Building Alucard from Hellsing (D&D 3.5)

[Nettlekid]

Hey all. In an overpowered low-Epic campaign that I'm going to be in soon, my friend has asked my help in building Alucard from Hellsing. The level is 21, and assume that we can get the Vampire template either for free or for just +1 LA or something, because the whole party is quite OP and the DM is a generous, rule-of-cool type. How best to imitate Alucard's abilities? Actually, what are they all? There's the trademark dual-wielding pistols (perhaps TWF Hand Crossbows would work?) There's the summoning of that shapeless blob thing. Shadow manipulation sort of, and intangibility. He seems to have teleportation and telekinesis. There's the soul absorption and shapeshifting, using the stored souls' abilities (to a degree).

A lot of Alucard's powers are replicated with either standard Vampire or Vampire Lord, like the telekinesis, gaseous form, hypnosis, fast healing, immunity to vampire weaknesses like sunlight, and standard vampire traits like bloodsucking. But there are still a few to be determined, most notably his destructive skill with those pistols. My friend doesn't really like casters, but I was thinking that a Psion or Erudite might fit the purpose well. Or an Ardent, if we only need a few choice powers. But on the other hand, to make the most out of the pistols/hand crossbows, I'm sort of tempted to say Rogue or Scout with Hand Crossbow Focus and Crossbow Sniper, and then I guess UMDing the special abilities? But UMD is kind of lame if you're making supposedly an incredible vampire.

Anyway, any thoughts?

[Big Fau]

Have fun with that. Alucard's abilities are significantly more powerful than what D&D can reasonably replicate, aside from his gunslinging most abilities he has would be best replicated with Epic Spells.

Exalted is more the system for making Alucard.

[Eldan]

I'm not sure you should give him the vampire template. There's a lot of strange stuff in there he doesn't really need.

The basics are combat power, phenomenal regeneration and some summoning/shapeshifting. It might be either, really.

I would suggest druid, for the basics. Or Wildshape Ranger. Then, I don't know. Master of Many Forms can work, with Warshaper.

Perhaps half-troll or something similar for regeneration.

If you want to be undead, I'd try Necropolitan, or half-vampire. It saves a lot of levels.

[Nettlekid]

Let me restate: Getting the vampire template either for free or a measly +1 LA. Not a lot of cost.

It's true that there are some things in the vampire template that might not be necessary, but those can just be...unused. The flavor of Vampire is just too good to imitate with a Necropolitan that spams Vampiric Touch or something.

I don't know about all that much that Alucard does that can't be imitated by spells. Maybe in the final battle, when he sends the wave of all his familiars out, that's a little much. (Though I can imagine it could still be done.) But apart from that, what else is too much?

[Eldan]

If you get access to high level magic, which you should, there's spells in the Spell Compendium that summon large-ish groups of creatures to assist you. So, you have that covered.d

[Saidoro]

Straight DMM persist cloistered cleric. Grab divine warrior, knowledge devotion, zen archery, hand crossbow focus and two-weapon fighting and load up on damage boosting spells at the start of each day. It's kind of an inefficient style, but as a T1 caster you can afford some inefficiency.

[Big Fau]

Let me restate: Getting the vampire template either for free or a measly +1 LA. Not a lot of cost.

It's true that there are some things in the vampire template that might not be necessary, but those can just be...unused. The flavor of Vampire is just too good to imitate with a Necropolitan that spams Vampiric Touch or something.

Vampire also gives you a weakness to sunlight, running water, and other things that Alucard outright ignores. He went from England to Brazil on a plane, and was flying first class the whole way instead of sitting in cargo in his coffin (poor Serras).

Really, the only things he has in common with D&D vampires are drinking blood (which is implied he does for the lulz, seeing as draining Rip Van Winkle dry added her to his familiars) and creating other vampires.

As for what powers he has, he's nigh invulnerable for a start. The only reason he gets hurt is because he's toying with his opponents; he just regenerates too quickly for it to be practically replicated in D&D mechanics (Craft Contingent Spell for multiple True Resurrections is the only way I know of that can get away with it, as he did come back from being decapitated). Then you have the familiars, super strength, ability to fuse with objects (the jet that he crashed into the aircraft carrier, and then the carrier itself), mind control (admittedly an easily replicable ability), and none of this is counting what would happen if he ever took a fight seriously. And then you have the different versions (OVA vs original Anime, where he could turn into Godzilla).

In fact, I don't think he ever actually showed just how powerful he could truly be. He was always holding back, and D&D has a hard time of mimicking something as powerful as he was even while holding back. Spellcasting can do some of what he was capable of, but then you lose out on his gunslinging and regenerative abilities (again, since spells can't really duplicate that accurately).

[Nettlekid]

If you get access to high level magic, which you should, there's spells in the Spell Compendium that summon large-ish groups of creatures to assist you. So, you have that covered.d


Straight DMM persist cloistered cleric. Grab divine warrior, knowledge devotion, zen archery, hand crossbow focus and two-weapon fighting and load up on damage boosting spells at the start of each day. It's kind of an inefficient style, but as a T1 caster you can afford some inefficiency.

Although I did say that my friend that I'm thinking about this for doesn't like spellcasting, DMM Cleric actually sounds like a pretty good suggestion. With DMM Persist, you can load up on your buffs at the beginning of the day, and not care about casting through the day, so it's almost like not being a caster. And I do like the Summon Monster suggestion for Alucard's familiars. Since my character is a pretty cheesed up War Weaver, I'm also providing lots of buffs, but more arcane than divine, so this evens out well.


Vampire also gives you a weakness to sunlight, running water, and other things that Alucard outright ignores. He went from England to Brazil on a plane, and was flying first class the whole way instead of sitting in cargo in his coffin (poor Serras).

Really, the only things he has in common with D&D vampires are drinking blood (which is implied he does for the lulz, seeing as draining Rip Van Winkle dry added her to his familiars) and creating other vampires.

As for what powers he has, he's nigh invulnerable for a start. The only reason he gets hurt is because he's toying with his opponents; he just regenerates too quickly for it to be practically replicated in D&D mechanics (Craft Contingent Spell for multiple True Resurrections is the only way I know of that can get away with it, as he did come back from being decapitated). Then you have the familiars, super strength, ability to fuse with objects (the jet that he crashed into the aircraft carrier, and then the carrier itself), mind control (admittedly an easily replicable ability), and none of this is counting what would happen if he ever took a fight seriously. And then you have the different versions (OVA vs original Anime, where he could turn into Godzilla).

In fact, I don't think he ever actually showed just how powerful he could truly be. He was always holding back, and D&D has a hard time of mimicking something as powerful as he was even while holding back. Spellcasting can do some of what he was capable of, but then you lose out on his gunslinging and regenerative abilities (again, since spells can't really duplicate that accurately).

The Vampire Lord template removes much of a Vampire's weaknesses, or at least greatly mitigates them. Running water does nothing. Sunlight just disorients a little, making them take between -4/-6 to stuff, which if my War Weaver does his job of giving everyone more than +55 to hit then it basically doesn't matter. Plus an amulet of Cloak of Dark Power makes it not matter.

You're right that the invulnerability is hard to outright imitate, but a vampire's DR and Fast Healing kind of hints at that to a much lesser degree. If we go the DMM Persist route, Persisted Delay Death and Quickened Harm can effectively allow taking of massive damage with few adverse effects. Plus, although Alucard does that, it would be boring to just take tons of hits in D&D because you'd be wasting your turns, and no one likes to do that.

Familiars: Children of the Night (maybe refluffed, or hit with Polymorph Any Object?) and Summon Monster. Super strength? Vampire Lords would get a total of +12, pre-buffs, to their racial stats. That's more than superhuman. And a DMM Cleric abusing Greater Consumptive Field would have sky-high Str. I'm not really sure what you mean by "fuse with objects," I don't remember him doing that, but would Animate Objects suit it? Mind control is offered to regular Vampires. And true, he doesn't do things seriously, but neither would this character. This character might have all kinds of high powered spells at his disposal, but instead chooses to dual-wield hand crossbows. If he went serious, he could nuke everything.

The only thing I'm thinking for the gunslinging power is maybe some Ranger spells, like Hunter's Eye. Perhaps an item of that, or make this out of an Archivist rather than Cleric? Then again, neither Archivist or Cleric have the real flavor of Alucard.

[Platymus Pus]

Hellsing huh?
This would have to be before he really becomes "omnipresent"or becomes nearly undying by having millions of souls. So, base hellsing
Favored enemy vampires would be a nice thing to have from ranger.
But hellsing is a gunslinger. hmm

Vampire also gives you a weakness to sunlight, running water, and other things that Alucard outright ignores. He went from England to Brazil on a plane, and was flying first class the whole way instead of sitting in cargo in his coffin (poor Serras).

Really, the only things he has in common with D&D vampires are drinking blood (which is implied he does for the lulz, seeing as draining Rip Van Winkle dry added her to his familiars) and creating other vampires.

As for what powers he has, he's nigh invulnerable for a start. The only reason he gets hurt is because he's toying with his opponents; he just regenerates too quickly for it to be practically replicated in D&D mechanics (Craft Contingent Spell for multiple True Resurrections is the only way I know of that can get away with it, as he did come back from being decapitated). Then you have the familiars, super strength, ability to fuse with objects (the jet that he crashed into the aircraft carrier, and then the carrier itself), mind control (admittedly an easily replicable ability), and none of this is counting what would happen if he ever took a fight seriously. And then you have the different versions (OVA vs original Anime, where he could turn into Godzilla).

In fact, I don't think he ever actually showed just how powerful he could truly be. He was always holding back, and D&D has a hard time of mimicking something as powerful as he was even while holding back. Spellcasting can do some of what he was capable of, but then you lose out on his gunslinging and regenerative abilities (again, since spells can't really duplicate that accurately).

Alucard isn't really all that powerful in the big picture of things.
Though he is too powerful and varied to do anything but homebrew unless you want a really watered down alucard.