Adaptive Technique. Arybelle adapts her technique to the danger she faces. Whenever another creature damages Arybelle with a melee or ranged attack, her attack roll modifier decreases by 1 (to a minimum of 11) and her AC increases by 2. Whenever another creature misses Arybelle with a melee or ranged attack, her attack roll modifier increases by 1 and her AC decreases by 1 (to a minimum of 17).
Alert & Observant. Always on the lookout for danger, and quick to notice details of her environment, Arybelle has the following benefits:
- She has a +5 bonus to her initiative modifier (to a total of +10).
- She can't be surprised while she is conscious.
- Other creatures don't gain advantage on attack rolls against her as a result of being unseen by her.
- If she can see a creature's mouth while it is speaking a language she understands, she can interpret what it's saying by reading its lips.
- She has a +5 bonus to her passive Wisdom (Perception) and Intelligence (Investigation) scores (to a total of 24 and 16, respectively).
Blind Fighting. Arybelle has blindsight with a range of 10 feet. Within that range, she can effectively see anything that isn't behind total cover, even if she's blinded or in darkness. Moreover, she can see an invisible creature within that range, unless the creature successfully hides from her.
Building Crescendo. If left unchecked, Arybelle's constant strikes will overwhelm even the mightiest of foes. Every time she successfully hits a creature with a melee weapon attack, the damage of all her subsequent melee weapon attacks is increased by an additional 2 (1d4) damage of the same type as the original attack. When another creature damages Arybelle with a melee or ranged attack, she loses all bonus damage dice accumulated with this feat.
Extra Attack. Arybelle can attack up to four times, instead of once, whenever she takes the attack action on her turn. Multiple attacks made within a single action can still have different targets.
Fey Ancestry. Arybelle has advantage on saving throws against being charmed, and magic can't put her to sleep.
Indomitable (3/Day). Once per turn, Arybelle can reroll a saving throw that she fails. If she does so, she must use the new roll. She can use this feature three times. She regains all expended uses of it when she finishes a long rest.
Rapid Strike. At times, Arybelle trades accuracy for swiftness. If she takes the attack action on her turn and has advantage on an attack roll against one of the targets, she can forgo the advantage for that roll to make an additional weapon attack against that target, as part of the same action. She can do so no more than once per turn.
The Unceasing Dance. Whenever Arybelle successfully hits another creature with a melee weapon attack, she gains an additional reaction until the start of her next turn.
Trance. Like all elves, Arybelle does not sleep. Instead, she meditates deeply, remaining semi-conscious, for 4 hours a day. The Common word for this meditation is "trance." While meditating, she dreams after a fashion; such dreams are actually mental exercises that have become reflexive after years of practice. After resting in this way, she gains the same benefit a human would from 8 hours of sleep.
Action Surge (1/Day). Arybelle can push herself beyond her normal limits for a moment. On her turn, she can take one additional action.
Gathering Storm. Arybelle can expend all of her actions, bonus actions, and movement actions (minimum of 1 each) for the turn to enter a defensive stance, granting the following benefits until the start of her next turn:
- Her AC is increased by 5.
- Her AC no longer decreases when a creature misses her with a melee or ranged attack.
- Her attack roll modifier no longer decreases when a creature damages her with a melee or ranged attack.
At the start of her next turn, Arybelle regains 1 charge of Indomitable and 1 charge of Fighting Spirit. Moreover, if she used Gathering Storm for 3 consecutive rounds, she also regains 1 charge of Action Surge.
Katana. Melee Weapon Attack: +11 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 10 (2d4 + 5) slashing damage.
Fighting Spirit (1/Day). Arybelle's intensity in battle can shield her and help her strike true. As a bonus action on her turn, she can give herself advantage on all weapon attack rolls until the end of the current turn. When she does so, she also gains 15 temporary hit points. Once she uses this feature, she can't use it again until she finishes a short or long rest.
Second Wind (1/Day). Arybelle has a limited well of stamina that she can draw on to protect herself from harm. On her turn, she can use a bonus action to regain hit points equal to 25 (1d10 + 20). Once she uses this feature, she must finish a short or long rest before she can use it again.
Parry. When another creature damages Arybelle with a melee or ranged weapon attack, she can use her reaction to reduce the damage by 8 (1d6 + 5).
Riposte. When another creature damages Arybelle with a melee weapon attack, she can use her reaction to immediately make an attack of opportunity against that creature.
Strength Before Death (1/day). Arybelle's fighting spirit can delay the grasp of death. If she takes damage that reduces her to 0 hit points, she can use her reaction to delay falling unconscious, and can immediately take an extra turn. While she has 0 hit points during that extra turn, taking damage causes death saving throw failures as normal, and three death saving throw failures can still kill her. When the extra turn ends, she falls unconscious if she still has 0 hit points. Once she uses this feature, she can't use it again until she finishes a long rest.
Unrelenting Spirit. Whenever Arybelle would be Frightened, Grappled, Incapacitated, Paralyzed, Petrified, Poisoned, Restrained, or Stunned; would have her Speed reduced; or would become subject to an effect that would prevent her from taking actions, bonus actions, or reactions; she can use her reaction to instead prevent that effect.
Description
Arybelle is elf of noble descent; once a clandestine vigilante of sorts, as well as the former secret lover of Zjalkhaa (the infamous Silver Duelist), whom she first converted away from the service of those she fought against and with whom she worked in secret against the forces of the corrupt noble houses of Yzoria, she has for many years been (at least to the Silver Duelist's knowledge) presumed either dead or imprisoned after a mission failed at the hands of a trap laid by his notorious mercenary parents. But her true fate remains unknown ...
Notes for the DM
General Personality/Presentation Tips
The version of Arybelle that Silver recalls, though stoic as steel on the surface, was unfailingly compassionate and kind—though she rarely showed it outwardly. Secretive and close-lipped by nature, she nonetheless was quite forward in aiding those she saw as vulnerable and in need of her assistance, and her convictions regarding the moral standing of the ruling parties of Yzoria were as solid as bedrock, even as her conviction to fight against them was even more so.
Now, much has changed. Who knows how much of the original Arybelle remains, or what she has been through? One thing, however, is for certain: even in the darkest of places, Arybelle of all people will fight to cling to her personal code of honor. She will not fight a target already outnumbered; she will not resort to unfair tactics in combat; she will not retreat from a fight unless the opponent is beaten, and will never surrender; she will not kill if it is at all avoidable; and she will not knowingly tell an outright lie, even if she is willing to bend the truth or refrain from telling the whole truth.
In combat, she is first and foremost a duelist. Though easily able to hold her own in an extended fight even when vastly outnumbered, her preferred means of combat is a battle of one-on-one fighting.
Combat-Specific Strategy
Quick reminders:
- HP is adjustable as required (probably upwards, given our party's track record).
- You can also always fudge some numbers if she's spiraling too far out of control (or, less likely, getting wrecked).
- Don't forget about keeping track of things like remaining charges on abilities, current reaction count, temporary hit points, and her variable AC/attack modifiers/damage rolls.
In terms of strategic and stylistic overview, Arybelle is a duelist; she prefers to fight solo, especially one-on-one, although she will happily take on a group all by herself. She also strictly adheres to her personal code of combative honor, as described above. When it comes to the specific strategy and mechanics, Arybelle is relatively simple to play from a macroscopic perspective, but in practice, she poses something of a challenge to manage in practice, due mainly to how interwoven and intertwined the interactions between her various features and traits are. Disregarding those traits which exist primarily for flavor or utility and which, as such, are more or less self-explanatory and self-contained, she can roughly be broken down into the following categories:
Adaptive Snowballing. Arybelle changes tactics based on how dangerous her opponents prove to be, sizing them up and pressing the advantage when she feels she has a measure of how to deal with them, while going more on the defensive when necessary. Mechanically speaking, being hit causes her attack modifier to go down and her AC to go up; successfully deflecting or dodging hits, however, causes her attack modifier to go up even as her AC goes down (notably, slower than it goes up).
As Arybelle goes on the offensive, she rapidly becomes exponentially more dangerous: increasing attack modifiers, especially on a multi-hit monster such as herself with extra attacks, rapid strikes, and the ability to riposte creates that miss a melee attack on her, more or less guarantee she will be hitting a lot of attacks every single round. Every consecutive hit she lands increases the damage of all subsequent attacks until she misses, meaning that—with too uncontrollably high of an attack modifier—her damage will rapidly reach the point of being able to kill players in a single hit within just two or three rounds (note: if encountered at lower levels, it may be worth lowering the extra attack count to three, or even two, instead of four so that players at least have something of a small chance).
Reaction Management. In addition to rapidly scaling her damage output, every successful attack Arybelle makes gives her a bonus reaction—reactions that can be spent on (self-refunding) opportunity attacks and ripostes; on parries to reduce any damage she does take; on negating crowd control effects; and even, once per day, on cheating death for a turn. As such, unlike most enemies, when faced with a large group, she is—by design—forced to go on the offensive to accumulate enough reactions to maintain her onslaught and not succumb to a superior action economy. If she's going full attack mode, she can use as many reactions as she likes and still be at surplus; if defensive, she often may be somewhat starved of reactions. They are, ultimately, her main resource; manage them carefully.
Sustainability. As terrifying as the snowball potential of Arybelle's damage can be, the most threatening thing about her is just how durable she actually is. Fighting Spirit serves as both a health buffer and a way to guarantee Rapid Strikes in one; Unrelenting Spirit can effectively keep her from ever being locked down (so long as she's managing reaction economy); Indomitable can ensure it's very difficult for her to lose a saving throw; and of course, she also has Second Wind (being a Fighter archetype), etc.
Now, these are (for the most part) all limited resources. That's where Gathering Storm comes in. Think of this as a sort of defensive stance that Arybelle enters into to regain her poise, reassess, and come back all the stronger. While she can't move, attack, or use bonus actions or actions in the same round as when she uses Gathering Storm, she can still take reactions—meaning that ripostes are fully on the table. Attacking her during this is actually what she wants, as it's a time when she can deflect almost anything, has no punishment for doing so, and will in fact exclusively gain power from any attack, missed or hit. Moreover, completing Gathering Storm (especially on consecutive turns) is her way of recharging those limited-resource abilities. So if she's using them liberally, don't be afraid to go into guard stance and charge up!
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