Welcome to Iconic Design, Private Sanctuary’s source for innovative and evocative character builds for the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game, written by Everyman Gamer Alexander Augunas. Today, we’re going to be looking at a build for Sokka, of Avatar the Last Airbender fame.

Okay, okay! So the Gaang REALLY wasn’t back together. I’ve said multiple times that doing Aang / Korra just isn’t something that you can do with the current rules set, but fans were quick to point out that I missed a REALLY important character. The heart and soul of the Gaang, so to speak. I’m talking, of course, about Sokka.

Guess I need to rectify that.

Build Concept

Here’s our build guide for Sokka!

• Human: No other race in Avatar’s world (yet).
• Fighter (Lore Warden, Martial Master): This is one of my favorite fighter archetype combinations, and Sokka seems pretty adpt for it. He’s smart, versatile, and always has tricks up his sleeve. Plus he’s a warrior. Sounds good to me!
• Investigator (Sleuth): Did I mention that Sokka is smart? Like, “Basically invent the hot air balloon in a matter of minutes,” smart? If you look at Avatar: The Last Airbender as a whole, Sokka’s idea for improving the war balloon in the show basically leads to the giant Hindenburg-style airship that exists at the end of the game. He basically invents his way into Avatar’s industrial revolution. That seems inspiration-worthy to me, but while Sokka has made explosives in episodes before, he definitely isn’t an alchemist. That’s why we’re grabbing the sleuth archetype; its not a great archetype, no, but we need it for theme! FOR THEME!

And that’s the scaffold. Let’s get to building!

Book One: Air (1–7)

• Classes: fighter (lore warden, martial master) 4, investigator (sleuth) 3
• Feats: Point-Blank Shot (Bonus), Precise Shot (Bonus), Exotic Weapon Proficiency: boomerang (1st), Combat Expertise (Bonus), Weapon Focus: boomerang (Bonus), Deadly Aim (3rd), Extra Investigator Talent: underworld inspiration (5th), Martial Focus: thrown (Bonus), Ricochet Toss (7th)
• Abilities: alchemy, deeds, expertise, investigator talents, keen recollection, maneuver mastery +2, poison lore, poison resistance +2, scholastic, trap sense +1, trapfinding +1
• Investigator Talents: expanded inspiration (3rd), underworld inspiration (Bonus)

So the basic idea for going investigator is simple: Sokka is REALLY good at knowing stuff, and inspiration is REALLY good for that. So we’re going three levels into investigator in order to pick up investigator talents so we can make as many skills into free uses of inspiration as possible; expanded inspiration, underworld inspiration, and a rank into each Intelligence-based skill make this possible.

While this is going on, Sokka is gearing up to be the boomerang king that he always knew he could be. He’s grabbing all of the necessary feats and abilities, as well as Martial Focus, which allows him to meet the weapon training prerequisite of Weapon Mastery feats. This means that at 7th level, he has the BAB and the feat to pick up Ricochet Toss, which means his boomerang will always come back to him. Huzzah!

Sokka has some feats and abilities that won’t be seeing much practical use right now, namely Combat Expertise and maneuver mastery. Don’t worry, we’ll get there for both of these abilities. Don’t believe me? Let’s head to the mid levels and see.

Book Two: Earth (8 –14)

• Classes: fighter (lore warden, martial master) 11, investigator (sleuth) 3
• Feats: Point-Blank Shot (Bonus), Precise Shot (Bonus), Exotic Weapon Proficiency: boomerang (1st), Combat Expertise (Bonus), Weapon Focus: boomerang (Bonus), Deadly Aim (3rd), Extra Investigator Talent: underworld inspiration (5th), Martial Focus: thrown (Bonus), Ricochet Toss (7th), Startoss Style: boomerang (Bonus), Extra Martial Flexibility (9th), Startoss Comet (Bonus), Extra Investigator Talent: applied engineering (11th), Startoss Shower (Bonus), Vital Strike (13th)
• Abilities: alchemy, deeds, expertise, investigator talents, hair’s breadth, keen recollection, know thy enemy, maneuver mastery +6, martial flexibility (two feats; swift), poison lore, poison resistance +2, scholastic, trap sense +1, trapfinding +1
• Investigator Talents: expanded inspiration (3rd), underworld inspiration (Bonus), applied engineering (Bonus)

In mid levels, Sokka has a few neat things going for him. First, his martial master archetype kicks him, granting him martial flexibility. This is super useful because he has pseudo-weapon training through martial flexibility, which means he has access to the ranged targeting feats at easy cost, which gives him something to do with that fat bonus on combat maneuver checks that he gains from martial mastery. He also gains Startoss Style, which gives him a damage bonus with his boomerang, and Startoss Shower, which allows him to hit multiple opponents with his boomerang attacks. (AND IT STILL COMES BACK TO HIM!) He also gets Vital Strike, because Vital Strike’s extra damage dice comes into play with the Startoss feat line, allowing him to do extra damage to the first opponent he hits with his Startoss feat.

Just in case you were worried that the investigator levels were for fluff, at fighter level 7, Sokka gains know thy enemy, which gives him a big bonus whenever he successfully identifies an opponent’s weaknesses or abilities. And with inspiration, this’ll happen a LOT more often, as he’s constantly adding d6 to all of his Knowledge checks. I’m also choosing to invest in the applied engineering investigator talent, because that’s totally a Sokka thing. Other then that, we’re improving his skill with a variety of weapons (use martial flexibility to take whatever you want, Sokka; we won’t judge) while remaining surprisingly capable at skills. Who knew?

Let’s look at the final tier and see how he ends up!

Book Three: Fire (15+)

• Classes: fighter (lore warden, martial master) 17, investigator (sleuth) 3
• Feats: Point-Blank Shot (Bonus), Precise Shot (Bonus), Exotic Weapon Proficiency: boomerang (1st), Combat Expertise (Bonus), Weapon Focus: boomerang (Bonus), Deadly Aim (3rd), Extra Investigator Talent: underworld inspiration (5th), Martial Focus: thrown (Bonus), Ricochet Toss (7th), Startoss Style: boomerang (Bonus), Extra Martial Flexibility (9th), Startoss Comet (Bonus), Extra Investigator Talent: applied engineering (11th), Startoss Shower (Bonus), Vital Strike (13th), Improved Vital Strike (Bonus), Greater Vital Strike (15th), Weapon Specialization: boomerang (Bonus), Greater Weapon Focus: boomerang (17th), Greater Weapon Specialization: boomerang (Bonus), Penetrating Strike (19th)
• Abilities: deeds, expertise, investigator talents, hair’s breadth, keen recollection, know thy enemy, luck, maneuver mastery +8, martial flexibility (three feats; immediate), poison lore, poison resistance +2, scholastic, swift lore, trap sense +1, trapfinding +1
• Investigator Talents: expanded inspiration (3rd), underworld inspiration (Bonus), applied engineering (Bonus)

End levels are pretty simple; we’re capping things off with Greater Vital Strike and Improved Vital Strike for maximum Startoss multitarget damage, as well as the Greater Weapon Focus line. Know thy enemy becomes faster, and Sokka can now take up to three feats at the same time with his martial flexibility. Very cool, very helpful.

This build is strongly reminiscent of the one I made for Everyman Gaming, LLC’s Iconic Cavalier character, Kyr’shin Yilenzo. I honestly love this sort of build: the smart fighter who uses his wits as well as his weapon to win the day! What do you gals and guys thing? Is this the sort of build you’d play? Why or why not? Would you have done anything differently? What characters should I look at now, since I’ve finished the Gaang for REAL this time? Leave your comments and questions below, and I’ll see you back at the Know Direction Network next week for another Iconic Design! Take care.

Alexander “Alex” Augunas has been playing roleplaying games since 2007, which isn’t nearly as long as 90% of his colleagues. Alexander is an active freelancer for the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game and is best known as the author of the Pact Magic Unbound series by Radiance House. Alex is the owner of Everyman Gaming, LLC and is often stylized as the Everyman Gamer in honor of Guidance’s original home. Alex also cohosts the Private Sanctuary Podcast, along with fellow blogger Anthony Li, and you can follow their exploits on Facebook in the 3.5 Private Sanctuary Group, or on Alex’s Twitter, @AlJAug.