Character Codex: Exorcist (Part 1)

Greetings and welcome back to the Character Codex! So while the first build took some (a lot) of inspiration from a game I’ve played extensively, with this entry I will try to adapt a character from a game I’ve recently looked into.

Today’s build is a character from Dungeon Fighter Online: the Exorcist.

© Dungeon Fighter Online

A mage with some martial training, the Exorcist has the potential to be a midline controller, but that comes online a bit later on. They definitely are about eject extraplanar creatures from this plane of existence.

Let’s go over a couple of things I hope to accomplish with this build:

Intentions:

• Abjuring – Banishing outside forces from this plane of existence
• Protection – Controlling the enemy’s movement
• Support – Cleansing the party of debuffs

Overview:

• Stat Allotment (Standard Array):

  • STR 8 (-1), DEX 15 (+2), CON 13 (+1), INT 12 (+1), WIS 14 (+2), CHA 10 (+0)

• Lineage:

  • Custom Lineage: +2 WIS
  • Feat: Skill Expert (+1 DEX, Investigation, Arcana)
  • Variable Trait: Perception

• Proficiencies:

  • Custom Lineage: Investigation, Perception, Arcana (Expertise)
  • Background: Athletics, Persuasion
  • Cleric: Insight, Religion, Arcana (subclass)
  • Monk: Calligrapher’s Tools (subclass)

• Items to Seek Out:

  • Bracers of Defense^A: +2 AC (unarmored)
  • Amulet of the Devout^A: Bonus to spell attack rolls/saving throw DCs (+2, +3)
  • Cloak/Ring of Protection^A: +1 AC, Saving Throws
  • Insignia of Claws: +1 to attacks/damage with unarmed strikes/natural weapons (+2, +3)
  • +1 Battleaxe: +1 to attacks/damage (+2, +3)
  • Stirring Dragon’s Wrath Battleaxe (fire)^A: +1 to attacks/damage, an extra 1d6 of fire damage, natural 20 makes a small fire AoE around the target

^A: Requires Attunement (Can only attune to 3 items at a time. Choose wisely.)

Breakdown

Starting it off as a Cleric, taking the Arcana Domain subclass. This build sadly never gets Extra Attack, but can make use of the free bonus action attack from Monk (although it’s only a d4 worth of damage), the limited Flurry of Blows, or Spiritual Weapon. If I were to attack using the bonus action, it would mainly be for Spiritual Weapon. Multiclassing to Monk for a total of three levels. And since the Exorcist needs to use a Battleaxe, we’re gonna go with the more weapon focused Kensei Monk subclass. After that, it’s back to Cleric for the rest of the build for that Arcane Mastery feature.

Again, not much room for feats in this build. Only taking Resilient CON for all those Cleric concentration spells (outside of Skill Expert from Custom Lineage). Especially Shield of Faith and Protection from Evil and Good early on, Spirit Guardians and Banishment later on. For the ASI’s I maxed out WIS, got DEX to 18 while rounding out CON to a 14. If you’d like to be a bit more martially inclined, 6 levels in Monk should do it. But you’d miss out on an ASI/Feat, so maybe to 8. However, in doing that you’ll not get a 7th level spell and slot. With that said, join me as I take us through levels 1 through 10 of this build.

Advancement

Level 1 (Cleric 1) – Arcana Clerics get Arcana proficiency for free as well as two Wizard cantrips to use. Seeing as how this character will only have one attack, we will choose Green-Flame Blade and Sword Burst in case we’re surrounded. Green-Flame Blade will have some green fire leap out hit a target 5 feet away from the creature you strike with a weapon. We will style that secondary damage as the shikigami that is shown with the Exorcist. While Sword Burst has creatures within 5 feet of us make a DEX save or get hit with force damage. It’s a save or suck spell, but it might come in handy.

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In this instance, that means that if the creature makes the saving throw against against the spell save DC, it does no damage, and that sucks. Hence the term ‘save or suck’.

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Detect Magic and Magic Missile are the Domain spells we automatically get from the subclass, and that’s pretty decent to have in our back pocket. Guidance, Light, and (a ranged save or suck cantrip) Toll the Dead are the ones we should pick up at this level. Cure Wounds, Healing Word, Detect Evil and Good, Shield of Faith are the leveled spells to grab here. Gonna go ahead and use the starting gear for the Cleric; mace for 1d6 bludgeoning, scale mail and a shield for an AC of 18. Which is great, for now. True, we dumped STR so the Exorcist will be less accurate and deadly with that mace, but we’re gonna fix that next level.

Level 2 (Monk 1/Cleric 1) – A quick multiclass over to Monk gets me Martial Arts; we can use DEX instead of STR on attack and damage rolls of unarmed strikes (now a d4) and monk weapons (which a mace is as a simple weapon), and can make a bonus action unarmed strike if we first attack with an unarmed strike or a monk weapon. So we’ll be able to Green-Flame Blade.. err Bash with the mace (or two-handing a quarterstaff for 1d8), or attack normally with the mace and then unarmed strike for 1d4 bludgeoning. The drawback is that we can’t be wearing armor, nor wielding a shield. So at this level, we’re going from an 18 AC to a 16 AC. Not ideal, but we can manage.

Level 3 (Monk 2/Cleric 1) – Ki points! But even worse than the Sword Dancer, this build will only be getting a total of 3. It may come in handy to Dodge, Dash, or Disengage as a bonus action. Or even unarmed strike twice. Since Ki is a short rest resource, it might not hurt to use them to help us get out of trouble or reach someone that is. Oh, and Unarmored Movement gives us a +10 speed boost.

Level 4 (Monk 3/Cleric 1) – As mentioned earlier, the Exorcist wields a battleaxe (a 1d8 slashing damage die one-handed or 1d10 two-handed), so going Way of the Kensei works well for that. With the melee Kensei weapon covered, for the ranged Kensei weapon we kinda want to go with darts as it’s an easy option, but the blowgun seems fun too. Either way, we’ll be styling them as ofuda or paper talismans. “But how will we learn to write them” you ask? With the Calligrapher’s Supplies proficiency picked up with Way of the Brush. Agile Parry allows us to increase our AC by +2 until the start of our next turn if we make an unarmed strike Attack action while holding a Kensei melee weapon. It shouldn’t happen too often, unless we’re fighting without our weapon for some reason. And then there’s Kensei’s Shot, in which we can use our bonus action to make my ranged Kensei attack deadlier by 1d4 until the end of our current turn. Suffice to say, I don’t think we’ll be heavily relying on Agile Parry or Kensei’s Shot for this build, but they’re there just in case. Also Deflect Missiles is not a terrible use of our reaction. If a ranged weapon attack happens to come our way, we can nullify up to 16 damage from it (1d10 + my Dexterity modifier + monk level). That can come in handy.

Level 5 (Monk 3/Cleric 2) – After that quick martial detour we’re all done with Monk, so it’s Cleric from here on out. Channel Divinity time! All Clerics get Turn Undead which will keep undead away for a bit if they fail a WIS save. Arcana Clerics get Arcane Abjuration as well. With that it’s pretty much the same as Turn Undead but against one celestial, elemental, fey, or fiend. Both Turn Undead and Arcane Abjuration get a boost at 5th level Cleric. Going to pick up Protection from Evil and Good to bolster our abjuration abilities. Aberrations, celestials, elementals, fey, fiends, and undead having disadvantage on someone is a very good thing.

Level 6 (Monk 3/Cleric 3) – 2nd level spells! Magic Weapon and Nystul’s Magic Aura are our Domain spells. If we, or someone else, needs a magical weapon, we’re able to touch a non magical one and imbue it with some power for up to an hour. Or, if we need to change the way someone or something reacts to certain spells, we can put them in hiding. Gonna grab the Spiritual Weapon spell. It’s a concentration free, floating spectral weapon (which we’ll style as a battleaxe or a greataxe) that can move up to 20 feet and attack a creature next to it. Spiritual Weapon is gonna be a constant bonus action attack for us as long as we can spare the spell slot to cast it.

Level 7 (Monk 3/Cleric 4) – Another cantrip choice. Sacred Flame or Word of Radiance seem fitting. One is single target, the other is AoE, both deal radiant damage and are part of the save or suck line of cantrips. We’re getting better at dealing with low level nuisances so we’ll learn Lesser Restoration now to clear up some troublesome debuffs. Hey, first leveling ASI/Feat! That Constitution is still odd and grabbing Resilient CON would be a great pick (especially for the upcoming level), but we’re gonna take +2 WIS as it’s been suffering. That’ll bump it up to an 18. AC nudges up to 17, so that’s a little something extra. Since we raised WIS we can prepare another spell. Going to pick Ceremony, use it to make a bunch of holy water for now. Will switch it out next level.

Level 8 (Monk 3/Cleric 5) – 3rd level spells! Dispel Magic and Magic Circle as the Domain spells. Dispel Magic allows us to end any spell of 3rd level or lower. If the spell is of 4th level or higher, we’ll need to make an ability check using our spellcasting ability. The DC equals 10 plus the spell’s level. If we succeed, the spell ends. Simple! Magic Circle is a bit less simple. Over the course of a minute, you mark a 10 foot radius, 20 foot high cylinder of glowing runes. Choose any combination of celestials, elementals, fey, fiends, or undead. Now they are unable to enter that area, unless they try magical means and they will need to make a CHA saving throw first. They also have disadvantage on creatures inside the circle, and those inside cannot be charmed, frightened, or possessed by the aforementioned beings. Alternatively, we can reverse the circle’s polarities when casting, preventing the creature from exiting it. Drop Ceremony and pick up Mass Healing Word and Spirit Guardians. A bonus action area of effect heal, and a slowing, damaging aura. Also, Turn Undead can Destroy Undead now. Which means any undead creature with a Challenge Rating (CR) of ½ or lower that fails its save is destroyed instantly. Along with that, our Arcane Abjuration levels up as well. Now when a creature fails its saving throw against it, the creature is banished for 1 minute if it isn’t on its plane of origin, no concentration needed. Only CR ½ for now too. However, they both grow as we level.

Level 9 (Monk 3/Cleric 6) – Channel Divinity can now be used twice every short or long rest. Spell Breaker is a new feature at this level. It allows us to end one spell of our choosing on any ally that we heal with a 1st level slot or higher, with the caveat that the spell ended must be of the level of the healing spell. More on that in the Techniques section. Let’s pick up Hold Person here. It’ll allow us to paralyze a humanoid creature if they fail a Wisdom saving throw. Melee that are right up on that paralyzed foe are going to be excited for the incoming crits they’ll deliver, if they hit that is.

Level 10 (Monk 3/Cleric 7) – 4th level spells are here! As Arcana Clerics we get Arcane Eye and Leomund’s Secret Chest. With Arcane Eye we create an invisible eye (again, styling it as a shikigami) that transmits to us visual information.The eye is able to move up to 30 feet in any direction as an action, and can pass through an opening as small as 1 inch in diameter. This will allow us to scout ahead without being so close to possible danger. Although, we should probably look to our other party members first before committing to using our only 4th level slot. Leomund’s Secret Chest is a more complicated Bag of Holding, and honestly, not something we’d be using in this build. There are a few other 4th level spells we’ll be interested in; Aura of Vitality, Banishment, Death Ward, Divination, and Guardian of Faith. So we’ll just take Banishment as a backup to our Arcane Abjuration.

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Okay. We’ve reached the end of this part of the build. Let’s see what we can do!

At 10th level we’ve achieved a lot of things I set forth in accomplishing:

• Expelling extraplanar foes using Arcane Abjuration and Banishment.
• Impeding the enemy’s movement with Spirit Guardians and Hold Person.
• Dispersing effects on the party with healing spells + Spell Breaker and Dispel Magic.

At this point my stats are STR 8 (-1), DEX 16 (+3), CON 13 (+1), INT 12 (+1), WIS 18 (+4), CHA 10 (+0). With a Spell Save DC of 16, it’s pretty good. Best skills are +9 Arcana, and +8 Insight, & Perception. Ten skills have a +3 to +5 modifier. While others are at a +0 to +1. Base AC of 17, 19 if concentrating on Shield of Faith.

Techniques

Frontliner hurt and failed an enemy Hold Person save? Use a 2nd level Healing Word to recover their HP and erase that ailment. Six injured people affected by Hypnotic Pattern? Mass Healing Word to make them all better.

Need to hold the line? Cast Spirit Guardians then use Patient Defense to halve the enemies movement while being elusive. Need to lock someone down? Use Arcane Abjuration, or cast Hold Person then use Step of the Wind while backing away or Banishment then use Patient defense to make yourself harder to hit. Need to cleave through a group of enemies? Swing your battleaxe in a circle casting Sword Burst then sling it forward hitting another foe with Spiritual Weapon. And if Spirit Guardians happens to already be cast, even better!

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Ready for more? Read Part 2 of the Exorcist build now!

Until then, stay safe and have fun!

Peace!