One of the biggest draws of Dungeons & Dragons is the ability to create any character you can think of. While it's a lot of fun to make some Frankenstein's monster of classes and feats, it's fun to build characters from pop culture as well. This particular build focuses on recreating Mulan from the 1998 Disney animated film, using the 5th Edition rules of Dungeons & Dragons.
Creating Mulan As A D&D Character
Mulan's Ability Scores, Class, And Subclass
Beginning with ability scores, the two you want to most focus on will be Dexterity and Wisdom. These numbers will be different depending on how your DM rules it– whether you use the point buy, the standard array, or rolling dice. Her next set of good scores should be Intelligence and Charisma, then Constitution, and Strength as the lowest. She's an agile fighter, and smart in battle, but not the strongest one on the field.
For race, Mulan is (obviously) human. For this build, take the variant human, which allows her to not only increase two ability scores by 1, but gives her an extra skill proficiency and a feat to start with as well. Increase her Dexterity and Wisdom, give her proficiency in Deception, and take the Magic Initiate feat. While Mulan herself didn't use magic, this feat gives us access to perks she has in the movie. Take the cantrips Blade Ward and Guidance, both of which will reflect the protection of her ancestors; and take the 1st level spell Find Familiar. Find Familiar gives her an animal companion, which is how you get Mushu (hopefully your DM is game to give you a dragon).
As for class, take Monk. It's possible to take Fighter instead, if you wish to avoid using Ki at all costs, but the monk just fits her quite well. From that class, she'll gain proficiency in Dex and Wis saves; take proficiency in Acrobatics and Insight as well. Again, this plays into her agility and smarts both on and off the battlefield. As for background, take Folk Hero. While Mulan didn't set out to get glory or to fulfill her destiny, she came from humble beginnings, and found the strength to overcome challenges just as well as any other destined fighter.
The next important decision comes at level three: which Monastic Tradition to take. For Mulan, Way of the Kensei works the best, allowing her to wield weapons other monks can't, giving her the strength of a raging fire. Make your first Kensei weapons the short sword and quarterstaff.
Mulan's Progression
At level four, you can raise a few ability scores. You'll want to raise Dex, if you're able to, and Str; as Mulan trains more as a soldier, she gets stronger and becomes a better fighter. Level six give you another ability from your monastic tradition, and in this case, another kensei weapon – take the longbow. Level eight is another ability score increase. Once again, you'll want to increase Dex and Str; however, if your Dex is already at 20, you won't be able to increase it more, so increase your Wis score instead. Level 11 will give you another kensei weapon; this time, learn how to more efficiently use the dagger.
Level 12 would normally be another ability score increase, though at the point, Mulan has had more than enough training to learn something completely new. Take the Martial Adept feat, which allows you to learn two special combat maneuvers from the list of Battle Master Fighter maneuvers, and gain a superiority die as well. Most any of the maneuvers would work for her, but Disarming Attack and Rally really fit. Not only can she disarm her opponents effectively, she can bolster her fighting companions as well.
Levels 13, 14, and 15 give you more incredible Monk class abilities. Level 16 gives you another decision between ability score increase or taking a feat. At this high of a level, we near the end of the movie, when Mulan's companions and abilities all really begin to stack together. We've had Mushu the entire game, now it's time to get her lucky cricket Cri-Kee, this time by taking the Lucky feat.
Level 17 gives you the last kensei weapon, so round out Mulan's collection with the shortbow. And finally, at level 19, if you haven't increased your Dex or Wis to their maximum of 20, do that now.
This is by no means a perfect build, nor has it been playtested, and some liberties were made in deciding class and abilities. But this, at least, is a good guideline if you wish to play Dungeons & Dragons as your favorite Disney Princess.
Sources: D&D 5e Wikidot