I'm using Lucas, playing on Hardcore and it went pretty easy.
I got lucky on some drops though, but I mainly stacked Vampire.
With that going and your graceful repose, him summoning minions is actually a good thing.
Since you can just eat their health to refill yours while doing a hit and run on the boss.
I've yet to die with Lucas on Hardcore, while at this point I probably reloaded a dozen time using anajali.
If you're not using it yet, vampire at the beginning levels .. kind of overpowered.