Dungeons & Dragons: 10 Character Builds For Spelljammer

Spelljammer: Adventures in Space is one of the most fun and unique Dungeons & Dragons modules available for players. In this module, players can travel the far reaches of the Astral Plane and Wildspace, encountering new species, magic, and more. Players can also travel via Spelljamming ships, which carry them from adventure to adventure.

But if you’re planning to dive into this module for the first time, you might be wondering what the best character builds are for these types of adventures. That’s why we’ve created this list. Here are the most optimized character builds, including species, background, and class, for an adventure into Spelljammer.

10 High Astral Elf

Spelljammer by Robson Michael.

Astral elves are one of the most unique species you can play in Dungeons & Dragons, and a species unique to the Spelljammer module. When it comes to using species from Spelljammer, you can modify any ability scores you desire, increasing one score by two, and another by one, or three different scores by one each. This should take the place of background ability score improvements from the 2024 PHB.

For this build, select astral elf to get some extra spells and darkvision, and then select the divine soul sorcerer, which synergizes well with the astral drifter background. With this background, your character made contact with an extraplanar entity or god. This works well with the divine soul sorcerer in terms of roleplay.

9 Artificial Autognome

Autognome via Wizards of the Coast

Autognomes are robotic versions of gnomes that have sentience and personalities of their own. Like regular gnomes, this species works well with artificers. Select the armorer artificer to justify your metallic build and your prowess with metal.

The wildspacer background designates you as a Wildspace veteran who is highly knowledgeable about the far reaches of Wildspace. Not only do the defensive abilities given to armorer artificers serve the entire party, but you’ll prove to be highly resilient in combat thanks to the armorer subclass’s abilities and autognomes’ abilities to heal by casting mending on themselves.

8 Telepathic Thri-kreen

Thri-kreen via Wizards of the Coast

For this build, you’ll need to talk to your DM about homebrewing some rules regarding ability score improvements. This build is all about capturing the spirit of a celestial guide who knows how to traverse Wildspace well and is an expert navigator. Use the guide background, taking the Magic Initiate feat, which grants access to extra druid spells you can add on top of your warlock ones.

Choose the celestial warlock subclass, which is well-suited to adventures in space. Finally, select the thri-kreen, a Spelljammer-specific species known for their telepathic abilities. With all of these features in tow, you’ll have varied spellcasting, a host of telepathic abilities, and a warlock patron perfectly tailored for Spelljammer.

7 Paladin Plasmoid

Plasmoids via Wizards of the Coast

Plasmoids are blob-like creatures that exist primarily in Wildspace. They can reshape their bodies at will, making them dexterous and study fighters, perfect for paladins. Select the oath of the watchers, which is all about guarding extraplanar portals and keeping an eye on celestial interference to give yourself plenty of roleplay opportunities in Spelljammer.

Finally, select the acolyte background to grant yourself the Magic Initiate feat for cleric spells, meaning you’ll be able to double up on your support cantrips early on in your campaign. Remember to use your Abjure the Extraplanar ability often, which targets celestials and aberrations, which are highly common in Wildspace.

6 Swashbuckling Space Pirate

Pirates by Alexandre Honore

This next build is all about capturing the spirit of pirates, but in space! Because Spelljammer features pirate space ship duels, traversal, and more, playing a space pirate will prove to be an incredibly fun addition to your rogues’ gallery of characters. And what better class for this character build is there than the swashbuckler rogue?

Choose halfling as well to gain helpful features like Halfling Luck. For this build, you can either choose the sailor or charlatan background. Sailor fits in better with the idea of a pirate, but the charlatan background grants an ability score improvement to Charisma in addition to Dexterity, so it’s up to you depending on what’s more important to your build.

5 Sage Of Space

Astral Observatory via Wizards of the Coast

The graviturgy wizard subclass comes from the Explorer’s Guide to Wildemount module, so make sure your DM is okay with you using this class before selecting it. However, if they’re okay with it, graviturgy wizards can fit right into the low-gravity, high-octane combat of Wildspace.

Select human for your species and sage for your background, which will grant you flexible feats and additional wizard cantrips and 1st-level spells, meaning you can easily double your early-level spell list. The most useful feature that the graviturgy wizard has is their Adjust Density feature, which allows them to alter the weight of objects as it sees fit, which can lead to some creative problem-solving on planets with different gravities.

4 Celestial Cleric

Raise Dead by Polar Engine

Every party needs a main healer, even in Wildspace. For players looking to play support, this build is for you. Select the knowledge domain cleric, which grants you access to additional languages (helpful for traversing multiple planets) and special psychic abilities like the ability to tap into wells of knowledge and read minds.

Aasmiar always make for great clerics thanks to their additional healing abilities and potential for flight. Select sage to gain access to some additional wizard spells so that you can potentially do some increased damage with cantrips in combat.

3 Ranger Of Wildspace

Astral Projection via Wizards of the Coast

Rangers can fit nicely into a Wildspace campaign, despite the potential lack of nature you might encounter. The way to remedy this is to select the horizon walker conclave, which focuses on defense against extraplanar threats, similar to the oath of the watchers paladin. With this subclass, you can detect portals and even enter the Ethereal Plane at will.

Select dragonborn to grant yourself an extra breath weapon (helpful for boosting your melee damage impact) and a specific damage resistance. If your DM allows it, try porting over the anthropologist background from Tomb of Annihilation, which can help support the character concept of someone well-versed in differing cultures and planes. Just also talk to your DM about deciding which ability scores make sense to improve, as the anthropologist background doesn’t provide any naturally.

2 Far-Traveling Bard

Bardic Inspiration via Wizards of the Coast

As adventures through Wildspace are often madcap and zany, bards make the perfect addition to any campaign using Spelljammer. For this build, use the college of glamour bard. Bards of this school studied in the Fey Realm, meaning they’re already used to extraplanar travel. Plus, this bard’s Mantle of Inspiration feature can grant allies boosts to speed, which is helpful in Spelljammer.

Select tiefling to give yourself access to additional spells at level three and level five (infernal tiefling is recommended). Lastly, select the entertainer background just to give your bard basic improvements to their Dexterity and Charisma, which is, of course, essential for any bard worth their salt.

1 Gun-Wielding Giff

Giff via Wizards of the Coast

The giff are an interesting hippo-like species from the Astral Sea. They make for excellent martial combatants with their Astral Spark and Hippo Build features, which provide improvements to attacks and their Strength thanks to their psychic connection with Wildspace. Plus, the giff have a mastery over firearms.

Select the soldier background for improvements to Strength, Dexterity, and Constitution, and the psi warrior fighter subclass to gain additional psionic abilities, which help support this character concept. Just make sure you talk to your DM about getting a firearm for your fighter and selecting ranged fighting styles as you level up.

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