Making a Samurai: AC and Armor problem

[Stalker0]

I think people underestimate the high dex, med strength fighter build, especially with the release of martial power. Sure your attack and damage won't be as high, but your secondary effects will be stronger.

I think of it like this, I have a power that pushes my enemies back a number of squares equal to my dex mod. What's better, hitting with that power 5% more often, or adding an extra square to my effect 50-60% of the time?

A high dex fighter gets great AC, reflex defense, initiative, access to lots of fun feats, can use ranged weapons without sucking, good use of acrobatics, etc. I think its completely viable.

 

[Perun]

Anyway, would it be so bad to use the ranger class? I can think of two ways to handle it easily within the existing context of the rules:

1) Remove the off-hand weapon requirement for the multi-attacking powers. This makes them more powerful because they don't have to spend as much money on weapons, but it's basically the same sweet deal a dedicated archer ranger gets.
2) Retain the requirement but give the character a special "samurai" feat or class feature that gives him a +3 proficiency 1d8 damage unarmed strike. Then Twin Strike becomes "you slash him, then kick him in the face."

I'd take a slightly different route -- two-weapon wielding ranger, but re-imagine the two-bladed sword as a katana-like blade. Rules-wise, nothing changes and all is legal, and the character gets an AC boost (Two-Weapon Defence ranger bonus feat and the defensive property of the two-bladed sword); flavour-wise the character wields a finely balanced, extremely sharp weapon that lets him strike with lightning speed (two attacks via Twin Strike and similar powers).

So, if you go with Str 16, Dex 16 build and leather armour, you get AC of 17 at level 1 (+3 Dex, +2 leather, +1 shield bonus from TWD, +1 bonus from two-bladed sword). Your damage will be slightly lower than if you were using a fullblade (1d8 vs. 1d12), but you'll be adding your hunter's quarry bonus and with the option of attacking twice per round.

Regards.

 

[jasin]

I'd take a slightly different route -- two-weapon wielding ranger, but re-imagine the two-bladed sword as a katana-like blade. Rules-wise, nothing changes and all is legal, and the character gets an AC boost (Two-Weapon Defence ranger bonus feat and the defensive property of the two-bladed sword); flavour-wise the character wields a finely balanced, extremely sharp weapon that lets him strike with lightning speed (two attacks via Twin Strike and similar powers).

This... this is beautiful.

 

[Evilhalfling]

This... this is beautiful.

Agreed.

1 patch is that in order to simulate a double weapon, the second attack could not benefit from magical properties other than +enhancement and +1d6's for crits. Or call it your ancestral weapon and pay double the price for it.

 

[Anguirus]

I'd take a slightly different route -- two-weapon wielding ranger, but re-imagine the two-bladed sword as a katana-like blade. Rules-wise, nothing changes and all is legal, and the character gets an AC boost (Two-Weapon Defence ranger bonus feat and the defensive property of the two-bladed sword); flavour-wise the character wields a finely balanced, extremely sharp weapon that lets him strike with lightning speed (two attacks via Twin Strike and similar powers).

So, if you go with Str 16, Dex 16 build and leather armour, you get AC of 17 at level 1 (+3 Dex, +2 leather, +1 shield bonus from TWD, +1 bonus from two-bladed sword). Your damage will be slightly lower than if you were using a fullblade (1d8 vs. 1d12), but you'll be adding your hunter's quarry bonus and with the option of attacking twice per round.

Regards.

Very nice! At last the idiotic design of the two-bladed sword yields productive and flavorful results for a particular character!

 

[Perun]

This... this is beautiful.

Thank you. Thank you. I'll be performing here all week

 

[Sonyuu]

I'm interested in the very lightly armored samurai type usually seenin anime; you know the oneswho wear onlya gi and cut everything down lightning fast with their katana's.

If you are going to use references like "Rurouni Kenshin" or "Ninja Scroll", I'd say you should try a simple one-hand weapon fighter aproach.

If you want a fast, agile warrior who brings swift death to his foes with a single, lightning cut, consider the idea of getting to your fighter the rogue multiclass feat, so he can deal extra damage with the sneak attack feature class.

And don't you forget: who attacks first, wins first. Get the Improved Initiative feat as soon as you can, so you can garantee that you're going to be the first one to act and give the first and final strike!

 

[Ktulu]

As said above, Barbarian would work quite well as the striker-style samurai. They're predominately two-handers, so bastard sword/greatsword works fine for them.

Howling Charge can function like the classic samurai charge from anime.

Avalanche strike is just knocking someone prone

Frost Wolf can easily be focusing your ki to cool the air around you.

Just shout every encounter/daily power with a name and you're half-way to anime

 

[PrecociousApprentice]

You could check out these two hacks.

Samurai

Wuxia Warrior

Not core, but probably one would work great. I could come up with other hacks that fit better if I thought about it more. These should be fairly balanced, and I would like to see a playtest of tem as well.