D&D 5E Van Helsing type of character

[Knight_Marshal]

I am playing a AL character based loosely off of the Van Helsing movie based off of this miniature:
reapermini.com/Miniatures/vampire/latest/60164 (I can't post links yet)
Kind of a Anna Valerious was Van Helsing character.

I am using a variant Human with these stats
STR 10
DEX 15 +1
CON 14
INT 12
WIS 13+1
CHA 8

I am taking crossbow expert at 1st and the urchin background. I plan on using rapier in my main hand and hand crossbow in my off hand.
The character is intended to be a hunter of undead, demons, devils and evil spell casters.
I started as rogue to get more proficiencies and I took expertise in investigation and arcana to boost those rolls since my INT is lower.
I am looking at going ranger for the next 5 levels to get Colossus Slayer, Undead as my FE and the extra attack.
The thought occurred to me that a level of cleric, knowledge domain, might also be useful, but that would kind of delay getting some important things.

As a rogue/ranger I am looking at 1d8+3(rapier), 1d8 (CS), 1d6(HM), 1d6(SA) + 1d6(xbow), 1d6(HM) per round against a foe that I get sneak attack on and has already been damaged.

Is there a better way to making a skilled/knowledgeable hunter of evil things that possesses the ability to kill the monsters she finds?

 

[sigfile]

Technically speaking, unless you have some sort of autoloader on that crossbow you'll have no means of reloading it (even with Crossbow Expert) - Crawford officially clarified that. If the DM is cool with some means of reloading, that allows for melee/crossbow every round. If not, you'll have a decision to make (melee or ranged primary), and any advice will be dependent on which route you'd prefer. (EDIT: I just saw this is an AL character. You have a decision to make - you can't reload that crossbow without a free hand).

In general, though, that bonus action attack from your hand crossbow will also have +DEX damage.

 

[The Yellow Pill]

Consider Paladin.

 

[Knight_Marshal]

Technically speaking, unless you have some sort of autoloader on that crossbow you'll have no means of reloading it (even with Crossbow Expert) - Crawford officially clarified that. If the DM is cool with some means of reloading, that allows for melee/crossbow every round. If not, you'll have a decision to make (melee or ranged primary), and any advice will be dependent on which route you'd prefer. (EDIT: I just saw this is an AL character. You have a decision to make - you can't reload that crossbow without a free hand).

In general, though, that bonus action attack from your hand crossbow will also have +DEX damage.

I thought that clarification was for why you couldn't dual wield hand crossbows.

 

[sigfile]

I thought that clarification was for why you couldn't dual wield hand crossbows.

From the Sage Advice Compendium:

What does that all mean for a hand crossbow? It means Crossbow Expert makes it possible to fire a hand crossbow more than once with a feature like Extra Attack, provided that you have enough ammunition and you have a hand free to load it for each shot.

So you could go with the Van Helsing-style crossbow Gatling-gun approach with a single hand crossbow, you could get a freebie shot off on the first round and then drop it, or you could basically skip the ranged attack angle, drop Crossbow Expert, and go more melee.

 

[PnPgamer]

Crossbow expert gives the ability shoot the thing in melee without penalty. So maybe no rapier needed

 

[discosoc]

It kind of feels like you're trying to fit specific rules into the character type, but so much of what makes VH special is the "roleplay" portion rather than the actual combat. I would just go straight human ranger with the lucky feat and the sage background (he was a professor or maybe a doctor if I remember). As a ranger (sort of an urban ranger), you have access to Insight, Investigation, and Perception, and as a sage it gives you Arcana and History. Lucky gives a bit of control over the various "barely made it" situations VH gets him into.

For weapons, I like the idea of a light crossbow that's meant to be an opening shot that either gets dropped or stowed away right after. Take duelist as your ranger fighting style and get creative with uses for your free hand (grappling, swinging from ropes, etc).

Sounds pretty fun.

 

[Knight_Marshal]

I was thinking about dropping crossbow expert and picking up either mage slayer or magic initiate which one of my cantrips would be guidance. I would still start as a rogue and then gain insight once I get ranger at level 2.

 

[Knight_Marshal]

Since I am the only Human of the party in the Underdark, I am having a bit of a problem being able to see. I would rather not have to switch to Half Elf just to get darkvision and loose crossbow expert. I am looking at dipping into warlock 2 levels for Devil's Sight and Eldritch Sight which would help in the character's goal of hunting undead and other monsters.

I would rather not give up the stuff I wanted from ranger such as Colossus Slayer, extra attack and the Favored Enemy, however dipping into warlock for 2 levels means I would not gain CS until 6th, Sharpshooter feat until 7th and the extra attack until 8th. Then I would go full rogue for a while.

Is it worth doing it that way or should I just bite the bullet and drop ranger from my build?

 

[Yunru]

What does three levels of Ranger get you? Collossus Slayer? 1d8(d6?) to an attack?
What does three levels of Rogue get you? 2d6 extra damage 1/turn.

The real question is why have Ranger in the first place.