Character Codex: Imani (Part 1)

Greetings and welcome back to the Character Codex! I’m back with my third character build. This one will be from an online hero shooter game. Although not the one everyone talks about or plays, but probably should give a shot if that type of game is their fancy.

Today’s build is a character from Paladins: Imani – The Last Warder.

© Paladins

A wise mage said to have the ability to command dragons, Imani uses the nature magics learned from past Warders (one would presume), and specializes in fire and ice.

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

Intentions

• Incineration – Igniting foes with a blazing heat
• Refrigeration – Restricting the enemy’s movement
• Decimation – Destroying groups of enemies swiftly

Overview

• Stat Allotment (Standard Array):

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

• Lineage:

  • Human (Variant): +1 CON, +1 INT
  • Skill: Acrobatics
  • Feat: Elemental Adapt (Fire or Cold)

• Proficiencies:

  • Human (Variant): Acrobatics, Draconic
  • Background: Nature, Insight, Smith’s Tools, Three-Dragon Ante
  • Wizard: Arcana, Investigation

• Items to Seek Out:

  • Stirring Dragon-Touched Focus^A: Advantage on initiative, extra d6 on elemental spells (Chromatic Dragon)
  • Arcane Grimoire^A: Bonus to spell attack rolls/saving throw DCs (+2, +3)
  • Mantle of Spell Resistance^A: Advantage on saving throws against spells
  • Cloak/Ring of Protection^A: +1 AC, Saving Throws
  • Tome of Clear Thought: Spend 48hrs reading this book in 6 days, gain +2 INT

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

Breakdown

Despite controlling a dragon at times, I don’t feel Imani is a Drakewarden Ranger in the slightest. Especially since she’s using magic left, right, and center. For my money, she’s an Evocation Wizard. Imani is going to be a blaster so this subclass will help her damage output, as well as mitigate some friendly fire should that happen.

This build will utilize three feats; two Elemental Adepts (Fire and Cold), and War Caster. At least one of the Elemental Adapt picks can happen upon rolling up this build. By the third ASI/Feat choice, INT should be at 20 and the other Elemental Adept feat will be acquired. Which means we’ll be picking up War Caster pretty late, but better late than never.

Advancement

Level 1 (Wizard 1) – The Arcane Recovery feature is available at 1st level. It will let Imani recover spell slots after a short rest. The amount of spell slots recovered must be equal to or less than the Wizard level rounded up. But the recovered slot cannot be of 6th level or higher. So at 6th level, Imani can recover up to three levels worth of slots: three 1st levels, one 1st level and one 2nd level, or one 3rd level. Since Wizards start off with three cantrips. Gonna pick Fire Bolt (Pyre Ball) for high potential damage, Ray of Frost (Frost Bolt) for decent damage and a speed reduction, and choose between Create Bonfire or Frostbite. Concentrate on a magical bonfire that roasts your foes on a failed save for 1d8 fire damage. Or shoot off a numbing frost that deals 1d6 cold damage and gives disadvantage on their first weapon attack roll on a failed save. Pick whichever corresponds to the Elemental Adept feat you took. Burning Hands and Ice Knife give some area of effect damage. Since Imani is primarily a magic user, I’ll try to keep the spell selection to the ones needed to help the build work.

Level 2 (Wizard 2) – Blasty mage focusing on fire and ice? School of Evocation is the perfect fit. There are two features at this level. The first is Evocation Savant which halves the gold and time it takes to copy evocation spells into your spellbook. The second is Sculpt Spells. This allows a number of creatures equal to 1 + the spell’s level to automatically succeed on a saving throw against an evocation spell Imani casts. And if they’d normally take half damage on a save, they take no damage. Casting big AoE’s on top of people with Evasion will be no problem!

Level 3 (Wizard 3) – 2nd level spell slots unlocked! Aganazzar’s Scorcher (Inferno Cannon) is perfect for what is needed; a line of fire searing through Imani’s enemies. The icy counterpart is a little trickier. Rime’s Binding Ice (Frost Bomb) has the root chance but in a cone, while Snilloc’s Snowball Swarm is a radial explosion. The chance for some crowd control is too good to pass up even though the affected area is different. Web can also function as a non-damaging root.

Level 4 (Wizard 4) – ASI/Feat time! Grab the other Elemental Adept you didn’t start off with to complete Imani’s Elemental Shift, as it were. To finish preparation for the 6th level feature grab the other cantrip between Create Bonfire or Frostbite.

Since it was not mentioned earlier, Elemental Adept allows your spells to ignore resistance to a specific elemental type. Also, any damage roll of a 1 from the chosen damage type becomes a 2.

Level 5 (Wizard 5) – The only 3rd level spell needed is Fly (Frostfire Glide). It’s quicker than her ability is in the game, but it’s the closest thing to it. If Levitate allowed you to move forward 20 feet I’d definitely use that since Imani’s speed while airborne isn’t fast. Gaseous Form is a bit too slow, and besides, she doesn’t become a misty cloud. But now that I say that, I can see it. The misty cloud is just her fire and ice powers working simultaneously. If you do take take this, you can’t cast spell while in this form.

Level 6 (Wizard 6) – The Potent Cantrip feature is active. It makes any save or suck cantrip we’d cast with this build do half damage on a save. Although none of the other additional effects affect them.

Level 7 (Wizard 6/Fighter 1) – Now since Imani’s Elemental Shifting Dragon Gauntlets are fully working in tandem, it’s multiclass time! Since Imani seems to be wearing armor, gonna jump over to Fighter to get some medium armor. Breastplate armor will be good so she doesn’t have her armor announcing her presence. Now, Imani doesn’t use weapons so a lot of the Fighting Styles offered won’t benefit us. Of the ones that are viable, Defense seems like the best bet. It’ll give us a +1 to the AC of the physical armor we wear. Also, as a bonus action, we can use Second Wind to regain hit points equal to 1d10 + our fighter level. It won’t ever be a ton of health recovered, but it’s something. Since it recharges on a short rest, use it before using any hit dice, if injured.

Level 8 (Wizard 6/Fighter 2) – Second level Fighter means Action Surge! This is a fantastic ability that allows us to take another action on our turn. Only an action, not a bonus action, mind you. This is also a short rest ability. So it is now possible to cast two leveled spells.

Please note, that while you can cast two leveled spells now thanks to Action Surge, you cannot cast and hold concentration on two spells.

Level 9 (Wizard 7/Fighter 2) – We’ve reached 4th level spells, but I don’t think there’s anything here from her kit, although thematically Fire Shield works well. It’s a concentration free buff that surrounds you in a warm shield making you resistant to cold damage and deals 2d8 fire damage to melee attackers within 5 feet of you. Or a chill shield that literally does the opposite. Again, not a part of her kit and we shouldn’t really be in melee, but fun!

Level 10 (Wizard 8/Fighter 2) – ASI/Feat time! Let’s bump that Intelligence to 18. We can prepare two more spells now. Elemental Bane could be a handy set up to do more damage with fire or cold spells once a turn, Fireball is just devastating, Ice Storm can be useful, but none of these are needed for the build.

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

Level 10 stats are STR 8 (-1), DEX 14 (+2), CON 14 (+2), INT 18 (+4), WIS 12 (+1), CHA 10 (+0). With a pretty good Spell Save DC of 16. Best skills are +8 Arcana, Investigation, and Nature, +6 Acrobatics, +5 Insight, and +4 History and Religion. The rest have a +2 down to a -1 modifier. Base AC of 17.

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

• Burninating...
• Freezing...
• and Damaging with all the leveled AoE fire and cold damage spells chosen.

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Techniques

Most of the techniques require positioning, to maximize our damage output. Especially if only going off of her kit in Paladins alone. Enemies in a line in front of you? Burn them with Aganazzar’s Scorcher. Need to halt the advancing enemy’s movement? Rime’s Binding Ice. Stragglers and single targets can get cantrip’d!

The other big thing is Action Surge. Depending on the additional spell you choose, this can go from pretty good to devastating. With the combo of Fly and damaging AoE spells it’ll give you a great vantage point to rain down destruction. Alternatively, you could just cast your fire and cold spells twice in one round per short rests, either blasting with one of each or doubling down on the same element.

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

Until then, stay safe and have fun!

Peace!