Ever wanted to make Hawkeye in D&D? I've got the perfect build for you!
To start, we'll be deviating a little bit from our source material and picking Half-Elf. Yeah, I know, he's a human, that's kinda his thing, but half-elves are close enough and having elf blood will help us gain a lot of features we'll be needing later on. We'll be using TCoE's rules to reassign our half-elf's ability scores by assigning our +2 to Dexterity and our two +1s to Constitution and Intelligence. Hawkeye in the comics has a background working in a circus, so we'll take Acrobatics for one of our skill proficiencies. Hawkeye also has great eyesight (I mean it's kinda his thing), so take Perception for your second skill proficiency. For the language... I'd say just take whatever suits you. Undercommon might make sense and could be representative of Hawkeye's knowledge of the scummy underworld of any city.
For your ability scores, I recommend using point buy to generate the following base scores:
STR: 8 DEX: 15 CON: 15 INT: 12 WIS: 11 CHA: 10
Throughout the course of this build you'll be taking four ASIs. Use those to increase your DEX to 19 and your CON to 18. Hawkeye seems like someone who is equally intelligent as he is wise, so we'll using the the rest of the ASIs to increase our WIS and INT to 14 each. We won't worry about strength, after all, Hawkeye is still just a guy (not to say he isn't formidable in hand-to-hand combat, but that can be represented by his proficiency with daggers and rapiers). We'll also leave CHA at 10 because while he's not ugly or anything, he also doesn't do much to sell himself (as seen in the show when mentioning his "brand").
You'll also be taking feats with this build. You have room for two, so the ones that I highly recommend are Elven Accuracy and Piercer (which you will use to bring your DEX to a full 20). But if you must drop either, I suggest keeping Elven Accuracy and dropping Piercer. The reason for this is that we'll be doing a crit-fishing build for our Hawkeye, and having the ability to roll three d20s is invaluable to this.
Now for the classes!
To start, you'll be taking 15 levels in Fighter. Take proficiency in the Athletics and Insight skills to represent his decent strength and neat ability to discern a lie. After this, take the Archery fighting style for that sweet +2 to our attack rolls with our bow.
For our archetype, we're taking- brace yourself... Champion. The reason for this is that Champions are the only subclass in 5e allow you to increase your critical hit range. Since we want our Hawkeye to be hitting bullseyes as much as possible, this is a very fitting ability for him to have. Champion also gives you an additional fighting style at the 10th level. Honestly... do with this as you would like. I might suggest taking Superior Technique for a sweet combat maneuver, many of which are compatible with ranged attacks.
With 15 levels in Champion, we can attack three times per Attack Action and have a critical hit range of 18-20.
Now for our second class!
You might've seen this coming, but we'll be taking our last 5 levels in Rogue. The Steady Aim feature will be invaluable in ensuring we have advantage on our attack rolls as often as possible. Hawkeye likely couldn't stand up to the likes of Black Widow in terms of being sneaky, but he is quite a stealthy one nonetheless, so take proficiency in Stealth. Then we'll take expertise in Stealth and Perception.
For our subclass, we'll be taking Scout, a subclass that was inarguably built for ranged rogues. The skirmisher ability of this subclass will be handy in keeping our Hawkeye out of arm's reach.
As for backgrounds arguments could be made for several, but I'll recommend the Criminal/Spy background, after all, the majority of Hawkeye's career was literally being a spy. We'll take proficiency in Performance as a final nod to Hawkeye's origins as a performer. Take whatever you see fit for his tool profiencies.
Now for equipment. Yeah, you bet your ass we're taking magic items. After all, while Hawkeye isn't innately magical, he often does receive help from high-tech gadgets (which are pretty close to magic, right?).
The Manual of Quickness of Action will increase our DEX to 22, thereby bringing our attack bonus to +14. The Ring of Evasion will grant our Hawkeye an additional measure of safety against destructive forces. The Bracers of Archery will bring our damage bonus with our arrows to +8. Finally, we'll be acquiring the Oathbow, which helps Hawkeye secure advantage against his enemies, suffer no disadvantage when attacking from long range, ignore cover, and deal an additional 3d6 damage to his sworn enemy.
All in all, with a critical hit range of 18-20, you have 15% chance of scoring a critical hit, which becomes 45% across three d20 rolls when we have advantage and Elven Accuracy. Across three attacks per turn, you have a near guaranteed chance of scoring a critical hit at least once per turn. Critical hits would stack up to 2d8+8 from our bow, 1d8 from Piercer, 6d6 from sneak attack, and 6d6 from our oathbow, for an average critical hit damage of 63.
There you have it, thats our Hawkeye. Someone who hits bullseyes as often as possible. You can of course spice this build up with more magic items or by taking different feats. But I feel that this is the build that best represents Hawkeye. Is there anything you would change? Let me know! I love feedback.
I disagree about strength. If I were trying to recreate theMarvel Character I would have a higher strength, given his training with Swordsman, his athletics exploits (climbing, vaulting etc) and how he hits people with his Bow (improvised weapons). Also he uses martial arts, which unless you take Monk means Strength. I would argue he would have a 14 strength probably. Not super high, but certainly higher than most and way higher than a librarian's 8.
On the other hand, I don't see a thematic reason for a high constitution. That could be 10, or perhaps even 8, because in this respect he is a normal guy and not a whole lot tougher than that librarian.
I definitely like the Rogue concept and Perception as one expertise. Considering how he convinces people in SHIELD to come around to his way of thinking; I would probably give persuasion as the other expertise though with regular proficiency in Stealth (good but not as good as BW). Since you have a 10 Charisma (and I agree with that), you really need to boost persuasion to match his character.
For Background the ones that make sense to me considering his actual Marvel background are entertainer or carnival hand.
What about Sharpshooter? This is the feat that represents most all this near supernatural ability of hitting the impossible target and etc. I’m not even thinking in the mechanics, more for the characterization. Maybe vHuman to sneeze in one more feat and forget about Elven Accuracy?
Drop a constitution ASI, pick up sharpshooter. With a hit bonus of +14 and triple advantage, you don't need the last +5 to hit.
I also recommend dropping the last 3-4 levels of fighter. What does the increased crit range give you? Extra crit damage: 3*((1-.85^3)-(1-.9^3))*15 + ((1-.85^9)-(1-.9^9))*10.5 = 6.8
3 is the 3 attacks, the stuff in parentheses is the extra probability of a crit on each attack, the 15 is the avg damage for any crits. Then the lump after the plus is the change in probability of getting at least one crit times 10.5, the average extra sneak attack damage. Those 3 fighter levels buy you an ASI and an average of 7 true(after attack chances are added) dpr. There's got to be something better, no? There's got to be. Especially since the moment something imposes disadvantage, his mega-advantage is cancelled and you're looking at someone very ordinary all of a sudden.
sfPanzer I think has a point about battle master and trick arrows. Or maybe there's something in artificer that's suitable? Not that I'm a fan of monk, but wouldn't some martial arts be suitable for the character?
I agree with battle master. Reflavoring maneuvers as trick arrows is a great idea.
And I agree with not dumping str. He’s a great marksman, but he’s also good in melee. (See also, his time as ronin.) This also argues for battle master, since he can use those same maneuvers in melee.
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Ever wanted to make Hawkeye in D&D? I've got the perfect build for you!
To start, we'll be deviating a little bit from our source material and picking Half-Elf. Yeah, I know, he's a human, that's kinda his thing, but half-elves are close enough and having elf blood will help us gain a lot of features we'll be needing later on. We'll be using TCoE's rules to reassign our half-elf's ability scores by assigning our +2 to Dexterity and our two +1s to Constitution and Intelligence. Hawkeye in the comics has a background working in a circus, so we'll take Acrobatics for one of our skill proficiencies. Hawkeye also has great eyesight (I mean it's kinda his thing), so take Perception for your second skill proficiency. For the language... I'd say just take whatever suits you. Undercommon might make sense and could be representative of Hawkeye's knowledge of the scummy underworld of any city.
For your ability scores, I recommend using point buy to generate the following base scores:
STR: 8
DEX: 15
CON: 15
INT: 12
WIS: 11
CHA: 10
Throughout the course of this build you'll be taking four ASIs. Use those to increase your DEX to 19 and your CON to 18. Hawkeye seems like someone who is equally intelligent as he is wise, so we'll using the the rest of the ASIs to increase our WIS and INT to 14 each. We won't worry about strength, after all, Hawkeye is still just a guy (not to say he isn't formidable in hand-to-hand combat, but that can be represented by his proficiency with daggers and rapiers). We'll also leave CHA at 10 because while he's not ugly or anything, he also doesn't do much to sell himself (as seen in the show when mentioning his "brand").
You'll also be taking feats with this build. You have room for two, so the ones that I highly recommend are Elven Accuracy and Piercer (which you will use to bring your DEX to a full 20). But if you must drop either, I suggest keeping Elven Accuracy and dropping Piercer. The reason for this is that we'll be doing a crit-fishing build for our Hawkeye, and having the ability to roll three d20s is invaluable to this.
Now for the classes!
To start, you'll be taking 15 levels in Fighter. Take proficiency in the Athletics and Insight skills to represent his decent strength and neat ability to discern a lie. After this, take the Archery fighting style for that sweet +2 to our attack rolls with our bow.
For our archetype, we're taking- brace yourself... Champion. The reason for this is that Champions are the only subclass in 5e allow you to increase your critical hit range. Since we want our Hawkeye to be hitting bullseyes as much as possible, this is a very fitting ability for him to have. Champion also gives you an additional fighting style at the 10th level. Honestly... do with this as you would like. I might suggest taking Superior Technique for a sweet combat maneuver, many of which are compatible with ranged attacks.
With 15 levels in Champion, we can attack three times per Attack Action and have a critical hit range of 18-20.
Now for our second class!
You might've seen this coming, but we'll be taking our last 5 levels in Rogue. The Steady Aim feature will be invaluable in ensuring we have advantage on our attack rolls as often as possible. Hawkeye likely couldn't stand up to the likes of Black Widow in terms of being sneaky, but he is quite a stealthy one nonetheless, so take proficiency in Stealth. Then we'll take expertise in Stealth and Perception.
For our subclass, we'll be taking Scout, a subclass that was inarguably built for ranged rogues. The skirmisher ability of this subclass will be handy in keeping our Hawkeye out of arm's reach.
As for backgrounds arguments could be made for several, but I'll recommend the Criminal/Spy background, after all, the majority of Hawkeye's career was literally being a spy. We'll take proficiency in Performance as a final nod to Hawkeye's origins as a performer. Take whatever you see fit for his tool profiencies.
Now for equipment. Yeah, you bet your ass we're taking magic items. After all, while Hawkeye isn't innately magical, he often does receive help from high-tech gadgets (which are pretty close to magic, right?).
The Manual of Quickness of Action will increase our DEX to 22, thereby bringing our attack bonus to +14.
The Ring of Evasion will grant our Hawkeye an additional measure of safety against destructive forces.
The Bracers of Archery will bring our damage bonus with our arrows to +8.
Finally, we'll be acquiring the Oathbow, which helps Hawkeye secure advantage against his enemies, suffer no disadvantage when attacking from long range, ignore cover, and deal an additional 3d6 damage to his sworn enemy.
All in all, with a critical hit range of 18-20, you have 15% chance of scoring a critical hit, which becomes 45% across three d20 rolls when we have advantage and Elven Accuracy. Across three attacks per turn, you have a near guaranteed chance of scoring a critical hit at least once per turn. Critical hits would stack up to 2d8+8 from our bow, 1d8 from Piercer, 6d6 from sneak attack, and 6d6 from our oathbow, for an average critical hit damage of 63.
There you have it, thats our Hawkeye. Someone who hits bullseyes as often as possible. You can of course spice this build up with more magic items or by taking different feats. But I feel that this is the build that best represents Hawkeye. Is there anything you would change? Let me know! I love feedback.
Thanks for your attention and happy holidays!
Cool idea.
I disagree about strength. If I were trying to recreate theMarvel Character I would have a higher strength, given his training with Swordsman, his athletics exploits (climbing, vaulting etc) and how he hits people with his Bow (improvised weapons). Also he uses martial arts, which unless you take Monk means Strength. I would argue he would have a 14 strength probably. Not super high, but certainly higher than most and way higher than a librarian's 8.
On the other hand, I don't see a thematic reason for a high constitution. That could be 10, or perhaps even 8, because in this respect he is a normal guy and not a whole lot tougher than that librarian.
I definitely like the Rogue concept and Perception as one expertise. Considering how he convinces people in SHIELD to come around to his way of thinking; I would probably give persuasion as the other expertise though with regular proficiency in Stealth (good but not as good as BW). Since you have a 10 Charisma (and I agree with that), you really need to boost persuasion to match his character.
For Background the ones that make sense to me considering his actual Marvel background are entertainer or carnival hand.
Great topic! Loved it.
What about Sharpshooter? This is the feat that represents most all this near supernatural ability of hitting the impossible target and etc. I’m not even thinking in the mechanics, more for the characterization. Maybe vHuman to sneeze in one more feat and forget about Elven Accuracy?
Drop a constitution ASI, pick up sharpshooter. With a hit bonus of +14 and triple advantage, you don't need the last +5 to hit.
I also recommend dropping the last 3-4 levels of fighter. What does the increased crit range give you? Extra crit damage: 3*((1-.85^3)-(1-.9^3))*15 + ((1-.85^9)-(1-.9^9))*10.5 = 6.8
3 is the 3 attacks, the stuff in parentheses is the extra probability of a crit on each attack, the 15 is the avg damage for any crits. Then the lump after the plus is the change in probability of getting at least one crit times 10.5, the average extra sneak attack damage. Those 3 fighter levels buy you an ASI and an average of 7 true(after attack chances are added) dpr. There's got to be something better, no? There's got to be. Especially since the moment something imposes disadvantage, his mega-advantage is cancelled and you're looking at someone very ordinary all of a sudden.
sfPanzer I think has a point about battle master and trick arrows. Or maybe there's something in artificer that's suitable? Not that I'm a fan of monk, but wouldn't some martial arts be suitable for the character?
I agree with battle master. Reflavoring maneuvers as trick arrows is a great idea.
And I agree with not dumping str. He’s a great marksman, but he’s also good in melee. (See also, his time as ronin.) This also argues for battle master, since he can use those same maneuvers in melee.