With the grand return of Charlie Cox’s Dungeons and Dragons.
While more grounded than the typical superheroes, the Netflix MCU characters are a diverse bunch, even with the move to Disney+. From the flippy martial arts of Iron Fist to the stoic bulldozing ways of Luke Cage, all can be recreated in the fifth edition of Dungeons and Dragons.
Luke Cage - Totem Bear Barbarian 20
Luke Cage is a towering powerhouse, who often goes through battles not through skill, but with pure strength. To make Luke Cage as strong and tough as possible, the Goliath race is a great start. They gain the ability to shrug off injury as a reaction thanks to Stone’s Endurance, further enhancing the “impenetrable skin” aspect. Powerful Build makes them count as one size larger when carrying, pushing, dragging, or lifting.
As for the class, straight Totem Barbarian with a focus on the Bear Totems for the 3rd and 6th levels. The 3rd level is the backbone of the build as it provides resistance to all damage, much like Luke Cage. 6th level provides additional super strength. As for the 14th level, Elk will allow Luke to charge through opponents and knock them down. As for feats, Tough is a must to reflect Luke’s, well, toughness.
Claire Temple - Thief Rogue 3/Way of Mercy Monk 17
Claire Temple is the Netflix universe’s resident medic. While non-magical means of healing are few and far between in Dungeons and Dragons, flavoring magic as mundane healing isn’t too difficult to do. Starting with V.Human Thief Rogue for Fast Hands is crucial because combined with the Healer Feat and Healer’s Kits allows Claire to zip around the battlefield and save people from death.
Since Claire has an uncanny ability for medicine in the show, it would make perfect sense for her to become a Way of Mercy Monk. She’s no slouch in unarmed combat (though obviously, her fantasy counterpart is far more powerful) and the flavor of Mercy Monk’s healing is based around an understanding of the human body, as opposed to magical healing like a cleric would. Hands of Healing pretty much captures the essence of Claire.
Iron Fist - Open Hand Monk 20
Danny Rand, the Immortal Iron Fist, Protector of K'un-Lun, and Sworn Enemy of the Hand is pretty much a perfect fit for Open Hand Monk. To reflect the fact that he’s merged with the Dragon, making him a Dragonborn would be apt. Yes, there is an Ascendant Dragon subclass, but the mechanics don’t quite fit Danny’s powerful fighting style the way that Open Hand does.
For one, Open Hand Technique is practically the “glowing fist” move. A super powerful punch that knocks down any foes, no matter how tough they may be. At its most powerful, Quivering Palm (or fist) is so powerful that it deals 10d10 necrotic damage as enemies practically explode from the inside from ki overload. No feats are necessary for Danny, as ASIs should be a top priority.
Mary Walker - Assassin Rogue 17/Battle Master Fighter 3
Despite Danny’s martial arts proficiency, he was practically toyed with by the mercenary Mary Walker. Assassin Rogue perfectly captures her ability to blend in and deal with a deadly strike when her targets least expect it. Assassinate provides an advantage against creatures that have yet to act in combat, showcasing Mary Walker’s propensity for ambushes.
Infiltration Expertise, and Impostor makes Mary Walker a master spy. Death Strike essentially guarantees a kill on any creature that Mary Walker surprises. The Fighter levels are there to even out her skillset with more up-close abilities such as Action Surge. Battle Master plus the Martial Adept feat reflect Mary’s tactical mind. A good fighting style for her would be Defense, to reflect her caution.
Jessica Jones - Inquisitive Rogue 12/Champion Fighter 8
Jessica Jones is a private detective first and a vigilante second. Still, when she does have to get rough and tumble, her powers ensure she gets through it without much risk. Inquisitive Rogue’s features are all geared towards improving detective skills and reading people. This also applies to fighting those who go up against her.
Still, even if she is great at fighting, her style is anything but refined. Champion Fighter reflects Jessica’s uncontrolled strength, which isn’t quite on par with Luke Cage’s but still plenty stronger than most. Remarkable Athlete is more than enough to reflect Jessica’s superhuman physical prowess. The Tough feat adds even more survivability to Jessica by improving her health pool.
Kilgrave - Eloquence Bard 20
Kilgrave is one of the most terrifying villains in the MCU, and it’s all because of his incredibly invasive powers. Through pheromones, Kilgrave is able to overpower the mind of any person and force them to do his bidding. College of Eloquence perfectly encapsulates this unnatural ability through all of its class features.
Silver Tongue ensures all rolls lower than 10 are still reflected as a 10. Unsettling Words make enemies doubt themselves, making them even more susceptible to Kilgrave’s Enchantment spells such as Command and Dominate Person. As an aside, Enchantment should be the brunt of Kilgrave’s spell list. Universal Speech makes it so that every creature can understand Kilgrave. Infectious Inspiration reflects Kilgrave’s powers growing even stronger with time.
The Punisher - Hunter Ranger 16/Battle Master Fighter 4
Frank Castle is a relentlessly brutal vigilante, with a disturbing talent for taking down swathes of criminals. As a Hunter Ranger, his favored enemy would obviously include humans. For features. there’s quite a bit of thought that goes into each feature. Colossus Slayer deals extra damage against a target creature once per turn if they are already damaged.
Multiattack Defense and Evasion improve Frank’s survivability. Volley allows him to make a ranged attack against any number of creatures within 10 feet of him, perfectly capturing his penchant for clearing out hordes of scum. The Battlemaster levels reflect his military tactical background. Sharpshooter feat is a must. If the campaign has guns everywhere, then Gunner is an obvious shoo-in too.
Kingpin - Ancestral Guardian Barbarian 14/Mastermind Rogue 4/Fighter 2
This will be a strange build and requires a lot of flavoring, but it’s totally in line with the MCU Kingpin’s MO. Mastermind Rogue reflects Kingpin’s influential status and management skills. Master of Tactics could easily be seen as him “delegating” to his goons, i.e., the rest of the party. Expertise in Intimidation is a must here. The two levels of Fighter are to get potent features like Action Surge and Second Wind. There’s also the acquisition of a fighting style.
He has no real martial arts skills, but he is a big and beefy man. The Unarmed Fighting style would reflect this perfectly, and the improved critical is just his incredible strength. The Ancestral Guardians, instead of spirits, could easily be reflavored as the Kingpin’s henchmen, throwing themselves in the way of the enemy. Rage is self-explanatory as far as Kingpin is concerned. No feats are needed here, just focus on maxing out Strength, Constitution, then Charisma.
Bullseye - Assassin Rogue 4/Kensei Monk 6/Battle Master 10
Bullseye is Kingpin’s greatest assassin, and it certainly seems like going full Assassin Rogue makes sense on paper. However, all that’s really needed is the first 3 levels. Assassin provides an advantage against creatures that haven’t acted in combat yet, perfect for ambushes. Cunning Action reflects the slipperiness of Bullseye. Lastly, Expertise in Perception is an obvious must.
Kensei Monk until the 6th level is needed to give improvised weapons the magical property. Thrown Weapon Fighting is a must with Bullseye, alongside the Tavern Brawler and Sharpshooter feats. With all this combined, Bullseye can now take out dragons with random mundane objects. Broken bottles, random rocks, chairs, anything, and everything is now lethal. It should be noted that RAW, throwing an improvised weapon technically doesn’t make it “thrown” (because rules are weird), but most DMs will allow this small buff to throw random objects.
Daredevil - Kensei Monk 6/Samurai Fighter 14
While that may not seem like enough monk levels for Daredevil, that’s plenty for his style of unarmed fighting. His batons are just as frequently used anyhow. Six levels of Kensei allow Daredevil to give the magical property to his batons, which is less for flavor and more for effectiveness in combat. The other Monk levels are basically just Stick’s training.
The real flavor comes from the Samurai Fighter levels. Daredevil has a nigh unbreakable fighting spirit, and it’s that grit that gets him through some intense punishment. The advantage of attacks and temporary hitpoints reflects this perfectly. Plus, Elegant Courtier represents his lawyer side incredibly well. As for feats, Alert and Observant pretty much cover his super senses alongside the Blind Fighting style from 2nd level.
