Full Build Friday - Squirrel Girl [Human Alchemist]

We're gonna kick off November with a build that's a little . . . nutty. 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.

Give the video a watch and let me know what you think!

Let's crack the shell of this nut and check out the build for Squirrel Girl from Marvel Rivals!

SQUIRREL GIRL

CHARACTER Doreen Green

SOURCE Marvel Rivals

BUILD GOALS

o    Although not a mutant (somehow), Doreen was born with squirrel-like traits and abilities, including a bushy, prehensile tail

o    She’s a computer science student in college

o    She is typically accompanied by Tippy-Toe, her squirrel companion

o    Her Marvel Rivals version is a long-ranged duelist who features slightly higher health than normal

o    The Burst Acorn primary fire launches an explosive projectile that can bounce off walls

o    With her secondary fire, Squirrel Blockade, she launches a projectile that deals damage and immobilizes

o    Tail Bounce is her mobility tool and launches her upwards far higher than her normal jump does

o    Mammal Bond allows her to immediately reload her Burst Acorn or use Squirrel Blockade or Tail Bounce even if they’re on cooldown

o    That leaves her ultimate, Unbeatable Squirrel Tsunami, which summons a horde of squirrels that stampede towards enemies and damage them

o    She can team-up with others to fire a Squirrel Missile – a missile guided by a squirrel before its leaps off just before it detonates

Summary of Goals: Squirrel Girl is a ranged combatant that launches exploding projectiles or can pin foes down. She is surprisingly mobile, especially vertically, and can also summon a horde of squirrels to stampede over people.

LEVEL 1 

Ancestry & Heritage: Nephilim Human

o    Ability Boosts & Flaws: +Dexterity, +Intelligence

o    Ancestry Feat: Bestial Manifestation – Tail

Background: Tech Support

o    Ability Boosts: +Intelligence, +Dexterity

o    Skill Increase: Computers (T), Business Lore (T)

o    Background Feat: Quick Install

Class & Subclass: Bomber Alchemist

o    Class Ability Boost: +Intelligence

o    Skill Increase: Acrobatics (T), Athletics (T), Crafting (T), Diplomacy (T), Nature (T), Society (T), Stealth (T), Survival (T)

o    Class Feat: Quick Bomber

Details

o    Ability Boosts: +Dexterity, +Constitution, +Intelligence, +Wisdom (Str +0, Dex +3, Con +1, Int +4, Wis +1, Cha +0)

While something of a strange choice, we’ll use the Nephilim heritage along with the human ancestry since this will allow us to develop her tail, which we can start at first level with a Bestial Manifestation. Her background in tech support, pulled from Starfinder Second Edition, is based on her studies into computer science though we’ll be returning to Pathfinder for the alchemist class, inspired by the explosive acorns she launches, which you can treat as any sort of bomb that you’d like – there are a lot of them at this point. For her Burst Acorns specifically, I like something like a tenderizer grenade, pressure bomb, or maybe a blasting stone. But she’ll also want to learn the formula for a glue bomb as that will let her potentially lock enemies down, inspired by her Squirrel Blockade ability though she will need to get the critical hit with this to get that immobilization effect. Her Mammal Bond allows her to reload her weapon more quickly, which led to me including Quick Bomber as her class feat, allowing her to draw and Strike with a bomb as a single action. There will be more to covering this particular ability, but that gives us a solid start.

Level 1 Squirrel Girl, Page 1

Level 1 Squirrel Girl, Page 2

LEVEL 2

o    Class Feat: Swarmkeeper Dedication

o    Skill Feat: Quick Jump

o    Gear: cloak of feline rest

LEVEL 3

o    General Feat: Ancestral Paragon – Natural Ambition – Far Lobber

o    Skill Increase: Athletics (E)

o    Gear: alchemist’s flamethrower, cloak of feline rest, alchemical gauntlet

LEVEL 4

o    Class Feat: Weaver’s Web

o    Skill Feat: Powerful Leap

o    Gear: backfire mantle, +1 sling, alchemist’s flamethrower, cloak of feline rest

LEVEL 5

o    Ability Boosts: +Dexterity, +Constitution, +Intelligence, +Charisma (Str +0, Dex +4, Con +2, Int +4.5, Wis +1, Cha +1)

o    Ancestry Feat: Skillful Tail

o    Skill Increase: Diplomacy (E)

o    Gear: alchemist goggles, backfire mantle, bracelet of dashing, alchemist’s flamethrower, cloak of feline rest, alchemical gauntlet

To cover the effects of Squirrel Girl’s ultimate, her Unbeatable Squirrel Tsunami, we’re actually going to use a Swarmkeeper Dedication. Now, I recognize that this is normally meant to be swarms of insects and the like, but it shouldn’t be too hard to reflavor this to fit Doreen’s stampeding squirrels. Our bomber research field does come in handy here as she is able to avoid bombing her swarm, or her other allies, with the splash damage. She expands on the use of her squirrel swarm with Weaver’s Web, giving her another way to immobilize enemies in addition to her glue bombs. She does get another class feat by using Ancestral Paragon to take Natural Ambition, which finally ends in Far Lobber so that she can attack at a greater range. I’m not sure how squirrels are making immobilizing webs, but I’m just making the build – the flavor is up to you. With her skill feats, she’s going to focus on jumping a bit for the sake of her Tail Bounce with Quick Jump letting her jump more regularly (as though she used Mammal Bond) and Powerful Leap giving her the high vertical leap of her Bounce. I also want to represent the prehensile and nimble nature of her tail, which leads to the use of Skillful Tail and is one of the main reasons behind using the Nephilim heritage.

 LEVEL 6

o    Class Feat: Distracting Bites

o    Skill Feat: Glad-Hand

o    Gear: +1 leather, +1 striking sling, alchemist goggles, backfire mantle, alchemist’s flamethrower, stone of encouragement

LEVEL 7

o    General Feat: Fleet

o    Skill Increase: Athletics (M)

o    Gear: schematic scanner, +1 leather, bomb coagulant alembic, alchemist goggles, backfire mantle, bracelet of dashing

LEVEL 8

o    Class Feat: Directional Bombs

o    Skill Feat: Combat Climber

o    Gear: boots of bounding, ring of the ram, schematic scanner, +1 leather, +1 striking sling, alchemist goggles

LEVEL 9

o    Ancestry Feat: Larcenous Tail

o    Skill Increase: Diplomacy (M)

o    Gear: +1 resilient leather, boots of bounding, fearless sash, schematic scanner, bomb coagulant alembic, +1 striking sling

LEVEL 10

o    Ability Boosts: +Dexterity, +Constitution, +Intelligence, +Charisma (Str +0, Dex +4.5, Con +3, Int +5, Wis +1, Cha +2)

o    Class Feat: Debilitating Bomb

o    Skill Feat: Wall Jump

o    Skill Increase: Thievery (T)

o    Gear: bravery baldric (haste), +1 resilient leather, greater backfire mantle, boots of bounding, schematic scanner, +1 striking sling

While the remaster has granted the alchemist a properly scaling proficiency with its bombs, they’re primary attack stat is still regulated to a secondary stat. As such, something like Distracting Bites leaving enemies off-guard will certainly be handy for Squirrel Girl whereas Directional Bombs might help her avoid catching her swarm in the blast of her bombs. This is actually one of those feats that don’t quite fit the character, but are handy to make the build function better within the rules system of Pathfinder. Honestly, we’ve covered a lot of her options by this point – standard bombs for her Burst Acorns, glue bombs and Web Weaver for Squirrel Blockade, Powerful Leap for Tail Bounce, Quick Bomber and Quick Jump for her Mammal Bond, and the Swarmkeeper Dedication to call forth her Unbeatable Squirrel Tsunami. This means that the rest of the build can simply be expanding on concepts we’ve already explored and making the build overall more functional. For example, Debilitating Bomb can be used to inflict a slow on enemies in the spirit of Squirrel Blockade though in-game, she may want to inflict the other conditions this grants her access to.

I had a suggestion for using Diplomacy as one of her primary skills as she apparently talked down Galactus and without other skills really coming to mind, that felt reasonable enough, so this block sees her pick up Glad-Hand. However, her remaining two skill feats for the block focus on Athletics with the likes of Combat Climber (because squirrel powers) and Wall Jump (to help with the double jump of Tail Bounce). Fleet is, as its typing suggests, generally useful and aids in her maneuverability while Larcenous Tail simply expands on the use and effects of her nimble, prehensile tail.

Level 10 Squirrel Girl, Page 1

Level 10 Squirrel Girl, Page 2

LEVEL 11

o    General Feat: Toughness

o    Skill Increase: Computers (E)

o    Gear: +2 striking sling, bravery baldric (haste), greater sleeves of storage, +1 resilient leather, boots of bounding, fearless sash

LEVEL 12

o    Class Feat: Uncanny Bombs

o    Skill Feat: Quick Climb

o    Gear: +2 resilient leather, +2 striking sling, winged sandals, bravery baldric (haste), greater stone of encouragement, greater backfire mantle

LEVEL 13

o    Ancestry Feat: Cooperative Nature

o    Skill Increase: Computers (M)

o    Gear: +2 greater striking sling, +2 resilient leather, greater alchemist goggles, winged sandals, armbands of athleticism, bravery baldric (haste)

LEVEL 14

o    Class Feat: Expanded Swarm

o    Skill Feat: No Cause for Alarm

o    Gear: smuggler’s sack (type IV), +2 greater striking sling, moderate grub gloves, +2 resilient leather, winged sandals, greater backfire mantle

LEVEL 15

o    Ability Boosts: +Dexterity, +Constitution, +Intelligence, +Charisma (Str +0, Dex +5, Con +4, Int +5.5, Wis +1, Cha +3)

o    General Feat: Keen Follower

o    Skill Increase: Athletics (L)

o    Gear: +2 greater resilient leather, propulsive boots, smuggler’s sack (type IV), +2 greater striking sling, greater alchemist goggles, greater crafter’s eyepiece

Squirrel Girl’s team-up ability has one of her squirrels guide a missile and to fit that idea, she includes Uncanny Bombs in her build since it reduces circumstance bonuses to AC and automatically succeeds on concealment checks. The build then switches over to her swarmkeeper archetype for Expanded Swarm as it is just generally useful by making her squirrel swarm even larger. We have Quick Climb for that squirrel scampering she can do, and then we also grab No Cause for Alarm since she is a superhero and has been investing in Diplomacy. For her general feats, Toughness is included based on her slightly higher Hit Points than normal for a duelist while Keen Follower is inspired by her being a younger hero, given that she’s still in college, following the lead of more veteran venturers. That leaves us with her ancestry feat for the block and Cooperative Nature follows a similar idea and lets her help out her companions, which harkens to her appearance in comics a bit where she’s more of a side character and doesn’t have many or long-lasting solo runs.

LEVEL 16

o    Class Feat: Greater Debilitating Bomb

o    Skill Feat: Cloud Jump

o    Gear: greater thundering weapon rune, +2 greater resilient leather, greater primeval mistletoe, propulsive boots, +2 greater striking sling, moderate grub gloves

LEVEL 17

o    Ancestry Feat: Cooperative Soul

o    Skill Increase: Diplomacy (L)

o    Gear: +3 greater striking sling, greater cape of illumination, greater thundering weapon rune, +2 greater resilient leather, propulsive boots, smuggler’s sack (type IV)

LEVEL 18

o    Class Feat: Expanded Splash

o    Skill Feat: Legendary Negotiation

o    Gear: cloak of swiftness, +3 greater striking sling, quickstrike weapon rune, greater thunderblast slippers, +2 greater resilient leather, greater primeval mistletoe

LEVEL 19

o    General Feat: Incredible Initiative

o    Skill Increase: Computers (L)

o    Gear: +3 greater resilient leather, cloak of swiftness, major alchemist goggles, +3 greater striking sling, greater thundering weapon rune, greater thunderblast slippers

LEVEL 20

o    Ability Boosts: +Strength, +Intelligence, +Wisdom, +Charisma (Str +1, Dex +5, Con +4, Int +6, Wis +2, Cha +4)

o    Class Feat: Perfect Debilitation

o    Skill Feat: Shameless Request

o    Skill Increase: Occultism (T)

o    Gear: +3 major striking sling, +3 greater resilient leather, mercurial mantle, major alchemist goggles, misleading armor rune, quickstrike weapon rune

This block follows a pretty standard line that expands on Debilitating Bomb, working her way up to Perfect Debilitation. Pathfinder Second Edition doesn’t have many feat trees, but this is a pretty extensive one though I ended up swapping out True Debilitating Bomb for Enhanced Splash to get her some extra damage and a bigger boom since duelists are predominantly damage dealers. Looking at her skills feats, she’ll start off with Cloud Jump to give her the crazy high hop of her Tail Bounce, completing what Powerful Leap started. She closes out her skill feats with Diplomacy options such as Legendary Negotiation and Shameless Request, allowing her to do the likes of talking down Galactus from eating Earth. She grabs Cooperative Soul for similar reasons as Cooperative Nature and then she has Incredible Initiative, representing her eagerness to leap in and help out.

Level 20 Squirrel Girl, Page 1

Level 20 Squirrel Girl, Page 2

FREE ARCHETYPE SUGGESTIONS: Squirrel Girl could expand on her swarmkeeper archetype a bit, mainly for Mobile Swarm and Carried With the Swarm to increase her mobility. Beyond that, I think the Familiar Master Dedication could suit her quite well and expand on her connection with Tippy-Toe, allowing her to become an Enhanced Familiar or even a Familiar Mascot. Alternatively, the Acrobat Dedication is another handy option that could let her take advantage of the high Dexterity we’ve been investing in while keeping her light on her feet.

BUILD CONCLUSION

Doreen Green, the unbeatable Squirrel Girl, is a nephilim human alchemist of the bomber research field and a background as a tech support based on her studies in computer science. However, the Nephilim heritage with its Bestial Manifestation and Skillful Tail resembles the natural squirrel-like traits that she was born with. With Tippy-Toe as her most constant companion, I wanted to resemble the little squirrel through the Alchemical Familiar feat whereas the alchemist itself now comes with almost martial scaling for its alchemical bombs, making it suitable for a duelist though one that’s got Toughness to help her hang in a fight. The other reason behind using the alchemist is that it provides us with bombs aplenty that match the splash of her Burst Acorn with Expanded Splash and her bomber research field providing her with the damage befitting a duelist. This class also lets her use glue bombs or Debilitating Bombs to pin down foes, per her Squirrel Blockade. For the high jump of her Tail Bounce, she takes the likes of Powerful Leap before building into Cloud Jump so that she can bound into a high position to strike down on foes from afar. Mammal Bond is a little harder to represent, but I tried to do so by having options that simplify the action economy such as Quick Bomber and Quick Jump. As for her ultimate, she can summon an Ultimate Squirrel Tsunami through the Swarmkeeper Dedication, letting her call forth a swarm that we’ll have to flavor as squirrels that can leave her enemies vulnerable and even lock them down with Weaver’s Web – though figuring out the flavor for that is going to be on you. That just leaves her Squirrel Missile team-up, which I’ll represent with her Uncanny Bombs that represents the guiding squirrel by ignoring concealment and reducing the bonuses from cover.

Certainly special, this sweetheart summons swarms of scampering squirrels and sends shots spiraling into sinister sorts, swiftly subduing even supreme situations in scant seconds.

Lemme know what you think and what other builds you would like to see!

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Have a fantastic Friday!