You Might Be a Samurai | Fighter Subclass Guide for DND 5e

I like the idea of a half-goliath, half-tiefling who got the nickname "Oni" from a group of bullies and took it in stride, becoming an absolute monster on the battlefield.

"Strength before death" basically demands "You say run" as a soundtrack when it's triggered.

Another small but nice thing about this is that, as much as it is indeed called the Samurai class, your character doesn't actually have to fit the samurai archetype in order to make it work. The abilities honestly lend themselves to any form of noble and disciplined warrior, so if you want your character to be a high-ranking knight, a particularly well-read sellsword, or even just an uncharacteristically gentlemanly pirate, this subclass helps bring that to life quite well

Hell yeah. Go Halfling Samurais for shorty ronins that won't roll bad and have an excuse to wear tattered robes!

Just got out of surgery, thank you for making the pain easier to deal with. Edit: that playground joke was solid.

Kurosawa influence aside, I think the samurai-to-western thing was more because of an oddly similar cultural value system. Both genres featured honor-bound wandering heroes, society-vs-outlaw themes, and gratuitous violence. Also, you know, easier to rip off an existing movie/story than create one from scratch. But I think it worked because of the similar values.

Criminally underrated fighter subclass. Generate your own advantage✅ Wisdom saving throw proficiency✅ An additional attack at lvl 15✅ Bonus skills✅ and a full turn immediately before death?✅ Why can’t more subclasses be this good?

Built a samurai for a short lived campaign a long time ago. An old Elf (elves mix really well with Samurai due to their innate bonuses + Elven Accuracy) who wanted to show that even an old timer like himself who has seen a few centuries could still hold his own on the battlefield. Partnering up with an alley cat of a business man, Vallana wanted to show old dogs can still learn new tricks, while keeping the old ways close to his hip with his sword. And what tricks may this old dog have learned? Well you see I gave him a gun. (A fireworks hand Cannon, specifically.)

Way of the Kensei Monk fits like a glove for a multiclass.

You can Call me Jack Samurai Jack!!

Awesome that this comes out literally while I’m on a trip to Japan

The facts In a groundbreaking PhD thesis in 2011, Oleg Benesch produced overwhelming evidence against the view that “bushido was a centuries-old code of behavior rooted in the historical samurai class and transmitted into the modern period”. [1] Instead, Benesch demonstrated, “the concept of bushido was largely unknown before the last decade of the nineteenth century, and was widely disseminated only after 1900”. [2]

Fun thing about the capstone Samurai ability, Since you get a full turn, that includes Bonus action, so you can Second Wind, and stay up after your crazy last chance thing. If you have something like Mobile, you can also get out of melee

Well that's unfortunate..... My tabaxi samurai just got killed last night and now I get to see how cool he would've been past level 3.

You make every one of these subclasses seem so much fun to play. Great as always YMBA

I've been playing a Warforged Samurai called Titan, who not only tries to follow a loosely historical version of Bushido (which was mostly made up by Samurai to act like they were always honorable warriors but, no, not really) focusing on honor, honesty (slightly redundant as he's not great at lying) and respect, specifically as he was once a soldier-bot who ended up saving the life of a noble who used the style, who then took him in as thanks and taught him how to be more than just a living weapon - In essence, the Samurai trappings and code and such are to give him meaning BEYOND fighting, sort of like how Bushido and the actions of post-Sengoku style robed Samurai were meant to turn them into more than just soldiers or murderers. For extra points, he has the lord's Son as his squire with him, a bit of knightly mixed into it, but also allowing him to teach the Squire the way of the sword while coming to understand people more through him. Also he weilds a Nodachi, which has since become used like a Katana purely because of a magical armor he found making him bigger and able to use it in one hand without penalty. He's due to hit the level where he can add his Wisdom to Persuasion soon, and that'll fit naturally into how he's been progressing. As the others say though, this works for any noble style warrior class. Knights of course work well, especially with sword and board, but another is one of the Warrior who just keeps going, or the battle tactician who with a bit of focus (Fighting Spirit) can find the weak point in the enemy's guard and armor. The Hermit Warrior Sage who has practiced his particular style to a point that he can push himself beyond what most people can with inherent magic ala some Barbarians. Arguably I'd say some historical figures really work with the fighting spirit temp HP sort of thing, or carrying on when they should be unconscious.

Cool, now we just need the Way of Shadow Monk (Ninja) to complete the set.

Honestly, Samurai is my favorite fighter subclass, fighting spirit is so awesome for a weapon based class, imagine multiclassing it with rogue

One of my favorites. I played a level 15 shadarkai elf ranged samurai in a high fantasy heist. Instead of taking out one crucial guard to allow the group to move up, i thought why not take out every guard silently? Taking crossbow feats and a van helsing movie tribute magic crossbow that shot icycles. Amazing, underrated

Samurai in DnD 5e ~ "Roses are red, violets are blue, with x9 attacks/x7 with advantage, I may be dead but now so are you!" Lich ~ "Nani?!? Kansei... weeb-san!?!