Samurai- for my home game.

[Orgavin]

In my home game Samurai are part of the Edo Elemental Clans far to the west. They often trade with the Freelands (where my game takes place). After giving the overview, low and behold I had a player go "I wanna be a samurai". Cool, so we look up samurai, and it made my face hurt. I don't like the Samurai class as done in Ultimate Combat as a template for Cavalier. So I decided to rework an Elemental Samurai of my own into things. This will be my first time making my own class.

I'm not sure if I should just make a template to overlap over fighter, with forced prerequisites like Lawful only, No shield proficiency, etc, or just use my own class ideas.

I'd like to hear feedback on the little bit I have had time to flesh out these last two days and see if there is an issue.

Alignment: Any Lawful

Hit Die: D10

Weap and Armor Proficiency: Samurai are proficient with all Light and Medium Armor, but not with shields. Samurai are also proficient with All simple and martial weapons, as well as Katana, Wakizashi,Tanto, Nodachi, Yari , Naginata, Jute and kanabo. (Where not a rule for a weapon, I will make any of these Samurai weapons a Masterwork counterpart of a similar ruled weapon. Such as Kanabo being a MW Great Club)

BAB Progression +1 per level (as fighter)

Saves +1 all at level 1. They will then increase by +1 every odd level.

I have two different versions of Samurai, much the same way that Ranger has two styles. Yabusame and Daisho. Yabusame begin play with a Heavy Warhorse and all barding needed. Including a MW Yumi (Longbow). Daisho begin play with a MW Katana and MW Tanto or Wakizashi.

This is what i have now, I have just started working out feats and progression to level 20. Feedback would be greatly appreciated (I am not giving the samurai much more than the choice of Yabusame or Daisho at level one to reflect the amount they are being given here. Either style also begins play with either Mounted Combat or Two Weapon Fighting, depending).

[STR Ranger]

Any reason you don't like UC Samurai?

They get save re-rolls at +4bonus via resolve.
Can take fighter feats like specialization (for their chosen weapon)
Already have mount and archery built in
Are already proficient in all weapons you listed.

Really the only thing you are taking away is the shield prof.

[Orgavin]

Sorry for bumping this, but I wanted to run some stuff by you guys see what you thought.

1) As I was saying before, don't necessarily like tying characters to mounts unless they want to. So what I have done is made some home rules for Samurai, taking away shield Prof and forcing Lawful status upon them. I am keeping the UC Samurai in tact, other than those changes and calling them Yabusame style.

2) Daisho will be an archetype for them. They will now, instead of a mount, recieve the Two weapon fighting feat for free at first level (even if they don't meet requirements), and a masterwork Katana. I figure since this is pretty much similar in gold cost to a mount I wasn't changing much. They now receive at level 5, instead of mounted Archery, a bonus feat from the two weapon fighting tree.

3) Jo will be another archetype. This is a 2h weapon focus. So they will receive Power attack and a masterwork 2h weapon (Konobo, Nodachi, Naginata, Yari). Instead of the mount and relevent special abilities. At level 5 they will receive a bonus feat from the Power Attack Tree instead of Mounted Archery.

Wanted to get an idea what people thought about this. It seems to balance out ok from what I am looking at. I just had a player that really wanted to play Samurai, but didn't like the idea of being mounted (especially since my campaign will take some early emphasis on Naval Combat situations, and others that won't necessarily involve overland travel).