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Swordsaint Samurai using the order of the blue rose might fit the bill
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God, swordsaint is so weak though. Like it fits the flavor, but the mechanics behind it are just so lacking.
First of all, you'll want to take the blade of mercy trait, that'll make it so they're always dealing nonlethal damage regardless of weapon.
After that, I might actually suggest the slayer class as it's a much better chassis for the class. I could see a reflavored barbarian too. Perhaps you could go Urban Barbarian, reflavoring your katana as a scimitar and pick up the dervish dance feat to allow them to deal damage with their dexterity since Kenshin was always more of a finesse swordsman than a power one. You could flavor rage as when Kenshin gets serious, since he never stays serious for long, much like rage. Urban Barbarian would let you boost dex instead of strength, thus helping the dex focus from before.
Daring Champion Cavalier, Slashing Grace: Katana, Blade of Mercy or Order of the Blue Rose.
Wouldn't he still attack with Str?
Though just straight Swashbuckler works well too since instead of Challenge they get Weapon Training and access to Fighter feats, which ends up pretty equal - a bit less damage, a bit more accuracy, and always functioning. Plus straight Swashbuckler gets to Parry and Riposte.
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Though just straight Swashbuckler works well too since instead of Challenge they get Weapon Training and access to Fighter feats, which ends up pretty equal - a bit less damage, a bit more accuracy, and always functioning. Plus straight Swashbuckler gets to Parry and Riposte.
True, but they lose out on Good Fortitude Save for Good Reflex Save, which is a bad trade for a Dex character.
Though just straight Swashbuckler works well too since instead of Challenge they get Weapon Training and access to Fighter feats, which ends up pretty equal - a bit less damage, a bit more accuracy, and always functioning. Plus straight Swashbuckler gets to Parry and Riposte.
Depends, I´d give an overall nod to the cavalier as by the time the swashie gets weapon training, the cavalier has more challenges per day, order bonuses, team tactics and banner. Mind you, you can be a swashbuckler and use your free feats to VMC into cavalier, the only problem is that you only have 1 challenge per day without 3PP feats. If you think the cavalier bonuses don't work for this character, though, feel free to use swashbuckler. Mind you, if I remember correctly there were quite a few fights where Kenshin he was looking/advising from the sidelines as another character was fighting, and the way he carried himself was an inspiration to his allies, so tactician/banner could work too.
There may be a few other ways if you are willing to homebrew a bit or use 3PP. A reflavored monk (or a fighter archetype with monk ac bonus instead of armor proficiencies) can also work.If Path of War is an option, there will be quite a few ways to do it right. I am also a fan of using psychic warrior and some of the more subtle options for a more "flashy" but not obviously supernatural warrior.
@ Deadmanwalking - true, although to be honest you can say this does fit this particular character, even if it is objectively worse.
Though just straight Swashbuckler works well too since instead of Challenge they get Weapon Training and access to Fighter feats, which ends up pretty equal - a bit less damage, a bit more accuracy, and always functioning. Plus straight Swashbuckler gets to Parry and Riposte.Depends, I´d give an overall nod to the cavalier as by the time the swashie gets weapon training, the cavalier has more challenges per day, order bonuses, team tactics and banner.
The main issue with the Cavalier is that they're operating on a Challenge mechanic, while a Swashbuckler with Fighter weapon feats and Gloves of Dueling is getting comparable bonuses all the time. That and Opportune Parry and Riposte being kind of *the* skilled sword-fighting feature.
Would 3rd party be alright? If so using the Mithral Current Discipline would be good maybe even using the Bushi class template for one of the first three Path of War classes.
And as someone mentioned before Blade of Mercy so you can do nonlethal damage with your weapon.
One can quite easily make cavalier archetypes work for samurai by having it remove the samurai specific class features they get in place of cavalier goodies. If this were to be allow, I advocate a daring champion samurai with order of the blue rose and slashing grace with a katana.
On a somewhat side note, when I was first taught 3.5, my gm helped me make custom feats to emulate the moves of Hiten Mitsurugi as epic feats and I ended up being a fighter using that. The results ended up ok, though Ryu Kansen ended up like a broken mythic dodge that allowed an AoO if the attack missed.
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I'm willing to give him a reverse blade katana the is used nonleathal normally and can be used with a -1 or -2 penalty for lethal due to it being awkward to wield the sword backwards to cut people with it. I don't want the penalty to be too extreme because nothing in his character motivations would cause him to have a problem with killing monsters and whatnot.
Except... with Blade of Mercy there is NO penalty. Blade of Mercy just lets you do nonlethal at will with +1 damage. It gives absolutely no penalty when changing over to lethal damage. (a necessity when fighting constructs/undead etc.)
Just throwing this out there - you could also go with a Samurai with one level of Unchained Monk to pick up Wisdom AC and grab the Crane Style chain (and have solid back-up unarmed combat and a little Stunning Fist, for what that's worth - perhaps for slapping a spellcaster here and there). This only really works if ability scores allow for solid wisdom - Dodge and Crane end up adding +5AC base and another 'floating' +4AC on top of that, so if you can maintain a reasonable wisdom modifier with a headband it's actually quite solid - high wisdom keeping will saves and CMD really strong is another major bonus. As a 20pt. buy, something like 15/17STR, 14DEX, 14CON, 10INT, 14/16WIS, 8CHA with Dual Talent Human could work.
With Crane Style you can do a 'master swordsman' theme really nicely by fluidly switching between full-on two-handed attacks on your turn, and one-handed Crane blocks and parries in between turns. Eventually getting a way to flurry with katana (like the Blade of the Sword Saint) would be huge.
So I have been avoiding third party materials as they have a tendency to be more unbalanced.
That is sadly not guaranteed. For example, I think that wizards are at least as powerful as any of the psionic classes, even though the latter are a third party product (or rather update).
I think he may end up taking a level of swashbuckler for the deeds and then sword saint samurai from there, but I will ask if that's what he wants to go with. I'm willing to give him a reverse blade katana the is used nonleathal normally and can be used with a -1 or -2 penalty for lethal due to it being awkward to wield the sword backwards to cut people with it. I don't want the penalty to be too extreme because nothing in his character motivations would cause him to have a problem with killing monsters and whatnot.
In that case, consider making a swashbuckler archetype with a few tricks from the sword saint. The swashbuckler has some issues imo, but it is the default class for an agile warrior. Perhaps you can exchange iaijutsu for weapon training or teamwork feats?
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Thank you for your responses! I want to keep things balanced/challenging for the players, but make sure everyone is having fun. So I have been avoiding third party materials as they have a tendency to be more unbalanced.Thankfully, Dreamscarred Press has a strong reputation in the d20 community for typically being better balanced out of the box than most first-party material, both internally and externally. Their Path of War line really would be perfect for what your player wants to do.
Yeah, maneuvers are going to be more balanced and really more relevant to your desires. Paizo doesn't really have 'techniques' in the same way that Kenshin uses them, while POW does, meaning you'll have a more authentic experience with it than just assuming you're using techniques with Paizo material. And it's probably more balanced, hitting more around the low Tier 3 mark, and Tier 3 is generally the best place to play the game.