D&D 5E i wanna make a Gunslinger vampire/demon hunter

[The Wonderful Rogue]

Hi everyone! i'm new here and i made this account just to ask about this and here from other people about this topic.

about... yesterday, i got obsessed with vampire lore and all that jazz, and i thought about making a gunslinging hunter who shoots silver bullets against night crawling creatures... and i thought "maybe a fighter gunslinger/grave cleric would be good... or maybe a ranger cleric" i even went to the extend of start creating my own homebrew ranger conclave(not finished). But i wanna go either vanilla DnD or using only classes commonly accepted by the community (such as the gunslinger) so i'd love to read what you guys have to say about this topic and what advice could i get from de community... ALSO ALSO, in the end and for the sake of making a useful character in general and not only in specific scenarios, i decided to turn this vampire hunter into a demon/undead hunter (fighting fiends, ghouls, imps, undeads, all that stuff).

 

[Benjamin Olson]

The original player character for whom the original D&D cleric class was created was a vampire hunter, so some cleric levels are definitely thematic. I'd probably go with War Domain as a dip for what seems to be primarily a ranged martial character, but do what feels right for your character. Arcana domain would let you use your channel divinity for turning (and eventually banishing) those demons and devils as well as the undead. Grave cleric gives you a straight-up undead detector ability (super on brand for your character), but it doesn't work on undead behind full cover (which is most scenarios where undead detecting is useful to everyday adventuring), so unless you know this is going to be a campaign where you actually have to figure out which NPC is secretly a vampire it's a pretty niche ability. I don't think the other grave cleric abilities particularly support your goals but your mileage may vary.

You need to figure out firearms with your DM. If they are going to require specific firearm proficiency then you are going to want the Gunslinger subclass or the Gunner feat. If not you may well find you like what some other fighter subclass brings to the table more (Battlemasters can actually do very similar things), though Gunslingers do have Wisdom as a secondary stat, so there is extra synergy with cleric.

Personally I'd probably go with Ranger over Fighter for a vampire hunter with a cleric dip. Not only are Rangers the hunter-of-specific-creatures-oriented class, but getting a little more spell-slot progression will be nice. Monster-Slayer is the most thematic choice, but it has a fairly niche level 11 ability compared to other subclasses so if you think you'd take that many Ranger levels I'd probably choose something else.

In terms of order and number of levels, if you want to be martial-oriented conventional wisdom on a build like this is that you should beeline for five levels of Fighter or Ranger to get extra attack, though I personally would advocate for grabbing a Cleric level early if that fits the character, your playstyle, and/or the table's needs. The benefits of getting a little clerical magic several levels earlier can easily outway the drawback of spending one more level without an extra attack.

After getting extra attack I'd probably grab as many cleric levels as you want and then go back to your martial of choice. If the martial class is fighter I might try to work in Fighter 6 earlier for the ASI.

 

[Stormonu]

I think a Paladin (Oath of Vengeance?) that swaps heavy armor proficiency for ranged smites would be the way to go. Would require DM approval for the ranged smite, but I think it ticks most of the other boxes.

 

[Parmandur]

Yeah, Monster Hunter Ranger with the Gunner Feat and appropriate favored enemies. Maybe a Dampire for the Race.

 

[The Wonderful Rogue]

I think a Paladin (Oath of Vengeance?) that swaps heavy armor proficiency for ranged smites would be the way to go. Would require DM approval for the ranged smite, but I think it ticks most of the other boxes.

i'll talk to the DM cause i was thinking the same thing, ranged smites would be awesome

 

[doctorbadwolf]

Hi everyone! i'm new here and i made this account just to ask about this and here from other people about this topic.

about... yesterday, i got obsessed with vampire lore and all that jazz, and i thought about making a gunslinging hunter who shoots silver bullets against night crawling creatures... and i thought "maybe a fighter gunslinger/grave cleric would be good... or maybe a ranger cleric" i even went to the extend of start creating my own homebrew ranger conclave(not finished). But i wanna go either vanilla DnD or using only classes commonly accepted by the community (such as the gunslinger) so i'd love to read what you guys have to say about this topic and what advice could i get from de community... ALSO ALSO, in the end and for the sake of making a useful character in general and not only in specific scenarios, i decided to turn this vampire hunter into a demon/undead hunter (fighting fiends, ghouls, imps, undeads, all that stuff).

Not sure how well cleric works with ranged weapon combat, but turn undead certainly fits.

Monster Slayer Ranger has a little bit of what you want, but honestly not enough to go out of your way for IMO.

I wouldn’t mess with Gunslinger unless your DM is using Exandria style firearms. For any other model of firearms, the Battlemaster with the Gunner feat is just flat-out better. Hell a rogue with a custom archetype modeled on the arcane trickster but for ranged weapon combat* and “grit”, with reflavored hand crossbows, might work even better.

*what I mean here is, use AT gets 1/3 casting and some neat little tricks. You could take the trick shots of the gunslinger or even the trick attacks of the BM, and just not add damage, and it works.

 

[doctorbadwolf]

Man…yeah, I think a Gunslinger Rogue with a pool of Grit that they can spend to add effects to an attack, or to reduce incoming damage or push through a save, and a quick draw ability, would do a treat.

Maybe bake most of the crossbow expert benefits but for guns, to get the bonus action attack online even if fears aren’t available. I’ll write one up later and see how it looks.

 

[Cap'n Kobold]

Hi everyone! i'm new here and i made this account just to ask about this and here from other people about this topic.

about... yesterday, i got obsessed with vampire lore and all that jazz, and i thought about making a gunslinging hunter who shoots silver bullets against night crawling creatures... and i thought "maybe a fighter gunslinger/grave cleric would be good... or maybe a ranger cleric" i even went to the extend of start creating my own homebrew ranger conclave(not finished). But i wanna go either vanilla DnD or using only classes commonly accepted by the community (such as the gunslinger) so i'd love to read what you guys have to say about this topic and what advice could i get from de community... ALSO ALSO, in the end and for the sake of making a useful character in general and not only in specific scenarios, i decided to turn this vampire hunter into a demon/undead hunter (fighting fiends, ghouls, imps, undeads, all that stuff).

I think that a lot depends on how you want your character to fight vampires and their ilk. Are you holding them at bay with your faith, and destroying them with holy fire? Grimly shooting and cutting them down with raw skill and grit? A mix of the two?

Generally a character can do one thing in a typical combat round, so think about what you imagine your character doing in a fight, and outside it. Once you have that, you can decide on the best way to mechanically express it through class choice.

Firearms are not a part of standard D&D. You could just go for a crossbow with silver bolts, or negotiate how they could be brought in with your DM.
They might let you have a brace of pistols that use the stats of hand crossbows, or even introduce some into their world using the stats in the DMG. Likewise the gunslinger only appears in a single, setting-specific book, so check with your DM before making grand plans relying on that class.

 

[Stoutstien]

5e is extremely flexible with it comes to creating characters with a certain thematic flair.
Personally I like an artificer/rogue here. Knowledge and planning are the best weapons when dealing with extra planar threats.

 

[Ancalagon]

You would re-flavor a warlock - their eldrich blast is their gun.