Oni-Possessed Samurai (Build Help)

[Jcp1195]

We’re starting a new campaign in our group ran by one of our less experienced DMs so it’s going to be more of a vanilla (Book-like Adventure) based in his Homebrew world.

Current party comp is Druid, Bard, Wizard, Rogue, so it clearly falls to me to be Meat Tank.

We’re starting at level 1, we rolled a group pool for stats so everyone’s stats are 18,17,14,12,11,11 excluding Race modifiers.

That said, I’ve been wanting to look into Samurai (for Fighting Spirit of course) so I was wondering if a Zealot Barbarian/Samurai Fighter class split would be feasible? I know what Bonus action economy could prove to be a bit of a problem, but I think it could work. Like maybe a person who, upon entering their rage becomes possessed by an Oni and given that extra bit of Necrotic damage? I’m thinking of this character kind of like a Corrupted Samurai jack.

Anyway, what class level split would I want to do with this kind of build? Is there anything better that I could be doing with it to make it better but keep the general feel? Any help is appreciated, thanks!

[Unoriginal]

At what level would you be starting? That subclass combo would require you to be lvl 6.

My advice would be to start as a Barbarian for one level, then take Fighter levels until you can take the Samurai subclass. CON is your friend, here.

Might evoke more of an "Edo period bandit chief" feel than "proper Samurai", but it works with the Oni idea.

[Zonugal]

I'd also look into picking up Magic Initiate as that can help portray you as having some minor abilities from the monster within you.

Green-Flame Blade & Minor Illusion are fun!

[Max_Killjoy]

Brainstorming... starting at level 1 makes it harder, but what came to mind when reading the thread title was "Warlock dip", with the possessing spirit as the "patron".

[Jcp1195]

At what level would you be starting? That subclass combo would require you to be lvl 6.

Might evoke more of an "Edo period bandit chief" feel than "proper Samurai", but it works with the Oni idea.

As stated above we're Starting at level 1 but we’re going to 20.

I actually like that a bit better than my original ideas. I’m actually minoring in Japanese history and culture, I guess I just blanked for second and forgot about the bandits.


Brainstorming... starting at level 1 makes it harder, but what came to mind when reading the thread title was "Warlock dip", with the possessing spirit as the "patron".

So I actually really like this idea, but being a Warlock, Barbarian Rage would get in the way, so if I were to ditch Barbarian and go Samurai Fighter/Fiend Warlock do you think it’d only be worth a dip or should I really go into it for things like Lifedrinker?

[djreynolds]

I think hex blade warlock with samurai would be perfect

The other thing about barbarian..... rage is usually twice a day. I mean there are going to be times when your spells as warlock are out or not worth casting at the warlock spell level. And with hex blade you're grabbing two attacks so you are not always spamming booming blade.

So unless you are concentrating on a particular spell, why not grab some barbarian.

Also, I ran an EK 8/ barbarian 2 once, I rarely raged but I reckless attacked all the time.... nothing in reckless attack says you cannot cast spells... so I spammed the shield spell. I rarely got hit, and when I needed to rage was there.

Now I know its wasteful spamming shield on a warlock, but you could just reckless attack... and rage when you are at say half HP

Also Armor of Agathys, lasts one hour and is non concentration, imagine raging and recklessly attacking.... the enemy is in for a nasty surprise when they hit you.

You can cancel rage when want.

[Max_Killjoy]

So I actually really like this idea, but being a Warlock, Barbarian Rage would get in the way, so if I were to ditch Barbarian and go Samurai Fighter/Fiend Warlock do you think it’d only be worth a dip or should I really go into it for things like Lifedrinker?

If you take The Fiend to represent the Oni, then at level 1 you get Dark One's Blessing, which grants you temp hit points every time you reduce a foe to 0 HP, which means might tempt the character to be more bloodthristy when they're close to dying themselves... the Oni whispering to them that it can save their life if they'd just take a life.

At level 2, you'd get a pair of Eldritch Invocations.

At level 3, you'd get Pact of the Blade.

I think that's about as far as I'd take the Warlock levels, unless you want to represent the Samurai falling farther and farther under the Oni's influence.


E: Hex would work too.

[Mortis_Elrod]

Personally i love this idea, and Samurai/Zealot would make a great combo, as would Samurai/Fiend or Hexblade, or Fiend/Barbarian.


Samurai Zealot is the most straight forward of these three, Pump Con and Str and slap the 14 in dex so your medium armor is always decent. Not sure what kind of weapon you want to use, but greatsword would make a decent Odachi. Either way GWF or Defence is what i would do for fighting style here unless you were going sword/board in which case dueling would be a viable option. Half Orc is obvious racial choice, but Goliath isnt bad either (or Mountain dwarf).


Samurai/Fiendlock works pretty simply as well. Pick up your favorite warlock spells and gish it up. Ignore thirsting blade invocation and grab Improved Pact weapon and maybe smite instead. Tieflings and variants of such work well here as well as a few aasimar choices. I would probably start fighter for Con prof, bigger hit die, and heavy armor/shield prof. Choose sword/board or BIG STICK fighting and pump Str or Dex (probably STR). Alternatively you could choose to avoid blade pact and instead get an Imp familiar who could be a manifestation of the oni inside you. flavorful and useful.


Barbarian and Warlock is hard to mix at a glance, but considering the nature of warlock casting, done well it works out. you want to look out for spells that last a while without concentration, like AoA. In theory you use your few spells to augment your self before fights, or use them for out of combat use, OR use them right before you rage. Besides that just keep track of when you want to rage and when you should be casting. This works better the more combat you see per day as you'll get actually be able to use all of your resources more often the longer the day goes on. Fiend is the obvious choice here and the same applies with the above combo, Blade for a slightly cooler weapon, Chain for flavor and scouting and for having a buddy. Tome gets you rituals but idk if thats the flavor you want. Pump Str and Cha if you need it for spells otherwise Con/dex.




Hexblade really only works with samurai here (if you want to be charisma focused). Though its worth a try anyway.

[thoroughlyS]

I really recommend going straight fighter for the first five levels, to get Extra Attack on time. After that, taking levels in barbarian seems pretty fun. It is also worth mentioning that there are a handful of decent buffs on the warlock spell list that don't require concentration (e.g. armor of Agathys). Maybe look into those if you decide to go the warlock path.

[CTurbo]

I'd probably go straight Fighter Samurai. It sounds fun to multiclass into Barbarian or Warlock, but it would take forever for that build idea to come online. 6 levels minimum but then you're putting off getting your second attack until level 8.

I'd go Goliath Samurai and start 20 Str, 14 Dex, 18 Con, 11 Int, 12 Wis, 11 Cha and you could pretty much take feats from there.

Magic Initiate is great as mentioned. I REALLY like Ritual Caster for Fighters too. Mobile, Alert, and Lucky are great for every character. You didn't mention what kind of weapon you wanted to use but you could grab an Offensive feat of course like PAM or GWM. Sentinel is always great for any melee character.

I'd go at least 11 levels in Fighter for the 3rd attack as well as improved Fighting Spirit and Timeless Spirit. Then maybe take some Barbarian levels if you plan on always being possessed.

Haunted One background is perfect

[Max_Killjoy]

but it would take forever for that build idea to come online.


Way too common a pitfall, sadly.