Grailfinders #365: Huyan Zhuo
Today on Grailfinders we’re making the Prestige Star of Heaven, one of the Five Tiger Generals, and quote, “the goodest girl because if we don’t call her that every five minutes she implodes,” Huyan Zhuo! she’s an assassin that uses clubs. we’ve got our work cut out for us on this one.
there’s really only one way to make clubs usable as weapons, so instead of making her any kind of rogue, she’s instead an Oathbreaker Paladin. it’s a bit of an odd choice for her, but she was originally sent to defeat the Mt. Liang gang and ended up joining them, so it works a bit. she’s also a Fighter for a few levels so we can actually get her two-weapon fighting style.
check out her build breakdown below the cut, or her character sheet over here!
next up: it seems today, that all you see, is violence in movies, and sex on tv…
Ancestry & Background
Huyan Zhuo is obviously a human, but this version of her has been mixed with an Empusa, a greek monster that is somehow one-legged, donkey-legged, and a shape-shifter, all at the same time. good job guys, that description is super helpful. the important thing is that she’s a regular person mixed with a shapeshifting monster, which in D&D terms would make her a Dispater Tiefling. that gives her Darkvision, Hellish Resistance against fire damage, and the Legacy of Dis. at first level, you can use Thaumaturgy freely, using charisma to cast the spell. of course what we’re really here for is at third level, where you get one free use of Disguise Self per day. as far as I know Huyan Zhuo doesn’t actually use any shapeshifting, so this is all we’re getting this build. you also get Detect Thoughts once a day when you hit level 5. just because you’re anxious doesn’t mean they’re not dissing you behind your back. now you’ll know for sure! if you can ever work up the nerve to use it.
because you ditched your actual job to join a bunch of rogues, you’re an Anarch (technically of the Gruul variety, but that part can be flexible). all Mt. Liang bandits are Gruul Anarchs, don’t look at Sassyshin’s build. this means you have an extended spell list, but there’s a lot of them so we’ll only bring up the important ones when they show up. the character sheet does have them all though, if you want to keep track.
Ability Scores
Zhuo’s clubs are so feared she gained a nickname from how well she uses them, which is really impressive considering they only deal 1d4 of damage on their own. that means her Strength has to come first. After that is Charisma- the “so insecure she needs constant validation” schtick is hit or miss, but she is part mind-controlling monster, so it still gets a boost. third is Constitution. one of her legs is metal, so that means she has less chance of bleeding out when hit. it’s pure math. fourth is Intelligence, taking up the vaunted “not neutral or negative but not positive enough to be good” slot. it’s literally here just because I figured out where to put everything else first. that means your Dexterity is just neutral. Huyan Zhuo is actually pretty heavily armored for a female servant in FGO, and I’m happy to take any excuse to not have to make every stat an 18. finally, we’re dumping Wisdom, for hopefully obvious reasons. people can control you with flattery already, never mind someone casting Friends on you. if it could get lower, I’d put it lower.
Class Levels
1. Paladin 1: first level paladins get a Divine Sense, which you can use four times a day to detect celestials, fiends, or undead nearby. you are literally celestial by the water margin’s standards, and at least partially demonic in D&D, so either way you’ll be setting this one off on yourself a lot.
you can also Lay on Hands as an action. it doesn’t have a set number of uses, but you do get a set amount of HP you can restore each day equal to five times your level. you can also spend five HP from your total to heal a creature of a disease or poison. now your HP total will be able to swing just as quickly as your mood!
also as a paladin you unfortunately get proficiency in Wisdom saves, but you also get Charisma saves, Intimidation, and Persuasion as well. Huyan Zhuo’s first ascension takes itself pretty seriously ngl.
2. Paladin 2: second level paladins get a Fighting Style, and nothing else really fits here, so Defense will have to do. that’s just an easy +1 whenever you wear armor, which you should be doing a lot. you can also cast and prepare Spells using your Charisma, though we’ll got into that more in a bit.
more importantly, you can turn spell slots into Divine Smites whenever you hit with an attack, turning a spell slot into raw radiant damage. now your clubs are finally useful! for two times a day. and assuming you don’t cast any other spells.
speaking of spells, let’s talk about those. you get quite a few freebies immediately thanks to being an anarch, but we don’t really want any of them just yet. that being said, from the base spell list, Divine Favor lets you deal damage over time. it’s not a huge boost in damage (normally, it still doubles your damage with a club), but if you’re confident you won’t get hit by anything it can be a really save your spell slots. Alternatively, you can use Wrathful Smite. the smite spells add extra effects (in this case frightening your target if they fail a wisdom save) at the cost of not upgrading with higher spell slots, and costing your bonus action.
3. Paladin 3: third level paladins finally join their oath… or at least they would, but your oath is… Oathbreaker. which is a bit awkward. oathbreakers can use Channel Divinity once per short rest to either Control Undead or let out your Dreadful Aspect. the former forces an undead creature to make a wisdom save. if they fail, they’re under your control for a full 24 hours, or until you Control Undead again, though they automatically succeed if their CR is equal or greater to your paladin level. the latter forces every creature you choose within 30’ of you to make a wisdom save- if they fail, they’re frightened of you for a minute, though it’s a little easier for them to break out than usual. finally, you can instead Harness Divine Power once a day, expending one channel divinity use to recharge a spell slot.
like all paladins, you also get a bit of Divine Health, though oathbreakers don’t have an oath with any gods so I don’t know where it’s coming from. real useful in the middle of a pandemic though.
finally, oathbreakers get their own freebie spells, so your potential spell list it truly gargantuan for a paladin. you can either use a Hellish Rebuke to counter an attack with flames or Inflict Wounds at melee range. it’s basically a stronger, but less accurate smite.
4. Paladin 4: fourth level paladins get their first Ability Score Improvement, though we’re using it to grab the Dual Wielder feat. be honest, you were just drawing both clubs in one free action anyway, weren’t you? the only real benefit we get from this feat (unless your DM is a real stickler for rules) is an AC boos, but we’ll take whatever we can get since we can’t do the usual sword & board.
5. Paladin 5: fifth level paladins get an Extra Attack each action, so with two weapons you can get… three attacks per turn! yep, the offhand attack never gets any better throughout the build. it makes sense- actually doubling your attacks per turn would be really broken. still, you have three smite chances per turn, which can still be a lot of damage, especially with your second level spell slots.
oh yeah, speaking of- none of your extended options are more useful than divine smites. you can use Find Steed now though! still not sure why Huyan Zhuo isn’t a rider, to be honest. her story seems to be way more horse-centric than assassination-centric. yeah, for once we’re not picking up magic weapon here- by the time you’re regularly encountering enemies that resist or block nonmagical damage your clubs’ d4s will practically be a rounding error in terms of damage anyway.
6. Fighter 1: moving over to fighter, we can get Two Weapon Fighting as our Fighting Style, which actually is helpful! now you can add your strength to your offhand club damage. that’s a whopping three extra damage per turn, which doesn’t sound like a lot but that’s practically another extra attack on its own.
you could also use that bonus action for a Second Wind, giving you yet another way to heal yourself in a pinch. if I did the math right, you could practically bring yourself up from 1 hp to full health in one turn now!
7. Fighter 2: there is a bigger reason to pop into fighter though- second level fighters can use an Action Surge once per short rest. that is a no-strings-attached extra action: you can cast a second levelled spell in a turn with it, or just pump out more attacks for a grand total of five in one turn. you may not hit for much, but you do hit a lot.
8. Paladin 6: at sixth level, you gain the thing that messed with Astolfo’s build as well, the Aura of Protection, adding your charisma modifier to every save you or a friend within ten feet of you makes for as long as you’re conscious. this is the exact opposite of lowering your wisdom save, but it’s simply unavoidable.
9. Paladin 7: at seventh level, oathbreakers get an Aura of Hate, giving yourself, fiends, and undead near you a +3 bonus to all melee weapon damage. uniquely, you don’t actually have to be conscious for this one. okay, now your clubs are starting to do decent damage again! maybe invest in those magic weapons after all.
you can also use Harness Divine Power twice a day now.
10. Paladin 8: at eighth level, you get another ASI, so bump up that Strength for more accurate and damaging club swings. if we’re gonna pour good money after bad into this, we might as well do it right.
11. Paladin 9: ninth level paladins get third level spells. if you really want to maximize your damage capabilities, the oathbreaker exclusive Animate Dead can help, or you can use the gruul anarch’s Conjure Animals for a more traditional looking herd of horses. if your dm does sign off on letting you make a bunch of undead horses, it would be really funny to have them all under the effect of Crusader’s Mantle. it’s like divine favor- a slow-burn smite- but it affects every friendly creature within 30’ of you. if you can keep that spell up for even a round or two it’ll more than pay for itself.
12. Paladin 10: tenth level paladins get an Aura of Courage, preventing friendly creatures within it from being frightened. fortunately, “demoralized” isn’t “frightened”, so it doesn’t actually mess with Huyan Zhuo’s whole schtick too much.
13. Paladin 11: eleventh level paladins get an Improved Divine Smite, adding a d8 of radiant damage to every melee weapon attack you do.
14. Paladin 12: at twelfth level, use your next ASI to grab the Crusher feat, rounding out your Constitution for an extra HP each time you level up, including retroactively. it also lets you push people around when you hit them with a bludgeoning attack each turn, and crits cause everyone attacking that creature to get advantage to hit them until your next turn. yes, like a surprisingly large number of quick servant builds, this one’s also a crit-fishing bonanza! why did you think we wanted so many attacks?
15. Paladin 13: thirteenth level paladins get fourth level spells, so we can finally get some of Empusa’s mind-controlling effects. from your extended spell lists, Confusion and Dominate Beast work best for this. you can also use Stoneskin thanks to being an anarch, which.. kinda? works. I mean your leg’s metal, not stone, but close enough.
you can also pick up Banishment for your invuln pierce this level- it doesn’t matter how much damage you’re doing if you can just. undo someone in one hit.
16. Paladin 14: ironically, at this level paladins gain a Cleansing Touch- you can use your action to end one spell on yourself or a willing creature three times a day. I mean it makes some kind of sense- you can just hypnotize people to… not be hypnotized? I guess? this is confusing.
17. Paladin 15: what’s less confusing is your last goodie from being an oathbreaker, your Supernatural Resistance, halving the damage you take from non-magical weapons. obviously empusa aren’t in D&D but they feel like the kind of monster to have damage resistances.
18. Paladin 16: use your last ASI to max out your Strength. I mean we might as well. gotta get those damage numbers up for farming.
19. Paladin 17: at long last, we finally get our fifth level spells, including Huyan Zhuo’s noble phantasm, Destructive Wave. for extra authenticity, be sure to conjure up a bunch of horses before using this! your empusa side also lets you use Geas and Dominate Person, and you can invuln pierce without having to save if you use a Banishing Smite- using your strength is also much more accurate than a spell at this point.
20. Paladin 18: our final level of the build causes all your auras to reach out 30’ around you instead of a measly 10 feet. it’s not flashy, but it is pretty dang useful, especially if you’re zipping around the battlefield on a horse.
Pros & Cons:
Pros:
like all paladins, Huyan Zhuo is particularly powerful when it comes to burst damage, though her extra dip into fighter makes her even moreso. with action surge and all your most powerful spell slots, you could deal an average of 173 damage in a single turn, up to a maximum of over 280!
your abilities also make you surprisingly good at leading an army, which fits your noble phantasm being a ton of horses trampling people. admittedly it does work better with undead subordinates, but still.
you are incredibly sturdy when it comes to physical attacks, though you’re no slouch against magic either. your strength and classes let you don the sturdiest of armor, giving you an ac of 20 while your weapons are drawn, plus your resistance to nonmagical attacks making your solid health even tougher to break through.
Cons:
much like Huyan Zhuo herself, this build doesn’t last long in a fight. you can only action surge once in a fight, and if you run at full power you’ll completely exhaust your spell slots in four turns.
this build also lacks a specific focus, just kind of doing a couple things well, but they don’t quite work together. you can raise an undead army and buff them with magic, but that’ll eat into your high level spells for however long you try to keep them for- and as a paladin your spells are already at a premium. your direct damage dealing is also drawing from the same well, and of course, using clubs instead of any other weapon doesn’t help. of course you could use your defense to play the tank, drawing in problem enemies with compelled duels and such, but your constitution isn’t that good, and without something like warcaster, drawing too much attention will likely cause more problems than it sovles.
speaking of clubs, there’s literally no reason to use them in dnd aside from being extremely strapped for cash. like, a quarterstaff costs one silver piece more, and that still gives you a d6 in each hand. and if you’re willing to shell out gold, a flail or warhammer doubles your potential damage in the early game without greatly affecting the build.
