Samurai

Loyalty and honor—the Samurai prize these virtues above all. To lose them is a fate worse than death, and so the Samurai spends a lifetime devoted to their pursuit. When not actively in combat, Samurai eschew the pleasantries of life and spend their days training with sword, bow, and heavy armor, while also honing an unrivaled mastery of defensive martial arts. As such, in physical combat they are rarely bested, their desire to fight with honor being their sole weakness in many cases.

When their combat training is paired with years of battlefield and command experience, a Samurai may grow to become a master of the art of warfare, making them natural leaders in any situation. To gain the loyalty of a Samurai is to gain a faithful ally for life, however it comes at a cost, for a Samurai expects those whom they serve to likewise carry themselves with honor.

Their intense loyalty most often places young Samurai in the service of some manner of Lord or high ranking official, where service is rewarded with lands and titles. Samurai can grow to become very powerful in their own right. In the High Elven tradition, they may even rise to the lofty station of Shogun and rule over entire feudal societies. However, the Samurai way of life is one of extreme self sacrifice coupled with highly focused training and therefore outside of High Elven culture, true Samurai are rare though not unheard of.

Class Overview

Typical Roles: Tank, Support/Utility, Melee Damage, Ranged Damage
Damage Types: Physical
Class Mechanic: Honor and Focus

Default Stats: During Character Creation you may choose to use the default stat line shown below, before racial modifiers. This can be instead of rolling for stats, or if after rolling ten sets of stats you don’t like the results.

During Character Creation you may choose to use the Default Stat Line, before racial modifiers, instead of rolling for stats, or if after rolling ten sets of stats you don’t like the results

Proficiencies

Natural Armor Proficiency: Cloth, Leather, Mail
Trainable Armor Proficiency: Plate
Natural Weapon Proficiency: Knives, Swords (including 2-Handed), Polearms
Trainable Weapon Proficiency: Bows, Firearms

See Equipment section for details. When using a weapon that your class is not proficient with, see Combat Penalties. There is no level or title prerequisite to train in a new proficiency, however you must receive the appropriate Training.

Class Skill

Class Passive Skill: Honour in Battle
Class Secondary Skill: (choose one) Dual Wield, Military Training, or Combat Specialist (of Samurai’s choice)
note: If wishing to specialize in a particular combat style that requires weapons that the Samurai does not have as a starting proficiency, you may save the point to be spend at a later date

Primary Skills

Honor

For a Samurai Honor is held in higher regard than life itself. It is a sacred calling and life-long devotion, but also a powerful weapon and ally on the battlefield. Bushido is the code of honor by which a Samurai is sworn to live their life. But as they practice this regimented code, they will also learn and accept new codes of honor, as prescribed by the Feudal Order they belong to.

The primary skills for an Honor class take the form of Oaths, Virtues, and Code skills. No training is required for Oaths and Virtues, as these are a function of the Samurai’s personal and imposed sense of honor. However Code training is typically facilitated by the Order to which the Samurai belongs or the Liege Lord that they serve. There a higher ranking Samurai will act as Mentor and trainer

Samurai cannot learn a previously unknown Code or Code Skill (i.e. putting the first code point into Feudal Strike) unless they are taught/instructed by a Mentor (aka Code Trainer) that knows the corresponding skill. If assigning additional code points to an already known code skill, then no trainer is required and the point can be assigned immediately (i.e. increasing the number of code points in Feudal Strike from 1 to 2). This represents an Samurai honing their skills rather than actually learning a new skill.

See Learning New Honor Codes and Skills for details.

Focus

The Samurai pair conventional armed combat with traditional martial arts to supplement their skill set. Every Samurai Order will have its own traditions which they will teach to their members This means that most Samurai can receive training in Focus skills as part of their membership, provided they are in good standing with their Order. Samurai follow the standard methods for Learning New Focus Skills.

The maximum number of skill points that can be allotted to each focus discipline are as follows:

• Fist: 10 skill points
• Kick: 10 skill points
• Armed: 30 skill points
• Ranged: 10 skill points
• Defense: 15 skill points

Level Ups

Samurai use the following chart for levelling up:

HP Dice (Hearty): Small Race (1d10), Medium Race (1d12), Large Race (1d12)