Pathfinder 1E Pathfinder Samurai for Kaidan

[gamerprinter]

Q&a

Sorry I didn't post that.

BAB is full martial (equal to fighter). The saves are good Fortitude and Will Saves.

Combat Style Feats - only one can be chosen from each available list (pre-requisite feats not required.)

Iaijutsu Strike are bonus feats (a class feature).

I made Ancestral Weapon a feat, as in Kaidan, this feat is available to all classes, though most are limited to up to 4 stacks or limited once per five levels, but Samurai gains this at fastest progression.

On an aside the second adventure of the The Gift: Part 2 - Dim Spirit, should be out next month.

GP

 

[Truth Seeker]

If you can find the Rokugan (Oriental Adventures) D20 Core Book. and it's supplement. The Way of the Samuria...that could help you.

But they are both 3.0 flavor, so they might need some tweaking.

 

[Burn_Boy]

Shiny!

Very nice. Ever since my group and I started playing Pathfinder I've tried putting together a Samurai class and well, always fell flat.

Any plans for a "Patherfinderized" version of the Ronin prestige class?

 

[gamerprinter]

Ronin Prestige Class???

Very nice. Ever since my group and I started playing Pathfinder I've tried putting together a Samurai class and well, always fell flat.

Any plans for a "Patherfinderized" version of the Ronin prestige class?

Sorry, I am unfamiliar with the Ronin prestige class - which book is that from? Tell me a little about that PrC, featurewise, maybe I can work something up. At the time, I have mostly new base classes and only a couple PrC designed. I need more PrC, anyway.

GP

 

[Alaxk Knight of Galt]

Sorry, I am unfamiliar with the Ronin prestige class - which book is that from? Tell me a little about that PrC, featurewise, maybe I can work something up. At the time, I have mostly new base classes and only a couple PrC designed. I need more PrC, anyway.

GP

Ronin is a PrC from Complete Warrior

Also, Rokugan d20 (as mentioned above) is a great resource for Samurai style feats. The Way of X (Crane, Dragon, Scorpion, etc) and Clan specific feats basically build a sword use style through feats alone. The styles are all well thought out;

• Crab is armor
• Crane is Speed
• Lion is Power Attack
• Dragon is two-weapon fighting
• Scorpion is dirty-fighting
• Unicorn is mounted combat
• Phoenix style is escaping me at the moment

I like the slight mix into Monk with the Ki-Pool.

 

[gamerprinter]

thanks...

Ah, I have access to the Complete Warrior, so I'll check that out - hmmm, looked at that before and didn't notice the Ronin PrC before.

I also have L5R (2e?) and Oriental Adventures/Rokugan D20 as references.

In a way, the multiple combat styles in my Samurai design for Pathfinder and my setting Kaidan: a Japanese Ghost Story setting reflects the multiple clan of Rokugan idea.

One problem is Kaidan has 15 major samurai clans and I didn't want to try to develop 15 different samurai feat trees to differentiate each. So I went back to Japanese history and samurai techniques use in real life and came up with the basic four combat styles described above, which any clan samurai could become specialized in, as all four are valuable in combat and to focus on just one style within a given clan, would be martially weak. However, clans do have preferences, and when I develop the full list all the clans combat style preferences would be listed under each.

I plan to expand the Monk-ish aspects and use of Ki Pool among all classes of Kaidan, as Ki powers are intrinsically Asian and truly belong among the peoples of Kaidan. Though each class would have varying levels of access and each it own set of Ki pool features or abilities to access.

Similar to how Ancestral Weapon feat is accessable to all classes of Kaidan, though the Samurai has the fastest progression in selecting its stacked features.

GP

 

[ProfessorCirno]

The problem with CWar and Oriental Adventures samurai is that both are rubbish. The CWar one is especially horrendous.

Tome of Battle doesn't have a samurai class. What it has is three base classes and the system of maneuvers - the three martial classes each have their own schools they can learn from, and their own way of using the maneuvers. Warblade makes for a fantastic classical samurai - the Diamond Mind school is perfect for the cinematic iaijutsu master, who seems to move so fast that time stands still, and who cuts his enemy down with a single stroke, and Iron Heart is made of manliness and defying your enemies. If you want to be more wuxia or kung fu-esque (with perhaps a bit of Samurai Jack), then swordsage gets access to more schools and gets more maneuvers, but can use them less often; more suitable for high flying adventures and mysticism. Honestly, I strongly recommend ToB for any weapon master types, be they from Asiaesque or not ;p

 

[gamerprinter]

Tome of Battle 3e

While that does sound interesting - and mechanics that are really worth looking into I don't have access to a Tome of Battle. Between three members of my gaming group, we have over $1200 in 3e books, but nobody has the Tome of Battle.

I have heard the Swordsage described before and it does have possibilities, but again no TOB to refer to as of this time.

I do think my base Samurai described above works for my needs, however, in developing various Prestige Classes for samurai, I would be keenly interested in using the TOB's versions to build similar PrC for them.

Unless I can get access or buy one somewhere cheap, I'm out of luck at this time regarding the TOB.

Thanks for your suggestion, however.

GP

 

[ProfessorCirno]

Actually, regarding Pathfinder - at least for the "one strike, one kill" idea, maybe build up feats or a PrC around Vital Strike? Vital Strike always struck me as a feat with so very bloody much potential to be looked into both with PrCs and more feats to build off it, and it's very much the archtype of a warrior who needs only that one blow to do all his damage. I've been considering altering it myself to use it with a sniper character.

 

[gamerprinter]

I have made some changes in Playtest

While playtesting a Nite (Nee-teh) trained samurai (2-handed style) I actually replaced most of the critical hit feats with vital strike and seems to be more effective. I haven't as of yet created new feats based off the vital strike feat chain, but thoughts of doing have started. I also thought of replacing some of the intimidation ki pool effects for a big damage samurai which is the Nite style.

So the Vital Strike feats are being exploited for one path of the samurai for Kaidan.

(We're on the same wavelength here Professor!)

GP