Harley Quinn as a D&D Character (The Suicide Squad D&D Party Part 2)

Spoiler Warning: This article discusses characters from the movie The Suicide Squad (2021).

The first section of this article outlines the series of articles that present characters from the movie The Suicide Squad (2021) as D&D character builds. If you have read this part in a previous article, skip ahead to the build here.

Building popular fiction characters in D&D

Movies are great inspiration for our Dungeons & Dragons games. We can steal plots, scenes, villains, items and characters directly from our favorite movies. The movie The Suicide Squad (2021) has a cast of anti-heroes that are great fodder for creative D&D character builds. So let’s see how we can go about building the whole party. The characters we are going to try to emulate are:

Bloodsport – a sharpshooter in a suit of hi-tech body armor
Harley Quinn – a chaotic assassin in a court jester outfit
Ratcatcher – an orphan with a special affinity to rats
Peacemaker – a ruthless marksman
Nanaue – a shark who will eat anyone except for his friends
Polka-Dot Man – a man infected with a interdimensional virus by his mother

The goal in making these characters in D&D is to create a D&D player’s rendition of each character. We will not be able to capture each unique facet of the fictional characters in the mechanics of D&D. But, not everything needs a mechanic. We will try to create mechanically effective characters, designing them to evoke the feeling of the characters of The Suicide Squad in play. As we will see, this is easier for some characters than it is for others.

All of the character builds cap at level 17. The core abilities that define them come online much earlier though. All of them use the Optional Class Features and the Customizing Your Origin rules from Tasha’s Cauldron of Everything.

Harley Quinn D&D Character: Elf Warlock 1 / Rogue 3 / Fighter 3 / Paladin 2 / Bard 8

Concept

Harley Quinn is as deadly as she is chaotic. She is a vicious assassin with a sense for drama. In this build, we are trying to realize Harley’s deadly strikes with a special performative flourish.

The movie shows Harley Quinn with a variety of weapons, including a powerful javelin. In the mechanics of D&D, a javelin or spear does not work well for our vision of the character. Instead we are falling back to the shortsword. We can talk to our dungeon master to flavor this mechanical weapon choice in whatever way we see fit. Maybe the shortsword we are wielding resembles a spear more than a blade. Maybe the dual-wielding shortsword attacks are actually two attacks with the same spear. For effective mechanics, we stick with shortswords, but that shouldn’t limit our descriptions of Harley Quinn, the Deadly Jester.

Level 1: Elf Warlock 1 (Hexblade), Criminal/Haunted One Background

We choose any elf race for Harley Quinn. Canonically, she is of course human, but in this D&D rendition of the character, an elf works well. Harley is not quite human, she displays exceptional agility and keen senses that elves as a race bring to this character. Later on, we will be taking the Elven Accuracy feat, so we need to start as an elf.

We should start with a 17 Dexterity (+2 from elf) and a 16 Charisma (+1 from elf). Then we need a 13 Strength for later multiclassing requirements. That leaves Harley Quinn with a meager 12 Constitution – she isn’t the beefiest of characters after all.

A fitting background might come in the combination of Criminal and Haunted One. While Criminal covers Harley’s profession, Haunted One brings some flavorful personality traits, ideals, bonds, and flaws to the character. These work well with her traumatic history with the Joker.

For our starting class, we are selecting warlock with the Hexblade patron. Harley’s patron could be the Joker for example. Through questionable methods, he grants her special abilities that improve Harley’s deadliness. We gain access to the Hex spell and the Booming Blade cantrip – two mechanics we will be using for the rest of Harley Quinn’s career as a D&D character. We also get Hexblade’s Curse, which lets us curse a target, and deal extra damage to it on each hit. It also doubles our chance of a critical hit against that target.

With booming blade, Hex, Hexblade’s Curse and a Bonus Action off-hand attack with a second shortsword, we are dealing 1d6+3 (shortsword) +1d6 (Hex) +2 (Hexblade’s Curse) +1d6 (off-hand shortsword) +1d6 (Hex) +2 (Hexblade’s Curse) damage per turn. If the target of booming blade moves, they take an additional 1d8 thunder damage.

Flavor-wise, we can imagine Harley Quinn hurling insults at her enemy while she fights. The curses are so vicious, they manifest in grievous wounds on the target.

Level 2-4: Rogue 3 (Swashbuckler or Assassin)

Next, we are taking three levels in rogue. This gives us Sneak Attack and fits the criminal/assassin archetype of Harley well. For our subclass, we can choose Assassin if we want the maximum possible damage output. Or we go with Swashbuckler for a more reliable Sneak Attack, and the ability to weave in and out of combat. We imagine Harley Quinn dancing across the battle field, untouched by her enemies.

Level 5-7: Fighter 3 (Battlemaster)

At level five, Harley Quinn further hones her fighting prowess. Three levels of fighter give us the Two-Weapon Fighting fighting style, Action Surge, and maneuvers from the Battlemaster subclass. Trip Attack, Menacing Attack, and Riposte are excellent choices. Now, we add a d8 to our attacks with a maneuver, and potentially knock the target prone or frighten them. Riposte gives us a chance at a second Sneak Attack when we use our reaction for another attack. Harley’s deadliness has increased dramatically.

With Action Surge, we can now use our improced booming blade twice, add a d8 from a maneuver on each of the attacks, including our bonus action attack from Two-Weapon Fighting. This puts us at two attacks which deal 1d6+3 (shortsword) +1d8 (booming blade) +1d8 (maneuver) +1d6 (Hex) +3 (Hexblade’s Curse). We also make a bonus action attack for another 1d6+3 (shortsword) +1d8 (maneuver) +1d6 (Hex) +3 (Hexblade’s Curse). One of these attacks is also dealing the 2d6 Sneak Attack damage. That leaves Harley Quinn with 8d6+5d8+18 potential points of damage in the first round of combat.

Harley’s deadliness is undeniable at this point, but we can push it a little further.

Level 8-9: Paladin 2

A few levels in paladin might seem odd at first, but Harley Quinn’s devotion to the Joker is unwavering. Her bond intensifies, making her even deadlier. From paladin we gain Divine Smite. Harley can now invoke the brutality of the Joker to make her attacks strike with increased fervor.

Level 10-17: Bard 8 (College of Whispers)

Up until level 9, we have concentrated on the deadly part of Deadly Jester. But all the while, Harley has been wearing her signature jester outfit. It is time we reflect that in our build. For the rest of this build, we are going bard.

We gain Expertise, letting Harley persuade and deceive with excellency out of combat. Our subclass, the College of Whispers, imbues Harley’s attacks with psychic terror. Once per round, she can deal an extra 2d6 psychic damage on a hit (increased to 3d6 at Bard level 5).

We also finally gain our first Ability Score Improvement. We can take Elven Accuracy, bump our Dexterity to 18, and give us potential “super advantage” on attacks. At bard level 8 we bump our Dexterity to 20, bringing Harley’s acrobatic fighting mode to full fruition.

The main feature why we are taking Bard levels, however, is for higher-level spell slots. With the extra spell slot progression from our Paladin levels, we max out at 5th level slots. These can be used for awesome bard spells to portray Harley’s dramatic side as a jester. But if we want the maximum deadliness for Harley Quinn, we use our spell slots for Divine Smites.

At level 17, we can deal an significant amount of damage on Harley’s first turn in combat. Two booming blade attacks with Action Surge, plus one bonus action attack, plus Hex, Hexblade’s Curse and Battlemaster maneuvers give us 6d6+9d8+33 potential damage. Add Sneak Attack, and Psychic Blades for another combined 5d6. Then add three 4th-level smites on all attacks for an additional combined 15d8 radiant damage. All of these attacks are done at triple advantage from Elven Accuracy once we gain advantage, either from our Assassin subclass, or a Battlemaster maneuver. These attacks are likely critical hits thanks to the Assassin subclass, or due to our increased critical range from Hexblade’s Curse in combination with super-advantage from Elven Accuracy.

Harley Quinn D&D Character: The Deadly Jester

Harley Quinn is very deadly. And she is a jester who uses her sense of drama and malice to strike fear into her enemies. With this D&D player’s rendition of Harley Quinn we can fulfill the fantasy of a master assassin who can quickly take out her target. We also add her dramatic flourish as a follower of the Joker with the choice of bard as a class. Harley Quinn, the Deadly Jester, is as effective, as she is chaotic.