The Horseman of Death: Building the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse in D&D 5e

[@CivilWarMan]

How I would build the Death Horseman: 1. Go with the Reborn Lineage from Van Richten's Guide. This grants resistance to poison, advantage on death saves, and removes the need to eat, drink, breathe, and sleep. 2. Far Traveler Background. The Feature (All Eyes on You) says you can parley your exotic nature to gain access to places you otherwise wouldn't, and we all know that Death can always go where they please. 3. Start out with Sorcerer, with the final build being 2 levels of Hexblade and 18 levels of Shadow Magic Sorcerer. Reasons I went with 2 levels of Hexblade: Hexblade's Curse and Hex Warrior; access to Wrathful Smite, Arms of Hadar, and Armor of Agathys if enemies get close; Agonizing Blast and Mask of Many Faces (Mask of Many Faces isn't obvious, but Death comes like a thief in the night, and is said to take on many forms). Reasons I went with 18 levels of Shadow Sorcerer: Eyes of the Dark; Strength of the Grave making them even harder to kill on top of the Reborn bonuses; Hound of Ill Omen to symbolize Death's relentlessness; Shadow Walk and Umbral Form for a sort of mobile ghostly theme; It didn't seem right to have a Horsemen of Death that didn't have spells like Circle of Death, Finger of Death, Horrid Wilting, or Power Word: Kill. How this character becomes a Horseman: This one was tricky. This combination doesn't have access to the obvious options like Find Steed or Phantom Steed, and it doesn't make sense for Death to have to rely on buying horses. Hound of Ill Omen is theoretically rideable if you make Death Small when taking the Reborn lineage, but the Hound as described does not look like a controllable mount. The build does have access to the Fly spell, but that isn't going to cut it when the Fourth Seal is opened and Death has to ride forth with the other 3 riders. So, I'm going to bend the definition of "Horseman" here. Death's mount in this build is the Summon Draconic Spirit spell from Fizban's Guide. Specifically the Gem variant so the breath weapon can deal Necrotic Damage. While the Fellbeasts from Lord of the Rings aren't themselves Dragons, this should also give this Death character a vibe similar to the Nazgul.

[@nicodemussmith8958]

Just got done watching all four horsemen builds, and this would be an absolute badass one shot/campaign to play in. 😁

[@jakeryker3751]

One thing you could do is attack, get your sneak attack off, then actions surge. But use it to hold your action. This can give you 2 sneak attacks per round as well.

[@MalloonTarka]

So we have Famine, Violence, Conquest and Death. Considering that traditionally (never mind the origins in the Bible), it was War, Famine, Death and Pestilence, I'm rather sad we won't get Pestilence, since that would be rad. I like these builds, is what I'm saying.

[@CivilWarMan]

If tasked with building a character for Pestilence, I'd go with a Thri-Kreen with 6 levels of Swarmkeeper Ranger and 14 levels of Circle of Spores Druid. It would fulfill the Horseman part by simply conjuring and/or charming beasts whenever it needs a mount. Maybe Awakening a tree to ride around on if they're feeling spicy.

[@lanemanning6764]

Conquest was actually the original name of Pestilence. It has to do with later passages in Revelations, and also depends on which translation of the Bible you are reading.

[@williaminnes6635]

@@lanemanning6764 I wonder if that one was a folk tradition thing? The rider on the white horse bearing the bow would have been meant to symbolize the Parthians for early Christians, but by the Middle Ages, they were drawing and carving the personification of the black death as a skeleton armed with a bow if I am not mistaken.

[@blackmagick77]

All of the horsemen are insane ! Great builds

[@marcusblacknell-andrews1783]

For this Horseman, I’d use the “Dullahan” Stats as well as the “Dullahan Legends” table from Van Richten’s Guide to Ravenloft. Then, I’d use the Domain of Dread called the “Rider’s Bridge” to build an adventure.

[@ambrosedystopian1542]

I did a barbarian Echo Knight mix. Getting advantage all the time with reckless attack and still having some distance is great. Especially with sentinel master. If they try to pass 5 ft past the Knight or 10 ft into my polearm range they are stopped. Imagine if you get boots of flying

[@azraelzephon9130]

I got confused, how do you get two sneak attacks we turn? 3:05 for reference. Didn't you just get 1 per turn? Or there is something that breaks that rule?

[@DnD_Daily]

If you attack with your reaction, you can get an additional sneak attack each turn

[@DnD_Daily]

One per turn can = 2 per round if you can get a sneak attack off on someone else’s turn. An opportunity attack for example.

[@azraelzephon9130]

@@DnD_Daily Holly Molly! I didn't knew you could get sneak attack with your reaction after you already used it on your attacks, thx a lot man!

[@liamhawkins3705]

What stats would you say to prioritise

[@DnD_Daily]

Dex > con > wisdom

[@birubu]

Disclaimer: RAW bonus action attacks like Two Weapon Fighting and PAM don’t work through the echo, though I think most DMs would allow it.

[@DnD_Daily]

Good point! May be better to go with Dagger as your offhand weapon to get the thrown property in that case

[@VulpineScribbles]

bonus pestilence

[@DnD_Daily]

We've received enough requests for it, we might just have to do it at this point

[@xvader9445]

I think the Inquisitive Rogue would work here as well. You could study your opponent or target then send an Echo. And that target is marked for 1min for sneak attack. Your Echo is the ranged attackc

[@elliotbryant3459]

I don't think the advantage from mounted combatant would transfer to your echo's attacks. The echo's attack originates from it's space where it lacks the benefits of a mount. Dm fiat could allow it to work, but RAW your echo is just you, no horse. Additionally, the echo's opportunity attacks wouldn't necessarily have sneak attack, unless there was an ally next to them. Inquisitive or Swashbuckler would be better in that aspect. Mounted combatant is kind of a steep price considering the longevity of a regular mount, a warhorse has 19 hp and 11 ac with only +1 to dex, con and wis saves -super fragile.

[@DnD_Daily]

I believe that mounted combatant does work with this RAW because the attack is your attack, it simply originates from that position, you could think about giving your melee attacks range up to where your echo is essentially. I could see either way though. Glad to see your criticism though!

[@weathermangohanssj4]

Piecer is nice. but Sickles deal slashing damage.

[@zaimzafrullah2853]

He mentions that the sickle look is just a flavor, or "skin"

[@weathermangohanssj4]

@@zaimzafrullah2853 ah so cheating.

[@mythologicalnomad6520]

They are short-swords which are piercing. He is just flavoring them as sickles

[@mangomangoradio]

Flavor is free

[@mythologicalnomad6520]

@@weathermangohanssj4 not quite, he can’t use sickles for the build for two reasons. 1. Sickles are Str base and his build is Dex base 2. You can’t use sneak attack with Sickle since they are not finesse weapons. He isn’t cheating cause mechanically they are 100% just short-swords. He just says they are sickles cause that’s aesthetically what he wants. As stated, Flavor is Free