“How odd. We now have a dog and Alistair is still the dumbest one in the party.”

Hey friends and fellow Buildies! (That’s your name as of 5 seconds ago.) Welcome to the domain of the apostate mage, Morrigan of the Wilds. Hailing from the untamed forests of Ferelden, Morrigan brings her shapeshifting and elemental magic to bear against the looming tide of Darkspawn in the Dragon Age series.

While the magic systems in DA & D&D are fundamentally different, we’ll be doing our best to mimic her abilities and preserve the flavor of the character as we bring her to life at our game table. (Bonus, listen to this while reading for the full effect.)

Let’s up our nonexistant sleeves and start casting!

Morrigan is the latest scion of the daughters of Flemeth, fabled Witch of the Wilds and nigh-immortal mage. Growing up apart from civilization, Morrigan became powerful and callous, her mother her only companion and teacher.

Eventually, due to the intrusion of a pair of Grey Wardens, Morrigan was forced out of her isolated lifestyle and into the thick of a war for humanity’s survival.

In contrast to last week’s build, the setting of Dragon Age doesn’t really operate on the same level of high sorcery that D&D does. Morrigan, though a highly accomplished spellcaster in her own canon, is of middling levels when translating her directly to a setting like Faerun. Bearing this in mind, let’s explore how best to get the flavor of her character while making her competitive with her peers!

RACE

Although Morrigan’s blood is absolutely soaked in the magic of her heritage, she is no more elf, dwarf, or qunari than any other human in Ferelden. We’ll be using the Variant human for this build (because duh).

Extra Language- Given that Morrigan grew up in the wilds away from the trappings of urban life, she probably knows an elder tongue such as Elven or Sylvan. If you’re playing her at your table, make sure to lord it over other characters who can’t understand said language whenever you translate something.

Ability Score Increases- We’ll be putting +1 to Wisdom, and +1 to Charisma. Morrigan is cunning and charming in equal measure, traits which play to her strengths in terms of class choice.

Skill Proficiency- Morrigan will be taking Perception as her free skill. As someone who is keenly aware of the dangers around her (and always ready with a dry remark as to how to deal with them), it’s imperative that she is not caught off guard too frequently. It’s bad for her image, you see.

Feat- This is a fun one, playing with her in-canon spell choices and abilities. Morrigan will be taking Magic Initiate- Warlock for her free feat. Thematically, it makes sense for her; although Morrigan doesn’t make a pact with any dark patrons, she is the primary pupil of her mother. (If Flemeth doesn’t count as a Warlock patron in-canon, I don’t know who would, btw.) She’ll be taking the following spells:

– Eldritch Blast : The flair of arcane energy crackling from the tip of a staff is pure Dragon Age.

– Lightning Lure : In her game, Morrigan has a penchant for several specific types of magic, including ice, lightning, mental debuffs and animal transformations. Spells like Lightning Lure give her a bit of flavor in the second regard.

– Hex : Much like her Vulnerability Hex spell in-game, this spell will allow Morrigan to mark a foe and single them out for… “special attention”.

ABILITY SCORES

27 points in the point buy, as our sacred custom dictates! This will give us more than enough in the way of stats to represent Morrigan in flavor, and cover us decently for mechanics.

STR: 8 Morrigan will remind you that she’s not a knight or a soldier if you load her down with armor and weapons, and there’s no bulging muscles hiding under her… minimalist choices in garment. Leave this stat alone.

DEX: 12 Quicker than she is strong, Morrigan is still not exactly the star of the cheerleading squad. She’ll be relying on other sources of AC, though if you have stats to spare in your game you may wish to raise this.

CON: 13 It kinda just feels wrong to give Morrigan the same CON score as Darth Vader, but it makes a bit of sense that her constitution is about the same as an aging, burn-victim amputee. Trust me when I say that you want to keep Morrigan away from the front lines when she’s in her human form.

INT: 12 Smarter than average but not formally educated, Morrigan has a sharp wit and a talent for digging deep in arcane matters. She has just enough INT not to sound dumb when consulting grimoires and codexes for lore.

WIS: 13(+1) We will want to boost this if good rolls or stat boosting items allow, but there’s a reason that Morrigan is widely regarded as a highly talented mage. She’s cunning, far more so than her adversaries would give her credit for. The ability to adapt one’s plans to the changing tides of battle wins wars, and Morrigan knows how to respond to rapidly changing circumstances.

CHA: 15(+1) The crux of Morrigan’s ability is in her presence, the way that all eyes are on her when she enters a room. An accomplished flirt and seductress, she is skilled as a conversationalist and is incredibly well-spoken for a girl raised in the woods. It’s also where the majority of her spellcasting will spring from, so boost away!

BACKGROUND

Morrigan had a unique upbringing, isolated in the woods with her mother. She received an unorthodox (yet thorough) education in the school of life from Flemeth, and developed her talents as a shapechanger and mage. We’ll be making a custom background for Morrigan, one I like to call “Apostate Mage”:

Skill Proficiency- For her background skills, Morrigan will pick up Nature and Survival training. It would be imperative for her to have knowledge of such things at an extremely young age, so it would be irresponsible of me not to represent that!

Tool Proficiency- In addition to having some skill with Cooking Utensils, Morrigan would likely be skilled with Alchemist’s Supplies.

Background Feature- We’ll go with the Wanderer feature from the Outlander background, putting Morrigan in her element when she’s got the home field advantage.

CLASS/FEATURES

So. This was a bit of a head-scratcher. I knew that Druid had to be the base for the class, but past that, anything was fair game. I sat down and started rationalizing how magecraft works in the Dragon Age setting, and came to a conclusion: Since mages are born with their powers in that setting, any general magic users are primarily Sorcerers.

With this in mind, we’ll be building Morrigan as a Moon Circle Druid 2/Wild Magic Sorcerer 18. “That’s a lot of Sorcerer”, I hear you say. And you’d be right, except that in actuality, it’d be something like Druid 2/Sorcerer 4. Transitioning into the realm of paper and pencil will give Morrigan powers untold, but we’ll do our best to stay in the spirit of her character.

Starting Proficiency- In my ever-growing quest to make these posts more concise and effective, I’ll be going over Skills and Equipment in this section from now on for each character.Where Morrigan is concerned, starting with proficiency in medium armor is great! If, that is, you can pester your GM into flavoring her various cloth scraps and furs into medium armor. If your DEX is above a 14, going with light armor is more thematic, but we can work with either.For skills, Morrigan starts with some strong options in Herbalism Kit, Religion, and Arcana. Since her setting is heavily dominated by both The Chantry (Religion) and the Circle of Mages (Arcana), having both skills makes sense for her. Although INT saving throws almost never come up, having WIS as her other proficient save is excellent, and will definitely make Morrigan harder to mentally dominate. She’ll be waving a quarterstaff around as her druidic/arcane focus, and doesn’t need much else in the way of gear.

Druidic- One more fun little secret to tease your teammates about not knowing it.

WILD SHAPE- I put it in all caps because it rocks. Now, this isn’t an optimal build, it’s a Morrigan build. We’ll be going Moon Druid so we can transform into CR 1 creatures at 2nd level. This gives us the Giant Spider and Brown Bear. Being able to turn spell slots into HP for her wildshape will take advantage of a bunch of Sorcerer levels too, so even her relatively weaker combat forms will at the very least be long lasting! Get creative with the things you can shift into, and be your team’s scout/spy as a fly on the wall if you wish to be the all-knowing mistress of the arcane.

Sorcerous Origin- For mages in the Dragon Age setting, Wild Magic is uber thematic. Not knowing when one of your spells will warp reality and kill you and all your friends/summon a demon to rend the Fade? pretty random. Wild Magic Surges are wonderful for that chaotic, dangerous feeling of spellcasting in DA.

Spellcasting- I’ll go into some sample spells that we can give Morrigan in the Spellcasting section of this build.

Tides of Chaos- Morrigan is never outmatched; there’s always a shift in fortune comign just around the corner.

Font of Magic/Metamagic- Fun stuff ahoy! I recommend picking Quickened, Heightened, Empowered, and Twinned metamagic options, in no specific order. This makes Morrigan a versatile, incredibly deadly caster.

Bend Luck- Morrigan’s presence on her allies’ team can turn the tide of battle, and fortunes change fast when a witch of her caliber is let loose.

Controlled Chaos- What separates a master mage from a gibbering host for demons is their self control. Morrigan’s self-control is peerless.

Spell Bombardment- Bring all of the magicks and powers arcane to bear as you decimate the enemy!

FEATS

Let’s see if we can dig up a few extra feats to help Morrigan become all that she can be:

Elemental Adept (Cold or Lightning)- Most of Morrigan’s spells hit hard for cold and electric damage. Make them hit harder and overcome her enemies’ resistances with a feat like this.

War Caster- I will never -not- recommend this for any spellslinger that likes to mix it up in melee. Cast a buff, concentrate on it while wildshaped.

Observnt- The +1 to WIS is useful, and it certainly helps for flavor!

SPELLCASTING

Morrigan’s spells in-game are limited, but that doesn’t have to be the case for a character of her caliber in D&D! While not comprehensive, here’s some spells that I feel really nail the flavor of the Witch of the Wilds:

Frostbite- A nice cantrip for steady elemental damage. Use it if you’ve already spent your bonus action on a higher level spell.

Shocking Grasp- A mage’s best choice for dealing with unwanted foes in their face, make Morrigan’s foes regret getting close enough to taste lightning.

Absorb Elements- Turn your foe’s strength into your own.

Magic Missile- The archetypal barrage of arcane energy, make sure you never miss your enemy!

Phantasmal Force- Morrigan has effects in her game that debilitate an enemy’s senses. This spell is great at messing with minds.

Fear- Mimicking the “Horror” spell, strike terror into the hearts of men.

Synaptic Static- Much like a mental blast of arcane lightning, this will keep enemy spellcasters at bay while they untangle their thoughts.

Chain Lightning- Light ’em up. All of them.

Mass Polymorph- If you have a creative bone in your body, take this spell and run with it!

That’s it for Morrigan! HERE is where you can find her character sheet for a sample build. Tune in next week, where we’ll be building…

Captain Malcolm Reynolds, of the good ship Serenity! Seeya next time!