Making Morrigan Aensland from the Darkstalkers series

[Shin Okada]

For upcoming "Heroes from multiverse gathered to fight against great evil" one-shot game, a friend of mine is trying to make Morrigan Aensland from CAPCOM's Darkstalkers series.

Morrigan Aensland - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

That is a 24th-level game and all the WotC materials including Dragon articles are allowed to be used. Also, changing texture is welcomed. So, for example, a character who is meant to be a human does not need to be actually using the stats of Human race in D&D world.

Now, onto Morrigan. She is a Succubus. But of course there is no rule in D&D 4e to play actual Succubus devil. Also, Succubus in Darkstalkers series are different of that in D&D world. So stats of any character with high Charisma may work, I guess.

As a character of Fighting game, she mainly fights with her fists and kicks, with some throws. Also, she can use some ranged attack powers like Soulfist. And, she has a pair of wings and can fly.

I guess monk should be the starting point. Then, somehow taking ranged attack powers via hybrid or multiclassing. Sorcerer or Warlock may suit to this concept as she is meant to be attractive (high Cha).

Hybrid or Multiclass Monk/Sorcerer (or Warlock) with Dex/Cha build, maybe?

The problem will be her wings. Even at level 24th, few PCs can have non-temporal flight.

Any thoughts?

 

[FreeXenon]

I am not familiar with the character that you are talking about, but as far as the succubus race you could start with Tiefling and move around some of the racial abilities to add the changeling shape change ability. That might get you started.

 

[nogray]

Making Morrigan

I played around in the character builder and came up with (what I hope is) an interesting take: A dragonborn hybrid Sorcerer | Fighter (heavy refluffing on the appearance of the race and on the "breath weapon" as Morrigan's various fighting moves). Take hybrid talent for the Brawler style and pump Strength and Charisma. Her only weapon is a spiked gauntlet (which a feat makes into a d8 weapon). Thanks to an assassin multiclass and the most recent interpretation of implements, she would be able to use that as an implement, too. A lot of the brawler powers are all about punching and grabbing (very fighting-game-esque) and I threw in the sorcerer for the ranged at will (Morrigan does seem to have an easy ranged attack). I also liked the flavor of several of the melee sorcerer powers. The reason for Dragonborn is the Avatar of Io epic destiny that gives wings with fly 8 and hover at level 24.

For the record, I took paragon hybrid to pick up Dragon Soul, and I took the assassin feat (Venom Hand Master) to make poison attacks ignore resistance and immunity. I chose a spider-kissed spiked gauntlet, too. That should make all her attacks Poison. That could fit some of the stuff I read about her. Another option might be to go for a more classic element (like Fire) and go for heavier investment that way. A Monk multiclass could serve just as well for the implement rules.

(Note that the character builder is not good at handling this type of character. It won't take the spiked gauntlets as the implement, nor will it add feats for unarmed to the damages or attack rolls of implement powers. I did some workarounds to make the CB give me the output that I think the rules intended from reading them.)

Let me know if you'd like some more information or anything.

 

[Dr_Ruminahui]

I would have thought that in those games her flight would be a temporal thing - as part of some attack or other - then she returns to the ground. So, if you don't need to be able to fly all the time, hybriding two classes with flight powers and taking those (monk and sorceror come to mind - I'm not familiar with them above heroic, but in 1-5 both have an encounter power that gives flight, and I imagine there are more options as you proceed up the levels).

You would, unfortunately, need to keep three stats boosted (provided you care about your monk kicker effects).

Another thought would be Bard, with the feat that allows all powers to use your charisma, then judicious use of multiclass feats and power swaps... would take a fair bit of work to figure out if it actually worked for your concept though, as you have so many more options at the price of signing your feats away.

 

[Shin Okada]

Thank you for ideas.

Brawler Fighter could be a good alternative for monk. But unfortunately, our DM has announced that until the October official update is released and current rules are adjusted to match with essentials, he does not adapt essential products. As the game is played the next Sunday, we cannot use clarifications written in Rules Compendium.

But there may be some way to go around implement issue in other way, I guess.

Regarding flight. Yes, Morrigan is not always aloft in the video game. But she indeed has a pair of wings and can fly for a long time. That can be seen in various spin-offs such as animation shows. Still, we can consider such overland flight as out-of-scene flavor, or maybe we can use some magic item and just re-texture it to be her natural wings.

 

[Mad Hamish]

One approach might be to use Dragonborn as the base race and pick the Scion of Arkhosia paragon path.

That gives you Dragonbreath for some ranged attacks, wings giving both overland flight and standard flight.

Opt for the Monk to give you the hand to hand ability and you should be pretty reasonable although the lack of dex is mods is a minus.

Or you could take Revenant (Dragonborn) for the monk, picking Dragonborn as the past class. It loses the breath weapon but that's not a huge sacrifice. (Talk it over with the GM what the Scion of Arkhosia paragon path would give you)

 

[nogray]

More Morrigan

... Revenant (Dragonborn) for the monk, picking Dragonborn as the past class {sic}. It loses the breath weapon ...

But it could be gotten right back with a feat. The problem I see with revenant is the lack of charisma modifier. You could drop the charisma, though, and go for a Con Dex build for warlock monk (neither getting much in the way of real benefit from their secondary abilities). The potential disadvantage I see there is the assumed force of personality of Morrigan (very charisma-based, even discounting looks).

For a simple solution to the non-implement thing, I might suggest going for a normal magic dagger (225K out of the 425K gold available to created characters of that level. This assumes the normal distribution of items and cash: Levels 25, 24, and 23 items and cash equal to a 23.) Then you can go for something like quick draw as a feat and/or one of the items or an arcane familiar that lets you draw/store items as a free action. With the right set of abilities, you could draw - use spell with dagger implement - sheathe and cost no more actions than just using the power normally. An item like Dantrag's Bracers (which can go on arm or feet slot, oddly enough) would suffice, as would any of several familiars.

Without the interpretation allowing for the spider-kissed spiked gauntlet as an implement, I might suggest dropping that idea and going with a more classic dragon breath energy (fire or lightning maybe? Morrigan's Soul Fist sure looks bright and shiny). With a dragonborn sorcerer, you have a lot of optional potency if you can match your breath energy to a resistance from sorcerer soul and the energy types of your sorcerer attacks. (This was actually why I didn't go for the Scion of Arkhosia in my build. I like the paragon hybrid for the coolness of getting both a Sorcerer soul and the brawler fighter goodness.) The whole Dragonborn Dragon Magic sorcerer has a lot of built-in feat support.

As a more radical idea, there may be no reason to take a ranged class. There is always the Farslayer weapon enchantment that has an at-will to make a melee basic attack at a target within 5. That might open up some more options.

Anyhow, the major ways I saw to get wings granting long-term flight were these:

Avatar or Io (Dragonborn Epic Destiny)
Favored Soul (Avenger Paragon Path -- this might be great for a Centered Breath Monk, with its Dex/Wis focus, to take via multiclassing, but it leaves out a high Charisma)
Scion of Arkhosia (Dragonborn Paragon Path -- has an overland flight and an at-will utility for short hopping flights)