Play Your Next 5E D&D Game as a Supernatural Soldier

Over at Nerdarchy the YouTube channel Nerdarchists Dave and Ted ask can magic replicate science? Finding an answer means recreating the first Avenger and most well known super soldier of all time for fifth edition Dungeons & Dragons. Iconic comic book superheroes operate on a different scale than 5E D&D adventurers and D&D-izing our favorite fictional characters is a lot of fun. When our Supernatural Soldier Character Build Guide throws their mighty shield all those who chose to oppose this shield must yield. It’s science. (Or magic?). Let’s get into it.

Behind the CBG — Supernatural Soldier

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 Supernatural Soldier 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 Supernatural Soldier’s iconic shield and tactical mastery. Sometimes puns and pop culture references instigate the creation of a CBG too, which this one is most certainly. At every step of the way we considered options for using a shield in different and effective ways.

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 Supernatural Soldier’s most crucial feature shows up at 2nd level. From here until 20th level they build on the basics to become a perfectly honed battlefield leader.

This CBG marks another step forward in our own journey as content creators for this amazing hobby. We’re always on the lookout for recognizing what our audience enjoys and responds to the most and after some deep analysis recently we noticed a trend. People really like these CBGs. People also really, really like Out of the Box Encounters too. In some ways both have become signatures of a sort for Nerdarchy, a development that couldn’t make us more proud. And happy too! We love creating those things too and we thought why not mash them together? All our supporters at Patreon receive monthly modules, which offer a collection of new Fifth Edition magic items, monsters, character options, lore, adventure scenarios and more. Starting last month with November’s Dark Paths: Little Shop of Dark Delights, which expands on the Party Animal, we’re creating dynamic drop-in encounters inspired by the NPCs and creatures from our CBGs.

Regarding the Supernatural Soldier specifically we all felt at the end of the day this character looks really fun to play. There’s a million ways to interpret various class features, spells and other 5E D&D character traits to represent this character and that’s part of the fun of these discussions. For us the most appealing things about this character came down to using a shield effectively in lots of different ways and doing so with almost exclusively mundane methods earns them the respect of their more magical allies and probably a lot of other powerful entities during their adventures too. And not for nothing they’ve got proficiency in painter’s supplies too for all you deep lore fans.

Supernatural Soldier 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.

Nerdarchist Dave did the heavy lifting for this NPC creature. Aside from editing and polishing my contributions were changing one of the trait names and adding a second reaction feature, which is essentially the Shield Master feat because it has to be, right? If I’m honest part of the appeal was squeezing in another reference to the inspirational character. Hence their Until the End of the Line reaction.

Instrument of War. A Supernatural Soldier serves one purpose — war. The eldritch process through which participants reach perfection of mind and body is paired with arcane indoctrination to mold these living weapons into unequaled strategic tacticians on the battlefield.

“Assemble. As a bonus action, the Supernatural Soldier targets one ally it can see within 30 feet. If the target can see or hear the Supernatural Soldier, the target can immediately use its reaction to make one weapon attack or to take the Dodge or Hide action.”

If your next 5E D&D game needs a mighty shield wielding adventurer with a plan — whether you’re the DM or a player — check out the Supernatural Soldier Character Build Guide here.

*Featured image — If you dig the Supernatural Soldier CBG from DM’s Guild then keep an eye on Nerdarchy the Patreon. December’s monthly rewards module expands on the concept with Forgotten Soldier, an Out of the Box style encounter ready to drop right into your games. Adventurers stumble upon and eldritch experiment from long ago. Whatever entity abandoned their work left dangerous defenses in place. But who were they, and how will a relic from the past react to being awakened in the present? Grab yourself a free preview bundle of our Patreon content here and head right over for instant access to dozens of modules, magic item cards, podcasts, behind the scenes sneak peeks and more right here.

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