Building a Belmont

[J-H]

My Castlevania game (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?584059-Castlevania-dungeon-crawl-in-5th-edition-%28feedback-wanted%29) is well along, and I only have two areas left to build. I want to build Dracula in such a way that a 20th-level solo Beltmont could reasonably have a shot at beating him. (My party will be 12th level, 4-6 characters, at that time).

I'll go with Simon Belmont, as I know him best from the original NES game, Castlevania II (Simon's Quest), and Super Castlevania IV.

I'll update this post later with some more details, but my initial thoughts are:
Human - basic human for stats unless I need a feat. He's definitely not any other race.
Champion - Simon does lots of running, jumping, climbing, and swinging. Super-proficiency in Athletics reflects this well.
Stat Array - He's strong. He's tough. He wears medium armor (look at all the sprites), so he probably has decent Dex. There are no mental attacks in most of the Castlevania game, but we'll assume he's got relatively good judgement (unlike Richter), so his WIS score may be above average. He needs courage more than intelligence, and his Charisma will probably be whatever's left over. Fighter extra ASIs will help boost this.
Attacks - He hits things, a lot, including getting multipliers to use multiple secondary weapon attacks at a time. Fighter Extra Attack supports this.
Weapon use - Whip: Dex or Str; throwing axe, throwing dagger, boomerang axe, holy water; nothing out of the ordinary.
Shield - He uses a shield in CV2, and the whip in CV4 can be used as a semi-shield. And all of his weapons are one-handed. This boosts his AC and may help with some saves.
Saves - To make him better in a 5e environment, we need to find a way to boost saves. Feats may help with this.
Damage Resistance - It's possible to dip Barbarian for damage resistance or some other things, but he'll have plenty of HP, Healing Surge, etc.
Magic - None, really. With proper item use I think he can get by without it.

Right now, after writing this down - I think he is a Champion 20.

Items
He's 20th level. We already know his whip is artifact-tier and probably locked to the Belmont family. It can be used as a magic grappling hook, does bludgeoning damage, does fire damage, and bypasses vampiric DR.
Open to suggestions on other items; perhaps something that makes thrown daggers auto-magic, or a returning throwing axe? A magical armor? Something that boosts his ability to climb and jump?

[BarneyBent]

I’m thinking Ranger (Monster Slayer) 17/Rogue 3. Rogue gets you Expertise and other good stuff. You could also make it Rogue 1/Fighter 2. But Monster Slayer Ranger seems very appropriate for pretty much any Belmont.

[Chad.e.clark]

I would consider most Belmonts to be holy warriors, emphasis on the holy part. You might splash some fighter in here or there, but I think Paladin or Cleric would fit nicely. In fact, a War Cleric/ Gloomstalker split could nicely check a lot of boxes.

Martial Weapons? Check.
Wis and Cha saves for keeping your nerves while battling undead? Check.
Able to be heavy melee focused? Check.


You could flavor spiritual weapon and spirit guardians as the thrown items from the games, and sacred flame as the holy water.

[J-H]

I've always viewed the Castlevania games as being more of a physical challenge for the Belmonts. They just keep going and going and going through numerous monsters, very few of which have enough intelligence to do more than attack the body.

Here's my Champion 20 attempt:
https://www.dndbeyond.com/profile/JonathanH/characters/18725526

Note that since I do not have purchased content, he actually has two feats instead of +4 CHA:
1) Shield Master: Shield AC bonus (+4) to Dex saves; bonus action shove when attacking; use reaction to take no damage on a successful Dex save for half. 2) Resilient (WIS): +1 Wisdom, Proficiency in saves using Wis. This bumps the Wisdom save to +9.

Saves are +11, +2 (or +6), +11, +0, +9, and +1 respectively.

224hp.
1d10+20hp once per short rest
Regenerate 10hp/rd if under half health
2 action surges per short rest
4 attacks per round
Athletics +11, and +5' to long jump distance, for all those platforming areas.

With a +3 Breastplate, +2 Shield, and +3 whip - no attuned gear:
AC 24
Whip: To-hit of 14, for 1d4+10 damage (str +5, whip +3, fighting style +2), crits on 18-20

Even a foe with a +14 to hit will miss him half the time. I consider that a pretty good defense against physical attacks and spells with attack rolls. He's got reasonably good saves against all except INT & CHA attacks.

He's got a 60% chance of critting each round, so his average DPR is about ~4.6 his damage from a single attack. With a stock +3 whip with no bonuses, that's an average of 12.5 x 4.6 = 57.5 DPR all day long.

The Belmont whip is likely artifact-grade. A stab at it, drawing on the Sword of Kas & Mace of Disruption:
-Base damage 1d6, deals bludgeoning damage (chain whip)
-Bonus damage 1d10 fire damage
-Deals 2d10 radiant damage to undead
-Undead with fewer than 25hp must make a Wis DC15 save or be destroyed; on a successful save, they are frightened of the bearer for 1 round
-Bearer may cast Hero's Feast once per day (Turkey legs all over the castle?)
Plus a few minor properties.

As for the armor and shield - maybe resistances to fire, necrotic, and poison damage? Resistance to fear, charm, and advantage on saves versus spells cast by undead?

The whip puts him at 1d6+10+3d10 per hit versus Dracula. Average 3.5+10+16.5 = 30 damage per hit, x 4.6 = 138 DPR if all attacks hit.

The "average" CR 20 monster has AC 19, 300hp, an attack of +14, and deals an average of 100 damage over 3 rounds. I'm using the BlogOfHolding monster stats by CR chart (1 page). I always feel like the average damage on these is low, but whatever.
Over 3 rounds vs average CR 20, Simon deals: 138 x 3 x .8 (misses on 1-4) = 331.2 damage

If I recall, the damage calculations for CR 20 are that we assume all attacks hit... we know that the average +14 to hit will miss half the time, so over 3
rounds he might receive only 50 damage. Triple it to 150 damage and he's still ticking with some regeneration, second wind, and he hasn't even Action Surged yet.
If Dracula really does hit for 100 damage per round even against AC 24, then Simon has two rounds, after which point he'll have taken 300 damage. However, he can action surge twice, for average total DPR over two action-surging rounds of 552.


I guess I could tone down the notional whip?