Meet Tawara Bushi, semi-optimized baddonkey Samurai (critique please!)

[danzibr]

Props for those who get the reference, more props for those who know the translation.
Tawara Bushi, the Samurai
I looked for a picture but couldn't find anything to do him justice. Sorry :/
Hellbred Samurai 10/Exemplar 1/Incandescent Champion 9

Stats at 1: 14, 10, 12, 14, 10, 18

Feats/flaws at 1: Skill Focus-Intimidate, Devil’s Favor (racial)

Skills at 1: 4 in Concentration, Intimidate, Iaijutsu Focus, Diplomacy

Other features at 1: Daishou proficiency, can use evil stuff, can only be rez’d by Resurrection or greater, abrasive (trait, +1 Intimidate, -1 Diplomacy and Bluff), +2 racial to Intimidate

lvl 2: TWF, 5 in Intimidate, Iaijutsu Focus, Diplomacy, ½ in Bluff

lvl 3: feat to Shape Soulmeld-Bloodwar Gauntlets, 6 in Intimidate, Iaijutsu Focus, Diplomacy, 1 in Bluff

lvl 4: Kiai Smite 1/day, stat point to Cha, 7 in Intimidate, iaijutsu Focus, 2 in Bluff, hopefully buy Fearsome armor

lvl 5: Quick Draw, 8 in Intimidate, Iaijutsu Focus, Never Outnumbered skill trick, if not already, buy Fearsome armor

lvl 6: +4 unnamed to Intimidate, feat to Imperious Command, Darkvision to 60 ft (racial), 9 in Intimidate, Iaijutsu Focus, 3 in Bluff

lvl 7: Kiai Smite 2/day, 10 in Intimidate, Iaijutsu Focus, 4 in Bluff

lvl 8: Improved Init, stat point to Cha, 11 in Intimidate, Iaijutsu Focus, 5 in Bluff

lvl 9: feat to Bonus Essentia, Darkvision to 120 ft (racial), 12 in Intimidate, Iaijutsu Focus, 2 in Knowledge (nobility and royalty)

lvl 10: Intimidate all in 30’ as standard, 13 in Intimidate, Iaijutsu Focus, 8 in Spot

lvl 11: Exemplar 1, +4 competence to Intimidate, take 10 in Intimidate and Iaijutsu Focus, 14 in Intimidate, Iaijutsu Focus, 1 in Ride

lvl 12: Incandescent Champion 1, feat to Open Lesser Chakra-arms, stat point to Cha, invest essentia for + to damage, Darkvision sees through Darkness (racial), 15 in Intimidate, Iaijutsu Focus, 2 in Ride

lvl 13: invest essentia for fast healing, 16 in Intimidate, Iaijutsu Focus, 3 in Ride

lvl 14: glance to shaken Will save, 17 in Intimidate, Iaijutsu Focus, 4 in Ride

lvl 15: feat to XXX, boost max essentia as free action for 1 round 1/day, Telepathy 100 ft (racial), 18 in Intimidate, Iaijutsu Focus, 5 in Ride

lvl 16: stat point to Cha, ranged touch attack for essentiad8, 19 in Intimidate, Iaijutsu Focus, 6 in Ride

lvl 17: 20 in Intimidate, Iaijutsu Focus, 7 in Ride

lvl 18: feat to XXX, boost essentia 2/day, 21 in Intimidate, Iaijutsu Focus, 8 in Ride

lvl 19: essentiad6 damage to adjacent enemies Will save, 22 in Intimidate, Iaijutsu Focus, 9 in Ride

lvl 20: fast healing for essentia to allies, stat point to Cha, 23 in Intimidate, Iaijutsu Focus, 10 in Ride
Let me explain. First, some of the skills are kind of meh. Mostly the knowledge and ride (btw, DM is allowing Iaijutsu Focus as a CW Samurai skill).

Second, what's good about him? Other than his loads of flavor. Well, at level 1 he has an impressive +14 to Intimidate. This jumps up at level 6 when Imperious Command becomes available, and at that point he has Fearsome armor and Never Outnumbered, so he gets mediocre CC and can shut one guy down. At level 10 things become much better, forcing all foes (well, except those immune to fear, mindless or vermin) within 30' to cower every single turn (as a move action if your DM allows it). Then at 12 his hands glows as he whacks people. Cool.

Third, I decided to not do anything with Rogue, Marshal, Avenging Executioner, Ronin, et cetera. And for good reasons. We have a rogue in the party. Some of the fear abilities (namely Avenging Executioner) totally don't work if the enemy's HD exceed your own. You fight something that's *one* level higher than you? Well, that sucks. Other abilities work off of Will saves rather than opposed checks. Yeah, that's not great either. Furthermore, like good ol' Pallly, you have to do all your Samurai levels in one chunk (excepting a few PrC's). I wanted Samurai 10 for the AWESOME ability (sorry, got overexcited), so I decided to get it done from 1 to 10.

Why not Ronin? Flavor reasons, honestly, and it's kind of a dead PrC after level 2. The SA is not *that* appealing to me and the bonus feats suck (at least for Bushi).
So then why Incandescent Champion? Well, MoI is cool, but that's not the reason. It's because it's the *only* PrC I could find that I liked for Bushi. Seriously, Samurai get no love when it comes to prestige classes. To be honest, it's probably a suboptimal choice, but I couldn't find anything better. And the flavor is awesome! Think about it. The scene in LotR where Galadriel gets all scary? That's how I imagine Bushi. A baddonkey demon dude in heavy armor that glows because he's so good.
Well, that about covers it. I'm interested in a couple things:
1) What should Bushi's last 2 feats be?
2) Is there a better soulmeld than Bloodwar Gauntlets?

[Keld Denar]

Other than his loads of flavor.
The lack of a familiar is crippling to this build, no matter how much you sacrifice power for flavor.


1) What should Bushi's last 2 feats be?
For filler feats, I tend to like feats like Quick Recovery (Lords of Madness), Improved Intiative, and Improved Toughness. You can never act too quick, never have too many HP, and shrugging off high level effects with a roar of effort is pretty badass.


2) Is there a better soulmeld than Bloodwar Gauntlets?

For what? Beating up on fools? Not getting beaten like a fool? Mobility? Versatility? Skillz?

[NNescio]

田原　武士？

Field Warrior?

俵　武士？

(Bag of) Straw Warrior?

田原　仏子?

Field Monk (Apprentice)?

俵　武士？

(Bag of) Straw Monk (Apprentice)?

[danzibr]

The lack of a familiar is crippling to this build, no matter how much you sacrifice power for flavor.

For filler feats, I tend to like feats like Quick Recovery (Lords of Madness), Improved Intiative, and Improved Toughness. You can never act too quick, never have too many HP, and shrugging off high level effects with a roar of effort is pretty badass.

For what? Beating up on fools? Not getting beaten like a fool? Mobility? Versatility? Skillz?
Ahh Keld Denar, my GitP hero. Glad you came.

By familiar you mean the thing wizards (and other classes) get? Just checking familiar isn't code for something I don't know. How would I get a familiar other than taking a level as a caster? I know of Wild Cohort (which I'd totally be open to, I have 2 flaws available which I haven't taken).

And ooooh Quick Recovery is nice. I don't think I can take Improved Initiative as I get it as a bonus feature. And yeah, the more HPs the merrier.

And for the soulmeld... well, anything really. I mean, of course any mobility soulmeld will be better than Bloodwar Gauntlets, but I'm just talking overall usefulness. I'd prefer something to make me beefier, but I'm not limiting myself to that.

[...]
俵　武士？

(Bag of) Straw Warrior?
[...]
You got it! Well, basically. The Tawara comes from Tenjou Tenge, the dude Tawara Bunshichi (文七). Having straw bag as his family name didn't make sense, but hey, that's fine (his given name doesn't make sense to me either... I've only finished 6 semesters; I mean, I can read it, but it seems silly). And bushi of course is warrior, as you said.

[Keld Denar]

Look here (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=126747)...old old old OLD forum meme...sorry. That link is about as close to the origional I can find atm...

I'll get to the rest of it later.

[danzibr]

Look here (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=126747)...old old old OLD forum meme...sorry. That link is about as close to the origional I can find atm...

I'll get to the rest of it later.
Ahh thanks for linking that. I get it. I'm glad you think he's flavorful (or at least acknowledge I think he's flavorful). I feel enlightened.

[Vandicus]

The starting stats don't seem to be labeled so I'm going to go out on a limb here and assume that your 18 is in cha. To help you strike more often and get more of a samurai feel(I don't get the reference so I'm going to assume you're going for this somewhat), get the slippers from DMGII that add cha to attack rolls(more important for an iajutsu user) and to damage(not so important) if the user has moved ten feet before making their attacks.

[danzibr]

The starting stats don't seem to be labeled so I'm going to go out on a limb here and assume that your 18 is in cha. To help you strike more often and get more of a samurai feel(I don't get the reference so I'm going to assume you're going for this somewhat), get the slippers from DMGII that add cha to attack rolls(more important for an iajutsu user) and to damage(not so important) if the user has moved ten feet before making their attacks.
Ahh thanks for the advice. Slippers of Battledance IIRC. I used them on a Swiftblade once. I'm pretty sure any time you see stats unlabeled it's always Str Dex Con Int Wis Cha... right, my Cha is the 18.

[Rogue Shadows]

Looks fun.

Out of curiosity, what race is Tawara? I don't see it listed.

[danzibr]

Looks fun.

Out of curiosity, what race is Tawara? I don't see it listed.
You don't, do you...? You may want to check again.

Just kidding, I edited it in. Hellbred.

[danzibr]

EDIT: Blargh, stupid net.

[ShneekeyTheLost]

Nice job.

Have you considered Binder to fill in? It's got some exceedingly useful abilities which can either augment your abilities, or shore up weaknesses.

Dahlver-Nar is a 2nd level Vestige with a lot of fun abilities and immunities. Maddening Moan, for example, is an excellent one-two punch to combo, and Dazing is quite potent.

Malphas is another 2nd level vestige with some extra damage output. Sudden Strike + Cowering (and thus denied dex bonus) = lots of fun.

And let's not forget Knight of the Sacred Seal... a really handy PrC that gives you a lot of abilities.

[danzibr]

Nice job.
Thanks!

As for the rest of your post, I had not considered Binder. In fact, they're one of the classes that I know nearly nothing about. I started to read about it and they seem neat, but I'll need more time. I may end up switching out Incandescent Champion for Binder/Knight of the Sacred Seal.

[Z3ro]

And for the soulmeld... well, anything really. I mean, of course any mobility soulmeld will be better than Bloodwar Gauntlets, but I'm just talking overall usefulness. I'd prefer something to make me beefier, but I'm not limiting myself to that.


Mobility would best be accomplished by blink shirt or airstep sandals (or pegasus cloak if you can shoulder bind it). Otherwise, I believe Incarnate Avatar(evil) gives better damage returns than bloodwar guantlets (2 to damage per essentia instead of 1).

As far as the last two feats go, you could of course take bloodwar guantlets and Incarnate Avatar, and really up the damage if you can get enough essentia.

[Glimbur]

Other soulmelds to consider:

Wormtail Belt gives +2 natural armor. It's kind of boring but useful.

Blink Shirt lets you Dim Door 10' as a standard action. This can occasionally save your life.

Airstep Sandals give you a limited and slow fly speed.

Adamant Pauldrons give you 25% fortification.

Theraputic Mantle makes you heal a little more when healed.

Strongheart Vest makes ability damage hurt a little less, which is a rare ability.

Planar Ward prevents you from being dominated or possessed.

Fearsome Mask gives you an insight bonus to intimidate. If you can afford the Brow Bind opening feat, it gives you a gaze attack which does not affect allies. The DC will probably be low, but it's free attacks. And it's fear!

Threefold Mask of the Chimera makes you immune to flanking.

Rageclaws are Diehard+, you can continue acting normally until you die from hp damage.