Samurai homebrew

[Borthos]

I read the Samurai class in the Complete Warrior and I have to say...wow that's dumb. Spreading out skill sets like that and not giving a real choice on how to play him in combat seems incredibly dumb to me. So after taking a semester studying Samurai from the inception of Japan to modern day, I have decided to take my shot at making a base class in honor of the warrior.

Based somewhat loosely on historical principles of Samurai and Japanese culture regarding combat, I am working on this class and would love to playtest it in my group, but I need to finish it first.

Your class abilities are based on the type of school you can choose at first level. I have the basics for three of the four schools, but have almost no clue on the abilities for Kyudo. I also think I might have too many dead levels.

Any constructive criticism from anyone would be appreciated, as I want to finish this class and present it to my dm for a future character. the files are attached to this post

EDIT: damn, forgot the armor. IT should say "Samurai are proficient with light and medium armors.

 

[Fallenibilis]

nothing wrong with your class... just a quick mention, I've always hated the fact that the katana is a Master wok bastard sword. I've always thought that (and my gaming group agrees with me) that the Elven Court Blade fits it alot better.(1d10 18-20 crit slashing or peircing for those who dont know the stats.) Any way just wanted to put that out there. And kudos for attempting to fix 3.5's ultimate class failure.

Fallenibilis

 

[Borthos]

Really wasn't referencing Kenshin there lol, but Iaido or Battoujutsu are real techniques that are usually taught separately so I put it as a different school.

I agree with your assessment of the Katana though, I never understood why it was treated like that.

Do you find yourself disagreeing with anything for the three finished styles? Battoujutsu was the hardest and the one I focused more on, but the Nito and Itto styles I want more flavor for. Also, I was thinking of maybe Kyudo ending in a death attack type ability

 

[Borthos]

added a 15th level ability for Itto-ryu, and rough drafted Kyudo. I relaly want someone to look at the one and two sword styles and give them a bit more flavor, and I want a no holds barred opinion of the class as a whole


Edit: updated the class abilities. don't know how school training went from 10th to 11th. changed it back. Added bonus feats, uncanny dodge

 

[Fallenibilis]

Personally im not a fan of death attacks. I like Kyudo alot it sounds like something i would enjoy playing. The mechanics of the other schools seem pretty solid to me.

A while back me and my freinds were throwing around ideas on how to fix the samurai. here are a few of our ideas.
1) we thought that the samurai's armor was more used for a ceramonial purposes and that there were more gracefull warriors so we gave them the monks AC.

2) Samurai duels were decided in single attacks and we wanted this reflected through the use of the sudden strike feature (1/2 the ninja progression).

3) as i said the change to the katana

4) we saw them as graceful instead brute force thus we gave them the elegant strike feature (dex modifer added to damage)

5) to go with the sudden strike ability i suggested a batto-jutsu type ability except that the strike would leave the foe flat-footed.

just some ideas to consider.

Fallenibilis

 

[Borthos]

Personally im not a fan of death attacks. I like Kyudo alot it sounds like something i would enjoy playing. The mechanics of the other schools seem pretty solid to me.

A while back me and my freinds were throwing around ideas on how to fix the samurai. here are a few of our ideas.
1) we thought that the samurai's armor was more used for a ceramonial purposes and that there were more gracefull warriors so we gave them the monks AC.

2) Samurai duels were decided in single attacks and we wanted this reflected through the use of the sudden strike feature (1/2 the ninja progression).

3) as i said the change to the katana

4) we saw them as graceful instead brute force thus we gave them the elegant strike feature (dex modifer added to damage)

5) to go with the sudden strike ability i suggested a batto-jutsu type ability except that the strike would leave the foe flat-footed.

just some ideas to consider.

Fallenibilis

1. Samurai armor was ceremonial, in that every Samurai customized his armor to his own personal tastes, but samurai armor was very flexible to accommodate the style of the katana but also very heavy to protect them. Usually only higher ranking military had the kind of armor you see in films. Normal soldiers just wore lighter armor.

2. Samurai duels were not decided by one attack. that was only when two highly skilled warriors fought or someone made a mistake and it only took one attack. (Arguably) the most famous duel between samurai happened at Ganryu island between Musashi Miyamoto and Sasaki Kojiro which was a heated battle.

3. I agree.

4. Samurai were, if anything, equal parts finesse and brute force. Maybe I can add that to Nito ryu, however. Since it takes far more dexterity and finesse to wield two weapons. I like the idea.

5. Sudden strike would not work with the Samurai because any samurai worth his honor would never strike a flat-footed (D&D def.) opponent, only catch his opponent when he made a mistake.

However, because Kyudo caught your eye, what would you like there instead of a death attack? and do you like the flurry-type ability (attack everyone in range)? do you think it should be moved?

and i moved a couple things around in the ability table

 

[Fallenibilis]

First of im glad that you lowered the level that they get improved initiative. Secondly im glad you fleshed out the calss with more abilitys like uncanny dodge and the bonus feats. As to instead of a death attack a flurry type ability would be cool or maybe all its attacks resolve as touch attacks (not sure why that would happen just a random idea that sounded fun).

Fallenibilis

 

[Borthos]

The touch attack thing might be a little too strong, even at 20th level. A lot of higher level baddies are very big and have veeery low touch ACs. for example, a Great Wyrm Red Dragon, CR 24, has a touch AC of 8. You'd never miss, even on the BAB 5. I might be able to condense it down to "for a number of rounds equal to your wisdom bonus..." would that be appropriate?

 

[Fallenibilis]

Condenseing it to a number of rounds per wisdom modifier sounds good. I think it gives it a unique flavor (the touch attack part not the the time per something).

Fallenibilis

 

[gamerprinter]

I don't know if this is helpful or not, but I am currently building a setting for publication, but it's designed for Pathfinder, not D&D 3x, so it might require a bit of reverse engineering to run as a 3x campaign - especially monsters and such. The setting is called Kaidan: a Japanese Ghost Story.

Basically Kaidan is a feudal Japan inspired Asian horror setting. It is fictional and not Japan, but heavily relies on Japanese history, religion, culture, legends and ghost stories. I am half Japanese and have been working on this for over a year. It is currently a patronage project - we are still currently accepting patrons (see the above link.)

In development, I'm relying on my player classes to be represented by archetypes, meaning slight changes to class features, but sticking with the standard available classes, and not inventing new ones. My samurai are reflavored Pathfinder Fighter, Cavalier, Meika (bard-courtier) and Onmyoji (wizard). For Kaidan, Samurai is a caste not a class.

Kaidan emphasizes the whole of the social castes with a heavy emphasis towards the Commoner caste - so Kaidan is a not a samurai centric game as most other Japanese settings seem to be. In a way, Kaidan is a cross between Oriental Adventures and Ravenloft. Kaidan is an archaic word that means 'Ghost or Horror Story.' Still it is more authentically feudal Japan than most historical settings in my experience.

The product should be released in March 2011, as a 3 part mini-arc and setting material, with plans for a larger 1st - 20th campaign combined with various race books, a standard handbook and several gazetteers for the various islands of Kaidan in great detail.

Again we are still looking for patrons to help develop the product, and I know its Pathfinder and not 3x, but you still might be able to make use of the setting for your 3x game.

Just wanted to mention that - sorry for the threadjack. I did look at your files and your samurai build seems interesting. The point is if you 'weaken' the monsters and NPCs a bit for 3x, you might be able to run your samurai and other classes in this setting, and it sounds like it could be fun!

Michael "GP" Tumey