Let’s Play D&D With Finn and Jake from ‘Adventure Time’
Come one, grab your friends. This week we’re making D&D even more mathematical when we go on an adventure with Finn and Jake.
Adventure Time is a show that wrapped up a few years ago, but it manages to stay in our minds anyhow. Whether it’s popping back with one-off episodes or returning with the Fionna and Cake spinoff series we aren’t letting Adventure Time go. And honestly, why would we? It was great. Starting out as an entirely goofy show, it quickly shifted into something a little more serious as Finn and Jake unpacked the reality of their histories, families, and the reality of their whole world. And over the years the show matured and got thematically darker while managing to stay mostly goofy.
Which sounds a lot like most long-running D&D campaigns, doesn’t it?
We’d all like to return to Ooo for some more adventures with Finn and Jake. So let’s join them on their next mathematical adventure and play D&D with…
Finn the Human
Finn is delightfully straightforward. ‘Human’ is in the name, he’s a simple adventuring kid with a sword, a penchant for hitting baddies, and no magical abilities or powers. In a world of super-powered weirdoes, Finn is somehow a mostly normal kid.
Fighter was almost too spot on for him, and when it came to subclasses, I was between Cavalier and Champion. Champion ended up winning out because the description and abilities fit him better- and Princess Bubblegum refers to him as her champion a number of times. But Cavalier was a close second because I entirely thought of Jake’s sheet as Finn’s companion-slash-mount. Part-time brother, part-time adventuring party, part-time horse.
Finn is really good at fighting, with high Strength, Dexterity, and Constitution. But he is what I would describe as pure of heart and dumb of ass, so his Intelligence and Wisdom score reflect that.
All in all, this is a character who’s good at getting into scrapes, and with added feats like Brawny and Tavern Brawler, he’ll have a slight edge in those scrapes. But he’s not alone with…
Jake the Dog
Unfortunately, there isn’t a great way to make Jake as a playable character in 5E. Sure, a few key spells like Enlarge/Reduce and a grappler feat would cover some key aspects of his character. In fact, if you wanted to play Jake in D&D, I’m sure that you could get close enough with a little creativity and a lot of roleplaying his attitude up. But I thought that for a more complete version of Jake, an NPC-slash-monster is the way to go.
To start, sometimes Finn jump on Jake’s back and rides him into battle. You know, normal sibling stuff. So Jake is sure-footed and good at climbing and scaling walls.
But more importantly, he can grow and shrink at will before making his attacks, and then use those stretchy noodle arms to grab and grapple. Could a regular player-character do these things? Sure, with a little work. But I didn’t want Jake to be limited by spell slots or time limits when changing size and shape is such a big part of his character.
How would you make Finn and Jake for a D&D setting? Do you think any other aspects of Ooo would fit in in D&D? What movie, show, book, comic, or game should we make sheets from next week? Let us know in the comments!
Happy adventuring!
