Also, one thing might not everyone is knowing, is that the lvl 15 feature, Rapid Strikes actually synergyzes with fighting spirit, which has been confirmed by Jeremy Crawford. This means, while giving up advantage on one attack, you can still get advantage on your additional attack from rapid strikes, through fighting spirit. This means in total, you just get one additional attack without advantage whenever, you use fighting spirit and apply rapid strikes to one attack.
Funny thing about Samurai: There is nothing stopping you from playing a Ranged Samurai and it still workes ABSURDLY WELL. Fighting Spirit plus Sharpshooter is Insane
Elves with triple advantage make the -5 penalty virtually irrelevant. Highest damage option would either be a Musket or Hunting Rifle if your DM likes firearms. Otherwise, heavy crossbows will do you just fine. Had some ideas for pairing a 5 lvl Samurai dip with 15 lvls of Rogue. Fighting Spirit means you get advantage on the attack without losing your movement speed and the virtually free +10 damage should make up for the other 2d6 Sneak Attack die you sacrifice for more consistent attacks. If you pick Soulknife, having 9d6 psychic + 10 with Sharpshooter mitigated by Homing Strikes and Fighting Spirit could be interesting.
@@lt.branwulfram4794 For Fun once built Zoro from One Piece. 12 Levels of Samurai Fighter and 8 levels of Kensei monk. Actually worked really well for a flat 21 AC, 4 to 5 attacks a round with magical damage, and a really high Stunning strike save DC
Such a flavourful and cool subclass. I think the Samurai is one of the most overlooked fighter subclasses. Many people just underestimate it or think it is not good, since there are other ways to get oneself advantage, than fighting spirit. But fighting spirit gives oneself temporary hitpoints and you do waste attacks trying to shove enemies prone to get advantage etc.. Also it is thematically really on point. If you want your big epic moment just combine action surge with fighting spirit everytime. Elegant courtier is also very nice, bonus proficiencies and the ability to use wisdom for your face skills is so on point and the capstone, is an ability every martial character can just dream of. I mean it is an entire additional turn before you go down and you can even use it to just chuck a healing potion if you want.
A samurai with elven accuracy, multiclassing with ranger gloomstalker to get the extra attack. This class already benefits from having wisdom. You would get, with 5 fighter-5 ranger. On the first turn, you would have 8 attacks the first turn at level 10. All of them can be attacks with sharpshooter and elven accuracy. Imagine +4 dex, and a +1 weapon. You would have a base damage of 120 if all attacks hit, at level 10. And that is without counting how many critical hits you would get, you would make 8 attacks all with elven accuracy. It would be 8d8+120 with a median of 160 damage. That is without counting how many critical hits you could hit. If you get the piercer feat, you would roll three dice per critical hit and re-roll one dice for extra damage. You could easily be making around 200 damage each first round at level 10.
The 3 uses and long rest spoiled me between the UA and official release. The thing I love about fighter is that most subclasses regain most of their power on a short rest. I ended up feeling like a monk with permanently low ki. Plenty of ways to get advantage, and 5 temp hp is lame early on, and 15 is hilarious later on. This helped me feel like I really had to pick moments rather than go all in all the time. Rapid Strike felt good when I finally got it, but my game ended. I was a half-orc, so I had my lvl 18 from the beginning. I like everything else about the subclass on release. Theming and RP are top tier. Good review.
I still remember when I did a high level one shot and I rolled up with a Samurai Fighter and everyone was going 'Fighter? Really? Why not *insert magic class here*, they're so much more powerful and fun.' Only for me to absolutely demolish the first boss fight in a single turn because of Action Surge combined with Fighting Spirit 😂
Completely agree, this is an S tier fighter without a doubt! Flavourful and consistently competent, Wizards definitely had the foresight for designing Samurai and its done in a simple way :)
It’s done in a simple subclasses but also one of the most powerful. It’s actually so well constructed and really captures the spirit of a master of the blade, able to strike true at any moment. Or you know, be the only fighter theoretically able to do 10 attacks in a single round (action surge, 8 attacks + bonus action attack + 1 attack by forgoing an attack that would have been made at advantage). I think it’s neat.
I like the samurai too but I think it needs fighting spirit to reset on a short rest. Or at the very least proficiency times a day. And the temp hp should scale as well.
Ok, this also just makes me wish even more so that every fighter got superiority dice with battle master leaning in on it and not just being the only one, like imagine if you could use the on attack effects even if you don't add the dice on them, you could do some flashy shit.
*This* is the subclass when I think of someone wanting to play a Legolas character. While "Samurai" makes many folks envision swords, this works with any weapon attacks, so a sharpshooter longbow elf with elven accuracy for super advantage on every attack that turn.. hoo boy... That you can essentially get your 4th fighter attack a little early is icing. You can either have it at level 15 a time or two per battle, or you can multiclass 3 levels of rogue for steady aim, giving up your movement and bonus attack every turn you want to for that extra attack; while thus has some drawbacks and doesn't kick in until 18th, that is still potentially 2 levels earlier... Edit: of course, a STR based fighter can do similar with Barbarian and Reckless Attack, for GWM/PAM that doesn't even use their bonus attack for Reckless Attack to give all their attacks advantage for their turn, at an earlier level than careful aim.
I have yet to play any DnD. But this and the Warlock Genie class are the two I want to play the most. The Samurai class was mainly for that Strength Before Death ability. I want it to be in a scenario where after the enemy gets my hit points down, I shout like Asta from Black Clover, "Not Yet! I ain't done yet!" Then attack that enemy down or slowly walk over to the enemy while giving them the fear of life from me. That ability is the best way to use that feature.
I feel like fighting spirit should have just been a buff to you action surge rather than a bonus action. Tireless spirit could have been something like you get an additional action surge once per long rest, or an additional second wind per short rest.
I will be multiclassing my Shadar Kai Gloom Stalker after level 5 into Samurai for 4 levels. Dread Ambusher+ Fighting Spirit+ Sharpshooter+ Elven Accuracy+ Action Surge= one hell of a power house and my DM hating me a bit 😂.
Any GM worth his salt won't allow triple advantage, since no other build can get it. The fix is simple, you MUST take the elven accuracy roll. This will stop characters from rolling a third time when one of the first two hits, yet still allows a third chance when your dice abandon you and you roll 2 fours. I'm a huge fan of the samuri archer, but triple advantage is simply out of balance.
I was really upset that samurai was added as a subclass as it reinforces the idea that the only way to play a samurai is to be the samurai subclass when that didn't use to be the case.
I played a lawful neutral Blue-Dragonborn Fighter-Samurai over a year ago before I had to leave my group which I had to for unfortunate reasons. I was having an easier describing my attacks than when I was playing my tiefling wild magic sorcerer (I’m still surpised that there was no pyromancy subclass) should but boy did the dice hate my samurai character especially when I had to roll for stats. The other bad thing for my case about it is I had trouble roleplaying even my dm has said and noticed that had a hard time. Then again I lack the knowlege about roleplaying, being the face since we had a paladin in the party, and or even know how to act like a samurai despite my best resource was from the ones in anime. But also if I ever play the samurai again on level 3 or 4 for a feat…I would just take either skilled or skill expert for tools, skills, etc. or magic initiate for 1 attack cantrip or 1 the other cantrip for utility, social, etc. for example: Thaumaturgy or just ask your dm for homebrew spell of that category I guess that fits samurai in my opinion. Or just take 2 social/utility/etc spells. 1st level spells though…dealers choice I suppose. ones because the fighter class or most of the melee classes in general main weakness is lack of outside of combat use to where you feel like a power gamer or munchkin or something along those lines I guess. Also I don’t recommend the soldier background…while it kinda fits theme I didn’t like it and couldn’t figure out a proper way to use its feature especially how your character’s background’s military, organization, etc. is unrecognized majority of the time for a proper use since its way too niche (there is also another reason but too long to type). Just pick knight, knight of order, far traveler, folk hero, or talk with your dm to make homebrew background example a ronin.
They made one oversight with this class that killed it as an option for my character build. I built a Thri-Kreen fighter that uses scimitars (reskinned to be kodachi, basically smaller versions of katanas, but mounted differently) and hand crossbows. Because Two-Weapon Fighting uses a bonus action, and Crossbow Expert uses a bonus action, and Fighting Spirit uses a bonus action, and we start this campaign at level 1, it means that I’m always giving up an attack to attack with advantage if I want to use Fighting Spirit, so unless I use Action Surge, I essentially just get True Strike for a few levels until Extra Attack kicks in. Because of that, my three turns of Advantage Nova become one turn for a while, and will suffer from losing one attack to gain advantage all the way up until Rapid Strikes unlocks. The oversight is that Samurai are one of the few historical combatant types who are semi-regularly depicted dual-wielding, alongside Renaissance duelists and possibly pirates, and yet their subclass actively works against that style and strongly favors large weapons. This, assuming Samurai makes it through in its mostly-current form, will be fixed in OneD&D, where Light weapons get the ability to attack a second time without a bonus action, but for now I’ve turned my Samurai concept into a Battlemaster.
I don’t think it’s an oversight. It’s just a subclass option that does not mesh well with a certain play style. That’s like saying “The eldritch knight sucks because I made INT my dump stat” Managing bonus actions are important within the action economy of the edition. Samurai doesn’t play well with certain feats - which means it’s a good thing that you get your subclass at 3 and a feat at 4, so you can think of what works best. Crossbow expert doesn’t work well with samurai - but sharpshooter is amazing.
@@nuclearbirds The only reason I’d consider it an oversight is that it it makes the mechanics work against a large part of the flavor of the specific Samurai fantasy.
I have recently noticed that the tunnel fighter UA fighting style and oath of vengance 7th level aura feature sinergise to posibly get a lot more atacks a turn if you play it right i feel like it could make a good thing to talk about Also what is wotc doing with UA bc its been like that for ages but i thought that ua was just untill its tested
A lot of the dumping on it I've seen has been from people who think anything without spellcasting just isn't viable. I just super disagree with the premise of the argument. Lol
Also, one thing might not everyone is knowing, is that the lvl 15 feature, Rapid Strikes actually synergyzes with fighting spirit, which has been confirmed by Jeremy Crawford. This means, while giving up advantage on one attack, you can still get advantage on your additional attack from rapid strikes, through fighting spirit. This means in total, you just get one additional attack without advantage whenever, you use fighting spirit and apply rapid strikes to one attack.
It's a possible 9 attacks 8 at advantage on an action surged turn at level 20
Funny thing about Samurai: There is nothing stopping you from playing a Ranged Samurai and it still workes ABSURDLY WELL. Fighting Spirit plus Sharpshooter is Insane
Elves with triple advantage make the -5 penalty virtually irrelevant. Highest damage option would either be a Musket or Hunting Rifle if your DM likes firearms. Otherwise, heavy crossbows will do you just fine. Had some ideas for pairing a 5 lvl Samurai dip with 15 lvls of Rogue. Fighting Spirit means you get advantage on the attack without losing your movement speed and the virtually free +10 damage should make up for the other 2d6 Sneak Attack die you sacrifice for more consistent attacks.
If you pick Soulknife, having 9d6 psychic + 10 with Sharpshooter mitigated by Homing Strikes and Fighting Spirit could be interesting.
@@lt.branwulfram4794 For Fun once built Zoro from One Piece. 12 Levels of Samurai Fighter and 8 levels of Kensei monk. Actually worked really well for a flat 21 AC, 4 to 5 attacks a round with magical damage, and a really high Stunning strike save DC
Yep, and most samurai were actually archers, so it actually fits.
Such a flavourful and cool subclass.
I think the Samurai is one of the most overlooked fighter subclasses. Many people just underestimate it or think it is not good, since there are other ways to get oneself advantage, than fighting spirit. But fighting spirit gives oneself temporary hitpoints and you do waste attacks trying to shove enemies prone to get advantage etc.. Also it is thematically really on point. If you want your big epic moment just combine action surge with fighting spirit everytime.
Elegant courtier is also very nice, bonus proficiencies and the ability to use wisdom for your face skills is so on point and the capstone, is an ability every martial character can just dream of. I mean it is an entire additional turn before you go down and you can even use it to just chuck a healing potion if you want.
A samurai with elven accuracy, multiclassing with ranger gloomstalker to get the extra attack. This class already benefits from having wisdom. You would get, with 5 fighter-5 ranger. On the first turn, you would have 8 attacks the first turn at level 10. All of them can be attacks with sharpshooter and elven accuracy. Imagine +4 dex, and a +1 weapon. You would have a base damage of 120 if all attacks hit, at level 10. And that is without counting how many critical hits you would get, you would make 8 attacks all with elven accuracy.
It would be 8d8+120 with a median of 160 damage. That is without counting how many critical hits you could hit. If you get the piercer feat, you would roll three dice per critical hit and re-roll one dice for extra damage.
You could easily be making around 200 damage each first round at level 10.
My buddy showed me his Samurai/Gloomstaker build with XBE and Sharpshooter and the burst damage is insanely high AND reliable. S Tier for sure
considering many shinobi were also samurai depending on their Lord, this could be a good ninja build
Add Elven accuracy to that, and that would be extremely broken.
The 3 uses and long rest spoiled me between the UA and official release. The thing I love about fighter is that most subclasses regain most of their power on a short rest. I ended up feeling like a monk with permanently low ki. Plenty of ways to get advantage, and 5 temp hp is lame early on, and 15 is hilarious later on. This helped me feel like I really had to pick moments rather than go all in all the time. Rapid Strike felt good when I finally got it, but my game ended. I was a half-orc, so I had my lvl 18 from the beginning. I like everything else about the subclass on release. Theming and RP are top tier. Good review.
I still remember when I did a high level one shot and I rolled up with a Samurai Fighter and everyone was going 'Fighter? Really? Why not *insert magic class here*, they're so much more powerful and fun.' Only for me to absolutely demolish the first boss fight in a single turn because of Action Surge combined with Fighting Spirit 😂
I’ve played a samurai up to lvl 12 and I loved every moment of it. My absolute favourite character!
Completely agree, this is an S tier fighter without a doubt! Flavourful and consistently competent, Wizards definitely had the foresight for designing Samurai and its done in a simple way :)
It’s done in a simple subclasses but also one of the most powerful. It’s actually so well constructed and really captures the spirit of a master of the blade, able to strike true at any moment.
Or you know, be the only fighter theoretically able to do 10 attacks in a single round (action surge, 8 attacks + bonus action attack + 1 attack by forgoing an attack that would have been made at advantage). I think it’s neat.
I’m playing a samurai with a dip in barbarian and I’m loving it. All of the advantage I could want
I like the samurai too but I think it needs fighting spirit to reset on a short rest. Or at the very least proficiency times a day. And the temp hp should scale as well.
Temp hp increases to 10 at 10lvl and 15 at 15th so it does scale a bit
Ok, this also just makes me wish even more so that every fighter got superiority dice with battle master leaning in on it and not just being the only one, like imagine if you could use the on attack effects even if you don't add the dice on them, you could do some flashy shit.
*This* is the subclass when I think of someone wanting to play a Legolas character. While "Samurai" makes many folks envision swords, this works with any weapon attacks, so a sharpshooter longbow elf with elven accuracy for super advantage on every attack that turn.. hoo boy...
That you can essentially get your 4th fighter attack a little early is icing. You can either have it at level 15 a time or two per battle, or you can multiclass 3 levels of rogue for steady aim, giving up your movement and bonus attack every turn you want to for that extra attack; while thus has some drawbacks and doesn't kick in until 18th, that is still potentially 2 levels earlier...
Edit: of course, a STR based fighter can do similar with Barbarian and Reckless Attack, for GWM/PAM that doesn't even use their bonus attack for Reckless Attack to give all their attacks advantage for their turn, at an earlier level than careful aim.
I have yet to play any DnD. But this and the Warlock Genie class are the two I want to play the most. The Samurai class was mainly for that Strength Before Death ability. I want it to be in a scenario where after the enemy gets my hit points down, I shout like Asta from Black Clover, "Not Yet! I ain't done yet!" Then attack that enemy down or slowly walk over to the enemy while giving them the fear of life from me. That ability is the best way to use that feature.
I feel like fighting spirit should have just been a buff to you action surge rather than a bonus action. Tireless spirit could have been something like you get an additional action surge once per long rest, or an additional second wind per short rest.
And using the capstone wight fighting spirit you gain temporary hit points on top of the attack. So it would add 15thp.
I will be multiclassing my Shadar Kai Gloom Stalker after level 5 into Samurai for 4 levels. Dread Ambusher+ Fighting Spirit+ Sharpshooter+ Elven Accuracy+ Action Surge= one hell of a power house and my DM hating me a bit 😂.
Any GM worth his salt won't allow triple advantage, since no other build can get it. The fix is simple, you MUST take the elven accuracy roll. This will stop characters from rolling a third time when one of the first two hits, yet still allows a third chance when your dice abandon you and you roll 2 fours.
I'm a huge fan of the samuri archer, but triple advantage is simply out of balance.
I was really upset that samurai was added as a subclass as it reinforces the idea that the only way to play a samurai is to be the samurai subclass when that didn't use to be the case.
Take this as an elf and get elven accuracy at level 4. Get 3 dice while rolling with advantage
I played a lawful neutral Blue-Dragonborn Fighter-Samurai over a year ago before I had to leave my group which I had to for unfortunate reasons. I was having an easier describing my attacks than when I was playing my tiefling wild magic sorcerer (I’m still surpised that there was no pyromancy subclass) should but boy did the dice hate my samurai character especially when I had to roll for stats. The other bad thing for my case about it is I had trouble roleplaying even my dm has said and noticed that had a hard time. Then again I lack the knowlege about roleplaying, being the face since we had a paladin in the party, and or even know how to act like a samurai despite my best resource was from the ones in anime.
But also if I ever play the samurai again on level 3 or 4 for a feat…I would just take either skilled or skill expert for tools, skills, etc. or magic initiate for 1 attack cantrip or 1 the other cantrip for utility, social, etc. for example: Thaumaturgy or just ask your dm for homebrew spell of that category I guess that fits samurai in my opinion. Or just take 2 social/utility/etc spells. 1st level spells though…dealers choice I suppose. ones because the fighter class or most of the melee classes in general main weakness is lack of outside of combat use to where you feel like a power gamer or munchkin or something along those lines I guess. Also I don’t recommend the soldier background…while it kinda fits theme I didn’t like it and couldn’t figure out a proper way to use its feature especially how your character’s background’s military, organization, etc. is unrecognized majority of the time for a proper use since its way too niche (there is also another reason but too long to type). Just pick knight, knight of order, far traveler, folk hero, or talk with your dm to make homebrew background example a ronin.
I have seen some crazy clutch nova using Strength Before Death.
Which subclass is next hoping for the run knight it’s my favorite
One of my favorite subclass
They made one oversight with this class that killed it as an option for my character build.
I built a Thri-Kreen fighter that uses scimitars (reskinned to be kodachi, basically smaller versions of katanas, but mounted differently) and hand crossbows.
Because Two-Weapon Fighting uses a bonus action, and Crossbow Expert uses a bonus action, and Fighting Spirit uses a bonus action, and we start this campaign at level 1, it means that I’m always giving up an attack to attack with advantage if I want to use Fighting Spirit, so unless I use Action Surge, I essentially just get True Strike for a few levels until Extra Attack kicks in. Because of that, my three turns of Advantage Nova become one turn for a while, and will suffer from losing one attack to gain advantage all the way up until Rapid Strikes unlocks.
The oversight is that Samurai are one of the few historical combatant types who are semi-regularly depicted dual-wielding, alongside Renaissance duelists and possibly pirates, and yet their subclass actively works against that style and strongly favors large weapons.
This, assuming Samurai makes it through in its mostly-current form, will be fixed in OneD&D, where Light weapons get the ability to attack a second time without a bonus action, but for now I’ve turned my Samurai concept into a Battlemaster.
I don’t think it’s an oversight. It’s just a subclass option that does not mesh well with a certain play style. That’s like saying “The eldritch knight sucks because I made INT my dump stat”
Managing bonus actions are important within the action economy of the edition. Samurai doesn’t play well with certain feats - which means it’s a good thing that you get your subclass at 3 and a feat at 4, so you can think of what works best. Crossbow expert doesn’t work well with samurai - but sharpshooter is amazing.
@@nuclearbirds The only reason I’d consider it an oversight is that it it makes the mechanics work against a large part of the flavor of the specific Samurai fantasy.
By which I mean Two Weapon Fighting, not specifically Crossbow Expert.
Wouldn't you also be able to pop Rapid Strike with your reaction on an AoO that has advantage?
Go Go Half Elf Archer Samurai with Sharpshooter and Elven Accuracy
best race for it?
I’m new to 5e. Where do you get the info on this subclass? Thank you
I'm using D&D Beyond for the videos, but this subclass appears in a book called "Xanathar's Guide to Everything". Welcome to the hobby!
Playing this with a Dhampir would be solid since you get advantage when below half health (lv 15) or make attacks to heal yourself. (lv 18 feature)
I have recently noticed that the tunnel fighter UA fighting style and oath of vengance 7th level aura feature sinergise to posibly get a lot more atacks a turn if you play it right i feel like it could make a good thing to talk about
Also what is wotc doing with UA bc its been like that for ages but i thought that ua was just untill its tested
I was thinking of building a reaction based moldy spores druid paladin off this
I really want to play a Orc(Eberron) - Samurai Fighter, with great weapons style! Hack the shit out of monsters with a two-handed axe!
If you have a negative wisdom modifier, you lose points off of your persuasion skill at level 7
🔱
Finally. I see so many negative takes on this subclass and all I see is a pretty bossy fighter who is dying to multiclass w a rogue
A lot of the dumping on it I've seen has been from people who think anything without spellcasting just isn't viable. I just super disagree with the premise of the argument. Lol