How to Play Rasputin From Powers of X in D&D

If you’re anything like me, as soon as you saw Rasputin go ham on some Sentinels you started wondering how you could translate that into the world’s greatest tabletop RPG. Well, I gave it a shot! So put on some Boney M and let’s make a D&D character.

For a TL;DR summary that just gives you the level-by-level information without my reasoning, see the end of the post!

This build has two goals: simulate all of Rasputin’s powers of X (see what I did there?) while still being a viable character during the 20 levels it takes to get there.

We know from PoX that Ras is a genetic chimaera of Colossus, Kid Omega, Unus the Untouchable, Shadowcat, and X-23—hence, we want this build to have metal skin, telepathy, force-field projection, intangibility, and a healing factor. As a bonus, we’ll grab a bunch of buff and damage spells to turn your greatsword into a big, scary Soulsword of destruction. Can’t get the real thing—sorry. Ask your DM about including it as a magic item!

Using the Standard Point Array, start your stats off like this:

• Strength 14
• Dexterity 15
• Constitution 12
• Intelligence 8
• Wisdom 10
• Charisma 13

Mutants are humans—VARIANT humans—so take the War Caster feat (you’ll need it), Sleight of Hand proficiency, and bump up your Dex and Cha by one each. We’ll use the Criminal background—the mutant underground is on the run from the law, after all.

Kick things off with Fighter 1. Grab a greatsword as one of your martial weapons, and choose Great Weapon Fighting as your Fighting Style. You get Second Wind, which is the first step to our healing factor. Also take proficiency in Insight (she’s a telepath, after all) and Athletics.

Next, we jump to Sorcerer 1. For our Sorcerous Origin, we’ll take Stone from an Unearthed Arcana because it gives us Stone’s Durability, allowing us to bump our base AC while we are unarmored by turning our skin into a “stony substance”—in our case, that’s silver metal. Perfect. We get four cantrips: Message will let you communicate telepathically with Cardinal and Cylobel (oops, just Cardinal actually), Light (cast it on your sword to make it glow all scary-like), Shocking Grasp (a little OOC, but reflavor it as coming from the sword), and Minor Illusion (reflavor it as a telepathic hallucination). For our 1st-level spells, we’ll get Shield because it bumps up our AC like a force field (we’ll need this—we’ve gotta be armorless for our metal skin to work). Also take Thunderwave, so you can slam your sword into the ground and send those robots flying.

Fighter 2 gets Action Surge. Solid ability, but nothing special for our build.

Fighter 3 chooses a Martial Archetype, and we will take Samurai because Fighting Spirit further augments our healing factor. I’m sure Ras has trained under Logan at some point over the years.

Fighter 4’s Ability Score Improvement should go +2 to Str—we want to hit harder with that sword.

Now pop back over to Sorcerer 2 for Font of Magic and one more 1st-level spell. We take False Life for those sweet extra hit points. Laura Kinney, here we come.

Moving up to Sorcerer 3, we have Metamagic and one 1st-level spell (Stone sorcs can get Thunderous Smite for that sweet Soulsword thunder action). We also pick two 2nd-level spells. Get Detect Thoughts and Suggestion for enhanced telepathic abilities.

Sorcerer 4 grants us another Ability Score Improvement, so we’ll get +2 to Int to enhance our Thought Detection. We also get one 2nd-level spell, so take Magic Weapon from the Stone sorc list, allowing us to make our greatsword super-powered.

Sorcerer 5 gets us two 3rd-level spells. Gaseous Form and Blink are our best options for simulating intangibility, so take those.

Lastly, we get to Sorcerer 6, where Stone Aegis lets us force-field our allies and we take one more 3rd-level spell. Go with Elemental Weapon from the Stone sorcerer list for when a regular Magic Weapon just isn’t good enough for our Soulsword.

Now we go back over to Fighter 5 for an Extra Attack, which is always great.

Fighter 6 gets another Ability Score Improvement, so we’ll get +2 to Con to amp up our hit points and concentration saves.

Sorcerer 7 takes one 4th-level spell. We are only here for Stoneskin, pals.

As a Samurai, Fighter 7 gives us Elegant Courtier which is not totally in-character, but Ras is a telepath so naturally she’d be good at persuading. Also, it gives us proficiency in Wis saves so we won’t say no. From here on out, it’s all fighter.

Fighter 8 gives us an Ability Score Improvement. Get +2 to Dex to bump up our unarmored AC.

Fighter 9 gets one use of Indomitable which is great for healing-factor-ness.

Speaking of healing factor, Samurai Fighter 10 grants Tireless Spirit which makes us even more healable.

Fighter 11 gets another Extra Attack so we can keep whacking people.

Fighter 12: is our last Ability Score Improvement. Go with +2 to Con for more health.

Fighter 13 caps us off with one more use of Indomitable.

Congratulations! You now have a build which excels in using combat spell casting to make your enemies hurt. Lots. Use those skills to make the robots wish they were never born. Er... made.

Feedback is absolutely welcomed and encouraged!

TL;DR:

Goals:

• Soulsword
• Metal Skin (Metamorphosis)
• Telepathy
• Forcefields
• Intangibility
• Healing Factor

Race: Variant Human

• Take the War Caster feat, proficiency in Sleight of Hand, and bump up Dex and Cha by 1 each

Background: Criminal

Class: Sorcerer (Stone) 7, Fighter (Samurai) 13

Starting Stats:

• Strength 14
• Dexterity 16
• Constitution 12
• Intelligence 8
• Wisdom 10
• Charisma 14

Spells:

• Message (0th)
• Light (0th)
• Shocking Grasp (0th)
• Minor Illusion (0th)
• Shield (1st)
• Thunderwave (1st)
• False Life (1st)
• Thunderous Smite (1st)
• Detect Thoughts (2nd)
• Suggestion (2nd)
• Magic Weapon (2nd)
• Gaseous Form (3rd)
• Blink (3rd)
• Stoneskin (4th)

Level-by-level:

1. Fighter 1: Fighting Style (Great Weapon Fighting), Second Wind, proficiency in two skills (choose Insight and Athletics)
2. Sorcerer 1: Sorcerous Origin (Stone), Stone’s Durability, four cantrips (Message, Light, Shocking Grasp, Minor Illusion), two 1st-level spells (Shield, Thunderwave)
3. Fighter 2: Action Surge
4. Fighter 3: Martial Archetype (Samurai), Fighting Spirit
5. Fighter 4: Ability Score Improvement (+2 to Str)
6. Sorcerer 2: Font of Magic, one 1st-level spell (False Life)
7. Sorcerer 3: Metamagic, one 1st-level spell (Thunderous Smite), two 2nd-level spells (Detect Thoughts, Suggestion)
8. Sorcerer 4: Ability Score Improvement (+2 to Int), one 2nd-level spell (Magic Weapon)
9. Sorcerer 5: two 3rd-level spells (Gaseous Form, Blink)
10. Sorcerer 6: Stone Aegis, one 3rd-level spell (Elemental Weapon)
11. Fighter 5: Extra Attack (x1)
12. Fighter 6: Ability Score Improvement (+2 to Con)
13. Sorcerer 7: one 4th-level spell (Stoneskin)
14. Fighter 7: Elegant Courtier
15. Fighter 8: Ability Score Improvement (+2 to Dex)
16. Fighter 9: Indomitable (x1)
17. Fighter 10: Tireless Spirit
18. Fighter 11: Extra Attack (x2)
19. Fighter 12: Ability Score Improvement (+2 to Con)
20. Fighter 13: Indomitable (x2)

Final Stats:

• Strength 16
• Dexterity 18
• Constitution 16
• Intelligence 10
• Wisdom 10
• Charisma 14