Play Your Next 5E D&D Game as a Justicar

Over at Nerdarchy the YouTube channel Nerdarchists Dave and Ted explore an idea for a fifth edition Dungeons & Dragons character who draws power from their cultural history. This dwarven Justicar Character Build Guide combines the Path of the Ancestral Guardian barbarian primal path with the 5E D&D paladin class to protect allies and hinder foes alongside the spirits of their forebears. Let’s get into it.

Behind the CBG — Justicar

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 Justicar 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 Justicar’s special reverence of their ancestors. Sometimes puns and pop culture references instigate the creation of a CBG too, while other times we delve into an idea of our own and leave no stone unturned. At every step of the way we considered how to incorporate learning the deep history of their people and learning to focus and channel the fury of their mighty ancestors.

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 Justicar’s unorthodox approach really gels at 8th level. From here until 20th level these sacred warriors’ ancestral fury builds to a crescendo of relentless might.

As a testament to the fun, effectiveness and flexibility of this as a representative of all our CBGs over in Mini Terrain Domain’s Dawnbringers campaign Nerdarchist Ted’s been playing a Justicar character for several years now. He initially proposed the idea for the Justicar out of curiosity about both the mechanical and narrative potential for a multiclass barbarian and paladin inspired by what was then the new Path of the Ancestral Guardian Primal Path.

From the get go our CBGs felt like custom class options for 5E D&D, something DM’s Guild Manager Lysa Penrose noted too. Over the course of the Dawnbringers campaign Ted’s character took a divergent path informed by events in their game and incorporated some cleric levels as well. His character Thorgarn leans very heavily into the divine nature of his powerful ancestors and grew deeply devout to the faith of his people. But the core concept remains, which wonderfully illustrates both the practical application of our CBGs and their versatility.

Justicar 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.

The Justicar represents some of our earliest deviations when it comes to these NPC creature versions. Prior to the Justicar these stat blocks were essentially recreations of the player versions including the key features from their class and subclass choices. The Justicar stat block does things a little differently and expands on or modifies those features for a more dynamic creature. Our creature design philosophy makes a priority of covering the action economy so making sure they’ve got bonus actions and reactions is important. We also aimed for this challenge rating 11 creature to really make an impressive showing as a single combatant. To this end the ancestral spirits empowering their sacred fury add powerful control effects representing the supernatural aspect of their prowess.

Shared Cause. The Justicar encounter can help introduce a few faction into your campaign, serving as a touchstone to a character’s cultural heritage. Or the organization might have opposing goals to the party’s own.

“Vengeful Ancestors. Any enemies within 10 feet of the justicar are hindered by spectral forms of its warrior ancestors. Affected creatures have disadvantage on any attack roll that isn’t against the justicar.”

If your next 5E D&D game needs a warrior who protect allies and hinders foes alongside the spirits of their forebears — whether you’re the DM or a player — check out the Justicar Character Build Guide here.

*Featured image — Another aspect of the Justicar mentioned in the video below where the concept originally started is the option for wielding two weapons. In the Dawnbringers campaign Ted’s character Thorgarn fights with two weapons and there was a time he used hammer and sword. This Runeforge Champion from Magic: The Gathering’s fantastic Kaldheim expansion captures this terrifically! [Art by Andrey Kuzinskiy]

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