Multiclassing Samurai and Barbarian


Advice


I have been reading up on the Samurai class (specifically with the Sword Saint archetype), and noticed that Resolve can clear the fatigued condition. This and the flavor of a raging samurai (maybe half-orc) got me thinking about a Samurai/Barbarian.

Is multiclassing these two a good idea? In thinking about this further, removing the fatigued condition from a barbarian is not very difficult, and can be done more reliably with Heart of the Fields (although only 1/day). If multiclassing Samurai and Barbarian is a decent idea, what should the split look like?

I was thinking a 1 level dip in barbarian for rage and fast movement, but not sure if I should do more.

Has anyone ever played a ragin ronin?


Your rounds of rage per day is dependent on class levels in Barbarian (unless you take the extra rage feat) so you might want to take more than one level. There's also rage powers to consider..


I once played a ronin samurai 1/ bloodrager 8 but only briefly. But I mainly used the dip for style, heavy armor prof and weapon profs.


I made one to play as Amakos Brother in Jade Regent, but was an Order of the Shield SwordSaint 8/ Armored Hulk 2 and used a Mithral O-yoroi with an Adamantine Battle Kilt to add more Dex to my AC, while keeping Heavy Armor for my Order Abilites.

If I could do it all again I would Variant Multiclass Barbarian with Samurai.


I dont think it is worth it to get limited rage cyceling. One level dip in barbar always looks good in the begenning. But if you want to rage, better go barbarian or bloodrager. I think it can work fine but i dont think it is better than going straigth in either class.


Barbarian and Samurai both rely on class features that scale big time with leveling. I think you'd be superior as a straight 20 either way.


personally I care less about Ragecycling and more about having theoption to end rage in combat without Fatigue


With only 1 level of barbarian you will have so few rounds of rage that it probably isn't worth it for the minor buffs you would get, to delay the rest of your main class features.


Depends how feat reliant your build is, Extra Rage gives you 6 rounds of rage per feat which is the same thing as 3 levels of Barbarian.

For instance let us say you grab Arcane Strike and Power Attack as a human for your first two feats. That should carry your damage for a while.

You can then Rage, Challenge, Power Attack, and Iajutusu Strike all in the same round. At level two (Barb 1, Samurai 1) that is 7+(1d6) Damage and +2 to hit. The only problem is that you tank your AC by 8 points (6 to your target)! There are ways around this, of course. Namely you can take the Urban Barbarian archetype in order to prevent the -2 AC penalty and still get your strength bonus. For a -6 AC (-4 against the target of your challenge, the same as a normal Sword Saint)

There is also your challenge ability, which can help shore this up.

Of course finding the right balance of samurai and barbarian will be challenging.

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