Doctor Strange

Because of the wide and ever-growing list of spells in Pathfinder 2e, magic users have an incredible amount of tools to fit many situations in a satisfying way – especially if they take on a more support role.

Doctor Strange, in his role as Master of the Mystic Arts and Sorcerer Supreme, fits this model exactly. He is driven by knowledge, dedicated to mastering the many arcane spells lost to time and nearly forgotten by the tradition. In pursuit of this mastery, he has learned a spell for every problem, obstacle or task that is required of him.

But there are a few things that are extra important to hit, mostly from his MCU depiction. Chronomancy – power over time – is a key one, stemming from his ownership and use of the Eye of Agamotto. Shields, specifically those nifty orange symbol shields, are another. Astral projection, one of the key recurring elements from his early days, is a definite nice to have. And finally, of course, portals. On your left.

Oh, and he's an accomplished surgeon.

On the tabletop, Doctor Strange's primary objective is using his incredible spell list to protect his allies and hinder his enemies. Both of these tasks take many forms: shields and magical armor appear out of thin air, bolstering his allies from attacks. Tethers fly out of the ground, pulling his enemies down. Intense environmental hazards spring up with ease, creating obstacles that damage and slow attackers.

Outside of combat, Doctor Strange's portal mastery can get the team to the right place they need to be. Plus, his surgical background leaves him poised to use medicine on his allies when magic has reached it's limits.

Human Half-Elf

Half-Elf does a lot of heavy lifting on the flavor of this build. We usually go with Elf for the more magical-focused builds, but the Human Natural Ambition and Multitalented are too attractive to the great Stephen Strange.

Half-Elf gives us the best of both worlds. We take some elfish, arcane feats down the line – and some human ambition at level 1 and 9.

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Mystic

This feels like our Tardif build in its supreme obviousness. Is there any other background for the Master of the Mystic arts?

No, is the answer. This nifty background gives Stephen his requisite Intelligence boost, training in Arcana and the Arcane Sense feat. In other words, setting up a little wizard man in one fell swoop.

Abjuration Wizard

Okay, this is going to be a debate.

Obvioulsy Doctor Strange is the sorcerer supreme. We at Pop Culture Pathfinder do not deny that. And on some levels, a Sorcerer build for the good doctor works just fine.

But in the world of Pathfinder, Stephen Strange's power over magic is much less of the "spontaneous spellcaster" variety and much closer to the "prepared spellcaster". Especially when learning new spells and adding them to his spellbook comes into play. The guy is literally always trying to learn more spells! That's his whole thing!

Alongside the Wizard class, we take the Time Mage dedication to put a bit more focus on the Eye of Agamotto wearing MCU version of Strange. With a lot of the WIzard's overall power coming from its spellbook, rather than its feats, we can take a few in this line to expand his chronomancy without losing anything really important to the class.

Finally, to highlight Doctor Strange's ever-present hunt for knowledge, we pick up the Investigator dedication with Multitalented. This is purely for flavor, but can come in handy out of combat.

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We would need to be a Rogue or Investigator to get as skilled as Strange is in as many things, but we'll try to make it work. Most important, of course, is Occultism. That is, in our case, the Mystic Arts.

He also needs to be highly skilled in Medicine – but, after his car accident, no longer legendary. As difficult for him as that is to accept.

Legendary: Arcana, Occultism

Master: Medicine

Expert: Society

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