D&D 5E Mythological Figures: Sir Lancelot (5E)

Welcome to the second installment of Mythological Figures, a column for introducing icons from history to your Fifth Edition game. Last post featured Achilles but today we’re pushing the clock forward to the Arthurian age to design Camelot’s second greatest—and perhaps most beleaguered—knight: Lancelot du Lac!

Raised by the Lady of the Lake, it’s no wonder that Sir Lancelot is so wrapped up in contradiction. Despite being a naturally talented knight and a genuine friend to King Arthur, ultimately his love for Queen Guinevere leads him to betrayal. Vanquisher of Méléagant, frequently masquerading tournament knight, battling away the affections of Morgan le Fay, pining over the queen until his death 6 weeks after hers, ending his later penitent years as a priest.

As with the last post let us know who you want to see next!

Lancelot
Medium humanoid (human), neutral good fighter (champion) 7/paladin (oath of devotion) 6

Armor Class
20 (plate mail, shield)
Hit Points 119 (14d10+42)
Speed 30 ft.

STRDEXCONINTWISCHA
16 (+3)11 (+0)17 (+3)13 (+1)9 (-1)14 (+2)

Saving Throws
Str +5, Dex +4 (with shield), Con +5, Int +3, Wis +6, Cha +9
Skills Animal Handling +4, Athletics +8, Deception +7, Perception +4
Condition Immunities disease
Senses passive Perception 14
Languages Common
Challenge 12 (8,400 XP)

Action Surge (1/short rest). Once on his turn, Lancelot can take an additional action on top of his regular action and a possible bonus action.

Aura of Protection.
Whenever Lancelot or a friendly creature within 10 feet of him must make a saving throw, the creature gains a +2 bonus to the saving throw as long as he is conscious (included above).

Channel Divinity (1/short rest).
Lancelot can channel his divinity through the two following features.
Sacred Weapon. As an action, Lancelot imbues one weapon that he is holding with positive energy. For 1 minute, he adds +2 to attack rolls made with that weapon. The weapon also emits bright light in a 20-foot radius and dim light 20 feet beyond that. If the weapon is not already magical, it becomes magical for the duration.
Lancelot can end this effect on his turn as part of any other action. If he is no longer holding or carrying this weapon, or if he falls unconscious, this effect ends.
Turn the Unholy. As an action, Lancelot presents his holy symbol and speaks a prayer censuring fiends and undead, using his Channel Divinity. Each fiend or undead that can see or hear him within 30 feet must make a DC 15 Wisdom saving throw. If the creature fails its saving throw, it is turned for 1 minute or until it takes damage.
A turned creature must spend its turns trying to move as far away from Lancelot as it can, and it can’t willingly move to a space within 30 feet of him. It also can’t take reactions. For its action, it can use only the Dash action or try to escape from an effect that prevents it from moving. If there’s nowhere to move, the creature can use the Dodge action.​

Divine Sense (5/long rest).
As an action, until the end of his next turn Lancelot knows the location of any celestial, fiend, or undead within 60 feet of him that is not behind total cover. He knows the type (celestial, fiend, or undead) of any being whose presence he senses, but not its identity. Within the same radius, he also detects the presence of any place or object that has been consecrated or desecrated, as with the hallow spell.

Divine Smite.
When Lancelot hits a creature with a melee weapon attack, he can expend one spell slot to deal radiant damage to the target, in addition to the weapon’s damage. The extra damage is 2d8 for a 1st-level spell slot, plus 1d8 for each spell level higher than 1st, to a maximum of 3d8. The damage increases by 1d8 if the target is an undead or a fiend.

Feat: Master of the Shield.
While he has his shield, Lancelot adds +2 to Dexterity saving throws against spells or other harmful effects that only target him and he can use a bonus action to use it to shove a creature within 5 feet.

Lay on Hands (30 points/long rest).
As an action, Lancelot can touch a creature and restore a number of hit points to it, up to the maximum amount remaining in this pool. Alternatively, he can expend 5 hit points to cure the target of one disease or neutralize one poison affecting it.

Remarkable Athlete.
Lancelot adds +2 to any Strength, Dexterity, or Constitution check he makes that doesn’t already use his proficiency bonus. In addition, when he makes a running long jump, the distance he can cover increases by 3 feet.

Second Wind (1/short rest).
On his turn, Lancelot can use a bonus action to regain 1d10+7 hit points.

Spellcasting.
Lancelot is a 6th-level spellcaster that uses Charisma as his spellcasting ability (spell save DC 15; +7 to hit with spell attacks). Lancelot has the following spells prepared from the paladin’s spell list:
1st level (4 slots): bless, divine favor, heroism, protection from evil and good, sanctuary
2nd level (2 slots): aid, lesser restoration, magic weapon, zone of truth

Superior Critical.
Lancelot’s weapon attacks score a critical hit on a roll of 18–20.

ACTIONS

Extra Attacks.
Lancelot attacks twice.

Longsword.
Melee Weapon Attack:
+9 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 9 (1d8+5) slashing damage if wielded in one hand or 8 (1d10+3) slashing damage if wielded in two hands.

Dagger.
Melee or Ranged Weapon Attack:
+8 to hit, reach 5 ft. or range 20/40 ft., one target. Hit: 5 (1d4+3) piercing damage.

Heavy Crossbow.
Ranged Weapon Attack:
+5 to hit, range 100/400 ft., one target. Hit: 5 (1d10) piercing damage.

REACTIONS

Feat: Master of the Shield.
Lancelot can reflexively protect his body with his shield. When he is subjected to an effect that allows him to make a Dexterity saving throw to take only half damage, Lancelot can use his reaction to take no damage if he succeeds on the saving throw.

Feat: Master of the Sword.
Lancelot can use his reaction when wielding a sword to gain a +1 bonus to his AC until the start of his next turn or until he is disarmed. In addition, Lancelot has advantage on opportunity attacks.
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Mike Myler

Mike Myler


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Pauln6

Hero
I find the 1e builds of mythic heroes that give them 17-18 in most of their stats are quite dull but then in 1e, anything under 15 would be considered sub par, plus 1e paladin spell casting was a bit more limited. A 5e version does require more finesse!
 

Wyvern

Explorer
Gawain had very little Paladiny going for him - Galahad/Parsifal is probably who you're thinking of, and, yes, he's a classic Paladin, too...
I've always been of the opinion that if he were statted up in D&D, Perceval should have levels in ranger, because he was raised alone in the woods by his mother. (In 5e that would translate to the Outlander background as well.)

I've also always thought of Tristan as having levels in bard, because he was a very accomplished harpist in the stories.
 

Garthanos

Arcadian Knight
In one branch of the story he never fell and was able to defeat his challenger Gawaine because of it I think that might have been Germanic. Parts of his stories also confused him and Galahad or had Galahad his childhood name and later dubbed Lancelot. Also as the best knight in the land I would be sore tempted to make him higher level with 15 coming to mind, He was portrayed as being able to stand off the combined ability of several fully equipped round table knights with not a bit of armor or weapons. They had a lot of story overlap between him and Gawaine too some of the presentations actually had him using different approach to overcoming problems entirely, with him willing to use more tactics and deceptions. The roundtable had over a hundred knights and each of those were purportedly a potent landed knights themselves.

If one is interested in even earlier renderings before the French lady hired someone to do some conjuring. There was a welsh Llewg Llewanleac among the earlier roundtable knights which has a bare claim for Lancelot existing prior to the French romantic rendering with the character. Additionally earlier yet there was characters who had the role of Arthurs primary friend and companion on his quest to recover the Cauldron of the Goddess (earlier form of Grail Quest) they refer to the Irishman (among irish heroes was another form of Llewg... Lugh Lamfada). Its a bit like they mixed in the Celtic Super Skilled Lance using greatest at many things and put the whole in a blender AND surreptitiously mixed with a Countesses ummm hot dreams. (it was actualy common practice to look at earlier stories to validate yours even if you were doing something wholly fictional). Some of that is really loose linguistic speculation but fun any way.
 

Morrus

Well, that was fun
Staff member
Also as the best knight in the land I would be sore tempted to make him higher level with 15 coming to mind, He was portrayed as being able to stand off the combined ability of several fully equipped round table knights with not a bit of armor or weapons.

He occupies the same narrative space as Achilles - 'best soldier figure'. CR 12 seems about right for that, if you're not getting into superpowers (Thor, Beowulf, that sort of stuff).
 

Garthanos

Arcadian Knight
He occupies the same narrative space as Achilles - 'best soldier figure'. CR 12 seems about right for that, if you're not getting into superpowers (Thor, Beowulf, that sort of stuff).
Achilles and he do have some commonalities I agree in the "best of" category and if the guy who virtually could not die except a nasty critical hit, is around that then then ok I think it works. But I might have tagged em both a bit higher lol I didnt pay close attention what was Beowulf the guy who could fight 3 hours holding his breath.
 

Morrus

Well, that was fun
Staff member
Achilles and he do have some commonalities I agree in the "best of" category and if the guy who virtually could not die except a nasty critical hit, is around that then then ok I think it works. But I might have tagged em both a bit higher lol I didnt pay close attention what was Beowulf the guy who could fight 3 hours holding his breath.
He's there. A bit higher. Rips Grendel's arm off barehanded.
 

Garthanos

Arcadian Knight
The context for comparison to my thinking is he beat a disguised Arthur relatively straight forwardly and humorously asked Arthur to join him in presenting himself to the King. Some modern presentations had Arthur invoking Excalibur to barely change that. And that to me is the scale we need to measure the Roundtable characters by.
 

Morrus

Well, that was fun
Staff member
The context for comparison to my thinking is he beat a disguised Arthur relatively straight forwardly and humorously asked Arthur to join him in presenting himself to the King. Some modern presentations had Arthur invoking Excalibur to barely change that. And that to me is the scale we need to measure the Roundtable characters by.
We've got them both at the same CR, but a lot of Arthur's stuff is leader/supporter stuff. Excalibur really helps though.
 

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