How would you go about recreating Klaus from Umbrella Academy?

[Syries]

So if you haven’t watched the show, Klaus can speak to the dead and

Umbrella Academy spoiler:

he can even make various spirits (or at least one) manifest physically to interact and fight.

Outside of his abilities he’s a drug addict but very charming and witty. No physical combat potential outside his spirit abilities. On the contrary he’s kind of useless in combat himself.

So Spiritualist and Medium are the first classes that come to mind for recreating Klaus, but I would be interested to see what others can come up with. The character obviously has to have a focus on spirits, maybe undead though that’s not quite the vibe Klaus has going for him. The spirits are other people, not monsters. And they/it would be the focus of the character, not necessarily Klaus himself as he would just be the channaler.

Maybe a summoner would work if the eidolon was the right base form? What do you guys think? No 3PP, and try for as little reflavoring as possible.

[Bjørn Røyrvik]

The problem with this sort of thing is these people are all one-trick ponies. At will, in some cases quite powerful, but still rarely more than can be modeled with a single spell or Su ability.

Ben's ability was basically Evard's Black Tentacles, and the only other ability we've seen Klaus have is an inconstant Speak With Dead, so either a cleric with a special spell, or a wizard with a special spell (or Limited Wish).

Do you count TSR/WotC as 3rd party?
Plenty of spirit-based spells to choose from there. If we could use 2e spells it would be easier, since you could use Summon Spirit instead of Speak with Dead, and variants on spirit summoning/communication, binding, etc..

[Slyme]

I think either Medium or Spiritualist could work...he kind of manifests spirits, but he also kind of channels them. If you are going purely for his connection with Ben, I'd say either a Champion Spirit focused Medium, or Spiritualist with a focus on fighting with their phantom.

Bjorn has a good suggestion as well...maybe just make him a caster and all his spell effects manifest as some type of spirit energy. I wouldn't go full out Necromancy...but talk to your GM and see if you can just flavor all your spell effects as spirit manifestations.