How to build Hawkeye in Dungeons and Dragons

Let's bust out some trick arrows in D&D 5e (Dungeons and Dragons 5th Edition)
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This DnD Build has been requested a couple times now, since I already built Iron Man, it was only a matter of time before I did the other half of Civil War.
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#hawkeye
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CHAPTERS
00:00 Intro, Race, Starting Stats
02:37 Choosing a Class
04:05 Choosing a Subclass
04:55 Trick Arrows
07:00 More Trick Arrows and a Feat
07:45 Even More Trick Arrows
08:20 Multiclass?
09:20 Another Feat
10:00 Yet Another Feat
11:00 Up Your Arsenal
11:35 Another Trick Up Your Sleeve
11:55 Feats Again!
12:30 One More Trick Arrow, and Upgrades All Around
13:50 One Last Feat
15:05 My Favorite Obscure Comic Character

[@dndbuilds]

Big oversight on my part... So I completely forgot that arcane archers rely on Intelligence for their saving throws. With that in mind, I would either trade the wisdom for intelligence in the ability score, or sacrifice a couple of those feats for actual ability score improvements

[@benmills4358]

Thank You I was about to call you out on that oversight.

[@pokebreederrichard1200]

Blackwidow next

[@killcat1971]

Or you could muliclass to Kensei at 9 or 13, that allows some interesting tricks.

[@ericpeterson8732]

@@killcat1971 nah, switch to intelligence, it's the smart thing to do, then take artificer 2, for the repeating infusion, the ability to cast spells THRU your bow. So firebolt becomes a scalable d10 fire arrow and ray of frost becomes a d8 ice arrow. Thorn whip is a grappling hook arrow. The range is still the same unless you took the spell sniper feat, which doubles spells with an attack roll ("arrow spells", as I call them). But even at regular range, we're talking about 60' to 90' feet.120 ft for firebolt.

[@JamesSmith-cd6rf]

"we have assembled a army, a fleet of warships, and even have gods at our helm, and we are beaten back by a lab experiment, a spoiled prince, a person who does not exist, a star-spangled shield carrier, a playboy, and a nobody with a bow. How?!!!" I feel like this shouldve been said somewhere.

[@8balls122]

I'd put in kensai levels, Hawkeye is more than just an archer, he's pretty great at unarmed combat and with a katana, plus kensai has some pretty good archery skills. You can even make the bow itself as a melee weapon a kensei weapon since it's technically a weapon, though an improvised one which means you can do all those kung-fu moves that he does when he' smacking people with his bow

[@brandonhughes179]

I'd go Battle Master for Hawkeye. The maneuvers can be explained as high-tech arrows, you get more of them, and you still have those abilities available at close range for when you need to operate as Ronin

[@loganfalvo7349]

Banishing arrow = over charged Pym particle arrow Banished to the quantum realm

[@dndbuilds]

Definitely a good way to make that work

[@chrimedina]

❤️Gambit from X Men. He's a very underrated character who can be both in a biker club bar or an elegant and luxury VIP party, teaching a few ticks to George Clooney and his gang

[@dndbuilds]

Solid reference to the fact that the actor who played gambit (for one not so awesome movie) got to be in Oceans Eleven

[@AzLolFun]

Gambit is very popular idk if he counts as "underrated" lol

[@xyshuryn]

My favorite obscure character, isn't so much obscure, as old. Ted Grant/Wildcat

[@dndbuilds]

He's such a classic style hero and brawler, I think he's so awesome

[@bkray26]

I did a Curse of Strahd version based on Kate Bishop. Got the race + feat to start with. Went normal human (for all those +1 stats) and sharpshooter. Then went Battlemaster. Precision Attack to offset Sharpshooter penalty. Trip Attack to actual knock a corrupted angel out of his mid flight. Maxed out Dex, then got Lucky. Kate is also a passable fencer, so having precision attack and trip attack in close quarters also felt realistic to the character (as it would with Ronin). Having precision attack, means you only have to use it when you need it. Lucky also let you reroll if you completely messed up the roll. Having Lucky and Indomitable also provided great insurance for Saving Throws.

[@risperdude]

I did a hawkeye type build using artificer levels, the repeating shot invocation, flavoring spells as trick arrows. So Grease is a oil slick arrow, Faerie Fire is an arrow that explodes with phosphorescent dust etc. Took 4 levels and the rest as a fighter.

[@jaredsousa9356]

I would argue that Battle Master Archer would have been a better fit, but it is cool to see arcane archer get some love

[@Softbirb]

Lobo, gotta love the main man

[@frogmad13]

For me it is Moon Knight. I like his Mr. Knight costume.

[@dndbuilds]

An epic cape really helps

[@billmcdonald5063]

​@@dndbuildsSpidey hates capes lol.

[@AzLolFun]

For me it's Wiccan aka the son of Scarlet Witch and potential future Sorcerer Supreme

[@Rastejador]

my favorite dark hero is DC's Shining Knight, I like the look of a knight in golden armor.

[@dndbuilds]

He's got such an old school classic kind of look, and it totally reminds me of dragons lair the old school arcade game

[@thewolverine7619]

Favorite obscure character I gotta pick corsair I mean he's a space pirate which is just awesome (he also cyclops's father), one downside of this build is that arcane archers arcane shot DC is calculated by intelligence which we dumped in this which makes them easy to avoid

[@dndbuilds]

Yeah it was a massive oversight on my part... I wound up making a note about it in my pinned comment, but unfortunately this was a rushed video, so I wound up missing that key detail...

[@byronmeir1240]

To be honest,Spiderman.And I get why he's the relatable comicbook character.

[@dndbuilds]

Spiderman was so solidly relatable, even when I was super little without even being old enough to relate to his girl trouble he still felt like a real person that I could relate to.

[@dmitrybr2273]

Good feat choice - gift of the chromatic dragon - variate elemental damage + protection (S.H.I.E.L.D. protection technology)

[@majinsole8554]

Clyde Wyndcham aka The Marquee of Death from Marvel. Possibly the most powerful entity to ever exist and most people don’t know about him. Comics Explained made a great video about him when he first learned about him as well, and I recommend it! ~_~

[@ericpeterson8732]

Vanisher. He was one of the original X-Men's villains and the first mutant teleporter. No gate or bamf, just pop! And he's gone. "Vanished". He showed up later in X-Factor when he was Fagan to some mutant thieves including Boom-boom, who also was a very cool character. (Boom boom used her powers like some wizards use explosive runes in D&D as a dangerous prank)

[@dndbuilds]

That just sounds like butt loads of fun to be had with those characters

[@InkFoxDT]

Aye these are kinda entertaining and interesting to watch love the vids

[@dndbuilds]

Thanks, that's what I'm shooting for 😁

[@Gelatinousdude8]

I built Hawkeye last week and I ended up making the same thing. It is really disappointing that fighter is a better archer than the Ranger. Even the monk is a better archer. Keep it up. Good stuff

[@dndbuilds]

Yeah, I like some of the ranger abilities and they are a bit more well-rounded when it comes to other aspects, but when you have to cast a massive spell just to keep up with the normal amount of attacks a fighter gets, it can be a little disheartening. But if you're not going a pure combat campaign, it can definitely lead to a more well-rounded character. I'm glad you like the video though 😁

[@billmcdonald5063]

Sounds awesome

[@jays2376]

Love the build. One suggestion....instead of crossbow expert,take the Fighting Initiate Feat. Allows you to take an additional fighting style, which you can grab Close Quarter Shooter. Still gets rid of disadvantage for shooting within 5 feet, ranged attacks ignore 1/2 and 3/4 cover, and you get +1 to attack rolls with ranged attacks.

[@dndbuilds]

I would go with that, if it weren't in unearthed arcana, once it becomes official if be throwing that into a ton of my builds.

[@sirrogueke]

Fun build! I actually did something similar when I started the current campaign I'm playing, but opted for the Psi Warrior subclass from Tasha's. Rather than being "psychic", though, I just flavor all of the effects with archery tricks. Knocking a potion off a shelf and into my buddy's hand with a blunted arrow shot (mage hand), deflecting part of an attack on another ally with a harrying arrow, reducing their effectiveness (reducing damage), etc. It's been fun, and I like the challenge of finding thematic flavor for all the effects. Only 5th level now, and since I'm not an arcane archer, trying to find a way to get into making my own trick arrows. Maybe Artificer initiate? Or a full multi-class for 1-2 levels? Will have to see. Great video, looking forward to other builds!

[@davidcrofts5246]

I'm currently playing a Hawkeye I've called Clint, except I've gone for an Arakokra so I can be an actual hawk!

[@couchcommander5280]

My favorite is iron fist, holy crap they did him dirty on Netflix

[@pokebreederrichard1200]

Forget me not, he's an x-men character his mutant power is that no one can ever remember his existence. Charles has to put a mental reminder into him reminding him of his existence.

[@dndbuilds]

his story is so sad, but I love it

[@jonathanhaynes9914]

Deathstroke the Terminator although he might not qualify as underrated, in which case McLeish, the White Ghost.

[@G-Blockster]

"Obscure" favorite: Shang-Chi, Master of Kung-Fu (Doug Moench run)

[@patrickslayter9946]

I like Mimic. He has all the powers of the OG X-men and can mimic the abilities of those around him.

[@dndbuilds]

That character can get so Overpowered so fast, but it is cool. Reminds me a lot of Peter Capelli from the original show Heroes. He got too overpowered too quickly they had to figure out how to tone him down for the next seasons.

[@patrickslayter9946]

@@dndbuilds yea he can be super op. Especially when you consider he; at one point, could keep the powers he mimicked instead of loosing them.

[@patrickslayter9946]

@@dndbuilds and he can keep skills as well which combined with everything else easily makes him past omega level.

[@dndbuilds]

@@patrickslayter9946 I mean when they literally turned him into a flying nuke with self-healing powers in the first season, definitely Omega level lol

[@chrisloving2775]

Favorite comic book character is easily Gambit

[@dndbuilds]

that dude, just has an aura of cool, I've always liked him

[@silk4710]

Favorite obscure comic character world either be Blink from The X men Apocalypse comic or Nico Minoru from the Runaways comic.

[@dndbuilds]

I feel like Nico is so damn cool, but Blink didn't get enough air time to show me what she had

[@silk4710]

@@dndbuilds Fair enough.

[@gabrielmarques5257]

Now you gotta do Black Widow and The Hulk 😂

[@dndbuilds]

They'll all happen eventually I'm sure. Just can't do it back to back to back otherwise YT thinks I'm a hybrid DnD Marvel channel alone lol

[@Jaeger_Bishop]

This is why I go by Proficiency modifier which goes up to 5 uses at max level.

[@DParkerNunya]

6. Not 5.

[@jugushes]

Can you do Shadow The Hedgehog or the Necromancer from Castle Crashers next? Amazing videos! I love them so much!

[@dndbuilds]

Thanks, glad you like them 😁 Shadow would be an interesting challenge but I could definitely do him soon. I never got to play Castle Crashers, so if have to look into that one though

[@gw1357]

Favorite obscure characters...maybe Gambit (rogue?), Daredevil (rogue/monk?), or Iron Fist (monk?). Longshot from the X-Men is really D-list, but he'd be a fun character build as a Rogue (Swashbuckler). As for the build... I think Constitution is too high and Strength is too low. MCU Hawkeye does a lot of athletics (tumbling, climbing, etc.) and a lot of unarmed/simple weapon fighting. I think that's as much a part of the character as the trick arrows. I think in general you went too much with Fighter. I think it should have at least 4 levels of level of Rogue to account for his espionage/assassin experience and to get the Assassin roguish archetype, since Hawkeye's backstory centered on him being an assassin for SHIELD -- that's how he meets Black Widow and Stark even refers to him as a "master assassin" in the first Avengers.

[@dndbuilds]

Yeah, I think there were a lot of ways I could go, some Rogue could have helped, and some Ranger could have. But I just kept wanting all the extra attacks the fighters get... May have gotten a bit greedy

[@ericpeterson8732]

Um, I think you went the right way with Fighter over Ranger (although you didn't mention Hunter's Mark or Hail of Thorns or Entangling Strike, which are similar to bursting arrow and grasping arrow.) You could multiclass to artificer for two levels. Why only two? Two gets you infusions and repeating shot turns your bow into a magic bow that never needs ammo (two major problems with archers) and enhanced defense gives your leather or studded leather a +1 to AC, saving you an ASI/feat. For the other two infusions, I would grab enhanced weapon for those times you need to go melee and replicate magic item for night vision goggles aka goggles of night. Then there are your spells, which using the power of artifice we will reflavor as arrows. You get 2+ Int mod 1st level spells that you can swap out on a long rest. Spells like faerie fire and grease and feather fall could be specialty arrows and cure light wounds and expeditious retreat could be a salve or potion, just to make it more tech-y. Firebolt becomes a fire arrow and acid splash is two acid arrows which unerringly hit their targets unless they move out of the way (Dex save). Or you could go frostbite for a freezing arrow (Con saves) since they don't need a M component, you don't need your focus to cast. True, you don't need your bow either, but it's more fun this way. I'm disappointed that artificers don't get fog cloud for a smoke screen arrow, but such is life. Everything else can stay the same, except focusing on Int with Dex instead of Fighting Initiate or Alertness or maybe even Piercer. You could go magic initiate for some wizard spells if you want more trick arrows (like fog cloud) and ray of frost, mind sliver, and whatever you didn't take from artificer. You still get the damage upgrade at level 18, now level 20 for you and yeah, you don't get four attacks per round, but let's be honest who plays @ level 20, anyway? Having more diversity of attacks at lower levels in more important IMO.

[@dndbuilds]

Yeah those would all be solid replacements, the thing that drives me nuts, even as somebody who has a special place in his heart for the ranger because it was literally the first character I ever made was a ranger. Just the fact that I'd have to cast one of the rangers highest level spells in order to remotely compete with how many attacks a basic fighter gets, can be hard to overcome.

[@ericpeterson8732]

@@dndbuilds True. And as I added, going AA allows you to dip into artificer for some more trick arrows and a couple of great infusions. I think I'd go fighter 3, artificer 2, and then go fighter the rest of the way.

[@gleeposworld1908]

I also like Dr Fate from DC

[@dndbuilds]

Dr. Fate is such a cool character, especially the madness causing effect of the helmet.

[@noditianniz-emir7075]

I don't know if he can still be considered an obscure character, but I have to choose John Constantine. AKA. The Batman who instead of spending his prep time with technology and gadgets, he spends it on magic and rituals.

[@tylerruddy5444]

Beak from the X-Men

[@dndbuilds]

That's one I actually didn't know much about, but I like how straight forward he is.

[@billmcdonald5063]

Whats his name the executioner from Ragnarok. He us still a cool character and underrated.

[@Rbrcka]

Any WH40K builds you can do? Overwatch? Comic book characters (maybe not all obscure, but would love to see your take on some of these in the future) - Deadpool - Taskmaster - Dr Doom - Vision - Jubilee - Emma Frost - Shuri - Star Lord - Warmachine - Red Guardian (seeing as how you did Capt America already) - Shatterstar - Domino

[@dndbuilds]

I don't know too much about WH40k, but I can definitely do a few overwatch characters for sure

[@orryjensen236]

My favorite "obscure" comic book character has to be Pyro. I know he's not that obscure but, he's heavily underappreciated in my opinion. I love his powers and the fact that, last time I read an X-Men comic, he was still dead kinda makes me sad.

[@dndbuilds]

I actually have really fond memories of pyro in the X-Men arcade game He was an early boss that you had to face and I just thought he was really cool

[@orryjensen236]

@@dndbuilds my first exposure was the movies but, I did start tearing through my dad's comic collection and really began to like his personality. What little of it you got to see.

[@gleeposworld1908]

NightCrawler from the x-men

[@dndbuilds]

I actually really love nightcrawler, I always thought he was one of the coolest X-Men

[@teicreates]

The Creeper or The Question from DC.

[@Cosmic_Yak]

Well done, sounds fun. Imho it is a shame 5e took away magic quivers (except for one) and most arrow types. Quiver of Plenty would allow infinite copies of 20 different arrows, though most only for some reason in the stories used one type of arrow. Bout the only arrow that couldn't be copied was arrows of spell storing...it replaces the arrow but not the spell in it.

[@TheHeadNinjainComics]

Would Bishop from X-Men count as obscure?

[@dndbuilds]

to X-Men fans, no. To people that only see the X-Men movies, absolutely!!! He was always such a badass character

[@techomonk8098]

Static shock

[@dndbuilds]

Of course! It's even better when I can stick to a particular elemental type like lightning!

[@gabrielmarques5257]

The only "problem" with the build is that you dumped int and the dc for the trick arrows saves use int

[@dndbuilds]

I may have totally overlooked that...

[@gabrielmarques5257]

@@dndbuilds i would simply replace wis with int lol

[@dndbuilds]

@@gabrielmarques5257 yeah I think that probably would have been a better call. Although as far as a stat spread I think wisdom makes more sense for the character... So that does make it a bit difficult

[@Kurooganeko]

Is there a Black widow video?

[@Mario.1997]

I think you should've went with Ranger 9 because while it is redundant I would say I would argue that the ranger also gets better versions of arcane shots.

[@dndbuilds]

Yeah I almost would like to redo this build at some point in the future, but if I do that I'll probably just build Green arrow or something

[@silk4710]

🥑

[@dndbuilds]

So dependable silk That avocado never lets me down

[@jaceswallow3893]

i thought action surge only gives an extra attack

[@dndbuilds]

It gives you one additional action, so if you take the attack action you can make all your extra attacks all over again, because that's part of 1 action

[@WellManNerd]

When you give stats, are you using point buy??

[@dndbuilds]

Yeah, I usually try to stick with Point Buy for most of my builds.

[@WellManNerd]

@@dndbuilds kk, makes sense with the spread then. I might suggest one day doing a compilation video where you fix or correct any mistakes you may have made as a result of being a human, and then add a subset of stats with “probable ability scores in world” where you take these awesome creations and give them what they would likely have Like in Hawkeye’s case: Str 13 Dex 19 Con 15 Int 16 Wis 16 Cha 8

[@fitztrick]

Can you do Wolverine next?😁

[@dndbuilds]

I already have the next two recorded but I have been looking into doing Wolverine very soon

[@aspect3262]

How about a wolverine build of a video

[@dndbuilds]

I've been getting a few requests for him... I think he's definitely going to be coming up soon

[@umagon6226]

Is this one even possible? The aamerican dragon, Jake long

[@dasentro]

Could you do Sleepwalker please?

[@dndbuilds]

This is actually the first time I've heard of Sleepwalker, he looks cool, so I would be up for it, but definitely need to do a bit of research first

[@dasentro]

@@dndbuilds That would be awesome, considering he isn't well known. Unless you read his comics back in like the 80's and 90's.

[@danball7230]

Witchblade build?

[@dndbuilds]

That one might be a little difficult, I can see that getting hit by the terms of service hammer, considering the amount of clothing on the character when I try and add visuals...

[@danball7230]

@@dndbuilds Understand. Just curious if you would go something like fighter and hexblade mix? Or would you maybe use a different class or subclass

[@scoobydoo316us]

do thanos lol