The Lizard

I'm doing one of Spiderman's OG villains this week the Lizard he 1st appeared in The Amazing Spiderman #6 back in 1963. So he's been around for awhile it was really fun to work on this iconic villain. His race started out as a lizard folk. When I got looking for a background nothing stood out until I found Simic Scientist which gives him skill proficiency bonus in two skills which i picked Arcana and Medicine, he got two languages I picked Goblin and Orc this background is in the Ravnica books. So that's when I changed his race to Simic Hybrid. This gave him a +2 in Con and a +1 in another ability score which I will be putting in Dex. He also receives Darkvision out to 60' but only sees in shades of gray. He will also get Animal Enhancement at 1st level and another at 5th level. For the 1st enhancement I went with nimble climb which now gives him a 30' climbing speed along with his basic 30' walking speed. He knows the languages Common and Elven.

For ability scores I'm continuing with my homebrew scores. 17,15,13,12,10,8. So this is how his stats look after the race bonuses.

Str:17(+3) Dex:14(+2) Con:17(+3) Int:12(+1) Wis:8(-1) Cha:10(0)

So he's going to hit like a Mack truck and dang near shrug off any hit. The two things the Lizard has always been was strong and tough. I knew right away what classes he was going to be but I went back and forth on which one to start with forever. I decided to start with Fighter this lets me pick up the skills Athletics and Intimidation two thing the Lizard excels at. At 1st level fighter I picked up Unarmed fighting (unarmed strikes can deal damage equal to 1D6 + Str Mod on a hit. If not wielding a weapon or a shield the D6 becomes a D8). We also get second wind (on your turn, you can use a bonus action to regain HP equal to 1D10 + your fighter level. This rests after a short or long rest.

Now for our 2nd level we're heading over to Barbarian and we'll be here for a little bit cause at 1st level we get Rage (Which gives us resistance to bludgeoning, piercing and slashing damage, adv on Str checks and Str saving throws and we get a rage bonus that we can add to our damage output and Unarmored Defense (so our AC will equal 10+Dex Mod+Con Mod which right now equals 15. Our 2nd level of Barbarian gives us Danger Sense (which gives us adv on Dex saving throws against effects that we can see). As well as Reckless Attack (adv on melee attack rolls using Str during the turn, but attacks against us have adv until our next turn).

At 3rd level of Barbarian we can choose a primal path. We'll go with Path of the Beast. When we choose this path at 3rd level we'll get Form of the Beast (when you enter a rage you can transform using your bestial power you'll get 3 options that count as simple melee weapons and we can add our Str Mod to attack and damage rolls. These choices are Bite, Claws and Tail. We'll be taking Claws {it deals slashing damage on a hit. Once on each of your turns when you attack w/ claws using the attack action, you can make one additional claw attack as part of the same action}). At 4th level we get our 1st ASI or Feat if your DM is using them. We are going to pick up the slasher Feat (we get a +1 in Str. or Dex. we'll put it in Str making that score an 18 (+4), we can also reduce the speed of a target by 10' w/ a successful attack that deals slashing damage; last when you score a critical hit the target now has disadvantage on all attack rolls).

So now we are a Fighter 1/ Barbarian 4 total level 5 character and now as a Simic Hybrid we can get another Animal Enhancement which will be a grappling appendage w/ DM approval will be a tail (that can do 1D6 + Str. Mod bludgeon damage). So now on our turn in combat we can make two claw attacks for 1D8 +3PB +2RB +4SM for an average of 13 points of slashing damage and 17 points on max damage; and a tail attack as a bonus action for 1D6 +2RB +4SM for an average of 10 points of bludgeoning damage. Not bad for a round of combat.

We are going to jump back to Fighter and in my opinion staying here for the rest of the build. At 2nd level we get Action Surge will allow us another action ie attack, drink a potion etc. Our 3rd level of fighter was super hard for me to pick a Martial Archetype. I finally settled on Battle Master. We get Combat Superiority ( we get 3 maneuvers to start with I recommend { Reposte[when a creature misses you w/ a melee attack you can use your reaction and a SD to make a melee attack against them adding the SD to the damage roll], Trip attack[on a hit you can expand a SD to attempt to knock the target down. Add the SD to the damage roll and the target must make a Str save or be knocked prone] and Menacing Attack[when you hit a creature you can expend a SD and add that to the attacks damage roll, and the target must make a Wis saving throw. On a failed save, it is frightened of you until the end of your next turn]}. Also we start with Student of War giving us proficiency bonus in one artistic tool I would pick up alchemist supplies.

Level 4 Fighter we get an ASI or Feat we're going to pick up Durable (this gives us a +1to Con making it 18(+4), and When you roll a Hit Die to regain hit points, the minimum number of hit points you regain from the roll equals twice your Constitution modifier. Level 5 Fighter we get Extra Attack so now a round for us is 2 claw attacks, bonus action tail attack using trip attack action surge 2 claw attacks possibly with adv then extra attack 2 claw attacks possibly with adv. That 7 times you can possibly crit CAN WE SAY OUCH.

Level 6 Fighter we get another ASI or Feat I decided to take the ability increase and put the +2 into Con maxing that to 20(+5) {AC = 17}. Level 7 Fighter we get Know Your Enemy ( spending 1 min observing or interacting w/ another creature outside of combat you can learn certain information. The DM can tell you if the creature is your equal, superior or inferior to two of the following. (Str score, Dex score, Con score, AC, Current HP, Total class levels if any and Fighter class levels if any). We also get one more Superiority Die which is now 5. Level 8 Fighter we get another ASI or Feat this time drop the +2 into Str and max it out to 20(+5) so now were hitting like a Mack truck. Level 9 Fighter we get Indomitable (you can reroll a saving throw that you fail. If you do, you must us the new roll, and this resets after a long rest. Now our total character level is 13 so our PB is now +5.

Level 10 Fighter gives us Improved Combat Superiority ( our D8 superiority die now become D10's). Level 11 we get another Extra Attack. So a combat turn can look like 2 claw attacks, bonus action tail attack, action surge 2 claw attacks extra attack 2 claws and extra attack 2 claw attacks. Possible 9 hits with maybe a crit or 2 in there. Level 12 Fighter gets another ASI or Feat pick up the tough feat (your HP max increases by an amount equal to twice your level when you gain this feat; when you gain a level your HP max increases by an additional 2 HP). Level 13 Fighter gives us another use of Indomitable per long rest. Our total character level is now 17 so our PB is +6 (making or maneuver DC =19). Level 14 Fighter gets another ASI or Feat drop the +2 into Dex 16(+3) our AC is now 18. At level 15 Fighter we get Relentless (when you roll initiative and have no SD remaining, you regain 1 SD. Our cap stone for this build is level 16 Fighter that means we get another ASI or Feat this time we'll grab Resilient we'll put the +1 into Dex making that 17(+3) and now we have proficiency in Dex save throws as well.

Ok now that we're done some of the pro's with this build your strong with up to 9 strikes increasing your chance for crit's you'll be racking up the damage; and you'll be jacked with around 250 total hit points you be able to shrug off most hits with ease. On of the con's to this none of your attacks or magical so that could be an issue. However, you could skip level 15&16 of fighter and take two more levels of Barbarian cause at level 6 Path of the Beast makes your weapons magical. So that's your call, either way this will be on enemy you don't want to fight on your own.

Battle master Fighter 16/ Path of the Beast Barbarian 4 or

Battle master Fighter 14/ Path of the Beast Barbarian 6

Hope you all enjoyed reading this build just as make as I enjoyed making it I'll be working on another one and have that one out soon.