Full Build Friday - Zaahen, the Unsundered [Strix Exemplar]

Earlier this week, Zaahen released in League of Legends, which means that I had to follow it up with a build for him as well! I'll admit, I didn't quite build him as a living weapon, so maybe this build is a wash, but I gave it my best shot. 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.

I had to get Blue to do the vocals for it, but I put together a video on the subject that I'd appreciate you checking out!

But beyond that, sharpen your blades and let's get into the build for Zaahen the Unsundered from League of Legends!

Zaahen the Unsundered

ZAAHEN, THE UNDSUNDERED

SOURCE League of Legends

BUILD GOALS

o    An Ascended of Shurima with a hawk-like form, Zaahen became a Darkin who fought against his kin

o    However, worried about his own corruption, he asked to be sealed within his glaive and awoke to take Xin Zhao as his host

o    He is a melee skirmisher within League with situationally defensive tools and high sustained damage

o    Through his Cultivation of War passive, attacks and abilities against champs grants him Determination. Stacks of Determination gives him more damage and if he’s slain at full stacks, he resurrects

o    Activating the Darkin Glaive empowers his next attacks with extra range, damage, and healing and can then be recast for extra damage and a knock-up effect

o    Dreaded Return has him stab in a direction to deal damage and drag enemies towards him

o    He can dash in a direction with Aureate Rush, at the end of which he deals damage all around him

o    He finishes off with Grim Deliverance where he ascends and leaps to target location, slamming his glaive into the ground to unleash a damaging shockwave and healing himself

Summary of Goals: Zaahen is an ancient warrior who wields a glaive and excels at continued combat as he stacks up Determination for more damage. He supplements this damage with knock-ups and pulls from his weapon and can also make wide, sweeping attacks with it. Importantly, when slain, he can come back to life to take a second crack at his enemies.

LEVEL 1 

Ancestry & Heritage: Nephilim Strix

o    Ability Boosts & Flaws: +Dexterity, +Strength

o    Ancestry Feat: Battleblooded

o    Skill Increase: Intimidation (T)

Background: Perfection Seeker

o    Ability Boosts: +Dexterity, +Strength

o    Skill Increase: Acrobatics (T), Warfare Lore (T)

o    Background Feat: Cat Fall

Class: Exemplar

o    Class Ability Boost: +Strength

o    Skill Increase: Athletics (T), Nature (T), Occultism (T), Religion (T)

o    Class Feat: Vow of Mortal Defiance

o    Ikons: Fetching Bangles (worn), Noble Branch (weapon), Scar of the Survivor (body)

o    Gear: glaive, studded leather armor

Details

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

In his original Ascended form, Zaahen resembled a hawk or some similar sort of avian and he maintains wings even in his Darkin form. As such, I want to use an ancestry I don’t get to use much with the strix ancestry though Nephilim features yet another use among my build. From this versatile heritage, he can gain the Battleblooded ancestry feat, tying him into war, which he certainly is, and giving him some Intimidation, which I’m always a fan of. Given his own resistance to corruption and residence in Ionia, I went for the Perfection Seeker background, which comes with a very handy Warfare Lore and Cat Fall for if he gets knocked out of the air. To wrap up this consummate warrior, I used the exemplar class, which comes with some handy features right off the bat. His Vow of Mortal Defiance demonstrates his stand against the Darkin and demons while the extra damage is also handy for representing his increased damage through Determination stacks. Further representing that specific idea, he uses the noble brach weapon ikon, which deals 2 additional damage per weapon damage die, has a follow-up action for guaranteed damage, and can be used for a glaive, which has the forceful trait to encourage continual attacks. He uses Fetching Bangles for his worn ikon because of its Embrace of Destiny ability that allows him to pull in enemies, per his Dreaded Return. Given some of his healing abilities, I slipped in Scar of the Survivor, but that’s less exactly its effect than some of these other choices.

Level 1 Zaahen, Page 1

Level 1 Zaahen, Page 2

LEVEL 2

o    Class Feat: Winged Warrior Dedication

o    Skill Feat: Quick Jump

o    Gear: cloak of feline rest

LEVEL 3

o    General Feat: Ancestral Paragon – Fledgling Flight

o    Skill Increase: Athletics (E), Diplomacy (T)

o    Root Epithet: The Brave

o    Gear: +1 glaive, cloak of feline rest, ring of discretion

LEVEL 4

o    Class Feat: Battering Wings

o    Skill Feat: Powerful Leap

o    Gear: golden legion epaulet, +1 glaive, handwraps of mighty blows (+1), cloak of feline rest

LEVEL 5

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

o    Ancestry Feat: Juvenile Flight

o    Skill Increase: Acrobatics (E)

o    Gear: +1 striking glaive, death tusk helm, golden legion epaulet, handwraps of mighty blows (+1), cloak of feline rest, ring of discretion

He does step away from exemplar ever so briefly with the Winged Warrior Dedication at second level, which might seem a bit mature, but it fits with his ancestry and honestly comes with some feats that suit him. Battering Wings lets him weaponize his wings, turning them into agile attacks, but one of the reasons that I’m taking it is to fill out his feats for this archetype. Until his wings fully come in, he’ll develop his jumping ability with the likes of Quick Jump and Powerful Leap, which increases his horizontal Leaps by a total of 15 feet. We do start developing his wings a little by using Ancestral Paragon to take Fledgling Flight, which leads into Juvenile Flight ancestry feat as his proper ancestry feat. As his Aureate Rush features a dash, I decided to use the Brave root epithet to grant him additional mobility and let him move more freely about the battlefield.

Ascended Zaahen

LEVEL 6

o    Class Feat: Flow of War

o    Skill Feat: Slippery Prey

o    Gear: +1 leather, +1 striking glaive, handwraps of mighty blows (+1 striking), golden legion epaulet, necklace of knives, brooch of shielding

LEVEL 7

o    General Feat: Toughness

o    Skill Increase: Athletics (M)

o    Dominion Epithet: Peerless Under Heaven

o    Gear: cassisian helmet, +1 leather, bravery baldric (fleet), +1 striking glaive, death tusk helm, golden legion epaulet

LEVEL 8

o    Class Feat: Feathered Flechettes

o    Skill Feat: Pilgrim’s Token

o    Gear: bravery baldric (healthful), cassisian helmet, lesser dread armor rune, +1 leather, +1 striking glaive, handwraps of mighty blows (+1 striking)

LEVEL 9

o    Ancestry Feat: Glory and Valor!

o    Skill Increase: Acrobatics (M)

o    Gear: +1 resilient leather, bravery baldric (healthful), wounding weapon rune, cassisian helmet, handwraps of mighty blows (+1 striking), +1 striking glaive

LEVEL 10

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

o    Class Feat: Staff Acrobat Dedication

o    Skill Feat: Kip Up

o    Gear: armbands of athleticism, +1 resilient leather, flaming weapon rune, bravery baldric (healthful), handwraps of mighty blows (+1 striking), +1 striking glaive

Unfortunately, none of the winged warrior’s sixth level class feats really click with the build, so he’ll take Motionless Cutter, which is honestly meant to make the most of his weapon’s forceful trait while just so happening to take advantage of its reach trait as well. However, after that he does get a very important winged warrior feat with Feathered Flechettes, which allows him to deal slashing damage in an emanation to match the slash of his Aureate Rush. With two feats from it under his belt, he can finally take a Staff Acrobat Dedication so that he can Shove and Trip with his glaive. This is based on the knock-up and other debilitating effects in his kit as the glaive couldn’t be used to Trip or otherwise without this. His skill feats are an eclectic mix that range from Slippery Prey to make Escape easier, Pilgrim’s Token to help him seize the initiative, and then Kip Up to help him get back in the fight since he isn’t too unused to being knocked down given his ability to revive himself. However, Toughness will hopefully keep him off the floor and further helping him in that regard is Glory and Valor! This provides him with the healing found in his Darkin Glaive though it’s limit of once per day might lead to him relying on his Scar of the Survivor. This block also features a dominion epithet, for which he’ll take Peerless Under Heaven. This allows him to further master his weapon, which he should since he is the weapon, and allows him to frighten foes through the examples of his martial prowess.

Level 10 Zaahen, Page 1

Level 10 Zaahen, Page 2

LEVEL 11

o    General Feat: Fast Recovery

o    Skill Increase: Intimidation (E)

o    Gear: +2 striking glaive, armbands of athleticism, grievous weapon rune, +1 resilient leather, bravery baldric (healthful), handwraps of mighty blows (+1 striking)

LEVEL 12

o    Class Feat: Levering Strike

o    Skill Feat: Additional Lore – Warfare Lore

o    Gear: +2 resilient leather, +2 striking glaive, handwraps of mighty blows (+2 striking), armbands of athleticism, banner of piercing shards, flaming weapon rune

LEVEL 13

o    Ancestry Feat: Fully Flighted

o    Skill Increase: Intimidation (M)

o    Gear: +2 greater striking glaive, +2 resilient leather, bravery baldric (stone), handwraps of mighty blows (+2 striking), armbands of athleticism, grievous weapon rune

LEVEL 14

o    Class Feat: Flow of War

o    Skill Feat: Aerobatics Mastery

o    Gear: keen weapon rune, +2 greater striking glaive, handwraps of mighty blows (+2 greater striking), +2 resilient leather, greater demon mask, serrating weapon rune

LEVEL 15

o    Ability Boosts: +Strength, +Dexterity, +Constitution, +Charisma (Str +5.5, Dex +5, Con +3, Int +0, Wis +3, Cha +2)

o    General Feat: Fleet

o    Skill Increase: Athletics (L)

o    Sovereignty Epithet: The Last Ruler

o    Gear: +2 greater resilient leather, keen weapon rune, propulsive boots, +2 greater striking glaive, bravery baldric (stone), handwraps of mighty blows (+2 striking)

I’m a little shaky on this one, but I think Levering Strike works well when it comes to imagining Zaahen as a disruptor. He knocks people around, he pulls them in, and he punches through their defenses. With all that taken into account, I settled on Levering Strike. This is a Strike that also leaves the enemy off-guard and susceptible to certain maneuvers, such as Shove, Trip, and Tumble Through, and I think that works pretty nicely for the knock-up effect of his Darkin Glaive. Also related to that, Darkin Glaive is an attack reset, so he uses Flow of War to earn himself an extra Stride or Stride once per hour, which might be a bit minor but feels like a fun fit. While he already has Warfare Lore, I still want to take Additional Lore for it so that it’s automatically scaling for his mastery over war. Aerobatics Mastery is based on him taking Fully Flighted as his ancestry feat to give him a permanent fly Speed, which mostly harkens back to his Ascended form. His remaining feats enhance his physicality with Fast Recovery healing him faster and Fleet allowing him to run faster, fly quicker, and leap farther. He settles on the Last Ruler as his sovereignty epithet largely because he has been investing in Intimidation to make use of this anyway.

LEVEL 16

o    Class Feat: Battle Hymn to the Lost

o    Skill Feat: Too Angry to Die

o    Gear: greater flaming weapon rune, +2 greater resilient leather, greater boots of bounding, keen weapon rune, +2 greater striking glaive, handwraps of mighty blows (+2 greater striking)

LEVEL 17

o    Ancestry Feat: Divine Declaration

o    Skill Increase: Acrobatics (L)

o    Gear: +3 greater striking glaive, greater flaming weapon rune, greater swift standard, +2 greater resilient leather, keen weapon rune, handwraps of mighty blows (+2 greater striking)

LEVEL 18

o    Class Feat: Eternity-Incinerating Blaze

o    Skill Feat: Battle Cry

o    Gear: bracers of strength, +3 greater striking glaive, handwraps of mighty blows (+3 greater striking), greater flaming weapon rune, +2 greater resilient leather, greater boots of bounding

LEVEL 19

o    General Feat: Incredible Initiative

o    Skill Increase: Intimidation (L)

o    Gear: +3 greater resilient leather, bracers of strength, greater impactful weapon rune, +3 greater striking glaive, greater flaming weapon rune, handwraps of mighty blows (+2 greater striking)

LEVEL 20

o    Ability Boosts: +Strength, +Constitution, +Wisdom, +Charisma (Str +6, Dex +5, Con +4, Int +0, Wis +4, Cha +3)

o    Class Feat: Reach for Immortality

o    Skill Feat: Scare to Death

o    Gear: +3 major striking glaive, +3 greater resilient leather, sandals of the stag, greater impactful weapon rune, quickstrike weapon rune, handwraps of mighty blows (+3 greater striking)

We close out on his build with a slew of exemplar feats. Battle Hymn to the Lost can replicate the far reach of his Dread Return or perhaps emulate the area of his Aureate Dash though the emanation is centered on his target rather than himself. The healing of his allies is a little out there, but is certainly handy. To further represent the build-up of damage born from his Cultivation of War, I included Eternity-Incinerating Blaze with its Burn Out of Time giving him a powerful blow to land on his foes. That leaves us with his capstone feat and this was one of the main reasons that I landed on exemplar – Reach for Immortality is a fantastic way to represent the resurrection granted by his Determination, allowing him to immediately force himself back to life and then be unable to do that for a short period. With that concept in mind, I wanted to include Too Angry to Die because there’s some fun combos here. Zaahen can bring himself back from the dead, stand up as a free action with Kip Up, and then use his Too Angry to Die reaction to Demoralize a foe, so he’s doing all that without actually spending a single action. Battle Cry lets him shout down enemies before battle begins while Scare to Death may let him slay an adversary through his sheer Intimidation. With Zaahen being a well-practiced warrior, Incredible Initiative gives him the upper hand against foes and works nicely with Pilgirm’s Token. He has both an increase to it and also wins on ties for it. That leaves us with Divine Declaration, and this is honestly a big get as it provides him with the big burst of his Grim Deliverance, allowing him to capture foes in a vast emanation that deals solid damage and can leave foes enfeebled.

Level 20 Zaahen, Page 1

Level 20 Zaahen, Page 2

FREE ARCHETYPE SUGGESTIONS: For a free archetype game, you will likely end up exploring his two archetypes a bit more than he already has. For his winged warrior, he’ll use Smooth Hover and Thunderous Landing with the latter being kind of another way to represent his Aureate Dash or Grim Deliverance. With the staff acrobat, he can pick up feats such as Bullying Staff, Staff Sweep, and likely Whirlwind Stance just for their general usefulness. With the freed-up class feats, I’d focus on enhancing Zaahen’s combat prowess and allowing him to make more use out of his weapon with options such as Reactive Strike, Steel on Steel, and Only the Worthy.

BUILD CONCLUSION

Zaahen the Unsundered is a nephilim strix exemplar with a past as a perfection seeker. The avian features of the strix work well for his original Ascended form while the nephilim heritage brings to mind his corruption as a Darkin. He wields a glaive, per his designation as the Darkin Glaive and styles it as a noble branch ikon, which gives him extra damage on his attacks further enhanced by the forceful trait, resembling the building attack damage of his Cultivation of War. The resurrection aspect of it doesn’t come into play until he reaches his max level, which is when he acquires Reach for Immortality to bring him back from the brink. For actually reflecting his Darkin Glaive ability, he has a few effects to inflict more powerful attacks through his transcendences, can achieve healing on his attacks through Glory and Valor, and uses the Staff Acrobat Dedication and Levering Strike to achieve the knock-up that its recast grants. He uses another exemplar ikon for his Dreaded Return as his fetching bangle allows him to pull in enemies to better pummel them though for its far-reaching stab, we may need the likes of Battle Hymn to the Lost and the cone it affects. I built some mobility into his kit with the Brave epithet in honor of his Aureate Rush while the damage at the end of it is represented through the likes of Feathered Flechettes or the emanation effect of his Battle Hymn to the Lost again. Finishing off with Grim Deliverance, we make use of his nephilim heritage again to gain Divine Declaration and gain a limited casting of divine decree, a large emanation that deals solid damage. This doesn’t provide him with healing right off the bat, but he does have healing from his scar of the survivor ikon to finish off the build.

Grim but glorious, this gilded glaive gets out of the grave to gleefully gouge in grand gestures that guarantee a grotesque and gruesome gallivant into the ground for goblins and ghouls.

Immortal Journey Zaahen

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. Finishing off November is a real GOAT of a character.

Have a fantastic Friday!