As the title.
I've been wanting to build a Castlevania Protagonist character for a while now, and while I've gotten a lot of the basic stuff down after a couple evaluations, and so I need to get into the nitty gritty of the ordeal.
For those of you who don't know what a "Castlevania Protagonist" is, they are basically a holy Human character whose weapon of choice is a Whip (most specifically, the Vampire Killer). And while they are more than capable of using other weapons (such as axes, daggers, even bottles of holy water), the biggest focus here is being competent with a Whip, and using these other weapons as needed with the Hedging Weapons spell, morphing into Daggers, Axes, and so on, flavorwise.
Thankfully, proficiency with whips is easily acquired via the Military Tradition trait, which exchanges my bonus feat for proficiency in two Martial/Exotic Weapons, of which will be the Whip and Scorpion Whip. With the Ancestral Weapon trait, I start out with a Masterwork Cold Iron Whip (this is the "Vampire Killer", and yes, there are whips that can be made out of metal in Pathfinder,) and gain an additional +1 to attack rolls with it, greatly shoring up my lack of BAB, and with Fate's Favored to augment the eventual Divine Favor/Power to take into battle, I'm starting to really feel like the chosen one to slay the BBEG Vampire.
With that being said, I need to pick a class, and I've boiled my choice down to Warpriest and Inquisitor. Inquisitor has a lot of cool, appropriate fluff, and several powerful features that augment what a Castlevania Protagonist does best, which is defeat the forces of evil and undeath. (No, I won't take the Vampire Hunter archetype, even if it makes sense to; it's just flat out worse than the base Inquisitor, and the Castlevania Protagonists fight more than just undead and vampires in their games.) They have good Skill Points, some unique spells on their list that other Divine characters don't get, and abilities like Stalwart and my Domain/Inquisition are just perfect flavor and power to possess.
But, there is one major problem with going Inquisitor, and that is being feat-starved. I want to be effective with my Whip, first and foremost, which requires feats. The Proficiency is taken care of thankfully, but between needing Slashing Grace for Dex to Damage (which requires Weapon Finesse and Weapon Focus), the Whip Mastery feats, and other quality of life feats (Combat Reflexes for those who dare to face the forces of divine righteousness, Improved Initiative, etc.), I'm looking at being half-way through the character's career just to function right.
With the Warpriest, I get most of the good spells I can possess as an Inquisitor, some cool Fervor and Blessing mechanics, Sacred Armor/Weapon abilities, as well as bonus feats, but I lose out on a lot of the strong options, like Bane, Judgements, Stalwart, etc., which make for a much more formidable Vampire Hunter. I also don't know if I want to take an archetype, because the only ones I know of for Warpriest are Sacred Fist (which is just, ew,) and Arsenal Chaplain (cool and powerful, but limits my auxiliary abilities significantly).
Not to mention garbage skill points. If I want to be an effective Vampire Hunter, simply having ranks in Knowledge (Religion) and Perception aren't going to cut it; where's my Sense Motive to know if a Vampire is simply in disguise? What about my Knowledge (Nature) when fighting Lycanthropes, or Knowledge (Planes) for facing demons that spawned forth from the pit whence Dracula came? Simply answering encounters with "Use the Whip" may not always be the best tactic, and it's honestly pretty boring (even if I want it to be my main schtick).
So, there's my dilemma. Do I value skill points and useful goodies over bonus feats and damage dice, or is the latter more important?
In this case? I would suggest going with a rogue with a weapon proficiency feat, or a fighter or barbarian.
Neither Inquisitor nor Warpriest work for two reasons:
1. Most Castlevania Vampire Hunters have no magic at all. It's typically their allies that do. If they needed their weaponry blessed, the games established they had to visit a church to get the blessing done.
2. Most Castlevania Vampire Hunters tend to be both physically adept and quite physically resilient in addition to having training in a wide range of weaponry. Not all of them were the same level of resilient, though, and relied more on dodging attacks. But for healing purposes, they usually had to rely on items found or bought.
There's also the times when the Belmonts have butted heads with religion, but I am uncertain if you want a Belmont or one of the more general vampire hunters.
Now I'm only really familiar with the old Castlevania but I'd actually say not a castor for a Belmont. Ask your DM to let you make a "long flail" whip with a flail end so that you can make a whipe that's bludgeoning and slashing. That gets around skeleton resistances. Trade trip if you need to. I would say something like swashbuckler or or daring champion cavalier (which trades mount for swashbuckler stuff including level to damage)
With that you'll add your level to damage on your whip with slashing grace. Double your level of you spend a pinache point. If you're the cavalier you can add your level to damage again with your chalange.
I bet you I can make a fighter Belmont too. Warrior spirit can give your whip undead bane,and/or holy, or any bane or other weapon enchantment you need. (pick it up as early as level five with the feat)
As the title.
For those of you who don't know what a "Castlevania Protagonist" is, they are basically a holy Human character whose weapon of choice is a Whip (most specifically, the Vampire Killer). And while they are more than capable of using other weapons (such as axes, daggers, even bottles of holy water), the biggest focus here is being competent with a Whip....
<snip>
With that being said, I need to pick a class, and I've boiled my choice down to Warpriest and Inquisitor.
I'd say Warpriest is an obvious choice given their sacred weapon bonus, which is really only useful if taken on a weapon which basically sucks (damage wise) initially anyway. That said however if you really look at it the damage dice represent an average of + 1 damage for each die increase.
I'd also suggest considering the Ranger. In many ways they are very similar to the magus and the inquisitor and make for a good "monster hunter style class.
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You could also go with the vampire hunter class from the Vampire Hunter D tie in book.
Let me suggest two options:
Vigilante (avenger) Psychometrist with "Whip of Vengeance" and "Signature Weapon". Transmutation implement will give you the opportunity to impose a bane on the whip. More skills.
Ranger (Wild hunter/Trapper ). Traps, Animal Focus and no magic (almost)
Some of us toyed around with a Whip fighter shortly after the series showed up on NEtflix. Between the Armsmaster Guide and Stamina combat discovered you can actually make a pretty decent combatant out of the whid Fighter.
Grave Warden Slayer.
I'm going to echo the suggestions about Unchained Rogue. Think about it, a significant chunk of the gameplay involved studying traps in the stage and disabling or bypassing them. Finding secret doors and such was also a big part of getting an advantage as a player.
...Well, okay. Not so much 'secret doors' as it was 'hidden powerups tucked into the walls.' Still, something tells me this has to be more of a flavor match than a direct mechanical copy since most Pathfinder adventures won't involve hitting walls until well-cooked, ready to eat meat meals fall out of them.
That said, I'd only go for a few levels of Unchained Rogue. Grant from Castlevania 3 is more an example of a pure Rogue. The typical Belmont is mostly a martial character with a side-order of Rogue abilities to fill out some gaps. Nonetheless, exploring and finding hidden stuff is part of being a Belmont.
The question becomes are you trying to make a Belmont or just inspired by them? If you are trying to make one I would go martial based. If you are trying to just make a monster hunter, go inquisitor.
I based mine as a monster hunter and honestly at level 10 he is a terror. For the most part I use the spells as a tool box aka Level 1 is usually divine favor (I have a lesser extend rod to keep heightened awareness up) protection from evil is never bad to have. Level 2 ghostbane dirge, knock, resist energy and lesser resto. Level 3 channel vigor, heroism (again with rod) invisibility purge, greater magic weapon and communal resist energy (saved the whole party a couple times) Then at 4 I have divine power and greater invisibility. I went archery and honestly the gm I tend to play with has pretty much given up when I sit down at the table. For me there were plenty of teamwork feats that made up for the feats just need to research them.