Before I take a break, I have one more kineticist for all of you, and this one should be a little funky. It features one of my favorite champs from League and one that I was struggling to build given her somewhat incongruous abilities. Sejuani’s primary theme is that of heavy calvary, somebody who leads the charge and stuff like her charge and swings with her flail feel that way. But throwing out freezing traps? Ice bola? They don’t quite match the heavy calvary feel and this disconnect made it difficult to put something together. But with this new class, I discovered a way to make it work. But enough useless chattering, why don’t you check out how I did so yourself down below.
Or you can check out the video over on the Ready to Die channel!
As always, this build is conceptualized entirely in a vacuum, with choices made in my best attempt to fit the character. These choice may not hold up in a campaign with different themes and should be adjusted accordingly.
With that, let’s get into the build for Sejuani, Fury of the North, from League of Legends!
SEJUANI, FURY OF THE NORTH
CHARACTER Sejuani
SOURCE League of Legends
BUILD GOALS
o Born to the frozen north of the Freljord, Sejuani was an iceborn, making her more resilient to the cold and allowing her to wield true ice
o Despite a brief friendship with Ashe, she became a raider where she encountered and freed a druevask boar that she named Bristle and took as her mount
o She eventually took over the Winter’s Claw by slaying her mother in battle
o Sejuani is a melee champion from League of Legends who is classified as a vanguard, an offensive tank that excels at leading the charge for their allies
o Fury of the North is a passive that allows Sejuani to deal extra damage to creatures she’s frozen and also gain frost armor that increases her defenses and makes her immune to slows at least until she gets in a fight
o With her Arctic Assault ability, Sejuani commands Bristle to charge forward, damaging and knocking enemies up
o Winter’s Wrath causes her to swing her true ice flail in an arc that knocks enemies back before lashing forward, damaging and slowing enemies
o The passive effect of Permafrost causes Sejuani and attacks from allied melee champs to apply stacks before she throws out a trap to freeze an enemy in place
o Her ultimate is Glacial Prison, which causes her to throw an ice bola that damages and stuns an enemy champion while creating a frost storm that slows enemies in the area
o In Legends of Runeterra, she has overwhelm and makes an enemy vulnerable and frostbitten on summon. Once leveled, the first instance of damage to the enemy nexus frostbites all enemies
LEVEL 1
Ancestry & Heritage: Wintertouched Human
o Ability Boosts & Flaws: +Strength, +Constitution
o Ancestry Feat: Tribal Bond – Athletics
Background: Raider
o Ability Boosts: +Strength, +Constitution
o Skill Increase: Intimidation (trained), Sailing Lore (trained)
o Background Feat: Intimidating Glare
Class & Subclass: Kineticist – Earth and Water
o Class Ability Boost: +Constitution
o Skill Increase: Acrobatics (trained), Crafting (trained), Nature (trained), Survival (trained)
o Class Feat: Armor in Earth, Weapon Infusion, Winter’s Clutch
Details
o Ability Boosts: +Strength, +Dexterity, +Constitution, +Wisdom (Str 16, Dex 12, Con 18, Int 10, Wis 12, Cha 10)
To represent Sejuani’s iceborn heritage, she is a wintertouched human, granting her resistance to cold damage and making her more resilient to harsh environments. Closely tied to her tribe of the Winter’s Claw, a band of hardy and brutal survivalists, she demonstrates this tie with the Quah/Tribal Bond ancestry feat and chooses the Athletics option. Reaching into one of the regional backgrounds, Sejuani uses the Raider background. Its Sailing Lore calls to mind the Tuskraider from Legends of Runeterra. Finally, Sejuani has a weird mix of abilities that can seem a little incongruous, mainly the freezing bolas and traps of her Permafrost not quite matching her heavy calvary thematic. In my attempt to capture that feel while still achieving the effects of her abilities, I had to resort to building her as a kineticist. Her primary element is water, which she’ll be using almost exclusively for cold damage. She can use Weapon Infusion to from her ice into her true ice flail, granting it traits such as reach or sweep while attacking in melee with it to make use of her brawn. In what may be a surprise, she makes use of earth as a secondary element, mainly to gain advantage of the Armor in Earth impulse. The armor this grants her helps her attain her in-game tankiness and at least an aspect of her Fury of the North passive.
LEVEL 2
o Class Feat: Kinetic Activation
o Skill Feat: Snare Crafting
o Gear: cloak of feline rest
LEVEL 3
o General Feat: Ride
o Skill Increase: Athletics (expert)
o Gear: necklace of knives, psychopomp mask, cloak of feline rest
LEVEL 4
o Class Feat: Mammoth Lord Dedication - Rhinoceros
o Skill Feat: Forager
o Gear: gate attenuator, necklace of knives, brooch of shielding, cloak of feline rest
LEVEL 5
o Ability Boosts: +Strength, +Constitution, +Wisdom, +Charisma (Str 18, Dex 12, Con 19, Int 10, Wis 14, Cha 12)
o Ancestry Feat: Witch Warden
o Gate’s Threshold: Expand the Portal – Water Impulse Junction and Deflecting Wave
o Skill Increase: Survival (expert)
o Gear: lifting belt, gate attenuator, coyote cloak, necklace of knives, psychopomp mask, cloak of feline rest
Sejuani uses a number of powerful artifacts and items in the lore of her abilities and between that and her ability to wield true ice, as an iceborn, Kinetic Activation felt like a good fit. At third level, she needs to take Ride so that she can pick up the Mammoth Lord Dedication to gain Bristle. For this particular example, some liberties will have to be taken and Bristle will be represented as a rhinoceros and this is because elemental blasts are not treated as Strikes. But the support benefit of other creatures I considered, obviously the boar as well as the triceratops, only trigger off of a Strike. But the rhinoceros has a similar body structure and has an, admittedly weaker, support benefit that triggers simply when you deal damage – which will work in conjunction with her elemental blasts. The activated effect of Permafrost is described as Sejuani hurling a trap at an enemy, which will be represented with the Snare Crafting skill feat. Sejuani is also the leader of a tribe of survivalists and she will support her people by taking the Forager skill feat.
Sejuani also gets a chance to Expand the Portal since there aren’t any other elements that she wants or needs. Deflecting Wave further enhances Sejuani’s tankiness with a reaction and could be flavored as frost to get closer to the flavor of her passive. She can take the water impulse junction to push enemies around the battlefield but an equally solid choice may be the earth aura junction. This choice makes it difficult for enemies to move past Sejuani, allowing her and Bristle to better serve as tanks by preventing enemies from getting to the backline.
LEVEL 6
o Class Feat: Mature Megafauna Companion
o Skill Feat: Titan Wrestler
o Gear: +1 studded leather, lifting belt, warcaller’s chime of destruction, gate attenuator, brooch of shielding, necklace of knives
LEVEL 7
o General Feat: Toughness
o Skill Increase: Athletics (master)
o Gear: lesser grub gloves, +1 studded leather, warcaller’s chime of resistance, warcaller’s chime of destruction, coyote cloak, staff of earth
LEVEL 8
o Class Feat: Incredible Megafauna Companion – Indomitable
o Skill Feat: Express Rider
o Gear: horseshoes of speed, lesser grub gloves, warcaller’s chime of blasting, +1 studded leather, gate attenuator, lifting belt
LEVEL 9
o Ancestry Feat: Haughty Obstinacy
o Gate’s Threshold: Expand the Portal – Earth Aura Junction and Winter Sleet
o Skill Increase: Survival (master)
o Gear: +1 resilient studded leather, horseshoes of speed, swiftmount saddle, lesser grub gloves, warcaller’s chime of resistance, gate attenuator
LEVEL 10
o Ability Boosts: +Strength, +Constitution, +Wisdom, +Charisma (Str 19, Dex 12, Con 20, Int 10, Wis 16, Cha 14)
o Class Feat: Staggering Blow
o Skill Feat: All of the Animal
o Gear: armbands of athleticism, +1 resilient studded leather, boreal staff, horseshoes of speed, warcaller’s chime of blasting, gate attenuator
Sejuani wants to keep Bristle relevant and useful, and will thus take Mature Megafauna Companion as well as Incredible Megafauna Companion to make Bristle an indomitable companion so he becomes even tankier. To represent her Arctic Assault, she takes Staggering Blow, allowing her to command Bristle to make an extraordinarily powerful attack. A successful hit also makes the target slowed, representing the knock up on the ability. With this Gate’s Threshold, Sejuani picks up the earth aura junction for the reasons explained above and then takes Winter Sleet. This is another ice-themed impulse for her, but it might be something that she doesn’t use often as by my understanding of it, it would unfortunately affect Bristle. However, if she ever ends up dismounted for any reason, it might be worth doing.
This block features a good selection of skill feats for her – Titan Wrestler to represent her brawn and being a larger than life character, Express Rider for her boar buddy, and then All of the Animal for her survivalist pragmatism. Toughness lends itself to Sejuani’s tankiness while Haughty Obstinacy is a nice representation of the character’s will and self-assured righteousness.
LEVEL 11
o General Feat: Fast Recovery
o Skill Increase: Crafting (expert)
o Gear: arctic vigor, armbands of athleticism, greater coyote cloak, +1 resilient studded leather, horseshoes of speed, swiftmount saddle
LEVEL 12
o Class Feat: Gigantic Megafauna Companion
o Skill Feat: Terrain Expertise – Arctic
o Gear: greater gate attenuator, arctic vigor, warcaller’s chime of dread, armbands of athleticism, boreal staff, +1 resilient studded leather
LEVEL 13
o Ancestry Feat: Stubborn Persistence
o Gate’s Threshold: Expand the Portal – Water Skill Junction and Glacial Prison
o Skill Increase: Crafting (master)
o Gear: moderate grub gloves, +2 resilient studded leather, greater gate attenuator, arctic vigor, armbands of athleticism, greater coyote cloak
LEVEL 14
o Class Feat: Specialized Megafauna Companion – Bully
o Skill Feat: Specialty Crafting – Snares
o Gear: energy adaptive armor rune, moderate grub gloves, greater gate attenuator, +2 resilient studded leather, arctic vigor, warcaller’s chime of dread
LEVEL 15
o Ability Boosts: +Strength, +Dexterity, +Constitution, +Charisma (Str 20, Dex 14, Con 21, Int 10, Wis 16, Cha 16)
o General Feat: Pick Up the Pace
o Skill Increase: Athletics (legendary)
o Gear: +2 greater resilient studded leather, energy adaptive armor rune, greater ring of the ram, moderate grub gloves, implacable armor rune, greater gate attenuator
This is where things are going to get a little funky. Gigantic Megafauna Companion doesn’t do much for Sejuani normally – it allows Bristle to grow to Huge, which is fun and somewhat allows her to control more of the battlefield, but it specifically doesn’t change of his stats. However, Specialized Megafauna Companion does do something for Bristle’s stats, making him stronger and better in Athletics. Sejuani will also increase her personal Athletics capability with the water skill junction, but more importantly, she gains Glacial Prison. This is the perfect representation of her activated Permafrost and the range of it is also a fantastic way to represent her ultimate, which even shares a name with this impulse. This admittedly has the incapacitation trait, but automatically scales with Sejuani, which will help keep it functional. Given her habitat and investment in Survival, Sejuani takes Terrain Expertise for arctic environments and will also take Specialty Crafting for her snares so that she might better hunt for the tribe. Fast Recovery further enhances her survivability, in particular making her more resilient to toxins and diseases, and Pick Up the Pace will allow her to urge her followers onward. Stubborn Persistence fits for similar reasons as Haughty Obstinacy, representing her bullheadedness and refusal to back down.
LEVEL 16
o Class Feat: Specialized Megafauna Companion – Wrecker
o Skill Feat: Impeccable Crafter
o Gear: greater arctic vigor, +2 greater resilient studded leather, greater horseshoes of speed, energy adaptive armor rune, greater gate attenuator, moderate grub gloves
LEVEL 17
o Ancestry Feat: Heroic Presence
o Gate’s Threshold: Expand the Portal – Earth Impulse Junction and Assume Earth’s Mantle
o Skill Increase: Survival (legendary)
o Gear: +3 greater striking weapon, greater arctic vigor, antimagic armor rune, +2 greater resilient studded leather, energy adaptive armor rune, greater gate attenuator
LEVEL 18
o Class Feat: Nourishing Gate
o Skill Feat: Legendary Survivalist
o Gear: major gate attenuator, wand of clinging rime (7th-level), greater dinosaur boots, greater arctic vigor, +2 greater resilient studded leather, greater horseshoes of speed
LEVEL 19
o General Feat: Diehard
o Skill Increase: Crafting (legendary)
o Gear: +3 greater resilient studded leather, major gate attenuator, greater armbands of athleticism, +3 greater striking weapon, greater arctic vigor, antimagic armor rune
LEVEL 20
o Ability Boosts: +Dexterity, +Constitution, +Wisdom, +Charisma (Str 20, Dex 16, Con 22, Int 10, Wis 18, Cha 18)
o Class Feat: Kinetic Pinnacle
o Skill Feat: Legendary Guide
o Gear: major goggles of night, +3 greater resilient studded leather, greater grub gloves, major gate attenuator, greater dinosaur boots, wand of clinging rime (7th-level)
There’s not a lot of builds I’ve done that actually takes Specialized Megafauna Companion multiple times, but Sej doesn’t actually want much from her class and what she does, she can get through Expand the Portal. With that being the case, Sejuani will also make Bristle into a Wrecker, allowing her brutish boar to barrel and batter through buildings and beings. Sejuani can make use of the earth impulse junction to further increase her defensive capabilities though for the sake of the build, she’ll prefer her water impulses. More excitingly, she gains Assume Earth’s Mantle. This is part of the reason that she takes Gigantic Megafauna Companion – this impulse makes her Large, and if Bristle wasn’t already Huge, she wouldn’t be able to ride him in this state. The sheer immensity of this is fun and it does provide Sejuani with a dollop of extra damage and reach. Sejuani has options such as Armor in Earth and Deflecting Wave to represent the enhanced protection of her Fury of the North passive, but will also take Nourishing Gate, which gives her a bonus on saves against effects that would make her paralyzed, helping her avoid being slowed down as per a secondary aspect of her passive. Her capstone feat will be another Kinetic Pinnacle. I did consider Legendary Rider, but that only works with the Command an Animal action, meaning that she can’t use it in concert with her Staggering Blow. Kinetic Pinnacle makes her quickened but gives her a much wider range of actions that she can use.
While not represented on the character sheet, Sejuani’s AC should be 45 with her Armor in Earth and be giving her constant resistance to slashing damage.
Impeccable Crafter makes her even better at making her snares and her final two skill feats will be for Survival, enhancing her ability to survive in extreme environments and to guide others through such landscapes. While it isn’t a focus of this build, Sejuani is a leader and Permafrost even interacts with her team. Heroic Presence plays into the concept though is more defensive than her skills are. Finally, Diehard just makes Sejuani what she always wants to be – even tankier.
FREE ARCHETYPE SUGGESTIONS: Even with a free archetype, Sejuani doesn’t want much from her class. Maybe she picks up a few impulses earlier and just takes extra impulses with her thresholds or can take options such as Nourishing Gate sooner. But while she may spend her class feats on her mammoth lord archetype, there are a few archetypes she could make use of. The first that comes to mind plays into her Permafrost and the traps that she tosses out with it – the Snarecrafter Dedication. This could also work with her Athletics investment or water critical blasts, allowing her to throw enemies into her traps for extra effects. Alternatively, you could play into her leadership with the Marshal Dedication. Dread Marshal Stance makes a bit more sense for her, but it is unfortunately a stance, meaning that she can’t use it alongside Winter Sleet or Assume Earth’s Mantle.
BUILD CONCLUSION
In maybe something of a twist, Sejuani is a wintertouched human kineticist with the raider background who wields the elements of earth and water. Though she’ll be sticking to using the cold aspects of it. Her heritage makes her better suited to survive arctic environments, befitting an iceborn, whereas the ability to wield true ice could be demonstrated through her Kinetic Activation feat. Since the boar animal companion doesn’t synergize with the kineticist, she’ll instead take a rhino animal companion with her Mammoth Lord Dedication to represent Bristle. Sejuani leads the Winter’s Claw, using feats such as Forager to keep them fed, Pick Up the Pace and Legendary Guide to ease their travel, and Heroic Presence to bolster them in combat. A true blue tank, Sejuani and Bristle have over 550 HP together and can keep enemies off of her backline through their sheer size and her earth aura. The protection offered by her Fury of the North passive is represented by Armor in Earth, Deflecting Wave, and options that make her more resistant to adverse effects, such as Fast Recovery and Nourishing Gate. For her Arctic Assault, Sejuani can command Bristle to perform a Staggering Blow that slows enemies as per the knockback or use the advanced maneuver of the rhinoceros, the Rhinoceros Charge, which allows Bristle to Stride and then make a horn Strike that deals additional damage.. She uses Weapon Infusion for her Winter’s Wrath – she can give her elemental blast reach for the initial lash and then give it the sweep trait for the broad swing. Snarecrafting and her related Crafting feats help to create the thematic effect of her Permafrost though the actual freeze effect is represented by Glacial Prison impulse – which also serves as her ultimate, matching perfectly even in name! For the frost storm that surrounds her ultimate, it’ll take a round, but she can follow up Glacial Prison with Winter’s Clutch. The vulnerable inflicted by her card in LoR allows her to force a fight, which she can somewhat do through her tankiness and by how difficult it is to get around her.
This brawny babe bosses about a burly, behemoth boar as she bashes, batters, and busts up both barricades and brigands with her boreal bludgeons and blasts.
Lemme know what you think and what other builds you would like to see!
If you want to join in on the discussion of these builds and the ones I do for monsters or just hang out with a bunch of fellow TTRPG nerds, check out the Discord server. We also have a Twitter where we try to post teasers for the blog. As I said, I will be taking a break next week because work has been unusually busy and I just need time to catch my footing. The next Full Build Friday will be September 15th, and I have something special planned!
Have a fantastic Friday!
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