“King of the Vampires and Lord of the Undead, he has fought many battles against Odin. He has taken the spirit of Silmeria, one of the Three Goddesses of Fate, but his sense of honor prevents him from ever harming a hostage.”
A vampiric pugilist capable of battling the king of the gods to a standstill with a goddesses spirit held hostage. Since being a vampire is not normally allowed at the table I went with the next best thing.
Str 10 Dex 15 Con 14 Int 8 Wis 15 Cha 8 (27 point buy)
Str 10 Dex 16 Con 15 Int 8 Wis 16 Cha 8 (after racial mod)
Class 6 Monk (Way of Astral Self)
The three things that I wanted to achieve in this build are:
- Brutal punching power.
- Ability to create fear in one’s foe.
- Bloody Curse Finisher.
For the race the next best thing is Dhampir! I went for the three score increase option with an eye towards an increase in Dex, Wis, and Con. I choose Celestial for the language and Medium for the size of Brahms. I also chose Acrobatics and Perception for Ancestral Legacy.
For class I was originally leaning towards fighter with either champion or battle-master but there is no use in deny the best class for Brahms…Monk. So I chose six levels of Monk (Way of Astral Self) as this particular subclass grants a lot of the powers that I see in Brahms from Valkyrie Profile. Levels 1 and 2 for monk establish the basis for the character, punching power and fleetness of foot. For Proficiencies I went for Athletics, History and Cartographer’s Tools. Brahms also gets Martial Arts, Unarmored Defense, Ki and Unarmored Movement, typical monk fair.
Once levels 3 to 6 happens Brahms true potential starts to shine. Arms of the Astral Self grants Brahms the ability to use wisdom for Str checks and saves, unarmed striking ability, reach of an additional 5 feet and force damage for your Astral attacks. This starts the Bloody Curse Finishing strike since as a bonus action upon activation of Astral Arms you can inflict a small AOE on those within ten feet of you on creatures that you choose. Deflect Missiles is a nice bonus on top. At level 4 you gain slow fall and combined with spider walk from your race gives you an amazing amount of mobility. The final piece of Bloody Curse Finishing Strike is the feat Crusher. I chose Con increase, bring you to 16. You gain the ability move a person (no save) 5 feet away from you and when you deal a critical from bludgeoning damage you gain advantage until the start of your next turn.
The Bloody Curse Finishing strikes goes like this:
- On your turn attack with an unarmed attack and push the person back 5 feet
- As a bonus action use 1 ki to activate Astral Arms and chose your foes for the aoe damage
- Use 1 ki point to Flurry of Blows with your Astral Arms
A devastating combination that becomes even stronger with level 5 giving you Extra Attack and Stunning Strike. At level 6 Visage of the Astral Self comes online and gives Brahms additional powers with Astral Sight, Wisdom of the Spirit and Word of the Spirit, all of which increase your threatening power that the King of Vampires deserve.
Background for Brahms is Soldier with the skills of Intimidation and Stealth. Tool Proficiencies are Vehicles (Land) and Dice Set.
Spells
None outside of Monk abilities
Equipment
Standard Monk equipment but a Periapt of Health would greatly benefit this character until you get it in future monk levels.
Thank you very much for joining me on this weeks In Six or Less and I look forward to sharing one more character design from Valkyrie Profile next week!
Shout out to Valkyrie profile fandom.com again for their amazing information on the character’s from this great game!
