Hey guys, know this is probably redundant and a bit annoying, but I needed help making a Charizard build.  Was looking around on Reddit and Youtube for a few build ideas, found a few people asking for help making a Charizard, but no one ever responded.  Figured I'd post a question here to try and (hopefully) get some help.  

Basically, some guys were asking for this: 

as a player character in D&D.  One guy suggested making a copper dragonborn, but those guys use acid, so I'm not sure.

Does anyone have an idea of how to make a character as close as possible?  I was thinking either a Dragonborn or a Draconian, for starters.  

Again, sorry if this is annoying; this is the last question I'll have for a while.  

A Dragonborn Draconic Bloodline Sorcerer would probably be the closest you would get, and you wouldn’t grow wings until 14th level.

Maybe a Kobold if the Dragonborn is too big. I'm not familiar with Pokemon enough to know what the relevant size would be. Draconic Sorcerer would still be my vote.

Hmmm that's got some interesting flavor to it, I might have to build me a Kobold Draconic bloodline sorcerer to it. It will be happy to have more dragon blood manifesting but be a little feared by its envious brood mates.... fascinating...

Charizard, go back to your nest, I need Wobbafet.

Sorry I couldn't reply earlier; I was at work, couldn't get my phone to log in.  

To IamSposta and Jhfffan: I figured Draconic Bloodline would be the primary class; it's the only class that could give you wings after all.  

To Jhfffan: Allow me to explain Charizard a bit: It's a fire-type dragon Pokemon, one of the most popular ones IRL, in fact.  Height-wise, the games tend to state they're around 5'7, but in the anime and most other media, they tend to be roughly 6 to just under 10 feet tall; dragonborn would fit perfectly, in other words.  Despite the stocky build, they tend to be more focused on "special" attacks, i.e. flame breath and lasers, basically magic.  However, they do have some solid melee potential and somewhat decent survivability; they most certainly aren't the best, but they are not the worst.  

To continue with the questioning; So, we've got part of the character down; a Copper-Scaled, Level 14, Gold Draconic Bloodline Sorcerer Dragonborn that specializes in fire magic, most likely going to have to be a Draconblood from Wildemount because of the tail.  

However, there's still a little left to be done; as mentioned above, Charizard tends to have some decent physical survivability and melee, and I need to find a class that can work with DB Sorcerer; I was thinking something with heavy armor and a sword, perhaps?  I've heard some people recommend Paladin before; according to some, a 14 Sorcerer/6 Paladin Hybrid is borderline game-breaking in the right hands, but I'm still on the fence.  Anyone have any recommendations?  

Also, slightly related: could a DB Sorcerer use a sword as a magic catalyst?  Got an idea for a build, if possible.  

I assume you mean a spell focus and not "magic catalyst", which isn't a term used in D&D?

You'd need to play a Hexblade Warlock for that.  Neither sorcerers nor paladins can use a sword as a spell focus.

Alright, thanks for the heads up about the spell focus thing; I'll just have the guy use one in the off-hand, if possible. 

I've been a long time fan of the Dark Souls series, and that's what spell focuses are called in the series; "magic catalysts."  Sorry for the confusion, been getting my terms mixed up.  

Going back to the rest of the character; what would be a decent multi-class, if any, for a DB Sorcerer?  Been looking at strength, if possible; I know it's not optimal for a Draconblood, I was just trying to make the character as close to a Charizard as possible.  

Paladin and Warlock are the two classes that multiclass the best with sorcerers.

Quote from 6thLyranGuard >>

Paladin and Warlock are the two classes that multiclass the best with sorcerers.

 And Bards don’t suck either.

No, but I didn't get a sense that the OP wanted to go terribly bardic.  Though College of Valor might fit.

Yeah. But either way they won’t want to put more than 6 levels max into anything else because they need to hit 14th in Sorcerer to get the flappy flaps.

Yeah, when I was designing the Charizard character, I was looking for a cross between "badass knight" and "walking magical flamethrower" to really try and give that "dragon knight" kind of feel, if you know what I mean.  

I think I'll go with 6 Paladin/14 DB Sorcerer; seems like a solid mix of abilities, dragon wings are my already-stated goal, and the Paladin trees have some good skills.  A good mixture of armor, melee, and magic is precisely what I'm going for, and this build is pretty much what I'm wanting; I've got a few more questions, but they aren't much; mostly just ironing out the details.  I do apologize for my indecisiveness, but I get so much conflicting information that I just can't decide; that, and I'm no expert at D&D; it might be best to ask the professionals.   

First off; what would be a good subclass for the Paladin multi-spec?  There's only going to be 6 levels being put in, but if there's anything you guys want to suggest, let me know. 

Second off; I'm needing a confirmation on the scale color; I've been looking around on both Reddit and this site, and I've gotten a number of votes split between using a copper dragonborn that picks up fire skills in Draconic Bloodline, or using a red and/or gold dragonborn that's scales are flavored as an orange tint.  

I might ask some more questions in the future, but for right now, this is all I've got; what are you guy's thoughts?  

Well, since you're only going to 6th on Paladin, that means that you'll only get your Channel Divinity and the bonus 1st and 2nd level spells.  So it's really going to come down to how you see your character going, personality wise.

Quote from Flugdrekkar >>

Yeah, when I was designing the Charizard character, I was looking for a cross between "badass knight" and "walking magical flamethrower" to really try and give that "dragon knight" kind of feel, if you know what I mean.  

I think I'll go with 6 Paladin/14 DB Sorcerer; seems like a solid mix of abilities, dragon wings are my already-stated goal, and the Paladin trees have some good skills.  A good mixture of armor, melee, and magic is precisely what I'm going for, and this build is pretty much what I'm wanting; I've got a few more questions, but they aren't much; mostly just ironing out the details.  I do apologize for my indecisiveness, but I get so much conflicting information that I just can't decide; that, and I'm no expert at D&D; it might be best to ask the professionals.   

First off; what would be a good subclass for the Paladin multi-spec?  There's only going to be 6 levels being put in, but if there's anything you guys want to suggest, let me know. 

Second off; I'm needing a confirmation on the scale color; I've been looking around on both Reddit and this site, and I've gotten a number of votes split between using a copper dragonborn that picks up fire skills in Draconic Bloodline, or using a red and/or gold dragonborn that's scales are flavored as an orange tint.  

I might ask some more questions in the future, but for right now, this is all I've got; what are you guy's thoughts?  

 For the heavy armor, you'll need to start Paladin. You will want to talk to the DM about the wings manifesting through the armor so that you know all of the in and outs regarding that.  As for the subclass, the only thing that you'll have from it is your oath and channel divinity. Find one that you like and go with it.

Also, Brass is a fire based Dragon and might fit your color scheme. 

Alright, so I'll take a look at Paladin, and see which one I like.  Thanks for the tip.  

As for the scale color; I'm sadly still undecided.  Brass, Gold, and Red all have the correct element, but the first two tend to be more yellow than orange, while red is more... well, red.  Copper fits the color scheme, but that's for acid breath, not fire.  I've been trying to look around the internet, and see what the rules are when I comes to scale color tint (couple people been saying that red, for instance, can have scales that are nearly black and/or copper colored, but that MIGHT have been homebrew) but I haven't been able to find anything.  

Seriously, who'd have thought scale color would be the biggest pain in character creation?!  Also, why did Charizard have to be bright orange?  

If anyone has got any suggestions, let me know, and thank you for your time.  

Suggestion: Re-skin the appearance of a variant Tiefling. This covers wings/tail from level 1, and opens up a lot of different class options, such as an Artillerist Artificer (if you’d like to be a flying “magical flamethrower”).

Dragonborn, regardless of draconic heritage, tend to have copper scales. Only some get scales matching their heritage.

You could have a red dragonborn with brass dragon sorc, and say it has copper or orange scales.

The more warlock or paladin you add, the less like Charizard you get. Chari doesn't use swords, doesn't wear armour, doesn't Smite or Curse, and is not a Knight. The more of these levels you put in this the slower it will be to getting the wings.

Dragon Sorcs are not that squishy. Between their AC feature giving them better than light armour, spells like Shield and Absorb Element and eventually flying, they'll do fine. It's not like it will be just you and ideally your enemies will be ash (*cough*) before they get to you.

Frankly a 2-level dip into fighter gets you all you'd need to buff up - it can get you heavy armour and shield profiencies, bonus action healing, and action surge and you will still get to Fire Storm and Summon Meteors later on.

Charizard may have some melee ability but its primary focus is setting everything on fire. For "charizard build" it makes more sense to me going full sorc route than making a Dragon Knight swinging swords, cursing/smiting people - since that's very far away from Charizard.

Quote from Cyb3rM1nd >>

Dragonborn, regardless of draconic heritage, tend to have copper scales. Only some get scales matching their heritage.

You could have a red dragonborn with brass dragon sorc, and say it has copper or orange scales.

The more warlock or paladin you add, the less like Charizard you get. Chari doesn't use swords, doesn't wear armour, doesn't Smite or Curse, and is not a Knight. The more of these levels you put in this the slower it will be to getting the wings.

Dragon Sorcs are not that squishy. Between their AC feature giving them better than light armour, spells like Shield and Absorb Element and eventually flying, they'll do fine. It's not like it will be just you and ideally your enemies will be ash (*cough*) before they get to you.

Frankly a 2-level dip into fighter gets you all you'd need to buff up - it can get you heavy armour and shield profiencies, bonus action healing, and action surge and you will still get to Fire Storm and Summon Meteors later on.

Charizard may have some melee ability but its primary focus is setting everything on fire. For "charizard build" it makes more sense to me going full sorc route than making a Dragon Knight swinging swords, cursing/smiting people - since that's very far away from Charizard.

 Based on this, sorcerer 1, hexblade 1 for hex warrior and the curse, pick up green Flame blade for melee on one of them, then Sorc X sounds good to me. Max charisma for attacks, get dex to a 14 or 16 so that your AC is 15 or 16 (3+ dex modifier), constitution to preference with anything above maybe into feats (Elemental Adept:Fire).

Sorry for the delayed replies; just got off work, and I can't post on my phone.  

First off, thanks for the insight on the scale color and the class selection; been looking for some answers on the scale color for quite some time now, (no, seriously, it was much, much longer than you think) and while I like the thought of mixing a paladin and sorcerer, the loss of levels is something that always irked me; make no mistake, I'll still give the mixed class a try on another character, but this one is going to be closer to Charizard, I guess.  

Now, to answer the point about strength you brought up, Cyb3rM1nd, I've got several reasons for the Paladin class being considered.  (Be advised, first point is kinda weird.)

First off, take a look at that picture I posted above; Charizard's got a rather stocky design, and I figured it would be a bit odd for an egghead Draconblood Dragonborn to have a build like that, but not any increase in strength.  Basically, it was my OCD kicking in, wanting to get as physically close to the picture as possible.  

Secondly, tying into the above, is that a Paladin would be able to take advantage in the increase in strength; they could use heavy armor and shields, for increased defense and survivability, melee skills would help if my enemies got close and I couldn't use my magic for whatever reason, and higher strength means more carrying capacity for loot.  

Third, tying into the last point, is personal experience.  I haven't been able to get involved with too many sessions of D&D myself, but the quickest and simplest way I can describe my friends and my sessions could be in only one word: "shenanigans."  Random shit tends to happen every time we play; during one session (that I didn't take part in, sadly) started with the squad going into an inn to get some information; roughly two days later, the whole ordeal had evolved into a bizarre cross between a zombie apocalypse and a Jackass episode.  To put it bluntly, a Paladin seemed most likely at first glace to have the required skills to survive an average shopping trip with my group.  

Basically, I am aware that Charizard didn't have weapons or armor in the original series, (unless you count the Lucario movie, where they had what looked a bit like medium armor) but I felt that they would be necessary for the game.  

Still, thanks for the suggestions on a full sorcerer build; I'll tweak the sheet for Charizard to accommodate.  Course, now I've got two more questions to ask, if anybody wants to answer them; sorry.  

One: What exactly can you use for a sorcerer spell focus?  Been looking around all day today, and I couldn't find a concise answer.  

Two: Cyb3rM1nd mentioned a fighter as a multi-class; would it be worth it, and if so, what weapons/armor would you take, if any?  

Also, for the curious, this is the "armored Charizard" I mentioned above, from the 8th movie:

 Edit: I'll be leaving this topic open in the future, so anyone can post anything they want to add; build ideas and such.  

"One: What exactly can you use for a sorcerer spell focus?  Been looking around all day today, and I couldn't find a concise answer.  "

A sorcerer can use an arcane focus. An arcane focus can be a Crystal, Orb, Rod, Wand or Staff. Alternatively, you can use a Component Pouch which is a small pouch that "conventiently" has what ever material components you need in it, while an arcane focus is a replacement for any such components. However both the focus and pouch cover material components that do not have a listed gold cost. The components that have a listed gold cost must be provided separately. Thankfully, most spells for fire don't have a cost.

"Two: You mentioned a fighter as a multi-class; would it be worth it, and if so, what weapons/armor would you take, if any?  "

You gain proficiency with all weapons, armours and shields. That could be full plate with a longsword and shield, go with breastplate and greatsword - whatever you want.

--

You mention wanting the Strength for the visual appearance of a stocky dragon. I can understand that. However, classes (with exception of Barbarian at late level) don't increase a stat. They do get ASIs/Feats but you choose them. There's nothing stopping you going full 100% sorcerer and putting points into Strength or improving it through ASIs. I've had a strong and stocky Wizard before by putting 14 into Strength which became +2 with racial bonus (Mountain Dwarf). He was swole. Never really factored into gameplay, he was a wizard after all, but still, he looked good.

Dragonborn do get +2 strength. You can always ask the DM if you can just use normal dragonborn with a tail. It's purely aesthetic so you'll be hard-pressed to find a DM who will say no. Especially since quite a few DMs end up surprised they don't normally have one. This will mean you could start with 16 Strength and 16 Charisma using standard array. That's a stocky dragonborn, right there.

If you're going to be more melee-fighting and stuff, I do recommend a 2 level dip into Fighter. You'll get all weapon, armour and shield profiencies, you're get a bonus action heal, you get action surge and you're get a fighting style. If you plan on getting a shield and weaon I recommend getting the Warcaster feat. If you plan on mostly using spells: I'd recommend putting a 12 into Strength, instead, to get 14, so you can put 14 into Dex and 15 into Cha. Your draconic resilience will be AC 13 + Dex, so that's AC 15, which is fine for starting with, and you can increase Dex and Cha - and maybe +2 to Strength later. You'll get decent AC from the feature, don't have to worry about armour and just blast enemies with fire. For those moments when you need to melee, a dagger with Booming Blade or Green Flame Blade will work fine and dandy. But it all depends on how you want to play the character.

Either way you'll be closer to Charizard than if you went Paladin/Warlock, and you get more progression in Sorc which will give you the features faster, more spell slots, plus access to the end level features and spells (the spells of 7th level and up, which you won't get going the Paladin/Warlock route, are incredible).