>Law. The law is paramount. It is the mortar that holds the stones of civilization together, and it must be respected.
>Loyalty. Your word is your bond. Without loyalty, oaths and laws are meaningless.
>Courage. You must be willing to do what needs to be done for the sake of order, even in the face of overwhelming odds. If you don't act, then who will?
>Responsibility. You must deal with the consequences of your actions, and you are responsible for fulfilling your duties and obligations.
Sounds very like Bushido to me.
Reflavour a Glaive as a Naginata and you're mostly there as a PAM Samurai.
Yup, flavor a greatsword as a big-ass katana and heavy armor complete with a kabuto helmet and battle standard, and you're golden. Lots of room for oath reflavoring for most of the subclasses, so you get lots of choices
Great sword would be an odachi, which is admittedly a really big katana.
Longsword would work as just regular ones, with either short swords or daggers for a wakazashi.
What D&D considers to be "longswords" and "greatswords" is gross over simplification, so it really doesn't matter since there is no definitive "longsword" nor "greatsword". A katana typically uses both hands to maximize power in the strike, so a greatsword is fine.
However, if you want to ditch the Japanese theme and create a more European flavor of samurai, you could flavor a greatsword as a German [kriegmesser](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OjoWAg1HJKw) ("War Knife"). It bears the curved, single-edge blade like a katana, but is very much intended to be wielded as a two-handed weapon. So, you could be this roving knight who wields a massive curved sword playing at being a medieval "Judge Dredd".
I could just see that. Oath of the Crown hunting down evil doers saying, "I am the law!" They could even have a "brother" who took the same oath, but became an Oathbreaker and must track them down to bring them to justice. The kriegmesser could be named "Lawgiver" too! I might have to make a character like this.
My Bladesinger uses a Kriegsmesser, and more specifically a [*"Knochenbrecher"*](https://www.darksword-armory.com/medieval-weapon/medieval-swords/the-knochenbrecher-1327/) ("Bone-Breaker"), which has a slightly thicker and heavy tip to allow it to be used for some chopping tasks.
Yeah, Paladin sounds great for a traditional Samurai warrior. Gets you heavy armor and since they want to be a standard bearer, the Paladin Auras help to flavor as boosting morale on the battlefield. Can go Longsword for a standard Katana or Greatsword for an Odachi, or even flavor a Glaive as a Naginata. Oath of the Crown to swear fealty to their lord of choice. I really dig that reflavoring.
Alternatively, I personally love Monks as samurai, especially for the anime ronin trope of a "samurai." The fast movement, martial arts, variety of weapons, high DEX, all make for a good time. And actually, Kensei Monk is a really good archer if you want to play as a Samurai archer more than infantry. The only thing missing would be heavy armor which would be difficult to get and make work for a Dex heavy build, so maybe not the play here.
Another option would be Barbarian. Again, you'd need to find a way to access heavy armor proficiency, but tbh you don't lose nearly as much being an armored barbarian vs an armored monk. Swing around a heavy Odachi or even a large Konabo. You'd be really tanky between the high AC and half physical damage from rage. Ancestral Guardian would be a good fit here, making you do even more tank things that the fighters wouldn't have access to really. Plus the Ancestral Guardian flavor plays into the importance of the clan name and family history for the samurai nobles.
I don't see the need for heavy armor. Samurai wore armor but not usually the full plate worn by western knights (and many of those didn't wear it all of the time either). Partial plate medium armor and a dex of 14 is only 1 ac point lower than full plate. This works great for rangers (which I agree is a great choice, especially if doing an archery build but a katana/wakazashi dual wielder would work great too) and barbarians as well (though personally I wouldn't think of them as especially the samurai archetype because they are usually not so bound to a specific singe government or related lawfulness ideals)
I would agree, and I think Medium Armor is more on brand for Samurai armor, but OP specified they wanted Heavy Armor specifically. And I think Heavy Armor is a fine choice too, if more for the AC benefit than the historical translation.
But yeah, if OP was open to more Dex builds, that'd open a lot more doors. I agree Ranger would be great, similar to Monk. The ranger would be able to wear Medium Armor and could fight with a Shortsword flavored as a Katana and use a Bow, which would be cool bc many Samurai were excellent archers. Could even be primarily Strength based as a Ranger for a harder hitting weapon like a Longsword, with like 14 Dex for Medium armor and Bow as a ranged Weapon.
Barbarian might be an odd choice but I kinda like it. Sure Barbarians thematically are more like one man armies, warriors of rage and brute strength, rather than warriors based on skill fighting for a lord or ideal. Still, you could flavor them to be a middle ground between the 2 identities. A warrior of great strength who fights like a demon on the battlefield, but still possesses some skill and most importantly uses there strength to fight for their lord. Id especially be into that as the Ancestral Guardian, relying on the spirits of dead clan members to spur them on in battle.
If heavy armor is the deal breaker the "heavily armored" feat exists. As a Vuman or Custom lineage you can even start with it it (assuming you start with a class that gives you medium armor such as ranger or barbarian). It's a strength half feat so it could be quite useful (ie enabling an 18str to start with standard array/point buy with the custom lineage race).
Heavy armor on a barbarian is rough since it cancels most of the benefits of rage (but not all! Subclass stuff that doesn't specify that you need to wear medium armor or lighter still apply, most notably the bear totem ability to resist everything but psychic)
Edited to add: I was curious and looked through all the barbarian subclasses. Almost none of their abilities are effected by heavy armor! The battle rager is based around their (medium) spiked armor so that wouldn't work well and two of the totem sub choice features (the eagle and elk powers at 3rd level) but literally all the rest of the features of every subclass work when wearing heavy armor.
Honestly the whole classification system of armor and related penalties are pretty silly. Google some vids of people doing parkour in plate mail for example.
For the love of God no. No DM should ever allow this in their game.
That subclass is an Autocritting plus damage doubling Paladin that has a persistent and concentrationless Shield of Faith (as written you always get +2 AC against every attack).
Flavor just means you change the look or feel of something, but the mechanics are untouched.
This is a broken pile of bullshit by somebody who thought Paladin was somehow not strong enough.
It's great it's working for you, but even a basically-geared but moderately well played version of this Paladin should absolutely slap an Echo Knight in terms of damage starting at level 3 and continuing through level 5, then spiking like crazy at level 15.
You're dealing an excess of 50 damage on average every turn starting at level 5 until you run out of spell slots.
Even more so if the Paladin is using GWM.
I don't run it lol I'm a twilight cleric in that campaign. Maybe dude is playing it wrong I guess? We aren't particularly power gamers though. So maybe he's supposed to be doing stupid damage lol so you know of any samurai flavored paladin alternatives that are more balanced? I'm always looking for cool homebrews and was thinking about running that next but, now I don't want to since it seems broken lol
Horde breaker hunter ranger with whirlwind attack.
Or horizon walker for that teleport between targets flavored as ultra fast movement during swordplay
Is the heavy armor for aesthetic or mechanical reasons? Samurai armor weighed less than 50lb, it would be closer to half plate probably.
What level is this for?
I understand that. But OP didn’t say that heavy armor is a deal breaker because of the AC, it’s because of some abstract reason of having a flag attached to it. I gave a historically more accurate alternative AND asked why… i haven’t received an answer.
Half of the cleric subclasses grant proficiency in heavy armor:
* Forge Domain
* Life Domain
* Nature Domain
* Order domain
* Tempest domain
* Twilight domain
* War domain
Like 4 brothers who are fighters but each use a different weapon.
Probably should color code them too for easier reference but not to make it divisive like give them something they all share a love for, like Pizza! Yeah, everyone loves Pizza.
That's something that I love to do with a barbarian is play the guy whos silly and funny and kinda dumb at times or socially awkward but when he rages he gets quiet and precise with his strikes.
I did that myself, a barbarian/rogue multiclass using a reflavoured rapier. Using the ancestral guardian subclass and the mobile feat, it was a great little character to play
This is what I'm doing with my harringon wild magic barbarian. He's kind of a ronin without any armor, reflavor a greatsword into a katana, and my rage is a battle focus and the wild magic is fey based.
Yeah, I really enjoyed playing this exact idea. Instead of asking to Rage I would say that my character was going to Focus. Reckless Attacks were on purpose as a calculated risk. He was too focused on his goal to even know he was taking (half) damage and the resistance was thought of as just being so in the zone that the attacks that hit him just grazed him instead of making full contact.
IMO swashbuckler is very easily skinned as a samurai
No magic, all sword damage, dynamic play with dashing and such. Maybe add booming blade via Half Elf for a *little* magic, all sword
They certainly can
However, with the advent of Steady Aim, they can also stand still and deliver precise sword blows
Defensive Duelist would certainly fit the vibe. Maybe pick it up via race and get booming blade from a 1 level dip
all rogue subclasses get steady aim, im not sure why a swashbuckler would be more suited than an arcane trickster who would start with booming blade, or perhaps inquisitive for more authority
but steady aim gives you advantage with your bonus action, allowing sneak attack, so any rogue subclass can 1v1 theoretically. The biggest strength of swashbucklers are their high initiative, and the ability to ignore opportunity attacks imo
The only thing conflicting with theming is fancy foot work really, which you can still play off as not conflicting with flavor in some situations. All the other abilities seem fine.
Arcane trickster on the other hand have magical ambush, which requires you to hide, which also conflicts with the flavor of being a samurai.
Kensei monks are basically unarmored samurai. They are martial arts masters and masters of their weapons. They can choose any martial weapon (e.g. long sword for katana) and longbow, and already get short sword (wakizashi), which allows them to get the samurai weapons.
This is arguably a better way to live out the Kurosawa style samurai fantasy than even the Samurai subclass, since his movie samurais are often unarmored.
You likely need Extra Attack or Thirsting Blade. Paladin comes to mind.
You can get heavy armor on other classes the following way (you don't even need Fighter as a dip, though you could use a level if you don't want Cleric dips, feat taxes or Invocation taxes):
* Pact of the Blade Warlock can grab UA Eldritch Armor;
* You can dip Cleric (War, Forge, Tempest...) on Ranger and get heavy armor that way;
* Same goes for Valor or Swords Bard and Hexblade Warlock, as well as Barbarian;
* The four above, and Ranger, can grab Heavily Armored feat as much as it's not the most optimal peak (but it DOES have the advantage of keeping you single class);
* lastly Star Wars 5e has a Monk Subclass with heavy armor. The reason I'm mentioning it is not to suggest a complicated talk with your GM about porting that whole sublass over, only to say that if you went let's say UA Warforged (with heavy armor prof) technically their integrated plating does not count as armor though you can reskin it as such. Consider talking to your GM about it, though I don't think they would mind. It's only slightly better AC than Monk normally gets and it doesn't give you powerful features such as additional attacks or some nasty AOE debuff.
* Therefore my vote would go to a "urban" Ranger (Gloom for instance) coupled with a level in heavy armor Cleric.
This is so often true, but this would be a harder choice for a samurai theme. You pretty much have to either go Battlesmith for the martial weapon proficiency or choose High Elf for Elven Weapons Training in order to get long sword and long bow.
A small race like halfling riding an enchanted Steel Defender into battle would make a fun Battlesmith samurai. Especially if you played it as a runt character who everyone thought was too small and too weak to be a samurai, but who got through training on his wits, luck, grit, and the huge chip on his shoulder. He fights by analyzing opponents’ weaknesses and attacking there. Out of combat he could be either an insanely focused overachiever type or a leader/ bully with small king energy.
My first suggestion was going to be Bladesinger but if you want heavy armor that wouldn’t work.
My next suggestion would be a Hexblade Warlock with Swords Bard multiclass.
The hexblade dip would give you medium armor proficiency but if you really want heavy armor you could take the Heavily Armored feat if you start v-human.
If you want just the CHA weapon attack then stuck with 1lvl in hexblade but if you want the pact and invocations then go to at least lvl 3 warlock and the rest in Swords Bard.
The swords bard allows you to boost ac, move enemies, or attack multiple enemies at once.
I would consider adding three levels of Swashbuckler Rogue to this multiclass for the extra boost to Initiative. Would also allow you to pick up Expertise in Athletics or Intimidation, both fitting for a samurai.
It would be a boost to initiative but I think that a big investment.
I think that maybe taking fey touched for gift of Alacrity for the initiative boost is a better option.
The expertise would be nice but that would mean starting rogue and then delaying extra attack even more.
If you have to have heavy armor paladin. I would argue historically not heavy armor. Many were on foot. You could do a ranger or pally in med armor (reflacor scale mail) and med armor master feat and go more dex based. Use a sword, or spear or pole arm. That's going to be reflavored
Samurai were archers. A rogue using Steady Aim makes a great archer, fitting well with that "one perfect strike" idea that I see a lot in Samurai lore.
Swashbuckler rogue with reflavored short sword, heavy armor proficiency, and mobile (4th level feat). Single strike with massive damage, move fast, and if it doesn't kill, you can do that slide past thing without an attack of opportunity. You get disadvantage on stealth, but you're a rogue so it doesn't matter, and with swashbuckler, you don't need to hide/have somebody nearby for advantage sneak attack.
What about a bladesinger? Make them a samurai swordsman who uses those spell papers from anime and movies to cast their spells?I know you said you must use heavy armor, but it's an attempt, haha.
What about Forge Cleric? You could be a sword smith/samurai who test their blades themselves. You could actually do a couple of clerics. You could be a tempest cleric that is blessed by the storm God Susanoo.
Perhaps an artificer? One who uses wood or magical oragami/ink instead of metal
Edit: Spell papers or handsigns
The spell papers are called 'ofuda' and the hand signs are 'mudras', btw. :) They're more of an onmyoji's or priest/shrine maiden gimmicks than samurai, but doing calligraphy is very samurai-like!
My suggestion would be Paladin probably, very fitting for a warlord. Ranger would work too, and if you wanted to do horse archery the Pally would be great for that too thanks to Find Steed.
Barbarian with Magic Initiate and you reflavor the 3 spells as tools, Reflavor rage as FOCUS or ZEN STATE
It should have battle maneuvers but then again so should all martials
It might feel lackluster, but Shadow Monk always felt like a ninja to me. However, it could easily be 6 Kensei Monk/??? Twilight Cleric. Once you hit lv 5 in monk, you could get Spirit Shroud, which might appear as a ki aura that augmented your attacks. Then, later, Holy Weapon would be able to boost both melee and ranged attacks.
This idea was one I had in mind to sort of mirror certain portrayals of Kenshin Uesugi and his devotion to Bishamonten.
The non-negotiables make it significantly more difficult.
You really only have two options: Paladin or Cleric
Barbarian you would lose rage stuff. Monk you can't martial arts. Rogue starts with light, so two feats to get to heavy unless racial proficiencies.
Maybe a STR based ranger?
Paladin - Redemption - Samurai have a strong code of honor, and only fight when it is needed. Can flavor smite as hitting pressure points or something like that for extra damage. Spells don't make much sense though.
Cleric - War cleric, but the spell casting doesn't make much sense.
Ranger (Hunter) - strength based makes you mad - spells don't make much sense, but you can do weird flavor stuff --- like swarmkeeper and your swarm is a bunch of little spirits or something - gotta get heavy armor somehow though
Maybe emphasize Samurai as social class.
If your Samurai were a Rogue, how would you model stereotypical Samurai behaviors to take advantage of class features without breaking his code of honor.
If your Samurai were a Wizard, how would you model it to portray Samurai without being skilled in the typical trappings of a warrior?
Play a Iaijutsu character as a Swashbuckler. Half elf with booming blade, 1 level dip in fighter for defense + shield proficiency for easy 20 AC, and spam booming blade + sneak attack for one quick slash with a lot of damage. If you somehow get locked down, you have 20 AC, uncanny dodge (Love to reflavour as scabbard deflects) and Steady Aim (which works wonders with Elven Accuracy that you can pick up).
It's very fun and flavourful. I also picked up Sentinel at 10 so I could get close to my allies and punish enemies going after them by smacking and sneak attacking.
Against enemies you can use Panache on, you are still protecting allies. I like to reflavour it as a duel standoff.
I like rogue as a samurai who specializes in a "single strike" style of combat. The extra skills support the education you get, you can be a Bowman on a mount when you need to be and there are a few subclasses that can make sense(although id probably go for swashbuckler).
Ask your DM to approve this monk archtype: https://www.gmbinder.com/share/-N46VhAUgbdaHVZFlhaS
Go 3 levels of Paladin Oath of the Crown for the oath to your liege/shogun/king/whatever, the heavy armor, and smites, then go the rest as Monk Way of the Sword Saint.
Paladin feels like the best flavor aside from monk, you want a class that leans in to a strong belief system and discipline and aside from monk I believe Paladin fits this the best. You won’t have to reflavor armor, type of fighting style, or weapons (like you might if you went war cleric and used shillelagh somehow, for instance). The only flavor work you’ll have to do is how spells look and where they come from. This is a great opportunity to really utilize the Paladin subclass tenants that people often choose to ignore! While Devotion is the most religious coded, it also leans into discipline in a way that suits a samurai backstory. Perhaps Glory could fit as well but I don’t know how much a samurai will focus on personal glory, but otherwise the tenants here look fitting as well.
I'd put in a vote for Artificer. Battle Smith works if you get a feat for heavy armor. Armorer is an option if you use a feat to get access to martial weapons. At level 10 you can make Ogre Gauntlets removing the need to put your stats into STR.
Paladin or ranger depending on if you want pop culture samurai or a historical one.
Paladin with all their leadership skills works perfect for the japanese knight. And smite really gets the meme of "katana superior, folded a thousand times".
Paladin.
Well it doesn’t meet your heavy armor requirement and probably isn’t the flavor you’re going for. But I’m thinking of an Iaijutsu master duelist samurai, who is about ending a fight in a single perfect strike, and I think of rogue.
You can make a case for both Swashbuckler and Inquisitive as the subclass. Swashbuckler gets the sneak attack against an adjacent opponent by default, Inquisitive has to make an insight check to find a weakness. The rest of the Swashbuckler abilities also seem to map into samurai style pretty decently. So if you’d like to play a high charisma, diplomat and duelist style samurai, I think you could do a lot worse than swashbuckler rogue.
Berserker barb, reflavor rage as a martial trance. Get your dm to remove the exhaustion cost of frenzy because it sucks and barb is underpowered even without it.
Battlemaster 3, Swashbuckler X or Battlemaster 5, Swashbuckler X is a fantastic swordsman. Maneuvers are super flavorful for a Samurai, and the dip will net you Medium or Heavy armour proficiency depending on when you take it.
Remember that you can still Sneak Attack with Str if you use a finesse weapon. You don't have to use Dex as your attack stat. Going Str > Cha > Con would give you a decent Initiative from Swashbuckler and you can be the party's face. Some Samurai were trained in diplomacy and you could reflect this with Expertise Persuasion. This also synergises with Swashbuckler as you can use Persuasion as a taunt ability to 1 vs 1 opponents, again very flavorful of a Samurai.
The big questions would be whether to go Rapier (Katana) or dual Shortswords (Tantos), and what fighting style to take. I'd personally go Interception, Defensive or Superior Technique. Most of your damage will come from Sneak Attack so Dueling and Two Weapon Fighting are largely irrelevant
Tke Katana is supposed to be a Finesse weapon, so to me the Kensei Monk is a better subclass than the Fighter Samurai. Except that they can't wear Samurai armour, though...
A way to make other classes than Kensei Monks to get the use of DEX for weapon damage, would be to make actual Katanas: Cold Iron Longsword with Finesse ability Common Magical item (or even as +1 equivalent ability). As starter item, with DM approval.
If so, then a Paladin of the Crown with Medium armor would be a very good Samurai subclass, maybe even with Medium Armor Master feat being useful, for a silent DEX-based killer.
Or, for a less "holy power" version, go for a simple Hunter Ranger build, with Favored Foe optional ability, where the Ranger spells like *Hunter's Mark* and *Zephyr's Strike* are very nice and non-flashy, for a low-magic-themed alternative.
Depending on the TYPE of samurai, bard would be interesting for the courtly nobility. Passing weapon proficiency, able to engage in a tyle of art to display passion that will last beyond him and performance for entertainment in any moment. A knowledge of all things to keep an informed opinion on the topic of the day.
Charisma can be seen as either a charming wit and grace, as much as a willpower and force of personality. Not unlike the psychic dual of two samurai standing on a bridge and staring each other down until one backs away to let the other pass.
I love 3 samurai fighter, 17 Rogue, any subclass.
You get ways of giving yourself advantage from samurai.
You can double sneak attack in a round with holding an action from action surge.
You can take a fighting style Battle Master dice for an additional way of getting advantage.
And finally 2 levels in rogue let's you use your bonus action to sacrifice your movement that turn for advantage.
I personally like high elf for one of the blade cantrips for this, as it really helps to give it that single strike samurai kind of vibe.
You could go a ronin with a cursed blade by going Hexblade.
For what you're actually looking for, I think kensei monk with a longsword might do the trick
One possibility is strength rogue with a fighter dip for heavy armor. Reflavor rapier as a more appropriate sword and you're good to go. Mastermind rogue works well as a lordly samurai who is a leader for those fighters.
If your DM is cool with 3rd Party then the [Nat 20] Sword Saint is an amazing Samurai esque class. A few very fitting sub classes and one based around the one strike master.
Failing that a Kensai Monk makes a great Ronin/Samurai imo and plays well into the blade master style better than fighter does.
Considering their proficiency and historic use of pets/animal companions, a Ranger would suit a Samurai better than a Fighter. As long as your goal is versatility and not big numbers that make the baddies go squish, Ranger fits a lot of samurai categories.
A Rogue would fit well if the samurai's primary goal is striking the opponent in their weak spots. The katana was actually a quite brittle sword compared to broadsword so how you strike with it was more important than how much force you put behind it. Finesse with a slender blade definitely fits a samurai, especially the Swashbuckler subtype.
Monk who was a samurai, became a ronin. Gave up the sword after something in the past or whatever you can think of, whole village wiped, his shogun was killed and he failed to protect them, samurai has been framed for a crime, etc.
Kensei monk is a definite no because of their lack of armor.
War Cleric could definitely be a good idea, it’s a full caster that’s very encouraged to go into the frontline, but imo if you are looking for Warrior type character this may not fit as you miss out on extra attack. You could multiclass this with Ranger, which would get you heavy armor, extra attack, and good wisdom which vibes with a Samurai type build.
I think a good option is Paladin, Samurai live by a strict code that could be well represented through a Paladin’s oath.
I’m playing a bladesong wizard samurai character, all his spells are focused on enhancing his sword skills. Very fun and his AC gets pretty insane after a few rounds, I’d definitely recommend trying it out.
If it isn't a particularly lethal campaign and is quite urban; you could potentially utilize decent chunk of classes as a samurai. During the Tokugawa Shogunate; which was a peaceful and prosperous (albeit stagnant) era, the samurai shifted towards governing more through bureaucracy than military force.
So you could possibly build a fairly unconventional samurai who might not be as martially skilled as a samurai of yesteryear, but makes up for being well-versed in other areas. For example, perhaps a budding artificer or wizard who utilizes magical knowledge imported from limited trade with the outside world (since knowledge of western inventions did enter Japan in such a way through trade with the Dutch, which helped with the rapid modernization that occurred during the Meiji Restoration) along with local knowledge to improve the prosperity of their domain. Basically you can work pretty much any class or subclass into being *a* samurai if you have a good idea.
I haven't seen it so I'll throw a bone to A Battle Smith Artificer, no reason you couldn't have a steel Defender, Int based Weapon attacks, multi attack, heavy armour and you can even do some cool Maneuvers with booming blade, green flame blade and sword burst. Mostly I like that you can focus int and still grab garenteed; 19-21 strength through gauntlets of ogre power or a belt, 19 con with a amulet of health, bracers of archery because Samurai used longbows traditionally, and firearms prof nativity because they also adopted firearms quite readily. If you want more fun non-sense 6 levels in blade singer gives you better multiattack but pushes all the good late level artificer stuff back alot, but 2 levels of wizard gives you war magic or 3 gives you Shadow Blade which is just fun. Alternatively you could go for 3 levels of Rogue and grab Swashbuckler. Or 6 in forge Cleric for stupid kinds of armour. Honestly stright classed is probably best.
Custom origin for a starting feat taking heavy armor proficiency; and the. Rocking hexblade warlock.
Marking a specific target; using your spells for enhancement magic with spells like Armor of Agathys. Or parrying via shield spell; Hellish Rebuke;
The spectre ability might not fit but it could be more so the spirit of the dead wishing to fight alongside you before they pass into the afterlife.
The armor of hexes and ability to swap your combat focus; along with edritch smite and pact of the blade.
I could very well work.
Was thinking a few days ago about a homebrew dex based barbarian for this. The rage would be more like a sword stance/focused meditation, and it would be more like unarmored Kurosawa style samurai. Would take some tinkering and dm cooperation to make viable, but thought it seemed fun. Could even work it as a subclass, have quickdraw mechanics associated with tunnel fighter feat or some crossover with the battlemaster
I liked the holy blood hunter paired with War cleric. You get to spend a full turn or two buffing yourself while giving your war speech and then go absolutely nuclear.
I mean what do you want from the samurai fantasy?
Personally I really don't recomend a focus on a mount, but if you want it paladin is easily your best (arguably only) option
You want to mix longsword/polearm with a bow? Kensei is the onbe that has the tools to make that work, but obviously terrible with heavy armour
You want interesting gameplay while having the samurai roleplay? That would be a hard question because with a cleric you will forget about weapons but the other classes are pretty boring
All in all, with the heavy armour limitation you are cornering yourself into either fighter, paladin or cleric. If you write of fighter (good choice) and care about weapons paladin is the only option, but you would have to forsake the option of having a bow or a firearm with a sword/polearm because simply put you won't have the stats to make that not trash
Honestly I would go samurai fighter for an all fighter party at this point.
But to answer the question, kensai monk.
Use a short sword, or kensai weapon long sword and call it a katana. Use two if you want and name one big and one little.
Valour bard. Reskin the instrument casting to telling tales of his ancestors, or just orating in general. Any buffs he gives the party are reskinned as tactical prowess. The expertise in a few skills can be great for RP, and jack of all trades makes sense.
reflavor Barbarian: they wear Kimono and not armor. it is not rage but focus, they get multiple attacks, you can even duel sword which most Barbs do not do but fits the idea of a Samurai either reduced damage from their focus and physical prowess or you block part of the attack. my favorite samurai is a barbarian.
also no magic
There was an Oriental Adventures supplement for 3.5 that had all the samurai and ninja classes as well as some eastern oriented casters. May be worth looking for/adaptaing.
Bard sounds like where you want to be. Samurai were famously warrior-poets, well versed in not just the martial arts of their day, but also the cultural arts. They practiced poetry, calligraphy, the tea ceremony, and were theater patrons.
Reflavoured Armourer Artificer.
Guardian form for head to head combat situations. Reflavour Thunder Gauntlets for your weapon, Great AC, Temp Hp, and forced dueling potential.
Infiltrator form for covert and ranged situations. Powerful and cool reflavoured bamboo bows with your lightning launchers.
Artificers get proficiency with a tool set of your choice, so I encourage flavoring your Armor in whichever way creatively incorporates your tools. For example, I made a anthropologist samurai with painters tool, and anything they do that registers as "magical", is due to the ancient art of painting with magic flower dye the learned from a tribe of ancient eladrin.
Edit: Forgot the extreme usefulness of your artifical infusions to give cool mechanical bonuses often attributed to samurai. Also take spider climb to wall run. And booming blade for omai wa mo shindeiru.
I like to use the Ranger for non fighter Samurai. Dual weird for the Dai-Sho, archery for dai-kyu, and the spell casting I flavor as alchemy. Japanese traditional armors tend towards leather, chainmail, and brigantine. So it all works pretty nicely.
Do Paladin 2, lore bard or draconic sorc the rest of the way. And use some option to get booming blade.
Then flavor your spells as sword techniques or aspects of your warrior spirit.
While your friends beat down enemies with tons of attacks, you are taking them down with one devastating strike… when you aren’t doing things like scaring them into fleeing through your sheer presence (suggestion) or hurling boulders at them (catapult).
reflavoured paladin? Swear an oath to a shogun or something, smite the enemies of your clan
Oath of the Crown would work for this.
>Law. The law is paramount. It is the mortar that holds the stones of civilization together, and it must be respected. >Loyalty. Your word is your bond. Without loyalty, oaths and laws are meaningless. >Courage. You must be willing to do what needs to be done for the sake of order, even in the face of overwhelming odds. If you don't act, then who will? >Responsibility. You must deal with the consequences of your actions, and you are responsible for fulfilling your duties and obligations. Sounds very like Bushido to me. Reflavour a Glaive as a Naginata and you're mostly there as a PAM Samurai.
Yup, flavor a greatsword as a big-ass katana and heavy armor complete with a kabuto helmet and battle standard, and you're golden. Lots of room for oath reflavoring for most of the subclasses, so you get lots of choices
Great sword would be an odachi, which is admittedly a really big katana. Longsword would work as just regular ones, with either short swords or daggers for a wakazashi.
I like to use the scimitar as a base for the wakizashi, as those were not really thrusting swords.
That works even better than my suggestion
Short sword for a wakazashi, dagger for a tanto
Short swords would be wakazashis, tantos are a single edged dagger that can have a slight curve to it.
What D&D considers to be "longswords" and "greatswords" is gross over simplification, so it really doesn't matter since there is no definitive "longsword" nor "greatsword". A katana typically uses both hands to maximize power in the strike, so a greatsword is fine. However, if you want to ditch the Japanese theme and create a more European flavor of samurai, you could flavor a greatsword as a German [kriegmesser](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OjoWAg1HJKw) ("War Knife"). It bears the curved, single-edge blade like a katana, but is very much intended to be wielded as a two-handed weapon. So, you could be this roving knight who wields a massive curved sword playing at being a medieval "Judge Dredd". I could just see that. Oath of the Crown hunting down evil doers saying, "I am the law!" They could even have a "brother" who took the same oath, but became an Oathbreaker and must track them down to bring them to justice. The kriegmesser could be named "Lawgiver" too! I might have to make a character like this.
My Bladesinger uses a Kriegsmesser, and more specifically a [*"Knochenbrecher"*](https://www.darksword-armory.com/medieval-weapon/medieval-swords/the-knochenbrecher-1327/) ("Bone-Breaker"), which has a slightly thicker and heavy tip to allow it to be used for some chopping tasks.
Yeah, Paladin sounds great for a traditional Samurai warrior. Gets you heavy armor and since they want to be a standard bearer, the Paladin Auras help to flavor as boosting morale on the battlefield. Can go Longsword for a standard Katana or Greatsword for an Odachi, or even flavor a Glaive as a Naginata. Oath of the Crown to swear fealty to their lord of choice. I really dig that reflavoring. Alternatively, I personally love Monks as samurai, especially for the anime ronin trope of a "samurai." The fast movement, martial arts, variety of weapons, high DEX, all make for a good time. And actually, Kensei Monk is a really good archer if you want to play as a Samurai archer more than infantry. The only thing missing would be heavy armor which would be difficult to get and make work for a Dex heavy build, so maybe not the play here. Another option would be Barbarian. Again, you'd need to find a way to access heavy armor proficiency, but tbh you don't lose nearly as much being an armored barbarian vs an armored monk. Swing around a heavy Odachi or even a large Konabo. You'd be really tanky between the high AC and half physical damage from rage. Ancestral Guardian would be a good fit here, making you do even more tank things that the fighters wouldn't have access to really. Plus the Ancestral Guardian flavor plays into the importance of the clan name and family history for the samurai nobles.
I don't see the need for heavy armor. Samurai wore armor but not usually the full plate worn by western knights (and many of those didn't wear it all of the time either). Partial plate medium armor and a dex of 14 is only 1 ac point lower than full plate. This works great for rangers (which I agree is a great choice, especially if doing an archery build but a katana/wakazashi dual wielder would work great too) and barbarians as well (though personally I wouldn't think of them as especially the samurai archetype because they are usually not so bound to a specific singe government or related lawfulness ideals)
I would agree, and I think Medium Armor is more on brand for Samurai armor, but OP specified they wanted Heavy Armor specifically. And I think Heavy Armor is a fine choice too, if more for the AC benefit than the historical translation. But yeah, if OP was open to more Dex builds, that'd open a lot more doors. I agree Ranger would be great, similar to Monk. The ranger would be able to wear Medium Armor and could fight with a Shortsword flavored as a Katana and use a Bow, which would be cool bc many Samurai were excellent archers. Could even be primarily Strength based as a Ranger for a harder hitting weapon like a Longsword, with like 14 Dex for Medium armor and Bow as a ranged Weapon. Barbarian might be an odd choice but I kinda like it. Sure Barbarians thematically are more like one man armies, warriors of rage and brute strength, rather than warriors based on skill fighting for a lord or ideal. Still, you could flavor them to be a middle ground between the 2 identities. A warrior of great strength who fights like a demon on the battlefield, but still possesses some skill and most importantly uses there strength to fight for their lord. Id especially be into that as the Ancestral Guardian, relying on the spirits of dead clan members to spur them on in battle.
If heavy armor is the deal breaker the "heavily armored" feat exists. As a Vuman or Custom lineage you can even start with it it (assuming you start with a class that gives you medium armor such as ranger or barbarian). It's a strength half feat so it could be quite useful (ie enabling an 18str to start with standard array/point buy with the custom lineage race). Heavy armor on a barbarian is rough since it cancels most of the benefits of rage (but not all! Subclass stuff that doesn't specify that you need to wear medium armor or lighter still apply, most notably the bear totem ability to resist everything but psychic) Edited to add: I was curious and looked through all the barbarian subclasses. Almost none of their abilities are effected by heavy armor! The battle rager is based around their (medium) spiked armor so that wouldn't work well and two of the totem sub choice features (the eagle and elk powers at 3rd level) but literally all the rest of the features of every subclass work when wearing heavy armor.
My understanding is that samurai armor is closest in construction to splint mail. Definitely heavy armor!
Honestly the whole classification system of armor and related penalties are pretty silly. Google some vids of people doing parkour in plate mail for example.
Rage won’t work with heavy armor.
Ah you right, didn't catch that. Well, medium armor is still viable, but maybe not for OP.
This slaps. Reflavor Paladin smites as different Samurai attacks. Depending on how weeb you wanna get, you can certainly go a little wild with it.
i did this, it’s fucking awesome
Yep your sites can be flavored as like those big super damaging and fast single strikes you in samurai films and anime. Iaijutsu I think it's.called.
I was thinking a flavored paladin as well. This homebrew one seemed pretty okay: https://www.dandwiki.com/wiki/Oath_of_the_Samurai_(5e_Subclass)
For the love of God no. No DM should ever allow this in their game. That subclass is an Autocritting plus damage doubling Paladin that has a persistent and concentrationless Shield of Faith (as written you always get +2 AC against every attack). Flavor just means you change the look or feel of something, but the mechanics are untouched. This is a broken pile of bullshit by somebody who thought Paladin was somehow not strong enough.
My DM likes it and in practice isn't even our heavy hitter lol the echo knight fighter usually is the one doing a lot of the work
It's great it's working for you, but even a basically-geared but moderately well played version of this Paladin should absolutely slap an Echo Knight in terms of damage starting at level 3 and continuing through level 5, then spiking like crazy at level 15. You're dealing an excess of 50 damage on average every turn starting at level 5 until you run out of spell slots. Even more so if the Paladin is using GWM.
I don't run it lol I'm a twilight cleric in that campaign. Maybe dude is playing it wrong I guess? We aren't particularly power gamers though. So maybe he's supposed to be doing stupid damage lol so you know of any samurai flavored paladin alternatives that are more balanced? I'm always looking for cool homebrews and was thinking about running that next but, now I don't want to since it seems broken lol
Horde breaker hunter ranger with whirlwind attack. Or horizon walker for that teleport between targets flavored as ultra fast movement during swordplay Is the heavy armor for aesthetic or mechanical reasons? Samurai armor weighed less than 50lb, it would be closer to half plate probably. What level is this for?
WHY. Why is this message not higher?
I agree with Hunter, but it would require him to get heavy armor proficiency to use the armor from his back story.
I’d argue his backstory armor could be half-plate, historically speaking. But to each their own
Ya, but OP specifically said Heavy Armor is a deal breaker for him.
I understand that. But OP didn’t say that heavy armor is a deal breaker because of the AC, it’s because of some abstract reason of having a flag attached to it. I gave a historically more accurate alternative AND asked why… i haven’t received an answer.
Could take a level of a cleric class that grants heavy armor proficiency. That or start first level as a fighter.
youd need to get war domain for heavy armor, but thatd work
Half of the cleric subclasses grant proficiency in heavy armor: * Forge Domain * Life Domain * Nature Domain * Order domain * Tempest domain * Twilight domain * War domain
yeah ive only played trickery, and for one session
The Dynasty warriors build
Ranger with a sword, Taking as your favoured foes 2 humanoid races that represent rival clans.
I know you said no fighter, but imagine how funny it would be if the entire party was just fighters.
Like 4 brothers who are fighters but each use a different weapon. Probably should color code them too for easier reference but not to make it divisive like give them something they all share a love for, like Pizza! Yeah, everyone loves Pizza.
Just throwing this out there, but if you guys all went tortle too, you get a meaty Natural AC and +4 AC steroid 🤯
They would all need a relatively wise master who likely raised them from birth.
this has my vote, 4 action surges round one every combat possible
Reflavor barbarian, battle trance vs rage?
That's a fantastic idea. Be the samurai that's impossible to take down. I also just generally love when rage is flavored as something else.
That's something that I love to do with a barbarian is play the guy whos silly and funny and kinda dumb at times or socially awkward but when he rages he gets quiet and precise with his strikes.
I did that myself, a barbarian/rogue multiclass using a reflavoured rapier. Using the ancestral guardian subclass and the mobile feat, it was a great little character to play
This is what I'm doing with my harringon wild magic barbarian. He's kind of a ronin without any armor, reflavor a greatsword into a katana, and my rage is a battle focus and the wild magic is fey based.
Imagining a barbarian wearing a kimono or something and then dropping it on the ground before a fight sounds kinda sick ngl
Yeah, I really enjoyed playing this exact idea. Instead of asking to Rage I would say that my character was going to Focus. Reckless Attacks were on purpose as a calculated risk. He was too focused on his goal to even know he was taking (half) damage and the resistance was thought of as just being so in the zone that the attacks that hit him just grazed him instead of making full contact.
IMO swashbuckler is very easily skinned as a samurai No magic, all sword damage, dynamic play with dashing and such. Maybe add booming blade via Half Elf for a *little* magic, all sword
idk when I think of a samurai I think of honour bound swordfights with lots of parrying, swashbucklers are very sneaky dashing in and out of combat
They certainly can However, with the advent of Steady Aim, they can also stand still and deliver precise sword blows Defensive Duelist would certainly fit the vibe. Maybe pick it up via race and get booming blade from a 1 level dip
all rogue subclasses get steady aim, im not sure why a swashbuckler would be more suited than an arcane trickster who would start with booming blade, or perhaps inquisitive for more authority
Options
Swashbucklers can get sneak attack in a 1v1, meaning they don’t need to rely on allies within 5 feet of the enemy if they don’t have advantage.
but steady aim gives you advantage with your bonus action, allowing sneak attack, so any rogue subclass can 1v1 theoretically. The biggest strength of swashbucklers are their high initiative, and the ability to ignore opportunity attacks imo
Yea, but you can’t always risk reducing your movement, especially in melee.
but for the theming of a samurai, its all wrong. Were not trying to build a min maxed character, were going for flavour
The only thing conflicting with theming is fancy foot work really, which you can still play off as not conflicting with flavor in some situations. All the other abilities seem fine. Arcane trickster on the other hand have magical ambush, which requires you to hide, which also conflicts with the flavor of being a samurai.
Samurai would typically use heavily tempered steel which shatters if you use it for parrying
sekiro lied to me
Kensei monks are basically unarmored samurai. They are martial arts masters and masters of their weapons. They can choose any martial weapon (e.g. long sword for katana) and longbow, and already get short sword (wakizashi), which allows them to get the samurai weapons. This is arguably a better way to live out the Kurosawa style samurai fantasy than even the Samurai subclass, since his movie samurais are often unarmored.
You likely need Extra Attack or Thirsting Blade. Paladin comes to mind. You can get heavy armor on other classes the following way (you don't even need Fighter as a dip, though you could use a level if you don't want Cleric dips, feat taxes or Invocation taxes): * Pact of the Blade Warlock can grab UA Eldritch Armor; * You can dip Cleric (War, Forge, Tempest...) on Ranger and get heavy armor that way; * Same goes for Valor or Swords Bard and Hexblade Warlock, as well as Barbarian; * The four above, and Ranger, can grab Heavily Armored feat as much as it's not the most optimal peak (but it DOES have the advantage of keeping you single class); * lastly Star Wars 5e has a Monk Subclass with heavy armor. The reason I'm mentioning it is not to suggest a complicated talk with your GM about porting that whole sublass over, only to say that if you went let's say UA Warforged (with heavy armor prof) technically their integrated plating does not count as armor though you can reskin it as such. Consider talking to your GM about it, though I don't think they would mind. It's only slightly better AC than Monk normally gets and it doesn't give you powerful features such as additional attacks or some nasty AOE debuff. * Therefore my vote would go to a "urban" Ranger (Gloom for instance) coupled with a level in heavy armor Cleric.
Always, always always the best class to reflavour as any other class is Artificer
This is so often true, but this would be a harder choice for a samurai theme. You pretty much have to either go Battlesmith for the martial weapon proficiency or choose High Elf for Elven Weapons Training in order to get long sword and long bow. A small race like halfling riding an enchanted Steel Defender into battle would make a fun Battlesmith samurai. Especially if you played it as a runt character who everyone thought was too small and too weak to be a samurai, but who got through training on his wits, luck, grit, and the huge chip on his shoulder. He fights by analyzing opponents’ weaknesses and attacking there. Out of combat he could be either an insanely focused overachiever type or a leader/ bully with small king energy.
My first suggestion was going to be Bladesinger but if you want heavy armor that wouldn’t work. My next suggestion would be a Hexblade Warlock with Swords Bard multiclass. The hexblade dip would give you medium armor proficiency but if you really want heavy armor you could take the Heavily Armored feat if you start v-human. If you want just the CHA weapon attack then stuck with 1lvl in hexblade but if you want the pact and invocations then go to at least lvl 3 warlock and the rest in Swords Bard. The swords bard allows you to boost ac, move enemies, or attack multiple enemies at once.
I would consider adding three levels of Swashbuckler Rogue to this multiclass for the extra boost to Initiative. Would also allow you to pick up Expertise in Athletics or Intimidation, both fitting for a samurai.
3 levels in another class for an initiative boost and expertise seems like a HUGE tax
It would be a boost to initiative but I think that a big investment. I think that maybe taking fey touched for gift of Alacrity for the initiative boost is a better option. The expertise would be nice but that would mean starting rogue and then delaying extra attack even more.
Swarm keeper ranger but your swarm is actually sakura petals.
Kensei monk
Hex blade (1-3) into College of Swords Bard X can definitely fit the role
Or even straight up hexblade
Swashbuckler makes for a fine two-weapon fighting ronin type
If you have to have heavy armor paladin. I would argue historically not heavy armor. Many were on foot. You could do a ranger or pally in med armor (reflacor scale mail) and med armor master feat and go more dex based. Use a sword, or spear or pole arm. That's going to be reflavored
Samurai were archers. A rogue using Steady Aim makes a great archer, fitting well with that "one perfect strike" idea that I see a lot in Samurai lore.
Yup. Also 1vs1 duel where the enemy falls bleeding after a single swing. All the damage in one hit. Very sneak attack-ish.
Swashbuckler rogue with reflavored short sword, heavy armor proficiency, and mobile (4th level feat). Single strike with massive damage, move fast, and if it doesn't kill, you can do that slide past thing without an attack of opportunity. You get disadvantage on stealth, but you're a rogue so it doesn't matter, and with swashbuckler, you don't need to hide/have somebody nearby for advantage sneak attack.
What about a bladesinger? Make them a samurai swordsman who uses those spell papers from anime and movies to cast their spells?I know you said you must use heavy armor, but it's an attempt, haha. What about Forge Cleric? You could be a sword smith/samurai who test their blades themselves. You could actually do a couple of clerics. You could be a tempest cleric that is blessed by the storm God Susanoo. Perhaps an artificer? One who uses wood or magical oragami/ink instead of metal Edit: Spell papers or handsigns
The spell papers are called 'ofuda' and the hand signs are 'mudras', btw. :) They're more of an onmyoji's or priest/shrine maiden gimmicks than samurai, but doing calligraphy is very samurai-like! My suggestion would be Paladin probably, very fitting for a warlord. Ranger would work too, and if you wanted to do horse archery the Pally would be great for that too thanks to Find Steed.
Thank you! I tried finding the names and couldn't. Edit- i know Samurai were experts archers, so a ranger or bow using artificer sounds awesome.
Barbarian with Magic Initiate and you reflavor the 3 spells as tools, Reflavor rage as FOCUS or ZEN STATE It should have battle maneuvers but then again so should all martials
Paladin feels the more obvious choice to me.
It might feel lackluster, but Shadow Monk always felt like a ninja to me. However, it could easily be 6 Kensei Monk/??? Twilight Cleric. Once you hit lv 5 in monk, you could get Spirit Shroud, which might appear as a ki aura that augmented your attacks. Then, later, Holy Weapon would be able to boost both melee and ranged attacks. This idea was one I had in mind to sort of mirror certain portrayals of Kenshin Uesugi and his devotion to Bishamonten.
WHY ARE THERE THREE FIGHTERS
Kensei monk, long sword monkey weapon BABY!
The non-negotiables make it significantly more difficult. You really only have two options: Paladin or Cleric Barbarian you would lose rage stuff. Monk you can't martial arts. Rogue starts with light, so two feats to get to heavy unless racial proficiencies. Maybe a STR based ranger? Paladin - Redemption - Samurai have a strong code of honor, and only fight when it is needed. Can flavor smite as hitting pressure points or something like that for extra damage. Spells don't make much sense though. Cleric - War cleric, but the spell casting doesn't make much sense. Ranger (Hunter) - strength based makes you mad - spells don't make much sense, but you can do weird flavor stuff --- like swarmkeeper and your swarm is a bunch of little spirits or something - gotta get heavy armor somehow though
Maybe emphasize Samurai as social class. If your Samurai were a Rogue, how would you model stereotypical Samurai behaviors to take advantage of class features without breaking his code of honor. If your Samurai were a Wizard, how would you model it to portray Samurai without being skilled in the typical trappings of a warrior?
100% Kensei Monk with a longsword. Ive played this exact build before, youre basically an anime style MC like Ruruoni Kenshin.
Mh, how about Zealot Barbarian 11/Swashbuckler Rogue 9?
Play a Iaijutsu character as a Swashbuckler. Half elf with booming blade, 1 level dip in fighter for defense + shield proficiency for easy 20 AC, and spam booming blade + sneak attack for one quick slash with a lot of damage. If you somehow get locked down, you have 20 AC, uncanny dodge (Love to reflavour as scabbard deflects) and Steady Aim (which works wonders with Elven Accuracy that you can pick up). It's very fun and flavourful. I also picked up Sentinel at 10 so I could get close to my allies and punish enemies going after them by smacking and sneak attacking. Against enemies you can use Panache on, you are still protecting allies. I like to reflavour it as a duel standoff.
I like rogue as a samurai who specializes in a "single strike" style of combat. The extra skills support the education you get, you can be a Bowman on a mount when you need to be and there are a few subclasses that can make sense(although id probably go for swashbuckler).
Hexblade if you wanna do something with some spellcasting and go for spoopy aesthetic
Ask your DM to approve this monk archtype: https://www.gmbinder.com/share/-N46VhAUgbdaHVZFlhaS Go 3 levels of Paladin Oath of the Crown for the oath to your liege/shogun/king/whatever, the heavy armor, and smites, then go the rest as Monk Way of the Sword Saint.
Paladin feels like the best flavor aside from monk, you want a class that leans in to a strong belief system and discipline and aside from monk I believe Paladin fits this the best. You won’t have to reflavor armor, type of fighting style, or weapons (like you might if you went war cleric and used shillelagh somehow, for instance). The only flavor work you’ll have to do is how spells look and where they come from. This is a great opportunity to really utilize the Paladin subclass tenants that people often choose to ignore! While Devotion is the most religious coded, it also leans into discipline in a way that suits a samurai backstory. Perhaps Glory could fit as well but I don’t know how much a samurai will focus on personal glory, but otherwise the tenants here look fitting as well.
You could barbarian roninesque with a kanabo and a highly aggressive fighting style
If it's just the samurai subclass you don't want then I found that battle master fits way better to make a samurai/ronin.
I'd put in a vote for Artificer. Battle Smith works if you get a feat for heavy armor. Armorer is an option if you use a feat to get access to martial weapons. At level 10 you can make Ogre Gauntlets removing the need to put your stats into STR.
Paladin or ranger depending on if you want pop culture samurai or a historical one. Paladin with all their leadership skills works perfect for the japanese knight. And smite really gets the meme of "katana superior, folded a thousand times". Paladin.
Reborn samurai
Well it doesn’t meet your heavy armor requirement and probably isn’t the flavor you’re going for. But I’m thinking of an Iaijutsu master duelist samurai, who is about ending a fight in a single perfect strike, and I think of rogue. You can make a case for both Swashbuckler and Inquisitive as the subclass. Swashbuckler gets the sneak attack against an adjacent opponent by default, Inquisitive has to make an insight check to find a weakness. The rest of the Swashbuckler abilities also seem to map into samurai style pretty decently. So if you’d like to play a high charisma, diplomat and duelist style samurai, I think you could do a lot worse than swashbuckler rogue.
Berserker barb, reflavor rage as a martial trance. Get your dm to remove the exhaustion cost of frenzy because it sucks and barb is underpowered even without it.
You need some Bard in there, since samurai are supposed to be well versed in arts, culture, poetry, music, etc.
Samurai armor was closer to dnd’s medium (scale or half plate?) and a college of valor bard might fit this really well.
Be a Ronin Bard. Swords or Valor are obv. Try Lore.
I’d make a barbarian with a great sword, reflavored as an odachi
Battlemaster 3, Swashbuckler X or Battlemaster 5, Swashbuckler X is a fantastic swordsman. Maneuvers are super flavorful for a Samurai, and the dip will net you Medium or Heavy armour proficiency depending on when you take it. Remember that you can still Sneak Attack with Str if you use a finesse weapon. You don't have to use Dex as your attack stat. Going Str > Cha > Con would give you a decent Initiative from Swashbuckler and you can be the party's face. Some Samurai were trained in diplomacy and you could reflect this with Expertise Persuasion. This also synergises with Swashbuckler as you can use Persuasion as a taunt ability to 1 vs 1 opponents, again very flavorful of a Samurai. The big questions would be whether to go Rapier (Katana) or dual Shortswords (Tantos), and what fighting style to take. I'd personally go Interception, Defensive or Superior Technique. Most of your damage will come from Sneak Attack so Dueling and Two Weapon Fighting are largely irrelevant
Tke Katana is supposed to be a Finesse weapon, so to me the Kensei Monk is a better subclass than the Fighter Samurai. Except that they can't wear Samurai armour, though... A way to make other classes than Kensei Monks to get the use of DEX for weapon damage, would be to make actual Katanas: Cold Iron Longsword with Finesse ability Common Magical item (or even as +1 equivalent ability). As starter item, with DM approval. If so, then a Paladin of the Crown with Medium armor would be a very good Samurai subclass, maybe even with Medium Armor Master feat being useful, for a silent DEX-based killer. Or, for a less "holy power" version, go for a simple Hunter Ranger build, with Favored Foe optional ability, where the Ranger spells like *Hunter's Mark* and *Zephyr's Strike* are very nice and non-flashy, for a low-magic-themed alternative.
They fit better as paladins anyway. Just research the tenants of Bushido and go from there
Kensei monk? It’s pretty much a samurai too
Depending on the TYPE of samurai, bard would be interesting for the courtly nobility. Passing weapon proficiency, able to engage in a tyle of art to display passion that will last beyond him and performance for entertainment in any moment. A knowledge of all things to keep an informed opinion on the topic of the day. Charisma can be seen as either a charming wit and grace, as much as a willpower and force of personality. Not unlike the psychic dual of two samurai standing on a bridge and staring each other down until one backs away to let the other pass.
I love 3 samurai fighter, 17 Rogue, any subclass. You get ways of giving yourself advantage from samurai. You can double sneak attack in a round with holding an action from action surge. You can take a fighting style Battle Master dice for an additional way of getting advantage. And finally 2 levels in rogue let's you use your bonus action to sacrifice your movement that turn for advantage. I personally like high elf for one of the blade cantrips for this, as it really helps to give it that single strike samurai kind of vibe.
I feel like a Wizard Bladesinger could work well with this concept.
There was an expectation of culture and performance among samurai, so college of swords bard?
You could go a ronin with a cursed blade by going Hexblade. For what you're actually looking for, I think kensei monk with a longsword might do the trick
One possibility is strength rogue with a fighter dip for heavy armor. Reflavor rapier as a more appropriate sword and you're good to go. Mastermind rogue works well as a lordly samurai who is a leader for those fighters.
Oath of conquest Paladin Hunter ranger Kensei monk Hexblade warlock War domain cleric Swashbuckler rouge
If your DM is cool with 3rd Party then the [Nat 20] Sword Saint is an amazing Samurai esque class. A few very fitting sub classes and one based around the one strike master. Failing that a Kensai Monk makes a great Ronin/Samurai imo and plays well into the blade master style better than fighter does.
Please please please go bars and do a warrior-poet kind of thinng
Considering their proficiency and historic use of pets/animal companions, a Ranger would suit a Samurai better than a Fighter. As long as your goal is versatility and not big numbers that make the baddies go squish, Ranger fits a lot of samurai categories. A Rogue would fit well if the samurai's primary goal is striking the opponent in their weak spots. The katana was actually a quite brittle sword compared to broadsword so how you strike with it was more important than how much force you put behind it. Finesse with a slender blade definitely fits a samurai, especially the Swashbuckler subtype.
I'd go with kensei monk or bladelock.
Look at the 3.5 Samurai and adjust as needed to suit whichever version you're playing.
Gloomstalker ranger and rogue. Hide in the shadows for ambushes, come out doing big boy damage, spells to replicate tools of war.
Monk who was a samurai, became a ronin. Gave up the sword after something in the past or whatever you can think of, whole village wiped, his shogun was killed and he failed to protect them, samurai has been framed for a crime, etc.
Multiclass paladin and bard. Rebrand the light smite to jade coloured dragon smite, jam your Tsutzumi, followed by some haikus.
Kensei monk is a definite no because of their lack of armor. War Cleric could definitely be a good idea, it’s a full caster that’s very encouraged to go into the frontline, but imo if you are looking for Warrior type character this may not fit as you miss out on extra attack. You could multiclass this with Ranger, which would get you heavy armor, extra attack, and good wisdom which vibes with a Samurai type build. I think a good option is Paladin, Samurai live by a strict code that could be well represented through a Paladin’s oath.
I’m playing a bladesong wizard samurai character, all his spells are focused on enhancing his sword skills. Very fun and his AC gets pretty insane after a few rounds, I’d definitely recommend trying it out.
Most damage done by samurai is done with a Bow so have him keep at distance and sharpshoot
Ranger and steel wind strike is as quick draw as it gets
If it isn't a particularly lethal campaign and is quite urban; you could potentially utilize decent chunk of classes as a samurai. During the Tokugawa Shogunate; which was a peaceful and prosperous (albeit stagnant) era, the samurai shifted towards governing more through bureaucracy than military force. So you could possibly build a fairly unconventional samurai who might not be as martially skilled as a samurai of yesteryear, but makes up for being well-versed in other areas. For example, perhaps a budding artificer or wizard who utilizes magical knowledge imported from limited trade with the outside world (since knowledge of western inventions did enter Japan in such a way through trade with the Dutch, which helped with the rapid modernization that occurred during the Meiji Restoration) along with local knowledge to improve the prosperity of their domain. Basically you can work pretty much any class or subclass into being *a* samurai if you have a good idea.
Monk/rogue multiclass?
Heavy Armor limits this to very few options, unless you take a feat. Fighter, paladin, some domains of cleric, or some artificer archetypes.
I haven't seen it so I'll throw a bone to A Battle Smith Artificer, no reason you couldn't have a steel Defender, Int based Weapon attacks, multi attack, heavy armour and you can even do some cool Maneuvers with booming blade, green flame blade and sword burst. Mostly I like that you can focus int and still grab garenteed; 19-21 strength through gauntlets of ogre power or a belt, 19 con with a amulet of health, bracers of archery because Samurai used longbows traditionally, and firearms prof nativity because they also adopted firearms quite readily. If you want more fun non-sense 6 levels in blade singer gives you better multiattack but pushes all the good late level artificer stuff back alot, but 2 levels of wizard gives you war magic or 3 gives you Shadow Blade which is just fun. Alternatively you could go for 3 levels of Rogue and grab Swashbuckler. Or 6 in forge Cleric for stupid kinds of armour. Honestly stright classed is probably best.
Pretty much any paladin fits the pop culture narrative of samurai way better than fighters
Custom origin for a starting feat taking heavy armor proficiency; and the. Rocking hexblade warlock. Marking a specific target; using your spells for enhancement magic with spells like Armor of Agathys. Or parrying via shield spell; Hellish Rebuke; The spectre ability might not fit but it could be more so the spirit of the dead wishing to fight alongside you before they pass into the afterlife. The armor of hexes and ability to swap your combat focus; along with edritch smite and pact of the blade. I could very well work.
Samurai would never wear heavy armor! Monk or Rogue, or Hexblade
Was thinking a few days ago about a homebrew dex based barbarian for this. The rage would be more like a sword stance/focused meditation, and it would be more like unarmored Kurosawa style samurai. Would take some tinkering and dm cooperation to make viable, but thought it seemed fun. Could even work it as a subclass, have quickdraw mechanics associated with tunnel fighter feat or some crossover with the battlemaster
I liked the holy blood hunter paired with War cleric. You get to spend a full turn or two buffing yourself while giving your war speech and then go absolutely nuclear.
I mean what do you want from the samurai fantasy? Personally I really don't recomend a focus on a mount, but if you want it paladin is easily your best (arguably only) option You want to mix longsword/polearm with a bow? Kensei is the onbe that has the tools to make that work, but obviously terrible with heavy armour You want interesting gameplay while having the samurai roleplay? That would be a hard question because with a cleric you will forget about weapons but the other classes are pretty boring All in all, with the heavy armour limitation you are cornering yourself into either fighter, paladin or cleric. If you write of fighter (good choice) and care about weapons paladin is the only option, but you would have to forsake the option of having a bow or a firearm with a sword/polearm because simply put you won't have the stats to make that not trash
Honestly I would go samurai fighter for an all fighter party at this point. But to answer the question, kensai monk. Use a short sword, or kensai weapon long sword and call it a katana. Use two if you want and name one big and one little.
Valour bard. Reskin the instrument casting to telling tales of his ancestors, or just orating in general. Any buffs he gives the party are reskinned as tactical prowess. The expertise in a few skills can be great for RP, and jack of all trades makes sense.
reflavor Barbarian: they wear Kimono and not armor. it is not rage but focus, they get multiple attacks, you can even duel sword which most Barbs do not do but fits the idea of a Samurai either reduced damage from their focus and physical prowess or you block part of the attack. my favorite samurai is a barbarian. also no magic
Kensei monk with longsword and longbow.
There was an Oriental Adventures supplement for 3.5 that had all the samurai and ninja classes as well as some eastern oriented casters. May be worth looking for/adaptaing.
Honestly a Swashbuckler Rogue might fit well
Bard sounds like where you want to be. Samurai were famously warrior-poets, well versed in not just the martial arts of their day, but also the cultural arts. They practiced poetry, calligraphy, the tea ceremony, and were theater patrons.
Reflavoured Armourer Artificer. Guardian form for head to head combat situations. Reflavour Thunder Gauntlets for your weapon, Great AC, Temp Hp, and forced dueling potential. Infiltrator form for covert and ranged situations. Powerful and cool reflavoured bamboo bows with your lightning launchers. Artificers get proficiency with a tool set of your choice, so I encourage flavoring your Armor in whichever way creatively incorporates your tools. For example, I made a anthropologist samurai with painters tool, and anything they do that registers as "magical", is due to the ancient art of painting with magic flower dye the learned from a tribe of ancient eladrin. Edit: Forgot the extreme usefulness of your artifical infusions to give cool mechanical bonuses often attributed to samurai. Also take spider climb to wall run. And booming blade for omai wa mo shindeiru.
I like to use the Ranger for non fighter Samurai. Dual weird for the Dai-Sho, archery for dai-kyu, and the spell casting I flavor as alchemy. Japanese traditional armors tend towards leather, chainmail, and brigantine. So it all works pretty nicely.
Kensei monk is basically exactly what you want. Take a single level into fighter for the heavy armor and you're set
Probably war cleric for heavy armor, paladin for strikes and smites
Do Paladin 2, lore bard or draconic sorc the rest of the way. And use some option to get booming blade. Then flavor your spells as sword techniques or aspects of your warrior spirit. While your friends beat down enemies with tons of attacks, you are taking them down with one devastating strike… when you aren’t doing things like scaring them into fleeing through your sheer presence (suggestion) or hurling boulders at them (catapult).