I am a DM for 5e, and I had an idea for an interesting character to give my players a surprised like, "Wait, what?!" Kinda reaction. Picture Rock Lee vs Gaara at the Chunin exams. So, I have a Dwarf Barb (bear totem) 6/Monk (open hand) 4 and the whole thing is, we have built up to this guy for a while in the story, and I want to subvert their expectations. I am planning 3 encounters with this guy where he steps up his game each time and becomes harder/more interesting to fight. So he starts of wearing heavy armor (Blasphemous, I know, but stick with me) giving him a movement of 25 and AC of 17. Extra Attack and Rage give him the damage for the round and the party will have to contend with him during a large conflict so they have more to consider than juat attacking him. So he will fight somewhat poorly (but they will still think he is really tough with that over 120 hp) for a while before trying to flee early and fall back to a temple with some sorr of powerful artifact in it. Now, the party will choose to stay and help defend the town or give chase to the head of the enemy.
The second battle will be smaller, just the party vs the Dwarf, his Goliath bodyguard, and maybe 2 men (basic Berserkers from the dmg). Here is where he drops the armor to reveal a 45 ft movement speed and 3-4 attacks per round. This is where a major story element will be revealed for a specific character (backstory stuff "I killed your dirty Orc father mwahaha) which will have the dwarf tell the remaining enemies, "Hold them off. I'm going after it." And he attempts to delve into the temple for the treasure.
After a trap-filled temple run, the party will encounter this dwarf one last time, only now, he has the jewel from the center of the temple. Here, he becomes Enlarge'd, regains health, and recovers 1 ki point per round. This time is just the party vs him in a lair with legendaries.
So anyway, I basically am really excited for the flavor of this guy and wanted to post about it. Also, I'd love to here other peoples sort of, interesting "surprise" builds.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
To post a comment, please login or register a new account.
Hi all!
I am a DM for 5e, and I had an idea for an interesting character to give my players a surprised like, "Wait, what?!" Kinda reaction. Picture Rock Lee vs Gaara at the Chunin exams. So, I have a Dwarf Barb (bear totem) 6/Monk (open hand) 4 and the whole thing is, we have built up to this guy for a while in the story, and I want to subvert their expectations. I am planning 3 encounters with this guy where he steps up his game each time and becomes harder/more interesting to fight. So he starts of wearing heavy armor (Blasphemous, I know, but stick with me) giving him a movement of 25 and AC of 17. Extra Attack and Rage give him the damage for the round and the party will have to contend with him during a large conflict so they have more to consider than juat attacking him. So he will fight somewhat poorly (but they will still think he is really tough with that over 120 hp) for a while before trying to flee early and fall back to a temple with some sorr of powerful artifact in it. Now, the party will choose to stay and help defend the town or give chase to the head of the enemy.
The second battle will be smaller, just the party vs the Dwarf, his Goliath bodyguard, and maybe 2 men (basic Berserkers from the dmg). Here is where he drops the armor to reveal a 45 ft movement speed and 3-4 attacks per round. This is where a major story element will be revealed for a specific character (backstory stuff "I killed your dirty Orc father mwahaha) which will have the dwarf tell the remaining enemies, "Hold them off. I'm going after it." And he attempts to delve into the temple for the treasure.
After a trap-filled temple run, the party will encounter this dwarf one last time, only now, he has the jewel from the center of the temple. Here, he becomes Enlarge'd, regains health, and recovers 1 ki point per round. This time is just the party vs him in a lair with legendaries.
So anyway, I basically am really excited for the flavor of this guy and wanted to post about it. Also, I'd love to here other peoples sort of, interesting "surprise" builds.