Full Build Friday - Plague Doctor

This came as a request that I was happy to try out. I don't think I've built a lot of alchemists, but I feel like most of them are toxicologists for some reason. Anyway, I love me some Darkest Dungeon and when I received a request for her build, I figured that I would give it a shot. As always, this build is conceptualized entirely 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 the Plague Doctor from Darkest Dungeon!

PLAGUE DOCTOR

CHARACTER Paracelsus

SOURCE Darkest Dungeon

BUILD GOALS

o The plague doctor is a recruitable hero in the game Darkest Dungeon who favors the backlines and stacks persistent damage while also lending support to her allies

o All plague doctors come with Plague Grenade, a multi-target attack that deals blight damage over several rounds

o Noxious Blast also deals blight over time but also inflicts an accuracy penalty on the target

o Blinding Gas hits multi-targets but doesn’t deal damage, instead stunning targets

o Disorienting Blast stuns a target and also causes them to mix up their order with their allies

o When forced into the frontlines, the plague doctor uses Incision to deal bleed damage to her targets

o In battle, the plague doctor has two support abilities. The first is Battlefield Medicine, which heals a minor amount while curing blight or bleed

o She can use Emboldening Vapors to enhance an ally’s speed and damage for a battle

o While camping, the plague doctor’s skills mainly focus on removing debuffs and restoring health

o Experimental Vapors heals a companion and increases the healing they receive for the next 4 battles

o Leeches heals and also removes blight and disease from an ally

o The Cure removes any diseases the plague doctor herself may have and gives her disease resistance

o Finally, Self-Medicate reduces her stress, heals her, removes any blight or bleed, and enhances her accuracy

o Many of the plague doctor’s trinkets are various herbs or vials. The most powerful is the Blasphemous Vial, which enhances her accuracy, increases her chance to stun, and increases her chance to blight targets

o The predetermined name for the plague doctor is Paracelsus, which is how she’ll be referred to going forward

LEVEL 1

Ancestry & Heritage: Versatile Human

o Ability Boosts & Flaws: +Dexterity, +Intelligence

o Ancestry Feat: Natural Ambition

Background: Barber

o Ability Boosts: +Dexterity, +Intelligence

o Skill Increase: Medicine (trained), Surgery Lore (trained)

o Background Feat: Risky Surgery

Class & Subclass: Toxicologist Alchemist

o Class Ability Boost: +Intelligence

o Skill Increase: Skill (trained)

o Class Feat: Far Lobber, Quick Bomber

o Formulas: 1st – giant centipede venom, spear frog poison, lesser blight bomb, lesser goo grenade, lesser sulfur bomb, lesser antiplague, minor elixir of life

Details

o Ability Boosts: +Dexterity, +Constitution, +Intelligence, +Wisdom (Str 10, Dex 16, Con 12, Int 18, Wis 12, Cha 10)

Given the considerable use that Paracelsus makes of poisons through blight damage, toxicologist felt like the place to start with her build. She will still make use of bombs, in particular the lesser blight bomb, and she supports its usage with Far Lobber and Quick Bomber. This bomb works nicely for her Plague Grenade but to represent her Noxious Blast, she makes use of sulfur bombs, which inflicts a penalty on Perception and attack checks on a hit to mimic the accuracy penalty from its ability. The barber background gives her training in Medicine and Risky Surgery reflects her more bizarre treatment strategies, such as using leeches. Many of her healing abilities, from Leeches to Self-Medicate to The Cure can be covered by the Medicine skill though she also picks up the antiplague formula so that she can grant disease resistance.

LEVEL 2

o Class Feat: Poison Resistance

o Skill Feat: Battle Medicine

o Formulas: lesser quicksilver mutagen, lesser war blood mutagen

o Gear: everburning torch

LEVEL 3

o General Feat: Incredible Initiative

o Skill Increase: Medicine (expert)

o Formulas: moderate junk bomb

o Gear: +1 dagger, everburning torch, ring of discretion

LEVEL 4

o Class Feat: Healing Bomb

o Skill Feat: Continual Recovery

o Gear: crafter’s eyepiece, +1 dagger, lesser red-rib gill mask, everburning torch

LEVEL 5

o Ability Boosts: +Dexterity, +Constitution, +Intelligence, +Wisdom (Str 10, Dex 18, Con 14, Int 19, Wis 14, Cha 10)

o Ancestry Feat: Gloomseer

o Skill Increase: Crafting (expert)

o Gear: +1 striking dagger, crafter’s eyepiece, backfire mantle, lesser red-rib gill mask, everburning torch, ring of discretion

Feats during this block mainly fill in some flavor for the character though Healing Bomb provides her with some ranged healing opportunities. She does also explore her healing capabilities with Battle Medicine, almost exactly matching her Battlefield Medicine ability. More importantly during this block, Paracelsus can pick up several formulas. The lesser quicksilver mutagen and lesser war blood mutagen are the most pertinent as they serve to match her Emboldening Vapors, allowing allies to move faster and increasing their accuracy. She can even make use of the quicksilver mutagen herself to improve her accuracy with her bombs. She’ll want to keep up on the bombs mentioned at level one, but she may also consider picking up the junk bomb – this is the easiest way for her to inflict bleed on adversaries even if it doesn’t quite match how she doles out bleed in game. Her initial focus on skills will be for Crafting and Medicine so that she is able to treat her allies and keep up with her ability to make alchemical items.

LEVEL 6

o Class Feat: Debilitating Bomb

o Skill Feat: Ward Medic

o Gear: +1 studded leather, +1 striking dagger, alchemist goggles, backfire mantle, necklace of knives, lesser red-rib gill mask

LEVEL 7

o General Feat: Fast Recovery

o Skill Increase: Medicine (master)

o Gear: greater goz mask, +1 studded leather, spectacles of understanding, +1 striking dagger, crafter’s eyepiece, backfire mantle

LEVEL 8

o Class Feat: Sticky Bomb

o Skill Feat: Advanced First Aid

o Gear: wounding weapon rune, greater goz mask, horn of fog, +1 studded leather, +1 striking dagger, alchemist goggles

LEVEL 9

o Ancestry Feat: Darkseer

o Skill Increase: Crafting (master)

o Gear: +1 resilient studded leather, moderate red-rib gill mask, wounding weapon rune, greater goz mask, spectacles of understanding, +1 striking dagger

LEVEL 10

o Ability Boosts: +Dexterity, +Constitution, +Intelligence, +Wisdom (Str 10, Dex 19, Con 16, Int 20, Wis 16, Cha 10)

o Class Feat: Calculated Splash

o Skill Feat: Paragon Battle Medicine

o Skill Increase: Nature (trained)

o Gear: smogger, +1 resilient studded leather, greater backfire mantle, wounding weapon rune, greater goz mask, +1 striking dagger

Debilitating Bomb fits into her role as a debuffer, being a sort of stand-in for Disorienting Blast. Sticky Bomb serves to capture her ability to inflict copious amounts of persistent damage. This persistent damage is equal to the bomb’s splash damage, which she increases with her Calculated Splash feat to make the splash equal to her Intelligence modifier. As a secondary concept to cover her ability to remove diseases, she can pick up Advanced First Aid to lower the sickened condition with a Medicine check. Paragon Battle Medicine follows a similar idea and covers a wider range of effects, but is limited per use of Battle Medicine. Picking up Gloomseer and Darkseer seems slightly anti Darkest Dungeon gameplay given the importance of torches, but none of the other ancestry feats seem more obvious and would be something Paracelsus would probably love to have given her experiences.

LEVEL 11

o General Feat: Prescient Planner

o Skill Increase: Occultism (expert)

o Gear: +2 striking dagger, greater healer’s gloves, smogger, +1 resilient studded leather, moderate red-rib gill mask, wounding weapon rune

LEVEL 12

o Class Feat: Greater Debilitating Bomb

o Skill Feat: Robust Recovery

o Gear: +2 resilient studded leather, +2 striking dagger, winged boots, smogger, greater backfire mantle, corrosive weapon rune

LEVEL 13

o Ancestry Feat: Hardy Traveler

o Skill Increase: Occultism (master)

o Formulas: gorgon’s breath

o Gear: +2 greater striking dagger, +2 resilient studded leather, greater alchemist goggles, winged boots, greater healer’s gloves, smogger

LEVEL 14

o Class Feat: True Debilitating Bomb

o Skill Feat: Inoculation

o Gear: bag of holding (type IV), +2 greater striking dagger, major goz mask, +2 resilient studded leather, greater ring of acid resistance, winged boots

LEVEL 15

o Ability Boosts: +Strength, +Dexterity, +Intelligence, +Wisdom (Str 12, Dex 20, Con 16, Int 21, Wis 18, Cha 10)

o General Feat: Thorough Search

o Skill Increase: Medicine (legendary)

o Gear: +2 greater resilient studded leather, boots of speed, bag of holding (type IV), +2 greater striking dagger, greater alchemist goggles, bag of holding (type III)

Paracelsus expands on her abilities as a debuffer with Greater Debilitating Bomb and True Debilitating Bomb, which makes it harder to escape the effects that her bombs can inflict. Inoculation further reflects her ability to cure diseases and then grant resistance against diseases. Robust Recovery also fits with her ability to cure diseases as well. With the focus on exploration and retrieving treasures from ruins in Darkest Dungeon, it felt appropriate to have Paracelsus pick up Hardy Traveler and Thorough Search. Prescient Planner is a bit more of a player thing than a character thing from Darkest Dungeon with savvy players making sure they have the proper gear before they do any dungeon delving.

LEVEL 16

o Class Feat: Chemical Contagion

o Skill Feat: Legendary Medic

o Gear: dragonscale amulet, +2 greater resilient studded leather, greater red-rib gill mask, boots of speed, +2 greater striking dagger, marvelous medicines

LEVEL 17

o Ancestry Feat: Heroic Presence

o Skill Increase: Crafting (legendary)

o Formulas: major war blood mutagen, major quicksilver mutagen

o Gear: +3 greater striking dagger, dragonscale amulet, greater corrosive weapon rune, +2 greater resilient studded leather, boots of speed, bag of holding (type IV)

LEVEL 18

o Class Feat: Perfect Debilitation

o Skill Feat: Craft Anything

o Gear: diadem of intellect, +3 greater striking dagger, speed weapon rune, dragonscale amulet, +2 greater resilient studded leather, greater red-rib gill mask

LEVEL 19

o General Feat: Prescient Consumable

o Skill Increase: Occultism (legendary)

o Formulas: black lotus extract

o Gear: +3 greater resilient studded leather, diadem of intellect, major alchemist goggles, +3 greater striking dagger, dragonscale amulet, greater corrosive weapon rune

LEVEL 20

o Ability Boosts: +Strength, +Constitution, +Intelligence, +Charisma (Str 14, Dex 20, Con 18, Int 22, Wis 18, Cha 12)

o Class Feat: Plum Deluge

o Skill Feat: Disturbing Knowledge

o Skill Increase: Religion (trained)

o Formulas: tears of death

o Gear: +3 major striking dagger, +3 greater resilient studded leather, archivist’s gaze, greater cloak of the bat, bloodthirsty weapon rune, speed weapon rune

Given the multi-target effects of Paracelsus, effects such as Chemical Contagion that allow her to spread the poison fit well. However, she really captures the feel of her Plague Grenade and Blinding Gas with Plum Deluge to create a cloud of poison. Poisons hold her best chance at actually stealing actions from a target though even the most they can inflict is slowed (though a dose of gorgon’s breath could petrify a target). Perfect Debilitation empowers the debilitation tree that Paracelsus has explored throughout this build, making it so that only critical successes can avoid the conditions that she inflicts. As I believe I’ve mentioned in past builds for DD characters, Heroic Presence doesn’t make a lot of sense at first, but is intended to represent the heroes achieving a Virtue. Her Prescient Consumable is a feat more fitting to her alchemy-themed while building out of her Prescient Planner feat. With the wealth of knowledge she has achieved from her scouring of the ruins of the estate, Paracelsus has undoubtedly picked up some Disturbing Knowledge that she can share to weaken foes. The confused condition it can possibly inflict gives her a good means of copying the position-switching aspect of her Disorienting Blast.

FREE ARCHETYPE SUGGESTIONS: The first archetype that comes to mind is actually that requires a few changes to be made to the build – largely swapping out an initial skill increase for training in Nature and picking up Natural Medicine. It may then be advisable to switch some of her Occultism increases for Nature and then pick up the Herbalist Dedication, representing the numerable herbal trinkets that she can be equipped with. A handy aspect of this archetype is that it will eventually grant her formulas for elixirs of life without her needing to take them normally, allowing her to take other formulas instead thanks to Expert Herbalism. However, the Herbalist Dedication only covers a few levels, so after that, players may want to consider the Poisoner Dedication or Rogue Dedication. Both aim to bring her a bit more into the melee, but the former enhances her ability to inflict poisons while the other helps her skills while also providing her with some poison feats not available to the alchemist. Poison Weapon and Poisoner’s Twist are both handy abilities for her to have and if traveling down this more melee-oriented path, Pinpoint Poisoner is also handy.

BUILD CONCLUSION

The alchemist is the best start for a build for the plague doctor, using many of the formulas that she can create to mimic her abilities. Plague Grenade and Noxious Blast can be mimicked with the likes of the blight bomb, with its ability to deal persistent poison damage. The accuracy penalty from the latter ability can be inflicted with the Debilitating Bomb feat and the other conditions its line can afflict. Her persistent damage is enhanced by the combination of Calculated Splash, which makes her splash damage equal to her Intelligence modifier, and Sticky Bomb, which gives her bombs persistent damage equal to her splash. The closest that this build can get to inflicting stunned is with slowed effects from the poisons that she focuses on and the multi-hit property is covered by Chemical Contagion or Plum Deluge whereas toxins such as gorgon’s breath is probably the best poison to mimic stunning. Her Incision ability can be inflicted with a wounding weapon, but she can also pick up a junk bomb, which deals persistent bleed damage on a hit. Battle Medicine is a perfect stand-in for Battlefield Medicine while Emboldening Vapors can be mimicked with mutagens such as quicksilver mutagen or the war blood mutagen. Her copious healing from her camping skills is covered by her investment in Medicine with the ability to resist disease coming from the likes of Inoculation and Robust Recovery.

Lemme know what you think and if there's any other particular builds you'd like to see.

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Have a fantastic Friday!