Disclaimer: What follows is a rough build of a character I want to play at some point but likely won't as I DM more often than not, so if you like what you see, feel free to play it and tweak it. A few things to bear in mind: 1) I don't tend to build up my characters in a min/max sense so you won't see many ability scores maxed out. 2) I use the standard array to generate ability scores, this is mostly just for ease of reference when mulling over a build. 3) There may be some homebrew material mentioned so if you play adventurers league then this may not be a legal build. 4) I've a back catalogue of these so I'll post them as and when i cobble my notes into something that makes sense. 5) I won't be referencing many optional things from Tasha's Cauldron of Whatnot. 6) As always, feel free to post any questions, comments, feedback or general berating of my errors in rules or how abilities work.
Right, now that's out the way...…
Name: Dr Jack Hell
Basic info:
Race: Variant Human (taking +1 Dex/+1 Int for ability buffs, Draconic as a bonus language and Investigation as a bonus skill and Prodigy as a feat with Medicine & Alchemist supplies as bonus proficiencies, expertise with medicine, and Elf as a bonus language).
Ability Scores: Str 12, Dex 16, Con 14, Int 14, Wis 10, Cha 8
Background: Guild Artisan (taking poisoners kit for a tool proficiency and Dwarf as a bonus language).
Class: Barbarian (Path of the Beast).
Bio:
Dr Jack Hell was once a promising student of medicine and alchemical processes. However in his 20's he was subjected to what the authorities decided was an unfortunate accident when his alchemical lab exploded. Dr Hell suffered from mostly superficial injuries but has since come to believe his physiology was altered by the gases released. Dr Hell did his own investigation and discovered a rival within the guild was responsible for the explosion and it was an attempt to murder him but no matter what evidence he presented no one would believe him. He took to drinking heavily and one night decided to kill himself by drinking several random alchemy experiments. The effect was not death. He passed out and when he awoke he found himself covered in blood and clutching a note. The note, written in blood, simply said "vengeance taken". Dr Hell searched his house but found no signs of conflict or any wounds on himself that might account for the blood. He cleaned himself up and went to back to work. When he arrived at his guild he busied himself and was visited by a couple of the local town watch as well as one of the guild merchants. He was questioned about a murder, the person that had died was the man he had accused of trying to murder him. Later that evening he was steadying himself with a large brandy when he glimpsed his reflection in a mirror, a bestial face, at once him and not him, glared back at him. This continued for some time, the reflection always glaring but remaining silent and then...he blacked out again. When he came too several days had passed and he again found a note in his hand, this one said "if we not get what we deserve, we take what we want". Dr Hell then found several expensive sets of clothes as well as a small chest of gold coins on his bed. At this time he also heard a town crier outside, the news of the day; break ins at a bank and a clothing store, four people dead, no suspects. Scared to his core, Dr Hell fled town and now tries to find a cure for his black outs and the entity he calls Hyde (because it always hides just on the periphery of his vision and consciousness). As time passed Dr Hell developed a potion that enables Hyde to come out and this has stopped most of his black outs but he has become a bitter and angry man, he hopes to find a way to exorcise himself of Hyde's influence.
Building and reasoning:
Now you might think this makes no sense but I'm thinking more in terms of this being Jekyll & Hyde. Dr Jack Hell is an intelligent alchemist who tests his concoctions on himself. When he rages he drinks a potion (to represent the bonus action needed to enter the rage) and his personality shifts to being the more "aggressive" Hyde. The potions involved with these effects/transformations only work on Dr Hell, anyone else trying them just tastes stagnant water or some other foul tasting liquid. Out of combat you use your skills to make Healers Kits, Poisons and more importantly poison antidotes. Roleplay wise this can learn toward the “edge lord” style, on the one hand you have Dr Hell; a fairly intelligent well mannered but obsessed individual with little in the way of people skills so may say the wrong thing at the wrong time, on the other, you have Hyde; a violent almost maniacal individual that takes great joy in taking revenge and revels in saying the most vulgar and rude things he can. In this way it can be tricky to play as a lot of players and DM’s may not like that style and it would take some finesse to do it. The idea behind building the character is to have the duelling personalities vying for control, if you level up Barbarian then the Hyde personality becomes a little more dominant, if you multiclass then the Dr Hell side wins for a time and whatever else happens, you do not play it as a murderhobo.
Lvl1 & 2 Barbarian:
There’s nothing really special to note for either of these two levels, for starting skills I’d take Athletics and either Intimidation or Survival just to represent Hydes physical abilities and heightened senses or physique. Equipment wise take a Rapier, the explorers pack and javelins and see if you can start with a shield in place of the hand axes or simple weapon, cost wise they come out at the same. The reason for this is to start out and appear to be a gentleman duelist but when you rage you become a more frenzied attacker using quick strength based stabbing attacks instead of the precise aimed dexterity based strikes of a duelist. Given teh ability scores noted above, its a subtle difference but one that can be used to describe the sudden change in style once a fight starts.
Lvl 3: Barbarian:
Primal Path: Path of the Beasts taking the claw option. This further differentiates Dr Hell and Hyde; in combat Dr Hell uses a rapier and shield where Hyde uses claw (with two claw attacks per attack action at this level) and shield.
Lvl 4 onwards:
This where multiclassing may start to become an option although going to Barbarian level 4 asap and nabbing the Tough feat is worth considering. Although I am not a fan of the class I think Artificer (Alchemist) would be a good fit as a multiclass as this would show Dr Hell’s background being developed into something more useful and is thematically appropriate. The level bias depends on which way you want play the character, if you enjoy the Hyde side most take more levels of Barbarian and focus on taking ability score increases when you get the option, if you like the Dr Hell side more go for more Artificer and focus more on the spells and alchemy side of things, personally I think a Barbarian 5/Artificer 15 split would be good if you were looking to play a campaign through to 20 level.
Disclaimer: What follows is a rough build of a character I want to play at some point but likely won't as I DM more often than not, so if you like what you see, feel free to play it and tweak it. A few things to bear in mind: 1) I don't tend to build up my characters in a min/max sense so you won't see many ability scores maxed out. 2) I use the standard array to generate ability scores, this is mostly just for ease of reference when mulling over a build. 3) There may be some homebrew material mentioned so if you play adventurers league then this may not be a legal build. 4) I've a back catalogue of these so I'll post them as and when i cobble my notes into something that makes sense. 5) I won't be referencing many optional things from Tasha's Cauldron of Whatnot. 6) As always, feel free to post any questions, comments, feedback or general berating of my errors in rules or how abilities work.
Right, now that's out the way...…
Name: Dr Jack Hell
Basic info:
Race: Variant Human (taking +1 Dex/+1 Int for ability buffs, Draconic as a bonus language and Investigation as a bonus skill and Prodigy as a feat with Medicine & Alchemist supplies as bonus proficiencies, expertise with medicine, and Elf as a bonus language).
Ability Scores: Str 12, Dex 16, Con 14, Int 14, Wis 10, Cha 8
Background: Guild Artisan (taking poisoners kit for a tool proficiency and Dwarf as a bonus language).
Class: Barbarian (Path of the Beast).
Bio:
Dr Jack Hell was once a promising student of medicine and alchemical processes. However in his 20's he was subjected to what the authorities decided was an unfortunate accident when his alchemical lab exploded. Dr Hell suffered from mostly superficial injuries but has since come to believe his physiology was altered by the gases released. Dr Hell did his own investigation and discovered a rival within the guild was responsible for the explosion and it was an attempt to murder him but no matter what evidence he presented no one would believe him. He took to drinking heavily and one night decided to kill himself by drinking several random alchemy experiments. The effect was not death. He passed out and when he awoke he found himself covered in blood and clutching a note. The note, written in blood, simply said "vengeance taken". Dr Hell searched his house but found no signs of conflict or any wounds on himself that might account for the blood. He cleaned himself up and went to back to work. When he arrived at his guild he busied himself and was visited by a couple of the local town watch as well as one of the guild merchants. He was questioned about a murder, the person that had died was the man he had accused of trying to murder him. Later that evening he was steadying himself with a large brandy when he glimpsed his reflection in a mirror, a bestial face, at once him and not him, glared back at him. This continued for some time, the reflection always glaring but remaining silent and then...he blacked out again. When he came too several days had passed and he again found a note in his hand, this one said "if we not get what we deserve, we take what we want". Dr Hell then found several expensive sets of clothes as well as a small chest of gold coins on his bed. At this time he also heard a town crier outside, the news of the day; break ins at a bank and a clothing store, four people dead, no suspects. Scared to his core, Dr Hell fled town and now tries to find a cure for his black outs and the entity he calls Hyde (because it always hides just on the periphery of his vision and consciousness). As time passed Dr Hell developed a potion that enables Hyde to come out and this has stopped most of his black outs but he has become a bitter and angry man, he hopes to find a way to exorcise himself of Hyde's influence.
Building and reasoning:
Now you might think this makes no sense but I'm thinking more in terms of this being Jekyll & Hyde. Dr Jack Hell is an intelligent alchemist who tests his concoctions on himself. When he rages he drinks a potion (to represent the bonus action needed to enter the rage) and his personality shifts to being the more "aggressive" Hyde. The potions involved with these effects/transformations only work on Dr Hell, anyone else trying them just tastes stagnant water or some other foul tasting liquid. Out of combat you use your skills to make Healers Kits, Poisons and more importantly poison antidotes. Roleplay wise this can learn toward the “edge lord” style, on the one hand you have Dr Hell; a fairly intelligent well mannered but obsessed individual with little in the way of people skills so may say the wrong thing at the wrong time, on the other, you have Hyde; a violent almost maniacal individual that takes great joy in taking revenge and revels in saying the most vulgar and rude things he can. In this way it can be tricky to play as a lot of players and DM’s may not like that style and it would take some finesse to do it. The idea behind building the character is to have the duelling personalities vying for control, if you level up Barbarian then the Hyde personality becomes a little more dominant, if you multiclass then the Dr Hell side wins for a time and whatever else happens, you do not play it as a murderhobo.
Lvl1 & 2 Barbarian:
There’s nothing really special to note for either of these two levels, for starting skills I’d take Athletics and either Intimidation or Survival just to represent Hydes physical abilities and heightened senses or physique. Equipment wise take a Rapier, the explorers pack and javelins and see if you can start with a shield in place of the hand axes or simple weapon, cost wise they come out at the same. The reason for this is to start out and appear to be a gentleman duelist but when you rage you become a more frenzied attacker using quick strength based stabbing attacks instead of the precise aimed dexterity based strikes of a duelist. Given teh ability scores noted above, its a subtle difference but one that can be used to describe the sudden change in style once a fight starts.
Lvl 3: Barbarian:
Primal Path: Path of the Beasts taking the claw option. This further differentiates Dr Hell and Hyde; in combat Dr Hell uses a rapier and shield where Hyde uses claw (with two claw attacks per attack action at this level) and shield.
Lvl 4 onwards:
This where multiclassing may start to become an option although going to Barbarian level 4 asap and nabbing the Tough feat is worth considering. Although I am not a fan of the class I think Artificer (Alchemist) would be a good fit as a multiclass as this would show Dr Hell’s background being developed into something more useful and is thematically appropriate. The level bias depends on which way you want play the character, if you enjoy the Hyde side most take more levels of Barbarian and focus on taking ability score increases when you get the option, if you like the Dr Hell side more go for more Artificer and focus more on the spells and alchemy side of things, personally I think a Barbarian 5/Artificer 15 split would be good if you were looking to play a campaign through to 20 level.