MadCap's D&D Builds - Vergil (Devil May Cry) (5e)

And this is power... or it will be in about twenty levels!

That's right, we'll be making Vergil, the twin brother of Dante, the main character of the Devil May Cry series of video games... of which there are only five and there are only four good ones. I'll leave you to figure out which is which.

Also, there is no remake.

As stated above, Vergil is the other son of Sparda and a demon hunter like his brother Dante. Unlike Dante, he's rather cold, calculating, and largely humorless and ruthless in his search for power. However, this is balanced by his sense of honor that puts him above the demons in Hell. He also has one hell of a swing with Yamato, no pun intended. So, what do we need for a Vergil build?

• Sword fighting. It's Vergil's main method of attack and he's damn good at it. I mean, he's able to kill demons with his weapons, he doesn't have the cheap gear.
• Devil Trigger! Like Dante, Vergil is able to go Demon Super Saiyan. His is just cooler!
• Vergil has a demonic goody bag to end all demonic goody bags. We won't be able to get to everything, but we'll have more than enough to work with.

So Ability Scores, we'll be using the standard point array from the Player's Handbook. Roll for stats if you'd like, just use this as a guide for where to put your rolls.

Dexterity: 15

Vergil moves insanely quickly and with style. Crazy, crazy, crazy style!

Intelligence: 14

Vergil is both well-read and well-spoken.

Constitution: 13

Vergil can take quite a bit of abuse and keep running. Literally the entire final boss fight in Devil May Cry 3 is just he and Dante beating the living snot out of each other.

Strength: 12

Vergil is actually insanely strong, this is just the nature of the beast when it comes to D&D conversion sometimes.

Charisma: 10

Let's be honest, Vergil is a character that has as many if not more fangirls than his brother. Y'know, the main character of the franchise he comes from. His Charisma should be higher, but we just really don't need it for this build.

Wisdom: 8

I gotta tell you, Vergil, maybe charging directly at the head honcho of the underworld with no plan really and while being heavily wounded from a battle with your brother is probably a bad idea. Just a thought. Just a passing thought...

For race, Vergil is going to be a Fallen Aasimar. What's that? Why not a Tiefling? Because the abilities of the Aasimar fit better and fallen angels are demons. Again, there is no remake.

As an Aasimar, according to Mordenkainen Presents: Monsters of the Multiverse (which is the most recent version of the race), receive a +2 to one Ability Score and a +1 to another or a +1 to three separate Ability Scores. We'll be going with a +2 and a +1 and put them into Intelligence and Dexterity, respectively to start us off at 16 for both. Rock on!

Vergil starts off with a walking speed of 30 feet, Darkvision out to 60 feet, Celestial Resistance (giving Vergil resistance to both necrotic and radiant damage), Healing Hands (which allows Vergil to roll d4s equal in number to his proficiency bonus and regain the number as hit points once per long rest), and the Light cantrip for no adequately explored reason. We'll be getting into the fallen part in a few levels.

For background, go for Athlete to pick up early access to Acrobatics and Athletics. Also, a language of your choice and proficiency with land vehicles.

Now, you might be surprised to see some striking similarities with the Vergil build already done by Tulok the Barbarian (check out his YouTube, he was the inspiration behind me doing these posts!). However, I won't be rehashing his build as good as it is.

We'll be starting off at the first level with Fighter (1). Right off the bat, Vergil gains proficiency in all armor and shields, as well as simple and martial weapons, and gains Saving Throw proficiencies in Strength and Constitution.

He also gains two skills off the Fighter list. Go for History and Intimidation. As we said before, he is knowledgeable and he cuts a terrifying figure.

At first level, Vergil must choose a Fighting Style. Go for Dueling, which gives him a +2 to damage when using only a single melee weapon in one hand and no weapon in the other. What will that other hand be doing? Well, we'll be getting to that, don't worry.

Vergil also gets the power of Second Wind, allowing him to regain a number of hit points equal to 1d10 + his fighter level as a bonus action once per short or long rest.

Second level takes Vergil back into Fighter (2), where he picks up Action Surge, allowing him to take an additional action on top of his regular and possible bonus action once more short or long rest.

At third level, Vergil pops into Fighter (3) again and must choose a Martial Archetype. Because I'm a stickler for the Doppelganger combat style, we'll be going with Echo Knight. At third level, fresh Echo Knights like Vergil get the powers of Manifest Echo and Unleash Incarnation.

Manifest Echo allows Vergil to manifest an echo as a bonus action. The echo is a translucent, gray image of him that lasts until it is destroyed or Vergil dismisses it as a bonus action. It has an AC of 14 + Vergil's Proficiency Bonus, 1 hit point, and immunity to all conditions. It also uses all of Vergil's saving throws if it needs to make a saving throw. So long as it's within 30 feet of Vergil (it's automatically destroyed he ends his turn with it further away), he can command it without using an action.

With the echo, Vergil can:

• As a bonus action, Vergil can teleport, magically swapping places with his echo at a cost of 15 feet of his movement, regardless of the distance between the two.
• When Vergil takes the Attack action on your turn, any attack he makes with that action can originate from his space or the echo's space. He makes this choice for each attack.
• When a creature that Vergil can see within 5 feet of his echo moves at least 5 feet away from it, he can use his reaction to make an opportunity attack against that creature as if he were in the echo's space.

Unleash Incarnation allows Vergil to make an additional attack from the Echo's position whenever he uses the Attack action. He's able to do this a number of times equal to his Constitution modifier before needing to take a long rest.

Also of note, we get into the Fallen part of being a Fallen Aasimar. Vergil gains the power of Celestial Revelation, specifically his Radiant Soul. Vergil manifests a pair of luminous, spectral wings that give him a flying speed equal to his walking speed and each turn he can add radiant damage to an attack or a spell against a target equal to his proficiency bonus. This state lasts for a 1 minute and can be ended as a bonus action. Once used, Vergil cannot call upon it again until he finishes a long rest.

So, once again... bang, bang, bang! Pull that Devil trigger!

For fourth level, Vergil dips again into Fighter (4) and gets his first Ability Score Improvement or Feat. Boost up your Constitution and your Intelligence.

For fifth level, we'll be keeping the Fighter (5) train a-rolling as Vergil picks up an Extra Attack, which... well, I mean, it's kind of obvious, isn't it?

Sixth level goes much the same, heading into Fighter (6) again for another Ability Score Improvement or a Feat. Pick up Skilled and we'll take three skills from the list. Arcana, Religion, and Stealth will round off the skills that Vergil would have in his repertoire.

At seventh level, we'll pop into Fighter (7) one last time and get the next Echo Knight ability - Echo Avatar. Vergil can now temporarily transfer his consciousness into his Echo, seeing through its eyes and ears. He is deafened and blinded during that time, but can sustain the effort for up to 10 minutes, no action required on his part. The biggest benefit of this, though? The echo can now be up to 1,000 feet away without being destroyed as per the normal limitations of the ability.

At eighth level, Vergil will be hopping over into the Arcane Arts with Wizard (1). As a first level Wizard, Vergil receives Spellcasting and a spell book with three cantrips and six 1st level spells.

For our cantrips, Vergil will take:

• booming blade
• green-flame blade
• true strike

For 1st level spells, Vergil will take:

• detect magic
• identify
• jump
• longstrider
• shield
• silvery barbs (yes, I allow this spell and you should, too)

Vergil also receives the power of Arcane Recovery, allowing him to recover a number of expended spell slots of a combined level equal or less than his Wizard level rounded up, and no spells of 6th level or higher. So a 4th level Wizard can recover 2 levels of spells slots, a 2nd level spell slot or two 1st level spell slots.

At ninth level, Vergil continues his path as a Wizard (2) and must choose an Arcane Tradition. He will take the path of Bladesinging, which gives him a few new toys to play with such as Training in War and Song

• Proficiency in Performance (which he likely won't use, but will be good to have to bury the light)
• Proficiency in light armor (which he already has)
• Proficiency in one martial weapon of his choice (which he already has all of them)

Okay, so that was a bit of a dud. However, the real draw here is Bladesong. This gives him, through the use of a bonus action:

• a bonus to his AC equal to his Intelligence modifier
• a walking speed increase of 10 feet
• advantage on all Acrobatics checks
• A bonus to any Constitution check to maintain concentration equal to his Intelligence modifier.

Better? Definitely better. Vergil can use this a number of times equal to his proficiency bonus, regaining all uses after a long rest. Also, each use of Bladesong lasts for 1 minute so long as Vergil isn't capacitated, wearing medium or heavy armor, or using a shield. It can also be dismissed at any time, no action required.

Vergil also gains two new spells. He'll be taking:

• absorb elements
• protection from evil and good

Then we can move on to tenth level, where Vergil continues his training in the Arcane as a Wizard (3). No new abilities beyond access to 2nd level spells. 

Vergil will pick up:

• magic weapon
• mirror image

Moving to eleventh level, Vergil pushes deeper into Wizard (4). We pick up an Ability Score Improvement or Feat, going on to Mobile. Mobile increases Vergil's speed by 10 feet. When he uses the Dash action, difficult terrain doesn't count as extra movement on that turn. When he makes a melee attack against a creature, Vergil doesn't provoke an attack of opportunity from that creature for the rest of that turn whether or not he hit it.

At fourth level, in addition to his two new spells, Vergil also picks up a new cantrip:

• Sword Burst

For the two spells:

• shadow blade
• misty step

At twelfth level, Vergil keeps going with Wizard (5) and gets access to third level spells. Picking up two:

• fly
• haste

At thirteenth level, Vergil bumps up to the next level of Wizard (6) and would gain an Extra Attack from Bladesinger... but he already has one. Oops.

Still, two new spells:

• slow
• thunder step

Moving on to fourteenth level, the next step into Wizard (7) opens up 4th level spells for Vergil.

Two new spells:

• dimension door
• elemental bane

To the fifteenth level, Vergil heads up into Wizard (8) and gets another Ability Score Improvement or Feat. Bump up Constitution and Dexterity.

• arcane eye
• stoneskin

To sixteenth level and Vergil gets another level of Wizard (9) and gets two new spells now with access to fifth level spells:

• legend lore
• steel wind strike

Moving to seventeenth level, Vergil actually won't return to Wizard, but instead will return to Fighter (8) and gets an Ability Score Improvement or Feat. Guess what's going up again? Constitution and... Strength. Why Strength? Find out in 2 levels!

Eighteenth level sees Vergil continuing his Fighter (9) skills. Vergil gains one use of Indomitable. Vergil can re-roll a failed saving throw, but must use the new roll. It can be used again after a long rest.

Nineteenth level gives Vergil the next level of Fighter (10) and as an Echo Knight he gains the power of Shadow Martyr, allowing Vergil to push his echo into being the target of an attack meant for another target within visual range.

At twentieth level, I'm gonna blow your mind with the class selection here. Not Fighter nor Wizard, but Barbarian (1). As a barbarian, Vergil gains the ability to Rage twice per long reset. Rage gives him advantage on Strength checks and saving throws, gives +2 Rage damage to attacks that use Strength, and gives resistance to bludgeoning, piercing, and slashing damage.

The rage lasts for 1 minute and ends early if Vergil is knocked unconscious or if his turn has ended without having taken damage or having attacked. Rage can also end as a bonus action.

However, the main reason for this is Unarmored Defense, which makes Vergil's Armor Class 10 + his Dexterity modifier + his Constitution modifier so long as he's not wearing any armor. He does operate in mostly a trenchcoat, after all.

Now that we've hit level twenty, let's look at our pros and cons!

Pros:

• Good mix of practical combat and spells. You can cover several damage types while still remaining well within Vergil's theme. Being able to channel your attacks through his echo also helps big time, as well as being able to spam a reaction attack. And that's not even getting into Extra Attack and Action Surge!
• You have good defensive options, in particular with your high Constitution and Dexterity, Unarmored Defense will put you ahead far and that's before using Bladesong. With the stats as we have them now, you'll be rocking an Armor Class of 19. And that's not including shield (+5, so 24). It's not as broken as some Bladesong builds, but it's pretty good! And without a scrap of armor on you to boot!
• I am a man who loves his mobility spells and you have plenty of options to help you get into and out of the fight. Coupled with your Unarmored Defense and the Mobile feat to avoid being hit, and you have a good shot at getting through many fights without a scratch.

Cons:

• Multiclassing rears its head again here. You aren't as good a fighter, wizard, or (definitely) a barbarian as you could be if you just went full twenty with any. Hit points are all over the map. You also lose access to all of your spellcasting while you're raging, though given that you only have a one level dip into Barbarian for Unarmored Defense, you likely won't be using Rage at twenty levels below where a full-blown Barbarian would be very much. You also lose out on the later levels of Echo Knight, so you miss out on cool abilities like creating multiple copies.
• Concentration spells are a bugbear (no pun intended) for just about everybody. A high Constitution coupled with Bladesong giving you advantage to maintain Concentration definitely helps, but you still will be stuck using one power and not another.
• You miss out on the higher end abilities of Echo Knight and Bladesong, which are pretty cool. Echo Knight, in particular, allowing you to make up to three echoes at once is pretty rad.
• Your Wisdom saving throw is really, really bad. It's painful. Like I said, please roll for stats.

But hey, you're the other son of Sparda! Pick up the Yamato, get ready to charge out against all the denizens of the underworld, and prove to the world that you're way better than your brother. Just make sure you keep your eyes open on the battlefield, or you might be looking at things from a whole other Angelo...