Full ReBuild Friday - Ink-Eyes, Servant of Oni

Not a hunter of horrors or a slayer of scares, but still a thematic build for the holidays! You can check out the original build for Ink-Eyes, but it's pretty different from my new design. 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.

It's a bit of a simpler video, but I still had fun making it, so I hope you'll give it a watch. You can also head over there to vote on the next rebuild!

Dig up the grave dirt on this build for Ink-Eyes from Magic the Gathering!

Ink-Eyes, Illustrated by Wayne Reynolds

INK-EYES, SERVANT OF THE ONI

SOURCE Magic the Gathering

BUILD GOALS

o    Originating from the Kamigawa set of MtG, Ink-Eyes is a ratfolk that was abandoned to die in a swamp

o    She was instead taken in by an ogre hermit who abused her until she sacrificed him to their shared demon overlord, granting her power over the dead

o    Additionally, she is able to commune with the kami of the swamp, enhancing her stealth abilities and enhancing her murderous capabilities

o    She is featured wielding a sword, a spear with a chain and attached blade, and then another blade that she wields in her tail

o    In-game, she’s black legendary creature with the Rat Ninja typing that has 5 Power and 4 Toughness

o    She can swap onto the battlefield with an unblocked creature using the Ninjutsu ability

o    Following this, when she deals combat damage to a player, she can take a creature card from that player’s graveyard and put it under the battlefield under her owner’s control

o    Additionally, with a small cost of black mana, she can be regenerated

Summary of Goals: Ink-Eyes is a ratfolk that channels dark powers from even darker forces. Her powers come from kami and oni alike and her most notable power is the ability to steal creatures from the opponent’s grave. She also has a decently high power and her card art demonstrates her wielding a wide array of weapons. To round things out a bit, she’s able to keep herself in the fight through regeneration and has notable abilities in Stealth and attacking from the shadows.

LEVEL 1 

Ancestry & Heritage: Deep Ratfolk

o    Ability Boosts & Flaws: +Dexterity, +Intelligence, +Wisdom, -Strength

o    Ancestry Feat: Vicious Incisors

Background: Warded by Kami

o    Ability Boosts: +Wisdom, +Dexterity

o    Skill Increase: Occultism (T), Spirit Lore (T)

Class & Subclass: Seer Animist

o    Class Ability Boost: +Wisdom

o    Skill Increase: Acrobatics (T), Nature (T), Religion (T), Stealth (T), Survival (T), Thievery (T)

o    Suggested Spells: Cantrips - void warp; 1^st – command, summon undead

o    Starting Gear: dagger, dogslicer, filcher’s fork, studded leather armor

Details

o    Ability Boosts: +Strength, +Dexterity, +Intelligence, +Wisdom (Str +0, Dex +3, Con +0, Int +2, Wis +4, Cha +0)

This build is going to be a little different from the original build though it should still have some familiar parts. For example, she still uses the ratfolk ancestry, still takes the deep heritage, and still has the Vicious Incisors ancestry feat. The changes really start with her background, which will be Warded by Kami this time around based on her apparent ability to commune and draw upon the kami of the swamp during her training by Muzan. The healing that this provides is also a fun way to resemble her Regenerate ability. Her class is another change as I explore a class that I’ve never actually built before with the animist. The animist is a divine caster, much like the oracle, but is Wisdom based and is a prepared caster – at least partially. Aside from a handful of divine spells that the animist gains, they also get a spontaneous spells provided by the apparitions they are attuned to. Honestly, I think there are a number of classes that could suit Ink-Eyes with standout options being oracle, cleric, maybe even a rogue, but I think animist sits at a sort of intersection of all of them that works out the best for this build. Right off the bat, through our divine spells, Ink-Eyes can gain summon undead but I also wanted to include command as a suggestion because her card effect doesn’t add the zombie typing or anything like that. It simply steals a card from an opponent’s graveyard and takes control of it, which kind of works with command. She could also consider heal for her Regenerate ability, but then can take a Witness to Ancient Battles apparition and the embodiment of battle focus spell so that she can wield the weapons she’s featured with and also covers her greater Power. While this is already getting long enough, I do want to give a quick mention for her weapons. Regarding her tail blade, I’d simply use a dagger as that is something she’s at least familiar with, but to cover the strange spear and blade she wills, I think the best options are filcher’s fork, as a one-handed finesse spear, and the dogslicer. Both have agile, finesse, and backstabber in their traits, which fit neatly with our necromancer. One last thing of note, I built her as a seer animist solely based on its relation to the undead.

Level 1 Ink-Eyes, Page 1

Level 1 Ink-Eyes, Page 2

Level 1 Ink-Eyes, Page 3

LEVEL 2

o    Class Feat: Rogue Dedication

o    Skill Feat: Schooled in Secrets, Underwater Marauder

o    Skill Increase: Athletics (T), Deception (T)

o    Gear: psychopomp mask

LEVEL 3

o    General Feat: Ancestral Paragon – Warren Navigator

o    Skill Increase: Intimidation (T), Stealth (E)

o    Suggested Spells: 2^nd – carrion mire, shadow zombie

o    Gear: +1 dogslicer, ring of disguise, psychopomp mask

LEVEL 4

o    Class Feat: Basic Trickery – Underhanded Assault

o    Skill Feat: Shadow Mark

o    Gear: doubling rings, +1 dogslicer, necklace of knives, psychopomp mask

LEVEL 5

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

o    Ancestry Feat: Cornered Fury

o    Skill Increase: Occultism (E)

o    Suggested Spells: 3^rd – bind undead

o    Gear: +1 striking dogslicer, doubling rings, grim sandglass, necklace of knives, ring of disguise, psychopomp mask

If you wanted to focus on Ink-Eyes’s martial prowess, rogue is obviously the way to go for this necromantic nezumi ninja. However, summoning is already a rough strategy to really make use of and being behind the curve due to archetyping as a spellcaster would be especially brutal. As such, she sticks with caster as her core class and then goes into a Rogue Dedication so that she can take Underhanded Assault. This is based off of her Ninjutsu ability, letting her take advantage of an ally’s distraction to close on an enemy and deliver a fearsome blow while they’re unprepared. In addition to this class feat, the Rogue Dedication also provides Ink-Eyes with a skill feat, which she’ll use to take Underwater Marauder so that she is more capable of fighting foes in the murky mires of the swamp. She then switches over to Schooled in Secrets given her position as a worshipper of Kuro, followed by Shadow Mark so that she can stalk after her marks. I used Ancestral Paragon to get Warren Navigator to make her better at tracing her tracks through those swamps that she frequents. Her other ancestry feat for the block is Cornered Fury, playing into her rogue archetype a bit and befitting her turn against Muzan.

For her spells, an easy standout is carrion mire based on both her association with Black mana, which uses swamps as its mana source, and necromancy. Also at this level, shadow zombie allows her to seize control of a low-level zombie and give it a few extra powers to better serve her. As she gets into fifth level, she taps into third-rank spells, which has something similar in the form of bind undead – allowing her to steal away command of a mindless undead.

Ink-Eyes, Illustrated by JungShan

 LEVEL 6

o    Class Feat: Sneak Attacker

o    Skill Feat: Terrain Stalker - Underbrush

o    Gear: +1 leather, +1 striking dogslicer, frightful hag eye, doubling rings, Jack’s tattered cape, necklace of knives

LEVEL 7

o    General Feat: Fleet

o    Skill Increase: Stealth (M)

o    Suggested Spells: 4^th – implement of destruction, pernicious poltergeist

o    Gear: undertaker’s manifest, +1 leather, shadow armor rune, +1 striking dogslicer, doubling rings, grim sandglass

LEVEL 8

o    Class Feat: Grudge Strike

o    Skill Feat: Swift Sneak

o    Gear: cloak of illusions, wand of teeming ghosts (2^nd-rank), undertaker’s manifest, +1 leather, +1 striking dogslicer, frightful hag eye

LEVEL 9

o    Ancestry Feat: Lab Rat

o    Skill Increase: Occultism (M)

o    Suggested Spells: 5^th – breath of life, mirecloak, summon fiend

o    Gear: +1 resilient leather, boots of bounding, deathdrinking weapon rune, undertaker’s manifest, shadow armor rune, +1 striking dogslicer

LEVEL 10

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

o    Class Feat: Reanimator Dedication

o    Skill Feat: Vanish Into the Land

o    Gear: greater shadow armor rune, +1 resilient leather, tyrant’s writ, boots of bounding, wand of teeming ghosts (2^nd-rank), +1 striking dogslicer

This block features three class feats from three different sources. She starts off with Sneak Attacker so that she can better take advantage of things such as her Underhanded Assault and surprise attack feature. Then, she returns to the animist to take Grudge Strike, which has something important about it. It has the wandering trait, which means that at her daily preparations, she can swap it out for another wandering feat of the same level or lower, which will allow her to adapt to the apparitions that she channels. However, even outside of that usefulness, I particularly like this feat with its negative energy and potentially letting her unleash an even more powerful hit by comboing it with her sneak attack. Notably, this grants a circumstance bonus on the attack, whereas her embodiment of battle is a status bonus, so the two will stack with each other. Following that, she explores a new archetype with the Reanimator Dedication, letting her swap out a spell for summon undead with just 10 minutes of time. Additionally, if she can target a mostly intact corpse, such as one that she and her allies made and stolen from her opponents, she can bring it back with some bonuses to its stats. Her skill feats focus on Stealth for this block with Terrain Stalker leading into Vanish Into the Land and possibly allow her to disappear into her dour domains. She also uses Swift Sneak so that she can move a little faster when she Sneaks, which is always super handy.

Fleet backs up that concept while Lab Rat is both a reference to her stark white fur like the classic lab rat and because of the bonuses it grants against diseases and poisons, which she should be quite familiar with. Looking into 4^th-rank spells, there’s a few necromantic spells such as fallen soldier’s lament, pernicious poltergeist, and talking corpse whereas implement of destruction simply allows her to empower her weapon. While it doesn’t quite save her, she could include breath of life in her spells so that she can share her regeneration with others, but I also like summon fiend so that she can call forth her dark lord.

Level 10 Ink-Eyes, Page 1

Level 10 Ink-Eyes, Page 2

Level 10 Ink-Eyes, Page 3

LEVEL 11

o    General Feat: Incredible Initiative

o    Skill Increase: Thievery (E)

o    Suggested Spells: 6^th – dominate, skeleton army

o    Gear: +2 striking dogslicer, greater shadow armor rune, dreadsmoke thurible, +1 resilient leather, boots of bounding, deathdrinking weapon rune

LEVEL 12

o    Class Feat: Bonds of Death

o    Skill Feat: Consult the Spirits – Occultism

o    Gear: +2 resilient leather, +2 striking dogslicer, wand of teeming ghosts (4^th-rank), greater shadow armor rune, greater grim sandglass, tyrant’s writ

LEVEL 13

o    Ancestry Feat: Overcrowd

o    Skill Increase: Thievery (M)

o    Gear: +2 greater striking dogslicer, +2 resilient leather, greater doubling rings, wand of teeming ghosts (4^th-rank), greater shadow armor rune, dreadsmoke thurible

LEVEL 14

o    Class Feat: Macabre Virtuoso

o    Skill Feat: Disturbing Knowledge

o    Gear: propulsive boots, +2 greater striking dogslicer, major grim sandglass, +2 resilient leather, cloak of the bat, wand of teeming ghosts (4^th-rank)

LEVEL 15

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

o    General Feat: Fast Recovery

o    Skill Increase: Stealth (L)

o    Gear: +2 greater resilient leather, propulsive boots, keen weapon rune, +2 greater striking dogslicer, greater doubling rings, unholy weapon rune

Through this block, she explores her new reanimator archetype a bit with Bonds of Death potentially letting her get a crowd of undead going and Macabre Virtuoso granting her access to the create undead ritual for more permanent minions. Consults the Spirits may let her call upon the dead for information or interact with the kami and she can then share those dark secrets with Disturbing Knowledge to inflict penalties on her enemies. Incredible Initiative is always a great inclusion for characters with the surprise attack feature, so it makes an appearance here. Her other general feat for the block is Fast Recovery, which is entirely based on the fact that creatures in MtG heal up at the end of each round and Ink-Eyes in particular has Regenerate. I decided to use Overcrowd as her ancestry feat – even if it isn’t her mechanics, rats in MtG tend to swarm, so this will help her with that and might let her share the space of the undead she calls forth. With her spells, she can tap into dominate to take complete control of a former enemy per her combat damage effect. The same rank also has skeleton army to briefly overwhelm adversaries with an army of undead.

Ink-Eyes, Illustrated by Ron Spears

LEVEL 16

o    Class Feat: Advanced Trickery – Opportune Backstab

o    Skill Feat: Legendary Sneak

o    Gear: greater decaying weapon rune, +2 greater resilient leather, wand of teeming ghosts (6^th-rank), propulsive boots, +2 greater striking dogslicer, major grim sandglass

LEVEL 17

o    Ancestry Feat: Greater Than the Sum

o    Skill Increase: Occultism (L)

o    Gear: +3 greater striking dogslicer, greater decaying weapon rune, major armory bracelet, +2 greater resilient leather, propulsive boots, keen weapon rune

LEVEL 18

o    Class Feat: Deathly Secrets – subjugate undead

o    Skill Feat: Trick Magic Item

o    Gear: cowl of keys, +3 greater striking dogslicer, wand of teeming ghosts (7^th-rank), greater decaying weapon rune, +2 greater resilient leather, wand of teeming ghosts (6^th-rank)

LEVEL 19

o    General Feat: Feather Step

o    Skill Increase: Thievery (L)

o    Gear: +3 greater resilient leather, cowl of keys, soulfeeding mask, +3 greater striking dogslicer, greater decaying weapon rune, major armory bracelet

LEVEL 20

o    Ability Boosts: +Strength, +Intelligence, +Wisdom, +Charisma (Str +3, Dex +5, Con +2, Int +3, Wis +6, Cha +3)

o    Class Feat: True Channel Spell

o    Skill Feat: Foil Senses

o    Skill Increase: Society (T)

o    Gear: +3 major striking dogslicer, +3 greater resilient leather, mercurial mantle, soulfeeding mask, baton of the fallen, wand of teeming ghosts (7^th-rank)

Once again, this block features a class feat from each of Ink-Eyes’s three potential sources. Opportune Backstab triggers when an ally hits an enemy, which if you look at it another way, is them going by unblocked. When that happens, Ink-Eyes can go ahead and ninjutsu her way in there with this reaction, and she could potentially trigger that with her own undead minions. I’m honestly not 100% on using Deathly Secrets to take subjugate undead, but it fits in with her whole theme of taking control of other creatures, so I think I have to include it. If you think there’s enough of that between command, dominate, and bind undead, I’d consider Circle of Spirits simply because it lets her better adjust to the threats that she encounters. That then leaves her with True Channel Spell, which is actually the only way that the animist can get a 10^th-rank spell slot normally, and that could be important for the summoner build we have. Legendary Sneak and Foil Senses aid her in serving her role as a ninja while the third skill feat of the block, Trick Magic Item, is probably something that she should’ve taken earlier when I started investing in Occultism as it will allow her to make use of such items. With her general feat, I slipped in Feather Step mainly because I think it could be handy in the swamps that she frequents, letting her more easily move through it. She closes out her ancestry feats with Greater Than the Sum, which I don’t think is particularly fitting for her, but is funny to imagine her tossing it on a bunch of undead that she’s called forth.

Level 20 Ink-Eyes, Page 1

Level 20 Ink-Eyes, Page 2

Level 20 Ink-Eyes, Page 3

FREE ARCHETYPE SUGGESTIONS: For a free archetype game, Ink-Eyes could get some further use out of her rogue archetype, taking up options such as Skill Mastery, Evasiveness, and perhaps a few more instances of Advanced Trickery to get things like Twin Feint and Quick Draw. From her reanimator archetype, I could see her going for a Sepulchral Sublimation. She could certainly make use of some more animist feats, like the Circle of Spirits I mentioned as well as Apparition’s Enhancement, or look for another archetype such as Dual-Weapon Warrior.

BUILD CONCLUSION

Ink-Eyes, Servant of the Oni, is a deep ratfolk seer animist who is warded by kami, calling to mind the innate meditative abilities she used to call upon them in the swamps of Kamigawa. Her mastery of such places is reflected with the likes of Terrain Stalker, Vanish Into the Land, and Feather Step all aiding her navigation of such environments. With her ability to call on demons and kami alike, she uses the animist class and its apparitions, relying on the Witness to Ancient Battles and its embodiment of battle vessel spell to better wield the variety of weapons that she demonstrates. With the enhanced stealth granted to her by the kami, she invests heavily in the Stealth skill and its related feats, building up into the likes of Swift Sneak and Legendary Sneak. She could also potentially tap into the Impostor in Hidden Places apparition to access spells such as invisibility. We see a bit of her high power with the likes of Grudge Strike while her ability to weather the assault of her foes and regenerate comes from the likes of Fast Recovery, the healing ability provided by her background, and any healing spells that she prepares. For her ability to Ninjutsu in when one of her allies goes unblocked, while it takes some imagining, I think the likes of Underhanded Assault and Opportune Backstab at least capture the idea of it by letting her use the opening created by an ally to sneak in a Strike. That leaves us with her ability to steal creatures from the grave to bring them under her command and there’s honestly a number of ways to do this. As this doesn’t actually make the creature into an undead, you could justify it with the likes of command or dominate, or for a similar concept, you could steal the command of undead with spells such as shadow zombie, bind undead, or subjugate undead. However, I think the easiest way to reflect this is through summon undead and her ability to swap out the other spells she has prepared for it through her Reanimator Dedication.

A nefarious nezumi ninja, this nimble necromancer navigates nasty netherealms to negotiate with no-good ne’er-do-wells, neatly nailing her niche as a nauseating nightmare.

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. I'm off on vacation, so be sure to vote on the next rebuild, and I'll see you all when I get back!

Have a fantastic Friday and a happy Halloween!