With the versatility of allowing players to create nearly any character they can imagine through clever combinations of classes, feats, and races, DC fans inspired by the recent trailer for the upcoming The Flash movie might find themselves wanting to bring the Scarlet Speedster to their next one-shot or campaign. With The Flash easily making lists of the most powerful DC hero, adapting Barry Allen to D&D is an interesting challenge that might be more trouble than it's worth.
While The Flash is capable of any number of amazing feats, his best-known ability is his super speed. In D&D, the average speed of a player is 30 feet per six-second round, which can be doubled to 60 feet by taking the dash action -- in all, a standard running speed for a human. In order to make a D&D character as fast as The Flash, players will need to explore everything the game has to offer in terms of bonuses to speed.
The Flash Build Summary
Race | Tabaxi |
Class | Monk (The Way of the Sun Soul) |
Background | Investigator |
Ability Scores (in order of importance) | Wisdom, Dexterity, Charisma, Intelligence, Constitution, Strength |
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The Best Race for The Flash
Despite Barry Allen being human, reaching the highest speeds in D&D is more important to building The Flash than looking the part. are easily the game's best speedsters. While Tabaxi have the same base speed of 30 that many of the other races have, their Feline Agility is a core feature for reaching the kind of speed required of The Flash. When moving during combat, Tabaxi can use this ability to double their speed until the end of their turn, making that 30 feet into 60, which then doubles when taking the dash action to 120 feet in six seconds, or about 13.6 miles per hour.
While a race like Wood Elf increases base walking speed to 35, and variant human can begin with the mobile feat that adds 10 to the character's walking speed, neither are capable of the same explosion of speed that Tabaxi offers. With the additional feats and class features The Flash will need, this doubling effect will continue to boost this movement speed.
The Best Background for The Flash
Due to its fantasy flavor, Dungeons & Dragons doesn't quite have a simple analog for Barry Allen's classic origin story as a forensic scientist struck by lightning. What D&D does have is the Investigator from Van Richten's Guide to Ravenloft, a backstory that can provide The Flash with many similar features found in his comic book origins. The backstory provides proficiencies in Insight, Investigation, or Perception, all of which can lend to The Flash's forensic origins, while the Official Inquiry feature provides a way for the charismatic speedster to talk his way into needed locations. The backstory can also provide a way of recreating the murder of The Flash's mother and the imprisonment of his father.
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The Best Class for The Flash
With speed still a top requirement, there's no better class for The Flash than Monk. The Monk's unarmored movement feature allows them to gain bonuses to their speed as they reach higher levels, reaching a total 60-foot walking speed when reaching the highest levels. Combined with a Tabaxi's Feline Agility and the dash action, this allows for 240 feet of movement in one round, or just over 27 miles per hour (Olympic runner Usain Bolt has a record top speed of 23.35 miles per hour, for reference). While no Monk subclasses offer even greater speeds, The Way of the Sun Soul provides The Flash with a radiant version of his electrifying other powers.
With multiclassing, it's possible to get even more speed out of The Flash. Having two levels in Rogue provides The Flash with Cunning Action, allowing him to Dash as a bonus action, upping the total speed to 360 feet in one round. Fighter provides Action Surge at second level, which also allows The Flash to take a second action.
The Flash's Ability Scores
With this build being primarily focused on squeezing out as much speed as possible, prioritizing Wisdom and Dexterity allows The Flash to make the most of the Monk's class features. While Charisma is normally a Monk's dump stat, Barry Allen's charm means it should be prioritized. Despite Intelligence, Constitution, and Strength also all being relevant for The Flash, these stats are likely to end up lower due to the higher numbers being required elsewhere to make a more usable build.
Related: The Flash's Biggest Video Game Is an Obscure Europe-only Release
The Flash's Best Feats
First and foremost, the Mobile feat is a requirement, giving The Flash an additional 10 feet of movement, removing restrictions on difficult terrain, and eliminating opportunity attacks from anything The Flash attacks. Taking this into account with the Monk's enhanced movement speed, a fully leveled Flash would have a base walking speed of 70 feet. Combining this with the Tabaxi's doubled movement speed, and Rogue and Fighter's additional Dash actions, The Flash would be able to move 560 feet each round, or approximately 63 miles per hour.
Why Building The Flash for Speed Doesn't Work
The downside to attempting to recreate The Flash's speed in D&D is that it will require an obscene amount of investment with little to actually offer the rest of the party. The Monk is already considered a sub-par choice, and by specializing in speed above all else, players will sacrifice damage output and more beneficial options to go fast as the game will allow.
While it might be fun for a while, the character wouldn't be able to stand up to much of D&D's late-game adventuring by merely being fast. Plus, the speed achieved still pales in comparison to what Barry Allen is capable of in the comics or films. All in all, a Flash build like this is more of a fun experiment than a viable gameplay strategy.
