Anime Challange to DandD players

[Kojiro Kakita]

Well, gents, I am both an anime fan and a d and d fan, so the challenge I set up for you is the following. Try to create one of the following characters using the DandD rules. There is no limit except for following the DandD rules. Epic leveled characters are allowed.

Okay, here are the characters that are up. (names are in english order)
Kenshin Himura (Rouroni Kenshin)
Archer (Fate/Stay Night)
Guts (Berserk)
Naruto (naruto)
Ichigo (Bleach)

[McDeath]

Never heard of any of them. Heh heh.

[jlousivy]

Alright i'll take kenshin*, does it have to be AS awesome? or just same concept/flavor?

[Hallavast]

I've only heard of Naruto and Kenshin. And While Kenshin is obviously some high level fighter (maybe some rogue), I believe that giving Naruto a specific class would be an insult to all members of that class.

[TheThan]

Easy

Kenshin Himura (Rouroni Kenshin)
Class: Fighter
Info, dex based fighter with exotic weapon proficiency (reverse blade sword), feats that allow him to strike with non-lethal blows at no penalty with a focus on his weapon.

Guts (Berserk)
Class: Fighter/barbarian
Info: strength-based fighter, great sword focused with power attack tree. Rage for when things get really bad...

Naruto (naruto)
Class: sorcerer/monk
Info: focuses on illusion, combat enhancing (read bull’s strength etc), and summon spells, with monk unarmed combat skills

Now I’d stat them out but its late and I’m lazy. But this is the way I’d do it.

[Krimm_Blackleaf]

Naruto: Swordsage, shadow hand and tiger claw.

Kenshin: Fighter/...something, I don't know what though.

Ichigo: Warblade.

[jlousivy]

In addition to that for kenshin: Start with 2 levels of monk (for ac bonus) and give him the Vow of Povery feat. Or give him a high wisdom and a monk's belt. He definitely has dodge, mobility, spring attack

edit: give ichigo the same as well

[kamikasei]

Guts and Ichigo are both giant-sword-wielders. I'm not sure if either has much in the way of other specific features that you'd have to represent in the build, though. I suppose Ichigo could be built as a variant on the Champion from this site, where his Champion form is ethereal and specialized for hunting spirit enemies.

Naruto would be pretty hard to represent in a D&D class, though perhaps a rogue or ninja with lots of UMD and some sorceror levels for summons would come close. Actually, gestalt might be a good way around that. You'd need to represent general ninja-rey, the Shadow Clones, the Summons, and Rasengan... give him Alter Self... yeah, I'd say a gestalt Rogue//Sorceror would be the way to go.

Kenshin would probably be even harder, simply because "an extremely skilled fighter with a distinctive style" isn't all that easy to pull off, especially in the samurai mold of having a fast, super-lethal, you-never-get-touched style. Perhaps someone who knows Tome of Battle would be able to find a way. Not being able to one-shot-kill effectively would be a real pain for a D&D Kenshin, though. Then again, I'm going off of the prequel OVA more than the series, so if the series is lighter/sillier it could be doable.

[serow]

Archer:
Psychic Warrior with the Soulbound Weapon variant that was released recently.
Feats are mainly in archery, with TWF as his backup melee feat.
Leftover feats should be into Psi Talent, to get more PP.

Ichigo:
Most probably a warblade.

Kenshin:
Possibly a warblade, or a swordsage. Maybe a monk with the Whirling Steel Strike.

[TheOOB]

Kenshin is a warblade, most likely diamond mind style

Guts is a frenzied beserker, and a nasty one at that

EDIT: Alrighty, lets add one to the list, Twilight Suzuka, Outlaw Star

[Closet_Skeleton]

Iaijutsu Master probably works best for Kenshin and a lot of Samurai characters.

Gutz probably has Monkey Grip:smallwink:

[kellandros]

Erm, slightly off topic, but is the original poster familiar with BESM? There is even a d20 version of the system, and it would offer a bit more flexibility to character creation.

Also, in the homebrew thread someone is trying to create the Juppon Gatana from Kenshin.

=================
Guts/Gatsu horribly mangles rules, especially if you take his stronger versions. He has made his sword a demon band weapon the hard way- by slaughtering several thousand of them with it. Hell, just try creating the Dragonslayer sword as a magic item(8' by 3' humongous sword that he weilds one handed??) An insane number of materials for overcoming resistance, making it practically indestructible, an ungodly bonus to sundering weapons, opponents, buildings, etc.

[Clementx]

Twilight Suzuka!! She is just a straight Fighter. Extreme number of feats for boken (sp?) focus, initiative, charging, and sundering. Devastating Critical is her Epic feat. High Dex, although for practicality in DnD she would need Wisdom to AC since she just wears normal clothes. Which is tragic. Either that, or she has some really awesome enchantments on her kimono.

[Ramza00]

Ichigo is eventually going to get some levels of binder, and probably should have a home-made prc that is similar to JPM or Anima Mage but it is TOB/Binder mix.

[Bagera]

Kenshin is a Fighter who goes into Warmind.
Naruto is a highlevel gestault monk/psychic warrior.

[talsine]

Guts/Gatsu horribly mangles rules, especially if you take his stronger versions. He has made his sword a demon band weapon the hard way- by slaughtering several thousand of them with it. Hell, just try creating the Dragonslayer sword as a magic item(8' by 3' humongous sword that he weilds one handed??) An insane number of materials for overcoming resistance, making it practically indestructible, an ungodly bonus to sundering weapons, opponents, buildings, etc.

The dragonslayer is not magical, it is an oversized adamantine fullblade. There is no magic inherent to the blade, the rest is Gatsu's brute strength, incredible will and unending rage. get into the later volumes (20+) is even offered a magical weapon (a great axe) and refuses to use it as he see's it as a crutch. Gatsu is the living personification of hardcore.


Gutz probably has Monkey Grip:smallwink:

QFT


Guts is a frenzied beserker, and a nasty one at that

QFT

[elliott20]

Kenshin

all Kenshin variations will require you bend the rules slightly such as kind of rules you allow for weapon finessing and such.

The core of making kenshin work requires several elements:

1. huge dodge bonus: this is something that a lot of anime characters have in common in that a lot of them just don't wear armor. especially so in kenshin's case.
2. iaijutsu strike: his biggest trump card.
3. tumble, balance, and a number of other dex skills
4. katana usage and his reverse blade variant

#2 is easy to handle, since the 3.0 OA already has mechanics for iaijutsu strikes. In my opinion, it's a little too sneak-attack like in terms of rules and qualifying for it. But let's assume that you're happy with it. the 3.0 OA also provides you with a nifty little PrC called the Iaijutsu Master, so we can drop some levels in that.

For #1 and #3, there are several ways we can do it. We can take some monk levels, and go into fighter so he gets his WIS AC bonus, or we can go duelist/swashbuckler (I'm not really sure which one gives it) to get the INT AC bonus instead. (Seeing as the iaijutsu master provides a dodge bonus via INT as well, the synergy helps) This will net you the dex fighter bonus you need. And if you got REALLY good stats for him, you could do a one level dip into monk to get the WIS AC, a couple levels into the duelist/swashbuckler, then go fighter the rest of the way until you qualify for the Iaijutsu Master.

However, there is one little issue in that you'll need to come up with some way to be able to finesse a katana or kanata-like weapon in order to maximize your Dex utility.

Of course you could just houserule it.

The second method is to just go Warblade or Swordsage and go Iron Mind, then play up the rest of his abilities via RPing.

Naruto
I remember sometime back somebody did naruto using mostly psionics.

the thing to remember is that naruto has not yet reached his highest level of power yet. so while it is tempting to do a 20 level build with him, he's not there yet. He does, however, have one helluva template on him. That one you guys will have to figure out.

[Indon]

Naruto strikes me as a Gestalt Rogue(Perhaps Thug)/Monk/Ninja//Marshal, or another inspiration-oriented class. Aside from that, he has a really powerful template providing him with significant bonuses to his physical stats, and other powers, for probably very little LA.

[ArmorArmadillo]

Although it isn't what you asked, I already statted Gaara of the sands as a Monk/Druid.

[elliott20]

that's one of the things that really bothers me about a lot of anime is that they usually are more than willing to hand over large amounts of power over to someone with the emotional maturity of a pre-schooler.

But I don't think giving naruto an awesome template with no LA is kosher.

Actually, this could work well to play into his character. Don't forget, in the story he was the little engine that couldn't until he managed to unlock his template. What this could mean character wise is that in the beginning, while he already has the template, he's not actually reaping any benefits from it. But he is getting all of the penalties for it, being treated as a higher level character and therefore slower progression without the actual higher level powers.

But then later on when he finally figures out how to tap into his red chakra, he's suddenly kicking so much butt it's unbelievable. In this case, he's suddenly taking full advantage of his template.

[Indon]

Well, his template might manifest as a Bloodline, granting him additional powers each level.

[Closet_Skeleton]

Naruto isn't high level. He's just a kid. Anyone stating him up as a high level character is just saying "well he's powerful because he's the hero in a Shonen Manga". He just has PC rather than NPC stats and a cheesy template. Fast healing 3 + Barbarian rage.

[ampcptlogic]

Twilight Suzuka!! She is just a straight Fighter. Extreme number of feats for boken (sp?) focus, initiative, charging, and sundering. Devastating Critical is her Epic feat. High Dex, although for practicality in DnD she would need Wisdom to AC since she just wears normal clothes. Which is tragic. Either that, or she has some really awesome enchantments on her kimono.

I disagree. I would say she has multiple levels in monk, with the rest in fighter. She's extremely picky about the way in which she kills people, but will kill anyone if the price is right, and devastating in combat, but otherwise, ridiculously calm. I would say a LN Monk/Fighter build with STR and WIS through the roof. Possibly Monk 11, Fighter 10, if you're wanting to build her as an epic character.

[elliott20]

MOST anime characters would end up needing a lot of dodge bonus because nobody ever friggin' wears armor in anime, ever.

the ones that do just end up going for shoulder pads over actual breastplates and such.

[Merlin the Tuna]

I'd put Guts as a Goliath Barb/Warblade; there's not necessarily a need for Frenzied Berserker. Not in the mood for statting that up at the moment, though.

Here's (http://boards1.wizards.com/showthread.php?t=589061) your resource for all things Naruto. There was a good thread around for general character conversion (concerning some of these, plus comic book and video game heroes) on... CharOp, maybe? Dunno; can't find it at the moment.

[Merlin the Tuna]

MOST anime characters would end up needing a lot of dodge bonus because nobody ever friggin' wears armor in anime, ever.

the ones that do just end up going for shoulder pads over actual breastplates and such.Unearthed Arcana FTW. (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/variant/adventuring/defenseBonus.htm)

[Ranis]

I look at this "challenge" in the same way I look at the Book of Nine Swords: Get your anime out of my D&D!

[Black Hand]

I think you can mix any classes with the names posted above. The only thing you'd have to tweak for the characters are:

1) Weapon size has to be 2-3x larger than the user
2) Character gains a 1d6 piercing natural attack with their hair.
3) Character gains +4 to spot and search because of their frikken big eyes
4) Characters get a bonus partial action in combat but only for the use of posing while in mid attack or flashy sililoquies/monologes
5) Hair color can only be chosen from the specrum of the rainbow (no natural colors)
6) Characters also get +30 to jump checks
7) Enemies witnessing the ability of Option 4, have to make a Fort save DC 15 or suffer an epileptic seizure from the flashing lights.
8) Familiars and animal companions of the character have to be nausiatingly over-cute
9) All characters regardless of class can cast any variation of Lesser Orb spells as many times/ day as their level.

...I think I got it all, but I'm sure if I've forgotten anything don't hesitate to fill in the rest.

[elliott20]

10) you receive a bonus to damage and attack that is positively correlated with the length of your move's name and how loud you shout it out when you do it.

11) age categories for humans are now adult: 10-17, middle age: 18-30, old: 30-50, venerable: 51+

[I_Got_This_Name]

Well, since only one person has bothered taking a crack at Archer:

Sorcerer/Fighter, probable TN alignment (his younger form was quite the idealist, but he's tempered quite a bit from that; I could actually see arguments across the Good-vs-Evil spectrum, so I'll put him solidly in the neutral camp). Maybe put him in as an Eldritch Knight or Spellsword, but he's a bit too tough for the former. Sorcerer/Duskblade is also a possibility, but less likely since most of the Duskblade features don't fit; he needs at least one sorcerer level because in his past, he was a pure caster.

Actually, we could give him the CWar non-casting Ranger variant instead of fighter (or instead of some of his Fighter levels), even though FE doesn't make sense, he has some of the skills (Spot, notably), and the TWF stuff.

More Fighter (or Ranger) than Sorcerer levels. Also, his spellcasting is a bit odd and more resembles Dragonmark powers than Sorcery, since he's got only a few obviously magical things (Kouyuu Kekkai, conjuring and transmuting his weapons, and maybe something I missed), but these are extremely powerful. Also, his ability to conjure magical items takes two spells in D&D to get close to (Major Creation and Greater Magic Weapon), but he's got one power that combines both of them, and tacks on Returning.

He naturally has an odd template giving him a lot of his powers, such as his (limited) flight and his supernatural vision. Actually, given that the Spot modifier for an eagle is only +16, he doesn't need that much enhancement to it.

None of these characters, though, need to be that high level. The highest level we have a reference frame for is 5th (http://www.thealexandrian.net/creations/misc/d&d-calibrating.html) (scroll down to the Knowledge and Crafting section); for RL figures you might be able to argue Rasputin as being what a higher-level character's HP total looks like. He fights figures of myth, though, after said figures of myth are heavily augmented beyond what they could accomplish in life; he would have brought down Herakles easily except for the extra lives the later had; Arachne is given as an example of a 10th level (NPC class) character, so I'd put Herakles at 11th, at least (probably 13th, maybe as high as 15th), with Divine Rank 0.

So, since he fought someone (an open brawl) with DvR 0 and about 13th level, and nearly won, we're looking at about 15th level for Archer, plus a template. Of course, Herakles might have been nerfed in this manifestation.

So, the current build I'm looking at for him goes Sor2/Rng6/Ftr4/(something not entirely unlike Heir of Syberis)3

I could also see a Nine Swords build for him; actually, this might model him a bit better:
Sor1/Rng1/Warblade9/Bloodstorm Blade4, with a focus on Iron Heart and Tiger Claw maneuvers, possibly with the Falling Star discipline (http://boards1.wizards.com/showthread.php?t=771597) too, although most likely not; his primary fighting style is with his thrown swords. He might have a different balance of Warblade and Bloodstorm Blade levels; really, all he needs from the latter is Returning, which it gets 1st level, although Martial Throw (2nd) helps quite a bit.

If the Sublime Way Ranger (http://boards1.wizards.com/showthread.php?t=738077) is in use, he doesn't even need Warblade, and can go with the Steel Hunter tack on that, with Tiger Claw covering him in melee and Iron Heart used at a distance.

Likewise, the PrC-not-entirely-unlike-Heir of Syberis is still perfectly valid for the Martial Adept version.