Advice on a Samurai

[jacetms87]

I have not seen any advice on these gus I like reading about the different classes as it is interesting to me. Is there any advice about these classes, or are they simply never played?

[Cheapy]

Well, what kind of advice?

[Threeshades]

If you want good advice on the topic of samurai: watch the Seven Samurai. It's really good.

If you want advice on playing the class in Pathfinder, be a little more specific.
If what you are asking for is a build guide (like what treantmonk does) it might just be that no-one's gotten to them yet. Samurai are still among the younger base classes in the game.

[clparis]

I just finished a PFS samurai but I haven't played it yet. What I did was download the pregen and read the UC several times. The pregen gave me a basic framework and a starting place for stats. I then posted several questions about exact things that I needed to know. If you search the boards you will find two basic paths bow and sword. Mounted or not for both. I went unmounted with a katana but you can to which ever way you want.

[Helaman]

http://www.35privatesanctuary.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=cat egory&id=53&Itemid=65

The latest ep of the gamers guide to pathfinder did caviliers and also touched on Samurai. May be worth a listen.

Building one? Build them how you would build a fighter but prehaps not so much on the dump for Int (they get a great skill selection, why waste it?) and Charisma (but strictly speaking you can do ok with 8-10 Cha).

Str 16, Dex 12 (unless you are planning on being in medium armours) and Con 14 are good places to start PRE racial bonuses.

Order of the Dragon challenge AND skill selection is my fav and I'd argue the best... the order ability? meh - can take it or leave it but this order gives you perception as a class skill.

Order of the Warrior has some great stuff and if you are planning to be charging like a cavilier, order of the sword is great as well.

Assuming you have 10 Int? 4 skills - 5 for human. Perception, Ride, Handle Animal (you need it to make sure the horse rides into the fire so to speak) are your big three... Strong skills then are Diplomacy, Sense Motive and Intimidate if you intend to back up or perform "Face" roles.

Samurai makes a fine "dip class" as much as a fully dedicated class.

Traits? A toughie - Access to Knowledge Nobility wouldn't hurt (I hear Tea Ceremony works of this skill) as well as any of the traits that help you in combat/initiative.

Feats? Thats a personal choice - If you want to build like a fighter but without the bonus feats you can do an ok job but because you don't have so many feats you've got to know what you are building for and drive down that set of feats. Weapon focus opens you up for weapon spec with your favoured weapon.

Know your game and GM is also important- is this for PFS? Plan for 12 levels. An AP thats gonna take you to level 14-16? Then you can plan another way... A game for a GM that normally wraps up once you get to level 8-ish? Plan for that and avoid wasting feats on something that wont pay off until right at the end (or even after) the game finishes.

Like Cav's you have to know if your mount is gonna be a factor. If your DM or game is gonna be in caves and dungeons? Try a Gnome/Halfling with a dog or boar mount. If its for Kingmaker when a lot of the games are open and mounted is possible then human/elf works.

[Xallin]

I'm currently playing a fighter/barbarian in the Jade Regent path. The plan was eventually, the character would become a samurai. The issue I'm seeing is there aren't any archetypes for it yet, and well..Mounts are stupid. There I said it. You almost never get to use them and they aren't that great unless you have a bunch of ride skills and feats. Also

I think the mounted archery isn't that great due to my opinion on mounts. Are there any archetypes out there that I'm not aware of. I haven't picked up a new PF book since Ultimate Combat came out.

[lucky7]

Sword Saint

[Xallin]

lucky7 wrote:

Sword Saint

What book is that in?

[GeneticDrift]

I wouldn't give up my super horse for sword saint.

I just finished JR with an order of the cockatrice samurai. He was awesome. I think your order matters a good bit when building a character. There was a thread a while ago on builds...

[Xallin]

GeneticDrift wrote:

I wouldn't give up my super horse for sword saint.

I just finished JR with an order of the cockatrice samurai. He was awesome. I think your order matters a good bit when building a character. There was a thread a while ago on builds...

You were acutally able to use the horse? My experience is you end up in a dungeon with no room for it to move or charge or any of the things a horse is good for.

[GeneticDrift]

I used it some but i was not using a mounted build. horses can squeeze and there are tons of options for getting mounts places ( armor enchants and spells). And at higher levels you'll fight larger creatures and there will be space for them too. Besides combat it also serves as a mount and can fight on its own.

cavalier thread

[Byrdology]

Best advice I can give about samurai is a 2-1 ratio of paladin to ninja beats 3 lvls of samurai.

Pal 2/ ninja 1 > samurai 3
Pal 4/ ninja 2 > samurai 6
Pal 6/ ninja 3 > samurai 9
Pal 8/ ninja 4 > samurai 12

And so on. The pal/ ninja has a better RP feel, better class abilities, better dmg, better defenses, better utility, and the same number of skill points, but a better skill selection.

Samurai isn't a bad class, just not as good...

[Lincoln Hills]

Threeshades wrote:

If you want good advice on the topic of samurai: watch the Seven Samurai. It's really good...

I would not have thought that a three-hour-long, black-and-white movie in an undubbed foreign language would hold my interest...

Now I own the DVD. And watch it once a year or so. Good, good stuff that feels a lot like a pen-and-paper RPG adventure. Good pacing; good adventure structure; some excellent NPCs. And, of course, unlike American movies, there's a very real threat of a TPK.