Japanese Legend

[Fastmover]

Ok guys, I've been reading Miyamoto Musashi's life history and have been pretty interested in making a char that is close to this guy's abilities (Even catching a blade with his hands, if possible for flare). Anyone got any ideas as to how to go about it?

Most of the games I'm in only get up to about level 10 though.

[Pharaoh's Fist]

Warblade, perhaps?

[AslanCross]

Warblade is the only class I can recommend. Specialize in Iron Heart and Tiger Claw for TWF style.

[Volkov]

Japanese mythology is full of Excrement. Let that be a warning.

[BenTheJester]

Japanese mythology is full of Excrement. Let that be a warning.

That and you know, no super-insta-win wizards back then.

[Volkov]

That and you know, no super-insta-win wizards back then.

It also had raccoon things with umm. Sacks that were big enough to have touched the ground if you know what I mean. washes keyboard

[Dracomorph]

It also had raccoon things with umm. Sacks that were big enough to have touched the ground if you know what I mean. washes keyboard

And in ancient Greece, Zeus had kids while turned into a swan, a ray of light, and other various things. Also, minotaurs. Gross is relative.

[Gametime]

And in ancient Greece, Zeus had kids while turned into a swan, a ray of light, and other various things. Also, minotaurs. Gross is relative.

Man, in retrospect, Daedalus is lucky that the worst thing he's remembered for is accidentally causing his son's death. He built some weird things.

[Archpaladin Zousha]

Man, in retrospect, Daedalus is lucky that the worst thing he's remembered for is accidentally causing his son's death. He built some weird things.

Yeah, like a bathtub that kills people!

[theMycon]

And in ancient Greece, Zeus had kids while turned into a swan, a ray of light, and other various things. Also, minotaurs. Gross is relative.

And let's not forget Norse mythology, where Tyr's sister tried to drown him & Thor in really do not read this.

[MickJay]

Deadly bathtubs are more commonly associated with Agamemnon, though. Greek mythology features a blind guy who became a woman for seven years and could foretell future, a god who would screw any human being regardless of sex or age, his wife who would hate and try to kill almost everyone who her husband screwed, a god who ate his children, gods being born as a result of another god's genitals being chopped off (by that god's son, no less), mortals being punished horribly for daring to be better at something than some of the gods, etc, etc...

[The Rose Dragon]

a god who ate his children, gods being born as a result of another god's genitals being chopped off (by that god's son, no less)

Cronus and Uranus are titans, not gods. Aphrodite was a goddess, yes, but her progenitor and her progenitor's son were not gods.

((Her progenitor's grandchildren, on the other hand, were.))

[Volkov]

Deadly bathtubs are more commonly associated with Agamemnon, though. Greek mythology features a blind guy who became a woman for seven years and could foretell future, a god who would screw any human being regardless of sex or age, his wife who would hate and try to kill almost everyone who her husband screwed, a god who ate his children, gods being born as a result of another god's genitals being chopped off (by that god's son, no less), mortals being punished horribly for daring to be better at something than some of the gods, etc, etc...

One Japanese god took a dump on another God's temple. A big dump at that.

[Thatguyoverther]

Man, in retrospect, Daedalus is lucky that the worst thing he's remembered for is accidentally causing his son's death. He built some weird things.

Didn't he kill his nephew for inventing the saw?

[Arakune]

Don't forget to make the Kusanagi no Tsurugi an actual tsurugi (long sword-esque sword) and not a katana.

Make susanoo an ass too.

[Zaydos]

I'd say flavor-wise a warblade has always made me think of Miyamoto Musashi.

Mechanically... I'd have to read more into warblade. I would say Two-Weapon Fighting is a definite must (he invented Niten Ryuu or 2-Heavens Style named in part because it taught using two-weapons offensively) and Improved Disarm (which allows you to disarm unarmed among other things). I remember in Eiji Yoshikawa's Musashi series when he was fighting bandits and stole their weapons and beat them.

In short I second Warblade.

[Archpaladin Zousha]

One Japanese god took a dump on another God's temple. A big dump at that.

Native American myth has even dirtier stuff. That's all I'll say.

[Dracomorph]

Native American myth has even dirtier stuff. That's all I'll say.

Coyote is just the best, isn't he?

[Book Wyrm]

Nit pick here, and slightly off topic, but the Titans of Greek mythology are deities. Titan is just a classification of gods, separating them from the Olympians (another classification of gods). So Aphrodite is the "off spring" of gods no matter which origin myth for her you go by. Hesiod says she sprang from the severed genitalia of Uranus, but Hesiod was a notorious misogynist. Homer says she was born of Zeus and Dione.

[Archpaladin Zousha]

Coyote is just the best, isn't he?

Yeah. He learns the laws of fishing by taking a crap, and then talking to his crap, which insults him before telling him the law.

That's right. Coyote learns the laws of fishing from his own excrement.

[Zaq]

One Japanese god took a dump on another God's temple. A big dump at that.

Ah, the Kojiki. I need to find a start-to-finish English translation of that sometime... I've only read excerpts, and Classical Japanese (particularly with the insane writing system they used for the Kojiki) just takes a wee bit too much time for me to actually translate.

Don't forget that the Kojiki teaches us that damage to the female genitalia = death. That happens like three times just in the excerpts I've read. Some woman (divine or otherwise) gets whacked in the crotch and it's all over.

I suppose I can see some kind of "source of life" connection, but still. It's practically a motif. I can tell I'm not a proper adult yet, because I still giggle a little bit when I think about how big a deal they make about this.

Just a little, though.

[AslanCross]

One Japanese god took a dump on another God's temple. A big dump at that.

And the said recipient of the "gift" hid in a cave. Since she was the sun goddess, everything began to die, so they lured her out by having another goddess strip-dance.

Ancient Japanese lit gets more snickers out of my students than anything else.

[Archpaladin Zousha]

Wait that's what drove Amaterasu into the cave? I thought Susanoo had skinned a horse and dropped the corpse through the roof of Amaterasu's sewing room, and it frightened her and her servants so much that one of them accidentally stitched up her own hand.

[Zaq]

And the said recipient of the "gift" hid in a cave. Since she was the sun goddess, everything began to die, so they lured her out by having another goddess strip-dance.

Ancient Japanese lit gets more snickers out of my students than anything else.

Don't forget that the strip-dance caused all the other gods to laugh, and that Amaterasu came out to see what all the laughter was about. That part's critical.

Man I love the Kojiki.

[AslanCross]

Wait that's what drove Amaterasu into the cave? I thought Susanoo had skinned a horse and dropped the corpse through the roof of Amaterasu's sewing room, and it frightened her and her servants so much that one of them accidentally stitched up her own hand.

The text we used said he "voided excrement" AND did that.

Don't forget that the strip-dance caused all the other gods to laugh, and that Amaterasu came out to see what all the laughter was about. That part's critical.

Man I love the Kojiki.

That too. My classes, however, always imagine the gods there using the typical anime exclamation of "uoooooo!!!!"

[Dracomorph]

Yeah. He learns the laws of fishing by taking a crap, and then talking to his crap, which insults him before telling him the law.

That's right. Coyote learns the laws of fishing from his own excrement.

The story I was thinking of really isn't forum-safe, but that one works too.

Coyote just had all kinds of kooky adventures.

[elliott20]

oh god this thread just went down hill fast.

Back on topic:

I'd say go Warblade, pick up TWF so that you can wield TWF without too much penalty, focus on iron heart to pick up some of the disarming maneuvers and the defensive maneuvers. Then focus on tiger claw to pick up a lot of the TWF related stuff.

There are a number of TC stuff that allows you to use it without needing a jump check, and a lot of them are boosts, so you can use them in conjunction with your other maneuvers to really increase your damage output.

Maybe you can also pick up some diamond mind to give you a couple diamond mind related saves.

If you want to do a Sasaki Kojiro, he would probably be a diamond mind/iron heart warblade himself.

[Dixieboy]

And let's not forget Norse mythology, where Tyr's sister tried to drown him & Thor in really do not read this.

And that's one of the tamer bits of norse mythology.

Anyway:
Since everyone is saying warblade I'll be a total moron and say "Pick swordsage instead"
It just feels more appropriate.

[elliott20]

fluff wise, I would totally agree, since Musashi was commonly called a sword saint, which I think is where the name swordsage originated from.

But swordsage, in my opinion, feels more suitable for martial art masters with a softer philosophical component to their character. (which is not to say that Musashi doesn't have that as well, it's just that he came across always as a warrior first and a philosopher second)

However, I can see musashi dipping some swordsages to get some of the OTHER maneuvers that he thinks are useful for him. (That and from a fluff stand point you can say that he has experienced a shift in his personal philosophy and is trying to incorporate some of that into his martial arts)

[Quincunx]

The story I was thinking of really isn't forum-safe, but that one works too.

Coyote just had all kinds of kooky adventures.

". . .and that's why men are always sliding up to women with that 'I'm so itchy' look in their eyes. . ."