Kensai question

[Question]

You know the +1 bonus to shield AC feat is a waste......its WORSE than the commonly house ruled dodge feat to give a flat +1 dodge bonus.

 

[werk]

Because the class is all about using a Katana?

Traditionally, yes.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kensei

 

[Question]

The kensai in complete warrior is hardly like a real kensai. This is more like a warrior that has a mystical link with his chosen weapon.

A real kensai, kensei, sword saint, etc would probably be something like :

HP : D10
Class skills : Balance, Climb, Concentration, Craft, Handle Animal, Intimidate, Jump, Knowledge(Local, History, Nobility), Listen, Move silently, Profession, Ride, Sense motive, Spot, Survival, Swim, Tumble.
Skill points : (8+Int mod)

And the class would focus on making you extremely lethal with your chosen weapon, yet giving you high mobility. There is a sword saint PRC in a little known third party supplement, Roleplaying in mythic china, but it is sadly 3.0 and incredibly difficult to convert to 3.5, mostly because a large portion of the class was essentially giving you greater weapon focus/specialisation in 3.0 where those feats didnt exist for a normal fighter.

I would probably throw in fast movement, perhaps some ability to parry a single melee attack per round, give you extra bonuses with your chosen weapon unavailable elsewhere, etc.

 

[starwed]

The kensai class contains rules for enhancing your natural attacks, I think at a slight additional cost? I'd follow those guidlines for enhancing a double weapon, since it gives the same type of benefit.

And of course, if you use a double weapon you can use it with either TWF or as a two-handed weapon for power attacking.

@Question: 9Swords has the type of feel you're probably looking for with a sword saint. (The sword sage class comes within mere letters. ^_^)

 

[zlorf]

Kensai class

If your focus is on causing damage, yes. If your focus is on defense, then no. Especially since a lot of DMs ban animated shields.

Now that you have a magic weapon that cost very little to make powerful. The PC will have
so much more money to spend on armor and items to help AC.

Btw the weapon is a 2 handed sword made from Adamantine. The PC is about to purchase
a Mithral Breastplate +1.

I initially thought the XP cost for imbueing the weapon was greater, but after looking at the
XP cost chart, it an accumulive cost, so basically, you get a +10/+10 weapon for 8000xp (+5, plus +5 other magic stuff).

Cheers
Z

 

[Question]

The kensai class contains rules for enhancing your natural attacks, I think at a slight additional cost? I'd follow those guidlines for enhancing a double weapon, since it gives the same type of benefit.

And of course, if you use a double weapon you can use it with either TWF or as a two-handed weapon for power attacking.

@Question: 9Swords has the type of feel you're probably looking for with a sword saint. (The sword sage class comes within mere letters. ^_^)

9 swords?

 

[shilsen]

9 swords?

Tome of Battle: The Book of Nine Swords.

See here: http://www.enworld.org/showthread.php?t=170787

 

[Tessarael]

You know the +1 bonus to shield AC feat is a waste......its WORSE than the commonly house ruled dodge feat to give a flat +1 dodge bonus.

It is worse than Dodge, if Dodge is house-ruled to +1 dodge bonus to AC. However, it remains a useful feat if you are trying to achieve high AC with a one-handed weapon and shield type of character. e.g. I would consider it to be better than Combat Expertise for such a character, because you get +1 AC whenever using a shield and without paying -1 to attack (not that Combat Expertise doesn't help to further max. out AC).

 

[Moon-Lancer]

useing a shield is pritty cool if its a tower shield and you dont play with choosing a direction for cover... just saying

 

[pawsplay]

Giving the ability to boost your own strength, the best choice is a two hander, or a one hander than can be used in two hands, and Power Attack. Take improved bucker defense.