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Gotta be honest if the link was to something other then what you said it was you should have just said that, i get that your thing is apart of this thing, but thats not what you said in the short or the comment.
Ikr a subclass showing the fact that the samurai were educated members of high society, naaaw that's not accurate where's all the terrible anime crap this isn't historically accurate proceeds to get his dm to create an anime coated subclass Normally I wouldn't care about petty things like this but no claiming a semi accurate depiction isn't accurate just to say some anime depiction is gets on my nerves
@@lordchonky7924as if base samurai isn't already weeby with rapid precise strikes and literally refusing to die with anime powers. They just got rid of the one part that was realistic with the social bit and just made it pure anime. Plus they already get proficiency in wisdom saves which is where mind control comes from. So like. They just got rid of the one historical bit, and replaced the weeb with unbelievably unrealistic weeb. Like seriously the quick draw sht?
@@LaughingJokerProd If they were carrying a spear, yeah, but usually if you were going to use a Yari you would be on foot to start with. Samurai were primarily mounted archers for the vast majority of their historical period, and later they even swapped out some of them with guns.
@@chameleonx9253storical knight would be similar, replace the bow with a lance, which historically was practically just a 9 to 13 ft spear with a hanguard(war version anyway, practice and jousting version are correctly depicted in media as lances.) Anyway going back to my point, fighter, noble background, heavy armor, mounted combat, lance, and short/long sword+shield as backup. Historical knight. Edit: i say short or longsword, because the DnD longsword isn't actually a longsword, its a Hand and a Half sword, more cumbersome than a standard arming sword but can actually be used with one hand or two, unlike a actual longsword which was two hand dedicated.
@@ravenpotter5131 I hate to be that guy, but longsword, bastard sword and hand-and-a-half-sword all mean the same thing. Arming swords and longswords also weighed the same.
@@Mr_Wulff the arming sword has a short hilt for only one hand, and the blade is about 4-6inches shorter, bastard/hand and a half sword blade is usually arming length or slightly longer and a hilt that is just big enough for two hands, long sword hilt is big enough to fit 3 hands on it allowing the wielder to preference their choke of two hand grip and the blade is too long to be comfortable wielded with just one hand. Watch shadiversity, skollagladitoria, Metatron or other medieval historian RU-vidrs, they cite their research for peer review. Edit : fixed RU-vidr name bc autocorrect changed it.
Removed the one feature that was realistic with them being high standing and social/wise. And made it more anime. Base was already anime with rapid accurate strikes. But the quick draw is just making it too far
Well depends, real samurai were less focused on using a sword then they are painted, the sword thing popped up when samurai became less and less needed and saw less and less battle, so they started to put emphasis on their sword and how important it was. But yeah.
@@jedediahsabri6427 taking out a weapon when combat starts is accurate yes, doing it lightning speed and sheathing it before they even see the blade is not.
@@jedediahsabri6427You know what's more accurate? Guns. Lots and lots of guns. We're talking Texas level. Samurai stopped using their swords the second the Portuguese showed up. Swords where entirely ceremonial.
You know... 2 nights ago I was up at 3 AM looking for a different take on the Samurai subclass. The fact that this showed up in my recommendations and I caught it 12 minutes after being dropped is kinda scary
If they are true samurai history buff they won't be drawing their sword unless it's the last resort. Samurais primary weapon was the bow and spear. The katana is the samurai equivalent of drawing a pistol instead of bringing your rifle to a battlefield.
I mean remember There were different time periods At First the Bow And Horse Which Became the Spear and Horse Which Became The Spear the Horse and the Sword To just the Sword once War was over Times changed and so did the Samurai’s Role Weapons and Purpose
@@thelegendaryonionring4304 this is the truth, or closest. They did use a sword but it was a large carved blade for bashing the enemy off their horse. Once you get them down, you use a smaller blade, katana, to cut their head off. Of course, that changed over time too.
@@yocean14 Exactly even the Swords they used were different over time Super long And Powerful Blades meant to cut down Horses and Cut through enemy defenses To The More Conservative and Practical blades they became known for used for everyday carry Super glad you know this stuff as well are you perhaps also a watcher of Gajin Goomba?
@@Olav_Hansen depends on the time period, they started like that from the yamato period but by the general medieval age the tactics were a lot more diverse and they weren't that different than european knight commanders
Correct would be:"because samurai wielded more than just bows." Edit: Im glad that this thread got this much attention and that i got to spread decently accurate info for you to contemplate and expand your knowledge upon.
@@twink5717 People think samurai wielded swords (which is historically inaccurate, as you say). D&D Shorts is saying that "because the public perception that samurai wielded swords is wrong..."
Well I mean firstly Samurai were weapon masters and had to be skilled with a variety of weapons. Those included the Yumi(Bow), Naginata(Slashing spear) and the Tatchi (Which was a sword made for war unlike the Katana) they also used guns in later periods
@@yammoto148 both were made for war, but both were meant to be sidearms, Its true that katana is better suited for self defense. What i was getting at was that for the longest period samurai were mainly mounted archers
As much as I would love to see an Onmyouji subclass...I'm a Fate fan, so the first example of an onmyouji I think of is Ashiya Douman...and I absolutely do not want to see that bastard as a PC. And I say this as the frequently Chaotic-Evil player.
Resisiting domination feels a bit random, as historical Ronin were usually actively looking for a new daimyo. (pretty much like a knight who doesn't hold land for a baron atm. Gotta impress someone to get a new home) But it fits the ronin fantasy more. -This character who may have been raised in a feudal environment but just isn't suited to it. - So I get that addition.
@@brandonbackup873 It really doesn't, if anything, it should be weakness to domination from a character of similar alignment, as both knights and samurai were terrified of being lordless.
It's a pretty nice subclass. It's a good take on the Ronin, but if you want to play a historically accurate samurai you're still better off with the regular samurai fighter. I do think that the masterless feature, while cool, goes against the spirit of the Ronin as being "masterless" was more of a dishonor or punishment and generally looked down upon
i mean, the samurai subclass is still technically more ronin then samurai anyways. samurai usually followed orders from their nobles and werent really adventurers like ronin were unless ordered by their lords. heck, id argue way of shadow monks aren't really historically accurate ninjas either and that you can build better historically accurate ninjas with other classes/subclasses or as close in terms of dnd because of course its still gonna be slightly more anime-ish but you can kind of alleviate this problem with giving a whatever your trying to represent what they would want if they were in a magical world and still use their practices and such to sell the idea that your historically accurate.
The base Samurai is very historically accurate. As a Fighter they are trained in the use of -any- weapon. They gain a special feature to represent their courtly training and intrigue. They already have the ability to trade accuracy for faster attacks or use their willpower and focus to gain advantage whenever they want.
Right? Like, you could take the "noble" variant background "knight" or just Veteran/Soldier and then take the official subclass and it would be pretty damn close to an actual samurai. Soldier for that "Land Vehicle profficiency" choosing a rideble mount. Then just take the biw for equipment and buy yourself a spear, a shortsword and a longsword. Archery would be a good fighting style, but two weapon fighting would be incredible too. The shortsword could be your Tanto, the longsword your Katana. A longbow as the primary weapon and the spear or lance would be exactly that. I think that subclass doesn't need more "samurai" features, it just needs creativity and flavor, like any primary martial class. I think hitting your opponent a million times in six seconds is enough to give you that "I'm a badass warrior" feeling. All those other features you get, represent how good you are both socially and at fighting. Lastly, just add a few feats to your cgaracter to spice things up! If you go for a variant human or custom lineagey you can start with a feat. Go for sharpshooter, gunner or two-weapon fighting. Or choose martial initiate for another fighting style. Choose mobile as soon as you can after that, so you'll be fast as fuck. You'll be dashing across the battlefield, avoiding the difficult terrain all the time and noone can stop you. Later on you could choose any of those other feats I mentioned, or sentinel or mounted combatant. You'll be an absolute machine. If you have a generous DM, you can even train more feats in downtime (sure the raw cariant rule sucks, but most DMs open to training feats would probably change this rule). Want to be a samurai also trained in the culinary arts? Or some kind of herbalist? Take the healer feat and the cook feat! You'll be the face and heart of the party in no time. Basicly, the regular samurai fighter is easily abke to hold up to an "historically accurate" samurai. This proposed ranger subclass is nixe, but its much more an anime style subclass, than anything resembling a ronin or regular samurai as they were in history. It's great if I want to play an over the top anime fighter, but if I want to play an honest to god Samurai I'd take the official fighter subclass any day. To mke it awesome, you just need to be a bit creative, the rest is all done by the class and subclass.
that moment when the samurai gets more attacks in one turn than anyone else, and you can just… flavor doing a draw attack… also fighter gets prof in all weapons so you can use any weapon. it’s just samurai but very slightly different.
Yeah lmao. The dude says samurai subclass has nothing to do with historical samurais but this version has even less connections. It's full on anime. Also it's a ranger so you also get those very historical samurai magic to go.
Elegant Courtier has nothing to do with being a Samurai. Strength Before Death is just a worse version of the Adrenaline house rule. The only thing worth anything in that sub is the Tireless Spirit/Fighting Spirit/Rapid Strike synergy. Otherwise it's a dead fish. No bow skills or even a mention; meanwhile Samurai, even in the late periods, were more well known for their Kyujutsu than their Kenjutsu or Iaijutsu. While the above mentioned class didn't mention _more bow skills,_ it's literally built as a Ranger sub so it is certainly starting off far more historically accurate. Even if we hyperfocus on the blade skills of a Samurai, the Fighter sub has nothing concerning weapons that wasn't already available to Fighters through one or another path. But even if we simply assume "the dude just wanted an anime character", and? Some people play as giant crabs or chaotic evil demons that can't put together a complete sentence without murdering something small and furry. It's none of your business as long as their game allows it. Gatekeeping is a bad look.
@@mnspstudioful seem like you got some strong opinions, so I'm not gonna engage that too directly and lay out some points. Elegant courtiers does make sense as Samurai were a part of the Nobility like Knights in Europe. Thus they had to learn politics and manners as well as their Martial Arts. None of the class features of Fighter Samurai were locked to a specific weapon. They all refer to the Attack Action. Thus you can use a sword, a bow, or a spear and still have access to all features. Fighters are as good at the Bow as a Ranger sans the Magic. Even then, ranger magic can work on bows or swords, so no major buff to bow outside of subclasses.
Ranger was a great choice for a samurai subclass. They were masters of mounted archery; the katana was more of a sidearm, not so much the main attack weapon.
Maybe it doesn't encapsulate all facets of being a samurai, but being well-versed in proper etiquette, and being so obsessed with not showing weakness that you flat-out refuse to die without a fight captures the essence of bushido quite well in my book.
No, the foot soldiers did. There was a clan of Ninjas known for Samurai too but guns were never known as the main samurai weapons. Though Bow +Arrow, Spears and Pole Weapons were more common anyways than katana in the time of warfare in terms of samurai weaponry
Honestly instead of doubling down into the weeb direction and orientalism I feel like Champion and Samurai could just be mashed into a single class together. Samurai, noble knights, weapon heroes who are just built different, etc. Like at 3rd level give the new skill proficiencies, an additional saving throw proficiency, and maybe an option to gain Advantage on an attack and also advantage on that attack’s damage roll, but cannot be used in consecutive turns. I feel that’d retain the simplicity but give a flexible warrior fantasy
So... How big of a history buff is he? Is he doing mounted archery 90% of the time while wearing heavy armor? If not his 'no samurai isn't historical' still doesn't hold up.
you know, tibetans and persians/parthians were doing stuff like this as well; I once had the idea of a character whose entire flavor was a persian warlord with a battle elephant lmao
"Subclass is has nothing to do with historical samurai." Makes something that's not even close to historical samurai. "Finally. Perfection." Can't make it make sense.
I love the creative liberties you took with this, cause it makes it like a bridge between a ranged and melee fighter. Which is what samurai were, especially the Ronin. You could try something like this with firearms which would also be in character.
My guy went and made something cool and then published it for everyone to enjoy and enrich their lives with without demanding something in return. I'm in awe.
There's a great video by Gaijin Goomba talking about how the end samurai subclass IS historically accurate. You should send it to you friend 😂 Cool idea for a new subclass though
I unironically love the samurai subclass, but agree that it doesn't do what your friend wants. Still going to gush about my sam tho. It was super fun to play as a human sam with resiliant dex and picking up the FTD dragon gift feats. She was an archer who was incredibly difficult to disrupt in combat by virtue of good save prof. and would put a clock on any single target in bright light. The character was sleeping beauty but instead of being cursed, was blessed by dragons and therefore sus enough to destroy a noble family's reputation. Also had a horrible memory which nessecitated extensive notes on everything. It got really good when the party edited her notes for pranks.
@@StormBringareif that Blitz draw thing is melee only, then this new version is by default less accurate from base samurai since normal is really good ranged and has no locked content to melee
I once made Samurai Jack by reflavoring a Bear Totem Barbarians rage to a zen like battle state. It makes the interactions way more interesting & breaks the dumb brute trope.
That's nifty. One of my players wanted to play without rolling dice so we developed a whole system where he starts with so many tarot cards of a deck and he slowly gets more cards as he levels with the cards have cool buffs, summons, spells, effects, advice and more. I came up with something for each card and it was pretty fun. It could be tweaked but we had a few variations that allowed more card pulling, buffs for having so many cards or pulling multiple at once
The samurai were horseback warriors initially that later also were doing foot soldier stuff too. They were namely horseback archers, and they were good at it. The best archers in the world were from England, and many Japanese historians believe contemporary archers were comparable in skill to them. A samurai class, in my opinion, should be a capable horseback archer, though for all the time the Samurai existed, for nearly a thousand years, they obviously did change a lot, with our idea of a samurai coming from the Edo Period, where a samurai was more likely to be selling flowers than fighting.
Samurai were more often Archers and Spearmen, which the regular fighter subclass fits fine. If you want a more anime/movie style then sure the Ronin sounds cool.
Samurai’s were primarily light cavalry, meaning their primary weapon was the bow, or towards the 15 and 1600’s - the gun. So being a ranger subclass makes sense!
Not really? Rangers use nature magic, but if you wanna accurately depict a samurai, a good old fighter is exactly what you want. Bows are not ranger-exclusive, and rangers should get a better image than just "bow-guy".
@@roxxon6138 There isn't really a mechanical distinction for who uses what sorts of magic, so that bit can easily be reflavored to fit your idea. You could even flavor it as a Ki-based magic and pick things that fit your idea. We already see this sort of done officially with certain barbarian/monk subclasses.
I actually expected a bard subclass, given the Samurai did so much bard like stuff. Art, poetry, code of conduct, religious observation, politics, intrigue, and of course, martial aspects. Really, a college of swords bard is already pretty close, swap the scimitar with a long or greatsword (Or in addition to the scimitar) and you've got a quite historical samurai with all those social skills and focus on the arts and philosophies.
A Ranger Ronin is beautifully perfect cause they both spend time wandering and fighting along their way Plug it's even cooler now that Samurai used black powder guns back then too for more historical accuracy (lol ranged combat joke)
I think it’s less about being historically accurate and more about fitting the vibe of what playing a samurai should be like, obviously killing 4 people in the space of 6 seconds is absurd, but it fits really well with the fantasy players have in mind when they want to play a samurai.
Swords were not even the main weapon of samuri theycwere their badge of honour they carrieda a sword go show they were a warrior but a sword is not a good battlefield weapon
To achieve the effect of a historical samurai, you play a samurai fighter with the noble background and a lawful alignment. Arm them with a longsword, shortsword, longbow and either a spear or pike (depending on whether you want to prioritise accuracy or effectiveness) and have them primarily use the spear/pike in melee combat, maybe also give them the dual-wielder feat so they can dual wield the longsword and shortsword to give a valid mechanical reason to switch weapons (there is a precedent for samurai using their longsword and shortsword at the same time)
So you didn't fix it, you did it differently. Also you'll find Fighters don't get special resistances to status effects because they already get an ability that lets them overcome status. S'a bit bad. And drawing multiple weapons has sweet fuckall to do with being a Samurai. All sorts of warriors practice that sort of thing... or just don't. It has nothing to do with where you're from. Some subclasses could probably go out of their way to claim this... but Samurai? Nah.
@@danielavalos9323 Eh, at least two people cared enough to remark on it. And six liked it. Besides, its called a critique. I disagree with how its built and laid out why. They can take it or leave it.
Thank you so much for allowing me to do the anime Quick draw attack I always loved in Anime in D&D! I was also thinking. If you multi class this Ronin Ranger, with the Samurai Fighter with its multiple hits. You’d have a character that could slash draw and multiple hit there enemies for an insane amount of damage. Straight up doing a Vergil from Devil May Cry, or Raiden from Metal Gear solid Revengence. “I am the storm that is approaching.” 😈
One of my favorite characters ever to play was a samurai, but I didn’t want to play the stereotypical Japanese katana man, so instead I made him Central European, with plate mail, a halberd, a pike, and named him Henryk. I loved playing that himbo, who was just trying his best for his daughter
Fighter: * proficient with multiple weapons and armor * Trained to survive heavy combat * Skilled with blades and bows Samurai: * proficient with multiple weapons and armor * Trained to survive heavy combat * Skilled with blades and bows * Also well equipped with a handful of proficiencies in social/negotiation skills for diplomacy. Samurai fixed.
Wow, this sounds exactly like the class I would play my first time out, just have to see how to species it to be perfect and see how many cursed weapon ideas I have that are DnD-able.
@DnDShorts the draw-cut you describe is called battojutsu. I could definitely see incorporating this real martial art. If I were to design this, I would give a single free attack against all enemies standing within a 10 foot semicircle in the direction the character is facing, as combat begins. The character would have to retain a mid to high dexterity score, and could only perform this set of attacks against enemies with lower initiative scores. I would highly consider designing a footwork feat to give this character as well, as performing these strikes takes really accurate leg movement / gliding steps. This character should be as much about planning as action.
I accomplished the anime dash attack thing by taking Samurai fighter/Rogue with both the Slasher and Mobile feats. Gave myself advantage on all attacks in one turn with a samurai feature, waded into an army slashing, applying sneak attack, reducing their speed and moving on without opportunity attacks.
Solid. I made a samurai class based off of Aikido. Lots of grappling. I added a ton of maneuvers just for grappling. One was: at the start of your turn if you are standing and grappling an enemy your size or smaller, you may expend one maneuver die to duplex them. Make save to fighter maneuver, d6 damage per fighter level, take half on a save.
"I made a historically accurate samurai class. He now spends his days accounting in baldur's gate crying that he could be so cool if he could just go out there"
Another thing. Late medieval early modern knightly was bullet proofed, high need ones encased the entire body in plate like iron man and knights flipping loved pistols
The best description of samurai I've seen is in the book Shogun (seriously go read it, it's brilliant). Two lords get into a flexing competition about how accomplished their samurai are, they get into poetry and flower arranging by the end. Kicker is this was a real part of Bushido as far as I know
You can technically already do the “dashing, slashing, anime thing” in 5e as a wizard or ranger. Steel Wind Strike lets you hit up to 5 creatures within 30ft of you with a melee spell attack (ie, using your spell modifier instead of Str/Dex) on each target, and dealing 6d10 force damage on a hit. I had a wizard who later decided to specialise in teleportation magic, and this became one of his favourite spells to use, along with Thunderstep.
And definitely wouldnt want one with a quick draw and immediately stowing in the middle of combat feature. Have a feeling they dont actually know history and just use that as an excuse to have people believe them when they say weeb stuff is realistic
How are you not working for D&D!?! The classes you make for your D&D campaigns sounds freaking brilliant!!! Hell, you should pull out a book of custom campaigns.😊
Depending on the specific period, an actual historical samurai, geared for battle, would have been an archer (Usually mounted, but on foot works too) with a Naginata (Bladed Polearm, kind of like a Glaive) for close combat, a layer period samurai would have also probably used a gun of some kind, again, depending on the period, an Arquebus or a Musket. Swords were usually sidearms meant as a las ditch effort, or for everyday self defense purposes (and for this they were mostly used as batons, to wack people with the sheath on)
"We thought the part about them being upstanding in society wasn't historically accurate so we made a different subclass with features based on a trope from anime"
This would be the perfect for my sibling's Ranger! Thanks! Also, I play tested your Kamaitachi this past Sunday, May 7th, and they were great to play around with! My players loved them, and the chaos they brought to the field was great. The Whirlwind Ride Action makes for some great chases too.
In fact, the main weapon of the historical Samurai was a longbow. Often mounted. The katana was more like a last resort sidearm, doubling as an item of status.
A masterless samurai is a ronin and they typically became that because their Master fell out of favor became poor and could not afford them or basically they themselves fell out of favor and got handed a pink slip and there is no reason whatsoever that they should be able to avoid domination at all because they basically thrive on being dominated and working for someone this crap is skewed
Your player sounds like my kind of guy, one history buff to another. I appreciate that he wanted to be historically accurate, while still getting that anime flavoring.
My favorite character is a feral ronin. He's a goatman clone of Mugen from Samurai Champloo. He uses a single washing pole style katana and had a movement dexterity and agility bonus. His basic skill is called flurry of blades and gives him 7 basic consecutive attacks as long as the first connects and all crits start at 17 and deal 2.5x damage
