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Just a Basic idea for some classes or archetype based on some interesting ideas i have had around the often ignored or hated samurai and gunslinger classes.
Problems with the samurai- Very Limited archetype options. There is the sword saint... And that's it. Outside of the orders, Most(if not All) samurai are Cavaliers that specialize in Horse archery over direct charge attacks.
Problems with gunslingers-Controversy on the ranged touch attack.
MISFIRE- There are very few people on this forum that like the misfire mechanic.
Okay, Now that's out of the way, time for some Base Character concepts from my mind right now.
The Yakuza- Samurai Archetype that is more of a dishonorable bastard than the main idea of the samurai. Could be an Order but the main element is their corrupt tendencies and their ability to manipulate people through intimidation or extortion.
The Cursed Sword-smith- A Samurai who specializes in wielding and making sword with special abilities and properties, but Also have a curse attached(similar to an oracle). They can eventually make swords that either possess the bonuses of cursed swords without the attached curse, or Cursed blades that have a more potent effect compared to their regular counterparts.
The Possessed/Cursed Gunslinger- A gunslinger that had the fortune(or Misfortune) of getting a gun possessed by dark spirits(or demons). While the gun has no risk of breaking when it would misfire, the spirits get restless and will curse the gunslinger until they are pacified, either through blood or fulfilling some desire of the spirits within the weapon. In return for slaking the weapons desires, the Gunslinger can tap into some of the more twisted and supernatural abilities the spirits possess, using grit.
Any thoughts on this?
Yakuza would be more of a Rogue with an Order. They are Evil, but Lawful Evil at that.
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I think the Rogue has more than enough archetypes to last it several lifetimes. Knowing the Background to the Yakuza actually renders a rogue version rather poorly. Now a samurai with some abilities that resemble a rogue or cad fighters, that could be interesting... But thats just me. As for the real life yakuza, well it started around the edo period in japans history(so before most of the films that contain the Yakuza as modern day antagonists, and having adapted to the times(you try bringing a sword to a gunfight nowadays. it only gets you so far)).
Namely it started out as several Ronin gangs, who were defending certain villages from attacks by beasts, bandits and other dangerous types. This was Effective because(unlike the peasants, who had limitations on their weapons and skills), they were still of the Samurai class and able to wield swords and Katana's relatively freely. Now it doesn't take much imagination to realise that the ronin gangs had every advantage over the people in the town outside of numbers(and even this was negated by a samurai's training), and so when the ronin gangs start to extort and exploit the villagers, they find themselves with difficulties fighting back.
And lawful... These guys broke the law often, encouraging gambling, racketering and even murdering police officials. Lawful is more a modern idea of them, not the true state of affairs.
Actually looking at 3PP, there are five archetypes for Samurai from Rite Publishing, and only one of them focuses on archery (which is more historically accurate than charging samurai, which never existed - not that historical context has any meaning in a fantasy setting).
Kuge - noble born samurai with delayed progression of some samurai abilities in exchange for more skill-monkey abilities.
Nitojutsu Sensei - 2 weapon master samurai, built to emulate Miyamoto Musashi.
Shogun - a bit more hardiness in combat than other samurai.
Tajiya - an oni/undead fighting specialist samurai, almost a samurai/paladin cross in abilities.
Yabusame - this is the focused archery samurai.
I think its worth looking at Way of the Samurai (PFRPG), which I helped design and includes 4 of the above 5 archetypes, as a supplement for my Kaidan setting of Japanese horror (PFRPG). In addition to samurai archetypes are samurai social caste archetypes for gunslinger, paladin, ranger and wizard. Also a mechanic based on the GMG city stat block, that helps GMs create custom samurai clans, including 36 available samurai kammon (samurai house crests) based on real kammon. 2 Prestige classes are included as well. Also the guide provides extensive information regarding Bushido, when seppuku is appropriate, history and formation of samurai, etc. This is the best resource for samurai for more than just Pathfinder, probably the best ever created.
Your last post regarding ronin gangs forming of the Yakuza is inaccurate, ronin gangs marauded towns especially upon the "unguilded" professions like street peddlar, forcing the formation yakuza from among the merchants. All yakuza are members of the Eta-Hinin social caste (lowest caste in Japanese society and certainly not members of the samurai caste). This is fully detailed in another Rite Publishing guide for Kaidan - Way of the Yakuza. Similar to Way of the Samurai, this guide includes a mechanic for creating Yakuza gangs, 2 yakuza rogue archetypes, yakuza inspired archetypes for bard, fighter, and wizard, as well as 1 yakuza boss prestige class. As well as a complete history on Yakuza.
Kaidan was designed to be highly accurate to Japanese folklore and culture moreso than any other oriental setting ever designed for D&D/Pathfinder. Read the reviews for all Kaidan products which are mostly raving by all the reviewers, considered by some as the best setting designed for Pathfinder from any publisher. Even the creator of Kosakura for the D&D Kara-Tur setting highly praises Kaidan.
Here's a link to all Kaidan products, if you're interested. While these are also available under Rite Publishing products in the Paizo store, they are scattered across multiple categories (under Kaidan, #30, and Races and Classes), whereas on DTRPG, its all in one place.
I'm currently working on a Pathfinder setting emulating the American Old West and creating gunslinging archetypes for every class. So if the touch AC is a problem of the gunslinger, now every class has the same capability so its an equalizer, negating the problem, somewhat. That is setting is called Gothic Western. Among the many archetypes, one cool one is the Shootist (magus archetype) who uses a deck of cards for a spellbook, has the ability to deflect bullets with magic, which upgrades to stopping rounds in midair, even sending them back to the firearms wielder. Within a typical PF setting, I don't care for gunslingers, but in a setting based on the Old West, it actually fits perfectly and isn't so game-breaking compared to the other classes.
http://paizo.com/threads/rzs2osm2?Yakuza-A-Rogue-Archetype#1
Feel free to borrow.
Namely it started out as several Ronin gangs, who were defending certain villages from attacks by beasts, bandits and other dangerous types. This was Effective because(unlike the peasants, who had limitations on their weapons and skills), they were still of the Samurai class and able to wield swords and Katana's relatively freely. Now it doesn't take much imagination to realise that the ronin gangs had every advantage over the people in the town outside of numbers(and even this was negated by a samurai's training), and so when the ronin gangs start to extort and exploit the villagers, they find themselves with difficulties fighting back.
Although I touched upon this in my first post in this thread, let me go into more detail. At the end of the Sengoku Period (1600), following the cessation of wars ordered by the Tokugawa Shogunate, the need for large bodies of samurai warriors by the daimyo were no longer needed, and most were made ronin (essentially laid off). Suddenly there were nearly 100,000 samurai turned ronin. Many starved to death, some learned crafts to become poor merchants, however the majority became wandering bandit gangs or wako pirates. One segment of the samurai bandit gangs were called kabukimono, who dressed in ostentatious colors as a means of disrespect to traditions. These kabukimono raided towns and cities, assaulting street peddlars and other unprotected merchants to rob, in the red light districts.
The street peddlars and other poor merchants united to form their own protection gangs to prevent the predations by the kabukimono. Later other gangs based in gambling dens joined the merchant protection gangs forming the Yakuza, though this didn't really occur until early in the 18th century. By this time, the yakuza was organized enough to be recognized by town leaders as official administrators of the red light districts. Historically, since these red light districts were operated by Hinin-Eta caste members, the city police who were lower level samurai never offered protection to these districts, thus they've always had to fend for themselves.
And lawful... These guys broke the law often, encouraging gambling, racketering and even murdering police officials. Lawful is more a modern idea of them, not the true state of affairs.
Actually, not true, at least not originally. Because Yakuza's primary purpose is to offer protection to red light districts, they were considered administrators and were even legally allowed to bear a single sword, as a mark of being an administrator. Yakuza had been throughout the Edo Period the law enforcement branch of the red light districts. Though outside of the red light districts gambling has always been illegal, since gambling is the providence of the yakuza, in the red light districts gambling is legal. Contrary to your last statement quoted above, yakuza weren't breaking the law, rather they were the law in their ghetto districts, and for them, gambling and racketeering was legal.
By the time of the arrival of Perry's Black Ships in 1867, and the end of the Edo Period, the laws in Japan were greatly changed and the modern yakuza grew out of that and were forced to change their tactics, since they no longer were considered the law of the red light districts, being enforced by actual city police. It is only at this time that yakuza began activities like murdering police officials. This almost never occurred during the Edo Period.
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You make a good point about the yakuza, game printer. I'll drop the issue.
As for the cursed blade samurai, I based the idea around the legends of Murumasa and Masamune, paticularly stressing the supposed cursed and evil nature of Murumasa's blades. Cursing your own weapons seems like it could work for limiting the drain on making more cursed swords, but it would likely require some sacrifice of blood or something similar. The idea is corrupting the sword with negative energy/emotions to fester the curse in the blade and grant it power.
This ties back to Shinto beliefs about kami, spirits and corruption, with negative energy/emotions causing the creation of monsters and yokai over time. The reason while sword smiths in Japan take the time to cleanse themselves and wear white outfits is to prevent the formation of negative energy or emotion in the blade.
Now a blade forged with a lot of hate, for example, might have a natural disposition towards violence, causing more bloodshed than neccesary(like say hostages, innocents, enemies and authoritarian figures in one massive frenzy of battle madness).
So sort of like black blades, sort of spiritualist in the method of curse generation, and sort of oracle in the way the curse affect you.
And Murumasa and Masamune's swords... They were naturally inclined and made for the defeating of dangerous supernatural entities, like demons, vampires, oni, yokai, raging kami etc. So since the weapons function similarly to quick magic weapons, and (depending on what kind of game you are playing) most magic exotic weapons like katanas and other weapons that make up the samurai arsenal are unlikely to come up without player assistance, this is a easy way for the samurai to keep up with the growing escalation of mystical arms before they face more magically armed and armoured foes.
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That and you could still have some opertunities to use the blades curses against your enemies. Medusa attacks? Attack while you are blind by your cursed sword. Or you could even mess up a powerful enemy by offering them the well made, and possibly very unique weapon at a tribute, or a gift for future service. When that vampire suddenly catches fire, or an Orc warlord suddenly flies into a mad rage that causes him to start killing his own men, you can take advantage of the distraction and escape or make the kill. After all a Orc warlord without an army is just a really strong Orc, and there are still plenty of you verses the 1 of him.
Though a good idea would be to colour code or mark which blades have what curses. Just so the DM doesn't pull a 'you draw one of your swords from your belt/pack/container and immediately fly into a mad rage' when you men to draw the sword that uses some of your blood to sharpen itself.