However, the Soulknife’s Short Sword Mind Blade is a true Short Sword (and does piercing, not slashing damage, disrupting the Flay Foe tactic).
Soulknife: Soulknives can’t generate a bastard sword & short sword mind blade at the same time, but you could use Katana Mind Blade and a physical Wakazashi, or vice versa, depending on how many Soulknife levels you have. But it gives Iajutsu Focus as class skill, Ki Frenzy and Weapon Focus, though mixing the two classes may raise flavor issues in some campaigns. Sohei: Nobody ever takes the Sohei for anything. Sorceror: Useful in some Gish-type builds, though a TWF style will have some problems with Somatic spells. 
Rogue: An obvious source of TWF bonus damage, but Evasion doesn’t work in Heavy Armor.Even a 2 level dip gets you Cha to Saves. Paladin: Can be very nice if you’re using the Half-Orc Substitution levels, which give morale bonus to damage and an Intimidate-enhancing quality.Grabbing some of the alternative monk styles would probably be helpful. Monk: You’re obviously burning the Wis to AC with Heavy Armor (and probably Evasion, too) but the feats and saves are nice.Marshal: Good Cha synergy with dips and some bonus damage.Incarnate: Gives you soulmelds that are source of bonus damage, though you can only be Lawful Neutral with this class.
Complete soulknife handbook full#
Worth looking at as either a dip or 9-level investment (in the latter case, it probably requires Battlecaster and Mithril Full Plate to get full use here.)
Hexblade: You get some Charisma synergy from the Curse/Saves, and can use Arcane Strike to help power your damage. Knight: Makes some flavor sense and Knight's challenge can boost your damage. Players Handbook II's Melee Weapon Mastery makes Fighter4/Samurai16 a decent option. Fighter: This gives you shield proficiency (useful for Improved Buckler Defense) and extra feats, of course. It may have enough spell slots to make Arcane Strike worth it. Duskblade: I'm still looking at this one. And the Breath Weapon helps give you a ranged attack. Dragon Shaman: The aura to boost damage works, though you'd need five levels to get to +2. Pick domains that give abilities that aren’t tied to your cleric level, such as War and Fate. Cleric: A useful dip for the Turn Undead ability, which can power Divine Might and give you some Charisma synergy. And best of all, they boost flexibility - they let you do things a regular Samurai could never do. The Pact Augmentation ability and several vestiges (Andromalius, Eurynome, among others) give bonus damage. Binder: I didn't think much of this at first but actually it works OK and even has plenty of flavor fit with the Samurai: Replace all the vestiges with long-dead spirits of your ancestors and you're rolling. Works best with Eberron, which allows you to swap a song (Inspire Competence, for example) for a feat like Song of the Heart, which improves damage. It can still work, however, through a combination of Paladin and Devoted Performer. Bard: While in theory beneficial for bonus damage through Inspire Courage, the alignment issue is thorny. But because the Samurai’s TWF skills progress so slowly, it’s tricky to pull off. Multiclassing with the Samurai is practically a requirement, because you need some form of bonus damage to make TWF work properly. Maenad (XPsi): Favored class wilder, and the Outburst ability works nicely. Illumian: Can be useful for the Aesh Sigil, which grants a modest bonus to weapon damage if you have focus in that weapon. 
Human Paragon can give you Iajutsu Focus as Class Skill. Favored class (any) and bonus feat can help a lot. Half-Orc: Bonus to Strength is nice, and the Half-Orc Paragon class (Unearthed Arcana) can give you Rage and an Intimidation-boosting ability. You’d lose Frightful Presence, but you could’ve taken that as a feat earlier than Level 20 anyway. The Powerful Build feature may also help with Intimidate, as it’s an opposed check influenced by Size. Goliath: Bonus to Strength and the use of large-sized weapons are both good. Use Dream or Gold Dwarf (-2 Dex, instead of Charisma)
Yes, they didn’t mean this Samurai, but I’m not the one who puts out different classes with the same name, so don’t yell at me. Races that give bonuses to Dexterity are generally not as desireable, as you won’t need it for TWF and can’t use a high Dex to full effect in full armor.Īzurin: Probably the best race for Samurai if you’re using Magic of Incarnum – the Essentia pool and bonus feat really help.ĭwarves: By OA rules, Samurai is a favored class. Strength & Charisma are key Samurai stats, so in general pick races that help with this.
6 Five tricks that can make your Samurai better.
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