Introduction
Introduced in Guildmaster’s Guide to Ravnica, the Loxodon is an elephantine humanoid, bearing the elephant’s distinct trunk, ears, leathery skin, and other cosmetic features.
The Loxodon’s traits are really fun, but their ability increases are mechanically limiting. Constitution and Wisdom are a great combination for clerics and druids, but literally anything else will lag offensively which makes other class options much less appealing. The combination of Loxodon Serenity and Natural Armor offer useful defensive options, especially if you’re playing a class with poor armor options like the Druid. THey also get Powerful Build like the Goliath, but most loxodons won’t have much use for Strength unless you’re using the custom origin rules.
Table of Contents
Disclaimer
RPGBOT uses the color coding scheme which has become common among Pathfinder build handbooks, which is simple to understand and easy to read at a glance.
- : Bad, useless options, or options which are extremely situational. Nearly never useful.
- : OK options, or useful options that only apply in rare circumstances. Useful sometimes.
- : Good options. Useful often.
- : Fantastic options, often essential to the function of your character. Useful very frequently.
We will not include 3rd-party content, including content from DMs Guild, in handbooks for official content because we can’t assume that your game will allow 3rd-party content or homebrew. We also won’t cover Unearthed Arcana content because it’s not finalized, and we can’t guarantee that it will be available to you in your games.
The advice offered below is based on the current State of the Character Optimization Meta as of when the article was last updated. Keep in mind that the state of the meta periodically changes as new source materials are released, and the article will be updated accordingly as time allows.
Loxodon Classes (Customizable Origins)
This section assumes that you’re using the option “Customizing Your Origin” rules presented in Tasha’s Cauldron of Everything. If you’re not using those rules, scroll down to the next section.
The ability to rearrange the Loxodon’s ability score increases allows them to explore options beyond Wisdom-based spellcasters. Natural Armor becomes a more significant trait, as do other traits like Loxodon Serenity and Trunk.
Artificer
The Loxodon brings very little to the Artificer. Loxodon Serenity is always nice, and Trunk might help you to juggle tools or something, but that’s about it.
Barbarian
Loxodon Serenity is great on the Barbarian since Charm and Fear effects can so easily take you out of a fight, and you can grapple with your trunk if your hands are full of stuff like weapons.
Bard
Natural Armor allows you to ignore Dexterity, allowing you to go all-in on Constitution and Charisma without sacrificing your AC.
Cleric
Loxodon Serenity is nice, but otherwise the traits are wasted on the Cleric.
Druid
Natural Armor is a great addition to the Druid, allowing you to much more easily address the Druid’s poor durability simply by focusing on Constitution and Wisdom, which is already a good choice for the Druid.
Fighter
Loxodon Serenity is great on the Fighter since Charm and Fear effects can so easily take you out of a fight, and you can grapple with your trunk if your hands are full of stuff like weapons.
Monk
Loxodon Serenity is much less important once you get Stillness of Mind at level 7, and Natural Armor is redundant with Unarmored Defense. Perhaps the most interesting thing about a loxodon monk is that you can use the trunk to make unarmed attacks, so you can use Martial Arts with your trunk. That’s amusing and it’s certainly a fun visual, but it’s not an effective build.
Paladin
The Loxodon brings very little to the Paladin. Natural Armor is largely wasted, Loxodon Serenity is at least partially redundant, and while it’s nice to be able to grapple enemies with a sword and shield in hand, that’s simply not enough.
Ranger
Natural armor makes it easier to accomplish a Strength-based build because you can ignore Dexterity entirely without sacrificing AC. However, unlike the Tortle your AC will still lag until you can get your Constitution up to 20.
Rogue
The Loxodon brings very little to the Rogue. You might be able to use Trunk to manage items more easily (important for the Thief’s Fast Hands feature), but that’s not enough to make the Rogue a go-to option.
Sorcerer
Natural Armor allows you to ignore Dexterity, allowing you to go all-in on Constitution and Charisma without sacrificing your AC.
Warlock
Natural Armor allows you to ignore Dexterity, allowing you to go all-in on Constitution and Charisma without sacrificing your AC.
Wizard
Natural Armor allows you to ignore Dexterity, allowing you to go all-in on Constitution and Intelligence without sacrificing your AC.
Loxodon Classes (Default Rules)
Artificer
No Intelligence increase.
Barbarian
No Strength increase, and Natural Armor won’t outdo the Barbarian’s Unarmored Defense so it’s mostly redundant. Loxodon Serenity helps with some effects which barbarians frequently have trouble with, but that’s not enough.
Bard
Constitution and Natural Armor can allow you to totally disregard Dexterity, but without a Charisma increase you’ll lag behind other builds on all of the Bard’s most important capabilities.
Cleric
Wisdom and Constitution are perfect, and Loxodon Serenity protects you from some nasty effects which can take you out of a fight.
Druid
Druids have famously terrible AC, and with just d8 hit points they’re often very frail. The Constitution increase and Natural Armor both address those issues nicely, and increasing your Constitution will improve both your AC and your hit points. I would avoid Circle of the Moon since you’ll lose everything except Loxodon Serenity while using Wild Shape, but any other circle should work nicely.
Fighter
The Constitution increase and Loxodon Sereneity are all that you benefit from significantly. You can use your trunk to grapple, but that’s more of a novelty than an actual tactical option.
Monk
Constitution and Wisdom are great, but you’ll lag offensively and Natural Armor won’t get you as much AC as the Monk’s Unarmored Defense.
Paladin
The Constitution increase and Loxodon Serenity are all that you benefit from significantly. You can use your trunk to grapple, but that’s more of a novelty than an actual tactical option.
Ranger
Druidic warrior makes a ranger absolutely possible. With the Loxodon’s Constitution-based natural armor, you can go for a Constitution/Wisdom build similar to a loxodon druid and do very well. You’ll likely need to avoid Dexterity-based skills, but you can do just fine as a front-line character by building around options like Shillelagh.
Rogue
The Constitution increase and Loxodon Sereneity are all that you benefit from significantly. Trunk is a neat gimick, but it won’t help much with stealing stuff.
Sorcerer
No Charisma increase. Natural armor is a useful AC boost, but Mage Armor can address the same issue.
Warlock
No Charisma increase, and natural armor won’t be much better than light armor.
Wizard
No Intelligence increase. Natural armor is a useful AC boost, but Mage Armor can address the same issue.
