Sirens can be found throughout the universe, although it is believed that only six can exist at once. No one knows how a Siren is created or chosen, and they have immeasurable powers.

Sirens can be easily identified by their luminous tattoos that radiate when their powers are activated.

Bunkers & Badasses PHB, Siren Class, by Nerdvana

This is easily the most complex class that’s in this book. It kind of seems like two classes got put together. You can choose two different skill trees, one’s a Lightwalk and one’s the Phaselock. Both of them have different hit die (1d8 vs 1d6), different ability modifiers, different skill trees. So when you pick Siren, what you then immediately have to choose is what type of Siren are you.

All in all, this is a super complex class that if you’re used to playing complex casting characters, this might be a good fit for you. A lot of damage, a lot of healing capabilities depending on which way you go. But if you’re kind of new to the game, this might not be the best one to start out with.

Assuming you decide to try out the Siren, after you choose your element type, that’s when things get interesting and we choose a skill tree. Are we going to be a Lightwalk Siren or a Phaselock Siren?

Lightwalk vs Phaselock basics

Lightwalk is gonna have more Accuracy (+1 vs +0 on Phaselock) and Speed (+2 vs +1 on Phaselock). However, you get more Mastery (+2 vs +0 on Lightwalk) which means you can use your action skill more out of the gate.

Lightwalk is a little more aimed at you running into the fray and exploding yourself as you go cloaked with your Phasewalk action skill.

Phaselock is more about being at range and controlling characters by freezing them up with your Phaselock action skill.

Action Skill: Phasewalk vs Phaselock

Both action skills use a 3d6 damage roll and damages twice. Phasewalk does the damage when activating or deactivating, and since it lasts 2 turns you essentially do the damage at the beginning of turn 1, and then again at the end of turn 2. Phaselock does the damage each turn an enemy is in the energy sphere.

Outside of damage, the action skills have special abilities. Phasewalk allows you to get cloaked and gain extra movement. This means you can move around the field really well and avoid being targeted.

Meanwhile, Phaselock allows you to essentially freeze an enemy for 2 turns. This is really powerful ability, but to balance that it does no damage if the enemy is locked. The damage only happens if you CANNOT lock them. At least it is never a wasted use.

Skill trees: Lightwalk vs Phaselock

Looking at the Lightwalk skill tree, it really feels like you’re a walking cloud of explosions. You are meant to go in and do a lot of damage to a lot of people. Many of the skills modify damage, movement, or add additional explosions to your Phasewalk ability.

Meanwhile, looking at the Phaselock skill tree, a lot more is focused on things like health regen and shield regen and movement. There are some skills to improve damage, but it definitely feels like Phaselock is a very different type of approach to combat.

Backgrounds

The backgrounds are much more serious for the Siren and lean into the mysterious nature of Sirens in the Borderlands universe.

• LIVING WEAPON: A good pair with Lightwalk since it adds more damage (+1) at the expense of accuracy and sneak checks (-1 each)
• HIDDEN PAST: If you plan on running around a lot and trying to act before enemies, this gets you +1 Speed, but loses you -2 on Insight. Fair trade.
• PUBLIC FIGURE: Focuses specifically on melee damage (+2) with a negative to Search (-1). This is a really good choice if you are building a melee-driven Siren build, but not so good for the Phaselock who typically will be at ranged?
• FISTFUL OF HELL: The 1d6 random element damage for melee attacks is cool, but the cost of -1 on all Checks is not worth it.
• SOCIAL ANXIETY: Taking a -2 on Talk Checks to get +1 Accuracy is definitely a good balance, but I feel like other backgrounds have a better Min/Max opportunity.
• GUNWITCH: A great pick for the Phaselock with this +1 Mastery, but you do lose -2 on Traverse Checks so you better hope you don’t have to jump anything

Archetypes

When it comes to an archetype, um, probably the Elementalist, it fits in really well with either type of Siren. Maybe the Enforcer if you go with a melee damage approach with your character? But…. Probably Elementalist if you want to Min/Max.

Image credits:

• Cover image artwork copyright Gearbox, sourced from https://static0.gamerantimages.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/borderlands-3-lilith-ending.jpg