How to Make an Ineffective Character Better

[Ricedaddy]

Disclaimer: I'm going to say at the top that I knew to begin with that 3.5 samurai has a bad reputation and is possibly worse the higher levels you go. But dang it if this wasn't a character itch I had to scratch. I'm also aware that taking a non-samurai level prevents taking another samurai level, but the trade off will be worth it and could give a new RP element.

Ok, so I'm running a samurai in a high level game. It's a lackluster class not helped by lackluster attribute rolls and the fact that I wasn't out to 100% optimize the character. That said, the campaign I'm in is much more brutal than I expected. I'm enjoying the character I'm running and I feel like it's roleplaying very well, but when it comes to rolling the dice he disappears. Yesterday I leveled up to 14, the first level increase of the campaign.

So my question is this: What class/PrC would you recommend taking to start making the character more capable? More detailed character info in the spoiler. I appreciate any suggestions about classes to take or items to get.



Character sheet (http://www.myth-weavers.com/sheet.html#id=723996)
Base abilities: STR 18, DEX 14, CON 14, INT 14, WIS 12, CHA 14 (these were determined by dice roll)
Classes: Samurai - 13 levels
Alignment: Lawful Neutral
Race: human
Feats, including those given by class features:
Kiai Smite (3/day)
Iaijutsu Master (quickdraw limited to katana (bastard sword) or Wazikashi (short sword)
Staredown
Mass Staredown
Two-weapon fighting
Improved two-weapon fighting
Two-weapon defense
Blind-fight
Power attack
Iron Will
Weapon Focus (katana/bastard sword*)
Inproved Initiative
Improved Critical

*The Samurai RAW list bastard sword in all of the feat terminology

The attributes seem to prohibit multi-classing to a caster, and the enemies we face hit so hard that the idea of tanking is purely suicidal. I guess my priorities are, in no specific order: increasing hit/damage output, survivability (resistances, AC buffs, etc), party support.



These are the books players are allowed to use:

PH

PH2

DMG

MM I-V

Complete Divine

Complete Arcane

Complete Adventurer

Complete Mage

Complete Warrior

Complete Scoundrel

Spell Compendium

Magic Item Compendium

Unearthed Arcana

Races of the Wild

Races of Destiny

Libris Mortis

Stormwrack

Cityscape

Frostburn

[Darrin]

First, are you familiar with Shneekey's Takahashi no Onisan (http://www.myth-weavers.com/sheetview.php?sheetid=153726)?

As far as your build goes... Race? Feats?

More importantly, what do you want the character to *do*?

[Ricedaddy]

Race? Feats?

More importantly, what do you want the character to *do*?

Updated the OP with link to character's mythweavers sheet, but will also add them here:

Race: human
Feats, including those given by class features:

Kiai Smite (3/day)
Iaijutsu Master (quickdraw limited to katana (bastard sword) or Wazikashi (short sword)
Staredown
Mass Staredown
Two-weapon fighting
Improved two-weapon fighting
Two-weapon defense
Blind-fight
Power attack
Iron Will
Weapon Focus (katana/bastard sword*)
Inproved Initiative
Improved Critical


*The Samurai RAW list bastard sword in all of the feat terminology

The attributes seem to prohibit multi-classing to a caster, and the enemies we face hit so hard that the idea of tanking is purely suicidal. I guess my priorities are, in no specific order: increasing hit/damage output, survivability (resistances, AC buffs, etc), party support.

[ExLibrisMortis]

You'll want Imperious Command and Never Outnumbered (skill trick). Ideally, you'd also get Frightful Presence or some other area intimidate/fear, maybe by becoming a dragon.

Samurai 14 lets you intimidate as a move, which is practical, since it's the only thing samurai do well, as per Darrin's link.

[Eldariel]

As you probably well know, what your "class" says on your character sheet has nothing to do with how you should roleplay it. Nobody in the game world interacts with your class rather than with your character; and that disconnect is crucial. There's no need to take levels in a class called "Samurai" to play a Samurai; a Fighter/Ranger/Knight could be every bit as honorable and lawful and act exactly the same as a Samurai, all the way down to forbidding himself from using his abilities until he has redeemed himself should he break his code.

CW Samurai does two things:

Wields two weapons: This is inferior to wielding a single weapon two-handed far as your output goes unless you are able to add significant bonuses to each of your attacks. Thus, you need to find ways to gain bonuses on every attack to make this option worth using. The problem is, of course, such bonuses are painfully hard to come by for a Samurai (indeed, it's hard to find Sneak Attack or such). Also, your secondary bonus attacks come late. This does allow you to waive the Dex requirements, at least.
Intimidate: This can actually be rather powerful. However, the whole option relies on a feat from Drow of the Underdark (Imperious Command), which you don't have available so that's a no-go. Further, some enemies are rather immune anyways no matter how good an intimidator you become.

Thus, the class offers you practically nothing. It is, indeed, much worse than a straight Fighter which in and of itself leaves a lot to be desired on these levels even if you optimize it to hell and back. Sadly the source book which would allow for higher level melee characters capable of easily contributing without having to optimize, Tome of Battle, is not available so you're in a bit of a bind. Thus, the only way to actually become effective here without retraining most of your levels is to fall, and replace your Samurai-levels with Ronin. That class gets some abilities that make the whole set work. But that's clearly not an option with what you're telling on the roleplaying front - you want to play a Samurai, not a fallen Samurai.

Thus, the only real options left to you are to retrain most of your levels or to accept that you will be mediocre in combat forever (I guess you can ask the Party Wizard to Polymorph you into a Hydra but I doubt that's how you envision your hero fighting). Even with a Dragon's Horde of magic items you'd still have trouble. Sadly, the way D&D is written, higher level non-magical characters inevitably become one-trick ponies if even that. At the present, you lack the trick making you a zero-trick pony which I suppose is the crux of the issue here.


Things you could look into:

Divine Crusader: If you aren't opposed to becoming a magic-wielding swordsman, Divine Crusader could grant you some buff magic that would allow you to close the gap somewhat. You could fluff it as drawing upon your conviction to bring law and order upon the world.

Cleric: You could build a Cleric of Law and Honor and play it as a Samurai; wield your sword, stick in the frontline, buff yourself and deliverth the smackdown. You could This would require rebuilding from the ground up but it would essentially ensure that you'll always remain relevant no matter what happens.

Warrior Multiclass: Sadly the perhaps best Warrior-class, Barbarian, is closed to you. However, you can do something decent with all the rest. Person Man's Melee Comboes (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?127026-3-X-Person-Man-s-Guide-to-Melee-Combos) lists some of the options available. Charging and area control are the easiest to access with your sources but charging does leave you kinda one trick ponyish while area control requires reach weapons which I don't think you're looking to wield.

Tons of magic items: If you got all the strength buffers, two magic swords with a lot of different damage enhancements and then your party casters cast Greater Magic Weapon on each, Boots of Speed and company, you could probably do decent damage for a while at least. The problem here is, your ceiling isn't very high; you can't actually keep getting stronger this way so even if you got to a decent place now, you'd inevitably keep falling behind since your class abilities aren't contributing.

[Ricedaddy]

You'll want Imperious Command and Never Outnumbered (skill trick). Ideally, you'd also get Frightful Presence or some other area intimidate/fear, maybe by becoming a dragon.

Samurai 14 lets you intimidate as a move, which is practical, since it's the only thing samurai do well, as per Darrin's link.

Thanks for the feedback. Unfortunately, Never Outnumbered is bettered by one of the samurai class feats I have which does the same, but with a 30ft range. Imperious Command isn't from an approved source (working with less than the full SRD).

[Ricedaddy]

First, are you familiar with Shneekey's Takahashi no Onisan (http://www.myth-weavers.com/sheetview.php?sheetid=153726)?



I'm not. My 3.5 history is mostly campaigns with friends that never went to far into optimization, and despite 6 months on the forums life has been too busy to dig into the depth of knowledge here.

I wish i had an excuse for RP-ing a samurai but using other classes for a build, but that was really just an overlook on my part. By the time I retrained everything, too,my party will likely be dead or several levels higher than I am.

This is a case of polishing poop. It may get shinier, but it's still gonna be crap.

[ExLibrisMortis]

Thanks for the feedback. Unfortunately, Never Outnumbered is bettered by one of the samurai class feats I have which does the same, but with a 30ft range. Imperious Command isn't from an approved source (working with less than the full SRD).
Mass Staredown requires a standard action. Never Outnumbered also works with move action intimidate (so you can do both on one turn) or even a free action intimidate (iirc some things grant these, as a maneuver perhaps). On the other hand, if you rule that Mass Staredown is actually a demoralize action (and thus affected by Improved Staredown), you might be able to intimidate targets within 10', by giving up a target within 30' (using Never Outnumbered as part of Mass Staredown).

Definitely my bad on IC though, didn't think of the source. Without it, your demoralization is a lot weaker, so you might want to just go samurai 4/ronin 10 (trade in)/rogue 1/assassin 1/SA fighter 1, which gets you 7d6 sneak attack at level 17, which is alright (even better if you can trade in samurai levels 2-4 as well, or even 1-4).

[Gildedragon]

Iirc you can use wish to rebuild. Ask your DM if you can change the class; still fill the same niche (combat smacker type) and same alignment but do over on class selection

[black-jack]

Theres the Ronin prestige class in CW, which is the Samurai's blackguard. You have to change to non-lawful, but it gives you SA, bonus feats, and the Shock trooper feat's charging bonus that would still stack with power attack (so you could do it twice; get pounce on there too and you're good to go). You can trade out your Samurai levels for Ronin levels, so trade out as much as you're willing.

[Ricedaddy]

Thanks again for all the feedback, everyone. Ronin seems the best bet, but it'll probably be a long time before the character can step away for that length of time to retrain. The campaign story is in a massive time crunch. It's been running for months and in-game time has been four, maybe five days passed since the beginning. So in the meantime what about building towards the Kensai PrC? I can get there after only one more level of samurai to get the last requisite feat. Looks like it would add a bit more value until I can dicuss shifting to Ronin with the GM (or bringing in a new character; I always felt my samurai's end would be in glorious battle).

[Eldariel]

Ronin has a special clause that allows you to convert your Samurai-levels into Ronin-levels if you're a Samurai of level 11 or higher. Thus, you could immediately become a Samurai 3/Ronin 10 - that is a specific example in the book, in fact in spite of Samurai 3 not normally qualifying for Ronin. That'd gain you +4d6 Sneak Attack which synergizes great with two-weapon fighting (though you'll need to come up with the actual TWF iteratives; you could get the second off-hand attack with Gloves of the Balanced Hand [Magic Item Compendium]). You'll lack the easy ways to use it other than flanking, but as long as enemies aren't immune you can make do with flanking. With Magic Item Compendium, you can additionally acquire Weapon Augment Crystals to bypass various sneak attack immunities (one exists at least for undead and constructs).

Further, you get Banzai Charge which is great for immediate damage. You could combine that with Power Attack and Shock Trooper/Leap Attack for truly fearsome attacks. Further, you gain bonus feats which you could use to pick up the mounted combat feats. You could get Mounted Combat and Ride-By Attack for free leaving you to pick up Spirited Charge. Just get a mount (you can ask for Leadership in this role as it's one of the least broken uses; other options include just buying an animal or getting a Figurine of Wondrous Power or having a caster Planar Bind something for you to ride - but try to get something that won't die immediately), Spirited Charge some poor fool with Banzai Charge and Lance and that should be it. Remember tripling Banzai Charge bonuses as well, and if you get Power Attack, your two-handed lance.

It may be worth your while to have Quick Draw or something; you'll probably want to make use of multiple weapons (just get Masterwork weapons and ask your party casters to Greater Magic Weapon them for the day) if you want to both, two-weapon fight and use lance and perhaps even bow should that come up. Though magic items can see to those issues too - Glove of Storing is a decent example.


If you plan to keep using your Bastard Sword, you could take a single level in Exotic Weapon Master to get the Uncanny Blow trick in order to improve your options and make your two-handed Bastard Sword strikes sting a bit more (when you approach enemies, you only get a single attack anyways so you probably want to wield it two-handed anyways).

As you're forced to shift into non-lawful alignment as you take Ronin, you could then embrace the battlemode by taking Barbarian with Whirling Frenzy (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/variant/classes/classFeatureVariants.htm#rageVariantWhirlingFrenzy ), pick Extra Rage and go from there. This all would give you a substantial overall improvement in your combat ability, as well as variety (leaving you with relevant options of mounted charging, two-handing and two-weapon fighting/sneak attacking from a flank).

EDIT: Oh yeah, obviously you'll need to get Crystal Mask of Mindarmor (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/psionic/items/universalItems.htm#crystalMaskofMindarmor) and Cloak of Resistance +5 ASAP. Your Will-save is still going to be horrible and you need to do whatever you can to address that. Sadly your only real options are magic items so acquire what you can. There are some good situational defenses and rather cheap utility items in Magic Item Compendium, such as Scout's Headband or Amulet of Fortune Prevailing which could shore up some points. You do need flight (perhaps you can acquire a flying mount) and some way to gain freedom of movement and other protections as well. Classes can provide you with damage and attacks but your defensive options are sharply restricted.

EDIT#2: Actually, you could retrain one of the earlier Samurai-levels into Barbarian saving one more level. You only need two for the Two Swords as One which in turn will qualify you for Gloves of Balanced Hand. This would enable e.g. picking up the feats for Frenzied Berserker or some such machine of mass destruction if that's the path you wish to tread. FB for instance would gain you immortality while Frenzying on level 4, which is rather nice (at various costs). That's about the only worthwhile defense melee classes can offer you. It's hard to come by with immunities outside magic.


Overall, if you're comfortable with going Ronin, my complete list of actions to do would be:

Dramatic event that breaks your code of honor/your liege lord's blessing: shift alignment, retrain a Samurai-level to Barbarian
Shift 10 of your Samurai-levels into Ronin
Put next level into Exotic Weapon Master
Begin retraining the less useful feats like Improved Critical, Blind-Fighting, etc. into stuff like Leadership, Extra Rage, Improved Bullrush > Shock Trooper, Combat Reflexes > Robilar's Gambit, Spirited Charge (Mounted Attack + Ride-By Attack from Ronin)
Get to acquiring Gloves of the Balanced Hand, some mount, defensive utility items, save/stat boosters, crystals in about that order
Decide where you want to head from there level-wise
If it's not the case yet, make sure you can at least get few all-day buffs from your party casters

[Ricedaddy]

Ronin has a special clause that allows you to convert your Samurai-levels into Ronin-levels if you're a Samurai of level 11 or higher. Thus, you could immediately become a Samurai 3/Ronin 10 - that is a specific example in the book, in fact in spite of Samurai 3 not normally qualifying for Ronin.

It may be worth your while to have Quick Draw or something...Oh yeah, obviously you'll need to get Crystal Mask of Mindarmor and Cloak of Resistance +5 ASAP...

Overall, if you're comfortable with going Ronin, my complete list of actions to do would be:

Dramatic event that breaks your code of honor/your liege lord's blessing: shift alignment, retrain a Samurai-level to Barbarian
Shift 10 of your Samurai-levels into Ronin
Put next level into Exotic Weapon Master
Begin retraining the less useful feats like Improved Critical, Blind-Fighting, etc. into stuff like Leadership, Extra Rage, Improved Bullrush > Shock Trooper, Combat Reflexes > Robilar's Gambit, Spirited Charge (Mounted Attack + Ride-By Attack from Ronin)
Get to acquiring Gloves of the Balanced Hand, some mount, defensive utility items, save/stat boosters, crystals in about that order
Decide where you want to head from there level-wise
If it's not the case yet, make sure you can at least get few all-day buffs from your party casters


This is a big help. I had missed the clause that allows for instant level swapping from samurai to ronin. The Mindarmor mask I already have at a +2, and have resistance buffs on two items totaling a +5. My saves are actually at a 16/11/16 bonus right now, pretty good shape since I'm saving against more powers than some of the casters in the party.

So to make sure I'm straight on this before I approach the GM to set up the dramatic breaking of the bushido code, as a level 14 samurai (applying the level up I'm sitting on for this discussion) I can instantly trade ten levels to be a Samurai 4/Ronin 10. I would keep from the samurai class:


Kiai Smite 3/day
All earned "Staredowns"
Two Swords as One (2wp fighting)


And I would lose:

The themed Quick Draw bonus feat
Improved Initiative
Improved Two Swords as One (Improved 2wp fighting I believe)


While also gaining all of the Ronin features. Then later I can retrain the 4th level of samurai into one of several classes since it doesn't grant any class benefits. I'll keep using the katana (by game mechanics a bastard sword) partly because I already have, through purchase or loot, a few expensive katanas in possession.

[Eldariel]

This is a big help. I had missed the clause that allows for instant level swapping from samurai to ronin. The Mindarmor mask I already have at a +2, and have resistance buffs on two items totaling a +5. My saves are actually at a 16/11/16 bonus right now, pretty good shape since I'm saving against more powers than some of the casters in the party.

So to make sure I'm straight on this before I approach the GM to set up the dramatic breaking of the bushido code, as a level 14 samurai (applying the level up I'm sitting on for this discussion) I can instantly trade ten levels to be a Samurai 4/Ronin 10. I would keep from the samurai class:


Kiai Smite 3/day
All earned "Staredowns"
Two Swords as One (2wp fighting)


And I would lose:

The themed Quick Draw bonus feat
Improved Initiative
Improved Two Swords as One (Improved 2wp fighting I believe)


While also gaining all of the Ronin features. Then later I can retrain the 4th level of samurai into one of several classes since it doesn't grant any class benefits. I'll keep using the katana (by game mechanics a bastard sword) partly because I already have, through purchase or loot, a few expensive katanas in possession.

That's not precisely it: you only regain those abilities if you keep the Samurai-levels that grant them. Ex-Samurai loses those abilities so Ronin can regain them for any existing abilities but you don't keep abilities you don't get, so to speak. Thus you'd lose Staredown and the additional Kiai Smites if you trade away the levels, but that's still easily worth it. You definitely want to retain the absolute minimum number of Samurai-levels; Samurai 4 gives you nothing for instance.

[Ricedaddy]

That makes more sense. Kinda thought keeping all of that was too good to be true (comparatively to a weakling class, that is).

I might have to take the 14th level in samurai until I can meet the roleplay requirement for the ronin change. I can't take the level in FB (which I liked the idea of) until I lose the lawful alignment or I'd do that now. I'll probably have to go to Samurai 14, then Samurai 4/Ronin 10, then Samurai 3/Ronin 10/FB (or some other barbian-like class) 1 when I have a chance to re-level and retrain.

[ExLibrisMortis]

That makes more sense. Kinda thought keeping all of that was too good to be true (comparatively to a weakling class, that is).

I might have to take the 14th level in samurai until I can meet the roleplay requirement for the ronin change. I can't take the level in FB (which I liked the idea of) until I lose the lawful alignment or I'd do that now. I'll probably have to go to Samurai 14, then Samurai 4/Ronin 10, then Samurai 3/Ronin 10/FB (or some other barbian-like class) 1 when I have a chance to re-level and retrain.
You can take the level in Exotic Weapon Master now, which allows you to add 2x strength bonus to your bastard sword while two-handing it.

[Ricedaddy]

You can take the level in Exotic Weapon Master now, which allows you to add 2x strength bonus to your bastard sword while two-handing it.

I don't have the skill rank requisite. Retraining before adding the level would not only makes sense in the current campaign narrative, but as my character would be gone a week + immense travel time I'd be out of the campaign for months. (The campaign specifics of retraining was discussed at length by DM and another player early on.)