Bender Class: D&D 5e Optimisation Guide

Ryoko’s Guide to the Yokai Realms offers us a brand new class inspired by Avatar: The Last Airbender

The Bender is a versatile half-caster martial class inspired by Avatar The Last Airbender. It blends spell casting with magical unarmed strikes tied to the elements.

As they level up, Benders can gain use of new elements or double down to supercharge just one, eventually transforming into elemental forms and unlocking the powerful Avatar State.

Subclasses (called Disciplines in this case) let them lean into roles like close combat, damage soaking tank, support, or hybrid caster, giving this class lots of ways in which it could be played.

At a glance

Strengths

Flexibility: You can choose their spellcasting ability (Int/Wis/Cha), multiple elemental paths, and a wide range of subclass roles (striker, tank, support, hybrid caster).
Strong subclasses: Each Discipline fills a distinct party role, so a party of all Benders could still cover the bases.
Scaling power: Elemental combos, doubling down on affinities, and transformations give them strong growth to look forward to all across the levels of play

Weaknesses

Resource Limits: As a half-caster, you have fewer spell slots than a Wizard or Sorcerer, which can make them feel restrictive in longer adventuring days.
Complexity: Managing affinities, elemental combos, subclass features, and transformation states can be overwhelming for new players.

Tactics

tashas cauldron of everything monk — Monk uses Stunning Strike – Wizards of the Coast

Choose your spellcasting ability wisely: Since you can pick Int, Wis, or Cha, lean into whichever best fits your concept and synergises with multiclassing.

Don’t spread affinities too thin: Doubling down on a single element is very powerful, since it auto-upcasts all your spells of that type, without additional spell slots. For maximum success, specialise rather than spreading too thin across all four elements.

Choose the right Discipline for your role: The different available Disciplines (subclasses), allow you to fill the role the party needs. For example choose Ferocity for a damage dealing martial that wants to fill a close combatant role. Alternatively go for Fortification if you want to tank hits and protect allies.Fusion offers creativity and battlefield control and Invigoration lets you play a pseudo cleric party support/healer role.

How good is the bender?

Human Warrior of the open hand monk DND 2024 — Human Warrior of the open hand monk: Wizards of the Coast

The Bender feels quite strong, with the potential to maybe outscale a party a little compared to some D&D classes. Here are a few of the areas that might push it into top tier:

Versatility at level 1: Being able to pick your spellcasting ability score (Int, Wis, or Cha) makes multiclassing very easy and gives the class flexibility no other caster really has.

Elemental Affinity growth: Auto-upcasting every spell of your chosen element (without using additional spell slots) is incredibly powerful and could push damage beyond what you might expect for a spell caster at the Bender’s respective level.

Disciplines: Each one is presented as strong in its niche (damage, tanking, support, etc.), giving the class multiple strong options depending on build.

How to optimise a Bender

Monks — Monk of various discliplines – Wizards of the Coast

Ability scores

Recommended options

The Bender is unique in that you can choose which spellcasting ability you use for your bender spells from Intelligence, Wisdom, and Charisma. You use this ability whenever a bender spell refers to your spellcasting ability.

If you plan to multiclass later, choose the ability that matches that additional class (eg. Intelligence for Wizards, Charisma for Sorcerers) so that you don’t have to split between two spell casting abilities later.

If you plan to remain a dedicated Bender, you might consider Wisdom or Charisma over intelligence as these two stats tend to be used more often when making saving throws or in roleplay and exploration.

As for other stats, after the spell casting ability, dedicate points to Dexterity and Constitution to improve your armor class and health respectively. The rest of the stats you can flavour to taste, with Strength being the one to dump as it just won’t be used by this spell caster.

Ability score	Point Buy	Standard Array
Strength	8	8
Dexterity	14	14
Constitution	15	13
Intelligence	12	15
Wisdom	10	12
Charisma	8	10

Skills

Recommended options

As a Bender, the class allows you two skill proficiencies from Acrobatics, Athletics, History, Insight, Religion, and Stealth.

As mentioned the Bender is a fairly open ended class that you can flavour to your taste. If you leant into the monk-like elements and build into dexterity, then opt for skills like acrobatics or stealth. Alternatively if you choose to strengthen your spell casting ability (like intelligence) look at skills like arcana or insight.

Species/race

Since you can choose your spellcasting ability (Int, Wis, or Cha), the ideal race could depends on which ability you lock in. As such you could select a race that offers an innate stat boost in that area eg.

If you go Int-based, classic Wizard-friendly races (e.g., High Elf, Gnome, Enkoh) work
If Wis-based, go with something like Firbolg, Haniwa or Aarakocra
If Cha-based, Tieflings, Half-Elves and Hanamori receive a bonus in this area

However there are a few races that come packaged with other advantages useful to an agile spellcaster like the Bender.

Aarakocra: Flight is the main reason you might want to consider an Aarakocra for your Bender, it’s a huge advantage, not just in combat but in exploration too. However as a flyer, you can really be much more flexible in battle and have more control over who gets to engage you at close range.
Astral Elf: Can make a light version of misty step as a bonus action, which is hugely beneficial for a character who will not want to be locked down. You get a free cantrip choice and once per long rest you can borrow a skill proficiency.
Fairy: First off, they can fly, a great mobility buff. There is a bit of a trade off here as you can’t be wearing medium or heavy armor, so it probably wont work for a character under the Ferocity discipline There are also some useful innate spells included in the race, like faerie fire.
Goblin: Fury of the small grants a damage bonus to your spells against most creatures. Disengage and hide as bonus actions is also useful for a stealthier build of Bender too.

Choosing your subclass (Disclipline)

Ferocity (Damage Dealer)

Designed for players who want their Bender to hit as hard as a Fighter or Paladin. Focuses on boosting raw offensive output, making you a frontline threat. Best for players who want to lean into bursts of damage and aggressive playstyles.

Fortification (Protector)

Built for durability, great if you want to soak up damage and guard squishier members of the party. This Discipline encourages drawing enemy attention away from allies in a protector role. A strong choice if you want to shrug off damage and deal some of your own.

Fusion (Battle Field Controller)

Emphasises adaptability, letting you manipulate the battlefield with mixtures of the elements. Best for players who enjoy using clever tactics and creative combos over raw damage. This could really appeal to players who want an inventive playstyle.

Invigoration (Support/Healer)

Designed for keeping allies alive with a bit of healing and more often buffing their capabilities. A strong pick if you want to act as the party’s healer, buffer, and facilitate other party members to meet their potential.

Feats

Benders are very flexible in nature, but could benefit from a few specific feats. We are looking at 2014 feats for this class guide as Ryoko’s Guide was built with this version of the rules in mind.

Mobile – Benders aren’t as durable as dedicated frontline combatants and thus want to avoid being backed into a corner, being able to disengage without provoking opportunity attacks, plus longer movement can help you stay at arms length from threatening enemies looking to pin your character down.

Tough – If you go for the Ferocious discipline. Benders can hold their own, but are not as durable as a Barbarian or Fighter, if you are the party’s damage dealer, you will draw the ire of enemies quickly and need something to help you stay in the game.

War Caster – Comes with two great benefits, advantage on concentration checks stemming from damage taken and the being able to cast single target spells as an opportunity attack. So you are more likely to maintain a concentration spell after being hit and can really make an enemy regret trying to break away from you!

Resilient – Not the most exciting feat, but very functional, granting proficiency in that save and 1 point in the relevant ability score. Consider stats you may have dumped but could be required to make saves against (which may vary based on your chosen spell casting stat), and shore up your chances of failing those saving throws in future, without needing to build that stat up.

Weapons

Benders are proficient in simple or Monk weapons. While a short sword would be perfectly functional, you might consider some of the new weapons Ryoko’s guide offers. The chakram deals 1d4 damage and can be thrown or wielded hand to hand, offering the flexibility a mobile Bender needs.

You could also opt for Nunchuku, they deal 1d6 damage and feature the option to take a flourish before first attack. With this flourish, if you can pass a DC 13 dexterity saving throw, you get +2 to your attack roll. However a fail will deal your character damage equal to the attack’s proficiency bonus.If you opt to take a discipline in Ferocity, you will also gain access to martial weapons. A word of caution on two handed weapons, they will interfere with your ability to cast spells with a Somatic component – which definitely limits the flexibility that makes the Bender effective. As such, consider a rapier (effective under a dexterity or strength build) or long sword.

Armor

Generally the Bender is only proficient in light armor, so studded leather is the best option. That’s no problem though as after you have chosen your spellcasting stat, Dexterity should be the next highest in your array. Studded leather armor will make best use of a good Dexterity stat by using the characters dexterity modifier as part of the AC calculation.

If you chose the Ferocity or Fortification discipline for you can also utilise medium or heavy armor, plus a shield. Your choice here will depend on your build, if you opt for any of these armor types, you will waste any stealth optimisation you have built in, as they impose a disadvantage on stealth checks.

However if you aren’t concerned about this you can go half or full plate armor plus a shield for max durability. If you want to be durable and make the most of a good dex score, consider scale mail (AC 14+ dex mod), which could even outstrip full plate once you have maxed out dexterity.

Be wary if holding a shield, plus another weapon, you will not be able to cast spells that require a somatic component, which could really limit your Bender in battle, as the spells are one of your biggest advantages.