Building Nightmare from Soulcaliber?

[Voidstar01]

So how should I do this? I feel like Hexblade is a given because thats almost literally what he is. Part of me wants to take some paladin (conquest/oathbreaker of course), but he's also very angry so I could see some Barbarian, Fighter also has some merit.


What race do you think I should use? Variant human is an obvious possibility, But Fallen aasimar gives an excellent "Soul Charge" and Darkvision.

What feats? so far I have: Great weapon mastery, heavy armor master, Blademaster(UA)


End game weapon choice is definitely Blackrazor.( my DM rules that the non-sentient weapons only part of pact of the blade doesn't effect hexblades)

[Tawmis]

So how should I do this? I feel like Hexblade is a given because thats almost literally what he is. Part of me wants to take some paladin (conquest/oathbreaker of course), but he's also very angry so I could see some Barbarian, Fighter also has some merit.
What race do you think I should use? Variant human is an obvious possibility, But Fallen aasimar gives an excellent "Soul Charge" and Darkvision.
What feats? so far I have: Great weapon mastery, heavy armor master, Blademaster(UA)
End game weapon choice is definitely Blackrazor.( my DM rules that the non-sentient weapons only part of pact of the blade doesn't effect hexblades)

Rather than dip Hexblade/Paladin/Fighter or Barbarian - couldn't you just stick with Hexblade / Paladin (Oathbreaker) and use whatever the reason for becoming an "Oathbreaker" as the reason he's so angry?

The whole "collecting of souls" for Soul Edge (or whatever the case may be for you) can be tied to the Hexblade path (and some demon; say like Orcus).

For a Race, Nightmare is extremely tall, big built - so I'd go with like a Goliath. (Or if your DM permits it, Half-Ogre).

[LentilNinja]

(Big Soul Calibur fan & Nightmare main, here's my two cents)

Stats: CHA for Hexblade SADness, CON for durability, 13 STR for multiclassing. Rest where sensible.

Race: Fallen Aasimar. Nightmare was originally human, but if we're thinking mechanically the Necrotic Shroud is akin to his Night Terror transformation (wings, scary transformation, frightening enemies & bonus damage). also, +2 CHA for your class.

Class: Hexblade Warlock. Smite spells for his powered-up attacks, Curse for bonus damage in a 1 on 1 fight (since SC is a 1v1 game), and CHA to ATK & DMG because your power comes from your DARKNESS! You'll want to take this to level 3 for the Blade pact, so you can make a Greatsword your weapon of choice.

Multiclassing: If you want to MC, it depends as to whether you want to leave Warlock at level 3 or dip and stay with Warlock. Staying with Warlock gets you more invocations & spells, but HP wise you'd be squishier. Picking invocations to enhance your blade means you should keep up DPR with martial characters, and your Hexblade abilities let you bind souls & ignore 50% of your cursed targets attacks later on.

Taking this route, while I can see the Paladin's smites being an obvious choice I'd suggest Fighter instead. Taking Fighter 1st level gets you better proficiencies (This could be Siegfried before he turns into Nightmare) for then going into Hexblade. Either of the classes grants you a Fighting Style, to which I'd pick up GWF (rolling 2d6 makes best use of it). Fighter 1 also gets Second Wind for a d10+FL to make you more durable, and Fighter 2 grants the Action Surge which can be used to really wail on an opponent. Thematic but optional, Fighter 3 into Battle Master gives you 3 maneuvers to play with (IIRC, Nightmare has the combat abilities of everyone who's ever wielded Soul Edge) to increase that fighting game feeling. You can however stop progressing Warlock at level 11 / 12 / 14 if you wish, giving room for a Paladin 2 dip early for Smites too.

Leaving Warlock at 3, I'd take the rest as Paladin and focus on short rest smiting & the Oaths. You'll get a bunch of non-Nightmarey abilities but you'll still hit like him. If Oathbreaker isn't an option, Vengeance seems like the best choice for Nightmare as spells like Hunter's Mark, Misty Step, and Haste would work well for his fighting style. Conquest is also a decent choice however with choices like Armor of Agathys, Command, and Bestow Curse to name a few.

Invocations: I know Nightmare doesn't have a projectile, but Night Terror can fire lasers so Agonizing Blast seems fitting. The other is preference: Devil's Sight never goes amiss, Mask of Many Faces can help hide your identity (I think Nightmare's done that before), etc etc. If maining Warlock, I'd use the other invocations to enhance your Blade Pact.

Feats: GWM can work in your favour as a cursed target crits on 19/20. If UA is available, Blade Master sounds reminiscent of the perfect guard. Rest is preference.

Equipment: Longsword until Blade Pact, Greatsword onwards. Chainmail due to 13 STR, I wouldn't personally go for 15 STR just for +2 AC but that's just me.

Whipped this up quickly, so don't take as gospel! Thematically I'd pick to main Warlock, but there's definitely merits to either paths. Let me know what you think :)

[Voidstar01]

Whipped this up quickly, so don't take as gospel! Thematically I'd pick to main Warlock, but there's definitely merits to either paths. Let me know what you think :)

Right so throughout the day I debated the merits of two builds, since translating Nightmare mechanically was doomed to fail (fighting games don't translate well to turn based RPGs... who knew) I chose to focus on translating him lorewise.

Those builds were Oathbreaker 15/ Hexlock 5 (known now as Palock) and Oathbreaker 8/Hexlock 12 (known now as hexadin) here's what I got:


Average damage per round (not including smites, GWM attack, or rerolled 1's and 2's):


Palock: 40


Hexadin: 42

HP at 20:

Palock: 147

Hexadin: 128

Defensive abilities:

Palock: Aura of Protection, Supernatural Resistance, aura of courage, Heavy armor (full plate)

Hexadin: Aura of Protection, Armor of Hexes, Medium armor (half-plate)

Offensive Abilities:

Palock: Divine Smite, Eldritch Smite, aura of hate, hex blades curse, improved smite

Hexadin: Divine Smite, Eldritch Smite, aura of hate, hex blades curse, Life Drinker


About heavy armor: With the pointbuy, 13, 10, 14, 10, 10, 15

Racial modifiers Bring this up to 14, 10, 14, 10, 10, 17 and im able to grab the 15 in strength needed for plate armor at warlock 4 (character level 5) at the same time I round off CHA

TL;DR: I'm going with Oathbreaker 15/Warlock 5 because it hits almost as hard on average and is significantly harder to kill, making it IMO a more accurate representation of Nightmare (unless we can collectively concoct a better build)


So I know dumping wisdom is a bad call gameplaywise, But lorewise Siegfried failed the wisdom save to not pick up Soul Edge, and it'd let me boost Con to 15 base (up to sixteen if I take Heavy armor Mastery or another half-feat) Thoughts?

[SaigonTimeMD]

Gonna have to watch this thread really close; Nightmare's my favorite SC character!

[LentilNinja]

TL;DR: I'm going with Oathbreaker 15/Warlock 5 because it hits almost as hard on average and is significantly harder to kill, making it IMO a more accurate representation of Nightmare (unless we can collectively concoct a better build)

I think this build is pretty ideal: I too agree with taking the build that offers more HP, and with improved smite & eldritch smite + curses you'll be good at 1 to 1 fights.

If you're willing to part with Supernatural Resistance, reducing Paladin to 13 for the Fighter 2 dip comes back to mind as it increases your durability & grants an extra action for higher output. You can also take a 2nd fighting style, and since you'd have GWF I'd recommend either Defense for a flat +1 AC or, if UA is available, Close Quarters Shooting for EB sniping.

You can take a 3rd level and give up your 4th level spell for those 3 maneuvers. I didn't realize this before, but if allowed you could combine Eldritch Smite & Divine Smite with Sweeping Attack to double your output. Riposte reminds me of the guard impact, letting you attack on your opponent's 'turn'. Precision Attack is just another way of getting damage on your attack.

Alternatively, taking Warlock 6 gives you the Specter from Hexblade (and an extra spell known at 3rd level) which is extra action economy.

Apart from that, the build looks solid at the moment. Extra dips or not, I think you've got a solid character there.

[Citadel97501]

Drow Bard on Youtube came up with an interesting one, he used a Barbarian & Paladin mix as you can smite while raging.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tgjf3FzU9nQ&t=7s

[No brains]

If you want to acknowledge the mechanics of Soulcalibur a little, don't use a class that has phenomenally high ac or hp. In a many ways, Nightmare is just as easy to hit as everyone else. I guess that plate is Disguise Self.:smalltongue:

He does have a few impact and revenge attacks that could be represented by some extra AC. Also given how blocking in SoulCalibur is safer than in other fighting games given the lack of chip, maybe the 'average' soul fighter would have pretty high AC to start with.

Another point, which Nightmare do you want to be? In Soul Edge to SoulCalibur 2- then again in SC5, Nightmare is a person. In SoulCalibur 3 and 4, he's something of a construct. If you're doing 3 or 4, then Warforged is a cromulent choice for race.

Last thing, if you wanna be SC2 Nightmare, you gotta say 'Go away!' in the way he does. It's almost like 'Gowa-way!':smallbiggrin: