Let’s Play D&D With Jinx from ‘Arcane’
This week we’re jumping back into the world of Arcane and making things go boom; it’s time to play D&D with Jinx.
Arcane season one was one of the most popular shows to come to streaming in 2021, and it looks like season two will be coming to us in November of this year.
The League of Legends inspired show combined a very unique art style with story and characters that viewers wanted to connect with. And their return to Netflix in November isn’t soon enough. Sure you may be playing League in your free time, but we both know where this is going. This week we’re playing D&D with…
Jinx
As it turns out, while the worlds of D&D and Arcane are fairly different… they also aren’t at all. And this was a surprisingly easy character to make for a D&D setting. Often I’ll do my best to make something inspired-by or recognizable enough as their character. But I think with Jinx, you can just add her to your next campaign or adventure. Will the DM let you have all of those special weapons? Well, that’s up to them.
To start I went with a human variant for Jinx. She’s human with a few modifications to make her a stronger and tougher, but she’s definitely human. So I took the bonus feat and gave her Tough. There are a bunch of directions you could go with for her background, but I decided to keep it simple with Urchin. And for D&D alignment, she’s pure chaos. Honestly, though, I don’t put a lot of stock into alignments because real people and well-played characters will shift around and have a character arc.
Picking her class was also fairly straightforward. She’s an assassin who makes a lot of her own weapons and explosives. Artificer-Artillerist was a no-brainer and gives us the ability to make all sorts of fun weapons and infusions. You could then duel-class with Rogue-Assassin, but I thought that this was a bit too sneaky and quiet while Jinx is anything but subtle. Instead, I opted for Fighter-Gunslinger. She wants to shoot those guns and rocket launchers she builds, and she should have good aim when she does.
Since Gunslinger isn’t a martial archetype every game will allow, you can also opt for Arcane Archer. Just get that skill for ranged weapons. I also gave Jinx the Gunner feat, and you’ll definitely want to add this with a different archetype.
With the basics out of the way, I wanted to make sure she had a relatively close approximation to the weapons she has in the source material. But you’ll be building all sorts of stuff and buying others from in-game shops. If you want a very specific weapon, talk to your DM about making it happen.
With Artificer we gained access to a few spells, and I opted for the ones that exploded the most or gave us a quick video-game-like getaway. Catapult will make whatever awful thing Jinx just built into your problem very quickly, and Jump will have her somewhere else before you know it.
How would you make Jinx for a D&D setting? What other Arcane characters would you like to see brought to tabletop? What movies, show, book, or game should I make sheets for next time? Let us know in the comments!
Happy adventuring!
