Grailfinders #368: Britomart
Today on Grailfinders we’re building Britomart, the faerie knight who isn’t one of those faerie knights, but she is because she asked nicely. and completed a wipeout course. She’s an Eldritch Knight Fighter to get a fancy spear that blasts people with air (which sounds really nice for the summer ngl) and a Hexblade Warlock to get that demonic armor that somehow still protects her even if she’s not wearing it.
check out her build breakdown below the cut, or her character sheet over here!
next up: insert Boney M. song here. you know the one.
Ancestry and Background
Britomart is a Faerie from Lorwynn: First Light, which is like a fairy from Mordenkainen presents, but spelled properly. that means she’s fey instead of humanoid, and comes with Fairy Magic (...seriously?) so she can cast Druidcraft at will using her charisma. once she hits level 3 she can cast Faerie Fire once a day for free, and also by using spell slots. at fifth level she can also use that freebie casting on Enlarge/Reduce so she actually looks as big as she does in FGO. both spells use the same freebie, but you’ll have plenty of spell slots as we go on, so it won’t be too big a deal. she also gets Flight equal to her walking speed when she isn’t wearing medium or heavy armor. this is going to be a trend moving forward. This is well after the old ancestry rules, so we get bonuses in whatever we want, like +2 Charisma and +1 Dexterity.
anyways, Britomart is obviously a Knight, so she gets proficiency in History and Persuasion checks.
Ability Scores
as a faerie Britomart is skilled with magic and messing with humans, both of which are Charisma based, so bump that up to the highest it can go. after that is Constitution- whether you’re in armor or not, having extra HP is always useful for a spearwoman. third is Dexterity. it’s obviously not important when in armor, but we really need it when you’re out of it, and we’re building for both. this means your Intelligence is so-so, and your Strength and Wisdom are both rather low. your spear is powered by magic moreso than brawn, and you’re a bit sheltered.
Class Levels
1. Fighter 1: starting off in fighter is super important so we can grab heavy armor proficiency off the rip. most starting players can’t afford platemail off the rip, but if you can you should be ready for it. this also nets you proficiency with Strength and Constitution saves, as well as proficiency in Insight (for your fae eyes) and Animal Handling (a must for any knight). grab the Great Weapon fighting style for more consistent damage with your spear- it’s big enough to get the bonus, but light enough for a faerie to wield without those weird penalties for heavy weaponry smaller ancestries have to deal with. you also get a Second Wind as a bonus action, healing you for a bit to stay in the fight longer. healing yourself is basically like not getting hit at all, right? it’s totally an invuln!
2. Warlock 1: bouncing over to warlock immediately so we can actually use that spear well as a Hexblade! starting off, you become a Hex Warrior, which doesn’t give you any proficiencies you don’t already have, but does let you use charisma with a weapon you bond with over a long rest. suddenly your spear goes from using your second-weakest stat to your strongest one!
you can also invoke the Hexblade’s Curse on someone once per short rest, letting you add your proficiency to damage rolls against a specific target, crit on 19s as well as 20s against them, and regain HP equal to your warlock level plus your charisma modifier when they die! again, healing is just retroactive armor!
and of course, you gain access to Pact Magic, Charisma-based spells with slots that recharge on short rests. Eldritch Blast for your standard faerie magic attacks, Sword Burst for some fancy spearwork, Shield to… shield, and Armor of Agathys for a little bit of everything- you get temporary HP, and when someone hits you they take damage equal to the max THP you put on yourself.
3. Warlock 2: second level warlocks get two Eldritch Invocations this level, little bonuses to customize your warlockery to your ideal situation. obviously we’re saving one for next level as per usual, but you can still grab Eldritch Mind now for advantage on concentration saves. usually spellcasting and melee don’t mix, but between this and your proficiency on concentration saves, I’d say you’re pretty safe.
you can also Cause Fear now, your armor is pretty scary looking.
4. Warlock 3: at third level you gain the Pact of the Blade, and alongside your invocation Improved Pact Weapon, you can summon basically any weapon you want as an action, and it’s always a +1 bonus weapon if it doesn’t already have an attack/damage boost! it also works as your spellcasting focus, and it’s always under the effect of your Hex Warrior effect, so it’s always charisma-based!
you can also cast Invisibility now. it’ll help dodge attacks when out of your armor, and it’s just kind of a ‘faerie’ sort of spell.
5. Warlock 4: speaking of, now you get Prestidigitation, which can do a little of everything, alongside a new spell, Fiend Flesh. I mean your armor’s demonic, so it kind of works! for up to an hour you can give yourself or an ally resistance to cold, lightning, and fire damage, as well as immunity to poison damage! not the condition, but it’s still pretty good.
speaking of damage resistance (man I’m on a roll with transitions tonight), use your Ability Score Improvement to grab the Heavy Armor Master feat instead of any spells. with this, your strength goes up by 1, and heavy armor blocks the first three points of nonmagical physical damage you take whenever you take said damage. annoyingly this doesn’t block magical weapons, but hopefully you’ll have properly magical armor by that point anyway.
6. Warlock 5: fifth level warlocks get third level spells! Elemental Weapon lets you add thunder damage to your spear for our first taste of wind power, and for our second taste, the eldritch invocation Eldritch Smite! when you hit a creature with your pact weapon, you can spend a warlock spell slot to deal extra damage and knock the target prone it it’s huge or smaller.
Britomart’s spear is singularly good at knocking a rider off its mount, and in D&D there’s two ways to do it- knocking the one of the two prone, or forcibly moving them. Knocking the mount prone or pushing the rider is the most powerful option, as this doesn’t have a save involved- the rider can react to avoid falling prone themselves, but that’s it. Knocking the rider prone or moving the mount can still knock the rider off, but they at least get a save to prevent it.
7. Fighter 2: now for something a bit simpler- Action Surge gives you a second action once per short rest. you don’t get a second bonus action, but otherwise there’s no strings attached. cast as many spells as you want, dash twice, go ham with your spear, whatever you want.
8. Fighter 3: fiiine, we’ll complicate things again. at third level you become an Eldritch Knight, which is a wizard with waay less magic and more restrictions. read up if you wanna, but basically most of your spells have to be abjuration or evocation. Thunderclap pushes stuff around, Thunderwave is the same damn thing but bigger, Blade Ward and Arcane Aegis are more armor, and Disguise Self is another Faerie-like Thing To Do. you also get a Weapon Bond, letting you summon a specific weapon to your hand as a bonus action. weirdly this doesn’t let you use the weapon as a casting focus, but you should have your other hand free anyway, it should be fine.
9. Fighter 4: at fourth level we get another ASI, so round out your Strength and Charisma for stronger spells and better armor. but if you’d rather not, Mage Armor has your back, giving you an extra 3 points of AC when out of armor.
10. Fighter 5: fifth level fighters get an Extra Attack each action. That’s two on most turns, and up to four if you use action surge!
11. Fighter 6: use another one of fighter’s ASIs to become a Great Weapon Master, specifically the 2014 version. With this, you can make a bonus attack whenever you reduce a creature to 0 HP with a melee weapon attack, or when you score a crit. We’re knocking a lot of creatures prone, we’re getting a lot of advantage, we might as well take advantage of that. there’s also another feature of this feat but that only works with heavy weapons, which our faerie ass isn’t handling.
12. Fighter 7: when you learn War Magic, you can also make a bonus action attack after using your action to cast a cantrip! while Gust of Wind isn’t a cantrip, it can make a line of wind that forces creatures in it to make a strength save or get pushed back 15 feet, while also slowing down anything trying to move closer!
13. Fighter 8: we’re grabbing a newer feat with this ASI, the Nimble Physique. this boosts your Dexterity by one, and will improve your defenses when out of your armor. while not wearing armor, you can dodge as a bonus action, and if you get grappled or restrained, you don’t have disadvantage on attacks, and attacks against you don’t have advantage!
you can also summon a Dust Devil this level for up to a minute, creating a tiny tornado that batters people and pushes them around!
14. Fighter 9: ninth level fighters are Indomitable, letting you re-roll a failed save once per day. I’d save this for something you’re really good at, but you do you.
15. Fighter 10: our final level of fighter teaches you how to make an Eldritch Strike- if you hit an enemy and then hit them with a spell, they have disadvantage on saving against it! that’s very useful since we’re half-wizard with an intelligence of 12!
speaking of saves and spells though, you don’t need to worry about all that with your new cantrip Light and your new spell Warding Wind! you create an aura of wind around you for 10 minutes, deafening creatures in its area, blocking small flames and gasses, slowing down other creatures, and giving disadvantage to ranged weapons that pass by you! it’s wind and armor all in one!
16. Warlock 6: back in warlock, we can finally get the reason I was putting off coming back here- Accursed Specter! when you kill a humanoid, you can make it come back as a ghost, which follows your commands up to once per day.
...I guess you can flavor it as wind, but IDK how to justify it happening after killing someone. it’s definitely the weakest feature we’ve got so far, flavor-wise.
but you also get Blink now! you move so fast you can’t get hit sometimes. Very anime, very fun.
17. Warlock 7: fourth level spells! Backlash is a new one- as a reaction to damage, you can reduce it by 4d6+ your charisma modifier, and if the attacker is within 60 feet they take 4d6 damage as part of a failed save! yes they’re different rolls, which makes it a little weird. wish we had this back when we did spartacus.
you also learn the Relentless Hex invocation, letting you teleport directly to whoever you cursed with your Hexblade’s Curse.
18. Warlock 8: use your last ASI to round out your Dexterity score thanks to Piercer! once per turn, you can re-roll one of the damage dice of a piercing weapon, and critical hits deal an extra die of damage! spears are fun like that.
for even more fun, use Staggering Smite- charge it up on your bonus action, and then the next time you hit someone with your spear, they take an extra 4d6 damage, and need to make a wisdom save! if they fail, they can’t react, and get disadvantage on attacks and checks for a round. Oh hey, those are all things that prevent someone from getting knocked off their horse, wild how that happens.
19. Warlock 9: our last invocation is Minions of Chaos, letting us summon wind elementals. we’ve already got ghosts, might as well, right? also, Scrying. again, just kind of faerie-ish. fae, the adjective is fae, why have I gone the whole build without saying fae.
20. Warlock 10: our last level of warlock contains the whole reason I’m tolerating having Accursed Specter on this build- True Strike! nah I’m just joking, it’s Armor of Hexes, one of the best defensive options there is when you really need to lock in. When the creature you’ve cursed with your hexblade’s curse attacks you, you can react to get a 50% chance to make the attack miss.
Pros and Cons
Pros:
Between your heavy armor and spearplay vs. your flight and spellcasting, you effectively have two ways to play your game at any given time. at least if your DM rules you can teleport out of your armor if you have to- that stuff takes ages to doff. still, you have plenty of freedom when it comes to how you tackle problems.
knocking people around is fun, actually. and it’s also great to break enemy formations, and basically make fights against large groups way easier to manage, especially if you’re in the position to knock a few off a cliff.
you’re also no slouch when it comes to boss fights either, with hexblade’s curse letting you pick one target to do silly amounts of damage to between your doubled and then doubled again chances to crit and all those bonuses we added on, plus Armor of Hexes so you can look your DM in their smug little eyes and tell them no, a natural 20 doesn’t hit my character actually.
Cons:
you’re stuck between two ways to play and thus aren’t that great at any one of them. we don’t have the raw damage a flying spellcaster could put out, and we’re too squishy to really take advantage of all that armor- we take one or two good hits and things get dire real fast.
while we did our best to avoid saves in our wizard spells, the fact is you’re still using intelligence to cast a lot of your best moves- and eldritch strike is only going to help alleviate that a little.
we’re still constrained by how much you can do at once- your best armor only works once a day, and we have a grand total of 9 spell slots. two of those recharge every short rest, but still. and those two are really putting in a lot of work- they are the exclusive power source for Elemental Weapon, Eldritch Smite, Blink, Backlash, Staggering Smite, Scrying, and Minions of Chaos. at least the odds of you dropping a spell are tiny.
