Since the Ultimate Combat Playtest is a hot topic right now, I thought I'd post an update to the current status of Kaidan classes. This is for my Kaidan: a Japanese Ghost Story setting. The first adventure - The Gift: Curse of the Golden Spear will be released in February 2011.
In Kaidan, the empire is essentially lawful evil, as is the state religion, Zaoism - it is the interpretation that reincarnation through the Buddhist Hells is the path for Kaidanese salvation.
The nobility has been cursed by the founding of the empire, they are all varying types of undead, caused by an uttered curse at its founding. Nobles are NPCs.
Samurai is a caste, not a class, of priviledged servants consisting of courtier bard (meika), cavalier (hatamoto), yojimbo (alternate ranger class), and court wizard (onmyoji). Samurai serve a lawful evil nobility. Thus ronin, though with social penalties for being so, are a viable player character at start up, actually the preferred status in the setting.
Yamabushi, being an opposition religious practice, are in fact the Paladins of the setting and are members of the Commoner caste.
Still looking for the correct term for our setting's inquisitor, Zaoist secret police - heretic hunters.
Sohei are the mooks of the state religion and consist of both Fighter and Monk archetypes, with a few clerics higher up in the chain.
Cleric (kannushi) and Oracle of Spirit Mystery (miko) follow an animistic faith involving uncountable kami spirits each 'locked' to a single location. Miko are closely tied to ancestral spirits, Ojigami.
Fighter (Heimin bushi) are martial arts specialist fighters who include militia, police, guards, escorts, bandits (nobushi), and pirates (wako).
Shinobi are archetypes for Bard, Monk, Ranger, Rogue and Sorcerer, the Ultimate Combat Ninja is very close to our Rogue (shinobi) archetype. I intend to create a Ninja prestige class, however.
Yakuza, like Samurai, is a culture not a class consisting of bards, fighters, monks, rogues and tattooist sorcerers of the Yakuza archetype. Yakuza are members of the Tainted or Hinin caste - between Animal and Jigoku, lowest of the social castes.
This is not Golarian, however, it could exist offshore as it is an archipelago of islands...
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Where can this be purchased?
We're working on it. :)
Right now we have In the Company of Kappa for sale, but two more race books are in the pipeline: Hengeyokai is with the editor and I'll be working on Tengu this week.
Following that, the current plan is to put out three class books: Yakuza, followed by Samurai and Shinobi.
In June, the first of a three part adventure arc called "The Curse of the Golden Spear," will be released in print and PDF. The first adventure is called "The Gift," the second "Dim Spirit," and the third is "The Dark Path." I just sent "The Dark Path" off to the editor.
At the moment, each book is being designed to be modular with other settings while still fitting into Kaidan. Thus, each book builds the setting while still being useable outside the setting. The adventures, however, are specifically set in Kaidan and serve to introduce the setting using gaijin characters.