, with Blade of Justice and Instrument of Zeal playing into each other to cripple his enemies while Radiant Blade Master gives him additional properties to add to his blade ally. Caravan Leader builds out of the same idea as Pick Up the Pace while giving Optimus a ‘convoy’ to lead. His final skill feats round out his good-natured personality while allowing him to try to call for peace even in the fiercest of battles. Upgrading the Arcane Slam ancestry feat with Greater Augmentation increases its damage and removes any penalty for targeting larger creatures.
CONCLUSION
The automaton ancestry captures the fact that Optimus is a Cybertronian, but I had initially looked at the hunter automaton heritage to have him ‘transform’ into a faster alt mode. Ultimately, I felt like Arcane Slam was a better fit for the character overall and the warrior automaton heritage still made sense to me. I refrained from using Lesser Augmentation on the Reinforced Chassis as champions are already lacking in reactions to spare and he would likely prefer protecting his allies. While I initially looked into the occult librarian to cover Optimus’s history as a librarian/data clerk, it didn’t feel entirely appropriate nor did the spell seeker background, which provided Library Lore. Like many characters, Optimus Prime could likely fit in several classes but his possession of the Matrix of Leadership as a direct conduit to Primus made me lean towards champion. As a leader upon the front lines, I leaned into the Marshal Dedication though favoring the Inspiring Marshal Stance over dread marshal, distinguishing him from Megatron while making him a parallel to his counterpart. His favored weapon varies depending what show you’re watching, but I’ve always been partial to his axe and opted to focus on that rather than his ion blaster though I still tried to include it as a secondary weapon. I also leaned into a more defensive build using a one-handed shield and axe rather than going for a two-handed axe.
Be sure to lemme know what you think of the build!
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Have a fantastic Friday!
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