(PF) Need build ideas for sword saint samurai

[Kuzon]

my friends and i rolled randomly for classes for a kick-in-the-door style game, and I got samurai.

since i know there isnt going to be enough room for mounted combat most of the time, i decided to use the sword saint archetype.

beyond power attack/furious focus though, im kinda stumped as to where i should go with the character.

limitations is no 3rd party stuff or 3.X stuff, if it's on the pfsrd then it's fair game.

any suggestions or advice would be apprecited.

edit: posting from a 3ds, pardon any spelling/punctuation (or lack thereof)

[jmelesky]

Ugh. Sword Saint is a rough archetype, in my eversohumble opinion -- trade a full-level animal companion for a single, full-round action attack, that can be used once per challenge, and gives sneak attack damage, at a significant AC penalty and the inability to take AoOs immediately prior? Yes, it gets mildly better as you level, but not significantly.

Shaken isn't anything to sneeze at, but you don't have any easy way to get it up to frightened, so it stays a fairly minor debuff. Deafened is ... not worthy of a 14th-level power.

So my advice is to take the mount and either make a Small character (so the mount comes with you into dungeons), or leave it outside dungeons to defend the other, mundane horses that your companions take. It will be useful in a fraction of the encounters you have, but that will still likely be more useful than what you get from Sword Saint.


...

But that's not what you asked.

You get critical confirmation help, which means you probably want a high crit-range weapon to focus on. That means wakizashi or katana. One thing to consider is the dual wakizashi route -- two-weapon fighting is feat intensive, but doubling the extra damage from challenges is a worthwhile thing to do.

TWF is rough on stats, though, which means you might end up dumping Cha, which is your DC stat for Terrifying Iaijutsu, arguably the best thing about Sword Saint. It also makes the Iaijutsu Strike itself even less appealing, since you could be hitting with two weapons instead. Still, it's a solid way forward.

Katana works, too, though, and lets you move some points from Dex to Cha, making shaken more likely. Sadly, your ability to boost DC more or less ends there -- Circlet of Persuasion is not helpful. Thus, Charisma takes priority over your other mental stats -- you'll burn Resolve to deal with Will saves rather than boosting Wisdom. Strength becomes the other obvious stat, moreso than Constitution (Resolve helps with lower hit points, too -- Unstoppable is a heckuva power).

[Twilightwyrm]

Let me start off by saying that I quite like the Sword Saint archetype. I find bonus damage to be generally underestimated, and the general feel of the class is quite a bit to my liking. Still, if this is a basic Dungeon crawler, and if you are looking to take a simpler approach to your character, I would ask your DM if he would allow 3rd party materials. If so, I would recommend the Shogun Archetype. (Found here:http://www.d20pfsrd.com/classes/alternate-classes/samurai/archetypes/rite-publishing---samurai-archetypes/shogun-samurai-archetype)
In addition to implying you are some kind of Warlord, it makes for a very effective commander and tank, as in return for your Mount, and a few other abilities, the class can grant allies attack actions (which give you more resolve if they hit), move actions, use Determined and Resolute to remove negative conditions from allies, and perhaps best of all, can become very SAD. The archetype let's you add more uses of Resolve per day based on your Con score (in addition to half his class level) and let's you use resolve to add your Con score to damage, meaning you can feel free to boost your Con score as high as possible, and still deal good damage when called upon to do so which only needing a moderate Str score. Further, with greater emphasis on these Resolve abilities, the Shogun becomes much less reliant on Cha, and with high HP (and presumably good armor), he only needs an average Dex. Plus, your allies will love you for granting them extra attacks, removing negative conditions, and letting them pass their saving throws, to say nothing of the added effect of the Banner abilities.

Now that I've recommended that enough, I would suggest taking the various Critical improving feats for a Sword Saint. It's abilities already give you better critical hits, and with the Katana's new and improved threat rang of 18-20, you should be able to use them much more often. If the DM allows any 3.5 material, try and convince them to let you take a level of Exotic Weapon Master. This will not only double your Str bonus to damage while using the weapon in two hands, but will also double (again) the bonus you get from Power Attack, which has already been improved in PF. Also, find out how Vital Strike interacts with Iaijutsu attacks. If your DM is lenient, you mean be able to combine the two, effectively giving you many more damage dice, and causing even more damage in a single swipe. Coupled with an Adamantine Katana and you can start emulating a Dungeoncrasher's ability to mess up the terrain of the Dungeon almost as much as its denizens.

[Kuzon]

please pardon the lateness of my reply, i have been preoccupied of late.

@jmelesky: I was planning on using the katana (because iaijutsu fits well with it, and you can two-hand it afterwards for regular combat if you must), and going for critical focus and bleeding critical, though staggering/stunning I've heard good things about as well.

@twilightwyrm: the shogun definitely seems interesting--as well as a nice fluff match to what I've already established with the guys, so i'll be sure to swing that by the DM, thanks for pointing that out.

as for vital strike + iaijutsu, afaik it doesn't stack, since vital strike is a specific attack action, while Iaijutsu is a full-round action (or standard when you hit 10th). I don't really wanna try to pull anything over on our DM, since he's kind of new and I'd hate to take advantage of that.


so far my character's looking something like:half-elf samurai (SS) 10 / fighter (Free Hand) 3 / samurai (SS) 7
order of the dragon - cleared with DM already

str - 17 (7pts. +2 racial)
dex - 13 (3pts.)
con - 14 (5pts.)
int - 10
wis - 10
cha - 16 (10pts.)

traits:
adopted (tiefling): suicidal (1/day, take an attack aimed at an adjacent creature)
anatomist: (+1 trait bonus to critical confirmation rolls)

feats:
1 power attack
1r skill focus (diplomacy)
3 eldritch heritage (infernal) - this feat grants a no-save touch attack that inflicts shaken for rounds equal to may sorcerer level (or rather, character level -2), 3+cha mod times per day
5 step up
6*lunge
7 furious focus (or cornugon smash)
9 critical focus
11 improved eldritch heritage (infernal) - pit-touched, specifically (i have the DM's permission for this already) for +2 con
11** strike back
12** bleeding critical
13 dreadful carnage (con bonus increases to +4)
15 ??? (maybe intimidating prowess?)
15* ???
17 (con bonus increases to +6)
19 ???

r - racial
* - cavalier bonus feat
** - fighter bonus feat

we're starting at 7th level (23,500g), and are slated to play until 14-16

equipment-wise he's got:
+1 adamantine katana (7050g)
mwk. cold iron katana (400g)
mithral katana (3050)
+3 tweak mwk. composite longbow (700g) - looking into getting a party member craft ghost salt blanch to help arrows
+1 mithral armored coat (8050) - worn over the parade armor (better of the two's AC, but worse of ACP, ASF, and speed. only the outermost's enchants apply)
mithral parade armor (1075g) - +2 diplomacy/intimidate when dealing with people from the selected kingdom
+1 mithral buckler (2005g) - no penalty (0ACP) to attacks, still keeps hand free
with the rest being put towards mundane items.


the idea is that he ends up as a sort of "demon general" (he's aiming for that specific title within the setting), and that he is Not A Tiefling, yet still has a dark heritage. mechanically he'd be either wooing (social) or intimidating (social or battle) everyone, and the free-hand fighter dip adds some helpful abilities while keeping a hand open (which meshes well with iaijutsu strike)

while it's not the most optimized, it's very fluffy and (hopefully) competent enough to not weigh the others down. the party currently consists of an alchemist, magus, either an oracle or witch (he hasn't decided), and myself.