[Base class]Samurai Redux

[Arakune]

Samurai

The knight in full plate are facing the foreign warrior, using only some clothes that barely resemble a dress.
"Apparently you don't value your life by coming here unarmored." - said the knight, thinking this duel will be an easy fight.
"It's meaningless. In a war it's assumed that, regardless of skills, to be hit at least once in the chaos of battle field, but this is a duel, and the first one receiving a real attack will die."
"That's why I came armored. Don't think this is some short of betrayal, since you were aware of the rules of the duel."
"I understand. But then again, it's meaningless."
.
.
.
Soon after the duel start, the knight are barely conscious: his helmet have an opening made by the blade of the warrior. How he did that with such small sword? If it was his greatsword then maybe, but this?
"H... ho...w?."
"A true weapon should be able to pass tough a simple armor, and a true attack should be able to pull of the potential of the weapon without relying on clumsy movements. Now die as a warrior." - decapitating the opponent afterwards with another attack.
"You can blame the poor material of your armor too, since it's true. But then again, now it's really meaningless. Now that this distraction are out, I must use the remaining of the potion of tongues I drank to a good use...

Alignment: Any, but lawful are most common.
Skill points: (4 + Int) x4 at first level and (2+ Int) every level thereafter.
Skills (and the key ability): Jump(Str), Concentration (Con), Craft (Weapons), Craft (Any), Knowledge(Royalty/Nobility)(Int), Knowledge (Any)(Int), Sense Motive (Wis), Listen (Wis), Ride (Dex), Intimidate (Cha), Perform (Iai)(Cha), Perform (Any)(Cha).

Samurai
{table=head]Level|Base Attack<br>Bonus|Fort Save|Ref Save|Will Save|Special

1st|

+1

|

+2

|

+0

|

+2

|Warrior Tradition[Ex]

2nd|

+2

|

+3

|

+0

|

+3

|Samurai Bonus Feat

3rd|

+3

|

+3

|

+1

|

+3

|------------

4th|

+4

|

+4

|

+1

|

+4

|Samurai Bonus Feat

5th|

+5

|

+4

|

+1

|

+4

|Soul of Samurai[Ex]

6th|

+6/+1

|

+5

|

+2

|

+5

|Samurai Bonus Feat

7th|

+7/+2

|

+5

|

+2

|

+5

|------------

8th|

+8/+3

|

+6

|

+2

|

+6

|Samurai Bonus Feat

9th|

+9/+4

|

+6

|

+3

|

+6

|------------

10th|

+10/+5

|

+7

|

+3

|

+7

|Samurai Bonus Feat, Death with Honor [Ex]

11th|

+11/+6/+1

|

+7

|

+3

|

+7

|------------

12th|

+12/+7/+2

|

+8

|

+4

|

+8

|Samurai Bonus Feat

13th|

+13/+8/+3

|

+8

|

+4

|

+8

|------------

14th|

+14/+9/+4

|

+9

|

+4

|

+9

|Samurai Bonus Feat

15th|

+15/+10/+5

|

+9

|

+5

|

+9

|------------

16th|

+16/+11/+6/+1

|

+10

|

+5

|

+10

|Samurai Bonus Feat

17th|

+17/+12/+7/+2

|

+10

|

+5

|

+10

|------------

18th|

+18/+13/+8/+3

|

+11

|

+6

|

+11

|Samurai Bonus Feat

19th|

+19/+14/+9/+4

|

+11

|

+6

|

+11

|------------

20th|

+20/+15/+10/+5

|

+12

|

+6

|

+12

|Samurai Bonus Feat[/table]

Class Features: The samurai are proficient with the katana*, wakizashi*, long bow, composite long bow, glaive, nodachi*, dachi*, tanto*, kodachi*, long lance. The samurai are proficient with light, medium and heavy armor, but not shields.

Warrior Tradition[Ex]: Chose one of the folowing: Katana, Nodachi, Long Lance, Glaive or Composite Long Bow. You receive Weapon Focus with that weapon. You also receive an additional +1 bonus to hit and damage if you are using a weapon passed by you from your family, crafted it by yourself or received by a high level weaponsmith (these circunstances are up to DM to determine).

Soul of Samurai[Ex]: For the Samurai, if he have the Weapon Focus (Katana), when he wield the Katana two-handed, it will become a 2d6, 19-20x2, slashing two-handed weapon. For all purposes, the Katana are treated as a two-handed weapon. If he choose the Nodachi, he receive the Monkey Grip feat for free (if he already have this feat he can chose another feat from the Samurai Feat List), if he chose another weapon, he can chose one feat from the Samurai or Fighter bonus feat list.

Death with Honor [Ex]: For the Samurai, dying in battle is the ultimate joy and reward he can have. The Samurai become immune to all fear effects and receive a morale bonus of +2 to all rolls when he are at 0 or lower hp and refuse to receive healing. This bonus improves to +4 at every 10 levels thereafter.

Samurai Bonus feats: The Samurai receive one special bonus feat at 2,4,6,8,10,12,14,16,18,20 levels from the Fighter bonus feat list or the Samurai bonus feat list and must meed the prerequisites. Samurai Bonus feats: Endurance, Die hard, *Kiai Strike, Improved Kiai Strike, Greater Kiai Strike, Iai Strike, Improved Iai Strike, Sencodary Strike (1st blade), Secondary Strike (2nd blade), Greater Iai Strike, Charging Iai, Free Stance Iai, Iai recovery, Improved Iai recovery, *Uncanny Senses, Daisho Proficiency, Improved Daisho Proficiency, Greater Daisho Proficiency, Exotic Weapon Proficiency(One-haded Nodachi), *Monkey Grip, *Improved Monkey Grip, *Improved Dodge, *Greater Dodge, *Parry, *Improved Parry, *Counter, Unbeatable will, *Battle Mobility.
Feats marked by * can be taken by fighters as fighter bonus feats.

Kiai Strike
Prerequisites: Cha 13, BAB +4
Benefits: 1/day you can announce the use of this ability. In the next attack, if you rolled a natural 20 you don't need to roll to confirm the critical. It's an automatic success.
Normal: When you score a critical hit, you must roll again to confirm it.
Special: You can take this feat multiple times. Each time you take this feat you can use it one more time

Improved Kiai Strike
Prerequisites: Cha 15, BAB +8, Kiai Strike
Benefits: In additon of an automatic success when you roll a natural 20, all the nearby enemies must succeed a Will save (DC 10 + HD/2 + Cha) or become shaken for 1 round.

Greater Kiai Strike
Prerequisites: BAB +16, Kiai Strike, Improved Kiai Strike
Benefits: When you use the Kiai Strike, instead needing a natural 20, you only need to score a normal critical hit, your enemies become frigthened instead of shaken and by spending 3 uses of the Kiai Strike, you can threat a critical automatically but now you need to confirm the roll normally.

Iai Strike
Prerequisites: Cha 13, Perform (Iai) 4 ranks, Weapon Focus (Katana)
Benefits: If you have your Katana in the hilt you can make a movement action to enter in a special stance and make an Perform check (DC 15). When on this instance (and only on this instance) you receive a bonus of +2 to your Initiative checks and can, as a full-attack action make a special attack: you make one single attack with a bonus of +2 to one opponent and if you hit you deal an aditional +1d6 damage (this extra damage can't be crited) +1d6 damage for every 5 points you surpassed the DC and in addition to this your opponent must make a Fort save (DC Damage Taken/2) or become dazzed by one round. If you miss your opponent receive an attack of opportunity against you, you lose your Dex to your AC and your opponent receive an bonus of +2 to hit.
Special: You can use this feat only unarmored or with light armor.

Improved Iai Strike
Prerequisites: BAB +8, Perform (Iai) 12 ranks, Iai Strike, Weapon Focus (Katana)
Benefits: Your initiative bonus are +4 instead of +2 and your attack bonus are +4 instead of +2. When you miss your opponent he still receive an attack of opportunity against you, you lose your Dex to your AC and your opponent receive an bonus of +2 to hit.
Special: You can use this feat only unarmored or with light armor.

Greater Iai Strike
Prerequisites: BAB +16, Perform (Iai) 20 ranks, Iai Strike, Improved Iai Strike, Weapon Focus (Katana)
Benefits: The extra damage you deal from your Iai Strike are now 1d8 instead of 1d6, your initiative bonus are +6 instead of +4 and your attack bonus are +6 instead of +4. When you miss your opponent he still receive an attack of opportunity against you, you lose your Dex to your AC and your opponent receive a bonus of +2 to hit.
Special: You can use this feat only unarmored or with light armor.

Sencodary Strike (1st blade)
Prerequisites: Cha 13, Two-Weapon Fighting, Perform (Iai) 8 ranks, Iai Strike, Weapon Focus(Katana)
Benefits: In addition to your first Iai Strike (hitting or not), you can deliver another attack with your hilt. You make another attack check without extra bonus to hit, and if you hit you deal 1d4+Strx1.5 +1d4 extra damage for every 6 points you surpassed the DC and in addition to this your opponent must make a Fort save (DC Damage Taken/2) or become dazzed by one round. If you missed the first attack and hit the secondary attack your opponent doesn't receive any bonus against you, if you managed to hit both attacks the effects of the dazze stack, and if you miss both, you lose your Dex to your AC and your opponent receive a bonus of +4 to hit.
Special: You can use this feat only unarmored or with light armor.

Sencodary Strike (2nd blade)
Prerequisites: Cha 13, Two-Weapon Fighting, Perform (Iai) 12 ranks, Secondary Strike (1st Blade), Iai Strike, Weapon Focus(Katana)
Benefits: Instead of first hitting with your blade, you hit your opponent with the sword still in your hit, doing 1d4+Strx0.5 damage, and the next attack you make will negate your opponent Dex to AC and a bonus of +2 to hit. You make make another attack check, and if you hit you deal +1d6 extra damage for every 8 points you surpassed the DC and in addition to this your opponent must make a Fort save (DC Damage Taken/2) or become dazzed by one round. If you missed one of the attacks and hit another attack your opponent doesn't receive any bonus against you and if you missed both, you lose your Dex to your AC and your opponent receive a bonus of +4 to hit.
Special: You can use this feat only unarmored or with light armor.

Charging Iai
Prerequisites: BAB +12, Perform (Iai) 12 ranks, Iai Strike, Weapon Focus (Katana)
Benefits: You can make the Iai attack during a charge. You must first enter in the stance and make the perform check, then you can start a charge. You benefit normaly by the charge bonuses and penalties.
Normal: You can a Iai only during a full-attack action.

Free Stance Iai
Prerequisites: BAB +18, Perform (Iai) 21 ranks, Iai Strike, Improved Iai Strike, Greater Iai Strike, Weapon Focus (Katana)
Benefits: You can enter in the stance as a free action, providing you can move at all. You can attack as an attack action instead as a full-attack action or as a part of a charge (if you have the Charging Iai feat).
Normal: You can a Iai only during a full-attack action.
Special: With this feat you can't make the Secondary Strike (1st blade) if you didn't make a full-attack action, but you can make the Secondary Strike (2nd Blade) as a part of a charge.

Iai recovery
Prerequisites: Perform (Iai) 12 ranks, Iai Strike, Dex 13, Weapon Focus(Katana)
Benefits: When you miss the Iai, you doesn't lose your Dex to Ac, but your opponent still receive an bonus to hit you. You can also put your sword back into your hilt again in the same turn, but can't attack again.
Normal: When you miss your Iai attack, you lose your Dex to AC.

Improved Iai recovery
Prerequisites: BAB +19, Perform (Iai) 22 ranks, Iai Strike, Improved Iai Strike, Greater Iai Strike Dex 17, Weapon Focus(Katana)
Benefits: You can make another Iai Strike in the same turn if you used a full-attack action (even if you have the Free Stance Iai, to use this ability you need to make an full-attack action), with the same attack bonus and the same amount of extra dice damage. But you become dazzed for 3 turns.
Normal: You can make only one Iai Strike in your turn.
Special: If you have the Charging Iai Feat you can make the second Iai attack in a charge, but you don't receive the normal bonus for a charge in your second attack.
.
.
.
These feats are based on some games and anime, such as Onime no Kyo and Rurouni Kenshin.

New Weapons for Samrais

{table=head]Homebrewed Stats for Samurai Weapons |Price|Small|Medium|Crit|Weight|Damage type
Exotic Light Melee Weapons
Tanto|10 gp|1d3|1d4|20x2|1lb|Piercing
Wakizashi|20 gp|1d4|1d6|20x2|2lb|Slashing
Kodachi|20 gp|1d4|1d6|20x2|2lb|Piercing
Exotic One Handed Melee Weapons
Katana|35 gp|1d8|1d10|19-20x2|6lb|Slashing
Dachi|30 gp|1d6|1d8|20x2|5lb|Piercing and Slashing
Exotic Two Handed Melee Weapons
Nodachi|40 gp|1d10*|2d8*|20x3|8lb|Slashing[/table]

*A Nodachi is a special kind of Katana, that can be used only by characters with Str 13+ and Two-handed. You can wield it as a one handed-weapon if you have the monkey grip feat, but you receive the normal penalties from figthing with weapons above your size and you need both Str 15+ and Exotic Weapon Proficiency(One-haded Nodachi).

New Materials and rules to create weapon/armor

"Mundane" Starmetal
This iron ore that fell from the skies can be refined to a very pure iron, making excelent weapons. By properly tempering the iron (Craft: Weapons, base DC 25, Knowledge(Nature/Geografy/Geology) sinergises) your weapons can have some of the properties of the Adamantine weapons, but as light as a normal iron weapon. It will give to the weapon a bonus of +2 to all sundering attempts, +1 hardness and +2 hp than normal and for every point you surpassed the DC you add +1 to sunder attempt, +1 hardness and +2 hp (up to extra +4 sunder attempt, +4 hardness and +8 hp). All these weapons are masterwork weapons.
Price: +600% the normal price for the same volume of normal iron.

Tempering Metal
By passing a succesful Craft: Weapons (DC 20, Knowledge(Nature/Geografy/Geology) you can make your basic iron ore more pure. It will give to the weapon +1 hardness and +2 hp than normal and for every point you surpassed the DC you add +1/2 to sunder attempt, +1/2 hardness and +1 hp (up to extra +2 sunder attempt, +2 hardness and +4 hp). All these weapons are masterwork weapons.
Price: +200% the normal price for the same volume of normal iron.

New Masterwork Weapons Ranks
A Saijo Owazamono
B Owazamono
C Ryowazamono
D Wazamono
E Mixed

There are five ranks of masterwork weapons, where the A have a mundane bonus of +4, B have +3, C have +2, D have +1 and the E have to +0 to +1, depending of the weaponsmith. There is a special rank called Shin-uchi (god smith) that was offered to gods in thanks for the weaponsmith skills, these are the best works made by him. An Shin-Uchi will always have an extra +1 bonus than his 'normal' counter part. The only way to acquire a +5 masterwork weapon are from a Shin-Uchi Saijo Owazamono, but these swords are not meant to be used in combat since they are gifts to gods in shires or temples.

New weapons
Shin-Uchi Masamune "Gentle Blade"
This sword in the hands of a untrained individual are only a masterwork weapon (+1), but in the hands of someone proficient with it (a Samurai of 5th level with Weapon Focus(Katana) or someone with the Exotic Weapon Proficiency (Katana) and Weapon Focus (Katana) and with BAB +10) this sword is a +5 Keen Defending Masterwork Katana of Speed, where none of these "enchantmens" are trully magical. This Katana are much harder than normal (+20% hardness and +50% hp). Despice the power of this sword it look like a very common blade (and is an unsinged work), needing an Apraise check (DC 35) to know it's the Masamune Sword without testing it.
Price: -

Shin-Uchi "Cursed" Muramasa
This sword is a +5 Keen Wounding Masterwork Katana, where none of these "enchantmens" are trully magical. This sword have the peculiar ability to stack the Keen and Improved Critical feat (the 19-20 becomes 18-20 by keen and 17-20 by Improved Critical) and all this sword attacks deal damage and try to sunder at the same time. This sword are just a little harder than normal (+10% hardness and +20% hp). Rumors says this weapom are cursed, and anyone that use this sword will die shortly.
Price: -

None of the pseudo-enchantments of these swords satck with the real enchantments.
----------------------------------------------------------------------

One of the tests for a really good Katana is to cut an helmet (not in half, that's only happen in anime) and don't leaving any straws in the blade. For such a thin blade (compared to a broadsword), it sure can do a lot of mess . Look at youtube.com


Edit: Oh thanks for the tips. I consider the Wakisashi more a dagger than a short sword and a Kodachi looks much more like it and is bigger than the Wakisashi. A good quality Katana are a master work weapon (there are crappy ones too), but a really good Katana should have a non-magical bonus of +2~+5 instead of only +1 (these things are sharp, you know?).
Edit2: Well, fell free to say a Wakisashi is a short sword, but now you have two short swords, one shorter and one just averagely short. Fixed some typos.
Edit3: I will post the rest later and thanks for everyone on this thread.

[Charlie Kemek]

there's a class called the samurai in complete warrior, i suggest that you change this name, and look into this class for suggestions

[expirement10K14]

Also, Complete Warrior and DMG classify Katana's as Master Work Bastard Swords and Wakizashi's as Master Work short swords. Don't know if you want to go buy this though.

[Lord Iames Osari]

there's a class called the samurai in complete warrior, i suggest that you change this name, and look into this class for suggestions

It is, however, widely derided as what is possibly the worst class in D&D, worse even than the fighter and my beloved monks. So go ahead and make your own version.

Might I also recommend that you look into providing us with a table?

[Arakune]

It is, however, widely derided as what is possibly the worst class in D&D, worse even than the fighter and my beloved monks. So go ahead and make your own version.

Might I also recommend that you look into providing us with a table?

The Samurai from complete warrior are the worst class ever made. Even the soulknife are better. Much more better . That's something to consider...

[ForzaFiori]

a wakizashi is the middle length sword, making it a short sword, not a dagger. the dagger is called a tanto.

[Yeril]

I would like to see more Fighting styles, Such as using the Naginata and such, considering the fact that the fighting styles preety much limit you to 1 set of weapons, it would be nice to have more choice.

[Rogue 7]

a wakizashi is the middle length sword, making it a short sword, not a dagger. the dagger is called a tanto.

Agreed. Also note that together, the katana and the wakizashi made up the daisho. They weren't something separate.

Also, despite the fact that I am a fan of Ruroni Kenshin, I don't think that actual iajutsu really works like that. But, then again, it's D&D, so rule of cool wins.

[Matthew]

The usual break down is:

Tanto - 1-12" Blade = Dagger
Wakizashi - 12-24" Blade = Short Sword
Katana - 24-36" Blade = Long Sword (or Bastard Sword)
No-Dachi - 36"+ Blade = Great Sword

Samurai is way too generic a name for this class.

They need to be proficient with Heavy Armour to be able to use the Oriental Adventures Great Armour (which is basically Samurai Armour). It would be nice for them to have Yari and Yumi paths available, but in all honesty I think 'paths' are a poor choice of ways to model generic Samurai.

A late period Samurai's Daisho was likely to be a Wakizashi and Katana, but an earlier period would be Tanto and Tachi (and, indeed, many high up Samurai retained this combination even in the late period).

[Arakune]

The usual break down is:

Tanto - 1-12" Blade = Dagger
Wakizashi - 12-24" Blade = Short Sword
Katana - 24-36" Blade = Long Sword (or Bastard Sword)
No-Dachi - 36"+ Blade = Great Sword

Samurai is way too generic a name for this class.

They need to be proficient with Heavy Armour to be able to use the Oriental Adventures Great Armour (which is basically Samurai Armour). It would be nice for them to have Yari and Yumi paths available, but in all honesty I think 'paths' are a poor choice of ways to model generic Samurai.

A late period Samurai's Daisho was likely to be a Wakizashi and Katana, but an earlier period would be Tanto and Tachi (and, indeed, many high up Samurai retained this combination even in the late period).

Hi, long time no see Mattew

I don't know about the Great Armour, but based on some images and videos, the typical Samurai Armor looked much more an Medium Armor than a Heavy Armor. In movies and manga/anime I usually see, the "normal" Samurai used either Katana-related weapon and rarely Archery/Naginata and the ones with Lances/Bow were normally some different kind of fighters.

About the Wakisashi-Dagger thing... how about a small short sword (12", the same as a long Dagger) ?

This class can easily switch some other PrCs (like Hiten Mitsurigi Master, requiring at least +2d6 Iai Strike to enter or Muyo Shin Puu Master, requiring Nodachi proficiency).

Also, like someone else said: the rule of cool man, the rule of cool

[Matthew]

Hi, long time no see Mattew

Hello again to you too.

I don't know about the Great Armour, but based on some images and videos, the typical Samurai Armor looked much more an Medium Armor than a Heavy Armor. In movies and manga/anime I usually see, the "normal" Samurai used either Katana-related weapon and rarely Archery/Naginata and the ones with Lances/Bow were normally some different kind of fighters.

Samurai, much like Knights, had access to all kinds of Armour and Weapons. The typical Hollywood/Costume Drama/Manga Samurai is portrayed as a lightly armoured Sword using combatant. This is because a lot of these narratives are set during the Edo (or pseudo Edo) period, when Japan was relatively peaceful.
Historical Samurai relied primarily on the Spear (Yari) and Bow (Yumi) on the battlefield, the Sword (Katana) usually being drawn only when the combat had become particularly intense. You may see Ashigaru or Sohei associated with Naginata or weapons other than Katana in popular literature, but the Bow was actually the most usual weapon of the Samurai (indeed, Ashigaru may have been forbidden to use it during certain periods).

About the Wakisashi-Dagger thing... how about a small short sword (12", the same as a long Dagger) ?

I recommend keeping it simple: Dagger, Short Sword, Long Sword = Tanto, Wakizashi, Katana. Alternatively, if you want them to be 'cooler', just create new stats for those three weapons. I can't really see the point in treating them as inappropriately sized weapons.

This class can easily switch some other PrCs (like Hiten Mitsurigi Master, requiring at least +2d6 Iai Strike to enter or Muyo Shin Puu Master, requiring Nodachi proficiency).

Yep, no problem there.

Also, like someone else said: the rule of cool man, the rule of cool

Heh. Of course, cool, much like beauty, is in the eye of the beholder. It's your Base Class, so it's up to you. You could always call this the 'Cool Samurai' .

[Lord Iames Osari]

Now that there's a table there and I can see it visually, this class suffers from pretty much the same problem as the fighter:

Weak abilities, and dead levels.

These issues can be solved at once: Invent new and more powerful abilities, and fill up all those levels where you aren't getting anything new and cool. Here is an example of a combat-based class with fairly powerful abilities and no dead levels.

[ZeroNumerous]

{table=head]Homebrewed Stats for Samurai Weapons | | | | | | |
Exotic Light Melee Weapons
Tanto | 10 gp | 1d4 | 1d6 | 20x3 | - | 1lb | Slashing
Wakizashi | 20 gp | 1d6 | 1d8 | 19-20x2 | - | 2lb | Slashing
Exotic One Handed Melee Weapons
Katana | 35 gp | 2d4 | 2d6 | 19-20x2 | - | 6lb | Slashing
Exotic Two Handed Melee Weapons
Nodachi | 50 gp | 2d6 | 2d10 | 20x3 | - | 15lb | Slashing and Bludgeoning[/table]

[Matthew]

Here are some possible powerful Abilities:

Skilled Fighter: A Samurai adds his Samurai Level as a Damage Bonus to every Attack he makes.

Swift Blows: A Samurai may make two Attacks as a Standard Action. Each Attack takes a -4 penalty to AB

Even Handed: A Samurai is as strong with his Off Hand as he is with his Primary. He may add his Full Strength Bonus to his Off Hand Attacks.

Two Handed Expertise: A Samurai applies 1.5 times his Strength Bonus to AB as well as DB when using a Two Handed Weapon.

Two Handed Mastery: A Samurai may add 2 times his Strength Bonus to AB and DB instead of 1.5 when using a Two Handed Weapon.

Armour Mastery: A Samurai may always move at his Full Speed in any Armour.

Masterful Parry: A Samurai may cancel an Attack he is aware of as a Swift Action.

Honed Defences: A Samurai may use his Level as his Saving Throw Bonus instead of his Base Saving Throws.

[Lord Iames Osari]

Change Masterful Parry from a swift to an immediate action, methinks. That way it's useful against something other than AoOs.

[Matthew]

Whoops, good point. Must be tired.

Masterful Parry: A Samurai may cancel an Attack he is aware of as an Immediate Action.

Perfected Defence: A Samurai may automatically pass a Failed Saving Throw as an Immediate Action.

Counter Strike: Whenever he is the target of an Attack of Opportunity, a Samurai may respond with an Attack at his Full Attack Bonus as an Immediate Action.

Perfected Blow: A Samurai may automatically confirm a Critical Hit as an Immediate Action.

Committed Attack: On his Initiative and before taking any Actions, a Samurai may decrease his Armour Class by a number up to his Samurai Level to increase his Attack Bonus by the same number for one Round.

Committed Defence: On his Initiative and before taking any Actions, a Samurai may decrease his Attack Bonus by a number up to his Samurai Level to increase his Armour Class by the same number for one Round.

[ZeroNumerous]

Heres another one:

Iai Strike Recovery(Ex): As a full-round action, you initiate a charge against a single target that is at least ten feet away. If your charge is not interrupted or halted, then you can attack your target with a single Iai Strike. If it should fail, then you may immediately make a second normal melee attack roll against the target.

I suggest altering Iai Strikes to have +Level to melee attack rolls and +STRx2 to damage.

Infact, I suggest upping the ante all around, since by itself it's a fairly weak class.

[Arakune]

I'm going the change somethings, and thanks for the help. I'm updating soon.

[elliott20]

I also feel that the iaijutsu strikes are a little clunky. The stun effects along with the scaling increase damage die makes this a good attack. However, I feel that requiring a charge action to go with it is actually going to limit the usage a little too much. (Also limit it's cool factor) Just because Kenshin is always dashing at his foes to do his iai strike doesn't mean he actually needs to. Also, the whole cutting yourself thing is a little too dangerous, me thinks. You're already trading a full round attack as well as your dex AC (opening yourself up to various bad things that can happen to you thanks to the loss of dex AC). Adding an additional chance of hurting yourself is... well... just not very practical.

[Closet_Skeleton]

{table=head]Homebrewed Stats for Samurai Weapons | | | | | | |
Exotic Light Melee Weapons
Tanto | 10 gp | 1d4 | 1d6 | 20x3 | - | 1lb | Slashing
Wakizashi | 20 gp | 1d6 | 1d8 | 19-20x2 | - | 2lb | Slashing
Exotic One Handed Melee Weapons
Katana | 35 gp | 2d4 | 2d6 | 19-20x2 | - | 6lb | Slashing
Exotic Two Handed Melee Weapons
Nodachi | 50 gp | 2d6 | 2d10 | 20x3 | - | 15lb | Slashing and Bludgeoning[/table]

No Katana is 6 lb, no wieldable weapon is 15 lb. A Katana is almost always smaller than a European bastard sword.

This is D&D, magic weapons exist so Katana don't need special rules to acomodate their 'magic' properties.

I thought we had this discussion a long time ago...

[ZeroNumerous]

No Katana is 6 lb, no wieldable weapon is 15 lb. A Katana is almost always smaller than a European bastard sword.

I thought we had this discussion a long time ago...

Hey. Guess what. I don't care. They're taken verbatim from their european equivalents. Whether it's realistic or not isn't important since this is D&D.

15 lb weapon: Maul. Thank you. Goodnight.

[Closet_Skeleton]

Hey. Guess what. I don't care. They're taken verbatim from their european equivalents. Whether it's realistic or not isn't important since this is D&D.

Greatsword isn't a Katana's European equivalent in the slightest.

15 lb weapon: Maul. Thank you. Goodnight.

If you want to be as stupid as the designers, go ahead I suppose.

[Arakune]

Greatsword isn't a Katana's European equivalent in the slightest.

If you want to be as stupid as the designers, go ahead I suppose.

Can we NOT fall into this discussion? I will update the swords stats later, and how much 15 lbs are in kg?

[Matthew]

450 grams = 1 lb. (more or less)

15 lbs = 6750 grams = 6.75 Kg

Most historical weapons fall into the weight range 1-4 lbs, with the heaviest Great Swords tending to approach 6 lbs or so. An 'average' Katana would weigh somewhere between 2-3 lbs or 1.0-1.5 Kg, which is the same sort of weight range as a typical One Handed Sword. If you add on the weight of the Scabbard, you might get them up to 3-4 lbs.

[ZeroNumerous]

Greatsword isn't a Katana's European equivalent in the slightest.

Bastard Sword.

If you want to be as stupid as the designers, go ahead I suppose.

If you wanna continue flaming, go right ahead.

[Arakune]

updated partialy, thanks for the tips

[elliott20]

I like this newer version much better. The kiai strike line is pretty cool and is actually very potent with a little creativity on the player's part.

your current iaijutsu model actually bears a slight resemblence to the iaijutsu strike model from Oriental Adventures (3.0 suppliment). The whole scale damage by skill check is exactly what they did, but they just made a seperate skill for it. iaijutsu strike was a cha based skill, I think.

[Arakune]

I like this newer version much better. The kiai strike line is pretty cool and is actually very potent with a little creativity on the player's part.

your current iaijutsu model actually bears a slight resemblence to the iaijutsu strike model from Oriental Adventures (3.0 suppliment). The whole scale damage by skill check is exactly what they did, but they just made a seperate skill for it. iaijutsu strike was a cha based skill, I think.

That's why I put in the Perform skill. I wanted to make the Iai strike as some kind of 'seak attack' type extra damage, but it wasn't quite right. If you make an Iai Jutsu master PrC he can have a more powerful base Iai damage (you always at least receive +1d6 damage, the Iai jutsu master could increasse this initial damage to +2d6...).

[elliott20]

well, to me, adding bonus damage dice tied to a skill makes the iai strike into some kind of non-fighter-y kind of power. That's all well and good in my book, since it promotes cross skill training and all. But I don't really feel that iai strikes are the best candidate for this.

It's my own personal view on the iai strike though, I personally don't see the iai strike as some kind of super trump card strike that the Kenshin series has made it out to be. In my opinion, iai strike, while can be very powerful, is not something that is worth people putting their sword away for in the middle of combat.

Like I said though, it's my own personal view, so it's your call as to how you implement it.

Now, I've spent some time thinking about the mechanics and I have a few more thoughts on it.

Kiai strike: while really cool, it's not actualy THAT useful because of the exact wording. Basically, you say you're gonna use it, and then you have to roll a 20, which is like asking the player to predict the future, making the likelihood of this ability being useful being close to none. It would be better if you instead say, on a natural 20, the player can 1/day announce that it's an auto confirm. I think that was your original intent, so this is just a nitpick

iai strike: to do this, you have to do the following:

1. enter the stance (move equivalent)
2. next round, full attack.

In the kenshin series, the strength of the iaijutsu strike was meant to be speed. Require a round and a half to set and use the strike doesn't seem awfully speedy to me. On the flip side though, I can understand why you did it the way you did, as I'm guessing you're trying to keep a tab on it as to not see players pretty much be doing iai strike after another. (or in the case of the old Iaijutsu master build, a guy with like, 20 katanas on his belt, and then striking, then dropping as free action, then striking again.)

[ErrantX]

*counts a few things* It seems that you're getting 17 bonus feats (11 samurai, 6 fighter), 2 special abilities, and your traditional 7 (8 if you're human) normal feats. That is a lot of feats. Like, super-fighter. Fighters only get 11 bonus fighter feats. I might suggest ramping some of that back a little, like, 7-10 of them. At least. This is definitely stepping on the fighter's toes a lot and does it better.

Also, what do Soul of Samurai and Death With Honor do, exactly. They're on the list on the class table but not described.

I actually liked you're previous version better, to be honest. It had less bonus feats and had Path feats depending on what weapon focus you followed. I thought that was pretty neat, actually.

-X