Emulating Character: Roronoa Zoro

[Mr.Wizzard]

I'd like to say first that I understand that it will not be an exact replica of the character, with Pathfinder not being optimal for creating anime-esque characters. However, what I hope to do is to catch the feeling of the character.

My GM is starting a new Rokugan campaign. I started looking for inspiration, and I found Zoro.

He is a monster of a man, being very good at two things. That is to be insanely good at using swords, specifically katanas, while triple wielding them and being able to take a beating that would incapacitate most anyone else without armor. I'd like to do my best to emulate this.

I'm currently looking at the Katana Duelist, an Archetype of the Samurai. But I was hoping to add some of the more crazy stuff you see, like ranged sword slashes. Is there a way to incorporate that in? Or is there a better class/archetype? Maybe Magus?

[Geddy2112]

Katana duelist is pretty good, and if you go magus kensai is probably your best choice. Wielding 3 weapons is hard for a magus, but doable for a samurai. Two weapon fighting is feat intensive and hard with not light matched weapons, but again doable.

For being able to take a serious beating, consider going half orc and picking up the deathless feat tree. At full bore, you have a chance to ignore critical hits and can continue fighting at full ability until your -hp=con. Get a decent con score, as well as strength and dex. Int needs to be high for katana duelist/kensai, but his charisma and wis would be lower.

[khadgar567]

Well if your dm uses third party material, then you are lucky becouse speres of might lets you make zorro exacly in pathfindet

[Tuvarkz]

Content allowed?
If Dreamscarred Press stuff is available:
-Path of War: Expanded's Mithral Current discipline is just what you need for ranged slashes (and other disciplines for more stuff than just full attacking)
-Monster Classes: Woodland Creatures has a feat to hold a weapon in your mouth if you have a bite attack, which you can find a feat for in Bloodforge if you don't have one.

[Starbuck_II]

Juggler bard lets you wield three things (can be weapons). I think this means you can do that triple weapon thing.


At 2nd level, a juggler can hold and wield (in other words, “juggle”) up to three items or weapons in his hands. The juggler must be able to hold and wield an object in one hand in order to juggle it.

This ability doesn’t grant the juggler additional attacks, though it does allow him to use different weapons as part of a full attack. As long as he is juggling fewer than three objects, the juggler is considered to have a free hand (for the purposes of drawing a weapon, using somatic components, using Deflect Arrows, and so on). At 6th level and every 4 levels thereafter, the maximum number of objects the juggler can juggle increases by one, to a maximum of seven objects at 18th level.


So he should have at least 2 if not 6 levels in bard Juggler.

[Mr.Wizzard]

Content allowed?
If Dreamscarred Press stuff is available:
-Path of War: Expanded's Mithral Current discipline is just what you need for ranged slashes (and other disciplines for more stuff than just full attacking)
-Monster Classes: Woodland Creatures has a feat to hold a weapon in your mouth if you have a bite attack, which you can find a feat for in Bloodforge if you don't have one.
I'm looking at Mithral Current. The only thing I'm seeing between lvl 1-6 would be Reaching Blade Stance. Is there something I'm missing?

[Tuvarkz]

Yes, you are missing the Iron Wave strike

By imitating the motions of ocean waves, you extend the reach of your blade beyond its edge. Make a melee attack. If it hits, it deals weapon damage as normal plus an additional 2d6 points of damage. If you drew your weapon as part of this strike, you can make your attack against any creature within close range (25 feet + 5 feet per 2 initiator levels), even if that creature isn’t within your reach. The attack is still treated as a melee attack, and a creature struck must succeed at a Will save (DC 12 + your initiation modifier) or become vulnerable to silver until the end of your next turn. Creatures with vulnerability to silver take 50% more damage from silver weapons. This maneuver is a supernatural ability.
You should get the Mixed Combat feat for free action sheathing.

[chainer1216]

Heroes of Horror has willing deformity: Bite, enchant a weapon with Mouthpick (Lords of Madness, lets you weild a weapon instead of biteing) and be an Ironheart/tigerclaw Warblade and bobs your uncle.

[Axel_690]

3.5 edition feat "Graceful Edge"(source?) let's you treat any 1-handed slashing weapon as light. Katanas are bastard swords, which are exotic 1-handed slashing weapons. As previously stated the "mouthpick enchantment" will allow you to wield a weapon with your mouth: bam, 3 katanas. Put least returning weapon crystals (magic item compendium) on all 3 of them for cheap quickdraw.


Now you should ask your DM if you can put points into the Iaijutsu Focus skill from Oriental Adventures so you have a source of bonus damage. Also, don't take Two Weapon Fighting, it won't work with 3 weapons. What you want is Multi-Weapon Fighting. I don't know if it was updated to pathfinder so you may need OK it with your DM: same goes for the other stuff up there.


Once you have all that squared away, you need to look for ways to up your damage and being able to move and full attack in the same turn. There are plenty of Two Weapon Fighting guides on the forum that you should be able to find with a quick search. Most of what's in them will apply to Multi-Weapon Fighting. Good Luck dude.

[BWR]

I assume this will be a very alt.u. Rokguan, because very little mentioned here fits in that setting. Not PoW, not Spheres of Power, not wizards, clerics, magi, sorcerers, oracles, paladins, rangers with spells or animal companions, druids, monster races as PCs, ranged sword slashes, D&D bards, jugglers etc. etc. etc, certainly not that asnine tri-wielding One Piece nonsense.

I would make very sure the GM is OK with you going this far afield before settling on this concept.

If you are not familiar with the setting, I would recommend in the strongest possible terms that you read L5R fiction (http://www.kazenoshiro.com/)to get a handle on the setting.

[Mr.Wizzard]

Yes, you are missing the Iron Wave strike

You should get the Mixed Combat feat for free action sheathing.

I'm currently looking at Katana Duelist as my base class, which the GM has given a thumbs up on. My character's race is human, and I've got Exotic Weapon Prof (Katana) and Two Weapon Fighting as my starting feats.

Would one of the sphere's of might classes be more suitable for someone who doesn't want to wear armor?

[Manyasone]

I'm currently looking at Katana Duelist as my base class, which the GM has given a thumbs up on. My character's race is human, and I've got Exotic Weapon Prof (Katana) and Two Weapon Fighting as my starting feats.

Would one of the sphere's of might classes be more suitable for someone who doesn't want to wear armor?

Welllll...a conscript can be anything you want it to be and with the specialization sphere (or 2) you can really specify. I am unfamiliar with the character in the OP but I am thinking Bushi tools as martial tradition and maybe dueling, dual wielding as sphere specializations
EDIT: and since in the equipment sphere they added the unarmored combat talent it'll have you covered as well

[Mr.Wizzard]

Welllll...a conscript can be anything you want it to be and with the specialization sphere (or 2) you can really specify. I am unfamiliar with the character in the OP but I am thinking Bushi tools as martial tradition and maybe dueling, dual wielding as sphere specializations
EDIT: and since in the equipment sphere they added the unarmored combat talent it'll have you covered as well

I only have access to d20pfsrd, so I don't believe I have acess to Spheres of Might.

[Manyasone]

The playtest documents are accessible on this very subforum

[Ssalarn]

Welllll...a conscript can be anything you want it to be and with the specialization sphere (or 2) you can really specify. I am unfamiliar with the character in the OP but I am thinking Bushi tools as martial tradition and maybe dueling, dual wielding as sphere specializations
EDIT: and since in the equipment sphere they added the unarmored combat talent it'll have you covered as well

The Three Sword Style Legendary Talent in Dual Wielding combined with Vacuum Cut Legendary Talent from Dueling and the Unarmored Combatant talent from the Equipment sphere allow you to make Roronoa Zoro almost perfectly. You can emulate pretty much everything he does in the anime with those spheres. If you want to do newer, high level Zoro with his haki of perception, you can also dip the Scout sphere. Conscript is probably going to be the best class for the build since they get piles of talents.

Links to playtest documents available here (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?520046-Drop-Dead-Studios-Spheres-of-Might-Open-Playtest).

[Mr.Wizzard]

The playtest documents are accessible on this very subforum


The Three Sword Style Legendary Talent in Dual Wielding combined with Vacuum Cut Legendary Talent from Dueling and the Unarmored Combatant talent from the Equipment sphere allow you to make Roronoa Zoro almost perfectly. You can emulate pretty much everything he does in the anime with those spheres. If you want to do newer, high level Zoro with his haki of perception, you can also dip the Scout sphere. Conscript is probably going to be the best class for the build since they get piles of talents.

Links to playtest documents available here (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?520046-Drop-Dead-Studios-Spheres-of-Might-Open-Playtest).

I will bring this up with my GM, but I'm not confident. Any suggestions in regards to base Pathfinder or any of its other 3rd party books?

[Ssalarn]

I will bring this up with my GM, but I'm not confident. Any suggestions in regards to base Pathfinder or any of its other 3rd party books?

If it helps at all, here are some reviews of other 3rd party books by the same authors:

Spheres of Power (http://endzeitgeist.com/spheres-power/) by Adam Meyers
Akashic Mysteries (http://endzeitgeist.com/akashic-mysteries/) by Michael Sayre
Kineticists of Porphyra (http://endzeitgeist.com/kineticists-porphyra/) by Ehn Jolly
Destroyer's Handbook (http://endzeitgeist.com/destroyers-handbook/) by Andrew Stoeckle

One of the things you'll notice is that these are all authors who consistently write 5 star, seal of approval products, and these are also the 4 designers working on Spheres of Might (I'm Michael Sayre, btw).

Without using Spheres of Might, there are a few suggestions that have been made that will meet the concept, if not as exactly, like some of the Path of War materials. It'll be a difficult trope to match with core Paizo materials without using Mythic. Hmmm.... The Swordmaster (http://endzeitgeist.com/ezg-reviews-swordmaster/) from Dreadfox Games can be used to make Zoro, though it won't really do the Three Sword Style thing. It'll give you a lot of the other options though, and is a solid class for a skilled swordsman character. The Survivor from Liber Influxus Communis (http://endzeitgeist.com/liber-influxus-communis-book-collective-influence/) is a good chassis for a lot of Zoro's insane toughness, but doesn't really have access to some of Zoro's more distinctly anime abilities, like creating vortexes with his swords or iai slashes that can hit an opponent across the room.

[Tuvarkz]

I'm currently looking at Katana Duelist as my base class, which the GM has given a thumbs up on. My character's race is human, and I've got Exotic Weapon Prof (Katana) and Two Weapon Fighting as my starting feats.

Would one of the sphere's of might classes be more suitable for someone who doesn't want to wear armor?

Dunno about SoM, don't like where the system is really going.
https://sites.google.com/site/pathfinderogc/path-of-war
This is the backup for the pfsrd, and ironically with a better layout.
I'd suggest going with a Warlord and take feats for going full dexterity-based mode (Daisho Expertise+Weapon Finesse+Deadly Agility), with the Bushi martial class template so you get katana proficiency and Quick Draw+Mixed Combat all in one.
Even without dexterity, taking a stance that boosts your AC and bracers of armor should let you keep up with little trouble.