Dervish Samurai-Battle Herald

[Obsidian]

I dont have UC but from the spoilers I was wondering what it would look like and if it would be allowed to have a Battle Herald made up of Samurai and Dervish Dancer bard variant. From what I gathered, the DD bard and the Samurai are both selfish variants of classes that typically are party buffers. What do yall think?

[The black raven]

Battle Herald requires Challenge and Inspire Courage.

Samourai has Challenge.

Dervish Dancer has Battle Dance rather than Bardic Performance. But he does get Inspire Courage even though it only benefits himself.

The question is whether or not, when the Battle Herald uses Inspiring Command as Inspire Courage, he does it as the standard Bard ability (ie, affects allies) or as the more restricted Dervish Dancer ability.

I would rule the latter, so that he does not circumvent the restriction on the Dervish Dancer Inspire Courage ability.

You would end up with a Battle Herald slightly less inspiring to his allies, but otherwise the same as the standard one.

[Maxximilius]

^This, pretty much.

You would feel awesome to be you in battle and become over-excited about it ! But your allies probably wouldn't benefit from it.

[Obsidian]

would it destroy lives?

[GM Nowruz]

Necroing this thread! Sorry for that!

I am building a Dawnflower Dervish Bard 4 going Samurai 1 and then Battle Herald 1. After that I have no idea.

This way I would have Inspire Courage level 5 and +4 to hit/damage with DD Bard Inspire Courage/Battle Dance.

I am wondering
a) what specific archetype would be good paired with DD Bard,
b) what archetype and orderr I should take for the Samurai,
c) which Battle Herald ability I should take,
d) if the Flagbearer Feat and having a flag made from Singing Steel to reduce the action to go into Inspire Courage/Battle Dance is a good idea as I could do that with the Dervish Dance feat and still get Dex to hit/damage.

What do you guys think I should do? Any other ideas?

Thanks a lot!

[avr]

Eight and a half years dead, it might have made more sense to start your own thread.

I don't know that you need or could get much use out of another archetype stacked on the bard. Warrior poet samurai with Order of the Eastern Star perhaps could be handy though.

If you're only going to take one level of battle herald then go back into bard or something, then you take one of the inspiring commands which allows a reroll on a few saves. If you're going to stick with it then one of the commands more affected by the inspiring command bonus (e.g. sound the charge) could be good.

The flagbearer feat etc. sounds fine. Note that you'll have difficulty casting spells with both your hands full.

What do you want to do with this character? You've come with some very specific rule elements you want to use but I'm not sure what the concept is.

[GM Nowruz]

Thanks for your help!

As you asked for a concept: I am thinking about a devout follower of Sarenrae from Tian Xian. A very charismatic agile character but not very strong.

This was initially for a home game where we start at level 9 and I was even thinking to take 2 Paladin levels.

I actually have a PFS character too that I could take into this build who is a Paladin (Chosen one) 4 / Bard ( Dawnflower Dervish) 2 that I could take to Bard 4 and add Unchained Monk (Scaled Fist) 1 for Crusader‘s Flurry with a Scimtar and then Samurai 1 and Battle Herald 1 for Inspire Courage 5 that I initially wanted so that would be:

Paladin 4, Dawnflower Dervish Bard 4, Unch. Monk Scaled Fist 1, Samurai 1, Battle Herald 1.

Hmm ... really both the PFS character as well as the home game could work. :-)

Any ideas based on the above explanation? Nonsense?

Regarding your comments:

a) I understand that probably DD is the only
Archetype of relevance as you stated.

b) Warrior Poet could work well in the home game! :-) In PFS it is not legal but the Order of the Eastern Star looks good! Any alternatives that would make sense?

c) Very good point with the casting! Thanks

I am thankful for any suggestions even crazy ones that have nothing to do with my questions to make viable build. :-D

[GM Nowruz]

Can anyone help please!? :-D

[avr]

Sorry, I'd honestly forgotten about this.

If warrior poet is out because PFS then since there are only a handful of samurai archetypes, there isn't another good one for you. The base samurai is probably OK for the concept & mechanics being used.

One thought - Speaker of the Palatine Eye is a bard archetype which uses psychic spellcasting, which bypasses the no free hands problem. It looks compatible with Dawnflower dervish. The mesmerist spell list is worse for buffing though.

other ideas:

Other ideas which might fit a charismatic and agile but weak character from Tian Xia, with a presumed focus on melee combat. Rogue is a concept and class which works for about any culture for one, and of course ninja is a thing. Okayo corsair swashbuckler (mystic corsair on d20pfsrd I think) has explicit Tian Xia flavour. Storyteller medium looks like it could work as a dervish dancing flagbearer with bardic performance (psychic spellcasting = no hands required) just as an out there idea.

[GM Nowruz]

That looks great! Thanks so much! I will research based on this!