3.5 [CW] Samurai Class min/maxing

[CRtwenty]

So I'm playing an Orc Samurai in a campaign, and I'm looking for ways to make him function well as a meatshield and melee blender. I managed to convince my DM to let me Ghestalt the 3.0 Samurai class from Oriental Adventures into my build as well (with the Clan bonus feats replaced by Fighter bonus feats) which gives me a little extra breathing room when it comes to feats, as well as the ability to enchant my weapons myself.

I'm aware the Samurai class is pretty underpowered, even with these extras but I fell in love with the character concept so I decided to go with it anyway. The main problem is that one of the other party members is a huge munchkin (he's doing some sort of Sorc necromancer build) and I'd at least like to remain viable in combat when he starts going off at higher levels.

Any suggestions?

[AuraTwilight]

Well, for starters, as soon as you reach level 11, fall and trade for ten levels in Ronin.

[Diovid]

Take a look at the Dead Levels update (http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/cwc/20070227x), then take a look at the fear handbook (http://brilliantgameologists.com/boards/index.php?topic=3809).

[Ace Nex]

Splash a level of TOB class for maneuvers. It's worth the one level, and the ideologies are pretty similar. In addition, see if the Dm will allow you to homebrew a feat which increases your initiator level to your total level, for extra goodness. As for samurai, charge builds are pretty good. Power Attack->Leap Attack->Battle Jump->Valorous enchantment on weapon can make some crazy damage. (4 extra damage for 1 off to hit, Damage jumped to double from Battle Jump and then Tripled because of valorous, and remember, two doubling equal a tripling.) White Raven Maneuvers can add even more charge damage and some nice perks for allies too. Samurai also get that whole intimidation thing, so taking feats along those lines and stacking fear effects with intimidation can work pretty well too (at higher levels, A LOT of things are immune to fear, so make sure you have something else to fall back on if the enemy doesn't run away). Picking up TWF free can allow you to invest in other feats like Two weapon rend, those intimidation fear feats I just mentioned but don't actually know much about, lightning maces that can be moved over to your katana/Wakasashi through the adaptive enchantment or adaptive style class feature of warblade.

Having a good character really depends on a combination of things. How you use that character is important (a wizard is powerful, but in the hands of an idiot he'll be less useful than the commoner who knows what to do), class features (Monk Class Features aren't great), feats and skills (in order to be an effective white knight paladin, you need to take mounted combat, ride by attack, spirited charge, etc.) Samurai aren't that great in terms of class features, but if you have the proper feat combinations and know how to maximize your effectiveness, you can be useful up to and beyond those high levels.

[sonofzeal]

Perform: Weapon Drill gains boosts from most of the bonus feats, grabbing the rest sets you up beautifully for the quite decent Crescent Moon weapon style feat, you already have Cha synergy off Smite and Staredown, and it gets to add your (full) BAB to the checks, soooooo....... (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/epic/skills.htm#perform)

(All possible with only SRD + CWar. No other sources needed.)

[ShneekeyTheLost]

Well, that depends on how far you want to go, CR20. I know a fairly optimized CW Samurai build, however it doesn't have a lot of damage output. Unfortunately, gestalting in the bonus feats only helps a little bit.

Still, it's not a bad lockdown build until you start running into immunities.