Darkest Dungeon is home to a bunch of characters that feel right at home in classic D&D adventures, and while I don't personally know if the developers were inspired by it, they're pretty easy to translate over. Unfortunately, I didn't have a lot of fun with this one because while the class I chose is a very good fit, it is a class that I personally feel is lacking. Most of his abilities are achieved through spells rather than feats though I did get a few feats in there to capture the feeling of it. 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.
Now, let's get into the build for the Occultist from Darkest Dungeon!
OCCULTIST
CHARACTER Alhazred
SOURCE Darkest Dungeon
GOAL Thanks to a pact he has made with an eldritch being, the Occultist wields magic to debilitate his foes and bolster his allies. While this dark and powerful force has sharpened his mind, it has left him physically frail. Even so, he can still use Sacrificial Stab to deal some additional damage to eldritch creatures, Abyssal Artillery summons tentacles that deal damage in a line, Weaknening Curse reduces a creature’s damage and protections while Vulnerability Hex marks them and makes them easier to hit. Wyrd Reconstruction can restore health but also has a chance of leaving the target with a bleeding wound. Hands From the Abyss calls forth tentacles to grapple a target, stunning them, and Daemon’s Pull calls forth those same tentacles to drag a target forward. His camping skills include Abandon All Hope with which he can reduce his stress by increasing everybody else’s, Dark Ritual will heal an ally and remove their debuffs, Dark Strength empowers an ally, and Unspeakable Commune ensures that there are no nighttime ambushes.
LEVEL 1 We’ll start where we usually do, with our ABCs – ancestry, background, and class. Like all the characters of Darkest Dungeon, the Occultist is a human and one of the skilled heritage seems to make the most sense to me. Some of his lines seem to suggest he attended university, which I feel is more than most of his peers have done though while Arcana will be the skill our heritage makes us trained in, it’s probably not what he studied at college. As part of that, we’ll be taking a boost to Intelligence and then to Wisdom. For our ancestry feat, we’ll pick up Saoc Astrology because I feel like the helps capture the feel of the Occultist to begin with.
From what we see in the Occultist’s origin comic, he seems to be part of a line that are making the bargain with the eldritch being, so I think it makes sense to define him as a cultist – even if he’s a little atypical. Our first boost from it will go to Intelligence and we’ll plug the free boost into Charisma. We’ll become trained in Occultism, Elder Mythos Lore, and get the Schooled in Secrets skill feat, which allows us to Gather Information with Occultism instead of Diplomacy when we’re investigating mysterious cults and secret societies.
I knew I wanted something that had access to the occult spell list for obvious reasons, so my options were a little limited. Given that his magic comes from the entity he’s struck a bargain with, witch with their patrons make the most sense for his class. None of the patrons really jumped out at me as a particularly good fit for him, but the Curse patron offered benefits that made the most sense. The evil eye hex cantrip it grants us helps emulate Weakening Curse and Vulnerability Hex. As a witch, we receive an automatic boost to Intelligence. Since the Occultist id described on having a weak body but strong mind, we’ll veer that way with our four free boosts to Dexterity, Intelligence, Wisdom, and Charisma (Str 10, Dex 12, Con 10, Int 18, Wis 14, Cha 14). Normally, our patron would make us trained in Occultism, but since we received that from our background, we’ll become trained in Society instead. We’ll also become trained in Acrobatics, Crafting, Deception, Diplomacy, Intimidate, Medicine, Nature, and Religion.
Known Spells: Cantrips – chill touch, daze, detect magic, forbidding ward, ghost sound, mage hand, message, read aura, sigil, telekinetic projectile; 1st – fear, grim tendrils, ill omen, ray of enfeeblement, share lore, soothe
LEVEL 2 Although we can’t do it in the midst of battle yet, Risky Surgery is a pretty good stand-in for the Occultist’s Wyrd Reconstruction. We deal some damage to our ally to give us extra healing if we succeed at our Treat Wounds check. Unfortunately, our class feat is not as fitting. Cackle grants us a focus point and a handy focus spell to use it on, which allows us to Sustain a Spell as a free action, but it doesn’t really fit anything the Occultist has going on. It’s just handy.
Known Spells: 1st – mindlink, object reading
Gear: dull grey aeon stone
LEVEL 3 Obviously, our first skill increase has to go to Occultism, getting it to expert proficiency. We’ll also take Incredible Initiative so that we can try to act before enemies and afflict them with debuffs and the like.
Known Spells: 2nd – augury, telekinetic maneuver
Gear: +1 dagger, ring of discretion, dull grey aeon stone
LEVEL 4 Since we’re trained in all the magic tradition skills, Trick Magic Item feels like a good skill feat to grab. Then, given the naming of several of his camping skills and general theme, we’ll take the Ritualist Dedication, which gives us two rituals to start with. Unfortunately, they don’t really fit anything he does, so the two I took are far from set in stone.
Known Spells: 2nd – remove fear, worm’s repast
Rituals: daemonic pact, div pact
Gear: pendant of the occult, +1 dagger, hand of the mage, dull grey aeon stone
LEVEL 5 Our four free boosts here is gonna look pretty much the same as it did at first level with the boosts going to Dexterity, Intelligence, Wisdom, and Charisma (Str 10, Dex 14, Con 10, Int 19, Wis 16, Cha 16). Our heritage grants us expert proficiency in Arcana and we’ll use our regular skill increase to pump Medicine to expert. None of our ancestry feats at this level really speak to me, so Clever Improviser seems appropriate enough.
Known Spells: 3rd – agonizing despair, magical fetters
Gear: +1 striking dagger, pendant of the occult, lesser thurible of revelation, hand of the mage, ring of discretion, dull grey aeon stone
LEVEL 6 We’ll finally pick up Battle Medicine so that we can patch up allies mid-combat, giving us the effects of his Wyrd Reconstruction. Flexible Ritualist is our class feat that reduces the number of people we need to perform our rituals.
Known Spells: 3rd – hypercognition, paralyze
Gear: +1 explorer’s clothing, +1 striking dagger, mentalist’s staff, pendant of the occult, necklace of knives, hand of the mage
LEVEL 7 True to name, our first skill to get up to master proficiency will be Occultism thanks to this skill increase. We’ll also take Fleet because I’ve realized that I always take the same general feats that I’m specifically trying to avoid for this character because of him being described as physically lacking.
Known Spells: 4th – confusion, clairvoyance
Gear: staff of impossible visions, +1 explorer’s clothing, wand of continuation (1st), +1 striking dagger, pendant of the occult, lesser thurible of revelation
LEVEL 8 This level’s skill feat will be Recognize Spell, finally giving us a reaction that we can use to identify magic as it’s being cast. With the Efficient Rituals class feat, we can complete our rituals much faster.
Known Spells: 4th – forgotten lines, remove curse
Rituals: geas
Gear: wand of continuation (2nd), western star aeon stone, staff of impossible visions, +1 explorer’s clothing, +1 striking dagger, bag of holding (type I)
LEVEL 9 Nature is going to be the first magic tradition skill to go to the wayside because Religion is getting this skill increase, putting it up to expert proficiency. While the Occultist is somewhat frail, he has been through a lot and as evidenced in his intro comic, often on his own, so we’ll grab Hardy Traveler.
Known Spells: 5th – banishment, black tentacles
Gear: +1 resilient explorer’s clothing, wand of continuation (2nd), ethersight ring, staff of impossible visions, goggles of night, +1 striking dagger
LEVEL 10 Once again, we’ll take our ability boosts to Dexterity, Intelligence, Wisdom, and Charisma (Str 10, Dex 16, Con 10, Int 20, Wis 18, Cha 18). This increase to Intelligence grants us another language and will make us trained in Stealth. Our skill feat will be Disturbing Knowledge, a fun little ability that lets us share some of our esoteric knowledge to frighten and potentially confuse others. For our class feat, we’ll take a Basic Lesson, in this case the Lesson of Dreams, to gain the veil of dreams focus spell as well as the sleep spell. But a big thing this gets us is another focus point so that we can Sustain a Spell as a free action three times per combat.
Known Spells: 1st – sleep; 5th – ectoplasmic explusion, summon entity
Gear: wand of continuation (3rd), +1 resilient armor, greater mentalist’s staff, ethersight ring, western star aeon stone, +1 striking dagger
LEVEL 11 We’ll take our skill increase here to Arcana, bolstering it to master proficiency. Our general feat will be Feather Step, allowing us to Step into difficult terrain, which will be useful for getting out of tight spots.
Known Spells: 6th – spirit blast, teleport
Gear: +2 striking dagger, wand of continuation (3rd), greater pendant of the occult, +1 resilient explorer’s clothing, ethersight ring, bag of holding (type II)
LEVEL 12 With the Magical Shorthand skill feat that we’ll be picking up, we can learn our spells faster. Meanwhile, with Hex Focus, we receive a class feat that lets us get back 2 focus points when we Refocus instead of one. I know it seems like I’m not taking much to represent the Occultist’s powers, but the truth is that much of that is already solved by the spells we’re taking. I’ll cover more of that in the conclusion.
Known Spells: 6th – phantasmal calamity, true seeing
Rituals: ward domain
Gear: +2 resilient explorer’s clothing, +2 striking dagger, pearlescent pyramid aeon stone, wand of continuation (3rd), greater mentalist’s staff, lover’s gloves
LEVEL 13 This time around, we’ll use our skill increase to improve Medicine to master proficiency. Our ancestry feat is going to build out of the one that we took at first level – Heir of the Saoc changes how Saoc Astrology functions and gives us a chance to increase the benefits from it when we use it.
Known Spells: 7th – leng sting, plane shift
Gear: +2 greater striking dagger, +2 resilient explorer’s clothing, wand of continuation (4th), pearlescent pyramid aeon stone, greater pendant of the occult, greater healer’s gloves
LEVEL 14 In the case of the Quick Recognition skill feat, it does exactly what it says on the tin and lets us identify spells as a free action as they’re being cast instead of even costing a reaction. We’ll also dip back into the Ritualist Dedication to pick up Speedy Rituals, a class feat that changes the time needed to perform certain rituals from days to mere hours.
Known Spells: 7th – time beacon, warp mind
Gear: wand of continuation (5th), +2 greater striking dagger, greater staff of impossible visions, +2 resilient explorer’s clothing, pearlescent pyramid aeon stone, moderate thurible of revelation
LEVEL 15 This set of ability boosts will keep applying to Dexterity, Intelligence, Wisdom, and Charisma (Str 10, Dex 18, Con 10, Int 21, Wis 19, Cha 19). Occultism is our first skill to reach legendary proficiency thanks to this level’s skill increase. I was struggling to come up with a suitable general feat and I ultimately settled on Prescient Planner. There’s no specific ability this emulates, aside from the stuff you buy for the party before sending them into one of the dungeons in Darkest Dungeon, but the Occultist seems smart enough and careful enough that this makes sense.
Known Spells: 8th – disappearance, undermine reality
Gear: +2 greater resilient explorer’s clothing, wand of continuation (5th), pale lavender ellipsoid aeon stone, +2 greater striking dagger, bag of holding (type III), greater goggles of night
LEVEL 16 The Consult the Spirits skill feat feels appropriate enough to pick up, allowing the Occultist to make contact with unnatural creatures. Since we’ll be taking Effortless Concentration as our class feat for this level, it might be worth looking to retrain Cackle. Then again, there may also be instances that we want to sustain two different spells as free actions, so maybe it’s worth keeping it.
Known Spells: 8th – mind blank, scintillating pattern
Rituals: heroes’ feast
Gear: wand of continuation (6th), +2 greater resilient explorer’s clothing, clear quartz crystal ball, wand of continuation (5th), +2 greater striking dagger, greater staff of impossible visions
LEVEL 17 We’ll get another one of our magic tradition skill up to master proficiency by applying this skill increase to Religion. As noted earlier, I kinda neglected Nature because it feels like the thing that he would be least interested in. At the end of our ancestry feats, still none of them really stick out to me, so we might as well finish what we started when we took Clever Improviser and take Incredible Improvisation so that we’re surprisingly good even at the handful of skills we’re untrained in.
Known Spells: 9th – divinity leech, weird
Gear: +3 greater striking dagger, wand of continuation (6th), selenite crystal ball, +2 greater resilient explorer’s clothing, pale lavender ellipsoid aeon stone, bag of holding (type IV)
LEVEL 18 This is one of those feats that probably should have been taken earlier and if you feel like there’s something you want to swap it out with, I’d say go for it because Continual Recovery is a very useful skill feat that allows you to Treat Wounds more frequently. Another useful feat, though one from our class this time, is Split Hex as it gives us the opportunity to afflict two creatures with a hex we’re casting. This is mostly useful in mob fights but is good for spreading our penalties about.
Known Spells: 9th – foresight, prismatic sphere
Gear: diadem of intellect, +3 greater striking dagger, major staff of impossible visions, wand of continuation (6th), +2 greater resilient explorer’s clothing, wand of teeming ghosts (6th)
LEVEL 19 There are probably better skills to improve but it would feel wrong to me if this skill ended on trained, considering the Occultist’s whole theme and the game he comes from. So this final skill increase will be going into our Elder Mythos Lore, bumping it up to expert proficiency. We’ll also grab Prescient Consumable since we took Prescient Planner earlier and this lets us get more value out of that feat.
Known Spells: 10th – alter reality, gate
Gear: +3 greater resilient explorer’s clothing, diadem of intellect, greater cloak of the bat, +3 greater striking dagger, wand of continuation (6th), selenite crystal ball
LEVEL 20 With our final level, we finally see some changes in the ability boosts we select with these ones going to Constitution, Intelligence, Wisdom, and Charisma (Str 10, Dex 18, Con 12, Int 22, Wis 20, Cha 20). Admittedly, not a big change. Anyway, we do bump our Intelligence up another step, which will allow us to learn an additional language and make us trained in Thievery. We’ll take Advanced First Aid so that we can remove certain conditions when we use the Administer First Aid action though this is another one that probably should’ve been taken sooner. Since the other level 20 witch feats don’t seem particularly appropriate for the character, we’ll take Patron’s Truth to gain an additional 10th-level spell slot.
Known Spells: 9th – overwhelming presence, telepathic demand
Rituals: clone
Gear: locket of sealed nightmares, +3 greater resilient explorer’s clothing, greater thurible of revelation, diadem of intellect, major staff of impossible visions, +3 greater striking dagger
CONCLUSION There is a mistake on the sheet that I forgot to fix - he should also have the cackle hex as well as 3 focus points. Other than that, I stand by my earlier statement that witches are in need of more options - more patrons, more lessons, and more feats. I've made a couple now and they feel sorely lacking in those regards. However, we did manage to get fairly close to the Occultist from Darkest Dungeon. We weren't able to capture the extra damage of aberrations for his Sacrificial Stab, but it's otherwise just a dagger Strike. Vulnerability Hex and Weakening Curse can be achieved through his evil eye hex as well as a few of his spells. Abyssal Artillery is achieved through grim tendrils since it deals damage in a line. Wyrd Reconstruction isn't exact, but having Risky Surgery helps simulate its effects. Hands From the Abyss can be achieved with spells like paralyze or black tentacles while Daemon's Pull can possibly be done with telekinetic maneuver. His camping skills were a little bit harder to emulate but I did pick up some rituals, which felt appropriate. Heroes' Feast kinda covers both Dark Ritual and Dark Strength and I tried to give him a few detection sort of spells to cover Unspeakable Commune.
Be sure to lemme know what you think of the build. Does it work? Does it represent the character? Would you ever use it? What other characters should I 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, we're going back to the halcyon days of my childhood to build a character from a cheesy cartoon that I enjoyed way too much.
Have a fantastic Friday!
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