Dark- kin appearance, Natural weapons and the fighter class

I am going to avoid commenting on mechanics, as it appears that you are playing 5e and I’m not personally too familiar with that game system.

As far as the physical appearance of your dark-kin, that is largely up to you. If you describe your character as having scales, or thick quills, or rubbery hide, or thick skin, it doesn’t really matter so long as you use only the mechanics described in the rulebook. There are a large variety of infernals which your character could have potentially inherited that trait from, so feel free to be creative.

Generally speaking, however, the more infernal traits your character has, the more obvious it will be that he/she is infernal. I’m not sure whether it is converted for 5e already, but there is a talent in the ARPG which allows dark-kin to unlock more of their infernal heritage, which has benefits and potential penalties.

Feel free to be creative in how you describe your character, so long as you follow the rules listed in the book.

Hope this helps!

I am going to avoid commenting on mechanics, as it appears that you are playing 5e and I’m not personally too familiar with that game system.

As far as the physical appearance of your dark-kin, that is largely up to you. If you describe your character as having scales, or thick quills, or rubbery hide, or thick skin, it doesn’t really matter so long as you use only the mechanics described in the rulebook. There are a large variety of infernals which your character could have potentially inherited that trait from, so feel free to be creative.

Generally speaking, however, the more infernal traits your character has, the more obvious it will be that he/she is infernal. I’m not sure whether it is converted for 5e already, but there is a talent in the ARPG which allows dark-kin to unlock more of their infernal heritage, which has benefits and potential penalties.

Feel free to be creative in how you describe your character, so long as you follow the rules listed in the book.

Hope this helps!

Yup, 5th edition character.

I know that having more demonic appearance attracts more attention, but do living mods really right in possible encounters just because you are more odd looking? Having thought more about this I think I will change my characters appearance somewhat. I’m not sure why the Horns are limited to piercing damage, but considering that I can only still see the bulls horns working, though I know technically I can say they are however I wish, but the damage is the same.

I’ll echo that.

In the old campaign my Dark kin had no shadow and vibrant green eyes. No claws, no horns, no thick infernal hide.

Well considering those features I think what I have in mind is..
7 foot tall, all sinew and muscle, almost to thin, wearing a worn and clumsily patched but still maintained Milandisian Noblemen outfit. Shoulder pads or something from his legion? Or a cape with their symbol on it? Horns that sprout from the center of his forehead and point up and back, the front of the horns have small spikes. Skin is a light earthy brown and hair ice blue. Eyes like a goat with gold irises.

Or is that to much? lol. based on some of the pictures i’ve seen, it seems light.

This is typically left up to your Chronicler (GM). You need to go talk to some backwater villagers for information? Guess what, they run away screaming at the sight of the tall armed & armoured infernal warrior coming into town…or at minimum, decide not to be helpful.

I have seen it written into modules where the Tir Betoqui dwarves will attack dark-kin, so there is the possibility of unexpected combats. Keep in mind that Infernals are a terrifying scourge on Onara, so dark-kin are going to often be lumped in with that lot, at least until they prove they are different. NPCs who have never met you will often be frightened/standoffish.

I played a mod where my dark-kin wasn’t welcome in a dwarven enclave, so I played my lizard who has a cursed item that makes him detect as evil, lol. Had fun in that mod, back in the 3.5 days. So far every mod I’ve played in the new 5E campaign, has resulted in bloody murder sprees, no matter how hard i try to be nice and polite.

If you are from a legion, the character is most likely from Coryan. It is very unlikely that a Coryani legionnaire would be wearing the clothing of a Milandisian noble…especially considering that Coryan and Milandir have gone to war in the past.

I would normally expect a legionnaire to have a tattoo on his shoulder or chest with the symbol of his legion, and then possibly legionnaire’s armour (lorica of some sort). Otherwise your description sounds fine to me.

He is from Coryani, Valentia specifically. Right now I’m caught between two legion choices. Anyway, as far as the Milandisian noblemen clothing goes. My character took it from a noble men he killed. My character isn’t a active member of his legion anymore, for my own story purposes I’ve said he was dishonorably discharged, at an execution he was facing for having secretly wed some influential mans daughter. His some 20 years of service earned him a stay of execution and a dishonorable discharge. So basically, he feels Coryani is his homeland.. but everyone there hates him for being a dark-kin, and he was thrown out of the only family he had ever known, his legion, and disgraced.

He doesn’t wear armor, as in 5th edition a barbarian gets a class feature called unarmored defense, which when wearing no armor they gain their con mod, dex mod added to their ac. With a shield, i’m running around in clothing with a shield at AC 16. At level 4 my ac will be 18 with the stat bump.

Second question is.

He has 1 level of barbarian, and now 2 levels of fighter also. I’m caught between Protection, Duelist and Pugilist.

I really want Duelist, but i feel my characters Massive Horns count as wielding a weapon, making duelist unusable.

Protection is a obvious fall back if I’ve no other options. I am already using a Shield.

Pugilist because it would just be another attack and after a charge it could drop the enemy.

Id be willing to explore other ideas for my weapon load out, but I feel i’m getting the best of what there is.

Warhammer, Longsword, Javelins, Gladius, Cestus, Horns. Primarily I use the Warhammer and Horns.

I don’t think Duellist would be cancelled by your horns – they specifically made Unarmed not a weapon & it works with shields even though they are improvised weapons, up to DM though. Protection is fine if very boring.

Pugilist does not work with “charging” as the Horn attack & Unarmed attack both use your bonus action.

Hmm can I get an official ruling from somebody on the staff? In relation to the horns counting as a wielded weapon? I’d like to be able to show proof if questioned at the table.

Hmm can I get an official ruling from somebody on the staff? In relation to the horns counting as a wielded weapon? I’d like to be able to show proof if questioned at the table.

I’m not anyone official, but due to how Dueling is worded, Horns do not count as a wielded weapon for purposes of that fighting style –

(pg. 72 5e PHB) “Dueling – When you are wielding a melee weapon in one hand and no other weapons, you gain a +2 bonus to damage rolls with that weapon.”

That being said, a different case for Claws could be presentable (not 100% sure here though).

Hm.. that’s a good point, I want your thinking to be correct here, I posted this on the Fb page for rules.

Edit: Also, the whole reason for this question is because horns are not my primary weapon. The character uses a warhammer mainly, so with the way i read it, I feel the horns would be another weapon. Though someone else suggested, that in a round where I dont make a attack with the Horns, my warhammer would get the duelist bonus to damage.

Also keep in mind the horns are a melee attack.. not a melee weapon attack.

So while you may be able to use them in melee, you can’t use them as an “off-handed weapon”

Here is my official ruling…

you may gain the benefits of Dueling as long as you do not attack with your horns during your attack action. Lastly, even if you only use your horns during an attack action you may not apply bonus damage from the dueling combat style to your attacks because your horns not a melee weapon attack.

That works just fine for me. See I only really charge with the Horns, in melee I just use the warhammer normally.

Actually, you don’t need a bonus action to make an attack with your horns.

• Massive Horns: You have a set of infernal horns growing from your skull. You may use these horns to make unarmed strikes and if you do, they deal 1d8 (maybe 1d6) + Str damage. In addition, when you take the Dash action you may make an unarmed strike with your horns or a shove at the end of your movement.

It doesn’t say anything about requiring a bonus action. So a rogue could make a dash as a bonus action, attack with horns, and then perform a normal attack action.

Lucas