Sorcadin Samurai Build

[LoyalPaladin]

Surprise! The paladin is back! After a little too much work and a 7 week old puppy took over my life, I'm finally gaining a foothold again and I'm here for a little bit of character creation help! I'm building a Sorcadin that needs to have a Samurai flavor.

I'll be using the standard Sorcadin class progression. Paladin 2/ Sorcerer 4/ Spellsword 1 / Abjurant Champion 5/ Sacred exorcist 8 and mainly on melee combat. (Taking advantage of Greater Luminous Armor, Armor of Darkness, and Shield for AC)

The only thing I need to really note (I think), is that our DM is assigning us all a regional bonus feat for fun. Mine is that Knowledge (the planes) and Iaijutsu Focus are always class skills for me.

Character Creation:

36 Point Buy
3.5 Edition (No Pathfinder)
ECL 10
WBL starting gold


Unadjusted Ability Scores:

STR:10
DEX:16
CON:12
INT:14
WIS:12
CHA:16 (+5 Natural Gain)


Equipment:

Weapon: Elven Thinblade
Body: Unarmored
Head:
Face: Mask of the Fox (Custom +2 Dex item)
Neck: Periapt of Wisdom +2
Shoulders: Cloak of Charisma +4
Arms:
Hands: Gauntlets of Heartfelt Blows
Torso:
Waist: Belt of Giant's Strength +2
Ring: Sustenance
Ring:
Feet:


Feats:

Racial: Trickery Devotion
Flaw: Weapon Finesse
Flaw: Improved Initiative
Regional: Curse of the Fox
1st: Combat Casting
3rd: Practiced Spellcaster (Sorcerer)
6th: Quick Draw
9th: Arcane Disciple (Darkness)
12th: Extend Spell
15th: Persistent Spell
18th: Quick Recovery



1st

Shield
Burning Rage
Nerveskitter
Wall of Smoke
Identify


2nd

Heroics
Whirling Blade
Wraith Strike
Scorching Ray
Spymaster's Food


3rd

Primal Instinct
Bite of the Wererat
Dragon Skin
Mighty Wallop, Greater


4th

Luminous Armor, Greater
Mirror Image, Greater
Halaster's Swap
Enervation


5th

Dismissal
Draconic Might
Arcane Fusion
Blink, Greater


6th

Freezing Fog
Contingency
Antimagic Ray


7th

Elemental Body
Arcane Spellsurge
Teleport, Greater


8th

Celerity, Greater
Mind Blank


9th

Black Blade of Disaster

[Pluto!]

Arcane Disciple is pretty bad for Sorcerers, and taking it twice seems really sketchy.

I'd be tempted to swap one of those for a Domain feat to put your eventual Turn attempts to use (it's hard to go wrong with Law Devotion, and your alignment shouldn't clash).

[LoyalPaladin]

Arcane Disciple is pretty bad for Sorcerers, and taking it twice seems really sketchy.
I need Arcane Disciple (Darkness) for Armor of Darkness, I took restoration so I could weasel out of Luminous Armor's strength penalty... unless Sorc's get their own way to do that?


I'd be tempted to swap one of those for a Domain feat to put your eventual Turn attempts to use (it's hard to go wrong with Law Devotion, and your alignment shouldn't clash).
I almost took Law Devotion, but I just wasn't sure if I needed it...

[Dusk Eclipse]

Abjurant armour doesn't affect Armor of Darkness because it gives a deflection bonus to AC, not an armour or shield bonus (common mistake, don't sweat it).

As for getting around the strength penalty, get an orb of bodily restoration and go to town.

[Pluto!]

Armor of Darkness isn't much of an upgrade compared to Magic Circle Against Evil, which is also a lower-level spell slot and castable more than 1/day.

A Paladin's wand of Lesser Restoration costs 1500 gp (or 750, if it comes from an Artificer/Archivist), and you have Paladin levels to use that wand with no roll. At ECL 10, that's probably cheaper than a feat and a spell known.

[LoyalPaladin]

Abjurant armour doesn't affect Armor of Darkness because it gives a deflection bonus to AC, not an armour or shield bonus (common mistake, don't sweat it).
Well, that breaks my heart.


As for getting around the strength penalty, get an orb of bodily restoration and go to town.
What's the source on this item? I couldn't find it with my google-fu.


Armor of Darkness isn't much of an upgrade compared to Magic Circle Against Evil, which is also a lower-level spell slot and castable more than 1/day.
It scales into a much larger bonus. I did switch out the restoration arcane disciple for quick draw, since I forgot I need it for Iaijutsu Focus.


A Paladin's wand of Lesser Restoration costs 1500 gp (or 750, if it comes from an Artificer/Archivist), and you have Paladin levels to use that wand with no roll. At ECL 10, that's probably cheaper than a feat and a spell known.
I'll pick this up for now!

[Dusk Eclipse]

It is the Rod of Bodily restoration, not Orb my bad. It costs 3,100 GP and it has three charges per day that can be used to heal ability damage to the physical stats, 1 charge to heal 4 points to a single stat (or 2 to all three). Source is Magic item compendium page 173.

[LoyalPaladin]

It is the Rod of Bodily restoration, not Orb my bad. It costs 3,100 GP and it has three charges per day that can be used to heal ability damage to the physical stats, 1 charge to heal 4 points to a single stat (or 2 to all three). Source is Magic item compendium page 173.
Oh that makes sense. I might replace my wand with that later on!

[Ger. Bessa]

If I'm not mistaken, before Pal4 you are not capable of casting Paladin spells so Paladin wands aren't accessible without UMD checks. Afb right now.

On the other hand ancestral relic is both very good with sorcerers and thematically appropriate for paladins and samurais. The "trick" is to have a runestaff that you customize and grants you access to the spells you want.

You don't get spells outside of your list just through the relic, but you can easily double your number of spells known and you don't have to hesitate between fly/dispel magic/GMW/Heart of... it allows you to get very fluffy spells besides the "obligatory ones", like the one where you teleport through a lightning bolt. Very Iaijutsu in its fluff.

For the cost of luminous armor, I think there is 'ray of resurgence' on the wiz/sor spell list. Not something you usually pick on a sorcerer, but it could be on the runestaff.

Last thing, the runestaff is usually an elvencraft longbow (both a staff and a bow), in case the wooden stick part wouldn't look samurai enough.

Edit : a sorcerer can't cast (Greater) Luminous Armor. Only prepared casters can.

[Pluto!]

If I'm not mistaken, before Pal4 you are not capable of casting Paladin spells so Paladin wands aren't accessible without UMD checks. Afb right now.
Check your book. Paladin 3 is the explicit example of a character who can use wands.