Play Your Next 5E D&D Game as a Devil of the City

Over at Nerdarchy the YouTube channel when Nerdarchists Dave and Ted set out to create a fifth edition Dungeons & Dragons character who fearlessly embodies a true daredevil. We’ve done the rope-a-dope with this character concept in a roundabout way in the past, first as a discussion video several years ago and more recently with the Blind Master. Now we’re going straight to the source for a fresh take with the Devil of the City 5E D&D Character Build Guide. Let’s get into it.

Behind the CBG — Devil of the City

Every Character Build Guide we create considers the journey as much as the final outcome. We aim to present a guide suitable for any level of 5E D&D play whether you’re pursuing an epic campaign from start to finish, starting beyond 1st level or choosing a character for a one shot. Then we take those concepts and develop an NPC or creature version of the character build for DMs to incorporate into their games. All of this gets packaged up and laid out in a PDF you can find over at Dungeon Master’s Guild. We’ve got dozens of pay what you want products at DMG, many of them best sellers so if you want to check those out start with the Devil of the City here.

All about the character story

Each CBG starts with a character concept sticking to a particular schtick, from the Mind Breaker’s psyche crushing smites to the Devil of the City’s masterful navigation of their urban environment and uncanny senses. Sometimes puns and pop culture references instigate the creation of a CBG too. We had so much fun expanding on one of our encounters while developing the Goblin Bomber so we took a similar track for this one. At each step of the way we considered not only this character’s martial skills but their acumen in legal matters as well.

For us it’s important to consider who these characters are as individuals and why they follow these particular paths. One special thing to note with this CBG is while we always aim to make the journey to 20th level as practical as possible — none of these characters “come online” after an awkward slog through many levels — the Devil of the City’s total package reaches a peak at 10th level when their awareness, physicality and intuition work in perfect balance. Every step of the journey from there to 20th level expands the scope of these areas of expertise.

Due to the holidays, our scheduling and our focus on Mage Forge we didn’t work as closely as usual on this one as a team. The video and related materials represent Dave and Ted’s take on the source character inspired primarily by the Netflix Daredevil show. The challenge for this character build like most 5E D&D takes on comicbook superheroes is their four-color counterparts are awesome at everything. They’re highly intelligent, physically extraordinary and in DD’s case boast superhuman senses too. Without incorporating any magical or supernatural features they do a great job translating a version of Matt Murdock and his scarlet clad alter ego into the game.

But I have a much different take on one of my favorite comic characters of all time. For starters since heroes in the comics are essentially all humans I don’t feel beholden to this and my 5E D&D Daredevil is a tiefling! Thaumaturgy is fantastic for making theatrical entrances and while Daredevil may not summon hellfire a hellish rebuke on the unjust feels justified to me. Lastly there’s darkness and come on, do I need to explain this one? For background I’d go with City Watch/Investigator. For one thing this one indicates, “You have served the community where you grew up, standing as its first line of defense against crime,” and for another you’ve got a sense for where both law enforcement and criminal activity take place.

Without going into a level by level breakdown I’d play Daredevil as a multiclass warlock and fighter. I like the idea of a Hexblade whose weapon is a billy club and Eldritch Invocations like Otherworldly Leap and One with Shadows would be a lot of fun. Fighter gives the Blind Fighting fighting style, Action Surge, the Champion Martial Archetype and extra feats for additional customization.

Devil of the City NPC for 5E D&D

Full disclosure — the NPCs and creatures we make in CBGs are some of my favorite bits of 5E D&D content to create. We step back and look at the character build to find the standout features that feel like signature abilities. The juice! From there we consider what sort of person or people would possess or gain these abilities and build a stat block around them. More often than not the section of a CBG For Dungeon Masters presents a generic creature.

A few months ago we expanded upon the CBG line by taking another big step and integrating them with our monthly Patreon rewards. Now we take these NPCs and craft an encounter around them in the style of our super popular Out of the Box series. In fact since starting down this path with the Party Animal CBG and Dark Paths: Little Shop of Dark Delights we’ve already taken it even further. Our Devil’s Hospitality encounter introduces an infernal night club where they wheel and deal in mortal souls. Wherever desire swells in the city this devilsh den manifests and our Devil of the City is called to action. But what if the city’s champion falls prey to the temptations within?

Civil Servant. It’s not known whether the spirit of the city reshapes its chosen champions or they are chosen for their aligned disposition. Corrupt cities produce dark champions, places with more good tend to conscript goodly champions and those without any predispositions call forth whatever hero the city deserves even if they’re not the one the urban environment needs.

“City’s Veil. When an attacker it can see or perceive through tremorsense hits a Devil of the City with an attack it can use its reaction to halve the attack’s damage against it and immediately teleport itself to an unoccupied space it can see or perceive through tremorsense within 30 ft.”

If your next 5E D&D game needs a civil servant who brings the fight to the courtroom and the dungeon equally — whether you’re the DM or a player — check out the Devil of the City Character Build Guide here.

*Featured image — Equally competent in a fight or arguing a case with a variety of skills and features that consistently improve over the course of the journey from 1st to 20th level.

New videos every Monday, Wednesday and Friday at Nerdarchy the YouTube channel here