Battle shugenja?

[jasin]

Would it be balanced to have a battle shugenja, like the battle sorcerer
from UA?

d8 instead of d6.
Medium BAB instead of weak BAB.
Light armour proficiency.
Weapon proficiency with all simple weapons, wakizashi and katana.
One less spell per day per level, and one less spell known per level
(minimum 0, which means you only know your school spell).
Add intimidate to the list of class skills.

I don't think it's too strong. The you lose less (since Sor spells are
better than Shu spells), but that's offset by the fact that you gain
less hp (d6 to d8, instead d4 to d8).

If it's too weak, you could make the minimum spells known be 1, and/or
add medium armour proficiency.


In a similar vein, do you think it'd balanced to allow shugenja to use
the Arcane Strike feat from Complete Warrior, even though their spells
are divine?

 

[John Q. Mayhem]

That looks reasonable at first blush. I'd make shugenjas straight arcane IMC (assuming I ever use them); but if you're going to give them the benefits (access to Arcane Strike), they should take the negatives, too (spell failure). If you make them arcane, you should just give them the battle sorc and bard casting in light armor.