Feats for a Sword Saint

[NeoSeraphi]

This is kind of a longshot, I guess, but are there any feats that are specific for Samurai? Like how there are fighter feats, and channeling feats, and Judgment feats and etc? I'm only wondering because I have no idea what to spend my feats on with this samurai character. Not nearly as many feats as a fighter, so I can't just blow half of them on the Weapon Focus line, but I do get a few bonus feats here and there.

The character is a male Lawful Good human Sword Saint whose main combat focus is to take hits and deal plenty of damage. He wields a powerful katana in both hands and tries to take his opponents down in one strike (with Iaijutsu Strike).

The character will carry a ceremonial wakizashi but never draw it unless he is somehow disarmed. His out of combat skills center around Knowledge (Nobility), Intimidate, and Craft (Painting) for his ceremonial artwork and calligraphy.

I guess Power Attack is inevitable but I'm not really sure what else I need. I'm hoping there are some feats I don't know about that give you really cool uses for your Resolve or grant some sort of benefit against the target of your challenge.

[Rafim]

In these days I'm thinking about the sword saint too.. Power attack + furious focus let you Iaijutsu Strike with no penalties and this is good :) I'm reading atm the samurai cause i dont know the class very well..

[Rafim]

I've a lot of questions about this class and Iaijutsu Strike..

1) Which kind of feats can you stick with it? (vital strike for example)
2) Can I use the Iaijutsu Strike dice as Prerequisites for other feats?
3) What about Weapon expertise? Is one level of warrior required to stack with the SS levels? or i can use directly the SS levels as warrior levels?
4) does haste grant an additional attack with Iaijutsu Strike??

:)

[soupturtle]

I don't know of any cool Samurai only feats I'm afraid. However, since you qualify for all the fighter only feats with your chosen weapon, I'd have a look at those. You could also have a look at step up, step up and strike and following step. Otherwise, weapon focus/specialization may be boring, but it's pretty effective.

@Rafim: If you have a lot of questions only vaguely related to the orignial topic it's probably better to start a new thread. But I'll have a go at some answers anyway.
1. Iaijutsu strike takes a full round action, and later a standard action. That means you cannot combine it with any other feats that specifically require an action, such as vital strike (standard action), spring attack (full round action), or anything that says "as a standard/full round action you can..." in the description. You can combine it with things like power attack that don't require an action, or with things requiring a free or swift action.
2. You should probably give an example. Personally, I have no idea what feats require a certain number of dice as a prerequisite, so I don't really know what you're talking about.
3. You don't need any levels of fighter, you can use the samurai levels to qualify for feats the specifically select your chosen weapon.
4. No. Haste gives you an extra attack during a 'full attack action'. Iaijutsu strike is a 'full round action' (and later a standard action). It's not the same thing (a full attack action is a full round action, but a full round action isn't always a full attack action, like how a duck is a bird, but a bird isn't always a duck)

[Rafim]

The example of the bird and the duck is very nice :) thank you

[NeoSeraphi]

soupturtle wrote:

I don't know of any cool Samurai only feats I'm afraid. However, since you qualify for all the fighter only feats with your chosen weapon, I'd have a look at those. You could also have a look at step up, step up and strike and following step. Otherwise, weapon focus/specialization may be boring, but it's pretty effective.

My issue with those is that by the time I qualify for Weapon Specialization/Greater Weapon Specialization I have 2-4 uses of my Challenge per day and my Challenge grants me an enormous damage boost against the strongest enemy of an encounter (and also pretty much encourages me to only attack that enemy). So...I don't think spending feats on a few points of damage is really worth it, this time. (It'd be like a Paladin who spent feats to get Weapon Specialization in a game where he was fighting nothing but evil creatures).

If there aren't any feats that give me cool options, I guess I'm stuck with what I've got. I suppose Dazzling Display/Cornugon Smash would be an okay route for me to take.

[Kazaan]

Might be interesting, if using the Called Shot rules, to take the Improved and Greater called shot feats to allow you to make a called shot with your Iaijutsu. Hit them for half their HP in a called shot and they take on a debilitating effect, ranging from rendering a limb completely useless to permanently blinding them, dropping all their mental stats with a blow to the head, or even killing them outright with a debilitating blow to the heart.