A 3PPs view on the Samurai

[Sagawork Studios]

Samurai was the first class I turned to purely out of personal interest with the genre. I shall try and keep this critique constructive, short and to the point.

The Samurai states in the last line of the 'Role' section of the class writeup that it is an alternate to the Cavalier base class. Up until that point, I had different set of expectations of the Samurai class.
My personal preferences aside, I would suggest that the term (ALTERNATE CLASS) be printed alongside the class heading, exactly the same way as the Antipaladin alternate class is featured in the Advanced Player's Guide. This format should be applied to all alternate classes so the reader knows exactly what to expect from the class right from the outset.

As with cavalier, some of this class' abilities are hinged upon owning a mount, which can preclude some people from playing such a class out of preference. As such, I am sure that people would like to see (at least one) archetypes for the Samurai/Cavalier that does away with this. Again, my personal preferences aside, varying archetypes (and I do not mean additional Orders to belong to) for Samurai (and Cavalier) might appeal to people who would not normally play these classes. It also allows you to keep what you want as the main thrust of your class concept. As a point of interest; this year's superstar has two Cavalier archetypes.

As a side note: I think that I understand why the Samurai is written up as an alternate class as opposed to being an Archetype of Cavalier (despite them sharing a large amount of abilities). It is because it eliminates the requirement of having to own both the Advanced Player's Guide and Ultimate Combat in order to play a Samurai. This is a good design choice.

If you need any clarification on anything I have stated here, please let me know. I am interested to see where this class goes:) Good start. Thank you for your time.

Andrew Gale
SAGAWORK STUDIOS

[Kaiyanwang]

Sagawork Studios wrote:

As a side note: I think that I understand why the Samurai is written up as an alternate class as opposed to being an Archetype of Cavalier (despite them sharing a large amount of abilities). It is because it eliminates the requirement of having to own both the Advanced Player's Guide and Ultimate Combat in order to play a Samurai. This is a good design choice.

This is in particular a very good point.

You can play the class As-is, without the need of buying APG. People tend to forget it when start to scream "NO CLSS BLOATT!!!11!!"

[Sagawork Studios]

Further to my last post and this one in another thread:

Sagawork Studios wrote:

KaeYoss wrote:

So bring the options. Make the class fit the image of "super anime warriors". Make the class fit Rokugani samurai. Make it fit as many samurai as possible. And since all this requires is changing one class option or two here, it's very possible.

+1

Since my initial postings Thursday I have taken a long and hard think about why I also agreed to this. I believe that I need to recant this much, at least.

Jason and Stephen, this is a question for you and your team:
Would I be correct in assuming that Ninja and Samurai will appear as part of a section of culture-specific archetypes or similar?

Andrew Gale
SAGAWORK STUDIOS

[karlbadmanners]

I REALLY REALLY want a cavalier/samurai archetype without the mount, yes I realize the intrinsic paradox however, I love the cavalier's abilities, especially the order of the dragons aid allies, and I would love to be able to dungeon crawl without losing a major class feature. I LOVE YOU PAIZO!!!

[gamer-printer]

Well as a 3pp myself, I like the Samurai. I can agree that having an option to the Mount is a good idea. I think True Strike is a bit over powered myself. Beyond that the class looks good.

Since I'm publishing Kaidan: a Japanese Ghost Story setting under Rite Publishing and it will be released before Ultimate Combat, I will be including my own Cavalier (hatamoto) - which is very close to the UC Samurai, though mine is a cavalier archetype not an alternate class. I would think once Ultimate Combat is released players would be more than welcome to play the final Samurai class instead of the Cavalier (hatamoto).

However, as I've said before, in my Kaidan, Samurai is a caste not a class, and will consist of at least 4 classes, 3 martial, 1 caster.

I have created the Yojimbo (ranger archetype) which is posted in the Suggestions/Homebrew board... link here.

Yojimbo (ranger archetype)

[Sagawork Studios]

It was a risky thing posting back in this thread and I am not sure if I have confused anyone with my second post.

My question to Jason and Stephen stands because I think that there might be a section of Ultimate Combat that is devoted to warrior castes from different cultures. If that is the case: Samurai makes more sense. Ninja makes more sense. Even Gunslinger makes more sense. Of course, I am only assuming, but a little bit of context goes a long way :)

So, to clarify:
I like Samurai as it is. Bringing a swathe of options to make this class fit different types of Samurai is not something I wish to see done with what is supposed to be an alternate class to Cavalier. Also: Options that leave Samurai without a mount is in my opinion irrelevant. Please disregard those parts of my initial critique

Andrew Gale
SAGAWORK STUDIOS

[Lyingbastard]

I developed a mountless Samurai that was released in Paths of Power, by 4 Winds Fantasy Gaming. That samurai is a base class, with four combat styles to follow.

[Quandary]

I`m pretty sure I saw a post from Paizo/Jason saying that Ninja and Samuri are being included in UC without much other cultural baggage. They will be doing more of that in World Guides/etc for Tian Xia, which would probably include archetypes for other classes as well as more general cultural background, etc. So Samurai and Ninja in UC are mostly cultural-baggage lite/optional. This is in-line with their intent for the Rules product line to be as setting-neutral as possible. In my eyes, Samurai as-is can be used for many warriors not necessarily `pseudo Japanee Samurai`, but charismatic warrior leaders who fight in both melee and archery from horseback. I think it would be nice if there was more of a `barbarian horde` mongol horse-warrior Order, for example.