So um..yeah, little down time here. I know some don't like the idea of an ancestral weapon like what was done in OA, but personally I loved it. Here's an offering I hope others will enjoy. Any feedback on it or balance would be greatly appreciated, I think I got it on the nose though. Archtypes and alternate classes are really giving me a lot of fun :)
--------------------
Deeply respecting their ancestors and ancient masters some samurai form a particularly close bond with those spirits. With the faith of generations past they proudly wield weapons without equal. Ancestral blades strive to uphold the honor of those who came before.
Inherited Weapon: An ancestral blade begins play with an inherited weapon. This is a masterwork weapon that has been passed down through generation to generation of samurai. They are not always inherited from family, some weapons may be passed from master to student. An inherited weapon is always a traditional samurai weapon such as the longbow, katana, naginta, and wakizashi. At the Game Master's discretion other weapons may be allowed.
An ancestral blade who loses his inhereited weapon is dishonored until he can recover or repair it. While the weapon is unavailable the samurai takes a –1 penalty on attack and weapon damage rolls. If the weapon is completely destroyed and unable to be repaired or recovered the ancestral blade must seek an atonement spell, begging forgiveness from his ancestor spirits, and offering a new masterwork weapon to replace the destroyed one. This ability replaces mount.
Spiritual Bond: Upon reaching 4th level, an ancestral blade has formed a spiritual bond with his weapon. This bond allows the samurai to enhance his weapon as a standard action by calling upon the aid of an ancestor spirit for 1 minute per samurai level. When called, the spirit causes the weapon to shed light as a torch. At 4th level, this spirit grants the weapon a +1 enhancement bonus. For every three levels beyond 4th, the weapon gains another +1 enhancement bonus, to a maximum of +6 at 19th level. These bonuses can be added to the weapon, stacking with existing weapon bonuses to a maximum of +5, or they can be used to add any of the following weapon properties: anarchic, axiomatic, brilliant energy, defending, ghost touch, mighty cleaving, seeking, speed, wounding, vorpal. Adding these properties consumes an amount of bonus equal to the property's cost. These bonuses are added to any properties the weapon already has, but duplicate abilities do not stack. If the weapon is not magical, at least a +1 enhancement bonus must be added before any other properties can be added.
The bonus and properties grated by the spirit are determined when the spirit is called and cannot be changed until the spirit is called again. The ancestor spirit imparts no bonuses if the weapon is held by anyone other than the ancestral blade but resumes giving bonuses if returned to the ancestral blade. An ancestral blade can use this ability once per day at 4th level, an done additional time per day for every four levels beyond 4th, to a total of four times per day at 16th level. This ability replaces mounted archer, and banner.
Inspiring Warrior: At 14th level, an ancestral blade's presence on the battlefield is a symbol of inspiration to his allies and companions. As long as the ancestral blade is clearly visible, and participating in combat, all allies within 60 feet receive a +2 morale bonus on saving throws against fear and a +1 morale bonus on attacks rolls made as part of a charge. For every three levels beyond 14th, these bonuses increase by +1. This ability replaces greater banner.
With the original Ancestral Blade you could go up to +10, IIRC. Rather then get free bonuses up to +6, what if you got a discount for enchanting them so you could concievable get to +10?
All in all, though, I'm in favor.
The ultimate samurai from OA had ancestral weapon which functioned quite differently. It allowed for the permanent enchanting of the weapons they wielded. Spiritual bond is a temporary boon granted to the weapon by the ancestor spirit of the ancestral blade. It acts nearly identical to the paladin's divine bond.
A samurai could still have someone enchant their weapon if they paid for it. The OA samurai could just do it themselves for the exact same price as it would be to pay someone to do it.
Missed the "1 minute per level", my bad. Strike the first part of my last post.
I've got to stop posting these things on the weekend in the middle of the night...
Same, but different, I am introducing Ancestral Relics as a kind of Weapons of Legacy concept for my Kaidan: a Japanese Ghost Story setting. Ancestral Relics include both weapons and various magic items that can only be usable to members of the clan that possesses each item. The soul of one of a clan's ancestors are arcanely bound into the relic empowering it. Only members of a given clan can use such an item, to others they function as non-magical masterwork items only.
Rather than the expenditure of XP or GP, Ancestral Relics have event triggers, Honor score requirements (unique to Kaidan) and appropriate class levels by progression. So when you qualify by level and honor score to level up your items power, you must perform a specific task - such as defeat a house enemy, or save the life of someone less fortunate than you. Each items event triggers are different depending on the item and clan in question.
Anyway, something far more powerful than some paladin's spiritual bond, but tied to a near-artifact quality item will be available to most starting classes in Kaidan - something that a hero would possess and granted to him as a kind of inheritance in serving his clan.
So Kaidan will feature something that grants the goals of your class design, but not as a class feature, rather as a magic item.
Sounds very similar to 3.5 Legacy Weapons and Items. I prefer the idea of an archtype that lets you subtly tweak a class in a new flavorful direction, while retaining balance.
Very nice, I really like this. I hope they publish a similar archetype in ultimate combat.
Very nice, I really like this. I hope they publish a similar archetype in ultimate combat.
Thank you. I'm sure we'll see some interesting archtype available in that book.
Sounds very similar to 3.5 Legacy Weapons and Items. I prefer the idea of an archtype that lets you subtly tweak a class in a new flavorful direction, while retaining balance.
Actually, I do too, but not for giving a class feature that is better served as a magic item. Samurai is supposed to be like a Cavalier, your option makes samurai both like a Cavalier and a Paladin, that's one archetype for 2 classes. IMO, that's too much.
Besides I've always felt that 3.5 Legacy Weapons were clunky - how they were designed, what a character must do to activate a higher power. To me spending XP, GP, and a clunky ritual of power makes Legacy Items expensive, and impractical. Why must a character spend XP on anything ever? That is just dumb.
I am building a ton of new class archetypes for my Kaidan setting, in some cases several archetypes to fit different roles for a single class. For example there are 3 different ranger archetypes alone.
I much prefer to build exciting classes from archetypes, but I don't need to replace all the other mechanical options of the game - spells, magic items, etc as class features. Personally I cannot stand class features that function like magic items - to me that's poor design.
YMMV.
GP
I'm giving this archtype a playtest in our Serpent's Skull game right now. I gotta say it would have been really weird trying to figure out using a mount on a desert island covered in jungles.
We have a cavalier in our serpents skull campaign who died, now we have a ronin. like Ive said many times, sometimes the character does use his horse or leaves it outside a dungeon, but a bunch of times he just rides it in. Many of the descriptions do not keep the horse out, there is in fact plenty of room in 90 percent of the areas. If there is room for komodo dragons, why not horses?
I've been playing a samurai in Serpent's Skull. We're in the second book and I'm fighter 1 / samurai 3 now. I have been using this archtype, which means no mount, and I started with a masterwork katana.
He's not the best damage dealer out there, but he is sturdy and the damage he does deal is reliable. Right now, with challenge 1/day there is not a lot of opportunity to use it without thinking, "What if I need it again later today?" I do find myself using it to get Resolve back because of how often that ability has come into play.
Looking at Resolve it seems rather underwhelming, but in play it has been a huge boon. On two occasions so far, my samurai has drawn the attention of enemies away from the others of the group and Resolve has kept me standing long enough to finish the fight.
The honor in all things ability has proven rather useful as well. A handy ace in the hole.
Needing to take a level of fighter to really benefit from Weapon Expertise has stung a little in the regards of daily use abilities. However, getting a feat, BAB, and being able to choose fighter feats later on is pretty nice.
Reaching 5th level will help with daily abilities as I'll have 2 challenges, and one use of my archtype's spiritual bond. I think at that point my offensive abilities won't feel quite so stifled.
If your the GM and you player has the Heirloom Weapon Trait, and wanted to go samurai with the Ancestral Blade instead of mount, how would you deal with it?
Well they do provide overlapping benefits, however, Heirloom Weapon does give you the benefit of +1 damage. So they wouldn't be losing out completely by taking that trait. If they wanted to get full benefit of the both they could use Ancestral Blade for whatever weapon they want to use primarily (probably katana or longbow) and use Heirloom Weapon for their back up weapon (likely wakizashi or longbow). They can't use both at the same time (well they can but two-weapon samurai is a bad idea), nor will they be selling either for cash so it is not too unbalanced.
Hmm. I didnt know that Heirloom weapon gave +1 to damage. I always thought it was +2 on attack rolls. +1 for being masterwork and another +1 for being the Heirloom.
But At the moment Im a 3rd level fighter and was thinking going down samurai a couple levels to get weapon expertise, and my Gm was seeing if people had other options for Mount such as ancestral blade.
Ah, you're right. It is +1 trait bonus to attack rolls. I don't use that too often. What I did with Ancestral Blade was trade off the early benefits (mount) for a lesser benefit, in order to get the major benefit at a time closer to when a paladin receives their similar ability. So if you were not planning on going deep enough into samurai to receive the major benefit another option might be better.
Today is our game day and we leveled up last week, I finally get to whip out the ancestral bond!
