This build came across from a request for Rhino from the PS4 Spider-Man game, which seemed simple enough at first glance but I thought could lead to an interesting build. I'm always a fan of building comic book characters though I feel like maybe I should build some actual heroes instead of just the villains. 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.
Let's get into the build for Rhino from Marvel's Spider-Man!
RHINO
CHARACTER Aleksei Sytsevich
SOURCE Marvel’s Spider-Man
GOAL This build is largely based off of the Aleksei Sytsevich from the PS4 Spider-Man game, but unfortunately there isn’t a lot of lore and the like to go off of for him. I based some of my choices off of the classic Aleksei Sytsevich though, going off of him being used by Russian spies who empowered him and turned him into the Rhino we all know and love. The idea is to build Rhino as a big bruiser who gets into the midst of combat and knocks foes around with his brute strength. His main weapon is his horn and his own fists, but it isn’t uncommon for him to grab nearby debris to hurl at foes or unleash stomps that shake the very earth beneath his targets. The version we’re building, instead of having a suit that resembles the hide of a rhino, wears a heavily mechanized suit.
LEVEL 1 We’ll start where we always do, with our ABCs – our ancestry, background, and class. Our boy is going to be a versatile human. You might be able to make an argument for going beastkin human, but some of the stuff I want works better with this idea. We will be receiving two free boosts to Strength and Constitution and then we’ll pick up Toughness as the bonus general feat from our heritage to make Rhino tankier. We’ll follow that up with the General Training ancestry feat to gain the Adopted Ancestry (Dwarf) general feat. I get that this choice seems really weird, but trust me, I’ve got an idea for this.
Honestly, I should probably pick something like criminal or bandit, but I wanted to do something at least a little different that still fit with the character. Aleksei’s occupation before he underwent the experiments that made him into the Rhino is unknown, but he was used by a pair of agents as hired muscle, so we’ll go ahead and pick laborer for our background. This will give us an automatic boost to Strength as well as a free boost that we’ll apply to Constitution. This makes us trained in Athletics and Labor Lore and also gives us the Hefty Hauler skill feat so that we can carry more.
All right, you might have to stick with me on this, because this might seem a bit odd. But are class is going to be barbarian with the deer animal instinct since that gives us the horn attack. We’re reflavoring the deer as a rhino because there’s nothing that really breaks the fantasy with that. As a barbarian, we receive an automatic boost to Strength, and then receive four further boosts that we’ll add to Strength, Constitution, Wisdom, and Charisma (Str 18, Dex 10, Con 16, Int 10, Wis 12, Cha 12). As a barbarian, we would normally be trained in Athletics but since we received that from our background, we’ll become trained in Intimidation instead. We’ll also become trained in Acrobatics, Crafting, and Survival. To mimic the speed that Rhino can build up to when he charges, we’ll grab Sudden Charge so that we can Stride twice and still Strike for two actions.
LEVEL 2 For this build, Rhino’s armor is going to end up being a rather big part of him, but he can’t wear it 24/7 as he can in his home series. To help us get it on quicker, we’ll pick up the Armor Assist skill feat, which will allow us to halve the time it takes us to don our armor. Furthering that focus on armor, we’ll be taking the Sentinel Dedication, which will net us advancing proficiency in heavy armor to represent his mechanical armor. I had thought about waiting inventor to capture the more technological aspects of his armor, but they aren’t prominent and I felt like this was sufficient.
Gear: everburning torch
LEVEL 3 Naturally, we take our first skill increase to Athletics, increasing it to expert proficiency. For our next general feat, we’ll pick up Fleet to increase our Speed. This may seem another odd choice, but this will help us charge more swiftly into combat, especially while we have the reduced speed from our heavy armor – for now.
Gear: handwraps of mighty blows (+1), everburning torch, ring of discretion
LEVEL 4 We unfortunately don’t have a way of making Rhino as massive as he is in game – that would require a completely different instinct – but we can grab the Titan Wrestler skill feat so that he can throw down with other creatures of that size. With Bashing Charge, we get another charge-based feat that allows us to bust through barriers, stampeding through anything in our way.
Gear: bracelet of dashing, handwraps of mighty blows (+1), necklace of knives, everburning torch
LEVEL 5 As with our first level, we’ll take our ability boosts for this level to Strength, Constitution, Wisdom, and Charisma (Str 19, Dex 10, Con 18, Wis 14, Cha 14). We’ll also take a skill increase to Intimidation, bumping it up to expert proficiency. Finally, we get to the first main reason that I took Adopted Ancestry – we can take Unburdened Iron, allowing us to ignore the Speed penalty of armor and be more resistant to being pushed around.
Gear: handwraps of mighty blows (+1 striking), bracelet of dashing, pearly white spindle aeon stone, necklace of knives, everburning torch, ring of discretion
LEVEL 6 This build ends up having surprisingly decent Charisma mainly because I didn’t feel the need to raise Rhino’s Intelligence or Dexterity at all, so we might as well take advantage of that and our skill increases to Intimidation and get Group Coercion for our skill feat. While Bashing Charge allows us to bust through barriers, our class feat for this level, Barreling Charge, allows us to charge through our enemies themselves.
Gear: +1 full plate, handwraps of mighty blows (+1 striking), belt of good health, bracelet of dashing, necklace of knives, brooch of shielding
LEVEL 7 Since Bashing Charge, Barreling Charge, and Armor Assist all make use of our Athletics skill, we’ll go ahead and take this level’s skill increase to it, bumping it up to master proficiency. Since Rhino is a recurring villain of Spider-Man, we’ll take Diehard so that he’s hard to put down.
Gear: ring of the ram, +1 full plate, stalwart’s ring, handwraps of mighty blows (+1 striking), bracelet of dashing, pearly white spindle aeon stone
LEVEL 8 We’ll make use of our high Strength and proficiency in Intimidation to nab Intimidating Prowess, granting us a bonus to checks to Demoralize when we can use our might to menace our foes. Rhino’s been known to chuck around rubble and debris the size of a normal man, so we’ll pick up Oversized Throw. We’ll never be great at ranged combat, but this’ll be fun to whip out every now and again, just hurl a crate at our enemies.
Gear: boots of bounding, ring of the ram, ready armor rune, +1 full plate, handwraps of mighty blows (+1 striking), belt of good health
LEVEL 9 We increased Athletics last level, so this time around, we’ll take a skill increase to Intimidation to get it to master proficiency. With the Hardy Traveler ancestry feat, we’re able to make long treks with greater ease and can carry even more bulk.
Gear: +1 resilient full plate, wounding weapon rune, boots of bounding, ring of the ram, stalwart’s ring, handwraps of mighty blows (+1 striking)
LEVEL 10 Look, I’m set in my ways. These ability boosts will be fore Strength, Constitution, Wisdom, and Charisma (Str 20, Dex 10, Con 19, Int 10, Wis 16, Cha 16). To go along with Group Coercion, we’ll grab Quick Coercion this time around for our skill feat. We’ll grab that feat that upgrades our Barreling Charge – Overpowering Charge. This causes creatures that we successfully trample through to take damage equal to our Strength modifier or double that if we critically succeed at rushing through them.
Gear: armbands of athleticism, +1 resilient full plate, thundering weapon rune, boots of bounding, ring of the ram, handwraps of mighty blows (+1 striking)
LEVEL 11 It’s honestly a little hard to pick out appropriate skilld for Rhino. Some are obvious like Athletics for his charges, grapples, and the like, and Intimidation because he’s a big burly brute that likes tossing his weight around, but those other skills I took – they were mainly to round out our selection. Now Crafting does have a use since it will allow him to fix up his armor should it sustain damage, which is mostly an ease of life choice rather than something related to the character. So with no other choice standing out, that’s where we’ll take our skill increase this time around, increasing our proficiency in Crafting to expert. We also get a general feat, which will be Fast Recovery so that we are more resilient to afflictions such as diseases and poisons.
Gear: handwraps of mighty blows (+2 striking), armbands of athleticism, grievous weapon rune, +1 resilient full plate, boots of bounding, wounding weapon rune
LEVEL 12 While I don’t really see Quick Jump fitting into Rhino’s wheelhouse, Powerful Leap at least makes sense to me as a skill feat to pick up for him, his powerful legs propelling him greater distances. We’ll dip back into our Sentinel Dedication to pick up Mighty Bulwark, which increases the benefit the bulwark ability of our armor provides to our Reflex save – a handy little bump since we otherwise have no Dexterity to add to that saving throw.
Gear: +2 resilient full plate, handwraps of mighty blows (+2 striking), greater demon mask, armbands of athleticism, thundering weapon rune, electricity-resistant armor rune
LEVEL 13 We already took that skill increase to get Crafting to expert, so we’ll just stick with it and pick that skill again for this increase, raising it to master proficiency. For our ancestry feat, we’ll grab Mountain’s Stoutness to become even more of a tank, gaining additional HP that stacks with Toughness and reducing the base number of our recovery checks.
Gear: handwraps of mighty blows (+2 greater striking), +2 resilient full plate, greater ready armor rune, greater demon mask, armbands of athleticism, grievous weapon rune
LEVEL 14 Probably a little bit late, but we’ll put those increases to our Crafting proficiency to use and grab the Quick Repair skill feat so that when we have to mend our armor, it doesn’t take us as long. When it comes to combat, Rhino is no stranger to grappling and since his horn has that trait, I thought it might be fun to take advantage of that with the Thrash class feat, allowing him to bash around an opponent that he’s got a handle on. This feels very much in concert with his overall thematic and does give him a handy damaging ability that he can use without incurring or increasing his multiple attack penalty.
Gear: greater ring of the ram, handwraps of mighty blows (+2 greater striking), fortification armor rune, +2 resilient full plate, greater demon mask, greater ring of electricity resistance
LEVEL 15 Fourth verse, same as the first, second, and third verse! Four ability boosts going straight to Strength, Constitution, Wisdom, and Charisma (Str 21, Dex 10, Con 20, Int 10, Wis 18, Cha 18). Reaching this level allows us to increase our Athletics skill to legendary proficiency, and gives us a general feat that we’ll use to grab Incredible Initiative. Hopefully, this feat will let us get a jump on foes and charge into them before they can scatter too much.
Gear: +2 greater resilient full plate, greater ring of the ram, rock-braced armor rune, handwraps of mighty blows (+2 greater striking), greater ready armor rune, greater goggles of night
LEVEL 16 Since Intimidation is already at master proficiency, we’ll go ahead and grab Terrifying Resistance for our skill feat to bolster our defenses a little bit against foes that we’ve frightened. For this class feat, I had hoped it had worked a little bit better in conjunction with his Bashing Charge, and it might even provide a bonus in a game I’m running if somebody were to use this in conjunction with that, but I still like Shattering Blows for him, allowing him to bash his way through walls and other barriers even when he doesn’t have the room to charge.
Gear: greater thundering weapon rune, +2 greater resilient full plate, greater boots of bounding, greater ring of the ram, handwraps of mighty blows (+2 greater striking), fortification armor rune
LEVEL 17 Honestly, Crafting and Intimidation are as high as I really want to take them, so I think I’ll leave that there. Instead, we’ll pivot and put a skill increase into Survival, raising it to expert proficiency. Our final ancestry feat will come from the dwarves – Stone Bones. Honestly, I think this feat is kinda nutty. It grants you a reaction to try to turn a critical hit into a normal hit. Sure it takes a DC 17 flat check, but there’s no usage limit or anything of that sort on it. As long as you are struck by a critical hit that deals physical damage, you can try to use this reaction to reduce it to a regular hit. Fantastic ancestry feat.
Gear: handwraps of mighty blows (+3 greater striking), greater thundering armor rune, dragonscale amulet, +2 greater resilient full plate, greater ring of the ram, rock-braced armor rune
LEVEL 18 We’re getting around to this super late in the game, but I’m running out of skill feats that I actually like for the guy. Intimidating Glare makes us able to inflict fear even when we don’t share a language. This is one of those feats I could understand grabbing earlier in some builds – but Rhino, as a character, mostly fights other people. My reasons are consistent. Mostly. Anyway, we’ll spend our class feat on Furious Grab, which essentially gives us the grab monster ability. As long as we’ve hit somebody, we can just spend an action to make them grabbed. No check required.
Gear: belt of giant’s strength, handwraps of mighty blows (+3 greater striking), speed weapon rune, greater thundering weapon rune, +2 greater resilient full plate, greater boots of bounding
LEVEL 19 Once more, we’ll take a skill increase to Survival, boosting it up to master proficiency. Our last general feat will be Improvised Repair so that we can patch up our armor even when we’re lacking tools.
Gear: +3 greater resilient full plate, belt of giant’s strength, greater daredevil boots, handwraps of mighty blows (+3 greater striking), greater thundering weapon rune, dragonscale amulet
LEVEL 20 We’ve come to our last array of ability boosts and unfortunately, I didn’t due these as efficiently as I could. For character reasons, I assure you, but I could understand deviating from this. Because our boosts are going to Strength, Dexterity, Constitution, and Intelligence (Str 22, Dex 12, Con 21, Int 12, Wis 18, Cha 18), meaning we have an odd number on Constitution from which we get no benefit. However, this does finally give us an Intelligence score greater than 0, so we’ll take that increase and gain both a new language and the trained proficiency in Nature. Because he’s a rhino. We’ll use our Crafting skill to get Rapid Affixture so that we can attach talismans quicker because nothing else quite feels right. Finally we come to our last class feat, which I really like, Quaking Stomp. This gives us an 8th-level spell that we can use as a single action once every 10 minutes that has enough power to bring down buildings or rip fissures into the earth. It matches up with some of his attacks, though they aren’t quite that powerful, and is just a really cool capstone barbarian feat that I’ve never taken before.
Gear: handwraps of mighty blows (+3 major striking), +3 greater resilient full plate, greater fortification armor rune, belt of giant’s strength, speed weapon rune, greater talisman cord
CONCLUSION With that, we have a big boy that charges into and through combat, hitting foes with his horn and using his incredible strength to dominate the battlefield. His armor protects him from most attacks, enabling him to rush into the thick of combat where he can grab foes and thrash them. I mostly took all the charging feats from the barbarian class with some protective stuff from sentinel. I had thought about waiting for inventor and getting a dedication for a more technological armor, but his armor doesn't seem to have a lot of doohickeys, so I stuck with sentinel. I did want the Steel Skin feat from that dedication but since Rhino mostly wears heavy armor, we wanted get the benefit from that until 19th level, so there wasn't much point in doing so.
Be sure to let me know what you think of the build!
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Have a fantastic Friday!
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