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Okay being a huge anime fan always brings ideas and hopes of bringing your favorites to the playing field even at best just trying to play off a similar theme and mine today just so happens to be Mugen from Samurai Champloo. For those who know of who I speak then you know he is easily a Chaotic Neutral pain in butt with a serious temper who mixes up his fighting style between martial arts and swordplay all while mixing them together when possible just going with the flow. So to bring his essence to the front I'm considering a Sword Saint X/Martial Artist 2 build with focus in Katana of course and not wearing any armor. I've also considered doing kind of an Aldori esque build while maintaining that same Martial Artist dip for all those handy yet flavorful additions but im still leaning towards the first option. So does anyone have any other ideas of where this can go...this build is still in its Alpha stages since I hope I wont have to replace my PC that quickly but you never know =P
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I have built characters like this in the past. The most important thing to remember is they are very sub optimal builds. Not saying they are not fun to play they just will not work like they do in the anime.
For Mugen I recommend going. Building around Str<Dex<Wis<Con<Int<Cha.
Monk (Martial Arts) Using a Broadsword, Nine-Ring. It is the closes monk weapon to the one Mugen uses.
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I have built characters like this in the past. The most important thing to remember is they are very sub optimal builds. Not saying they are not fun to play they just will not work like they do in the anime.
For Mugen I recommend going. Building around Str<Dex<Wis<Con<Int<Cha.
Monk (Martial Arts) Using a Broadsword, Nine-Ring. It is the closes monk weapon to the one Mugen uses.
Oh yes I understand completely that they never work like they do on TV especially starting at like level 1 but its more flavor rather than optimization that I'm going for anyways. Are you suggesting pure Martial Artist???
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I would actually make Mugen a Barbarian. Instead of trying to make him un-hittable I'd focus on bumping up his hit points as high as possible - remember that HP doesn't translate directly to wounds - it's really more about fatigue and the ability to avoid dying.
Mugen is all rage and emotion when he fights whereas Jin is all control and intellect. Mugen's fighting style is not practiced - it is the style of no style. It is the style of "whatever works". It is the style of "You are my target and I am not going to stop until you are lying in pieces all over the pavement."
I think Rage is appropriate for him because even at his most laid-back, Mugen is a vicious fighter. He is sloppy, but he doesn't really fool around. When he attacks, every blow is meant to be fatal, whether it actually hits or not.
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I would actually make Mugen a Barbarian. Instead of trying to make him un-hittable I'd focus on bumping up his hit points as high as possible - remember that HP doesn't translate directly to wounds - it's really more about fatigue and the ability to avoid dying.
Mugen is all rage and emotion when he fights whereas Jin is all control and intellect. Mugen's fighting style is not practiced - it is the style of no style. It is the style of "whatever works". It is the style of "You are my target and I am not going to stop until you are lying in pieces all over the pavement."
I think Rage is appropriate for him because even at his most laid-back, Mugen is a vicious fighter. He is sloppy, but he doesn't really fool around. When he attacks, every blow is meant to be fatal, whether it actually hits or not.
I could see that as well...aer you suggesting straight Barb or maybe a dip such as Barb 1/ Martial Artist 2/ Sam X??? or skip the monk dip
I thought of Mugen as a Mobile Fighter, Jin as a Weapon Master, both plus the obligatory dip for unarmored AC. But maybe that's just because the APG came out when I was watching the show.
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I could see that as well...are you suggesting straight Barb or maybe a dip such as Barb 1/ Martial Artist 2/ Sam X??? or skip the monk dip
I'm not a big fan of multi-classing in Pathfinder - I think there's plenty of customization to be had within any given class these days, as opposed to 3.5. However, that's a personal bias. Others might do it differently, but I'd muck around with a straight barbarian of one archetype or another, find something that was a close fit, and bridge any remaining gaps in the concept with description and flavor.
While this is a interesting thought experiment, I personally, keep my "anime style" characters in systems better able to emulate the feeling and drama of Japanese animations. Which oddly enough are not western made anime games like OVA, BESM, or Random Anime.
Good luck though on the conversion, hope you get something not only functional but thematically correct.
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I do like your idea of Barb in this build Wolfsnap and I think I could work with a additional dip...maybe start as a Barb for health bump and then go into 2 level dip of Martial Artist for the chaotic vibe to continue plus good saves and then finally go about the path of the Ronin....still working on an incorporating story to match this choice but leaning along the lines of starting as barb and somehow getting imprisoned and learning to adapt and survive the underworld with nothing but your clothes and fists and then moving onto Ronin due to a connection I am still working on for incorporation therefore he has the original "anger" issues and blindly fighting mixed with doing what it takes to survive thus a mashup of fighting techniques, and finally a chip on his shoulder and a katana to his side waiting for the challenge of a lifetime =D
Well, I've built one. By level 5, it should work like this.
Urban Barbarian 1/Monk Weapon Adept 1/Fighter 2/Urban Barbarian 1
With 25pt buy, stats are 10/20(24)/15/13/16/8.
He uses a +1 Scimitar (Keen as soon as he can get it), Bracers of Armor +2 and a +2 belt of Incredible Dexterity.
Feats are Combat Reflexes, Weapon Finesse, Dervish Dance, Combat Expertise, Improved Trip, Furys' Fall and Cleave.
That means that, using weapon finesse with his unarmed attack to trip and Furys' Fall to add his dex again means that his CMB to trip is at +21 or something. He'll need to be level 7 or something to get Great Cleave and just whirlwind trip everyone over.
I guess to be maximally effective, you'd have to have your GM rule that you can flurry with a scimitar, but even so, he has Perfect Strike so it's not too bad (Honestly, Weapon Adept is a horrifying bad class all-up, as if monk needed to be made worse, although there are worse archetypes-Healing Hand and Lotus, I'm looking at you).
I tried to make Jin, too, but in the end, raw damage just didn't stack up to Mugens' ability to make everyone fall over in one attack (pretty much), so I had to branch outwards and go the Sword Saint Samurai 1/Two-Handed Fighter 1/Thug Rogue 1/Sword Saint Samurai 2 route and basically get Blade of Mercy and Enforcer and Intimidating Prowess and Skill Focus(Intimidate) (as a half-elf adopted by humans) and the Thug Frightening ability to make people frightened in a single hit. Later I could combine it with Cornugon Smash for extra hilarity, potentially making them have to make 3 saves against fear on a single round when I'm using Terrifying Iaijutsu or be Frightened for 3-4 rounds or Panicked for 2-3.
I could post that build if you'd like, but I'm pretty sure Jin wasn't able to make people run away with a single nonlethal poke.
Dervish dancer bard/ samurai specialist on swordsmanship
Remember that most of the guys Mugen fights are level 1 warriors. Mugen is probably level 6 with 2 attacks. He obviously has improved unarmed strike.
I'd say barbarian all the way(I know this isn't 3.5, but Mugen is illiterate).
-perhaps the brutal pugilist archetype. If not, then imp unarmed strike.
-rage makes sense. Mugen was raw emotion and instinct.
-fast movement makes sense.
-exoric weapon proficiency katana.
-two weapon fighting with unarmed strike.
-spring attack tree.
Not a lot of armor in Champloo. In that setting a defense bonus by level system like the one in unearthed arcana would be ideal.
While this is a interesting thought experiment, I personally, keep my "anime style" characters in systems better able to emulate the feeling and drama of Japanese animations. Which oddly enough are not western made anime games like OVA, BESM, or Random Anime.
Good luck though on the conversion, hope you get something not only functional but thematically correct.
So what systems do you recommend?
Anima and Exalted come to mind.