Character Build: the Ice King
Adventure Time spoilers ahead, sorry
My Ice King build:
Avariel Wizard (Evocation) 18/Monk 1/Fighter 1, Outlander background
Let’s break this down.
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Avariel. What are they? Winged elves! Why? Also elves can’t grow beards?
Hey, Simon didn’t have a beard either. It was all the cursed crown. And D&D’s no stranger to magic items that give you a beard, regardless of race/sex/age.
But I picked Avariel because:
dat flying speed > Ice King flies with his beard. Can’t use it with medium or heavy armor – but where we’re going, we won’t need armor.
prolonged lifespan
Fey Ancestry. Ice King seems resistant to hypnosis and other forms of mind-altering magic.
That +2 DEX will come in big handy later
Other runners-up include Levistus tieflings for their innate cold spells, or tritons for cold resistance and weather-y spells. Those are nice, but we’re going Wizard 18, making those innate spells redundant.
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Outlander
Instrument proficiency (drums)
Athletics and Survival proficiencies
Wanderer feature ties into Simon’s background as an explorer and archaeologist. There’s an Archaeologist background too, but mechanically-speaking, Outlander hits more notes.
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Monk 1. Fucking why?
Martial Arts and Unarmored Defense. The Unarmored Defense isn’t really vital to the Ice King, but it’s an added bonus that (I think) really synergizes with this build.
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Fighter 1. Also why?
Two-Weapon Fighting, that’s pretty much it. Ice King’s ambidextrous and knows how to use ninja weapons.
And Second Wind doesn’t hurt. You don’t get the upgrades, but it gives our blaster-caster Ice King a little emergency HP.
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Thematically, Sorcerer or Warlock might be a better fit for the Ice King. He didn’t so much “learn” magic as stumble into it (sorcerer) by accidentally bonding with a sentient eldritch artifact (warlock). But because of the spells we need for the full Ice King experience, I recommend Wizard 18. Even with the 1-level dips in Fighter and Monk, you still get those ridiculous level 9 spells.
Specifically, I recommend School of Evocation. Conjuration’s a close runner-up, but the Evocation Wizard’s features - Potent Cantrip, Empowered Evocation, and Overchannel – are blaster-caster gold.
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So what spells should our Ice King acquire? By level:
1: ice knife
3: sleet storm
4: ice storm
5: cone of cold
6: investiture of ice, true seeing (Wizard Eyes), wall of ice
8: control weather, demiplane (Imagination Zone)
I’m probably missing some more cold-damage spells. But I feel like that’s a nice short list of essentials, so you still have some more spells to choose from so your wizard can do other things besides shoot ice.
And that’s about it!
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If you want to use the Ice King as a monster instead, here’s an awesome stat block by @sourbyte: https://www.reddit.com/r/adventuretime/comments/a0nzpr/i_wrote_up_an_ice_king_stat_block_to_use_in_my/
In the past, I’ve followed up Character Builds with a character-themed subclass. But I think this Ice King build covers his bases nicely. Also, there are tons of elemental subclass homebrews out there if you want em, and I don’t usually like elemental-themed subclasses anyway because they’re so situational.
So instead, I’m following up this build with new spells and items inspired by the Ice King! Stay tuned – but more importantly, stay safe.
Also, black lives matter. Here’s some black-made games.
