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. I’m also not gonna do gear, aside from real basic stuff like preferred armor and weapons. I want to focus more on the build of the character.
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 Reinhardt Wilhelm!
CHARACTER Reinhardt Wilhelm
SOURCE Overwatch
GOAL A heavily armored tank in his home game, Reinhardt is a stand-out in a game that heavily features firearm-wielding characters as one that wields a melee weapon. His favored weapon is a rocket powered hammer and he charges into combat, slamming into and running over foes. He’s also known for using a shield to protect both himself and his allies as well as an ability to knock enemies prone by slamming his hammer into the ground. This presents a bit of an issue – he can’t wield his big, two-handed hammer while wielding a shield. My intent here is to try to create a character that can go big hammer or a smaller hammer with a big shield depending on the situation.
LEVEL 1 Let’s hit the ABCs of Pathfinder 2e character creation – ancestry, background, and class. Human is the most appropriate choice for Reinhardt and we take the versatile heritage so that we can pick up Toughness general feat. For our human feat, we take Natural Ambition, allowing us to grab an extra 1st-level class feat. Our two free boosts for being human go to Strength and Constitution.
For background, martial disciple reflects Reinhardt’s past as a soldier and also gets him another boost to Strength. Given the armor we’re going for, there’s not much point in investing a huge amount into Dexterity and Reinhardt strikes me as a very affable person, leading me to take the free boost to Charisma. We become trained in Athletics and Warfare Lore, and also receive the Quick Jump skill feat, which isn’t super important to the character but is free.
I initially considered champion for Reinhardt but found a series of feats that eventually swayed me over to fighter for this giant warrior. After getting the boost to Strength from being a fighter, we spend our four free boosts on Strength, Constitution, Wisdom, and Charisma, which leaves us with this array: Str 18, Dex 10, Con 14, Int 10, Wis 12, Cha 14. We become trained in Acrobatics (since we already have Athletics), Crafting (to repair our shields), Diplomacy, and Society. Thanks to Natural Ambition, we’re getting two feats for fighter. In this case, we’re gonna take Reactive Shield for those turns where we don’t have the action to spare to Raise a Shield and we also take Sudden Charge. This helps replicate his Charge, but we’ll actually get more abilities down the line that better copy it.
LEVEL 2 Our first skill feat is gonna be Titan Wrestler to allow us to push around creatures much larger than us. Then for our class feat, we’re actually gonna take the Mauler Dedication. This is, unfortunately, something of a dead feat for us as we already have its benefits, but it is important for later feats we intend to take. We take it at this level as there are few other fighter feats that really caught my eye.
LEVEL 3 Our skill increase goes to Athletics so that we can become an expert in it. For our general feat, we take Diehard because Reinhardt as a character takes a licking and keeps on ticking.
LEVEL 4 Picking up the Hefty Hauler skill feat lets us better carry the heavy armor, shields, and weaponry we’ll be carrying. Barreling Charge helps us further emulate Reinhardt’s own Charge, and also sets us up for another feat down the line.
LEVEL 5 We receive four free ability boosts, which go into Strength, Dexterity, Constitution, and Wisdom, which gives us: Str 19, Dex 12, Con 16, Int 10, Wis 14, Cha 14. We pick our Diplomacy skill to receive a skill increase, moving us into expert proficiency. Our ancestry feat lets us pick up Natural Skill, granting us the trained proficiency in Intimidation and Medicine.
LEVEL 6 To better serve in Reinhardt’s role as a hero and protector, we take No Cause for Alarm to help calm allies and civilians. Along that line, our fighter feat is going to be Shield Warden, allowing us to defend allies when we have our shield raised.
LEVEL 7 We increase our Athletics skill to master and then pick up Expeditious Search with our general feat, allowing to search more efficiently.
LEVEL 8 By taking Intimidating Glare as our skill feat, we open up our options in combat even against creatures unable to understand us. Our class feat dips into the mauler archetype to pick up Clear the Way, which allows us to batter hordes of enemies aside.
LEVEL 9 With our skill increase, we raise Diplomacy to master proficiency. Hardy Traveler further increases our Bulk limits and increases our overland speed, so it’s a good pick for our ancestry feat.
LEVEL 10 Taking our free ability scores, we slot them into Strength, Dexterity, Constitution, and Charisma. This gives us this array: Str 20, Dex 14, Con 18, Int 10, Wis 14, Cha 16. We take Battle Medicine as our skill feat to better support and preserve our allies in combat while we take Overpowering Charge as our fighter feat. This allows us to actually trample over foes that we run through using Barreling Charge.
LEVEL 11 We take our skill increase in Intimidate, advancing to expert in it. This time, we’re gonna pick up A Home in Every Port for our general feats. Reinhardt’s work as a hero has led to him having friends or family of people he’s saved no matter where he goes.
LEVEL 12 The Armor Assist skill feat is a good fit for Reinhardt, allowing him to more easily shrug on the armor he has grown accustomed to. There were a couple of good options for a 12th-level fighter feat, but Resounding Bravery felt most appropriate for the character to me, even if he doesn’t have a self-healing ability in game.
LEVEL 13 Another odd level brings another skill increase that we’re gonna put in Warfare Lore this time. Reinhardt’s an old soldier who’s seen his share of battles, making him an expert in Warfare Lore. Additionally, our new ancestry feat, Bounce Back, lets us come back from dying without any wounds once per day.
LEVEL 14 Having become an expert in Warfare Lore, we can now take the Battle Planner skill feat, which lets us create a plan and try to roll Warfare Lore for a later initiative. A nice aspect is that we don’t have to use the result of this roll – if we rolled garbage here, we can roll normally when the combat actually starts. For our class feat, we finally get to one of the main reasons we picked up Mauler Dedication in the first place – Hammer Quake. You get to smack a foe and then try to knock that enemy and every adjacent enemy prone. This is probably the closest we’re gonna get to Reinhardt’s Earthshatter.
LEVEL 15 This set of ability boosts go to Strength, Constitution, Wisdom, and Charisma, leaving us with this array: Str 21, Dex 14, Con 19, Int 10, Wis 16, Cha 18. Putting our skill increase into Intimidation makes us a master in it and also allows us to grab Battle Cry as a general feat, a fitting feat for the exuberant warrior.
LEVEL 16 Picking up the skill feat Terrifying Resistance offers us some additional protection against foes that we’ve managed to Demoralize. We’ve largely completed our two-handed weapon build, which is honestly what I was focusing on when building Reinhardt. At this point, we can now look for some shield stuff – such as Reflexive Shield, a fighter feat that lets us add our shield bonus to Reflex saves.
LEVEL 17 We finally get legendary proficiency in a skill by putting our skill increase to Diplomacy. Stubborn Persistence is an ancestry feat that I think does a good job representing the character and his refusal to back down despite his advanced age.
LEVEL 18 Our skill increase at the previous level allows us to pick up the Legendary Negotiation skill feat, granting us the ability to attempt to defuse combat encounters in another manner. And continuing from when we last got a fighter feat, we’re gonna pick up Improved Reflexive Shield, which lets us use Reflexive Shield to protect our allies as well.
LEVEL 19 We become legendary in Athletics thanks to our skill increase, and also pick up Terrified Retreat in our general feat, allowing us to scatter weaker enemies so that we can negotiate with the boss.
LEVEL 20 We made it! Now that we’ve gotten all the way to level 20, we’re gonna put our four free boosts in Strength, Constitution, Intelligence, and Wisdom and that leaves us with this as our final array: Str 22, Dex 14, Con 20, Int 12, Wis 18, Cha 18. We pick up a trained proficiency in Performance (to better to tell our stories of heroism!) and the Draconic language thanks to our boost to Int. With a lack of appropriate skill feats, we pick up Fascinating Performance as our tales become engrossing enough to fascinate others. For our fighter feat, we take Ultimate Flexibility to allow Reinhardt to better switch between two-handed or sword and board styles of combat, picking what he wants or needs for the day.
CONCLUSION This build leaves us with an affable but powerful warrior able to charge through and over foes, topple enemies, and protect his allies. While this build favors two-handed combat, I tried to include enough shield feats to make that a viable option for him with a focus on using his shields to protect his allies. I definitely think the argument can be made for going paladin with him, but that is better suited for a sword and board style character and lacks his charge without going into Fighter Dedication. It should be noted that fully kitting him out in his classic gear is pretty much impossible at 1st-level. So to start with, I got him a maul, warhammer, tower shield, and breastplate with the full intent of switching to plate once he had the dough.
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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