The Samurai Is Back

[abirdcall]

It is a fantasy samurai, it's not truly supposed to reflect historical fighting techniques or training, it's closer to the movie-ish aspect of the samurai (people jumping so high they basically fly, moving at incredible speed, cutting anything with the Katana of Death, etc) (alright, I hope this class is actually somewhat less ridiculous than a lot of those movies, but still, you get the point). (Also, magic, because D&D)

I don't remember anyone doing that in Seven Samurai.

 

[GreenTengu]

It is a fantasy samurai, it's not truly supposed to reflect historical fighting techniques or training, it's closer to the movie-ish aspect of the samurai (people jumping so high they basically fly, moving at incredible speed, cutting anything with the Katana of Death, etc) (alright, I hope this class is actually somewhat less ridiculous than a lot of those movies, but still, you get the point). (Also, magic, because D&D)



As above, not historically accurate. Although, you may be correct about the bow part, I think most abilities trigger with melee only. I'll fix that.

Okay, but here is the thing... let's say I use the Sengoku Musuo/Samurai Warriors characters as the models for the characters I try to build using this class.
http://www.samuraiwarriors4.eu/characters.html
Putting aside the ones that have intentionally silly weapons or might be better classified as "ninja" or "priest" or even "wizard". Now, certainly I find it is forgivable that the class does not emulate all possible special abilities from that game-- you got the same problem with wizards from different fantasy worlds.

But what absolutely must be avoided is putting down pictures of Takakatsu Honda, Yukimura Sanada, Ina, and Nagamasa Azai and saying 'well, these either aren't samurai or at least they don't get any special abilities because they aren't wielding swords and samurai ONLY wield katanas'... though if one really wants to split hairs, very few of the characters even wielding swords from that game are wielding what would be considered a 'katana'. But 3E screwed up that way when they made their samurai class and I see most homebrew versions of 'samurai' doing that. And you avoided that, so good on that.

I am not sure what is with the chinese-based fighting stances-- and rhino in that list is wildly out of place, I think ox would be a far more suitable name.

Also, I am not sure that there is any real basis for the demon-hunter specialty. Demon-hunting is usually a priest's job, not a samurai's. Its not broken or anything, I just don't know that it ought to be in the top 3 archetypes. A party-buffing commander type would probably be more suitable because what samurai really are is officers, much like knights-- you focus so much on the fighting aspect that you seem to have entirely forgotten the social aspect of being part of the aristocracy and commanding armies. Probably because you have a tendency to only think in terms of the last few homeless wanderers around the end of the Tokugawa era with nothing left of their families' glorious past but their name, their pride and their sword. But they just aren't a very good representative despite how they make a good focus for tales.

 

[Voi_D_ragon]

I am not sure what is with the chinese-based fighting stances-- and rhino in that list is wildly out of place, I think ox would be a far more suitable name.

Well, this was something suggested by [MENTION=6801286]Imaculata[/MENTION] in the original thread, and since I liked tge idea and got a lot of inspiration for the feature, I added it. I admit, this whole thing, now that you all point in out, is probably more fitting for a "Wuxia Warrior" class, but the name isn't quite as evocative.

Also, I am not sure that there is any real basis for the demon-hunter specialty. Demon-hunting is usually a priest's job, not a samurai's. Its not broken or anything, I just don't know that it ought to be in the top 3 archetypes. A party-buffing commander type would probably be more suitable because what samurai really are is officers, much like knights-- you focus so much on the fighting aspect that you seem to have entirely forgotten the social aspect of being part of the aristocracy and commanding armies. Probably because you have a tendency to only think in terms of the last few homeless wanderers around the end of the Tokugawa era with nothing left of their families' glorious past but their name, their pride and their sword. But they just aren't a very good representative despite how they make a good focus for tales.

The demon slayer is there to give a bit more "fantasy" to the class. I must admit it's my least favorite out of the three archetypes though. Also, yes, the samurai certainly were commanders, but I overlooked that upon creating the class (my mistake), because I was mostly thinking about ronin when designing it. That being said, as again manh of you have pointed out, you can easily reflavor a martial class to be Samurai-like, even just through roleplaying: so for your commander/battlefield buffer, you could check out the Warlorld class from middlefingerofvecna.com

 

[hejtmane]

.I would add at one point they can make unarmed strikes for 1d4 damage the Samurai where also while versed in unarmed combat so you do not need to take tavern brawler or monk multiclass.

 

[Cap'n Kobold]

.I would add at one point they can make unarmed strikes for 1d4 damage the Samurai where also while versed in unarmed combat so you do not need to take tavern brawler or monk multiclass.

I didn't spot that in the write-up here. However its not really necessary: they have proficiency in Athletics, and Strength (Athletics) checks are a better fit for the styles of unarmed combat the Samurai and other knights used.
They already have a big benefit in unarmed combat by being able to add their Dex modifier to their unarmed strikes.

What is more odd is that they have proficiency in Strealth, but not some of the more social skill like persuasion.

 

[hejtmane]

I didn't spot that in the write-up here. However its not really necessary: they have proficiency in Athletics, and Strength (Athletics) checks are a better fit for the styles of unarmed combat the Samurai and other knights used.
They already have a big benefit in unarmed combat by being able to add their Dex modifier to their unarmed strikes.

What is more odd is that they have proficiency in Stealth, but not some of the more social skill like persuasion.

Stealth was not really Samurai that should be Ninja class; I agree persuasion should be one of the skill options and not stealth

 

[Voi_D_ragon]

Switched Stealth for Persuasion.

 

[hejtmane]

What samurai movies do you watch where they have super powers? Granted, I've only seen a couple of samurai films (The Last Samurai, Seven Samurai), but they definitely didn't feature supernatural powers.

Most don't there are a few movies like that; must the power samurai comes from anime or manga