Victor Frankenstein
"The Modern Prometheus" – the subtitle of Mary Shell's 1820 novel, Frankenstein – gives us an early glimpse into the tragedy of the doctor. Like the titular Prometheus, who stole fire from the gods on behalf of humans, Dr. Frankenstein brings the spark of life to humanity. His experiments in reanimation, alchemy and anatomy eventually succeed, giving rise (literally) to the creature. But, like Prometheus's flame, the creature is not something that can be controlled.
Is there a more misunderstood character in literature than Mary Shelley's Frankenstein? The creature and the doctor are living misnomers – doomed to an eternity of being mistaken for each other, misremembered and poorly adapted.
So why not add to that storied history of poor adaptations with a Pathfinder build? To do justice to that idea, we'll build the doctor using a mishmash of Frankenstein tropes and cliches – with no deference to Shelley's original masterpiece.
And what are those tropes and cliches?
A mad scientist. A hulking, grey or green creature – pieced together using parts from multiple corpses. A spark of life from a lightning bolt. A monster afraid of fire. An angry mob. Etc.
How many of these are true to the original novel? It doesn't matter. This is our Frankenstein myth now, over 200 years later. A homunculus among homunculi.
So how do we build them in Pathfinder?
Keys to the Character
Bad to the Bone
Building a body requires intimate knowledge in how to take one, or many, apart. Luckily, Victor is trained in anatomy.
Spare Hands
Frankenstein's monster was assembled from the removed limbs and other parts of the recently deceased. Who removed them? Vic has a cloudy memory about that...
OG Defibrillation
Harnessing the power of lightning into his doohickey (that's the technical term) allowed Dr. Frankesnstein to bring his creation to life.
Spark of Life
What is life? The question that drove the doctor mad in his pursuit of creating it... until he was driven mad in his pursuit of ending it.
First thing's first: what fun is playing as Dr. Frankenstein if the monster is nowhere to be found? The answer is "not very". Thankfully, this build only has to wait a single level for the good doctor to give the spark of life into his gruesome monstrosity. The Clockwork Reanimator dedication, available at level 2, is what powers Victor's homunculus. The reanimation grows in power alongside Victor, becoming a true hulking creature more than capable of taking hits, dealing damage, and scaring villagers.
But if the creature is doing most of the grunt work (literally), then what is Dr. Frankenstein doing on the battlefield? Like any good mad scientist from the 1800s, being obsessed with alchemy, of course!
By creating Victor as an Chirurgeon Alchemist, he fulfills his background as a medical doctor – making use of all those late night anatomy lessons. This allows him to spend time on the battlefield using potions and elixirs to heal his allies, including the main one that is doing some smashing with borrowed fists.
On the tabletop, Victor plays like two distinct characters, which can be tough on the action economy. He wants to spend actions making quick alchemical potions for healing and hindering, administering those concoctions, and also commanding his creature to do something (usually hitting).
Outside of battle, Victor can use good old fashioned Medicine to heal up his party to nearly as good as new, if not better. Plus, his legendary crafting ability keeps the party well stocked in everything they need.
Build OVERVIEW
- Extra set of hands (and head and torso and legs)
- Keeps allies living, so they aren't harvested
- Crafter extraordinaire
- Clunky action economy between Dr. and Monster
- Allies are wary of surgery
- The monster smells terrible
Ancestry
Versatile Human
You gotta be versatile when you're busing building a new form of human altogether.
This ancestry starts Victor off with some extra skill feats, making him useful for the party in that first level before he brings his Reanimation companion to life.
For boosts, Intelligence and Constitution are taken to keep the alchemy coming, and keep him alive to use them.
Background
Undertaker
There are some more medical-based backgrounds that would also suit Victor Frankenstein well... but, come on, this is funny. Posing as an undertaker is the perfect guise to borrow some spare parts required for his experiments.
This background gives some Undead Lore, which is fitting, along with a boost to Intelligence.
Class
Chirurgeon Alchemist
Inventor could be debated, after all, it takes an extremely inventive mind to invent life. But the Inventor class spends too many feats getting the feel right, and we want to spend a lot of class feats on the Clockwork Reanimator archetype options.
Alchemist, on the other hand, comes with a ton of utility backed in. And with a focus on the healing subtype, this class gives Victor something extra to do with leftover actions after his monster whollops a gnoll.
Skills & General Feats
No surprises here. Victor Frankenstein is supremely good at two things: anatomy and building new anatomy.
Being legendary in Crafting and Medicine fits that perfectly, while being an expert in things like Diplomacy and Society helps him blend in long enough to procure the pieces he's looking for.
Legendary: Crafting, Medicine
Master: -
Expert: Diplomacy, Intimidation, Society
Attribute Increases
Equipment
Suggested Starting Equipment
Key Spells
Changelog
Related Builds
