Tessarael,
A few things. First, the ancestral daisho means that the character will always be wielding his katanna or wakizashi. Wielding a shield would be more than a little unorthodox for a scorpion samurai and this character is designed to represent his clan. Dual wielding is actually descriptively exclusive to the dragon with their niten style. So this sort of limits where the character would go in terms of techniques. In general the character would always wield the katanna and nothing else for a stand up bashing contest. Of course, it is not at all the style of the scorpion to be direct - that is more the realm of the crab. The two weapon fighting feat, then, is there exclusively for specific tactics to be employed during a fight and not to be used all of the time.
Tessarael said:
Bluff is not a class skill for Samurai or Fighter. Hence your max. Bluff rank will be 11.5 at 20th level. That's not good enough to Feint any monster CR worthy of your level. Either talk to your DM about allowing you to have Bluff as a class skill, or give up on the whole Bluff combo.
Scorpion get bluff as a clan bonus skill. However, even still, trying to bluff another samurai with maxed out sense motive is going to be very difficult even still. This is one of the major reasons I wanted to get feedback.
Tessarael said:
Looking at Oriental Adventures, I can't see any reason for you going to level 10 in Samurai. Fighter 12/Samurai 8 looks much better.
Samurai gets a bonus feat at level 10, no Scorpion family has favored class fighter or samurai, and you can only get clan feats with character levels or bonus feats from the Samurai.
Tessarael said:
Exotic weapon proficiency is a poor choice. It gives you +1 damage. You're far better off taking Weapon Focus (whichever weapon you use). In fact, I'm surprised you haven't got Weapon Focus, Weapon Specialization, Greater Weapon Focus, and if you went to Fighter 12, Greater Weapon Specialization. Hmmm, looking at the Ancestral Diasho ability and Katana being an exotic weapon (masterwork bastardsword), you do want Exotic Weapon proficiency in Katana. More below.
Two-Weapon Fighting is not worth it. You're already short on feats (i.e. should get Weapon Focus et al.). Either go with one-handed weapon and shield, or two-handed weapon.
Bayushi Technique is weaker than Weapon Specialization. Weapon Specialization always works for +2 damage, whereas +d6 Sneak Attack only works sometimes.
Here's what I would do with a Human Fighter 12/Samurai 8. You have 1 feat from Human, 7 feats from Fighter, 3 feats and Ancestral Daisho from Samurai, and 7 feats from your 20 levels. That's 18 feats total. Here are my suggestions, in no particularly rigorous order:
1. Exotic Weapon Proficiency (bastard sword)
2. Weapon Focus (bastard sword)
3. Weapon Specialization (bastard sword)
4. Improved Critical (bastard sword)
5. Greater Weapon Focus (bastard sword)
6. Greater Weapon Specialization (bastard sword)
7. Dodge
8. Mobility
9. Spring Attack
10. Quickdraw
11. Power Attack
12. Improved Initiative
13. Bayushi Technique (+1d6 Sneak Attack)
14. Ruthless Sting (increase crit multiplier by 1)
15. Expertise
16. Improved Disarm
17. Strike at the Tail (extra attack if disarm succeeds)
18. Combat Reflexes
Ruthless Sting is a great feat. It improves your critical damage by +50%, so you definitely want that. I'm hoping you don't have to burn through 6 other feats to get it ...
I wouldn't take Way of the Scorpion. You want STR, CON, and DEX to be your primary abilities. INT is a waste of time for minimal benefit. Improved Initiative and high DEX are the way to go for getting a decent initiative.
No need for Expert Tactician, Pincers and Tail, or The Pincers Hold, The Tail Strikes, as you won't be able to succeed on a Bluff attempt anyway.
Just my thoughts ...
Your suggestions have a couple of weaknesses:
The improved iniative, bayushi technique, and ruthless sting are all focused around rogue style attacking (be it going first, feinting, etc.) However, all will only be applicable for this build when this character wins iniative. Moreover, ruthless sting will rarely see use because a crit must be scored, and it must be when the opponent is denied their dex bonus. Certainly improved crit will help with this - but not enough to warrant taking it I don't think. Bayushi technique also requires way of the scorpion as a prereq.
The second problem is the lack of synergy with spring attack. Granted, all the katanna boosting feats and power attack will be beneficial on a spring attack, but there is nothing to go along with it. Certainly, spring attack is a great stand alone feat. To get the most mileage out of the katanna boosting feats, the character would want to full attack as often as possible. Moreover, the exotic weapon prof. in this case is a complete waste. The character would not be using a shield and if not TWF'ing, would only decrease his damage potential wielding one handed, especially with power attack. The only case for the exotic weapon proficiency for this build is if the character wanted to grab the opponents weapon upon a successful disarm instead of getting the extra attack.
Combat Reflexes while a good stand alone feat is best when combined with expert tactician for a rogue style fighter. To me it seems, the character design needs to go in one direction or another - either full attacking with all the appropriate boosts, or rogue style fighting - feinting and winning initiative.
Another thing to note is that initiative is much more dynamic in Rokugan than in other settings. Improved Iniative simply is not going to cut it to ensure winning iniative. When going up a crane for example, the character is going to need way of the scorpion with a high int and dex, and possibly even speed of the kami (spend a void point to get a +4 to iniative).
So we go back to the beginning - it all comes down to tactics. Let me first take your suggestions and come up with a build optimally using the tactics necessitated by your feat selection:
Quickdraw is going to be an automatic feat selected because of iaijutsu focus. So let's just presume we have 17 feats to work with.
1. Weapon Focus (bastard sword)
2. Weapon Specialization (bastard sword)
3. Improved Critical (bastard sword)
4. Greater Weapon Focus (bastard sword)
5. Greater Weapon Specialization (bastard sword)
What direction do we go with the other 12? If we go with disarming, I would think:
6. Expertise
7. Improved Disarm
8. Strike at the Tail
To really get the most mileage out of this, I would continue with:
9. TWF
10. Exot. weap Bastard Sword
11. Snatch Weapon
Given that expertise has already been selected, I would shy away from power attack because they hinder each other. Moreover, if disarming is going to be a major tactic, neither feat will really see much use in the first place as every bit of attack bonus is going to be crucial in order to successfully disarm. The feat selection so far does have the strength that disarming will be at a slight boost (+2).
The remaining six feats to me are up in the air at this point. I personally feel the strongest scorpion technique feat is "the pincers hold, the tail strikes". Automatically threatening a critical is a powerful ability. To get this though, improved iniative will also need to be selected. Of course, to actually use the feat, the opponent must lose their dex bonus to a feint. This means the pincers and tail will be necessary which means way of the scorpion is required. That's 4 feats right their. Alternatively, combat reflexes and expert tactician could be taken instead of way of the scorpion and pincers and tail to accomplish the same thing - feinting and attacking in the same round. If crits are the goal and they are being accomplished with a feint, then ruthless sting seems like a great choice because it will increase the multiplier by 1 in those circumstances. So we have at least 5 feats. How will this character compare to another without these feats? This character is going to be limited to one attack a round. That attack will be at the highest attack bonus, against an opponent whose denied his dex bonus and it will deal base damage x3. The sixth feat now well might be power attack to get x6 PA bonus dmg (when wielding the katann 2 handed).
I actually have a question at this point: if you instead disarmed the opponent, would the strike at the tail kick in under the same circumstances (opponent still has no dex bonus)? I would think it would since it is a bonus attack "as if you had not used your attack to disarm your opponent". However, the bigger question is in regards to snatch weapon. Would snatch weapon kick in as well effectively allowing you to get the feint applied to both attacks since both are spawned from the same maneuver. IDHMBIFOM so I don't remember if snatch weapon has the same "as if you had not used your attck to disarm your opponent" language. Of course, if disarming was used, power attacking wouldn't be - a trade off.
If snatch weapon does not work, that 3 feat chain might be given up in favor of other feats. Regardless, how does the damage compare to a fighter-type taking a full attack. You get one really good hit in even at 20th level. How about a samurai getting in 4 attacks? This is the major concern and reason for including spring attack. This way, only a lion samurai would be able to get a full attack in. Spring attacking would mean the tactic could be combined with a move so that in order for the opponent to respond, they could only get in one hit. Trading a single hit for a single hit would give this character the advantage. Or course, to make this possible, expert tactician is necessary as well as pincers and tail. I'd probably ditch improved critical and superior weapon specialization.
So here is the new feat list:
1. Weapon Focus (bastard sword)
2. Weapon Specialization (bastard sword)
3. Greater Weapon Focus (bastard sword)
4. Expertise
5. Improved Disarm
6. Strike at the Tail
7. Improved Initiative
8. The Pincers Hold, The Tail Strikes
9. Way of the Scorpion
10. Pincers and Tail
11. Combat Reflexes
12. Expert Tactician
13. Ruthless Sting
14. Dodge
15. Mobility
16. Spring Attack
17. Power Attack
This is marked similar to my build. The difference is that in place of 4 Bayushi Technique feats, the two weapon focus feats, weapon specialization, and power attack were selected. So the trade off is 4d6 dmg when using this technique for +2/+2 + -X/+2X. The power attacking is suboptimal for disarming meaning that usually it would be one or the other. That's not necessarily bad though. What's the difference in dmg: 14 avg for the 4d6. To get similar to that from your suggestion we would need to power attack for 2: 3x(2+4), which as I am looking at it now, for the same attack bonus, grants an extra 4 dmg. All right, I am sold on the substitutions for Bayushi's technique feats.
Reviewing the feat lists, now there is no reason I can think of to not go Sam 4, Fighter 16. This grants an extra feat at the cost of skill points and saves. The extra feat could be greater weapon specialization. or perhaps some feat to aid in bluffing - either skill focus bluff, or void use. On the other hand, the loss of the will save from the samurai might not be worth the extra feat.
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