Today on Grailfinders we’re building the rider formerly known as prince, Huang Feihu! as you’d probably guess, Feihu is an Echo Knight so he can bring his kids to work with him, as well as a Swarmkeeper Ranger to pick up all his animal friends. yes we’re making his backstory bird a part of the build as well, not every animal companion can be a buffalo. you will be getting a buffalo later though, don’t worry.
Check out his build breakdown below the cut, or his character sheet over here!
next up: the dragon with the girl tattoo
(also it shames me to admit this but I've been sitting on this build, 95% done, for over a month, so shoutout to my newest follower who joined today for kicking me back into gear. I'm sorry I've gotten so sporadic about all this, 2026's not been kind to me so far.)
Ancestry & Background
In a stunning turn of events, this grailfinders build is a Variant Human Noble. gasp. so shocking. he gets +1 Dexterity and Wisdom, as well as proficiency in Religion since all his cool gear is from gods and the Resilient feat to round out his Dexterity, as well as giving him proficiency in dex saves. he does wear some armor, so I don’t have to squeeze monk into this build too, but there you go, just a dash of monk for those who prefer a low-ascension Feihu. as a noble he has proficiency with History and Persuasion.
Ability Scores
Feihu’s kids like to use lighter weapons, but a spear is Strength based, so we’re going with that as the highest score- also the busting through checkpoints thing was pretty strength-coded, not gonna lie. After that is Constitution- busting through one checkpoint is strength, but five? that guy’s got health for days. After that is Wisdom, partly because you literally have four people looking out for you at all times, but also so we can multiclass later. Ditto for Dexterity, and again, your kids like the lighter weapons, and it helps with their AC. and yours, for that matter. This means your Charisma is kind of low. I admit trying to talk sense into someone getting Tamamo’d is a tall order regardless, but it still didn’t work out for you. That means we’re dumping Intelligence. once again, this is not a knock on Huang Feihu’s smarts, we just need to dump something, and intelligence is routinely not a useful stat in this game.
Class Levels
1. Fighter 1: starting us off as a fighter gets you all the armor and weaponry you’ll need for the whole family, as well as proficiency in Strength and Constitution saves, and Animal Handling and Acrobatics. you can also grab the dueling feat, so your spear is just as deadly in one hand as it is in two. finally, you can spend a bonus action to gain a Second Wind, healing yourself for a bit once per short rest.
...look it takes time to make four kids, they’ll be here soon, I swear!
2. Fighter 2: second level fighters can add an Action Surge to their turn once per short rest, giving you a second action to use on whatever you want- spells, fighting, dashing, etc. it’s not a second bonus action though, and trust me that’ll be important later.
3. Fighter 3: in a move shocking literally nobody, the guy who is actually several guys is an Echo Knight. You can now Manifest Echo as a bonus action, basically giving you a second character to move and attack with- mechanically the echo isn’t a creature, but any physical attacks you make can come from your space or theirs. So if you magic up your sword, the echo’s sword is magic too, great value is had by all. Echos only have 1 hp and a flat AC determined by your level, but there’s no limit to how many times you can make them, aside from one at a time. You can also swap spaces with them as a bonus action, or Unleash Incarnation as part of your attack action, giving you an extra attack that’s only from your echo’s place. You can only do this 2-3 times a day, but extra attacks are extra attacks, take what you can get.
4. Fighter 4: but of course having better attacks is nice too, so use your first Ability Score Improvement to strum up your Strength for stronger and more accurate strikes.
5. Fighter 5: speaking of extra attacks being good, fifth level fighters get an Extra Attack each attack action, which is good. so now you can attack two times with your action, or three with unleash incarnation. or four with your action surge added in, or even six times with an action surge and both UIs to boot. But that uses up all your UIs… let’s fix that.
6. Fighter 6: fighters get even more ASI’s than most classes, letting us corner the market on Constitution at basically no cost. This adds extra HP whenever you level up, but it’s also retroactive, so you get an instant 6 hp boost too! On top of that, you have a third use of Unleash Incarnation now, go nuts. but only three times a day.
7. Ranger 1: swapping over to ranger gets you free Insight proficiency. You’re the father of like, six children minimum, I’m sure you know how to tell when someone’s lying. Oh right also the whole ‘figuring out Tamamo is Tamamo and getting your family killed’ thing started with a really good insight check. sorry about that.
rangers also get to target a Favored Foe as a bonus action, picking out one target to deal extra damage to using your concentration. it’s like Hunter’s Mark, but it gets better as you level up and doesn’t use a spell slot!
you’re also a Natural Explorer, giving you all sorts of traveling bonuses when in Grasslands. usually this doesn’t come up in most games, but Guda had to walk the entire span of the united states, so… it’s nice to have if you need it.
8. Ranger 2: at second level rangers get their own fighting style, and Two Weapon Fighting lets you add your strength score to your offhand weapon damage! ...yay!
you also get Spells this level, which are a way better use of your bonus action. Searing Smite uses your bonus action to add extra fire damage to an attack when you next hit someone, plus every turn after if they fail a constitution save. and don’t spend an action to end it. or another creature puts them out. or it’s raining. I know that sounds flippant but wasting an enemy’s turn can actually be just as useful as the extra damage.
You can also cast Zephyr Strike, letting you ignore opportunity attacks for up to a minute, possibly ending early to give yourself advantage on an attack, plus extra damage plus increased movement speed + L + ratio.
9. Ranger 3: Third level rangers can have a Primeval Awareness, tuning you into otherworldly creatures near your location. it does not give you the ability to fight those creatures, but good luck with the Tamamo thing.
oh! speaking of the Tamamo thing, we still haven’t gotten you your fancy bird yet! as a Swarmkeeper ranger you have a Gathered Swarm of tiny animals helping you out once per turn, adding extra damage or forced movement to an attack, or helping you move to a better position.
you also learn Swarmkeeper Magic, which is just extra spells. Mage Hand is the bird itself, picking stuff up for you, Faerie Fire is its magical danger sensing ability preventing invisible creatures from sneaking up on you. You also learn Hunter’s Mark as your normal ranger spell. it’s like Favored Foe except it’s a spell, does flat damage, and you can swap it to another creature when the first one dies. It’s a bit redundant but Huang Feihu is pretty low-magic for a chinese servant, I’m doing my best to keep it that way.
10. Ranger 4: speaking of low magic, fighting is still way better than slinging spells, which is why your Strength is maxxed out now. have fun storming the castle!
11. Ranger 5: fifth level rangers don’t get an extra attack if they’re multiclassing from a class that already got one earlier. but you do get second level spells like Magic Weapon so you can do something against the Daiji, and Web to keep your foes tied up in… a net? yeah, a net. nets are cool.
12. Ranger 6: favored foe matches hunter’s mark this level in terms of damage, and you can now travel around Mountains better thanks to natural explorer. that sounds light on bonuses but have you seen how they draw mountains in chinese art? being able to climb that shit at all is wild, let alone well.
13. Ranger 7: seventh level swarmkeepers control a Writhing Tide, letting you spend a bonus action to be picked up by your tiny birds for up to a minute, flying at ten feet per round. This is the most magical magic we’re getting this entire build.
you can also send out Animal Messengers this level, and since you’re never far from your swarm, you’re never far from volunteers to send out letters! I don’t think that works mechanically but honestly I’d give it to you, your backstory is very tragic.
14. Ranger 8: develop that Dexterity a bit this level for a higher AC, and use Land’s Stride to… not get slowed down by plants? I don’t think they ever really got ranger to a ‘good’ place in 5e. maybe if they ever stop releasing servants some day I’ll get to see what how the new version handled them. what do you mean the ‘new’ version is going to be two years old this year. that’s still new, right?
15. Ranger 9: ninth level rangers get third level spells, and now you can Conjure Animals! ...hey, I know teenagers can be rowdy but they’re not that bad… oh you meant for the NP buffalo, right. also you can use Gaseous Form now because you’re a swarmkeeper but it’s also situational and not really for this build but hey that’s true of a lot of ranger stuff.
16. Fighter 7: finally done with that long detour to get your NP, we can return to echo knight for an Echo Avatar, which lets you see and hear through your echo while expanding its range to 1000 feet, all for up to ten minutes. but also this doesn’t shut off the bonus action teleportation, and you can just start it again right after the ten minute mark passes with no issue. this is admittedly completely out of left field since your kids 100% do have to stay near you when they manifest but it’s an upgrade and one of these classes had to have enough levels to reach 20, and I’d rather it be this one than the caster class.
17. Fighter 8: Use your last ASI to become a Medium Armor Master, this removes stealth penalties for wearing medium armor, and you can add a maximum of 3 to your AC while wearing medium armor if your dexterity permits it, which it does. so yes, your medium armor can now easily stand with the fanciest stuff heavy armor has to offer, for half the price.
18. Fighter 9: at ninth level you become Indomitable, letting you reroll a failed save once per day. Presumably, this is how you didn’t get mind-controlled by the Daiji the second she knew that you knew.
19. Fighter 10: tenth level echo knights get another feature that I’m not 100% thrilled about you getting but I doubt anybody’s playing to level 19 anyway normally so it’s probably fine, Shadow Martyr. if a creature you like is being attacked, you can shove your echo next to it, forcing the attack to hit the echo instead, once per short rest. a father should never outlive his children, but you already have so there’s no real harm in using this.
…god that was dark even for me… On the plus side your Echo has an AC of 20 now, so there’s a good chance you just force the attack to miss anyway.
20. Fighter 11: for our final level of fighter, you get an Extra Attack that works again! That means three strikes per action, four with a UI, six with an action surge, or up to eight altogether. it’s like we never even dipped into ranger.
Pros & Cons
Pros:
Searing smite and other spells like it are all limited to melee attacks, but you can now make melee attacks at range, increasing their usefulness tremendously. it’s also useful for attacking behind cover or hitting a prone enemy since they force disadvantage on traditional ranged attacks but you get advantage against them with melee. it’s niche, sure, but you’re playing ranger, you’re used to that.
you have access to echoes and conjure animals, so once again you can wreck the action economy, which is always fun. that’s fun to do to every economy, too- why do you think people keep trying to make crypto and AI a thing?
while we’re not super Gish-y this build, you do have access to spells like Faerie Fire and Web that make your main job as a melee fighter much easier to deal with. you can even use your echo to avoid wading into the web to fight people, that’s another benefit for the first bullet point!
Cons:
you’re supposed to be riding a horse. and that’s not a ‘we couldn’t fit it in’ issue- you only get that during NPs usually- but rather moving on a fast mount completely negates your echo’s abilities since it has to say near you and can only move 30 feet per turn.
you also have very limited power, being stuck with half of a half-caster and three unleash incarnations to be the source of most of your damage. this build’s pretty good at surviving long fights, but don’t expect to do anything too flashy if the battle drags on.
while Swarmkeeper is slightly better at the ol’ BA pileup than most ranger classes it’s still… not ideal. you can use your bonus action to attack with a second weapon, cast spells, summon an echo, swap places, and so on and so forth. having options is never a truly bad thing, but it can be frustrating to have too much you can do all trampling over itself.
* The new name for the Winter Wolf in the current edition is Witchwarg if you want a cooler name. The stat block is the same as the legacy version, therefore, it won't be confusing to use them interchangeably in your campaigns.
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