“As a girl, I wanted to be just like those heroes in the books… Someone who fought for what was right, and protected people who couldn’t protect themselves!”

Hold onto your Ballistic Sniper Scythe, this week’s Building Character is all about everyone’s favorite ball of optimism and rose petals, Ruby! I’ve been a big fan of Monty Oum’s most well-known work since the beginning, and although it was a bit of a head-scratcher as to how best to represent her in D&D 5e, it was a challenge worth taking. Spoilers will abound, so go watch the whole 5 volumes right away! It’ll only take, like, a day since the episodes are short. Let’s dive right in!

Ruby Rose is a teenage girl who wants to follow in the footsteps of her parents as a Huntress, elite weapon experts that hunt vicious monstrosities called Grimm. Enrolling a year early at the famous Beacon Academy alongside her sister, Yang (another candidate for a Build in the future!), Ruby has had many adventures and suffered great loss as she builds up her strength and the strength of her friends in order to stop the evil master of the Grimm, Salem.

Even though our builds stat characters out to level 20, I’d say that Ruby is around level 10 in her own canon. The series isn’t complete, but she was already a competent combatant and Huntress in training when she arrived at Beacon, and she’s only gotten better with time. To get the real flavor of the character, your GM should be willing to work with you on weapons, but we’ll go into that a bit later on. Let’s take a look at what Miss Rose brings to the table:

RACE

“Another human?” NOPE! Well, there’s nothing to suggest Ruby isn’t human, but she’s got a very interesting genetic quirk that got my creative juices flowing. In fact, this detail being pointed out to me inspired me to do this build in the first place: Ruby has Silver Eyes.

“Okay, but what’s that got to do with anything?” So glad you keep asking excellent questions that lead right to my next point! There’s a race in D&D that functions almost exactly like the Silver Eyed Warriors from RWBY, and we can make our build based on that. I give you: The Scourge Aasimar.

+2 to CHA- We don’t really need Charisma for this build, but hear me out. Ruby is actually a pretty charismatic girl. She’s a natural leader, can inspire other people by speaking to their hopes and takes charge in a decisive manner. A natural Charisma boost is a given for Miss Rose, and will help her flavor nicely.

+1 to CON- Yeah. Ruby is pretty squishy, if you look at it. This will help, and trust me, she needs all the help she can get in this department.

Darkvision and Light Bearer- I’ll just put both of these here because they’re kinda redundant abilities to give a race. Ruby in her own series doesn’t have natural darkvision, but her Scroll (read: high-tech smart phone) serves as a source of light. If you’re going for flavor purity, avoid this, but sometimes you’ll be grateful you can spot targets in dark places.

Celestial Resistance- A fairly thematic ability, Ruby goes up against dark, nasty creatures of Grimm pretty much all the time. Having resistance to Necrotic damage is a great feature for someone descended from the ultimate Grimm-hunters to possess. Similarly, while the light of her Silver Eyes doesn’t seem to spare her, knocking her out when she uses it for the first time on Beacon’s highest point, she doesn’t get hurt in the same way that someone vulnerable to such Radiant light (i.e. Cinder) did. Very fitting!

Healing Hands- A little pat on the back can encourage an ally to get back up and fight! Not as intense a healing ability as someone like Jaune possesses, but it’ll be handy to drag someone back from unconsciousness.

Radiant Consumption: This is it, the reason we’re going with this race! To quote Volo’s Guide to Monsters: “Starting at 3rd level, you can use your action to unleash the divine energy within yourself, causing a searing light to radiate from you, pour out of your eyes and mouth, and threaten to char you… you shed bright light in a 10-foot radius and dim light for an additional 10 feet, and at the end of each of your turns, you and each creature within 10 feet of you take radiant damage equal to half your level (rounded up). In addition, once on each of your turns, you can deal extra radiant damage to one target when you deal damage to it with an attack or a spell…” Sick nasty ability to use as a “freak out” button.

CLASS/FEATURES

This is going to be a relatively straightforward build. Not as straightforward as someone like Geralt, as we’ll be multiclassing once, but we’ll be representing Ruby as well as we can without snapping the rules for the game like a brittle twig.

First off, the temptation for both Fighter and Paladin was there. Ruby is a skilled combatant, making Fighter an attractive option. She’s also her setting’s version of a “righteous warrior”, making Paladin another likely candidate. However, there’s a particular class combo that doesn’t get enough love, and I think playing Ruby this way will feel a lot like her in-canon character. We’ll be statting up Ruby as a Ranger/Rogue multiclass. I’ve decided that from now on, I’ll be combining the Class and Class Features sections into one for the sake of time, as these builds usually take around 6 hours to fully write out. >.>

Ranger is our starting class, and it gives us some fun options. We’ll be going with the Horizon Walker subclass, one that lends itself well to an incredibly fast combatant like Ruby. Along the way, whenever you feel like it, mix in 3 levels of Rogue for a Horizon Walker Ranger 17/ Scout Rogue 3 mix. Scout is the NOS that we’re adding to an engine that can really, really get up and go, so don’t be afraid to add it to the fuel tank!

Favored Enemy- Kind of a tricky one since Grimm aren’t really a D&D enemy. However, we can use our noggins and figure out the kind of monsters that Ruby would be hunting if she was native to a setting like Faerun or Exandria.At level 1, her favored enemy will be Monstrosities, and the language option for that one isn’t clear cut, so we’ll go with something small like Goblin. This lets her better hunt goblinoid enemies, the scourge of any D&D campaign’s starting village. Level 6 will bring her up to hunting Aberrations, and speaking Deep Speech to better understand and destroy her foes. Finally, level 14 Ruby is playing in the major leagues, so Dragons as a favored enemy and Draconic as a language are fitting options. Feel free to change things up as your campaign progresses accordingly!

Natural Explorer- Ruby is always running around the great outdoors, getting into scraps with things that want to kill her and her friends. The show has taken her all over, and we have no idea where her journey will lead in Volume 6 (as of this writing, unaired yet), so with what we have now, the best options in my opinion are Grassland, Forest, and Mountain.

Fighting Style- Taking the Archery fighting style brings out the best in Ruby’s weapon. Whether your GM is restricting you to crossbows or letting you utilize firearms (a’la Matthew Mercer’s Gunslinger Fighter subclass), adding a static bonus to hit with your ranged option makes Ruby better at doing what she does best: Harassing and frustrating enemies by keeping out of reach.

Spellcasting- While in her canon Ruby isn’t a “spellcaster”, she does have access to an ability native to all trained Hunters and Huntresses: a Semblance. Ruby’s Semblance is Speed, the ability to increase her momentum and leave a trail of rose petals in her wake. The spell choices we’ll outline later in the build will either enhance her Semblance, or represent an offensive output increase.

Primeval Awareness- More useful in D&D than in her own setting, flavor this as being able to read the signs of enemy activity in the area, to hear their growls, or to have a sixth sense about the pallor of fear that Grimm bring wherever they go.

Horizon Walker Magic- Pretty much every spell she gets as a Horizon Walker make her better at what she does, but the sweetest ones are Misty Step at level 5, and Haste at level 9. Could call it Rose Petal Step and get the same effect, but Haste makes Ruby absolutely fantastic at dismantling enemies at all ranges. This is a wonderful addition to her repertoire.

Detect Portal- This wouldn’t make much sense for the world of Remnant that Ruby hails from, but in D&D where portals bring Aberrations and Monstrosities to the Material Plane, it makes a lot more sense that a trained Huntress would possess such an ability.

Planar Warrior- A great use of a bonus action, you can flavor it as channeling Ruby’s aura into her scythe, letting her do extra damage with her specialized weapon.

Extra Attack- Hitting monsters more = More dead monsters!

Ethereal Step- Picture a trail of translucent rose petals slipping away from a Grimm’s attack, only to reform a few heartbeats later on the other side of the battlefield as Ruby opens fire once again.

Land’s Stride- Effects that slow and entangle opponents are less effective against such a highly agile combatant like Ruby. This lets her keep moving around to her heart’s content!

Hide in Plain Sight- Somehow, red cape and all, Ruby gets the drop on her opponents when she’s able to formulate a plan. Canonically, however, she might not take advantage of this a lot.

Distant Strike- Now we’re talking! This represents Ruby having an even greater mastery of her Semblance, able to bounce between opponents when she’s attacking with sensational speed!

Vanish- If Ruby is dodging a potent enemy, she can find cover and break line of sight more easily. This will also let her combine a pot shot from a hiding place with her Sneak Attack (which we’ll go into!).

Spectral Defense- Flavoring this as extreme aura control works quite well in my opinion. A skilled Huntress can strengthen their Aura to turn an otherwise lethal blow into a survivable one.

Expertise- Our first Rogue ability! As a skilled Huntress, Acrobatics and Perception are great candidates for doubling Ruby’s Proficiency bonus.

Sneak Attack- Now, this is an interesting flavor ability for Ruby. As someone who attacks in melee with a heavy scythe, hitting with Sneak Attack in melee isn’t really an option. But, this actually works out for us, as Ruby is a much more head-on attacker when she closes to melee range. She’s much more precise and better at striking weak points at range when she’s using her weapon as a sniper rifle. Let’s flavor this as her skill at ambushing and debilitating foes in a team formation.

Thieves’ Cant- Err… It pretty much only makes sense in D&D, not in her own canon. Call it a freebie and let’s move on.

Cunning Action- An excellent addition! Being able to Dash as a bonus action on top of all her other movement options (let alone Hiding or Disengaging) is awesome.

Skirmisher- This! This is the reason we took this archetype. Avoiding melee attackers by moving up to half her speed when an enemy ends its movement within 5′ of her is a stellar use of Ruby’s reaction.

Survivalist- Expertise in Nature and Survival demonstrates what an excellent Huntress Ruby has become, and makes sure she can survive and thrive out in the field.

ABILITY SCORES

Let me start this with a few whopping disclaimers: First, like all of our builds, we’re using a standard Adventure League legal 27 point buy build. This means that there will be some spots where Ruby is weak.

Second, this is -not- an optimal build. Ruby does her best to excel at both ranged and melee combat, and she’s a very Multi Ability Dependent (MAD) character. I think this character would be a blast to play, but with her stats locked in the way that they are by our rules, she’s gonna have a bit of a rough time.

If you are going to bring Ruby to the table as a character that you’ll be playing, I recommend the following: Play her in a game where you rolled better-than-average stats. You’ll thank me later. Barring that, play her in a game where the GM likes giving copious amounts of gold and/or stat boosting magic items. If neither of these stipulations are met, and you still want to play her, try to limit your feats and take Ability Score Increases (ASIs) as much as possible. Maybe even go straight Ranger instead of multiclassing so your ASIs are maximized.

If you’re still with me, consider this last point: As the excellent blog “The Monsters Know What They’re Doing” points out, tactics matter more than ability scores. Using Ruby’s mobility, range, and host of abilities that get her in and out of melee quickly to pester and whittle down enemies should be her primary strategy, rather than going head-to-head with tough customers on her own. Ruby shines when she’s leading a team, and contributing to her enemies’ downfall by bleeding them out slowly. Even in canon, she can’t take very many hits, so play her accordingly. That said, here’s how we’re statting her up:

STR: 14 Ruby has to have some amount of STR to wield her war scythe. Being able to hit someone and then use your bonus action to get away quickly means needing to hit hard and fast. It goes without saying, but boost this when you can!

DEX: 14 While Ruby is fast, that speed really doesn’t translate that wonderfully to defense. Instead of her AC, Ruby will rely mainly on not being in range to avoid the attacks of her opponents. Having the Archery fighting style will help her ranged game immensely.

CON: 10 (+1) Ruby is a teenage girl. Even if we’re translating HP into Aura, her ability to take a hit and keep on going is nothing to write home about. Glass cannon is a pretty good description of her combat style. Keep this girl away from heavy hitters!

INT: 8 Another example of a protagonist who isn’t “dumb”, but her formal education and book learning leaves much to be desired. As in the above .gif and the first volume of her show, Ruby’s teammates (like Best Girl, Weiss) are much better at school work, and she’s shown to struggle in theoretical areas as opposed to practical ones.

WIS: 14 On the other hand, Ruby has a decent grasp of the more “down to earth” realities of combat. Being able to feel out a situation in battle and adapt her tactics accordingly is an area she shines more in than recalling facts about an enemy.

CHA: 14 (+2) When people meet Ruby, the first thing they comment on isn’t her skill with a scythe, or her speed, or her tactics. It’s her ability to lift people up and lead others with a fearless heart. If you’re going to bring Ruby to the gaming table please forgive how corny this is: Play her from the heart, first and foremost.

BACKGROUND

Raised on the small island of Patch in the Kingdom of Vale, Ruby grew up for most of her childhood without a mother. Her older half sister, Yang Xiao-Long, served as a surrogate mother figure, helping their beleaguered father Tai Yang deal with the death of Ruby’s mother, Summer. When she was very young, Ruby’s uncle, Qrow, an extremely talented Huntsman and scythe wielder saved her and Yang from a pack of Grimm. This would heavily influence Ruby.

Brought up on a steady diet of heroic stories and having a fallen hero for a mother would push Ruby into Qrow’s tutelage as a student of the scythe. Forging and completing her unique Ballistic Sniper Scythe, Crescent Rose while she was a student at Signal Academy, a chance encounter with Professor Ozpin of Beacon Academy would set Ruby on the fast track to becoming a master Huntress.

We’ll be using the Folk Hero background for Miss Rose. Since the skills that usually accompany this background will be picked up by our Ranger class skills, we’re free to pick some relevant ones. We’ll be going with History and Persuasion.

As much as Ruby struggles with book learning, she actually does know a bit about the history of Remnant. The history of the continent is so closely intertwined with the history of heroic Huntsmen that it would naturally be of interest to a starstruck young girl. As far as Persuasion goes, Ruby often uses her earnestness to reach out to others and convince them to become all that they can be. Most of her peers are won over sooner or later by her genuine candor, as she lacks guile or a deceptive nature.

Land Vehicle proficiency makes sense for someone who grew up near a big city, and she shows a familiarity with trains and airships, even if we never see her pilot a vehicle.

For her tool proficiency, Smith’s Tools will do nicely. Ruby constructed her own weapon at Signal Academy, modeling the basic design after her uncle’s weapon. Rather than rely on fast melee combat as her alternate combat mode (i.e. Qrow’s scythe’s sword mode), Ruby constructed a weapon that would allow her to strike at range. Repairing and customizing her weapon is definitely within her skill set!

Rustic Hospitality is a great feature for Ruby. A humble person by nature, she gets along best with the unassuming and those in need. Let Best Girl rub shoulders with the elite, Ruby does well with the hoi polloi.

SKILLS

In addition to History and Persuasion from her background, we’ll be getting 3x skills from starting off as a Ranger, and an extra couple proficiencies from dipping into Rogue.

Animal Handling, Athletics, and Survival are all great skills to start off with as an entry level Ranger. Ruby has her own mini animal companion in Zwei, her combat Corgi (I know, just go with it). She’s an athlete of marvelous ability, channeling her Aura to let her survive long jumps and falls. Making a journey as long as Vale to Mistral on foot is a testament to her ability to navigate and survive on the road, even if she keeps losing team RNJR’s only map.

We gain Acrobatics and Thieves’ Tools from our 3 level visit to the Rogue class, and although Ruby isn’t exactly breaking and entering a lot, she’s become more agile and resourceful over the course of her travels.

EQUIPMENT

Ruby isn’t clanking around in heavy armor. She’ll want to re-flavor some medium armor as her Combat Skirt, and take advantage of that proficiency.

If your GM is fine with the crazy weapon that is Crescent Rose, I would stat it as a Glaive when in melee mode. As a bonus action, it can transform into a bolt action rifle. Since this is D&D and RWBY’s weapon technology is beyond advanced for this setting, let’s get a little more realistic about the “gun”:

Assuming your GM raises a very understandable eyebrow at the high powered sniper rifle entering his sword and sorcery setting, Crescent Rose can be re-flavored as a repeating crossbow, fit with its own cartridges of, say, 6 bolts. If that’s still OP in the eyes of the Game Master, separate the two weapons and just go with Heavy Crossbow & Glaive. Spoilsport.

If your GM is cool with the firearm, ask about the Firearm Specialist homebrew feat. Either giving you firearm proficiency as part of your martial weaponry proficiency for free, or take the feat as soon as possible if you have the ability scores to spare.

FEATS

IF, big if, you have room for feats in your Ruby build, here are some good ones regardless of level order:

Inspiring Leader- Just take it. This is Ruby to a tee, able to get people to work together in ways they didn’t know was possible.

Polearm Master- Adds a bit more “oomph” to Ruby’s melee combat prowess.

Sentinel- Blazingly fast strikes in melee give the effect of stunning a foe who comes under such an unorthodox assault. Remember, they’re fighting a teenage girl with a giant scythe!

Crossbow Expert- In the event that mean old Mr. GM doesn’t like his PCs playing with guns.

SPELLCASTING

Once again, Ruby isn’t a traditional spellcaster, but the spells she picks up as a Horizon Walker can be flavored as extensions of her Aura and Semblance. Here’s some of the ones I think work best for her as a character:

Jump- Pull off those crazy Monty Oum-inspired leaps.

Longstrider- Increasing your base speed? Can’t hurt!

Zephyr Strike- This type of attack was made for Ruby.

Misty Step- Blitz out of harm’s way!

Flame Arrows/Lightning Arrows- Projectiles charged with elemental “Dust” are canon to the world of Remnant, stands to think Ruby can channel that here.

Steel Wind Strike- Line ’em up and knock ’em down!

That’s it for this week! Tune in next week, where we’ll be building…

Darth Vader, the Dark Lord of the Sith! Seeya next time!