Ever want to adventure in a suit of heavy armor while blasting your enemies to bits with (seemingly) unlimited energy? This build may be right for you. While this design tries to stay true to the genius heir, Tony of House Stark, it isn't designed as an optimized build. That being said, channeling your inner Captain and using a shield wouldn't hurt, and dipping a few levels into wizard wouldn't hurt either. We're also sticking with the PHB, so while the red and gold avenger with a green flame blade sounds amazing, only vanilla spells for this build.
1 – Race, Class, background
Human (Variant) fighter with the noble background. Human variant gives us a bonus feat (which I'll explain below) a bonus skill, AND we can choose any two attributes to add on to. Our fighter class allows us access to all armor and shields, and we will have access to magic as an eldritch knight at level 3. Born into a position of privilege, Tony will not want for anything, and the people will treat him like the celebrity he is. We could also argue that the Knight variant would be appropriate, as his squire, Jarvis, could be a great help on his journey.
2 – Personality
Is Stark lawful, chaotic, or neutral good? Either way, the noble obligation ideal sounds about right. It is his duty to protect and care for the people beneath him. This will eventually end up as a literal statement once he becomes airborne in the future. The common folk love him, and the people know he's a cut above the masses. He wants to become a hero of the people, spending his family's coin on better armor and equipment to do so. However, between his desire for alcohol and his feelings that everyone is beneath him while the world revolves around him could easily make his party a little worried that his head is too far off in the clouds.
3 – Ability Scores
So with the standard array of 15, 14, 13, 12, 10, 8 - we're going to start with 14 strength, 12 dexterity, 13 constitution, 15 intelligence, 8 wisdom, and 10 charisma. We're going to choose strength and intelligence as the skills to add our points to, making them 15 and 16 respectively. 16 Intelligence gives us a +3 modifier to our magical attacks, while the 15 strength allows us to wear that powerful plate mail as soon as we can acquir- I MEAN build it. While not the heartiest of heroes, the +1 to constitution is nothing to scoff at, and we can add to it once our intelligence reaches 20 if we're still feeling a bit squishy. The +1 to dexterity gives us a slight edge in terms of initiative, but if you're looking for a more charismatic Stark, to persuade and showboat, feel free to swap dex and cha around. The 8 wisdom is a little controversial, as it impacts our passive perception a bit, but it reflects Anthony's care-free, reckless abandon.
4 – Skills
We already have persuasion and history granted from our noble background. However, we still have two skills to choose from the fighter class and one more because we're human. In a heavy suit of armor, athletics couldn't hurt to help us run and climb when we need to the most. Also, because we're already lacking in the perception department, it wouldn't hurt to use that as our second choice, bringing our passive up to 11. And now that we're less of a liability, it only makes sense to make our human skill to be arcana. We might as well understand the powers that we're wielding.
5 – Other Proficiencies
As for languages, we can stick with any of the basics. We have Common and two others to choose from (one from our race and one from the noble background). Elvish and dwarvish? Sounds good. All weapons is great, but there isn't much need as we're blasting our way through our problems. All armor gives us access to plate and shields. Yes please. We also have one gaming set we're proficient with, so we can choose anything from chess to dragon chess.
6 – Equipment
Fighter gives us chain mail to start with, which is nothing to scoff at (but we want to upgrade to plate ASAP). We also have a martial weapon and shield. We should hang onto our weapon, as our eldritch knight powers will let us bind that weapon to us later. However, that shield may prove useful, as when equipped, we already have an AC of 18. Light crossbow and 20 bolts will pale in comparison to our cantrips, but maybe a companion could use it. Dungeoneer's pack or explorer's pack is up to you, but I usually vote for explorer's. As a noble, we have a set of fine clothes (in case we want to party outside of our armor), a signet ring of house Stark, a scroll of pedigree, and a purse with 25 gp. Not too shabby.
7 – Features and Traits
If there's an interest in what to level after 3, I may go back to this guide and expand, but the meat and potatoes for early game starts off with this:
Starting off with our variant human's feat, we're going to choose Magic Initiate to get some of those tasty wizard cantrips and a first level (daily) so at level 1 we're feeling like the real deal. I'll explain which spells we'll take in the next section. Level 1 of fighter, we start off with a fighting style: defense. We know how to wear the armor we made with maximum efficiency, granting us one more point to AC (now 17 without shield or 19 with shield). Average attacks won't even make a dent. We also have access to second wind, so we can keep on fighting even if someone manages to hit us. At second level we have action surge - so we can toss in an extra action on one of our turns (per rest). Finally, at third level we attain our martial archetype: the eldritch knight. Bound weapon ensures that we're always armed... with a weapon we're never using. What we're here for is the additional wizard spells. Speaking of which…
8 – Attacks and Spells
Again, there are arguably better spells than what I will pick, but we're sticking with flavor over optimization. For the two cantrips we get from magic initiate, we're starting with Fire Bolt and Shocking Grasp. We have our handy repulsor blast from the start for some ranged attacks, but we can still use intelligence to fuel our melee with our shocking grasp. For the first level spell we'll start with, we're going with feather fall. While we can't quite fly yet, our suit gives us a get-out-of-jail-free card in case we happen to fall.
At level 3, our eldritch knight lets us have two more cantrips, and three more first level spells. Two of those spells need to be abjuration or evocation. For cantrips we'll stick with Ray of Frost as we can slow our enemies down to a crawl (and have another blast to fall back on if our enemies are immune to fire) and Light to illuminate our suit and reduce the need for darkvision. The three first level spells we're sticking with are Magic Missile, Shield, and Witch Bolt. Auto-hit missiles, powered armor when we need it most, and the fan-favorite Unibeam blasting from our chest.
So there we have the Iron Avenger. While this is mostly a for-fun build and not the most optimized eldritch knight imagined, I can still see it taking on most campaigns as a tank with actual fire-power. Let me know what you think about this build and if you happen to play-test it, PLEASE let me know of the results. Also, any resemblance to persons, living or dead, real or fictitious, is purely coincidental. ; )
The Iron Avenger
Ever want to adventure in a suit of heavy armor while blasting your enemies to bits with (seemingly) unlimited energy? This build may be right for you. While this design tries to stay true to the genius heir, Tony of House Stark, it isn't designed as an optimized build. That being said, channeling your inner Captain and using a shield wouldn't hurt, and dipping a few levels into wizard wouldn't hurt either. We're also sticking with the PHB, so while the red and gold avenger with a green flame blade sounds amazing, only vanilla spells for this build.
1 – Race, Class, background
Human (Variant) fighter with the noble background. Human variant gives us a bonus feat (which I'll explain below) a bonus skill, AND we can choose any two attributes to add on to. Our fighter class allows us access to all armor and shields, and we will have access to magic as an eldritch knight at level 3. Born into a position of privilege, Tony will not want for anything, and the people will treat him like the celebrity he is. We could also argue that the Knight variant would be appropriate, as his squire, Jarvis, could be a great help on his journey.
2 – Personality
Is Stark lawful, chaotic, or neutral good? Either way, the noble obligation ideal sounds about right. It is his duty to protect and care for the people beneath him. This will eventually end up as a literal statement once he becomes airborne in the future. The common folk love him, and the people know he's a cut above the masses. He wants to become a hero of the people, spending his family's coin on better armor and equipment to do so. However, between his desire for alcohol and his feelings that everyone is beneath him while the world revolves around him could easily make his party a little worried that his head is too far off in the clouds.
3 – Ability Scores
So with the standard array of 15, 14, 13, 12, 10, 8 - we're going to start with 14 strength, 12 dexterity, 13 constitution, 15 intelligence, 8 wisdom, and 10 charisma. We're going to choose strength and intelligence as the skills to add our points to, making them 15 and 16 respectively. 16 Intelligence gives us a +3 modifier to our magical attacks, while the 15 strength allows us to wear that powerful plate mail as soon as we can acquir- I MEAN build it. While not the heartiest of heroes, the +1 to constitution is nothing to scoff at, and we can add to it once our intelligence reaches 20 if we're still feeling a bit squishy. The +1 to dexterity gives us a slight edge in terms of initiative, but if you're looking for a more charismatic Stark, to persuade and showboat, feel free to swap dex and cha around. The 8 wisdom is a little controversial, as it impacts our passive perception a bit, but it reflects Anthony's care-free, reckless abandon.
4 – Skills
We already have persuasion and history granted from our noble background. However, we still have two skills to choose from the fighter class and one more because we're human. In a heavy suit of armor, athletics couldn't hurt to help us run and climb when we need to the most. Also, because we're already lacking in the perception department, it wouldn't hurt to use that as our second choice, bringing our passive up to 11. And now that we're less of a liability, it only makes sense to make our human skill to be arcana. We might as well understand the powers that we're wielding.
5 – Other Proficiencies
As for languages, we can stick with any of the basics. We have Common and two others to choose from (one from our race and one from the noble background). Elvish and dwarvish? Sounds good. All weapons is great, but there isn't much need as we're blasting our way through our problems. All armor gives us access to plate and shields. Yes please. We also have one gaming set we're proficient with, so we can choose anything from chess to dragon chess.
6 – Equipment
Fighter gives us chain mail to start with, which is nothing to scoff at (but we want to upgrade to plate ASAP). We also have a martial weapon and shield. We should hang onto our weapon, as our eldritch knight powers will let us bind that weapon to us later. However, that shield may prove useful, as when equipped, we already have an AC of 18. Light crossbow and 20 bolts will pale in comparison to our cantrips, but maybe a companion could use it. Dungeoneer's pack or explorer's pack is up to you, but I usually vote for explorer's. As a noble, we have a set of fine clothes (in case we want to party outside of our armor), a signet ring of house Stark, a scroll of pedigree, and a purse with 25 gp. Not too shabby.
7 – Features and Traits
If there's an interest in what to level after 3, I may go back to this guide and expand, but the meat and potatoes for early game starts off with this:
Starting off with our variant human's feat, we're going to choose Magic Initiate to get some of those tasty wizard cantrips and a first level (daily) so at level 1 we're feeling like the real deal. I'll explain which spells we'll take in the next section. Level 1 of fighter, we start off with a fighting style: defense. We know how to wear the armor we made with maximum efficiency, granting us one more point to AC (now 17 without shield or 19 with shield). Average attacks won't even make a dent. We also have access to second wind, so we can keep on fighting even if someone manages to hit us. At second level we have action surge - so we can toss in an extra action on one of our turns (per rest). Finally, at third level we attain our martial archetype: the eldritch knight. Bound weapon ensures that we're always armed... with a weapon we're never using. What we're here for is the additional wizard spells. Speaking of which…
8 – Attacks and Spells
Again, there are arguably better spells than what I will pick, but we're sticking with flavor over optimization. For the two cantrips we get from magic initiate, we're starting with Fire Bolt and Shocking Grasp. We have our handy repulsor blast from the start for some ranged attacks, but we can still use intelligence to fuel our melee with our shocking grasp. For the first level spell we'll start with, we're going with feather fall. While we can't quite fly yet, our suit gives us a get-out-of-jail-free card in case we happen to fall.
At level 3, our eldritch knight lets us have two more cantrips, and three more first level spells. Two of those spells need to be abjuration or evocation. For cantrips we'll stick with Ray of Frost as we can slow our enemies down to a crawl (and have another blast to fall back on if our enemies are immune to fire) and Light to illuminate our suit and reduce the need for darkvision. The three first level spells we're sticking with are Magic Missile, Shield, and Witch Bolt. Auto-hit missiles, powered armor when we need it most, and the fan-favorite Unibeam blasting from our chest.
So there we have the Iron Avenger. While this is mostly a for-fun build and not the most optimized eldritch knight imagined, I can still see it taking on most campaigns as a tank with actual fire-power. Let me know what you think about this build and if you happen to play-test it, PLEASE let me know of the results. Also, any resemblance to persons, living or dead, real or fictitious, is purely coincidental. ; )
Awesome!