| John of Arc |
I'm planning on playing a Sword Saint Samurai in a campaign soon, and I was wondering about what to do with the build. I looked some things up, and I have two ideas.
Race: Human
20 point buy
STR 18
DEX 14
CON 13
INT 10
WIS 12
CHA 10
Those would be my starting stats either way. My question is which build do I go for: Either straight Sword Saint from level 1, or I take my first level in Urban Barbarian and then level Sword Saint. The idea is that I carry around a composite longbow and my katana, opening with attacks from the bow and then switching to the katana to mix things up in melee. The idea behind Urban Barbarian is that it gives me a flexible rage to benefit in melee or ranged as I see fit. I also get 1 more health, Crowd Control and a more diverse skill set.
The other build I'm looking at is just straight Sword Saint with the same switch-hitter mindset. I'm leaning towards this at the moment, since I'm not so sure that the benefits of grabbing a level in Urban Barbarian are worth delaying what I'd be getting by going straight Samurai. To put all of this in context, this character will probably go straight through to level 20, and is in a two man party. The other is a summoner, so I won't be alone up front, but self-sufficiency is definitely a concern. Any advice on which build is better would be much appreciated, but general Samurai advice would be nice as well. Thanks!
EDIT: And if it helps, I'm thinking Order of the Warrior claiming the other party member as my lord. For feats I'm just thinking standard 2 hand fighting feats plus maybe a couple to help out my archery if I find myself using the bow often enough.