Fighter: Purple Dragon Knight
Frontline Support & Rogue/Paladin DPS Enabling Build
The Character:
"And th're, from the murky depths, cameth the beast: its most wondrous maw and vicious teeth did roar at me, and its many arms pummel'd mine own cater-cousins. From behind the matt'd black hair of its visage did glow a single, r'd eye, and from yond eye did look into mine own soul and I kneweth mine own time hadst cometh."
The tavern sat enraptured at the visitor's evocative dialogue, gasping on cue, save for a fellow with a long-brimmed hat. He nearly glared a hole through Abraxas. Thankfully, tritons' amphibious nature made a nervous sweat impossible. They grinned and proceeded with a hypnotic lilt.
"Yet, in yond eye, I did see its weakness. I jett'd f'rth and plung'd mine own tapal," Abraxas hefted their strange, curved sword, blue metal gleaming in the candle light, "deep into the r'd gloweth and tdid scream in bloody protest. Its ichor spill'd into the wat'r 'round me, its crustacean limbs j'rk'd in a death throweth, and I kneweth then yond I fell'd the beast and did save Solvale, and thus the surface w'rld, from utt'r destruction." Abraxas contorted their face into an aspect of triumph, and then, feigning a realization, one of deep sorrow.
"But, nay," moaned the triton, "I cannot taketh the charge, f'r if 't be true mine own comrades w'ren't th're to distract the creature and loseth their lives to its chaps then...I wouldst not has't hath lived to deliv'r the killing blow. Their sacrifice still haunts me to this day, but somehow, someway, I wend on."
The hatted man had had enough and scoffed, turning back to the bar. "Curious," he finally spoke, "a kraken with jaws and teeth. I remember them to be beaked beasts. Arms, hair, a singular eye...are you sure you bested a kraken, stranger?" The crowd grew silent at the challenge.
The Concept: Build, Character, Backgrounds
On the surface (wink), the Purple Dragon Knight Fighter, aka the Banneret Fighter, is a very weak subclass. That is, if the expectation is to be a ferocious warrior oneself, the subclass is very weak. However, to my mind, there is more than one way to be a hero. The Purple Dragon Knight does its best work enabling the success of its teammates, specifically the melee damage-per-second (DPS) characters, allowing them to take the spotlight. On its own, without allies, an adventurer of this class is not winning any duels; however, when side-by-side with a powerful warrior, the power the combination unleashes may surprise. Plus, this pure support role given to the traditional soldier class makes for an interesting character prompt: a fighter who just isn't. How would they reconcile this? My answer to this question is Abraxas.
In a naïve attempt at heroism, they put the entire triton army that stands united against elemental evil at risk. Abraxas recklessly drew too close to the rift between the Prime Material and Elemental Plane of Water, so they were banished for their safety, that of their fellow tritons, and the surface world they protect. Their exposure to raw elemental arcana, though, provoked the interest of an undersea triton wizard faction who believed further magical manifestations and mutations might occur in time. Field testing their new abilities and reporting the findings to this faction might restore their status among their people, and so Abraxas clings to that hope. They leave for the surface out of shame, but maintain a lie that they are an emissary of the tritons, one of their strongest spellswords, sent to land to make connections and gather allies.
They are full of it, and themselves, constantly boasting about what they accomplished beneath the waves to soothe their wounded ego and since no one can confront them with proof otherwise. While they are quite familiar with triton culture, their knowledge of the surface is dated, and that of military strategy and the Plane of Elemental Water is far from scholarly--they're not nearly as smart as they think they are. Their outlandish lies are easily seen through by those with extraplanar lore backgrounds or professional monster slayers. Maybe, in time, they would come to accept that being a mythically powerful one-man-army just wasn't their lot, and wasn't the only way to take pride in themselves. Maybe, with the acceptance of friends, they could learn to be honest with themselves and others. Maybe, though they weren't all too skilled at killing, they might come to recognize their natural charisma and ability to lead warriors who can and will kill for righteous reasons.
To fully optimize the Purple Dragon Knight, even skill proficiencies become important. So, while backgrounds are generally more for flavor, this support build should take its best choice: Faction Agent. This grants us proficiency in the Insight skill, which we'll need for reading social situations, and our choice of Charisma skill, so Deception. As a Fighter, we'll take Athletics and Intimidation proficiency. The final piece of our conversation-proficiency-triad, Persuasion, will be granted as a Banneret feature at Level 7 (see Royal Envoy below). Part of our role of support will be conflict resolution or problem solving through conversation, and in order to apply our best tool for the job (Deception, Intimidation, or Persuasion) we'll need to be able to gauge our fellow interlocutors.
The Race: Triton
Solely concerning stats, the half-elf is always a solid choice for a build that utilizes charisma; however, some ancestries offer stats and traits that could create similarly powerful and unique Banneret bodyguards. The runners-up include fallen aasimar, Levistus or Zariel-lineage tieflings, and metallic dragonborn.
However, the star of this selection is the triton. A +1 to STR, CON, and CHA fit the role and play of this build perfectly. Swim Speed, Amphibious, and the Emissary of the Sea (fish speak) trait are nice ribbons. The Guardians of the Depths (cold damage resistance) and Darkvision traits are similarly nice to have when needed, but the reason we chose this ancestry over the other viable options is the innate spellcasting from the Control Air & Water trait. The Fog Cloud and Wall of Water spells will pair with our Fighter features to provide us with a score of unique methods for supporting our party's DPS frontliner. We'll talk more about their specific uses when discussing the features they synergize with below: Fighting Style (Blind Fighting) and Magic Initiate (Sorcerer) respectively. As for Gust of Wind, its purposes are many but two stand out:
1). grant +15ft movement (on a failed saving throw) for the frontliner to close with opponents
2). crowd control via reducing enemies' movement speed, slowing their approach
The Stat Spread (Point Buy):
STR 16 (+3), CHA 16 (+3), CON 14 (+3), DEX 10 (+0), WIS 10 (+0), INT 8 (-1)
15 (9pts) 15 (9pts) 13 (5pts) 10 (2pts) 10 (2pts) 8 (0pts)
Previously, I've made use of 5E's "Standard Array" (15, 14, 13, 12, 10, 8) for determining the stats of our Unloved Ultimate builds and the alternate "Point-Buy" system for the more multi-attribute-dependent (MAD) builds of the Optimum Suboptimum Opusculum; however, as the Banneret fighter is MAD and in need of a number of feats, we'll use the latter method in order to maximize our power.
We prioritize Strength as we'll be making use of heavy armor--Abraxas wouldn't be much of a bodyguard with a flimsy AC--and will continue to increase it to boost our melee accuracy and damage. Charisma is as high as this build will take it right at the start because while the Purple Dragon Knight subclass provides quite a few Persuasion-based bonuses, there are none that warrant prioritizing CHA as our main stat. Lastly, Constitution is high not only for HP but for maintaining concentration on our innate spellcasting. Using the ability score increases (ABIs) at Levels 12 and 19 to boost our stats, our final spread leaves our Strength at 20, with the rest of our stats remaining the same.
The Class: Notable Features
Fighting Style: Abraxas will eventually utilize two fighting styles that synergize with one another and with the Control Air & Water spell Fog Cloud. At Level 1, we begin with the Protection style.
"When a creature you can see attacks a target other than you that is within 5 feet of you, you can use your reaction to impose disadvantage on the attack roll. You must be wielding a shield." -- PHB, pg. 72
Part of our two-pronged role as frontline support is protecting the party's main melee damage dealer, and this fighting style allows just that. As long as we remain at our ward's side, we can use our best judgement and make it far less likely that a big hit ever connects, turning many die worth of damage into zero. We chose Protection over the Interception fighting style for that specific reason: while Interception allows for guaranteed damage reduction, Protection allows for likely damage nullification.
Later, at Level 4, we will take the Fighting Initiate feat (as detailed in the Feats section below) in order to take the Blind Fighting fighting style.
"You have blindsight with a range of 10 feet. Within that range, you can effectively see anything that isn't behind total cover, even if you're blinded or in darkness. Moreover, you can see an invisible creature within that range, unless the creature successfully hides from you." -- TCoE, pg. 41
This choice synergizes both with our previous fighting style and Fog Cloud. Regarding the former, Protection stipulates that we must be able to see the attacker to impose disadvantage. So, with Blind Fighting, the attacker will always be visible to us so long as they are within 10 feet. To that point, let's talk about Fog Cloud.
"You create a 20-foot-radius sphere of fog centered on a point within range. The sphere spreads around corners, and its area is heavily obscured." -- PHB, pg. 243
Heavily obscured areas render creatures within them blind, forcing their attacks to be made with disadvantage and granting advantage on attacks made against them; however, the 20-foot-radius sphere if centered on us makes half of the space, the interior, visible to us with our 10 feet of blindsight. It is possible that our frontliner does not also have blindsight, though. So, Fog Cloud is best used as a defensive maneuver in that case. While it renders our compatriot blind, it does the same to all nearby assailants and we can guide our ward in a safe direction with our foes none the wiser. If the enemy is somehow immune to the fog's obscuration, such as with truesight, we still always have Protection. Just think of this spell as a smoke grenade for escape.
Rallying Cry: A middle ground between the Mass Healing Word and Mass Cure Wounds spell, this ability can be used for keeping the party on their feet, but more importantly for getting them back on their feet.
It's likely our party has a main healer in the form of a cleric, druid, bard, artificer, or other class, so often its best to leave the healing up to them; however, our job of support involves supporting the healer as well. Sometimes there's just too much damage for one healer to mitigate, and in that scenario Rallying Cry can be a bit of a top-off for our injured allies.
Eventually, though, there will come a time where the healer is indisposed and a total-party-kill seems inevitable: multiple allies are at 0HP and making death saving throws, and others are on their way to the same fate. One of those downed characters might even be the party's main healer. This is when Rallying Cry really shines. Restoring HP to multiple unconscious allies is the catalyst for a fighting chance, a complete comeback. If the cleric is restored, suddenly they can cast mass healing spells and restore the party even further, or at least beat a hasty retreat with the group.
Royal Envoy: Supporting Abraxas' fellow adventurers doesn't end on the battlefield. Effective Expertise (x2 proficiency bonus) in Persuasion allows us to be the face of the party and do two things:
1) Problem solving/conflict resolution that doesn't involve or circumvents combat
2) Freeing up skill roles for other party members
It goes without saying that not all conflict must end in a fight, and a good enough Persuasion roll might just be enough to de-escalate dangerous dealings. There's no better way to protect the frontliner than them not entering a fight at all. Not only that, but being the charismatic face is a role in high-demand, and it often becomes the burden of the party bard or rogue to shoulder it. With it in our toolbelt though, we can allow our party composition to be skill diverse and free our Expertise users to make interesting and diverse choices for their bonuses that benefit the party in nontraditional ways.
Inspiring Surge: I would argue this feature is the signature ability of the Banneret and indicative of it's goal in general: when Abraxas uses a classic Fighter feature now their allies can share in the glory. Action Surge grants us an extra action to use on our turn, only now thanks to Inspiring Surge it also grants one of our allies (two @ Level 18) within 60 feet an extra melee/ranged attack as a reaction.
This feature is why we're classifying Abraxas as specifically frontline support and not general support. Each class specializing in melee DPS has a feature that they can incorporate into their attack (even when not their turn) to enhance it in some way. Listed below are the best frontline classes to utilize this free attack: cyan is best, green is good, and orange is okay.
Rogue: Sneak Attack relies on us or an ally being in place to grant it, but should we set it up correctly it potentially adds 10d6 extra damage in a round.
Paladin: Divine Smite allows for our paladin ally to pump a potential 5d8 extra radiant damage per round into a foe, 6d8 if its a fiend or undead!
Monk: Contingent on a failed CON save, an extra shot at Stunning Strike could be tide turning, not to mention subclass-based attack options.
Fighter: Dependent on subclass, this is either great or useless. An extra Maneuver from a Battle Master or Fire Rune from a Rune Knight are good! A regular hit from a Champion--just okay.
Barbarian: Rage grants a guaranteed +4 to the attack's damage, and that's about it. Like the Fighter, depending on subclass this extra attack can be boosted but not by much, such as with Divine Fury or Thunderous Blows. If the attack is a critical hit, a 5% chance, Brutal Critical would apply as well.
Bulwark: Indomitable, effectively the Legendary Resistance trait, makes us a warrior of myth able to shrug off even the most brutal of failures by rerolling failed saving throws. Bulwark allows us to extend that grace to one of our nearby allies. Since we're spending our time ideally only 5 feet away from our frontliner, it's not unlikely we'll both be targeted with area of effect spells. If everything goes the worst and we both fail, we can make it possible that we both succeed instead by granting a reroll: a nice insurance policy for our playstyle.
Feats: All for One and One for All
The Banneret's features are situational, but good, and they just need a little support to make them great. Thankfully, Fighters get access to more ABIs and feats than any other class, totaling 7! We'll take the following feats in the order below at Levels 4, 6, 8, 14, and 16.
Fighting Initiate (Blind Fighting): as described above, Blind Fighting will allow us to make the most use of our innate casting of Fog Cloud as well as ensure that our Protection style is always useable.
Sentinel: our goal is not only to protect the frontliner but enable them in battle. Sentinel is useful for both. It ensures that opponents will never flee our primary DPS dealer with guaranteed opportunity attacks and successful strikes reducing opponents' speed to 0. Also, now we have two potential uses for our reaction: Protection to prevent a big hit or Sentinel to attack if the assailant's hits are negligible or their health is low.
Magic Initiate (Sorcerer): Abraxas' close brush with the Elemental Plane of Water empowered them with control of air and water, but wild magic can linger dormant and mutate on a whim. As their warrior prowess grew, so too did the sorcerous surge within.
This feat affords us a couple cantrips and a first-level spell of our choice. It is crucial that we have access to the Ray of Frost cantrip for reasons we'll explore below, which limits our choices to the Artificer, Sorcerer, and Wizard variants of this feat. Artificer offers healing/defensive spells like Cure Wounds and Sanctuary while Wizard provides utility options like Cause Fear and False Life. However, we've gone with the Sorcerer variant to be able to utilize Charisma as our spellcasting modifier.
Excluding Ray of Frost, cantrips like Green Flame Blade and Lightning Lure are useful melee options while Friends is great for our Persuasion rolls. Ultimately, though, Booming Blade gives us a means of ensuring multi-opponent lockdown and is our best pick. If we feel that more than one foe might flee, we can save our Sentinel opportunity attack for a healthier/more important opponent to keep near while using Booming Blade to either finish off a low HP opponent who may try to flee or discourage an opponent who knows the spell's effect from running. For our first-level spell, Thunderwave and Shield are good offensive and defensive possibilities though with our cantrip selection, Charm Person will serve us best and round-out our spell repertoire.
On its own, Ray of Frost is nice in that it provides us with a ranged option with unlimited ammo and level-scaling damage, and its secondary effect of reducing a target's speed by 10 feet is also nice for crowd control. That effect in particular synergizes with Gust of Wind also. However, its synergy with Wall of Water is especially interesting.
"You create a wall of water on the ground at a point you can see within range. You can make the wall up to 30 feet long, 10 feet high, and 1 foot thick, or you can make a ringed wall up to 20 feet in diameter, 20 feet high, and 1 foot thick. ...Any ranged weapon attack that enters the wall’s space has disadvantage on the attack roll, and fire damage is halved if the fire effect passes through the wall to reach its target." -- XGtE, pg. 170
The effects of this spell are the biggest reasons Triton was the best ancestry for our frontline support role. All the others had something to offer, but access to a powerful, 3rd-level defensive spell is something else. While it is technically the weakest of the wall spells, it still has much to offer, but none so much as when paired with an ice spell like Ray of Frost:
"Spells that deal cold damage that pass through the wall cause the area of the wall they pass through to freeze solid (at least a 5-foot-square section is frozen). Each 5-foot-square frozen section has AC 5 and 15 hit points. Reducing a frozen section to 0 hit points destroys it. When a section is destroyed, the wall’s water doesn’t fill it."
With this effect, as long as we're creative, there are a multitude of defensive options we can employ:
2). Ice Colosseum: the wall in liquid form is best defending against ranged attackers and spellcasters, but it is better in ice form against melee combatants. If there is time enough to cast Wall of Water and then Ray of Frost for all 8 panels of the ring wall variant (6 seconds per cast, so a minute total), we can force opponents to waste time breaking through to get to us. They'll likely only destroy one panel, which creates a choke point to funnel them through into an ambush. If not, they waste more time attacking the wall, and not our party.
These are just the most common applications. The possibilities are endless.
Martial Adept: we've already taken a little from the Eldritch Knight Fighter with our spellcasting. Now it's time to take from the Battle Master. This feat is best taken by Battle Masters themselves for extra Maneuvers considering the paltry 1d6 superiority die we gain with it, but there are two maneuvers that specifically compliment the Purple Dragon Knight's existing features and elevate them.
1). Commander's Strike: our attacks are tame. We exist to enable damage from our DPS-focused teammates. Inspiring Surge already procs an extra attack from them, but by sacrificing one of our two attacks (and a bonus action) we can proc another. So, utilizing both features in one round, we can enable a Paladin to get off 4 smites in one round, or a Rogue to get 4 sneak attacks. Essentially, this is granting them a full Action Surge without having to lose two levels to a Fighter multiclass. If they are multiclassed to have their own Action Surge, though, this grants them a second--and might be reason enough to take this feat earlier than 14th level.
2). Commanding Presence: with Expertise, we have a pretty hefty bonus to Persuasion already, but are lacking bonus versatility for other situations. A potential +1d6 to Performance and Intimidation could make up for that, or +1d6 to our already high Persuasion could ensure success against nigh impossible odds. This also rounds out our feat, allowing us to make use of it in non-combat scenarios.
Inspiring Leader: before every risk of battle, we can grant our party 19 temporary HP at 16th level when we take this feat and 23 by 20th level. This is an enormous boon that can soak up more than one hit per fight. At this point, the major features of our build are set, so everything else is just gravy. Its known that Inspiring Leader is slightly better at the lower levels, but its not bad at the higher levels, and all we took before was foundational for our build.
Some other good options for feats if we roll for stats and don't need as many ability score increases include Slasher (Booming Blade + Sentinel should be enough incentive to lock opponents down but pairing it with Slasher just tightens the lock, and the speed penalty also synergizes with Ray of Frost); Healer (the ability to revive our downed ward or an important teammate, maybe the healer themselves, after our Rallying Cry is expended could be very good in a pinch); Shield Master (a +2 to DEX saving throws and full negation of damage is good, but the bonus action shove to knock a foe prone can be a real boon for gaining advantage without Fog Cloud up).
Play Style: Set Up for Success
Pre-Battle: At higher levels, Inspiring Leader should always be done right after a rest. Before we have access to that feat, though, setting up Wall of Water or our ice colosseum variant of it especially is a pre-battle must so long as we can anticipate combat. Otherwise, positioning is key. At all times, we need to be adjacent to our frontliner. Create and practice formations with the party beforehand to maximize their support of the two-person frontlining team that is Abraxas and their ward. Ideally, Wall of Water will be set up in such a way that to get around its ranged/spellcasting damper attackers will have to move themselves into a position that makes them vulnerable to our party members who are hiding behind cover and/or have ranged attacks/spells of their own held and ready for firing.
Early Battle: Waiting until enemies have drawn near unsuspectingly is the most effective time to use Fog Cloud offensively. Enemies might be hesitant to enter an existing fog, but entering its area of effect before it exists ensures maximum number of enemies affected. The same principle goes for Gust of Wind. Ultimately, crowd control is the name of the game for the early game. At this point in the fight, its crucial to manage the number of enemies that get within melee of our frontliner. The ideal number of foes up-close is one, and two maximum (one for both Abraxas and their partner). This way, our one use of Protection per round can keep our ally unscathed rather than merely less damaged.
Mid-Late Battle: Finishing the fight decisively is what the Banneret was meant for. All of our resources should be saved for the final hour. Rallying Cry is best when used to rouse an unconscious party for a second chance. Inspiring Surge, in partnership with Commander's Strike, should be used when the enemy is weaker but still has enough fight to be a danger. Using both at once, we deliver a powerful finishing series of blows rather than allowing the enemy to flee when near death. Bulwark should be saved for the attacks/spells enemies are saving for the end for the same reason we're saving our Inspiring Surge. If things take a turn for the absolute worst, though, late-game is the time to employ Fog Cloud defensively. It can facilitate an escape against all but the most perceptive enemies.
Roleplay: 80% of the Ocean is Unexplored...
Before considering personality, it is important to remember that life underwater is not just thematically different from the surface--it is fundamentally so. The sea is alien to surface dwellers.
For starters, language. Speaking on land is easy as the air carries words much farther than water. The Aquan dialect of Primordial that is Abraxas' first language is likely more akin to whale song or the dolphin language: wails and whistles of varying pitch and length that carry farther through the thick sea. Tritons also likely utilize oral tradition over written records, as the water would wash away ink and carved tablets would eventually become eroded by the movement of the ocean.
Movement is also very different. Triton are used to 3D mobility whereas the land restricts. As a result, Abraxas might be constantly checking above and behind, afraid of their shackled legs and potentially feeling claustrophobic so stuck to the ground. Their fighting style with their tapal, a triton weapon meant for underwater combat shaped like a boomerang-longsword, might also utilize movements and attacks that are less effective on land or that trip them up in combat.
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| Triton with a tapal (left) and triton 3D fighting (right) |
As for eating, fire is an impossibility for the most part. Caves with air pockets are possible, and undersea volcanic vents exist, but mostly cooking food with fire is impractical. They may use acid in undersea plants or traded citrus fruits to create ceviche, or eat raw sushi and kelp. So, it is safe to assume most triton food is bland, and the spices we use may either addict them or overwhelm their unchallenged guts.
Regarding culture, tritons are rather isolated and may have outdated information about the surface. Abraxas may speak in antiquated Common (old English/Anglo-Saxon), their knowledge of science/magic may be dated (flat earth, earth-centric solar system, etc.), and their memory of surface-dweller customs may be irrelevant. There are a million ways life underwater might affect Abraxas' behavior and physiology, so be on the lookout for fish-out-of-water roleplay moments to capitalize on.
In terms of personality, we've established Abraxas is a pathological liar, at least at the start. Their ego really cannot handle the hit of their banishment, so they tell stories of life beneath the waves to compensate. Their natural charisma and general lack of knowledge of triton society among surfacers allows them to get away with it among the commoners, but I like to think its a bit more transparent to the party. If not, though, their arrogance is certainly palpable. Tritons view themselves as vital to the safety of the air-breathing races, and in many ways they are, so they expect respect and deference even though most are ignorant of what their people has done for the land.
Unintentionally, the feats that best compliment Abraxas' class features invoke the idea of leadership or a military commander. I'd like to think that as they spend more time on land and build their practical knowledge, battle prowess, etc., and learn to capitalize on what they're actually good at, leading, they gain real war stories to share rather than having to feign a heroic past. They also have a band of loyal adventurers to show for all their effort.
As for the triton wizards guild back home, I've left them vague to be developed by the player and the DM. Abraxas could make regular reports back, the faction could wind up intending to use them for nefarious ends and they must truly fight a kraken, or (my personal favorite) Abraxas decides that as they grow more renowned on land that they don't need to return to Solvale, they're doing just as much in their own way on their own turf, and abandons the faction. Regardless of what is chosen, be sure that it guides Abraxas down a path of self-actualization rather than back to where they started.
Conclusion:
The Purple Dragon Knight is uniquely underwhelming in many ways. It needs a significant amount of help to make it a choice worth taking--should those choices be taken though, as laid out above, it can be a real enabler of DPS more than any other class! There's something special and humbling about one's character being all about making the other party members shine. There are a plethora of classes that play a support role, but none that carry as much flavor as a well-intentioned warrior, with little to no magic, simply bringing out the best in their friends and winning the day for it. As always, I wish those future Bannerets luck in their adventuring and that they have as much fun playing Abraxas as I had building them, or whatever character they choose to make with the race, stats and abilities of the build!