Samurai
Homebrew
Samurai
An elf stands tall in a windswept field. Her eyes are half closed as she observes the Orc warchief charging towards her. As he closes with her she makes a single devastating strike. The orc’s head falls from his shoulders. With a flick she cleans the blood from her sword and sheaths it ready for anyone else brave enough to step forward.
A measured inhale steadies the archer as he draws his bow. The world narrows with his focus, the feel of the bowstring on his calloused fingers, the sound of the wind in the fletching, the tension of the wood ready to spring to his bidding. On the exhale he lets fly with three quick arrows. Each strikes true and the bear falls dead at 100 yards.
With a deft hand the dwarf turns aside a thrust meant for them and directs it into another. They quickly kick the feet out from under a Drow and slam their armored head into yet another. They are a whirling cyclone of steel. An immovable and unbreakable bulwark of defense standing between the dark creatures and the innocence cowering behind them.
All three of these show what a Samurai can be. Samurai live by a rigid code. They stand for what they truly believe is right, whether it is making the wishes of their lord a reality or standing between harm and the innocent, the Samurai would sooner die than dishonor themselves. Whether it is war, tea, meditation, or pottery the Samurai devotes the whole of themselves to whatever task they are doing. Focus, skill, and perseverance are at the core of all Samurai.
Thoughtful Warrior:
All Samurai are trained for war. For many, from the time they are young they live and breathe it. Others find The Way out of necessity or on their own, though these individuals are rare. No weapon is foreign to them. Not all who enter the dojos or train in the mountains become Samurai. There is more to it than simply swinging a sword. To truly be Samurai one must embrace the Way of the Warrior.
Servant of a Greater Purpose:
All Samurai follow a code, a set of ideals that they strive to embody. Some become paragons of order, justice and valor. Others become tyrants, warlords and despots. The morality of the code is not important, the adherents to it’s tenets are. Should a Samurai fail these ideals they may give up the Way of the Warrior. This purpose, this drive is what truly sets the Samurai separate from other warriors.
You start with the following equipment, in addition to the equipment granted by your background:
- (a) Half Plate or (b) leather armor, longbow and 20 arrows
- (a) a martial weapon and a shield or (b) two martial weapons
- (a) a two-handed weapon or (b) two daggers
- (a) an Explorer’s Pack or (b) a Scholar’s Pack
None
Level 1: Fighting Style
You have honed your martial prowess and gain a Fighting Style feat of your choice(see chapter 5 of the Players Handbook).
Whenever you gain a Samurai level, you can replace the feat you chose with a different Fighting Style Feat.
Level 1: Focused Strike
At 1st level, by focusing your mind, you may strike with extreme precision, causing far greater damage than any ordinary warrior. On your turn, you can use a bonus action after you hit with a weapon attack, to add another weapon damage die + your Samurai level to the hit. Once you use this feature, you must finish a short or long rest before using it again.
Level 1: Battlewise
Beginning at 1st level, while you are wearing no armor, your Armor Class equals 10 + your Dexterity modifier + your Wisdom modifier.
Level 2: Slashing Respons:
You can use your reaction to make a melee attack against someone who attacked you within reach. You can use this feature once per short rest. You gain another use of this ability at 13th level.
Level 2: Weapon Mastery
Your training with weapons allows you to use the mastery properties of three kinds of weapons you are proficient with of your choice. Whenever you finish a Long Rest, you can practice weapon drills and change one of those weapon choices.
Level 3: Warrior’s Way
You choose a Warrior's Way that you strive to perfect in your combat style and philosophy. These Warrior's Way not only shape how a Samurai fights, but also how they live their lives and present themselves in public.
Level 4: Ability Score Improvement
At 4th, 8th, 12th, and 16th level, you can increase one ability score by 2, or you can increase two ability scores by 1. You can’t increase an ability score above 20 using this feature. You may, alternatively, choose to take a feat listed in PHB or from elsewhere with DM approval.
Level 5: Extra Attack
Beginning at 5th level, you can attack twice, instead of once, whenever you take the Attack action on your turn.
Level 7: Centering Ritual
Every Samurai finds their center in their own way. For some, it may be found in the strict formality of the Tea Ceremony; for others, it is in the meditative movements of familiar katas. During a short rest, you can expend one of your hit die to gain the effects of the lesser restoration spell. Starting at 11th level, this changes to the effects of the Greater Restoration spell. This ability is only usable once per long rest.
Level 9: Bonded to the Weapon
Through your travels, you have become a master of the Way. No warrior is greater than their weapon, and to truly wield a weapon, it must become a part of you. You can perform a ritual bonding a single weapon to you. The ritual takes 10 days. You can only have one bonded weapon at a time. Once you are bonded to a weapon, it counts as magic for overcoming resistance while you are wielding it and deals an extra 1d6 of weapon damage when you are wielding it.
Level 11: Always a threat
Your presence on the battlefield makes you impossible to ignore. One creature you threaten has disadvantage to attack creatures other than yourself.
Level 14: Wielder of Destiny
Your knowledge of the Way and attunement to your weapon of choice has increased even more. Your Bonded weapon is alive in your hand, and you wield it as deftly as any artist.
You must first be bonded to a weapon to perform this second ritual. The Ritual takes 30 days, during which all you do is meditate, eat, and sleep. At the end of the ritual you sacrifice 15 hp.
After the ritual, as a bonus action, the wielder can cause the bonded weapon to become energized with elemental power. What element (fire, cold, acid, or lightning) is chosen during the ritual. The weapon does 1d8 of the wielder's chosen elemental damage; while activated, the wielder is resistant to that same elemental damage.
Level 17: Calm in the Storm
You radiate a sense of calm and surety on the battlefield, making all your allies around you calm and focused. All allies within 10 ft. of you have advantage on saves. You and all allies within 10 ft. are immune to fear. Any ally who starts their turn within 10 ft. of you who is charmed, frightened, paralyzed, or stunned may immediately make a save to end that effect.
Level 19: Epic Boon
You gain an Epic Boon feat(see chapter 5 of the Players Handbook) or another feat you qualify for.
Level 20: Sword of Legend:
You are a living embodiment of what it truly is to live the Way of the Warrior. Your weapon is an extension of yourself in every way. You are never without it, and with it, you can shape the very course of history.
To make a Sword of Legend, you must start with a weapon that has undergone the Wielder of Destiny ritual. The ritual takes 100 days and expends 5,000 gp worth of materials. During this time, the weapon must be broken down and remade. You do not have to be the one doing this, but you do have to be present for the whole process. You may only eat, sleep, meditate, and work on the weapon for 100 days. If you are interrupted, you must start over.
This weapon now deals double weapon damage when wielded by you, quadruple on a critical strike. The wielder also adds any enhancement bonuses from the weapon to both their AC and as a bonus to all saves. Finally, a number of times per day equal to your constitution bonus, you can make an attack with the weapon against someone up to 30 ft. away, as though they were adjacent to them.
Warriors Way:
Samurai pursue perfection in all things. How that is found is up to the individual warrior. Some devote their lives to quiet contemplation and study, seeking the threads that bind us all together. Others seek it on the battlefield to find beauty and order in the midst of chaos.
Iajutsu Master:
The Iaijutsu Master believes that the mind can truly overcome the body. She seeks internal balance and harmony with the world, and the wisdom that is gained through a life of contemplation, reflection, and strict personal discipline. Practitioners of Iaijutsu are masters in delivering single devastating blows to their enemies.
Level 3: Exist in the Moment
Beginning when you choose this Way at 3rd level, you gain the ability to focus all attention on one enemy. As a bonus action, you make a Wisdom(Insight) check. If the check is greater than the Armor Class of the monster, you get 1d10 extra damage per attack and a +2 to AC against that opponent but a -2 to AC against everyone else. This bonus increases by 1d10 and +1 at 19th level.
Level 6: Indomitable Warrior
At 6th level, you can shake off ongoing ill effects more easily than others. Whenever you are subject to a persistent ill effect that allows a save or ability check, you can make the save at the beginning instead of the end of the turn.
Level 10: Superior Critical
The crit range for any weapon you are bonded to is 18-20.
Level 15: Strike of the Heavens
The precision and deadliness of your strikes are unparalleled. With this ability, you can focus all your efforts on one single devastating strike in exchange for leaving yourself exposed.
When you take the attack action make one attack. If you hit, you deal three weapon die of damage plus any modifiers. If the damage is over 50 pts from this strike, the target makes a DC 20 Con save or dies. Your speed then becomes 0, and enemies have advantage on attacks against you until the start of your next turn.
Level 18: Swing Till You Miss
After you have used all of your attacks for a round, you can continue to make attacks until you miss. Each additional attack is made at disadvantage. There is no way to negate this disadvantage. Once you miss an attack, your turn ends.
Master of the Whirling Blades:
Masters of the Whirling Blades are terrors on the battlefield. Fighting ten enemies as easily as one, they are adept at turning foes' blows against each other and causing chaos among the ranks of their enemies.
Level 3: Champion on the Battlefiel:
When you choose this archetype at 3rd level, you gain access to a pool of Maneuver Points, which you can expand to turn the tide of battle in your favor.
You start with 4 Manuever Points and gain an additional point at 7th and 15th level. You regain all expended maneuver points at the end of a Short or Long rest.
At 3rd level you learn 3 maneuvers, you learn an additional one at 7th, 10th, and 15th level.
Maneuvers:
Distracting Strike:
When you hit a creature with a weapon attack, you can expend one Maneuver Point to distract the creature, giving your allies an opening. You add your Int. mod to the attack's damage roll. The next attack roll against the target by an attacker other than you has advantage as long as the attack is made before the start of your next turn.
Riposte:
When a creature misses you with a melee attack, you can use your reaction and expend one Maneuver Point to make a melee weapon attack against the creature, if you hit, you add your Int. mod to the attack's damage roll.
Whirlwind Strike:
Expend one Maneuver Point to attack a number of enemies adjacent to you equal to your Int. mod. You make one attack roll and use the result against the AC of each creature. You make one damage roll that is applied to each creature individually. You add your Int. mod to the attack’s damage roll.
Sweep the Leg:
Immediately after you hit a creature with a melee attack on your turn, you can expend one maneuver point to try to trip the target as a bonus action (see the Player's Handbook for rules on tripping). Add your INT modifier to the Strength (Athletics) check.
Avalanche of Steel:
While wielding a weapon in your off-hand, you can expend a Maneuver Point to make an attack with it. This attack does not use your bonus action. You can use this Maneuver more than once in a round. You add your Int. mod to the attack’s damage roll.
Get in Formation:
As a bonus action, expend a maneuver point, and all allies within 30 ft. of you can take a move action.
Back in the Fight:
Expend one maneuver point, as an action make a DC 15 medicine check while adjacent to a dying ally. You can add your Charisma modifier as a bonus to this check. If you are successful, you bring the ally up to 1 hp.
Immobilizing Strike:
As part of an attack, you can burn a maneuver point to attempt to root an adversary to the spot. You expend on maneuver point as part of the attack; add your Int mod to the attack's damage. The target makes a Constitution save(DC = 8+proficiency+Intelligence modifier). If the target fails, it is stunned until the start of your next turn.
Line of Death:
You move through the battlefield dispensing death and pain wherever you go. When you use this maneuver, you burn a maneuver point to make a series of attacks against multiple targets. As an action, you move your movement speed; during that move, you can make attacks against a number of creatures equal to your Intelligence modifier. You can only attack any creature once. You do not provoke attacks of opportunity from creatures you target with this ability. You add your Intelligence modifier to the damage of each of these attacks.
Grappling Strike:
Immediately after you hit a creature with a melee attack on your turn, you can expend one maneuver point to try to grapple the target as a bonus action (see the Player's Handbook for rules on grappling). Add your INT modifier to the Strength (Athletics) check.
Quick Toss:
As a bonus action, you can expend one Maneuver Point and make a ranged attack with a weapon that has the thrown property. You can draw the weapon as part of making this attack. Add your INT mod to the weapon's damage roll if you hit.
Brace:
When a creature you can see moves into the reach you have with the melee weapon you're wielding, you can use your reaction to expend one maneuver point and make one attack against the creature using that weapon. Add your INT mod to the weapon's damage roll if the attack hits.
Level 6: Flow of Battle
Your ability to move through the chaos of battle has reached a level many can only dream of. You learn to adapt your approach to battle and bend the flow of combat to your will.
You learn 3 stances at 6th level and an additional stance at 10th and 13th level. Each time you gain a Samurai level, you can change out one of your stances. Entering a stance uses one of your Manuever Points and requires a bonus action. When you enter a stance, you stay in it for 1 minute or until you end it as a bonus action.
Rally the Troops:
You are the center of the battlefield. Your presence and courage inspire your allies to shake of their ill effects and get back into the fight.
While in this stance, you can inspire your allies to stay in the battle. Once each turn, as a bonus action, you can allow one of your allies within 30 ft. to make a save against an ongoing ill effect such as Poisoned, Paralyzed, Stunned, or Confused.
Turn Them Against One Another:
Why use your own strength when you can use your enemies? While in this stance, you use your enemy's strength against them and their allies.
You turn attacks against you aside, causing them to strike other enemies instead of yourself. When you are adjacent to two enemies, and one of them attacks you, if the attack misses you, you can use your reaction to cause it to strike the other enemy instead.
Anything to Win:
Victory must always come at a cost, and those willing to pay it are the one who win. You are willing to put your body on the line in order to bring death to your enemies.
You leave yourself open, intentionally allowing an enemy a greater chance of striking you in exchange for a chance to hit them. When you are in this stance, attacks against you have advantage. When you are hit by a creature in melee range you, and any of your allies in melee range of the target can make an attack as a reaction.
Tactical Warrior:
You use your wits and your training to keep track of the battle all around you. Your quick wits and incredible reflexes allow you to predict where the next attack is coming from.
While in this stance you add your Int. mod to your AC until the start of your next turn.
Feinting Attack:
Battles are first won in the mind. You use your wits to force an enemy to leave themselves open.
While in this stance, you can feint as a bonus action on your turn, choose one creature within 30 feet of you as your target. You make a Charisma Deception check opposed by the targets Passive Wisdom Insight. If you are successful, you have advantage on attacks against that target until the start of your next turn.
Battle Clarity:
You can enter a state of almost mystical awareness of the battlefield around you.
In this stance, you add your Intelligence modifier to all Dexterity saving throws.
Battle Mastery:
You notice the most subtle openings and cues offered by your opponents.
While in this stance, you add your Intelligence bonus to weapon Attack and Damage rolls against targets in 60 ft.(requires 13th level)
Mobile Warrior:
You dance through the battlefield easily, moving from target to target.
This stance allows you to Dash as a bonus action.
Honed Blade:
Weapons in your hand are especially dangerous, cutting with unmatched precision.
While in this stance, melee weapons you are wielding deal an additional 1d6 force damage(requires 10th level).
Steel Aura:
Your weapons are always on the move, weaving an aura of dangerous steel all around you.
While in this stance, if you are armed with a melee weapon, any creature that hits you with a melee attack takes 1d6 damage of the same type as the melee weapon you are wielding(requires 13th level).
Focused Precision:
The mind guides the eye, the eye guides the hand, and the hand wields the weapon.
Each turn, as a bonus action, you can choose one target in 60 ft. All ranged attacks against that target deal an additional 1d6 force damage until the start of your next turn.
Swift Fire
Swift mind, swift eye.
Your training and practice allow you to rain death down on your enemies. While in this stance you can make an attack with a range weapon as a Bonus action(requires 13th level).
Level 10: Split Mind
Your combat adaptability is unmatched. You can have two stances active at once.
Level 15: Terra Firma
At 15th level, you ignore all difficult terrain. You can also use one of your maneuver points to move over any surface, such as water, air, or lava, as though it were solid until the start of your next turn.
Level 18: Never out of Options
Whenever you start your turn with no Maneuver points, you gain 1 point.
1 | Fighting Style, Focused Strike, Battlewise |
|---|---|
2 | Slashing Response (1/short rest), Weapon Mastery |
3 | Warrior's Way |
4 | Ability Score Improvement or Feat |
5 | Extra Attack |
6 | Warrior's Way Feature |
7 | Centering Ritual |
8 | Ability Score Improvement or Feat |
9 | Bonded to the Blade |
10 | Warrior's Way Feature |
11 | Always a Threat |
12 | Ability Score Improvement or Feat |
13 | Slashing Response (2/short rest) |
14 | Wielder of Destiny |
15 | Warrior's Way Feature |
16 | Ability Score Improvement or Feat |
17 | Calm in the Storm |
18 | Warrior's Way Feature |
19 | Epic Boon |
20 | Sword of Legend |
Samurai come in all different shapes, sizes, and favored armaments
Comments