Pathfinder Samurai Alternatives?

[Astrella]

Alright, so I'm playing a Sword Saint Samurai in a campaign that already has a dagger wielding rogue, a magus and a broodmaster summoner. (Our summoner player hasn't shown up yet for the first few sessions though.) I'm not really sure if I'm liking the class so I'm looking at alternatives that can sorta fulfill the same function:

The main issues I have with the class are mostly the lack of options, both in and out of combat. You don't really get a lot of skills and my charisma isn't good either so I don't really have much to do outside of combat that can't be done more effectively by other characters, which is odd because I usually play skillmonkey characters and / or healers. I'm also a bit disappointed by my options in combat itself right now; we're lvl 2 so my options are either shooting stuff with my composite bow or attacking with my Katana and the only special trick being the Iajitsu strike I get but that one comes with significant downsides.

So, looking for alternatives mostly that don't have those flaws as much.

[Khosan]

I think Cleric might be a good option for you. Your party's lacking in the Divine spellcasting department, so it'll give you some nice utility.

[Lord_Gareth]

Ye gods, you actually attempted to play a Samu-WHY?. You have my condolences, brave one.

If you're interested in staying melee, have you considered the PF paladin? If you don't mind blending in more magic, you can always go Magus. DSP's Soulknife was a wonderful martial fix for a much-maligned class as well.

[StreamOfTheSky]

Yeah, given your party's needs and what you like to play, Cleric, Paladin, Inquisitor, or Druid would probably be best. it's less good at healing, but a Ranger can still use wands and would fill what appears to be a big gap in the ranged attacker department.

PF Samurai is better than 3E Samurai (not saying much!), but is still a horrible, awful class that has no real niche and instead oddly straddles melee/ranged/mounted. Which might be historically accurate, but works out horribly in d20.

[Astrella]

Divine classes are a bit harder to work into the fluff since the setting doesn't really have any actual gods... I'm mostly looking at Ranger and Bard right now though.

One idea I had that I quite liked is a Sword and Shield Ranger, is there enough support in the rules to make this perform decently?

(I picked Samurai mostly because it seemed flavourful and because I was running out of time and hadn't come up with a good idea for a character yet...)

[Firest Kathon]

One idea I had that I quite liked is a Sword and Shield Ranger, is there enough support in the rules to make this perform decently?
There's a "Weapon and Shield" (http://www.d20pfsrd.com/classes/core-classes/ranger#TOC-Weapon-and-Shield) combat style (probably from Ultimate Combat).

[Metahuman1]

Pick up 3.5 tome of battle, change skills as needed for a couple of the schools to fit pathfinder, play a Warblade focused on diamond mind and Iron heart, maybe dipping swordsage to get Improved unarmed strike, some damage boost to unarmed, and some extra maneuvers.

[subject42]

One idea I had that I quite liked is a Sword and Shield Ranger, is there enough support in the rules to make this perform decently?

Rangers actually got a bunch of small boosts in Pathfinder. Sword and Board is viable with them, but it takes a while to come online. How long do you intend to keep playing? Bashing Finish and Shield Slam, when combined with a high crit range weapon, can let you turn medium or smaller enemies into ping-pong balls.

[ZeroNumerous]

Divine classes are a bit harder to work into the fluff since the setting doesn't really have any actual gods...

You can worship an ideal too.

[Lord_Gareth]

You can worship an ideal too.

You can also just, you know, refluff. Hell, Paladins have been 100% god-free since second edition, drawing power directly and solely from their own righteousness.

[Astrella]

Rangers actually got a bunch of small boosts in Pathfinder. Sword and Board is viable with them, but it takes a while to come online. How long do you intend to keep playing? Bashing Finish and Shield Slam, when combined with a high crit range weapon, can let you turn medium or smaller enemies into ping-pong balls.

Hmm. Well, the campaign was originally intended to be a few one offs but it seems like it's turning into a proper campaign. We're level 2 now, so I'd prefer a build that starts working right now over one that takes another 10 levels to set up for example.

[subject42]

Could you elaborate on your characterization? Maybe we can work out mechanics based on your high concept.

[StreamOfTheSky]

Weapon and Shield style Ranger works fine, though it works best two-handing a single heavy shield or dual wielding shields (heavy + light initially, then heavy + heavy when you get Shield Master at level 6).

If you wanted to actually do a shield + other weapon build, I would suggest main handing the spiked Bashing heavy shield and off-handing your other weapon, which should be an 18-20 crit weapon, eventually made keen. This is because the shield will have higher base damage and off-handing a heavy shield incurs a larger penalty because it's considered a 1H weapon. You want the high crit off-hand weapon so that at level 10 you get Bashing Finish and each crit you land, you get a free shield attack.

At level 2, shield ranger is totally viable, because you have early access to Shield Slam, which is an excellent way to deny foes full attacks. And if you have a caster ally...to push a foe into a battlefield control spell.