Xanathar's Guide to Everything's Samurai Subclass

I really didn't think the Samurai would make it, it felt mechanically redundant with the Knight, plus they already had two fighter archetypes, the Arcane Archer and the Cavalier.

I'm curious as to what it's final mechanics look like.

 

[jaelis]

From memory, I really quite liked the samurai subclass.

I found this ability a little confusing though:

Strength Before Death
Starting at 18th level, your fighting spirit can delay the grasp of death. If you take damage that would reduce you to 0 hit points, you can delay that damage and immediately take a bonus turn, interrupting the current turn. You don’t take the damage until the bonus turn ends. It is possible to do things, such as gaining resistance, that change how much of that damage you take.

Its hard for me to picture what is happening if you use your bonus action to move out of reach of the triggering attack, vs. gaining resistance to it. Maybe it will be a little clarified now

 

[gyor]

I know we got a second revision of the Arcane Archer in Unearthed Arcana, but I haven't heard about it being confirmed for XGTE. Where did you see that it was?

I kind of assumed it was, but your right, it might not be, that would be shame.

 

[lkj]

I know we got a second revision of the Arcane Archer in Unearthed Arcana, but I haven't heard about it being confirmed for XGTE. Where did you see that it was?

Mearls basically confirmed it on Twitter today:

https://twitter.com/mikemearls/status/915309609698521088

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[pdegan2814]

Most of us are assuming those are the same thing, since they explicitly said things would be getting in based primarily on a threshold of popularity.

True, I would say that the subclasses they did additional passes on have a higher probability of getting in. But "widely suspected" isn't the same as "confirmed". Plus, Jeremy's video about the Cavalier suggests the final take will look quite a bit different from both UA revisions, so it's entirely possible that they wanted to give it a 2nd pass and still didn't think it was ready. I do hope Arcane Archer makes it in, the 2nd revision was quite strong, and the idea of a Fighter subclass specifically built around ranged fighting seems appropriate, especially since the Cavalier and the Samurai are much more appropriate for melee Fighters.

 

[pdegan2814]

Mearls basically confirmed it on Twitter today:

https://twitter.com/mikemearls/status/915309609698521088

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I would say that tweet certainly upped the odds. But I've learned with things like this that until they officially say "yes, it's in", then it's still assumption not fact

 

[pdegan2814]

I kind of assumed it was, but your right, it might not be, that would be shame.

All the indications are that it will likely be in, which will make me happy. But I'm waiting until an official confirmation before celebrating

 

[dave2008]

I really didn't think the Samurai would make it, it felt mechanically redundant with the Knight, plus they already had two fighter archetypes, the Arcane Archer and the Cavalier.

I'm curious as to what it's final mechanics look like.

Well, they did say that they sorta combined the Cavalier and the Knight, so maybe now there is less crossover.

 

[flametitan]

I found this ability a little confusing though:

Its hard for me to picture what is happening if you use your bonus action to move out of reach of the triggering attack, vs. gaining resistance to it. Maybe it will be a little clarified now

Well first, the video confirms it'll be temporary HP instead of resistance. Secondly, I assume that nothing special happens if you move out of reach. You're delaying applying damage rather than the attack itself. So moving away would still result in a dying samurai, as the attack is still considered to have hit you, and you're still going to take that damage at the end of the bonus turn, no matter how far you run.

Maybe I'm misunderstanding your question.

 

[pdegan2814]

Well, they did say that they sorta combined the Cavalier and the Knight, so maybe now there is less crossover.

Hopefully it means the Knight's Implacable Mark and Hold The Line abilities will be included in some form.

 

[Chaosmancer]

Hmmm, I'm not sure how I feel about the change to the samurai.

I got a chance to play a half-orc samurai for a few levels, and Heavy Armor Master's DR combined with Resistance made me incredibly hard to take down and I liked that. However, I can see the resistance thing is the barbarian schtick and the Temp Hp might be a better mechanic for it. But, it will depend on 1) how much hp are we talking and 2) how long does it last.

Getting a massive boost of temp hp that only lasts a turn may make you nearly invincible for that turn, but makes it a difficult proposition for other times you may want the advantage. But, getting only 5 or 10 points of temp hp isn't going to do a whole lot if you've got more than one attack coming you way, even if it lasts all day.

So, I'm hoping for something solid, but I'm not sure this will end up working as well as the original design did for the character I played. But, at the very least it did make it on, which is amazing