‘Listen to me: To be effective in combat, a warrior must not feel for his enemy. The road ahead is long, and unforgiving… no place for a boy. You must be a warrior.’

Welcome to the hype, Buildies! This polar vortex we’re experiencing in the States is clearly a maelstrom, sent by Odin to torment us mortals down here on Midgard. Fortunately, the best godslayer in the realm is here to wreak a just vengeance for our chilly suffering. Kratos, god of war and father of boy- I mean, Atreus, emerges onto the battlefields of D&D 5e. Spoilers for the God of War series in general will be in effect, though I will stay away from spoiling the major God of War 4 plot points. Let’s see what the Ghost of Sparta can do when we bring him to the battlefield!

Hailing from Sparta in a mythological version of ancient Greece, Kratos spent his youth and the first half of adulthood evolving into the ultimate tool of conquest and bloodshed. A warrior born with the blood of the gods flowing in his veins, brutality and violence were all that he knew. Kratos even swore fealty to Ares, then god of war in exchange for supernatural power, and control of the infamous Blades of Chaos.

These deadly chained blades took the lives of many, on and off the battlefield, and it seemed pleasing for Kratos that he spend his days in a crimson mist that never seemed to fade. Until, on a mission to slay the innocent inhabitants of a village, Kratos discovered that his own wife and daughter had been among those he had slain in his berserk fury.

Ares had deceived Kratos, transporting his family here so that they could be sacrificed by the Blades of Chaos, with the intention of turning the Spartan into the perfect warrior. He succeeded. What followed is a too-long-to-recount epic of the rise and fall of Kratos, the new god of war. I highly recommend playing the original God of War trilogy (if you’re not squeamish about violence), but this takes us up to God of War 4.

An older, wiser Kratos had survived against battles that tested even his godly powers. He had ventured incognito to another realm, one rimed with frost, finding redemption in beginning a new family. Our build will be focusing on this version of Kratos, an experienced and incredibly comprehensive warrior. Below, let’s start building him into the engine of warfare that his enemies fear so much.

RACE

That beard is the only reason we’re all alive; it helps contain his power.

For Kratos, I decided to go with the Goliath as our racial choice. It’s a bit of an oddball choice in terms of theme, as Human or Aasimar would probably be closer to accuracy when it comes to Kratos’ lineage. Very true, but as with builds like Weiss or Darth Vader, sometimes we’ll stretch a choice for the sake of aesthetics.

In this instance, not only does Kratos look so much like Grog from Critical Role that I had to go with this race, but neither Human nor Aasimar really do anything for Kratos in terms of mechanical advantage. For the god of war to really feel closer to his in-game self, we’re going to need all of the advantages we can get. Take a look at what this choice does for our broody antihero:

Ability Score Increase: What benefits our main man the most is the +2 to STR and +1 to CON that going Goliath will bag us. We’re going to be putting a lot, and I mean A LOT of pain downrange, and most of it will be STR driven. The CON lets us hulk out and take the pain like we need to!

Natural Athlete: Proficiency in Athletics for free is a nice start, especially for someone who climbs up colossal titans as often as Kratos does.

Stone’s Endurance: Now this is what I’m talking about! Every short/long rest, you get to use your reaction to make that big hit you took cost you 1d12+CON less of your HP. Making you even tankier. Watch your enemy’s face fall in disbelief as your hardened flesh denies his greatsword any purchase. Or just, you know, enjoy the mechanical benefit. >.>

Powerful Build: Bags of Holding are for scrawny wizards. Just pick up the adamantine doors of the final boss chamber and haul them back to the city to sell. Remember to R.E.S.P.E.C.T. the Dungeon.

Mountain Born: Especially thematic for this build, Kratos has been living in the lands of the Norsemen for years at this point. He runs around Midgard shirtless, pretty sure the cold never bothered him anyway. Oof.

ABILITY SCORES

You made papa bear angry.

Level 20 is the perfect place for this Kratos: He’s not brokenly powerful (in terms of the things he fights in his setting, anyway) but his power and experience work in tandem to keep him alive. He might be past his prime in terms of age, but you’d never know it by the way he swings that Leviathan axe. As always, we try to stick to a 27 point-buy build for the sake of Adventure League legality, so here’s what we can expect to see:

STR: 14(+2) This is our offensive engine, so keep it well-fueled! Kratos is capable of feats of strength far beyond the confines of D&D’s system, so crank this to 20 as quickly as possible to keep the flavor of his raw power.

DEX: 14 Never one to let himself be weighed down by heavy armor, Kratos prefers to dodge, roll, and parry his enemies’ strikes. He’s no Hermes, but he can definitely slip punches when his foes are the size of buildings.

CON: 15(+1) Tough as nails, able to shrug off being impaled on multiple occasions, and impervious to pain… Kratos is an unstoppable force of nature. Boost this as high as you can, through gear or ASI’s, and watch him shrug off the worst that mortals can do.

INT: 8 Kratos is the opposite of book-smart. Everything he has learned has been bought in blood. Leave this to the squishy wizards.

WIS: 12 In the original trilogy, I would have had this at a 9 or 10. Kratos has evolved a bit over the years, and the necessity of having to pass on his warrior skills to his son has forced him to grow more insightful. By the end of his fourth installment, I’d even have this at a 14. Not bad!

CHA: 8 Kratos is no leader, nor has he ever had any need to sweet talk anyone. Ever.

BACKGROUND

“This Internet is degenerate, and must be destroyed.”- Kratos, probably

This is a bit out of left field as well, but I’m gonna suggest that we use the Pirate template of the Sailor background. As a sea raider and someone who spent his formative years pillaging and plundering, this speaks to me a bit more than your bog-standard Soldier.

Skill Proficiency: Perception is a great skill for anyone, and you don’t live as long as Kratos has without keeping your eyes peeled. Since we’ve already been handed Athletics as a racial proficiency, we have our pick of the litter for a free skill. Let’s go with Intimidation; if we have a lenient DM who will let us run it off of STR, then we have some thematic coherence.

Tool Proficiency: Navigator’s Tools is a bit superfluous, but Water Vehicles combines well with it. If you have a naval campaign, or a giant lake to traverse Like Kratos routinely does, this is good! If not, it’s kinda situational.

Bad Reputation: If you even whisper the name, ‘Ghost of Sparta’, people run. Even gods in other lands have heard of his legend, and beware of his might.

CLASS/FEATURES

You have my undivided attention. That’s not good news.

Kratos is a hurricane of fury and steel, sparing no effort in the extermination of threats to him or his son. We’ll be mixing a blend of Barbarian and Fighter to capture the relentless feeling that Kratos evokes when he engages in combat. This build is going to be a departure from the orthodox, so bear with me as we take a look at what that means.

For Barbarian, a god with his inborn divine fury unleashed when he rages speaks to me of the Zealot archetype. All of that celestial might sleeps under Kratos’ skin, until he needs to call it up to punish an upstart monster. This archetype is also an excellent mechanical choice, focusing on damage output above damage reduction. Kratos has never been one to let the enemy come to him, he typically charges in and ends problems decisively.

As a side note, if you’re going to be bringing Kratos to an Adventure League game, you won’t be able to play Goliath and Zealot at the same time, so choose either Half Orc Zealot, or stay Goliath and go Berserker instead. The Goliath Zealot works extremely well for every other circumstance, but I’m editing this paragraph in because of some excellent feedback from a canny Redditor.

As for the Fighter, this is where things get a little out of the regular rules for this build. Typically, we strive to keep things Adventure League legal, so that any table you want to take this character to, you can bring him to bear. If you want to stick with that, go with the Champion archetype and enjoy the bountiful crits! But for our purposes here, we’ll be using the Unearthed Arcana’s Brute archetype.

The Brute is incredibly handy in reflecting the raw power and durability that Kratos brings to bear. We’ll be piling on all the dice we can whenever we swing, so that nothing can stand before our godly might! I’d start with Barbarian, then go a few levels in Fighter for the fighting Style, then build in your levels as you want for a final mix of Barbarian 9/Fighter 11.

Weapons/Armor Proficiency- The Barbarian isn’t half bad for this category: Light/medium armor is handy, although we’ll benefit more from wearing no armor. Similarly, shields and martial weapons are always useful. Kratos occasionally uses a shield to parry in God of War 4, so if you’re about to face an enemy that can blow past your current AC, consider strapping a shield on.

Saving Throw Proficiency- Strength is, as always, extremely situational. Most days you won’t need it, but the days you will need it, you’ll be glad to have it. Constitution, on the other hand, is useful for shrugging off poisons, and other nasty conditions like paralysis that can gank you at higher levels. Probably not as useful at lower levels, but you’ll grow into it.

Skill Proficiency- We get 2x skills from our class. I suggest going with Survival and Nature, if only because we have most of the other class skills already, and if you’re going to be traversing Midgard by land and sea then it helps to be able to navigate.

Rage- Spartan Rage! Get swole, then cave some skulls in. Stay on the offensive constantly to avoid this running out on you too early.

Unarmored Defense- No shirt? No problem. The higher your CON and DEX, the better it is for you to forsake traditional armor.

Reckless Attack- Hey, free Advantage! Sure they get Advantage against you as well, but most of the things you’ll be fighting will abuse bounded accuracy (thanks 5e) to hit you anyway. So, let them have at it and swing for the fences!

Danger Sense- This will be helpful since you don’t get proficiency in DEX saving throws. Kratos’ years of combat have honed his senses to help him keep his head down.

Divine Fury- An extra d6 of damage every turn? Don’t mind if Ido! Whether we’re dual wielding shortswords (or longswords if you cheat the aesthetic & feat stack a bit) or a greataxe, more dice means more problems for the enemy.

Warrior of the Gods- Kratos has spent a shocking amount of time being killed and coming back from the underworld. Pretty thematic.

Extra Attack- If you’re dual wielding, this is 3x attacks at 5th level!

Fast Movement- Kratos needs to rely on speed above sheer brawn when fighting monsters the size of a building.

Fanatical Focus- Fail a saving throw? Look the DM in the eye and say, “Nuh-uuuuuh!” all obnoxious-like. Okay, don’t actually do that. But seriously, this is an awesome ability. Pretty much a 1/rage legendary resistance.

Feral Instinct- Having Advantage on Initiative rolls makes it easier to be the aggressor. Keep that momentum going, don’t let groups of enemies (especially ones container casters) get into good positions. Strike first, and disrupt their formations!

Brutal Critical- The capstone of our Barbarian levels, when Kratos gets savage, he gets SAVAGE. More dice to roll? Yes please!

Fighting Style- Again, I suggest taking this early on. I recommend starting with Dual Wielding, especially if you want to go with the twin shortsword “Blades of Chaos” fighting style. You can start with Great Weapon Fighting if you want to go straight to the Leviathan Axe style, but we’ll get into that later if you trust me.

Second Wind- In his fourth installment, we can literally see Kratos’ wounds heal instantly when he takes a second to flex. Niiiice.

Action Surge- Half of the reason you’re a Fighter is to find the biggest guy in the room, then attack him more times than you have any right to attack anyone in a single turn. Godspeed!

Brute Force- Moooooooore dice? Don’t mind if I do- okay, you guys get the point. If you’re gonna play this build, please be courteous and have all of your damage dice rolled when you make your attack roll. Save the DM and your allies a headache.

Brutish Durability- You thought you had great saves before? Add a d6 to your saving throws and steamroll your way through gimmicky encounters.

Indomitable- …The more I create this build, the less I want to see my players wield this monster against me when I make up encounters.

Additional Fighting Style- Pick up whichever fighting style you missed the first go-around!

Extra Attack x2- The other extra attack from Fighter does nothing for us, so this is the frosting on an already sweet build. I cannot overstate how scary this build is in close combat.

FEATS

Whoever made these Ron Swanson edits is a gentleman and a scholar.

If your STR, DEX, and CON are all in comfortable positions, consider the following feats to make life easier on our juggernaut:

Dual Wielder- You can get this pretty early, and it buffs your defense as well as letting you flavor some longswords as those phat chunks of iron Kratos enjoys slinging at all and sundry.

Fell-Handed- This one is also kinda cheating. It’s an Unearthed Arcana feat, one that lends itself to axe wielding. Knock ’em down and gain Advantage as you stand over their helpless forms! Er, is there a better way to phrase that so I don’t sound as evil?

Great Weapon Master- Pretty standard for people using two handed weapons. If you’re going with the axe first, take this early.

Grappler- Kratos often has to get up close and personal with his enemies, and being able to tangle with larger enemies than yourself is very handy. Plus, you’re actually able to grapple enemies 2x sizes larger with your racial perks!

Savage Attacker- Please refer to the last clip we embedded, vis’ a vis’ Macho Man Randy Savage.



Let’s hope the cold stays outside where it belongs, instead of being delivered via Leviathan Axe to your heart by an angry Kratos! Click HERE for the D&D Beyond character sheet, and let me know what you think. Tune in next time where we’ll be building…

The Mistress of All Evil, Maleficent! Seeya next time!