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, lets move on to...…
Name: Sir Paddymore Skyknight
Basic info:
Race: Kobold
Ability Scores: Str 6, Dex 16, Con 13, Int 15, Wis 10, Cha 12
Background: Sage (Astronomer, EDIT: Kobolds can already speak Draconic so bonus languages can be anything you like but should likely be something quite mundane like Elf and Dwarf).
Class: Wizard (Order of Scribes).
Feats:Elemental Adept Acid and/or Fire, ASI's and possible Tough or Warcaster depending on your preferences.
Bio:
Sir Paddymore Skyknight is a Kobold whose clan worked for a Brass dragon, their role was to catalogue and maintain the dragons horde which was composed of offerings local towns sent in terms of thanks for decades of protection and the dragon occasionally presiding as judge over a particularly difficult trial or matter of law. Every year this horde would be divided up and redistributed to the surrounding towns making sure that they remained prosperous. One day, whilst cataloguing a series of books, a young Kobold stumbled upon a story book called “The Skyknights” which told of the heroic adventures of a group of knight that rode dragons and were said to study the night sky to divine where and when they would be needed. Enamoured by the story the Kobold took the name of Sir Paddymore, who was one of their legendary number and author of the book, and left the dragons cave to pursue a life of adventure.
Building and reasoning:
The idea for this is based on a Sir Patrick Moore who is famous in the UK (if you are of a certain age) for presenting an Astonomy programme called “The Sky at Night”.
I wanted to base this build on the Kobold Inventor from Volo’s Guide to Everything and originally thought of doing this as Artificer (Alchemist) but after several attempts I realised it was far more hassle than it was worth and switched to Wizard (Order of Scribes). The book Sir Paddymore found was not just a story book but was also a spell book, the spells formed by pictures and rhymes within its pages.
As we level Sir Paddymore up we’ll be tweaking the spells a little to reflect the abilities of the Kobold Inventor and be concentrating on mostly acid or fire damage dealing spells as well as spells that offer a variety of options to use the Order of Scribes Awakened Spell book ability to change any damaging spell we cast to acid or fire.
Appearance wise Sir Paddymore looks like a kobold wearing a rather spiffing waistcoat, wide brimmed hat and voluminous pantaloons and wears a monocle, strapped to his back pack is a telescope (actually just a collapsible metal tube with a piece of glass over it and no magnification) and he talks like an aristocratic but slightly bumbling, human or elf although does he not fully understand all the nuances of such society.
The ability scores above use the standard Kobold ability scores modifiers form Volo's Guide to Everything which includes a -2 to strength.
Lvl 1Wizard:
Starting equipment is going to be: an Explorers Pack, a Component Pouch, a Spell book (the story book called “The Skyknights”) and a “Lance” treated as a quarterstaff but if your DM is happy to allow it, I would switch this to be the Koblods Scorpion on a Stick weapon, it would function as a simple melee weapon but the damage would change to 1 piercing + 1d6 Poison damage on a hit and proficiency with it would replace proficiency with the quarterstaff.
For starting spells we’re going for:
Cantrips: Acid Splash or Fire Bolt, Message and Prestidigitation.
Level 1 spells: Absorb Elements, Chromatic Orb, Find Familiar, Mage Armour, Shield, Sleep (which takes the form of a Brass Dragons gaseous breath attack).
We’re going to flavour the choice of spells to reflect the Kobold Inventor. For Chromatic Orb we’re going to start off only casting it as either Acid or Fire and when we do so the magical energy forms into a vial which we throw as part of the casting and resembles throwing a vial of acid or alchemists fire.
The Acid Splash or Fire Bolt cantrip is also flavoured a little, when cast we belch it out like the worlds worst dragon breath attack.
For Find Familiar we start off with a Skunk in homage to the Skunk in a Cage attack of the Kobold Inventor, I couldn’t find stats for a skunk so we’ll use those of the Arctic Stink Squirrel from Icewind Dale which gives it the stats of a weasel with the ability to cast a DC11 Stinking Cloud once per long rest. If the DM is happy ot allow it, when we get the Conjure Draconic Ally spell noted below, we instead summon a "Skunk Dragon" with Find Familiar which is your basic Pseudodragon but it has the colouration of a skunk.
EDIT: I forgot to add starting skills would be Investigation and Religion, we've got Arcana and History from the background but these should be played as everything for the most part has been learned via reading about the Skyknights escapades.
Lvl 2-20 Wizard:
There isn’t much to say, we get all the goodies of the Order of Scribes. When using the Manifest Mind ability it appears as a scholarly human face which resembles the depiction of Sir Paddymore in the story.
For ASI or Feats we’re taking Elemental Adept (Acid or Fire) at level 4, then either Elemental Adept (Acid or Fire, which ever one we didn’t take at level 4), Tough, Warcaster or Buffs to Cons and Int as we level up further.
We’re going to be looking for spells that deal acid or fire damage, that may be “draconic” in nature or that offer us some weird spell options and area of effect to use the Order of Scribes Awakened Spell book ability to change damage types.
As we level up and adventureI’d try to find the following or take as many as possible with the free spells we learn at each level:
Cantrips; Shocking Grasp (as an emergency melee cantrip), Create Bonfire.
Level 1 spells: Detect Magic, Tasha’a Caustic brew and Thunderwave.
Level 3 spells: Counterspell, Dispel Magic, Fireball, Fly, Glyph of Warding, Kobold Weapon Inventions*, Phantom Steed (which takes the form of a Guard Drake), Stinking Cloud (which takes the form of a spectral Skunk appearing and spraying the cloud), Tidal Wave.
*Kobold Weapon Inventions is just a reflavoured version of Conjure Animals and we are using it to either summon insect swarms or patches of green slime. If summoning swarms of insects then we specifically summon either the Swarm of Centipedes. Rot Grubs or Wasps, to replicate the Kobold Inventors Basket of Centipedes, Rot Grub Pot and Wasps Nest in a Bag attacks. Each of these swarms are CR1/2. If we summon patches of Green Slime(see page 105 of the DMG) treat each patch of Green Slime as CR1/8 for purposes of the spell. The material component for this spell depends on what is being summoned, you need a clay pot for Green Slime or Rot Grubs, a wicker basket for Centipedes and a small bag or sack to summon Wasps, this component is not consumed by the spell. Because of the homebrew nature of this spell I would take this as one of the free spells we learn upon reaching level 5.
Level 4 spells: Conjure Draconic Ally*, Fire Shield, Ice Storm, Mordenkainens Faithful Hound (which resembles a Guard Drake instead of a hound), Storm Sphere and Vitriolic Sphere.
*Conjure Draconic Ally functions as per Conjure Woodland beings but summons some form of draconic creature, at time of writing eligible draconic creatures would be: Faerie Dragon (CR 1 or 2 depending on colour), Guard Drake (CR2, at DM option you may be allowed to summon the chromatic variant) or Pseudodragon (CR1/4), and the material component changes to a dragon scale. Because of the homebrew nature of this spell I would take this as one of the free spells we learn upon reaching level 7.
Level 5 spells: Cone of Cold and Immolation.
Level 6 spells: Guards and Wards, True Seeing.
Level 7 spells: Mordenkainens Magnificent Mansion (takes the form of a dragons lair complete with horde of treasure and a variety of comfy furniture for humanoids to sit/sleep on)
Level 8: Illusory Dragon.
Level 9: Shapechange or True Polymorph.
These spells should then offer some interesting damage swapping with the awakened spell book ability such as:
Cast a level 1 Thunderwave spells but because we have Chromatic Orb we change the damage from Thunder to Poison which still knocks objects and people away from you and makes enough nooise to be heard 300ft away.
Cast a level 2 Shadow Blade spell and change the psychic damage to any damage type you could inflict with the Dragon's Breath spell, or cast Scorching ray and change it to the Shadow Blades Psychic damage.
With both Fireball and Tidal Wave at level 3 we can switch the bludgeoning damage that Tidal Wave deals to Fire damage which then extinguishes all flames (!?).
With both Ice Storm and Vitriolic Sphere at level 4 we can switch Ice Storm to deal Acid and Cold damage instead of Bludgeoning and Cold or, even more strangely, we could cast Storm Sphere and have it deal Acid Damage (if we have Vitriolic Sphere) instead of Bludgeoning or have it send out bolts of Fire damage (if we have Fire Shield) instead of Lightning but I’m not sure if you could do both of the Storm sphere options at the same time if you had all the required spells.
So thats the idea fo Sir Paddymore Skynight. We've got a spell that mimics all the Kobold Inventor attacks/abilities and spells that can summon Draconic allies and give us our own Dragon Horde to sleep on as well as more damage options than we should likely need with a variety of options for area of effects.
EDIT: based on taking this chap to level 20 we end up with: AC16 (via mage armour and Dex) which is boostable to 21 with a shield spell. Our Spell DC will range from 16-19 and spell attack bonus would be between +8 and +11 dependng on how many ASI's we use to buff Intelligence. Assuming average HP per level we'd have between 102hp and 162hp depending on whether we take the Tough and/or buff Constitution with an ASI but as we're not really a front liner this shouldn't be a problem.
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, lets move on to...…
Name: Sir Paddymore Skyknight
Basic info:
Race: Kobold
Ability Scores: Str 6, Dex 16, Con 13, Int 15, Wis 10, Cha 12
Background: Sage (Astronomer, EDIT: Kobolds can already speak Draconic so bonus languages can be anything you like but should likely be something quite mundane like Elf and Dwarf).
Class: Wizard (Order of Scribes).
Feats:Elemental Adept Acid and/or Fire, ASI's and possible Tough or Warcaster depending on your preferences.
Bio:
Sir Paddymore Skyknight is a Kobold whose clan worked for a Brass dragon, their role was to catalogue and maintain the dragons horde which was composed of offerings local towns sent in terms of thanks for decades of protection and the dragon occasionally presiding as judge over a particularly difficult trial or matter of law. Every year this horde would be divided up and redistributed to the surrounding towns making sure that they remained prosperous. One day, whilst cataloguing a series of books, a young Kobold stumbled upon a story book called “The Skyknights” which told of the heroic adventures of a group of knight that rode dragons and were said to study the night sky to divine where and when they would be needed. Enamoured by the story the Kobold took the name of Sir Paddymore, who was one of their legendary number and author of the book, and left the dragons cave to pursue a life of adventure.
Building and reasoning:
The idea for this is based on a Sir Patrick Moore who is famous in the UK (if you are of a certain age) for presenting an Astonomy programme called “The Sky at Night”.
I wanted to base this build on the Kobold Inventor from Volo’s Guide to Everything and originally thought of doing this as Artificer (Alchemist) but after several attempts I realised it was far more hassle than it was worth and switched to Wizard (Order of Scribes). The book Sir Paddymore found was not just a story book but was also a spell book, the spells formed by pictures and rhymes within its pages.
As we level Sir Paddymore up we’ll be tweaking the spells a little to reflect the abilities of the Kobold Inventor and be concentrating on mostly acid or fire damage dealing spells as well as spells that offer a variety of options to use the Order of Scribes Awakened Spell book ability to change any damaging spell we cast to acid or fire.
Appearance wise Sir Paddymore looks like a kobold wearing a rather spiffing waistcoat, wide brimmed hat and voluminous pantaloons and wears a monocle, strapped to his back pack is a telescope (actually just a collapsible metal tube with a piece of glass over it and no magnification) and he talks like an aristocratic but slightly bumbling, human or elf although does he not fully understand all the nuances of such society.
The ability scores above use the standard Kobold ability scores modifiers form Volo's Guide to Everything which includes a -2 to strength.
Lvl 1 Wizard:
Starting equipment is going to be: an Explorers Pack, a Component Pouch, a Spell book (the story book called “The Skyknights”) and a “Lance” treated as a quarterstaff but if your DM is happy to allow it, I would switch this to be the Koblods Scorpion on a Stick weapon, it would function as a simple melee weapon but the damage would change to 1 piercing + 1d6 Poison damage on a hit and proficiency with it would replace proficiency with the quarterstaff.
For starting spells we’re going for:
Cantrips: Acid Splash or Fire Bolt, Message and Prestidigitation.
Level 1 spells: Absorb Elements, Chromatic Orb, Find Familiar, Mage Armour, Shield, Sleep (which takes the form of a Brass Dragons gaseous breath attack).
We’re going to flavour the choice of spells to reflect the Kobold Inventor. For Chromatic Orb we’re going to start off only casting it as either Acid or Fire and when we do so the magical energy forms into a vial which we throw as part of the casting and resembles throwing a vial of acid or alchemists fire.
The Acid Splash or Fire Bolt cantrip is also flavoured a little, when cast we belch it out like the worlds worst dragon breath attack.
For Find Familiar we start off with a Skunk in homage to the Skunk in a Cage attack of the Kobold Inventor, I couldn’t find stats for a skunk so we’ll use those of the Arctic Stink Squirrel from Icewind Dale which gives it the stats of a weasel with the ability to cast a DC11 Stinking Cloud once per long rest. If the DM is happy ot allow it, when we get the Conjure Draconic Ally spell noted below, we instead summon a "Skunk Dragon" with Find Familiar which is your basic Pseudodragon but it has the colouration of a skunk.
EDIT: I forgot to add starting skills would be Investigation and Religion, we've got Arcana and History from the background but these should be played as everything for the most part has been learned via reading about the Skyknights escapades.
Lvl 2-20 Wizard:
There isn’t much to say, we get all the goodies of the Order of Scribes. When using the Manifest Mind ability it appears as a scholarly human face which resembles the depiction of Sir Paddymore in the story.
For ASI or Feats we’re taking Elemental Adept (Acid or Fire) at level 4, then either Elemental Adept (Acid or Fire, which ever one we didn’t take at level 4), Tough, Warcaster or Buffs to Cons and Int as we level up further.
We’re going to be looking for spells that deal acid or fire damage, that may be “draconic” in nature or that offer us some weird spell options and area of effect to use the Order of Scribes Awakened Spell book ability to change damage types.
As we level up and adventure I’d try to find the following or take as many as possible with the free spells we learn at each level:
Cantrips; Shocking Grasp (as an emergency melee cantrip), Create Bonfire.
Level 1 spells: Detect Magic, Tasha’a Caustic brew and Thunderwave.
Level 2 Spells: Aganazzar’s Scorcher. Dragons Breath, Melf’s Acid Arrow, Shadow Blade and Scorching Ray.
Level 3 spells: Counterspell, Dispel Magic, Fireball, Fly, Glyph of Warding, Kobold Weapon Inventions*, Phantom Steed (which takes the form of a Guard Drake), Stinking Cloud (which takes the form of a spectral Skunk appearing and spraying the cloud), Tidal Wave.
*Kobold Weapon Inventions is just a reflavoured version of Conjure Animals and we are using it to either summon insect swarms or patches of green slime. If summoning swarms of insects then we specifically summon either the Swarm of Centipedes. Rot Grubs or Wasps, to replicate the Kobold Inventors Basket of Centipedes, Rot Grub Pot and Wasps Nest in a Bag attacks. Each of these swarms are CR1/2. If we summon patches of Green Slime (see page 105 of the DMG) treat each patch of Green Slime as CR1/8 for purposes of the spell. The material component for this spell depends on what is being summoned, you need a clay pot for Green Slime or Rot Grubs, a wicker basket for Centipedes and a small bag or sack to summon Wasps, this component is not consumed by the spell. Because of the homebrew nature of this spell I would take this as one of the free spells we learn upon reaching level 5.
Level 4 spells: Conjure Draconic Ally*, Fire Shield, Ice Storm, Mordenkainens Faithful Hound (which resembles a Guard Drake instead of a hound), Storm Sphere and Vitriolic Sphere.
*Conjure Draconic Ally functions as per Conjure Woodland beings but summons some form of draconic creature, at time of writing eligible draconic creatures would be: Faerie Dragon (CR 1 or 2 depending on colour), Guard Drake (CR2, at DM option you may be allowed to summon the chromatic variant) or Pseudodragon (CR1/4), and the material component changes to a dragon scale. Because of the homebrew nature of this spell I would take this as one of the free spells we learn upon reaching level 7.
Level 5 spells: Cone of Cold and Immolation.
Level 6 spells: Guards and Wards, True Seeing.
Level 7 spells: Mordenkainens Magnificent Mansion (takes the form of a dragons lair complete with horde of treasure and a variety of comfy furniture for humanoids to sit/sleep on)
Level 8: Illusory Dragon.
Level 9: Shapechange or True Polymorph.
These spells should then offer some interesting damage swapping with the awakened spell book ability such as:
Cast a level 1 Thunderwave spells but because we have Chromatic Orb we change the damage from Thunder to Poison which still knocks objects and people away from you and makes enough nooise to be heard 300ft away.
Cast a level 2 Shadow Blade spell and change the psychic damage to any damage type you could inflict with the Dragon's Breath spell, or cast Scorching ray and change it to the Shadow Blades Psychic damage.
With both Fireball and Tidal Wave at level 3 we can switch the bludgeoning damage that Tidal Wave deals to Fire damage which then extinguishes all flames (!?).
With both Ice Storm and Vitriolic Sphere at level 4 we can switch Ice Storm to deal Acid and Cold damage instead of Bludgeoning and Cold or, even more strangely, we could cast Storm Sphere and have it deal Acid Damage (if we have Vitriolic Sphere) instead of Bludgeoning or have it send out bolts of Fire damage (if we have Fire Shield) instead of Lightning but I’m not sure if you could do both of the Storm sphere options at the same time if you had all the required spells.
So thats the idea fo Sir Paddymore Skynight. We've got a spell that mimics all the Kobold Inventor attacks/abilities and spells that can summon Draconic allies and give us our own Dragon Horde to sleep on as well as more damage options than we should likely need with a variety of options for area of effects.
EDIT: based on taking this chap to level 20 we end up with: AC16 (via mage armour and Dex) which is boostable to 21 with a shield spell. Our Spell DC will range from 16-19 and spell attack bonus would be between +8 and +11 dependng on how many ASI's we use to buff Intelligence. Assuming average HP per level we'd have between 102hp and 162hp depending on whether we take the Tough and/or buff Constitution with an ASI but as we're not really a front liner this shouldn't be a problem.