New to D&D 5th edition

[Diego Costa]

Hello All,

Since im new to the 5th edition, i'll like to ask you (since surely you've more experience), how can i build on the 5th a samurai !?

The classes are more "occidental" guided, and per what i've seed the class that still unbalanced in terms of damage is the thief.

I just can use the official players guide.

May i ask you for your kindness in this subject !?

Really Thanks

 

[jaelis]

In the supplementary book Xanthar's Guide to Everything, the samurai is presented as a fighter subclass.

You can get a sense of it here: http://www.enworld.org/forum/content.php?4545-Xanathar-s-Guide-to-Everything-s-Samurai-Subclass

It is not specifically asian in flavor though. If you just want to use a more oriental theme, you can probably use the regular base classes and use oriental versions of weapons, armor, etc.

 

[The Grassy Gnoll]

 

[Gadget]

If you are only using the PHB, I would think the Battlemaster sub-class with an appropriate background(noble?) could suffice. The fighter class is generic enough that a lot of role-playing flavor could be easily injected. Just choose appropriate weapons, armor & back story and you're good to go.

If you want to get a little bit more radical, you could go oath of Devotion Paladin (or Oath of the Crown found in Sword Coast Adventurer's Guide), with the character's devotion to the samurai Code and sworn feudal lord. Smites and spell casting could be intense focus and honor being rewarded by the gods, or some such. It really depends on what aspects of the Samurai you want to emphasize.

If you want to get really radical, you could choose Barbarian with the 'rages' being depicted as intense dedication and entering a 'higher state' of fighting spirit. Other abilities granted by the class could be the result of meditation and discipline.

 

[BookBarbarian]

If you are only using the PHB, I would think the Battlemaster sub-class with an appropriate background(noble?) could suffice. The fighter class is generic enough that a lot of role-playing flavor could be easily injected. Just choose appropriate weapons, armor & back story and you're good to go.

If you want to get a little bit more radical, you could go oath of Devotion Paladin (or Oath of the Crown found in Sword Coast Adventurer's Guide), with the character's devotion to the samurai Code and sword feudal lord. Smites and spell casting could be intense focus and honor being rewarded but the gods, or some such. It really depends on what aspects of the Samurai you want to emphasize.

If you want to get really radical, you could choose Barbarian with the 'rages' being depicted as intense dedication and entering a 'higher state' of fighting spirit. Other abilities granted by the class could be the result of meditation and discipline.

I actually prefer Battlemaster for an historical Samurai.

I find the XGtE Samurai mechanics better fit a generic type of Hero that digs deep to overcome challenges, rather than a Skilled, Noble, Swordsman/Spearman/archer that Samurai were.

 

[Cap'n Kobold]

Hello All,

Since im new to the 5th edition, i'll like to ask you (since surely you've more experience), how can i build on the 5th a samurai !?

The classes are more "occidental" guided, and per what i've seed the class that still unbalanced in terms of damage is the thief.

I just can use the official players guide.

May i ask you for your kindness in this subject !?

Really Thanks

"Samurai" is pretty generic, and covers quite a lot of range, from noble horsemen specialising in the bow and spear, to unarmoured duelling courtiers, to several different types of magic-user.
What sort of thing do you want your Samurai to be able to do within the game?

As others have pointed out, you could use several different classes to represent a Samurai: From Champion fighter to Paladin, to other classes, or combinations of classes.

Classes are pretty generic: they're not aimed at covering any particular geographic region. Why did the rogue seem unbalanced to you in terms of damage? (Actually, do you mean unbalanced as in too high, or too low?)

In terms of advice for building the character, to you know what level you are starting at, how you are generating ability scores, and whether your DM is allowing feats and/or multiclassing?

 

[Azzy]

As Cap'n Kobold points out, historical samurai were typically cavalrymen, favoring longbows in the earlier periods to lances in the mid-periods, and later swordsmen. Armour, on the battlefield, ranged from (in D&D terms) scale (for the early period oyoroi), to splint, to half plate (Sengoku era and later), while chainmail or no armor when not all tooled up. For samurai of literature, legend, and other fiction—it's all over the place.

So, really, you could use almost any class/subclass as a samurai depending on what variation you're trying to model. As for backgrounds, Noble is the most obvious choice (especially the knight variant), but given that, prior to the Edo period, social mobility wasn't limited and even commoners could become samurai, other backgrounds can work, too.

 

[cmad1977]

My friend built a Samurai with the Battlemaster. It really seems to work well.