The Three-and-A-Half Samurai

[Palanan]

So, the general Playground consensus seems to be that the OA samurai is tolerable, and the CW samurai is [censored].

Where, on this rather limited spectrum, falls the Pathfinder samurai? Apparently there is one, but it doesn't seem to be mentioned very often.

[avr]

It's a variant of their cavalier class which is not particularly highly rated. Unlike the cavalier the horse master feat isn't available (they don't get the prereq of the expert trainer class feature), which means they can't multiclass out without dropping their main class feature. They do get a class feature called resolve which is better than the cavalier's free teamwork feats.

Overall IMO this makes it slightly worse than the cavalier. A cavalier can lead into, say, the Battle Herald PrC nicely even if you wouldn't want to stick with it as a base class; a samurai has to stick with their base class or, eventually, lose the mount which is their strength.

[Chronos]

Personally, my favorite version of the Samurai is the one in the PHB. They get a d10 HD, full BAB, 2 skill points, good Fort, proficiency in all martial weapons, armor, and shields (including tower), and a bonus feat drawn from a fairly wide combat-oriented list at 1st level and every even level.

[Spuddles]

Personally, my favorite version of the Samurai is the one in the PHB. They get a d10 HD, full BAB, 2 skill points, good Fort, proficiency in all martial weapons, armor, and shields (including tower), and a bonus feat drawn from a fairly wide combat-oriented list at 1st level and every even level.

That one's terrible. You should try Samurai 2.0 in the Tome of Battle. It gets d12 HD, full BAB, 4 skill points per level, and actual samurai-like skills, like perform (tea ceremony), diplomacy, and knowledge nobility.

[Ninja_Grand]

As a low level player, I can say that the PF samurai is ok. I haven't got much into it, but resolve is good so far.

[Yora]

It's not terrible. It does its job and is even slightly better than the cavalier I think. Probably not as many options to exploit combinations of obscure abilities like a fighter, but in a party without munchkinnery and at low to mid levels, it should do just fine.