This build comes from a request that I received and it was one that I legitimately struggled with. Rhys is a character from Magic the Gathering who is represented by two cards - neither of which have abilities that transfer over to Pathfinder particularly well. Instead, I had to dive into his lore to try to figure out a good build for him and even then I didn't have the time to read the novels he is featured in. At the end of it, I made a build that tries to capture the essence of the character, and I feel as though I at least got close. But check it out yourself and lemme know what you think!
RHYS
CHARACTER Rhys the Exiled / Rhys the Redeemed
SOURCE Magic the Gathering
GOAL Rhys is an elf that hails from the Lorwyn who was became the apprentice of a treefolk shaman named Colfenor who was well-versed in poison magic and taught its power to Rhys. Returning to his people, Rhys became a hunter who was forced into exile when an attack on a boggart feast went awry. Outside of lore, Rhys is represented through two cards – Rhys the Exiled and Rhys the Redeemed. The former is a green Elf Warrior with 3 power and 2 toughness. The player gains 1 life for each elf he controls when Rhys attacks and can tap 1 black mana to sacrifice another elf to regenerate Rhys. His second card is a 1/1 Elf Warrior that is green-white and makes lots of elf tokens. He is shown wielding a bow as well as light swords, which seem to be his preferred weapons. For this build, we’re going to build a martial character that prefers skirmishing over direct combat, is able to command others, and wields poison to debilitate foes.
LEVEL 1 This is gonna be a rough build, but it starts the same place as every other build, with our ABCs – our ancestry, background, and class. For that first step, we’re looking at woodland elf – Rhys is clearly described as an elf even if the ones of his plane have horns and the woodland heritage works well with a forest dweller and the idea of a skirmisher that I’m starting with. We’ll receive an automatic boost to Dexterity and Intelligence, a free boost to Str, and a flaw to Constitution. With the Woodcraft ancestry feat, we treat any critical failures and successes made to Sense Direction, Subsist, and Cover Directions in a forest or jungle environment as one degree of success better. This helps Rhys survive on his own following his exile from his tribe.
I flip-flopped around on the choice of his background a little bit. I looked at hunter since he was described as such, at martial disciple for his warrior typing, and even some more esoteric stuff to reflect his apprenticeship to Colfenor. Ultimately, I settled on hermit to represent his time spent in exile. This first boost will go to Constitution to balance it out while the free boost goes to Dexterity. We become trained in Nature and Forest Lore and receive the Dubious Knowledge skill feat, allowing us to learn a little bit of info on a Recall Knowledge check even on a failure.
I was looking at fighter for a bit before deciding that I liked ranger better – he takes a bit more to get set-up, but once he is, he’s looking at a better action economy, which I think helps with the idea of a skirmisher. Ranger also feels like a better fit for his history as a huntmaster among his tribe. We will be taking the flurry hunter’s edge, greatly reducing our multiple attack penalty. Our class boost goes into Dexterity, which we follow with four free boosts that we will plug into Strength, Dexterity, Wisdom, and Charisma (Str 14, Dex 18, Con 10, Int 12, Wis 12, Cha 12). Since we are trained in Nature from our background, we’ll become trained in Crafting instead. We are automatically trained in Survival and then we will become trained in Acrobatics, Athletics, Diplomacy, Medicine, and Stealth. Blades are featured in more of Rhys’s art than any other weapons, so I decided to lean into a dual weapon build for this idea, starting with Twin Takedown, which lets us make two attacks, each with a different weapon, as a single action.
LEVEL 2 To very vaguely reflect Rhys the Exiled’s first ability as well as his regeneration, we can take Battle Medicine so that we can heal ourselves mid-combat. Nothing immediately leaps out to me as a must-have feat at second level for the ranger, and to reflect the training in poisons that Rhys was given by Colfenor, we will take the Poisoner Dedication. This grants us alchemical benefits that we can only use to make poisons.
Gear: everburning torch
LEVEL 3 As both a hunter and an exile, Rhys needs to avoid notice, so we’ll take our first skill increase to Stealth and get expert proficiency in it. With the Feather Step general feat, we’re able to move in and out of combat easier as we can Step into difficult terrain.
Gear: +1 shortsword, everburning torch, dull grey aeon stone
LEVEL 4 Being a hunter requires patience and the Terrain Stalker - Underbrush skill feat helps with that. As long as we take it slow in our preferred environment, we can Sneak without making Stealth checks with this eat. The Poisoner’s Twist class feat gives us some guaranteed damage after we Strike a creature that is poisoned – though we do have to know the type of poison.
Gear: doubling rings, +1 shortsword, necklace of knives, everburning torch
LEVEL 5 We have four ability boosts that we will apply to Strength, Dexterity, Constitution, and Charisma (Str 16, Dex 19, Con 12, Int 12, Wis 12, Cha 14). To help with some of our future Poisoner Dedication features, we’ll apply this skill increase to Crafting, getting to expert proficiency in it. We’ll pick up Elven Instincts as our ancestry feat, granting us a bonus on Perception checks made for initiative and makes it so that we win on ties for initiative.
Gear: +1 striking shortsword, coyote cloak, doubling rings, +1 longbow, everburning torch, dull grey aeon stone
LEVEL 6 Investing in something that will help us outside of combat, Group Impression also feels appropriate for Rhys to appeal to multiple people. Reaching into Poisoner Dedication again, we’ll grab Poison Weapon, allowing us to poison our weapons in combat as a single action even if normally we’re going to want to do so before combat starts.
Gear: +1 leather armor, +1 striking shortbow, hunter’s arrowhead, doubling rings, +1 longbow, necklace of knives
LEVEL 7 As we are now able to achieve master proficiency in our skills, the first to receive that honor will be Stealth, getting us to master proficiency. We can take Fleet as our general feat, increasing our Speed by 5-feet.
Gear: clandestine cloak, +1 leather armor, diplomat’s badge, +1 striking longsword, doubling rings, +1 longbow
LEVEL 8 With the Swift Sneak skill feat, we can move at our full Speed when we Sneak. Finally, since we have more than two feats after our Poisoner Dedication, we can reach into another one – in this case, Marshal Dedication. The idea behind taking this archetype is that it turns Rhys into a battlefield leader of sorts, which is the closest we can get to Rhys the Redeemed’s ability to create elf tokens. We’ll be selecting Diplomacy with our Marshal Dedication, which increases our proficiency in that skill to expert. This also gives us an aura to bolster our allies’ saves against fear.
Gear: cloak of elvenkind, horn of fog, clandestine cloak, +1 leather armor, +1 striking shortsword, +1 striking longbow (at this point, I’d be sure to pick up doubling rings with spare gold if need be)
LEVEL 9 Since we just achieved expert proficiency in Diplomacy, we’ll take this skill increase to it again, making us master proficiency in it. As for most feats I pick for this build, Tree Climber is largely based on lore for Rhys – specifically his rearing among treefolk and likelihood that he has spent a lot of time scaling trees. With this ancestry feat, we receive a 10 ft. climb speed.
Gear: +1 resilient leather armor, cloak of elvenkind, boots of bounding, clandestine cloak, +1 striking shortsword, +1 striking longbow
LEVEL 10 We have another four ability boosts that will go to Strength, Dexterity, Wisdom, and Charisma (Str 18, Dex 20, Con 12, Int 12, Wis 14, Cha 16). Given that we have invested slightly in climbing, we’ll pick up Combat Climber for our skill feat. With this, we’re not flat-footed when we Climb and can do so with a hand occupied. From the Marshal Dedication, we grab Inspiring Marshal Stance for our class feat. We can enter this stance as a single action and try to give our allies a bonus to their attack rolls as long as they are within our aura.
Gear: eyes of the eagle, +1 resilient leather armor, corrosive weapon rune, cloak of elvenkind, +1 striking shortsword, +1 striking longbow
LEVEL 11 We’ve been lacking in Survival a little bit, so this time we’ll take our skill increase there to get up to expert proficiency. It seems odd, but we’ll take Hireling Manager as our general feat, allowing us to acquire better hirelings for anything of the sort we’re doing. My idea behind this is that Rhys is as skilled at commanding people outside of combat as he is inside it.
Gear: +2 striking shortsword, eyes of the eagle, greater coyote cloak, +1 resilient leather armor, cloak of elvenkind, boots of bounding
LEVEL 12 Given that Rhys has survived in the wilds for some time and that he used to work as a hunter, we’ll take Survey Wildlife so that Rhys can try to identify creatures in the environment without coming across them personally. At this level, we can finally take Poison Expert from the Poisoner Dedication, increasing the level of poisons we can make with our archetype.
Gear: +2 resilient leather armor, +2 striking shortsword, +2 striking longbow, eyes of the eagle, corrosive weapon rune, cloak of elvenkind
LEVEL 13 Another skill increase to Survival increase its proficiency to master. For our ancestry feat, we look to Avenge Ally, so that we can roll twice on a single attack and take the better result when we’re adjacent to a dying ally. Rhys doesn’t have many friends left and he fights for them with all that he can muster.
Gear: +2 greater striking shortsword, +2 resilient leather armor, greater boots of elvenkind, +2 striking longbow, eyes of the eagle, greater coyote cloak
LEVEL 14 The Foil Senses skill feat is used to disguise us from extraordinary senses, which is something that any good hunter would do. Going back to our Marshal Dedication, we’ll take Cadence Call so that Rhys can makes his allies quickened for 1 round – though they’re slowed the round after. This is part of the idea of making Rhys better at commanding allies and while it doesn’t increase the number of them, it does increase the number of actions they can take.
Gear: boots of speed, +2 greater striking shortsword, +2 greater striking longbow, +2 resilient leather armor, greater clandestine cloak, serrating weapon rune
LEVEL 15 Four more ability boosts! These go into Dexterity, Intelligence, Wisdom, and Charisma (Str 18, Dex 21, Con 12, Int 14, Wis 14, Cha 18). This increased Intelligence will make us trained in Thievery so that we can disable traps and the like. Since we can reach legendary proficiency in our skills now, we’ll get there with Stealth with this skill increase. With the Incredible Scout general feat, we grant our allies +2 to their initiative rolls when we use the Scout exploration activity.
Gear: +2 greater resilient leather armor, boots of speed, +2 greater striking shortsword, +2 greater striking longbow, greater boots of elvenkind, greater goggles of night
LEVEL 16 With Legendary Sneak, we can Hide and Sneak anywhere – which gives us the chance to disappear to apply poisons and recollect ourselves if need be even in the midst of combat. The Tactical Cadence class feat from the Marshal Dedication improves the effectiveness of Cadence Call, allowing them to Stride or Strike with their extra action and not slowing them.
Gear: greater corrosive weapon rune, +2 greater resilient leather armor, greater boots of bounding, keen weapon rune, +2 greater striking shortsword, +2 greater striking longbow
LEVEL 17 We will also bump our Diplomacy up to legendary, mostly to increase the likelihood of us critically succeeding at our Inspiring Marshal Stance. The Wandering Heart ancestry feat allows Rhys to adapt to whatever environment he finds himself, which feels fitting for a wandering exile.
Gear: +3 greater striking shortsword, dragonscale amulet, greater corrosive weapon rune, +2 greater resilient leather armor, keen weapon rune, +2 greater striking longbow
LEVEL 18 When stealth is called for, we can try to use the Quiet Allies skill feat to move unseen as a group. With most of the feats that feel appropriate from our archetypes, we finally go back to the ranger for our class feats and take Impossible Flurry, allowing Rhys to make six attacks as three actions as long as he’s dual wielding. This is mainly something for Rhys to unleash when he’s already set up his other stuff, but part of me wonders if it might not be better to go back to earlier ranger feats. If Impossible Flurry isn’t your cup of tea, I suggest going for Quick Draw so that we can draw and Strike with a weapon as a single action.
Gear: anklets of alacrity, +3 greater striking shortsword, +3 greater striking longbow, greater corrosive weapon rune, +2 greater resilient leather armor, greater boots of bounding
LEVEL 19 We’ll get Survival up to legendary proficiency to this skill increase. We’ll also grab True Perception, which effectively gives us a permanent true seeing effect – something that I’ll always take if the opportunity presents itself.
Gear: +3 greater resilient leather armor, anklets of alacrity, +3 greater striking shortsword, +3 greater striking longbow, greater corrosive weapon rune, dragonscale amulet
LEVEL 20 Our final set of ability boosts will go to Dexterity, Constitution, Intelligence, and Wisdom (Str 18, Dex 22, Con 14, Int 16, Wis 16, Cha 18). We become trained in Society due to this increased Intelligence. With that skill increase to Survival, we’ll take Legendary Survivalist so that Rhys can survive in the most extreme conditions, which is fitting for Rhys’s role as an exile and the immense changes his home plane undergoes. To improve the effectiveness of Impossible Flurry, we can grab Accurate Flurry, which makes it so that we take lesser penalties on the first attacks from it. Again, if this isn’t really something you like, I suggest taking the Skirmishing Strike class feat, allowing Rhys to Step and Strike or vice versa as a single action.
Gear: +3 major striking shortsword, +3 greater resilient leather armor, major goggles of night, anklets of alacrity, +3 greater striking longbow, speed weapon rune
CONCLUSION This is a build in which I desperately wished I could use the free archetype rule, but even if I use it in all the games I run, I’m trying to do these builds with just the base rules. I ended up leaning much more into the lore of this character rather than the abilities of his cards – such as he was trained in poison by Colfenor and survived as an exile. My investment in Poisoner Dedication was largely to get it to a point where I felt like it was useful, but I might have dipped too far into it. It’s very hard to replicate stuff like ‘regenerate’ even if I vaguely tried to capture the idea of it with Battle Medicine somewhat. I dipped into the idea of his second card mostly with the Marshal Dedication, allowing him to command others since I obviously couldn’t have him just spawn elf minions in combat. And there’s no summon humanoid spell yet. One thing I want to justify – I kept his Constitution somewhat low for the simple fact that most of his cards have low Toughness.
Lemme know what you think of the build! Does it work? Does it capture the feel of the character? What would you change about it? Is it something you’d like to play? What other characters would you like to see for Full Build Friday?
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Have a fantastic Friday!
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