Please critique my asura samurai

[samuraijaques]

Hey guys,

I recently had the idea to make an asura iaijutsu master for a character in an upcoming D&D game. The idea was inspired greatly by the game asura's wrath. The character is a tiefling prince that was tricked into abandoning his throne and now finds himself on the material plane with little money and none of the respect or comforts that he has grown accustomed to.

The character is based largely on japanese anime in his over the top style of fighting (things like Samurai Champloo, Rurouni Kenshin, Afro Samurai). He uses his 6 arms to make effective use of the bonus damage from iaijutsu focus and deal large amounts of damage. In addition to his exceptional melee power I have also invested in maxing out use magic device so that he can have access to spells in the form of staffs and wands. I wanted to make him into kind of a gish but didn't want to sacrifice my BaB. Finally, i have maxed out intimidate and given him imperious command (demoralize has been re-fluffed to be his kiai shout) to easily set up his opponents for iaijutsu damage

so without further ado, here is the build so far. (we are starting at ECL 9 because it's going to be a high powered campaign and we got bored of starting at low levels)

Akuma: Neutral Evil
Lesser Insectile Magic-Blooded Rakshasa-Spawned Winter Unseelie Fey Tiefling Spirit Lion Barbarian 1/ Zhentarim Fighter 4/ Marshal 1/ Iaijutsu Master 1

My DM has waived the weapon focus (katana) prerequisite for iaijutsu master because it's a terrible feat and we are playing in a high optimization game.

ability scores
Strength 12 (+1)
Dexterity 24 (+7)
Constitution 12 (+1)
Intelligence 11 (+0)
Wisdom 11 (+0)
Charisma 24 (+7)

Flaws: 2
Shaky
Honorable (custom flaw i made that prevents my character from turning down a challenge to a duel and requires him to make a will save to not fight someone to defend his honor. there is a lot of mechanical stuff that i am not explaining, but that is the gist of it)

Feats:
Improved Initiative
Quick Draw
Skill Learning (My DM hates cross class skills so he let me have Iaijutsu focus and UMD with this one feat)
Weapon Juggle (homebrew feat that allows you to sheathe or change weapon hands as a free action)
Multiweapon Fighting
Dreadful Wrath
Imperious Command
Steely Gaze (feat from conan that allows 1 free intimidate per round)
Skill Focus Intimidate (bonus zhentarim fighter)
Weapon Finesse Katana (bonus iaijutsu master)
Skill Focus Diplomacy (bonus marshal)

equipment:
-mithril partial armor with cahar-aina and dastana (totaled up its a +6 AC +6 max dex -3 armor penalty set of armor)
-5 shortswords re-skinned as katanas
-1 katana named pitch with the focusing (+4 to iaijutsu focus checks) and warning on it (+5 to initiative)
-custom magic item with fuse arms at will so that he can split and fuse his arms at will (almost entirely for the coolness factor, only practical application i can thing of is if i needed to pass a strength check for something)
-collar of perpetual attendance (because it's super useful and fits the theme of a spoiled prince and his servants)
-circlet of persuasion (his crown, also gives bonuses to all 3 skills that he uses)
-custom staff with wraithstrike, towering oak and whirling blade (for fun) on it
-a handy haversack because they are fantastic
-3 masterwork tools. magically attuned gloves (for UMD), a scary face (sculpted out of the cahar-aina) and oil for his sheathes to make sure they come out easily.
-and finally, an enveloping pit so that he can have a little slice of his home (the abyss) to take around with him all the time. pit sweet pit.

important skill ranks
10 in UMD, intimidate and iaijutsu focus
5 in balance for when i use marbles or grease to make people flat-footed while retaining my own dex to AC and because it give a synergy bonus to iaijutsu focus
5 ranks in bluff for intimidate synergy

here is a picture to show what i imagine the character looking like
http://cdn.obsidianportal.com/assets/63036/TieflingPsion.jpg
ignore the crest on his back and add 3 katans to each hip

combat breaks down like this. he wins initiative because, let's be honest, he's rocking a +18 he's going to win.

in his first round he charges an enemy simultaneously dismissing fuse arms to split them into 6 and drawing his 6 katanas. his iaijutsu focus check modifier is 35 (+7 [cha] +10 [ranks] +4 [focused] +7 [motivate cha] +3 [circlet of persuasion] +2 [masterwork tool] +2 [balance]) so on an average roll of 10 he gets 7d6 extra damage with his 7 attacks (2 for BaB, 5 for his extra arms) for 49d6 iaijutsu damage, on top of that there is the 7d6 for the actual katanas and the +7 from his strength (but who cares about that). so on a charge if all his attacks hit (he has wraithstrike so they should) he does 203 damage on average, not too shabby.

Dreadful Wrath triggers and he gains a frightful presence with a will save of 19 (not going to be intimidating druids but most mooks and fighters will be affected) he can then use steely gaze to intimidate an adjacent enemy or he can use never outnumbered to get everyone within 10 ft. his intimidate modifier is 34 (+7 [cha] +10 [ranks] +2 [bluff] +2 [masterwork tool] +3 [skill focus] +7 [motivate cha] +3 [circlet of persuasion]) and with imperious command all demoralized enemies cower until my next turn.

at that point combat continues however i feel like, i can demoralize as a free action once per round which combined with imperious command makes getting targets flat footed easy and i can sheathe my weapon as a free action for iaijutsu damage on every strike.

outside of combat he has a great deal of usefulness. intimidating people to make them do what he wants, unseen servant is incredibly useful for dungeon diving, his UMD of 29 allows him to pick up pretty much any magic item and use it, and the enveloping pit is going to be a multilevel tower and base of operations for the adventuring party.

and that's pretty much it. obviously he leans heavily on the rule of cool and if he wasn't so neat i don't think any sane DM would have allowed him. but, he has already been approved (my DM and I both are of the persuasion that playing powerful characters are more fun so we just tweak the difficulty of the game to balance it out).

I have a bunch of questions though.
1. what do you think about him? I put a lot of thought into this character and would love to hear people's opinions of him.
2. what can i do to make the 3 functions of this character (iaijutsu damage, UMD and intimidate) better that i have not done already?
3. with my UMD so high i can use basically any spell trigger or completion items. what ones should i get? what spells would be most useful to the character?
4. are there any blatant problems with the build that i have not taken into account? alignment restrictions, class restrictions or anything else of that nature?
5. where should i take the build from here? obviously i am going to go iaijutsu master 5 for that glorious cha damage to each iaijutsu damage die. but other than that it's pretty open. i was planning on getting a 1 level dip in warlock for beguiling influence (lets crank that intimidate as high as possible) and for eldritch blast which actually works with iaijutsu damage by RAW. the justification for that blatant abuse of rules came from the idea of sword beams. basically him launching an energy projectile from his weapon which lends more to his gishyness and is super cool sounding, also not OP so i'm not really worried. but that's only the next 5 levels so after that it's fair game.

and that's that

looking forward to hearing from you

cheers.

[Vaz]

I like, quite a nice concept, I'm making a similar character in a gestalt; although the build takes a bit longer to get into. Why Lion Totem? Spirit Lion gets you Pounce. For when you get IM 5, ramp up his Charisma Mod for stupid damage. With one weapon, I'm hitting around an average of 600 Damage on an Iaijutsu Full Attack. With 6, you can probably deal around 700-800+.

What does the Tiefling bring to the build that a Lesser Aasimar won't? You get the +2 Cha for LA0.

For my ECL 20 Build;
- I throw in Warblade or Crusader at a relevant Level for Maneuvres and Stances (in particular the +20 to Initiative, but also others like the Nightmare Blade Chain.
- Tattoed Monk; difficult to push for without setting out for it (I started off with Human Fighter 2/Marshal 1/OA Samurai 2 for 6 Feats by ECL 5, along with Motivate x). But Bellflower Tattoo allows you opportunity to Add Charisma Mod to your Charisma; goes well with Marshal. Also; consider advancing to TM 3; You can get the Crane Tattoo for a free +3 to Mental Stats (just need to get yourself aged to Venerable; such as get hit by a Time Dragons Breath Attack or a Phane (the former being a Dragon Mag Epic Dragon, and the latter Epic)).

My Build is; Fighter 2/Marshal 1/Samurai 2/Tattooed Monk 3/Iaijutsu Master 8/Warblade 4. I typically gestalt it with a Rokugan Campaign Setting Courtier 18 (Crane Clan) for +12 Charisma and 10 permanent Class Skills with Immense Leadership Boosts, and at least Bard 1 to qualify for Snowflake Wardance.

With stuff like Unseelie Fey Magic Blooded Lesser Aasimar you have +6 Charisma and significant Dex and Int Boosts, Throw in the Gestalt and Venerable and you're at +21 Charisma, +6 Cloak of Charisma for +27, and +5 from Levelling to +32; you have 50 Charisma by Level 20; getting a +20 Bonus to Charisma to take it to 70.

Marshal gives Cha to Dex for +30 Bonus; IF adds 9d6 Damage, IM adds Cha bonus to IF Damage (so a Full Attack deals (36d6+120)+4d10+Strength at an Initiative of +50+Dex. Add in Gauntlets of Heatfelt Blows and you're dealing a further 30d6 per attack of fire damage as well.

I hope that gives some food for thought! Good luck!

[samuraijaques]

@Vaz

wow, really great input.

the lion totem thing was a typo, i was thinking of the spirit lion one that gives pounce. i don't even remember what the lion totem ACF gives.

the reason for the teifling was entirely based on what i wanted the character to look and act like, i wanted him to be abyssal nobility. there is a pathfinder teifling variant bloodine called rakshasa-spawn that gives +2 dex +2 cha and -2 int instead of the ability bonuses that tieflings get normally and that is the one that we have applied to my character. i should have included all this stuff in he original post, guess i kind of got carried away. i have updated the original post to say lesser rakshasa-spawned tiefling.

warblade is definitely something i want to include, too many tasty maneuvers to turn down. tattooed monk however i am not that in to. as great as the abilities are it is just not worth the feats in this already feat starved build. bellflower would be pretty insane though :P.

the unseelie fey suggestion is absolutely amazing. that template does everything that i need for this character. gives bonuses to my 2 most important stats, DR, gives a racial bonus to intimidate, gives an aura that decreases my enemies saves by my cha modifier?! DAFUQ? that last one was the selling point for me, as this character relies a lot on fear effects so any little bit helps. all that for +1d6 extra damage from iron? big whoop.

okay, so with all that taken into account, and the unseelie fey template added my iaijutsu damage is kind of silly. when i get to iaijutsu master, without any cha boosting items i have a cha bonus of 7. my character has 14 attacks on a charge (3 [base] +10 [imp. multiweapon] +1 [haste]) and will deal 126d6 [iaijutsu] + 14d6 [katanas] (treated as short swords) + 882 [cha bonus damage] if all his attacks hit for an average damage of 1372 at ecl 13. suck it tarrasque.

thanks a bunch for the help, i'll add the stuff to the original post.

cheers

[samuraijaques]

no more takers? i thought this was a pretty cool idea. :(

[artofregicide]

I think the character idea is somewhere between awesome and super amazing cool.

I'm really not an optimizer, so I can't help you there.

That's my 2 cp.

[Asheram]

... Just a question. What have your friends thought about playing?

[samuraijaques]

@artofregicide
thanks man, that means a lot

@asheram
it's a casual campaign that is mainly about having fun so we are playing all the crazy builds that we would never try in a real campaign, we have a spell to power erudite time mage with levels in chronorebel for time travel shennanigans, a non optimized (but still stupid powerful) hulking hurler that has been allowed to keep his access to int and cha based skills that carries a library around with him and fights with a wrecking ball, and a swiftblade pirate wielding a rapier and a hand crossbow. it's going to be great. we are going to blow up the moon... with the tarrasque, i'm going to intimidate it to make it cower and the hulking hurler is going to throw it into orbit.