This character is a martial art tour de force who uses skilled hand crossbow shots and flying fist to take out her foes. She is a master of all things involving range yet has little hesitation moving in to finish off her target once they are sufficiently softened up. Deadly yet subtle, she is capable of either efficient take downs or disrupting larger groups with her quick defensive capabilities.
Eimear aka Night Hag
Race: Variant Human +1 to two different stats, bonus feat, extra language and skills
Stats (Standard Array)
Str 10 Dex 15 Con 13 Int 8 Wis 14 Cha 12 (base stats)
Str 10 Dex 16 Con 13 Int 8 Wis 15 Cha 12 (racial adjustment)
The three things that I wanted to achieve with this build are:
- The ability to effectively use hand crossbow in melee
- Martial arts fury with weapons as their foci for damage
- Capable marksmanship to take out their target
For the Race of this build I went variant human. It gives us early access to this feat heavy build. Any language would work well for her but I chose Undercommon. The ability score increases go to Dex and Wis for a higher AC and monk abilities. The Extra skill is Stealth to become the ghost assassin she will become. The Feat is Crossbow Expert, a requirement if one is going to be using a hand crossbow more than once a round.
For Background I choose Charlatan. This allows her access to forgery and disguise kits as well as Deception and Sleight of Hand. As a top assassin she has to be able to blend into the background once she finishes a job as well as maintain a cover to get close to her mark.
For the Class make for this build I chose Fighter 1/ Monk 5 (Way of Kensei). Fighter 1 gives her the martial training necessary to start her long road of fighting mastery. The skills to pick up here are Perception and Acrobatics. The fighting style is Archery for more accuracy with her hand crossbow shots. Second wind serves to represent this character’s ability to keep going when blows from weapons would fell lesser souls.
After her basic training she would then get her lessons in close quarter combat ability from Monk levels for the remainder of her five levels. Level 1 monk gives her unarmored defense and martial arts. Level 2 gives her a boost in speed as well as the spiritual powers from Ki. Once level 3 happens her path towards martial dominance becomes more apparent. Way of the Kensei grants powerful kensei bonuses like Agile Parry and Kensei shot. For Kensei weapons I went with long-sword and hand crossbow with painter’s supplies as he way of the brush proficiency. She also gets to deflect missiles lending to a fearsome foe both at range and up close.
At level 4 she gains the feat Sharpshooter which lends her to become an extremely effective assassin. Especially since the feat damage combined with all of her bonuses and extra powers gives her amazing damage potential at the max range of her hand crossbow or her any of her ranged weapons for that matter. Slow Fall gives this character enhanced mobility by making vertical movement less of a hindrance and allow her to get right in to the fight once her location is discovered. Extra attack and Stunning Strike are just icing on the cake with more bites at ending her targets and even stunning foes for a finishing strike.
Spells
No spells unless you count massive damage potential 😉
Equipment
Standard Fighter arms but the weapons you want to focus on are hand crossbow, light crossbow and long-sword. The armor of Chain mail is nice but not needed beyond level 2.
Character sheet from DND Beyond
https://ddb.ac/characters/23015194/RzWWAe
