(PF) Naginata Samaurai

[Duncan_Ruadrik]

I was toying with a fighter/rogue polearm build the other day, which, through a long and convoluted path led me to looking at the Samurai class. From the perspective of a polearm user, i liked what i saw. This build is potentially for PFS play, so max level of 12, 20 point buy. Hows it look?

STR 14 (all level bonuses go here)
DEX 14 (16)
CON 14
INT 14
WIS 10
CHA 10

FEATS:
1 Power Attack
1 Combat Reflexes
3 Weapon Focus: Naginata
5 Weapon Specialization: Naginata
7 Finishing Cleave
9 Furious Focus
11 ?? (Great Cleave or Greater Weapon Focus??)

Samurai FEATS:

Weapon Expertise: Quick Draw, +2 to confirm crits with NAGINATA
6 Cleave
12?? (Improved Finishing Cleave or Greater Specialization??)

Equipment:
Composite Longbow
Naginata
wakizachi
heavy Shield
spiked gauntlet
Kikko Armor (upgrade to steel lamellar someday)

TACTICS: use the bow until enemies close in, then draw Naginata (free action). make attacks normally, try to get in plenty of AoO's with Combat Reflexes. If foes get within reach, take one hand off of Naginata (free action) and attack with Spiked Gauntlet. At the end of turn, Quick Draw naginata (free action) and wait for more AoO's. rinse and repeat until all adjacent enemies are dead, or all opponents at reach are dead. Then swap to spiked gauntlet or naginata as appropriate. If you have some breathing room, draw the Heavy Shield/wakizachi if the Naginata is no longer viable. If a particularly powerful foe enters your adjacent squares, then maybe the use of a Challenge would be warranted to rapidly dispatch said foe with spiked gauntlets. Execute any remaining wounded/captured foes with Wakizachi.

Did I miss anything? Thanks in advance for your critical eyes!

[Hylas]

I didn't see you post it, and it probably doesn't matter, but which order were you planning on taking?

[Duncan_Ruadrik]

I didn't see you post it, and it probably doesn't matter, but which order were you planning on taking?

oh, heh, that bit slipped my mind. For role-playing reasons (being a non Tian-Xia trained in samurai ways, and being a samurai outside of Tian-Xia) I am going with Ronin.

Backstory at the moment (about 5 minutes of thinking about it) is that characters family were wealthy merchants that made the arduous journey from the West to Tian-Xia, but were waylaid by bandits and/or monsters. few survived the initial onslaught, and what retainers that lived protected the child until a samurai band destroyed the attackers. Having no family, the local samurai (not a particularly important one) took him in, and raised him as a sort of cousin: kindly enough, but always deference was given to the actual children of the house. However, he was raised along side them in most ways, learning various martial techniques. However, he was not an actual samurai, and was not given a daisho.
He had no reason to leave his adopted family except for a desire to adventure, and possibly make something more of himself than a mere retainer of a low ranking samurai. He left on good terms, with the blessings of his adopted father and siblings, and a place to return to if desired.
Basically, he is a Samurai in all but name and social standing. hence, Ronin as the Order.

[Blyte]

since this isn't a combat expertise build and you didn't bother writing down skills, why do you have a 14 int?

I suggest buying down int and cha to pump your str, and also putting your racial +2 into str.

Strength is the bread and butter for almost any fighter type, especially a 2handed fighter type.

I am no big fan of the cleave line, but thematically it's great for a samurai, so best of luck.

It's nice to have a good trick to pull off with a held action like trip and disarm when you have a pole arm character. You might try going with a trip build, if you plan to keep the high int.


feats:
1 Pow Atk
1 Cmb Ref
3 Cmb Exp
5 Improved Trip
7 Felling Smash
9 Furious Focus
11 Cleave

bonus feats:
6 Greater Trip
12 Cleaving Finish


for stats.. sorry don't feel like calcing the point buy but I suggest

str>dex>int>con>wis>cha for this build

perhaps something like this
16 str <--- +2 Human (18) <--- +2 4th+8th (20)
14 dex
13 int
10 con
8 wis
8 cha

then try and score yourself a str and dex item later on.

[Kaeso]

You don't need to be a samurai to play one. (http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0209.html) Just take a warblade, give him a guisarme, roleplay it as a naginata samurai and voilà.

[arguskos]

You don't need to be a samurai to play one. (http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0209.html) Just take a warblade, give him a guisarme, roleplay it as a naginata samurai and voilà.
Fun fact: Warblades aren't in Pathfinder. Given that this gentleman is talking about Pathfinder (as indicated in the thread title), your suggestion, while well-meant, is irrelevant.

@OP: Sounds awesome. Can't help much, but this sounds like a fun and interesting character. It's probably non-ideal, but it definitely seems to be well-conceived and fun to play, so go for it!

[shortbow]

I would recommend checking out this podcast:

The Gamer's Guide to Pathfinder - Cavaliers (http://www.35privatesanctuary.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=391:ggtp-12-cavaliers&catid=53:gamers-guide-to-pathfinder&Itemid=65)

There is a lot of information on the Samurai (Cavalier), relevant feats and Archetype suggestions you might find helpful.

[Blyte]

great pod cast.

I suggest "skinning" the order of the cockatrice into something eastern, like the "Order of the Kirin".. the 8th level ability that will give you extra AoOs on anyone crit by your allies, who you threaten as well, would be very nice.

With that, I would suggest taking the lunge and combat patrol feats instead of cleave and cleaving finish, and operate from the 2nd rank, just soaking up AoOs.

alternatively the Order of the Dragon would be a neat alternative if you want to be more the 2nd rank general, rather than 2nd rank heavy weapons expert.