Play Your Next 5E D&D Game as The Wolverine

Over at Nerdarchy the YouTube channel Nerdarchists Dave and Ted pop their claws to carve out a fifth edition Dungeons & Dragons character who’s the best there is at what they do — and what they do ain’t pretty! The Wolverine gets their berserker rage on courtesy of a Primal Path from Tasha’s Cauldron of Everything. We’ve D&D-ized quite a lot of fictional characters and items including a certain beloved mutant. Newer character options since then created an opportunity to revisit this concept. Let’s get into it.

Behind the CBG — The Wolverine

Every CBG 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 Wolverine 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 Wolverine’s deadly claws and savage instincts. Sometimes puns and pop culture references instigate the creation of a CBG too (case in point). At every step of the way we considered options for increasing the threat posed by their claws and ramping up their durability and survival instincts.

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 Wolverine honestly comes out really solid by 3rd level, making this one the very quickest journey from concept to fulfillment. A large part of the flavor and feel emerge from the race and background choice with the core components provided by the class and subclass. From there on out until 20th level The Wolverine hones their dangerous abilities to a devastatingly deadly edge.

Path of the Beast from Tasha’s Cauldron of Everything provides a path to so many character concepts. With a bit of imagination and some reflavoring as needed this Primal Path for barbarians opens the door to tons of characters for whom natural weapons like claws and teeth feature prominently. Those plus Rage, Unarmored Defense, Reckless Attack and Danger Sense — to say nothing of barbarians’ superior hit points — mean a three level dip into the class might be just the clincher you need for all sorts of character concepts.

Working on this CBG also illustrates an important notion to keep in mind any time you set out to represent a character from outside the game in 5E D&D terms. Many of the most beloved fictional characters boast a long history, lots of stories and significant power. This is especially true for comic book characters like Wolverine, who’s got nearly 50 years of publication history. When you set out to create a character inspired by your favorite fictional heroes keep in mind you’re generally starting your campaign when those characters were themselves just starting out. It’s going to take a while to reach those lofty heights. I really enjoy how The Wolverine CBG in particular mimics the source material’s journey in significant ways from the background we chose all the way to reaching 20th level.

Experiment X 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.

After all these years creating content through Nerdarchy I must admit creating creatures is my favorite thing to do the same way Nerdarchist Ted loves making magic items. Hopefully what I put together is fun and useful for DMs out there. The majority of the 60+ creatures in our CBG collection were created by me and it’s fun looking back to see the progression. Early on these NPCs were basically straight up ports of the PC versions but we’ve since gotten much broader with the interpretations.

To capture the spirit of the source inspiration I knew incorporating adamantine was a must. There was no question about it — this NPC required adamantine in some capacity! In 5E D&D terms adamantine appears as a magic item. Adamantine armor turns critical hits into normal hits and adamantine weapons score critical hits against objects every time. Adding this one element to the stat block, which you’ll see below, helped everything else fall into place.

One of the difficulties in creating relatively mundane humanoid creatures is that as the challenge rating goes up it becomes harder and harder for these creatures to keep up with average damage output. They require special weapons, traits to boost damage and of course Multiattack. But at some point Multiattack gets ridiculous without reasonable explanations. Even the greatest fighters in the multiverse can only make so many attacks. Experiment X makes a great example of how a narrative can help make a basically mundane martial creature more interesting. Watch out if you’re righting one of these and their hit points drop low too — we did not neglect the inspirational mutant’s most famous trait and Experiment X’s Berserker Rage ain’t pretty.

Against Their Will. Experiment X is the result of arcane research to create unstoppable warriors. Half-orc subjects’ endurance is pushed to the limit through a magical process fusing adamantine to their bones. The tremendous physical and mental stress also serves as an indoctrination method, which leaves subjects under the sway of their creators. Breaking this control is nearly impossible and Experiment X warriors are often dispatched to track down and eliminate their masters’ adversaries. A single Experiment X makes a terrific recurring adversary and one who adventurers may develop sympathy for when they learn their origin.

“Adamantine Bones. The Experiment X’s bones are magically fused with adamantine and any critical hit against it becomes a normal hit. In addition while not wearing armor, its AC equals 10 + DEX modifier + CON modifier + any shield bonus.”

If your next 5E D&D game needs a warrior with unbelievable durability and unstoppable aggression — whether you’re the DM or a player — check out The Wolverine Character Build Guide here.

*Featured image — The inspiration for this 5E D&D character build is one of comics most enduring characters, Wolverine. Introduced in 1974 this Marvel mutant superhero grew to immense popularity and persists to this day. This particular image comes from the cover of Wolverine: Weapon X No. 1 from 2009. [Art by Ron Garney]

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