As I've mentioned previously, I enjoy doing builds for comic book characters because they tend to have well-storied skills and abilities to draw from, even if they appeared in short runs like our current build here. Talon ran for 18 total issues (0-17) and came out of the Court of Owl events from the Batman comics and was well-written with some excellent art for most of the series. This is the character I was talking about back when I built Tiktaq'to that I had to reread and some choices I made did end up changing from that once I refreshed myself.
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 Calvin Rose, the Talon, from DC!
TALON
CHARACTER Calvin Rose
SOURCE DC
GOAL Within the comics of Batman, the Talons are the enforcers, hunters, and assassins of the insidious Court of Owls. Calvin Rose was chosen to fill that role in the early 21st century following a rough childhood during which he became an escape artist at Haly’s Circus, demonstrating considerable skill with picking locks. His talent put him in the sights of the Court of Owls who trained him to serve them before he was challenged in their labyrinth and became the first to escape it. While he evaded the Court of Owls for a long time, they ultimately caught up to him and killed him in a power struggle within their ranks before bringing him back as they had their other Talons, with electrum. This made him stronger and more resilient but more susceptible to the cold. In combat, he favors outwitting his foes and wields a pair of daggers that he can throw with ease.
LEVEL 1 The first thing that we have to go through is our ABCs – ancestry, background, and class. I knew I was going to build Calvin Rose as a human, but I was a little split on what heritage – I wanted something that captured the feel of his death and raising as a Talon, but was torn between dhampir and duskwalker. Ultimately, I decided that duskwalker had a better feel to it for him, and took the two free boosts from being human to Strength and Dexterity. I settled on Deliberate Death for his ancestry feat, which is useful to get off some damage before we go down, but is something I mainly picked because his death came at the brutal hands of Bane killing him.
Calvin was raised in the circus from a young age so even if he wasn’t exactly born in it, I like the circus born background for Calvin. This background comes from the Extinction Curse Player’s Guide and gives us an initial boost to Intelligence, followed by a free boost to Dexterity. We become trained in Performance and Circus Lore and receive the Experienced Professional skill feat.
My first thought was to build Calvin as a swashbuckler and use Flying Blade, but after reading through the comics again, rogue felt more appropriate. With the thief racket, we automatically become trained in Thievery, which is appropriate for an escape artist like Calvin. We’re also automatically trained in Stealth and then will become trained in Acrobatics, Athletics, Crafting, Deception, Diplomacy, Occultism, Society, and Survival as well. As Calvin is often depicted dual wielding his blades, we’ll pick up Twin Feint to give us a pretty regular way to get a sneak attack off when we can’t otherwise make foes flat-footed. Calvin hides picks and other stuff frequently, an early issue has him hiding a pin in the callous of his foot to use as a lockpick, so we’ll start by taking the Experienced Smuggler skill feat so that he is better at hiding items on his person. I do want to mention that for this build, I envision Calvin wielding a shortsword in one hand and a dagger in the other or a pair of daggers. This helps his damage a little bit.
LEVEL 2 One of Calvin’s main shticks is his ability to pick locks and the like, so we’ll take our first skill increase to Thievery, bumping it up to expert proficiency. As part of that, we’ll also take Wary Disarmament so that we are better at avoiding any trap that we might accidentally trigger. Since Calvin tends to dual wield his blades or throw them, Quick Draw is helpful as it allows us to draw and Strike with a weapon as a single action instead of having to spend two actions to do so.
Gear: ring of discretion
LEVEL 3 As a former assassin, Calvin’s next skill increase goes to Stealth, increasing its proficiency to expert. With the Pickpocket skill feat, we can put our Thievery skill to use to steal away the items of our targets unseen. Our general feat at this level will be Toughness to compensate for our low Con despite us being a melee character.
Gear: +1 dagger, everburning torch, ring of discretion
LEVEL 4 In PF2e, another big part of escaping is getting out of grabs and the like, so to make Calvin better at doing so, we’ll use this skill increase to get Acrobatics to expert proficiency. We’ll pick up Subtle Theft as our skill feat so that we’re better at nabbing stuff and then take Strong Arm as our class feat since Calvin does like throwing his knives when he gets the chance. Getting some doubling rings is somewhat important because it allows our off-hand weapon to keep pace with our main one so even after we can no longer pick it up via leveled items, it’s something we’ll still be making sure is in our inventory with some of our free funds.
Gear: doubling rings, +1 shortsword, necklace of knives, ring of discretion
LEVEL 5 We’ll take these four ability boosts to Dexterity, Constitution, Wisdom, and Charisma (Str 14, Dex 19, Con 12, Int 12, Wis 14, Cha 14). Calvin uses disguises or deception somewhat frequently, which we’ll reflect with a skill increase to Deception, raising it to expert proficiency. Calvin has a habit of jumping or falling from some pretty crazy heights, so the Cat Fall skill feat will help keep us alive when we do so. For our ancestry feat, we’ll grab Nosoi’s Mask, making us trained in Intimidation and giving us Intimidating Glare. I like envisioning as the mask he traditionally wears as part of his costume.
Gear: +1 striking shortsword, doubling rings, returning weapon rune, necklace of knives, everburning torch, ring of discretion
LEVEL 6 To be better at those jumps I just mentioned, this skill increase to Athletics will get it up to expert proficiency. We’ll pick up Quick Squeeze because this is another skill feat that feels appropriate for an escape artist, letting him wriggle free of tight spaces swiftly. Looking at class feats, nothing is immediately jumping out at me, but I like Slice and Swipe for the opportunity to attack a foe and snatch a valuable from them.
Gear: +1 studded leather armor, +1 striking shortsword, demon mask, doubling rings, necklace of knives, hat of disguise
LEVEL 7 With us finally able to increase skills to mastery proficiency, we’ll be doing just that with our Thievery skill. Our skill feat will be Quick Unlock to pick locks that try to hold us back quicker and then we’ll also take Fleet so that we can move quicker as well.
Gear: vaultbreaker’s harness, +1 studded leather armor, goggles of night, +1 striking shortsword, doubling rings, returning weapon rune
LEVEL 8 Our next skill to be increased to master proficiency will be Stealth. With that increase, we can pick up Swift Sneak so that we can move at a greater speed when we Sneak. We’ll look at another ranged combat-focused class feat to pick up Ricochet Stance. Normally, this isn’t really something I’d really pick up because we could just get the returning weapon rune on our knife, which is cheap enough to keep buying. However, this allows us to operate without that and gives us access to a feat down the line that I really like.
Gear: slippers of spider climbing, clandestine cloak, vaultbreaker’s harness, +1 studded leather armor, +1 striking shortsword, demon mask
LEVEL 9 This time around, we’ll take a skill increase to Acrobatics, reaching master proficiency in that skill. Our next skill feat will be Steady Balance, which I like as an idea that Calvin would sometimes practice on the tightrope back when he was in the circus. With the Ward Against Corruption ancestry feat, we become more resilient to death effects and diseases. Its more that latter bonus that I like from this ancestry feat, representing his undead nature.
Gear: +1 resilient studded leather armor, slippers of spider climbing, gloves of storing, vaultbreaker’s harness, goggles of night, +1 striking shortsword
LEVEL 10 Similarly to before, we’ll take these ability boosts to Strength, Dexterity, Constitution, and Charisma (Str 16, Dex 20, Con 14, Int 12, Wis 14, Cha 16). To improve our ability to Feint and Disguise ourselves, we’ll increase our Deception skill to master proficiency. The master proficiency in Acrobatics allows us to pick up Kip Up, a super handy skill feat that allows us to stand up from prone as a free action. This level’s class feat will be Precise Debilitations, allowing us to deal larger amounts of damage or leave any enemy exposed with our Debilitating Strike. This feels very appropriate for an assassin and part of the reason that I went with the thief racket.
Gear: greater unmemorable mantle, +1 resilient studded leather armor, invisibility armor rune, slippers of spider climbing, vaultbreaker’s harness, +1 striking shortsword
LEVEL 11 This time around, we’ll take a to Society to get it up to expert proficiency since we have a lot of our other skills up to a proficiency I like. It feels getting this one so late in the game, relatively, but Quick Jump will help with our action economy, allowing us to leap as a single action without having to get a running start. Feather Step allows us to Step into difficult terrain, which is handy for getting away from foes.
Gear: +2 striking shortsword, greater unmemorable mantle, greater shadow armor rune, +1 resilient studded leather armor, gloves of storing, slippers of spider climbing
LEVEL 12 Given Calvin’s involvement with secret societies such as the Court of Owls, I want to take a skill increase to Occultism, reaching expert proficiency in that. We’ll also take Schooled in Secrets as our skill feat, so that we’re better at identifying secret societies – like the Court of Owls or his friends working for Casey Washington. Our class feat will be Ricochet Feint, allowing us to Feint at range with thrown weapons. This comes from Ricochet Stance, and is super handy.
Gear: +2 resilient studded leather armor, +2 striking shortsword, greater invisibility armor rune, greater unmemorable mantle, frost weapon rune, slippers of spider climbing
LEVEL 13 We’ll increase our Athletics to master proficiency with this skill increase. We’ll then take Foil Senses as our skill feat, allowing us to account for the extraordinary senses of adversaries and counteract them while we’re sneaking. I liken this to Calvin taking precautions against extra security measures that he would face when breaking into places. The Resist Ruin ancestry feat doesn’t make complete sense, but it makes more resilient to the essence of death.
Gear: +2 greater striking shortsword, +2 resilient studded leather armor, greater goggles of night, greater invisibility armor rune, greater unmemorable mantle, greater shadow armor rune
LEVEL 14 This time around, we’ll take our skill increase to Occultism so that it reaches master proficiency. Given all the times that Calvin spends scaling places, I like Combat Climber as his skill feat for this level, making him better at fighting while climbing. For our class feat, we’ll pick up Skirmish Strike so that we can Strike and Step in any order as a single action, allowing us to land a blow and then try to get out of range of our foes.
Gear: boots of speed, +2 greater striking shortsword, greater cloak of elvenkind, +2 resilient studded leather armor, greater invisibility armor rune, ring of lies
LEVEL 15 This time, we’ll take ability boosts to Strength, Dexterity, Intelligence, and Wisdom (Str 18, Dex 21, Con 12, Int 14, Wis 16, Cha 16). This increase to Intelligence makes us trained in Arcana because I’m not quite sure what else to pick up for our skills. We also get an extra language from that Intelligence increase. Aside from becoming trained in Arcana, we can now increase our skills to legendary proficiency, which we’ll be doing with Thievery so that we can break into – or out of – places with ease. Fitting that, we’ll pick up Legendary Thief so that we’re so good at stealing stuff, we can steal stuff being worn by others. For our general feat, we’ll grab Diehard so that we become harder to kill. This is probably something I should’ve grabbed sooner for flavor purposes.
Gear: +2 greater resilient studded leather armor, boots of speed, bag of holding (type IV), +2 greater striking shortsword, greater goggles of night, greater skeleton key
LEVEL 16 The next skill we’ll increase to legendary proficiency will be Stealth. We can use that to pick up Legendary Sneak so that we can hide even in plain sight. With the Mobility class feat, we’re better at escaping the reach of our foes, fitting Calvin’s acrobatic fighting style.
Gear: greater frost weapon rune, +2 greater resilient studded leather armor, greater disrupting weapon rune, boots of speed, +2 greater striking shortsword, greater cloak of elvenkind
LEVEL 17 Next up for our skills is Acrobatics, bumping it up to legendary proficiency. This doesn’t unlock any skill feats for us, but is our best way of getting out of a grapple. We’ll pick up Quick Disguise so that we can swiftly create a disguise. Our ancestry feat will be Bounce Back so that once per day, we can come back from death without gaining the wounded condition, which I like as its representative of Calvin’s ability to return from death.
Gear: +3 greater striking shortsword, dragonscale amulet, greater frost weapon rune, +2 greater resilient studded leather armor, boots of speed, bag of holding (type IV)
LEVEL 18 With legendary proficiency in Deception thanks to this skill increase, we’ll be able to be better at disguising ourselves and feinting against our foes. Since Calvin often conducts missions with his friends in an earpiece, I like the Doublespeak skill feat allowing him to pass on information without revealing that he’s discussing something with others. To avoid death, we’ll take Defensive Roll to help us avoid death, again reflecting his ability to live past lethal effects.
Gear: anklets of alacrity, +3 greater striking shortsword, speed weapon rune, greater frost weapon rune, +2 greater resilient studded leather armor, greater disrupting weapon rune
LEVEL 19 This time, we’ll take a skill increase to Athletics to get up to legendary proficiency. The Discreet Inquiry skill feat allows us to ask questions without arousing too much suspicion, which is useful for an assassin. I think we technically qualify for this next feat by virtue of being a duskwalker, but we’ll take Numb to Death because by the time that Calvin gets into his fight with Lord Death Man, he’s absolutely this.
Gear: +3 greater resilient studded leather armor, anklets of alacrity, major shadow armor rune, +3 greater striking shortsword, dragonscale amulet, greater frost weapon rune
LEVEL 20 It’s our final level and with it, we’ll take four ability boosts to Dexterity, Constitution, Wisdom, and Charisma (Str 18, Dex 22, Con 14, Int 14, Wis 18, Cha 18). Running out of skills that I want to get to legendary at this point, we’ll grab a skill increase to Occultism here. We’ll pick up Wall Jump so that Calvin can use his acrobatic skill to leap off of walls to make his escapes and then we’ll take Enduring Debilitation so that effects from our Debilitating Strike, such as flat-footed thanks to our Precise Debilitations, last longer.
Gear: +3 major striking shortsword, +3 greater resilient studded leather armor, major goggles of night, anklets of alacrity, speed weapon rune, greater talisman cord
CONCLUSION I'll be honest, I feel like I ended up getting a lot closer with this build than I thought I would! Rogue allowed us to capture a lot of his character through skill increases and skill feat while its class feats handle much of his combat ability. We've built him as a tricky combatant who moves in and out of combat, able to fight up close and from afar with his thrown blades. I put as much emphasis on escaping as I can through both Acrobatics and Thievery. I also like duskwalker for his heritage though there's definitely a build where you go dhampir instead. I know he does get fully resurrected at the end of his run, but he spends much of his series as an undead, so I decided to stick with that idea.
Be sure to let me know what you think of the build!
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 nerd, check out the Discord server. We also have a Twitter where we try to post teasers for the blog and are trying to get some milestones made up for. Next week, I am going to try to build a League character that's a little different and should be fun to explore.
Have a fantastic Friday!
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