D&D 5e CHARACTER BUILD: HOBGOBLIN DEVASTATOR

© Wizards of the Coast

Hobgoblin Devastators are an élite force of wizards. At least for their standards. They are trained at the Academy of Devastation, which teaches to magic capable hobgoblins some spells of the school of Evocation. They do not care much about how magic works, resulting somewhat illiterate in the Arcana field of knowledge, but after all the only thing that they care about is results and, by the floating cubes of Acheron, they will get them!

Introduced in the Volo's Guide to Monsters as, well, monsters, they caught my attention and I started thinking about building one as a player character. Obviously a player made Devastator will be more powerful than a generic npc, but aren't the PCs heroes after all?

Hobgoblins have racial bonuses to Constitution and Intelligence, which as I wrote in my fanmade Koalinth playable race are a very good starting stats for a wizard. Moreover, they get proficiency with light armor, very useful. The best way to mimic their monster stat block is building them with the point buy system. You can get something like this:

STR 12 (+1)
DEX 12 (+1)
CON 14 (+2)
INT 16 (+3)
WIS 12 (+1)
CHAR 10 (+0)

They are not the same precise stats, but at least the modifiers are correct. Then, take the wizard class (of course). Choose your three starting cantrips between acid splash, fire bolt, ray of frost and shocking grasp. If I was in you, I would absolutely take acid splash and shocking grasp, then choose between the remaining two. Don't worry, you will pick up the last one later on. As 1st level spells, you already have more of them than the monster version. Fog cloud, magic missile and thunderwave are mandatory for our purpose; I would add shield, burning hands and absorb elements, but any evocation/abjuration spells should fit well.

As proficiencies take Arcana (they still need to know their shit) and Investigation or Religion. A good starting equipment would be quarterstaff (treated as an arcane focus), explorer's pack and a spellbook. Now, the background. As I understand it, Devastators still receive military training and are full-fledged soldiers of hobgoblins' armies. Therefore, while Sage is the default background for wizards, choose the Soldier (the Sage has an academic feel and we already established that Devastator are all but academics). With the 10gp the Soldier gives to you, you can buy a simple leather armor or a padded armor if you don't mind disadvantage on stealth checks and want to keep 5gp. You also get a dagger, if you want it.

The build becomes truer at the 2nd level, when you will choose the Arcane Tradition of Evocation. The main features of this character are in fact those you get right now, Evocation Savant (to save some money and time while copying spells) and Sculpt Spells (which gives you something very similar to the Devastator's Army Arcana special ability). As new spells continue to choose offensive or protection ones. At 3rd level take the cantrip that you previously skipped and choose two 2nd level spells between gust of wind, Melf's acid arrow and scorching ray. At 4th level pick the spell you previously left behind and choose between feats or ASI. At 5th level you finally gain access to those sweet, sweet 3rd level spells. Fireball, fly or lightning bolt, choose two and pick the remaining at 6th level. At 7th level pick ice storm and your mimicking will be quite over. Sadly there is no way to gain a special ability like Arcane Advantage unless your DM considers it an homebrew feat.

Speaking of which, I'll throw at you a list of feats that are interesting for this particular build: Elemental Adept, Moderately Armored, Tough and War Caster. They work pretty well with each other, so you might just want to take them all during your path to 20th level. Just remember to take at least an ASI to Intelligence during your mid-levels (either at 8th or 12th).

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I like this character. It's a very straightforward wizard and it can be quite tanky. At lower levels you can rely on your quarterstaff if needed and if you choose the Moderately Armored feat, buy the right equipment and cast shield, you can get an incredible AC of 23 (for one round, that is) at 4th level! You can also tweak the starter ability scores to get an interesting +2 to Dexterity (dropping Strength or Charisma), bringing that AC to 24. And if you choose a scimitar, a shorsword or a rapier with those proficiencies the hobgboblin race provides, you can have even better melee attacks (you can also cast the shadow blade spell and get a much deadlier weapon to use in melee). But if things go south, cast fireball centered on yourself. That's the cause of and solution to every problem you may encounter.

Be kind to each other and to yourselves.

Daniele