Mythological Figures: Miyamoto Musashi (5E)

Mythological Figures focuses on Fifth Edition builds for persons too big for true history like Achilles and Sir Lancelot, but some individuals absolutely distinguished themselves to an equal status. Perhaps my favorite of these is arguably one of the most skilled people to have ever picked up a sword: Miyamoto Musashi!

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The accomplishments of Musashi are legendary and for good reason. This man wrote the Book of Five Rings, won scores of duels, invented the katana-and-wakizashi style of fighting (“niten'ichi sword style”, on the fly after undoing an ambush, killing the head of a prominent family trying to assassinate him, while fleeing from the surviving soldiers), routinely fought duels using a bokken (wooden sword) against opponents wielding blades (including a guy with a two-handed nodachi known as “The Demon of the Western Provinces”), and finally died like a badass:

At the moment of his death, he had himself raised up. He had his belt tightened and his wakizashi put in it. He seated himself with one knee vertically raised, holding the sword with his left hand and a cane in his right hand. He died in this posture, at the age of sixty-two.​

There is no brief recap able to do Musashi justice and his extremely well-documented life is worth reading up on if you haven’t heard of him before. Consider including him in your next game and see how if the adventurers' mettle is a match for Japan’s most famous ronin!

(Musashi will not be the only samurai in this series--tell us who else needs to get an article in the comments!)

Miyamoto Musashi
Medium humanoid (human), lawful neutral fighter (samurai) 18

Armor Class 16 (padded, defensive fighting style)
Hit Points 135 (18d10+36)
Speed 30 ft.

[TABLE="class: grid, width: 400"]
[TR]
[TD="align: center"]STR[/TD]
[TD="align: center"]DEX[/TD]
[TD="align: center"]CON[/TD]
[TD="align: center"]INT[/TD]
[TD="align: center"]WIS[/TD]
[TD="align: center"]CHA[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD="align: center"]16 (+3)[/TD]
[TD="align: center"]19 (+4)[/TD]
[TD="align: center"]14 (+2)[/TD]
[TD="align: center"]13 (+1)[/TD]
[TD="align: center"]9 (-1)[/TD]
[TD="align: center"]11 (+0)[/TD]
[/TR]
[/TABLE]

Saving Throws Str +9, Con +8, Wis +5
Skills Acrobatics +10, Athletics +9, Insight +5, Intimidation +7
Senses passive Perception 9
Languages Common
Challenge 10 (5,900 XP)

Action Surge (2/short rest). Once on his turn, Musashi can take an additional action on top of his regular action and a possible bonus action.

Feats: Maneuver Master (6d6 maneuver dice/short rest). Musashi can expend a maneuver dice to perform a single maneuver with an attack.

• Counter. Musashi can use his reaction to make a melee attack against a creature that misses him with a melee attack, dealing 1d6 additional damage on a hit.
• Disarm. A creature Musashi has hit with an attack takes 1d6 additional damage and makes a DC 18 Strength saving throw or drops one held item of his choice.
• Feint. Musashi can use his bonus action to feint against one creature within 5 feet. He has advantage on his next attack roll against that creature as long as it before the end of his turn. On a hit he deals 1d6 additional damage.
• Lunge. Musashi increases his reach by 5 feet for one attack, dealing 1d6 additional damage on a hit.
• Sweep. Musashi chooses a creature adjacent to his target and within his reach and on a hit, the adjacent creature takes 1d6 damage (of the same type as the weapon attack).
• Trip. Musashi deals 1d6 additional damage and if the target is a creaturesof Large size or smaller, it makes a DC 18 Strength saving throw or is knocked prone.

Feat: Mobile. Musashi can Dash through difficult terrain without requiring additional movement. Whenever he makes an attack against a creature, he doesn’t provoke opportunity attacks from that creature until the end of his turn.

Indomitable (3/long rest). Musashi can reroll a saving throw that he fails but must use the new roll.

Second Wind (1/short rest). On his turn, Musashi can use a bonus action to regain 1d10+18 hit points.

Warrior Spirit (3/long rest). Musashi can use a bonus action to gain 15 temporary hit points and advantage on weapon attack rolls until the end of his turn. When Musashi rolls for initiative and has no uses of this feature remaining, he regains one use.

ACTIONS

Multiattack. Musashi attacks three times.

Rapid Strike (1/turn). When Musashi has advantage on a weapon attack during his turn, he may choose to roll normally and instead make an additional attack against that target.

Katana. Melee Weapon Attack: +10 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 7 (1d8+3) slashing damage if wielded in one hand or 8 (1d10+3) slashing damage if wielded in two hands.

Longbow. Ranged Weapon Attack: +9 to hit, range 150/600 ft., one target. Hit: 7 (1d8+3) piercing damage.
REACTIONS

Feat: Master of the Sword. Musashi can use his reaction when wielding a sword to gain a +1 bonus to his AC until the start of his next turn or until he is disarmed. In addition, Musashi has advantage on opportunity attacks.

Warrior Undying. Musashi can use his reaction to immediately take one action, bonus action, and move when he is reduced to 0 hit points and not killed outright. This interrupts the initiative order and Musashi is treated as though he were unconscious and dying (taking death saving throw failures when he takes damage during this extra turn). Musashi falls unconscious after taking his extra turn if he has not regained any hit points.

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[Gary Huddleston]

Dr Masaaki Hatsumi would be great for your next article.

 

[Jeffrey Robbins]

How about some ladies next. Try Tomoe Gozen, La Maupin, Anne Bonny, or Jeanne d'Arc.

 

[Morrus]

Dr Masaaki Hatsumi would be great for your next article.

Mythological figures are the primary focus of the article; some major historical figures might be the secondary focus; but we're not going to do stats for living people.

How about some ladies next. Try Tomoe Gozen, La Maupin, Anne Bonny, or Jeanne d'Arc.

I'm pretty sure Mike said Joan of Arc is next, though I'm not 100% sure.

 

[EthanSental]

Enjoying the wrote ups. Quick question...he came up with the 2 weapon fighting style with the swords mentioned above but nothing stat wise shows this fighting style. Thanks!

 

[AriochQ]

I would increase the AC bonus for Master of the Sword to at least +2 and possibly higher to bring it in line with other reactions that do the same thing (e.g. Gladiator has Parry that adds +3 as a reaction)

 

[Krachek]

if you read The Book of Five Rings you know that he has more than 9 in wisdom and 11 in charisma.
This guy was a fine observator and got a strong dedication to victory and training.
And probably it is by these two scores that he got famous.
For a legendary character I would go for 18 wis and 18 charisma.

 

[Mike Myler]

I'm pretty sure Mike said Joan of Arc is next, though I'm not 100% sure.

I have a build for her that I like and think people will get use out of, just working on the extra text right now.

Enjoying the wrote ups. Quick question...he came up with the 2 weapon fighting style with the swords mentioned above but nothing stat wise shows this fighting style. Thanks!

Aye. He came up with it but he's not really known for that being his style. I just came across that during my research and (for the like dozenth time in my life) been like "Whoa, Musashi. Whoa." Had to mention it. If you want to make it a thing for him, you can swap out the Defensive fighting style (drop his AC by 1), add in bonus action attacks with a shortsword (include that damage add), and lower his katana down to 1d8.

I would increase the AC bonus for Master of the Sword to at least +2 and possibly higher to bring it in line with other reactions that do the same thing (e.g. Gladiator has Parry that adds +3 as a reaction)

You should let WotC know. Like every other thing you see on this sheet that doesn't have identical wording to the core rule ability (Indomitable, Second Wind, etc.), the language (which is not on the SRD and not part of the Open Gaming License) is different but modeled off of core content (in this case the Weapon Mastery feat for blades). The only exception right now is Achilles who used to have his special-not-core-rules bit above the text (but folks weren't reading it so it got added directly to the statblock with a CR upgrade).

 

[Dave Goff]

This is well done and well-balanced. I do agree that his wisdom and charisma should be higher, though I wouldn't go as high as 18/18 like Krachek was thinking.

Cheers!

 

[Mike Myler]

if you read The Book of Five Rings you know that he has more than 9 in wisdom and 11 in charisma.
This guy was a fine observator and got a strong dedication to victory and training.
And probably it is by these two scores that he got famous.
For a legendary character I would go for 18 wis and 18 charisma.

I haven't read the The Book of Five Rings (yet) but he was roughly 60 years old when it came out. I think all of his statistics would be different if you're talking about Grandpa Samurai (in which case you might drop Mobile and a Maneuver Master feat too--2 of the more physically intensive maneuvers--to grab up two Ability Score Increases for Wisdom/Charisma/Intelligence, maybe taking a down-trade swap out of Str/Dex/Con too).

This is well done and well-balanced. I do agree that his wisdom and charisma should be higher, though I wouldn't go as high as 18/18 like Krachek was thinking.

Cheers!

Thanks Dave! I try to do these as closely within the confines of the core rules as possible (which includes ability score generation). To use him as just an NPC I don't think anyone would throw their arms in the air to scream heresy if he got a few points in either of those. Far as I could tell he relied more on being smart and canny than anything else (and was definitely very brash, especially when first starting out) so I shouldered into that for his only solid mental stat.