Building an original Dungeons & Dragons persona is great fun, but an interesting challenge is transforming pre-existing IP into a playable character, and King Shark, from the 2021 Suicide Squad movie, is a perfect choice. Introduced to the audience reading The Varieties of Religious Experience (or at least pretending to, as he's holding the tome upside down), King Shark lumbers into battle unfazed by bullets, tearing enemies apart with his bear hands or swallowing them whole. From what audiences see of this maneater, building a King Shark Dungeons & Dragons character is fairly straightforward.
King Shark, also called Nanaue, was first introduced into the DC comics in 1994 as a humanoid great white shark, though in the New 52 comics he resembles a hammerhead. He a demigod from Hawaii, the progeny of the Shark God. This grants him a shark's abilities, from a mouth with rows of teeth (so sharp they can pierce Kryptonian skin) to sonar, gills, regenerative healing abilities and superhuman strength. He's also resistant to telepathy, likely due to his remarkably low intelligence. This is consistent with his portrayal in Suicide Squad as well, which used Nanaue's great white iteration and played up his simple nature for comedy and to build empathy for a villain looking for a friend.
There are plenty of Dungeons & Dragons builds that could be authentic to Suicide Squad's King Shark, a loveable, lonely, not-so-intelligent tank. Looking at the three main pillars of Dungeons & Dragons character creation, race, class and background, some options stand out as immediate wrong choices, such as a halfling or sorcerer, whose respective small stature and reliance on intelligence and charisma are incongruous with King Shark. Here's a dive into options in each category that would be good for a Dungeons & Dragons King Shark character.
Building A D&D King Shark Character
When looking at an ideal Dungeons & Dragons race to select for a King Shark build, it's important to look for tank-like qualities that would make him be able to withstand and deal massive amounts of damage in combat. One of the mixed races would be ideal as well, given King Shark's deific heritage and bipedal great white. Given these parameters, the half-orc is likely the best fit for King Shark's Dungeons & Dragons build, a humanoid beast renowned for its strength, ferocity and endurance. Other playable races could include triton, dragonborn, full orc, leonin or goliath.
The most obvious Dungeons & Dragons class choice for King Shark is the barbarian, described in the 5e handbook as "a fierce warrior of primitive background who can enter a battle rage." Choosing a shark for the Path of the Beast subclass at level three will further cement a King Shark character build, as it gives players a spark of bestiality that feeds their powers, and can even allow shapeshifting. A King Shark build could also use a fighter class, provided players choose dueling, great weapon, or two-handed as their fighting style. An argument could also be made for a King Shark cleric class, serving his father the Shark God, but players would need to alter their stats away from wisdom and charisma.
King Shark's best Dungeons & Dragons backgrounds are tricky. Given his history in the comics and DCU, criminal is likely the first background that comes to mind. However, players would need to work with their DM to alter their stats, as 5e criminals rely on deception and stealth, two things King Shark is notoriously bad at. Fitting backgrounds requiring no stat alteration could also include marine or pirate. There are also a couple of homebrew enforcer backgrounds, which would marry well with King Shark's muscle and intrinsic loyalty to those he considers friends, making him an excellent addition to any Dungeons & Dragons party.
Source: DNDBeyond, Brandes Stoddard