Sorry, I Slipped Up Saturday - Shaco the Demon Jester [Poppet Rogue]

I'm sorry, I'm sorry! I've been in a bit of a holidaze, but here's the build that I should have posted yesterday! 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.

Despite me being behind schedule, I do have a video that I hope you'll check out!

Anyway, let's get right into the build for Shaco the Demon Jester from League of Legends!

Classic Shaco

SHACO, THE DEMON JESTER

SOURCE League of Legends

BUILD GOALS

o    Once the toy of a prince, Shaco was twisted by his owner’s death and dark magic into a manic and malevolent marionette

o    He’s a melee assassin who wields a pair of daggers in combat

o    His passive is Backstab, which empowers his attacks and certain abilities when he’s hitting an enemy from behind

o    Through his Deceive, he becomes invisible for a short time and blinks to a location

o    Jack in the Box summons a stealthed box at target location that will spring open at the approach of an enemy. When it does, it fears, slows, and shoots the enemy

o    Passively, Two-Shiv Poison causes his attacks to slow enemies while this ability isn’t on cooldown and it can be activated to throw a dagger that damages and slows the foe

o    Finishing off his abilities is Hallucinate, which causes Shaco to vanish before returning with a clone that he can direct to attack alongside him. Upon death, his clone explodes into a trio of Jacks in the Box

Summary of Goals: At first glance, Shaco seems pretty basic with extra damage on attacks against unaware enemies, the ability to disappear, and slowing strikes with his dual daggers, which he can also throw. But this build also needs to find a way to cover his ability to create those Jacks in the Boxes and his devilish doppelganger and while I have some ideas there, the fear might have to come from Shaco himself rather than the box specifically.

LEVEL 1 

Ancestry & Heritage: Reflection Poppet

o    Ability Boosts & Flaws: +Constitution, +Charisma, +Dexterity, -Dexterity

o    Ancestry Feat: Mirror-Risen

Background: Wished Alive

o    Ability Boosts: +Charisma, +Dexterity

o    Skill Increase: Diplomacy (T)

Class & Subclass: Thief Rogue

o    Class Ability Boost: +Dexterity

o    Skill Increase: Acrobatics (T), Athletics (T), Crafting (T), Deception (T), Intimidation (T), Occultism (T), Performance (T), Society (T), Stealth (T), Thievery (T)

o    Class Feat: Nimble Dodge

o    Skill Feat: Trick Magic Item

o    Gear: dogslicer x2, studded leather armor

Details

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

It seems that they’ve changed Shaco’s origin since the last I remembered, but him being a marionette brought to life grants me the chance to use the poppet ancestry, but I want to use the reflection heritage and its Mirror-Risen ancestry feat to give us an early way of representing his Hallucinate. At the very least, it calls to mind the games you can play in getting other players to attack his clone rather than him. Along the same lines, he gets to use the Wished Alive background though in his case, it might be more along the lines of ‘cursed alive,’ given his malevolence. Likewise, I imagine any wishes he makes with its special ability are going to be more along the lines of ‘I hope nobody notices as I kill this guy.’ For his class, I was mainly looking between rogue and thaumaturge before ultimately settling on the former. I did like thaum for the mirror implement, but his two-handed fighting style and Backstab feature pushed me towards rogue with its Sneak Attack class feature being a perfect way of replicating his passive. You could go for a pre-master option in the form of the eldritch trickster and maybe use that to replicate some of his more mystical abilities, but we’ll be trying to do that through mundane means. With that being the case, he does use the thief racket to get Dexterity to damage, despite the poppet’s penalty to the ability score, and takes Nimble Dodge. Shaco has a lot of escape potential in his abilities, so I will be looking to capture that concept in my construction of his kit. As a rogue, he does also get a skill feat to start out with and given the seemingly mystical nature of many of his abilities, I liked the idea of using Trick Magic Item. Invisibility is on the occult spell list so getting that as an option seems like it might be handy.

Honestly, to start off in representing his weapons, I’d probably use a pair of dogslicers, which come with some primo traits, but are uncommon. If they aren’t available, I’d consider a pair of shortswords or daggers and then also grab a few throwing knives for the ranged nature of his Two-Shiv Poison.

Level 1 Shaco, Page 1

Level 1 Shaco, Page 2

LEVEL 2

o    Class Feat: Snarecrafter Dedication

o    Skill Feat: Lengthy Diversion, Snare Crafting

o    Skill Increase: Stealth (E)

o    Gear: ring of discretion

LEVEL 3

o    General Feat: Incredible Initiative

o    Skill Feat: Slippery Prey

o    Skill Increase: Deception (E)

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

LEVEL 4

o    Class Feat: Surprise Snare

o    Skill Feat: Just Kidding!

o    Skill Increase: Acrobatics (E)

o    Gear: doubling rings, +1 dogslicer, necklace of knives, ring of discretion

LEVEL 5

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

o    Ancestry Feat: Sealed Poppet

o    Skill Feat: Fleeing Diversion

o    Skill Increase: Arcana (T), Crafting (E)

o    Gear: +1 striking dogslicer, doubling rings, thrower’s bandolier, necklace of knives, psychopomp mask, ring of discretion

Capturing the specific concept of Shaco’s Jack in the Box isn’t easy, but we can try to do so by taking the Snarecrafter Dedication and following it up with the Surprising Snare feat. I think they’ve buffed Snarecrafter a bit and it’s a handy little feat with the DCs of the snares going off of his class DC or their own, but only if it’s higher. It also lets him throw down a snare in the midst of battle. As for the snares that he should use, none come with the fear his inflicts or the continued shooting. Nevertheless, he could rig up an acid spitter to flavor the persistent acid damage as repeated fire from the box or an irritating thorn snare for a similar idea. With the wealth of skill feats that Shaco gets, one concept to be considered is using the Create a Diversion action to cover the disappearing act of his Deceive, which leads to the inclusion of Lengthy Diversion and Fleeing Diversion. Slippery Prey aids him in getting out of trouble, and then I actually grabbed Just Kidding from Starfinder 2e since Shaco does look like a clown. For something a little more functional, he takes Incredible Initiative to better take advantage of his surprise attack class feature. He also grabs Sealed Poppet just to remove that weakness to fire damage innate to his ancestry. It’s too common a damage type to be chancing that.

Crime City Nightmare Shaco

LEVEL 6

o    Class Feat: Strong Arm

o    Skill Feat: Juggle

o    Skill Increase: Performance (E)

o    Gear: +1 leather, +1 striking dogslicer, demon mask, doubling rings, necklace of knives, Jack’s tattered cape

LEVEL 7

o    General Feat: Ancestral Paragon – Harmless Doll

o    Skill Feat: Swift Sneak

o    Skill Increase: Religion (T), Stealth (M)

o    Gear: vaultbreaker’s harness, +1 leather, shadow armor rune, +1 striking dogslicer, doubling rings, thrower’s bandolier

LEVEL 8

o    Class Feat: Poison Weapon

o    Skill Feat: Foil Senses

o    Skill Increase: Deception (M)

o    Gear: boots of bounding, spiritsight ring, vaultbreaker’s harness, +1 leather, +1 striking dogslicer, thrower’s bandolier (+1 striking)

LEVEL 9

o    Ancestry Feat: Mirror Refuge

o    Skill Feat: Nimble Crawl

o    Skill Increase: Intimidation (E)

o    Gear: +1 resilient leather, boots of bounding, cloak of illusions, vaultbreaker’s harness, shadow armor rune, +1 striking dogslicer

LEVEL 10

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

o    Class Feat: Improved Poison Weapon

o    Skill Feat: Kip Up

o    Skill Increase: Acrobatics (M)

o    Gear: greater ventriloquist’s ring, +1 resilient leather, invisibility armor rune, boots of bounding, thrower’s bandolier (+1 striking), +1 striking dogslicer

Strong Arm might be a bit of a strange one to throw in there, but Two-Shiv Poison features Shaco lobbing a blade at a target and so I want to give him a slight boon to his ranged combat. You could also consider Quick Draw for this as it makes it so that he can draw and throw a knife as a single action instead of two. Both good for different reasons, so I’d go for whichever your prefer. Based purely off of the name of that ability, Shaco features both Poison Weapon and Improved Poison Weapon. You might point out that having a dual wielder with something reliant on pulling out poisons to be a bit peculiar. However, we do get fix to that in this block as he takes the Juggle skill feat. As long as he keeps Juggling, he can be wielding two knives but still count as having a free hand, so that he can apply poisons or use it for other effects. He of course follows that with Swift Sneak and Foil Senses to enhance the ability of his Hallucinate before settling with the Acrobatics skill feats of Nimble Crawl and Kip Up, the former of which is based on his dance emote within League of Legends. Through Ancestral Paragon, he can pick up two ancestry feats this block, which leads to him gaining Harmless Doll, so that he can lure victims close before springing upon them, and Mirror Refuge as another way for him to make his escape. Outside of the feats that Shaco takes, this block also gives him access to Debilitating Strike. With the extra damage from Backstab coming in through Sneak Attack, we’ll use this to mimic the passive slow of his Two-Shiv Poison by inflicting a penalty to their movement Speed.

Level 10 Shaco, Page 1

Level 10 Shaco, Page 2

LEVEL 11

o    General Feat: Fleet

o    Skill Feat: Terrified Retreat

o    Skill Increase: Intimidation (M)

o    Gear: +2 striking dogslicer, greater ventriloquist’s ring, nightmare weapon rune, +1 resilient leather, boots of bounding, cloak of illusions

LEVEL 12

o    Class Feat: Plentiful Snares

o    Skill Feat: Shadow Mark

o    Skill Increase: Performance (M)

o    Gear: +2 resilient leather, +2 striking dogslicer, greater invisibility armor rune, greater ventriloquist’s ring, frost weapon rune, astral weapon rune

LEVEL 13

o    Ancestry Feat: Squirm Free

o    Skill Feat: Quick Jump

o    Skill Increase: Crafting (M)

o    Gear: +2 greater striking dogslicer, +2 resilient leather, skirmisher’s coat, greater invisibility armor rune, greater ventriloquist’s ring, thunderblast slippers

LEVEL 14

o    Class Feat: Thaumaturge Dedication - Mirror

o    Skill Feat: Confabulator

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

o    Gear: propulsive boots, +2 greater striking dogslicer, thrower’s bandolier (+2 greater striking), +2 resilient leather, greater invisibility armor rune, ring of lies

LEVEL 15

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

o    General Feat: Feather Step

o    Skill Feat: Legendary Sneak

o    Skill Increase: Stealth (L)

o    Gear: +2 greater resilient leather, keen weapon rune, propulsive boots, +2 greater striking dogslicer, skirmisher’s coat, greater ash gown

Plentiful Snares ensures that Shaco has numerous snares to make use of each day and then he also slips in a Thaumaturge Dedication, arming himself with a mirror. Notably, he can carry this mirror while also wielding his two blades as long as he keeps juggling them, allowing him to work some more damage into his build between this, Sneak Attack, and Poison Weapon to deliver crippling blows. He finally works Terrified Retreat into his kit, which you should combo with somebody triggering a snare to simulate his Jack in the Box. Shadow Mark and Legendary Sneak will help him stalk his prey with the second of those being a particularly good fit for his Deceive. Confabulator is probably something that he should have taken sooner, but it helps him Create a Diversion, and then Quick Jump is just always useful, which is a similar case to Fleet. Squirm Free continues to expand on Shaco’s escape options, letting him try to Escape as a reaction.

Soul Fighter Shaco

LEVEL 16

o    Class Feat: Perfect Distraction

o    Skill Feat: Reveal Machinations

o    Skill Increase: Deception (L)

o    Gear: greater astral weapon rune, +2 greater resilient leather, keen weapon rune, propulsive boots, +2 greater striking dogslicer, thrower’s bandolier (+2 greater striking)

LEVEL 17

o    Ancestry Feat: Reflect Foe

o    Skill Feat: Bon Mot

o    Skill Increase: Acrobatics (L)

o    Gear: +3 greater striking dogslicer, greater frost weapon rune, greater astral weapon rune, +2 greater resilient leather, keen weapon rune, propulsive boots

LEVEL 18

o    Class Feat: Implement Initiate

o    Skill Feat: Dirty Trick

o    Skill Increase: Performance (L)

o    Gear: cloak of swiftness, +3 greater striking dogslicer, thrower’s bandolier (+3 greater striking), greater astral weapon rune, +2 greater resilient leather, greater boots of bounding

LEVEL 19

o    General Feat: Fast Recovery

o    Skill Feat: Scare to Death

o    Skill Increase: Intimidation (L)

o    Gear: +3 greater resilient leather, cloak of swiftness, dread blindfold, +3 greater striking dogslicer, greater thunderblast slippers, greater astral weapon rune

LEVEL 20

o    Ability Boosts: +Strength, +Constitution, +Intelligence, +Wisdom (Str +2, Dex +5, Con +4, Int +3, Wis +4, Cha +5)

o    Class Feat: Reactive Distraction

o    Skill Feat: Vicious Critique

o    Skill Increase: Crafting (L), Survival (T)

o    Gear: +3 major striking dogslicer, +3 greater resilient leather, mercurial mantle, dread blindfold, quickstrike weapon rune, thrower’s bandolier (+3 greater striking)

One of the reasons that I considered rogue in the first place is because I knew that it would lead to Perfect Distraction. This allows us to create the clone of his Hallucinate, but the unfortunate aspect of it is that this clone is maintained while Shaco himself is invisible and it lacks the punch that his clone has, meager as it is. However, he does take up Implement Initiate to gain the ability to create a reflection of himself that he can flank with, allowing him to resemble Hallucinate and ensure that he can land his sneak attack damage. He does follow on Perfect Distraction with Reactive Distraction, allowing him to escape danger while also swapping in his clone. His skill feats here are all based on messing around with others through his various skills. Whether that be Scaring to Death with Intimidation, tripping them up with Thievery and Dirty Trick, or putting his Deception to work through Reveal Machinations. He can even mess with people outside of combat through the likes of Vicious Critique. Reflect Foe is further inspired by the likes of Hallucinate though this makes a clone of a foe. It’s a bit off, but at least it’s a fun way of further messing with his enemies. Finally, he closes out his general feats with Fast Recovery, which I’ve talked about before but is inspired by the health regen and respawning of League itself.

Level 20 Shaco, Page 1

Level 20 Shaco, Page 2

FREE ARCHETYPE SUGGESTIONS: In a free archetype game, you might actually want to switch things up a bit and start with the Thaumaturge Dedication as it is quicker to complete its two feats requirement than snarecrafter. Outside of those two, I’d actually consider a ranger archetype. While it will take him a bit more set-up, through this, Shaco can gain Twin Takedown, allowing him to Strike with both of his weapons as only a single action. This would be a huge boon that works well with his other single-action abilities, such as Mirror’s Reflection, Juggle, and Poison Weapon.

BUILD CONCLUSION

Shaco the Demon Jester is a reflection poppet rogue of the thief racket and a background of being wished alive. The poppet ancestry is inspired by his new origin as a toy brought to life thanks to that background of his though ‘wish’ is too kind a term for what Shaco has become. The rogue is a classic class for an assassin and can easily wield a pair of daggers, dogslicers, or similar weapons. One of the main tools in the rogue is the sneak attack feature, which feels entirely on theme for Shaco’s Backstab passive. We rely on some mundane means for Deceive, whether that be Creating a Diversion and the feats we took to enhance that or the Stealth investment and feats such as Legendary Sneak. His Jack in the Box ability isn’t easy to make, but we can figure something out with the Snarecrafter Dedication, Surprise Snare, and snares that are able to inflict persistent damage, such as acid spitter and irritating snare. We come back to the rogue class and its Debilitating Strike for the passive slowing effect of Two-Shiv Poison while Strong Arm gives him a more potent ranged use when activating it and he can work in some extra damage with Poison Weapon and its advanced forms. The free hand potentially needed for that, and for the mirror of his thaumaturge implement, comes from the Juggle feat, which also fits in solidly with his jester theme. And that mirror will be useful for recreating his Hallucinate as well, which will let mirror a version of himself to flank with though the rogue does also have the Perfect Distraction allowing him to create a decoy as he strikes deviously from the shadows.

No mere marionette, this menace means malevolence and marches to macabre music, massacring many in a manner most mirthful.

Cat-in-the-Box Shaco

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. Next week gets festive with a bit of red and the Green!

Have a super Saturday!