Half-elf katana-wielding magus (took the Exotic Weapon Proficeincy instead of Skill Focus). Aside from Eastern weapons and armour, which flavour should I be considering?
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You could learn a few Japanese words from one of my favorite you tube shows by Hannah Minx. JWOW, Japanese word of the week. I lime useing "YATTA! Unfortunately, I doubt a magus would ever yell Bonsai! As charge would not allow spell combat, since both are full round actions. You could try usri.g spell strike and holding the charge till combat breaks out and then charge
I will be back to see what others add, I once had a Tien pc in King Maker but the campaign shortly fell apart. Now, I just recently.maid a PFS Summoner named Mr. Wang with Eidolon Mr. Wong. Origionally, Mr. Wong was a fighter with a lantern lodge trait I grabbed before the faction got removed. Someone accidentally called him Mr. Wang, I corrected them, but when I said "he swings his thing around" (kusarigama sp?)I was asked if I was sure it was not Mr. Wang? We all got a great laugh at that and now I choose him to be a Summoner with the level 1 rebuild rules so I can have both a Mr. Wang & Mr. Wong.
Research Japanese culture, the upbringing, the problems with that society's culture on the youth and young adults in times of yore, and draw inspiration from that.
Pre-empire, and even during the age of the empire before 1800s Japan was very focused in clans. Considering FIREARMS exist in pathfinder this dates you to around Oda Nobunaga(1) and the massive clan wars that unified Japan.
You could consider that your character might be a member of a clan that was killed off quite horribly, and you are one of the dishonored survivors who escaped your otherwise honorable death.
Otherwise check out Japanese history(2) since you are using a Katana you are already linked by association to Japan. The history you want to look at is 1467 - 1603. When you see settings set in Japan where there are a lot of warring feudal lords, THIS is that period: The Shengoku period.
1- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oda_Nobunaga
2- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Japan
Also, just my personal retort to Raymond Lambert:
PLEASE DO NOT use random Japanese words or exclamations. Please, please do not do that. If you talk to anyone who has ever taught English in Japan--it is a crappy job, btw--the people who do that are the most annoying thing in the world.
If you want to do this make up fictitious words that sound Asianish and run with that, or, since Dragons actually exist on the Tian Xia continent you can use Draconic words. Hell my werewolf didn't know his surrogate father called him "Furball" before he hit puberty and he started calling him "Dragon Descent" before dropping him off in Wolf Ear to learn from a natural weapons master. There are Draconic translators(3) out there on the net.
3- http://draconic.twilightrealm.com/vocabulary.php?lang=&sort=A
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You could take Religion traits, and use deity specific magic items of the gods worshiped in the Dragon Empires.
They are Abadar, Daikitsu, Desna, Fumeiyoshi, General Susumu, Hei Feng, Irori, Kofusachi, Lady Nanbyo, Lamashtu, Lao Shu Po, Nalinivati, Pharasma, Qi Zhong, Shelyn, Shizuru, Sun Wukong, Tsukiyo, Yaezhing, and Yamatsumi.
Also, the Dragon Empires Gazetteer will give you info on the eastern them countries of Golarion.
Kensai (Archetype)
A kensai spends his life focusing his training and meditation into a rapturous perfection of the use of a single weapon, which is usually but not always a sword, channeling his arcane might through it in a dizzying and deadly dance beyond the abilities of even the greatest of mundane warriors.
Weapon and Armor Proficiency: A kensai is proficient in simple weapons and in a single martial or exotic melee weapon of his choice. A kensai is not proficient with armor or shields and suffers normal arcane spell failure chance when casting magus spells while armored.
Diminished Spellcasting: A kensai may cast one fewer spell of each level than normal. If this reduces the number to 0, he may cast spells of that level only if his Intelligence allows bonus spells of that level.
Canny Defense (Ex): At 1st level, when a kensai is wielding his chosen weapon, he gains the canny defense ability. This is identical to the duelist prestige class ability of the same name (Core Rulebook 382), save that his chosen weapon may be of any type.
Weapon Focus (Ex): At 1st level, a kensai gains Weapon Focus with his chosen weapon as a bonus feat.
Perfect Strike (Ex): At 4th level, when a kensai hits with his chosen weapon, he can spend 1 point from his arcane pool in order to maximize his weapon damage. Don't roll for damage—the weapon deals maximum damage. This affects only the weapon's base damage dice, not additional damage from sneak attack, magical weapon properties, spellstrike, or critical hits.
If the kensai confirms a critical hit, he can instead spend 2 points from his arcane pool to increase his weapon's critical multiplier by 1. This ability replaces spell recall.
Fighter Training (Ex): Starting at 7th level, a kensai counts his magus level –3 as his fighter level for the purpose of qualifying for feats (if he has levels in fighter, these levels stack), but forfeits the benefit of such feats with weapons other than his favored weapon. This ability replaces knowledge pool.
Iaijutsu (Ex): At 7th level, a kensai applies his Intelligence modifier as well as his Dexterity modifier on initiative rolls (minimum 0). A kensai may make attacks of opportunity when flat-footed, and may draw his favored weapon as a free action as part of taking an attack of opportunity. This ability replaces the medium armor ability.
Critical Perfection (Ex): At 9th level, a kensai adds his Intelligence bonus (minimum 0) on critical hit confirmation rolls with his favored weapon. In addition, the kensai may use his magus levels in place of his base attack bonuses to qualify for Critical Focus and any feat for which it is a prerequisite; these feats apply only with a kensai's favored weapon. This ability replaces the magus arcana normally gained at 9th level.
Superior Reflexes (Ex): At 11th level, kensai can make a number of attacks of opportunity in a round equal to his Intelligence modifier (minimum 1). This effect stacks with the Combat Reflexes feat. This ability replaces improved spell recall.
Iaijutsu Focus (Ex): At 13th level, a kensai may always act and may draw his weapon as a swift action during a surprise round, though he is considered flat-footed until he acts. During a surprise round or when attacking a flat-footed opponent, he adds his Intelligence modifier on damage with his chosen weapon (minimum 0). This ability replaces heavy armor.
Iaijutsu Master (Ex): At 19th level, a kensai's initiative roll is automatically a natural 20 and he is never surprised. This ability replaces greater spell access.
Weapon Mastery (Ex): At 20th level, a kensai gains weapon mastery with his favored weapon, as the fighter class ability. This ability replaces true magus.
Magus Arcana: The following magus arcana complement the kensai archetype: concentrate, critical strike, deadly follow-up, precise prowess, prescient attack, prescient defense, spell shield.
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Run around in bunny ears yelling how Kawaii everything is while wearing a Hello Kitty backpack?
@Taku Ooka Nin: Love that disgraced clan idea. Forgot to mention he is a Bladebound, but that would work perfectly, as he could have inherited the Black Blade, being the last of his clan.
When I was making a samurai that I've never gotten to play, I was planning to incorporate some Japanese mannerisms in her speech patterns. What I remember off the top of my head: always addressing people with the appropriate title (san, chan, sama etc.) and mostly using their last names; saying people's names rather than saying "you" (if you know someone's name, using that is the more polite thing to do) and generally being very polite. Maybe I would move her on to Mr./Ms. later on, but I wanted to use the Japanese titles at first. I think I might have been planning to occasionally throw in a little Japanese, but that would probably only be when she was talking to the ninja who also came from Minkai.
(She only has 8 charisma, and giving her foreign mannerisms was actually my way of reflecting it and still keeping her polite.)
JWOW... I might want to suggest against it. I haven't seen much, so I can't say anything very definite, but the one video I have seen I saw with some other students while I was studying Japanese, and we were laughing our asses off at how much she was abusing that one word she was trying to teach in the video.
"It feels good to have a nice undousuru."
That's just painful to listen to. Undou is a noun that means exercise, while suru is a verb that means to do. She literally says "it feels good to have a nice do exercise," when she should have just left out suru and said "it feels good to have a nice undou," and then I might not cringe/die of laughter every time.
At least the title of the video is just "let's exercise" and not "let's undousuru." As she didn't say this, I'm just using this as a fictional example of another way English and Japanese is a bad mix if you aren't careful.
If you simply translate undousuru above, it doesn't look wrong, and this wouldn't so much be directly wrong as just an example of how sometimes English and Japanese just don't mix very well. See, in Japanese they don't have a separate word for "let us." Rather, they conjugate the verb that would follow "let us" in English, so that "let's exercise" becomes "undoushiyou" in Japanese. Having the "let's" along with just "undousuru" feels very wrong to me, but so would "let's undoushiyou," which doesn't even make sense anymore. ("Let's let's exercise? No thanks, just say "undoushiyou" or "let's exercise", but please don't mix them).
In conclusion I don't necessarily have a problem with using few, select words, but for the love of some higher being, please know what you're doing before you try to insert it in a sentence*. If you don't, just stick to using them as small exclamations ("yatta!" "shimatta!" "oi!") or leave them out completely.
*Nouns should be pretty save to use though, but it might be good to remember that all Japanese nouns are the same in singular and plural.
"Eastern-themed" means nothing. There are big differences between say, Chinese, Japanese, Korean, and Vietnamese culture.
If you want to, say, play a stereotypical martial arts type from an action movie, say so. If you want to play, say, something like a 16th century samurai from Japan, say so. It'd be easier to offer advice.
I would also personally suggest NOT using words from another real life language unless you actually speak at least some of it. Otherwise you're likely either going to a) end up sounding extremely offensive or b) say something that in reality has a very different meaning from what you think it means. Either way, doing so can make you look extremely ignorant (see also what Thymus says). If you want to draw inspiration from another real-life culture, then the first thing to do is acknowledge that is is from real life and practiced by living breathing people, that real life cultures are complex, and that they deserve respect and study before you decide to emulate them.
If you don't want to sweat the details, and just want to play a half elf swinging a cool looking sword, then just do that and make up your own fictional cultural flavor to give your PC some character.
Run around in bunny ears yelling how Kawaii everything is while wearing a Hello Kitty backpack?
Why would you run around in bunny ears? Why not cat ears and talk about how much you love Nekomimi and wield a BFS while reading your comics backwards too?
Anyways... Eastern is flavor. Mechanically you can really reskin things to be what you view as eastern. If your DM allows reskinning feel free to go nuts with that!