We have all seen those Asian animes and movies with those superhuman ninja flying around the roofs and samurai drawing weapons at faster than light speed. So, why not play one in NWN?
This build actually came about when I tried to make a Yoda character using Soulknife, and Iaijustsu. That didn?t work out due to the fact that I couldn?t figure out how to use Iaijustsu Attack with the Mind Blade since it disappears once un-equipped. It still had very impressive stats however so I just rebuilt it to what it is now. It just so happened that the abilities of the build matched those of samurai and ninja in anime and movies so it became the Anime Supersamurai build.
SUPERSAMURAI
Ninja 9 / Samurai 20 / Iaijutsu Master 11
Variant Builds:
Ninja 10 / Samurai 20 / Iaijutsu Master 10 (gain Ghost Step)
Ninja 10 / Samurai 19 / Iaijutsu Master 11 (gain Ghost Step, & Echoes of the Edge)
*Ninja 10 / Samurai 17 / Iaijutsu Master 14 (gain Ghost Step, EotE & 2x Spirit Strike)
*Ninja 9 / Samurai 21 / Iaijutsu Master 10 (Gain Epic Daisho +1 feat, lose EotE)
**Ninja 9 / Samurai 30 / Iaijutsu Master 1 (Gain Epic Daisho +1 feat, lose Iaijutsu Strike)
* In retrospect these are probably the best all round builds to either take advantage of Iaijutsu Strike or Epic Daisho. I didn?t use these in the example below but that was just an early concept build.
** This build will give you access to even better weapons through Daisho however you will lose almost all your Iaijutsu Master abilities. In this case you are only taking Iaijutsu Master for Katana Finesse & Canny Defense (AC bonus from INT in this case 1AC). This build requires you to rethink a lot of stuff. Not recommended.
Beware of taking Samurai any lower than 17 else you will not get optimal enchantments on the samurai weapons. Optionally, simply replace Samurai altogether with just about any other class you like but I don't see why anyone would want to lose the Daisho ability. With 18+ levels to spare, you could take a spell caster to level 9 spells but beware the low AB and loss of at least 1 attack per round if you take a caster.
Race: This build needs every stat except for strength so almost any race will be fine just be sure it can dual wield a medium weapon in the main hand (no small races). For extra cheesiness, take an Illithid or Rakshasa but beware their experience penalties and the fact that they are incredibly cheesy. For a more ?legal? build pick up a Human or Half-Elf so that you can level them up faster. For this guide, I actually used a Brownie who cant dual wield (I was trying to make Yoda and failed) but I do not recommend that at all since you will miss out on all the enchantments you can place into your off hand Samurai wakisashi (short sword). Just remember to adjust the stats below to match your race selection.
Recommendation: Human or Half-Elf
Alignment: Lawful (required for Iaijutsu Master)
Starting Stats: You will gain AC bonuses from Dex (also +AB once you have Iaijutsu Master), Int, & Wis!!!! Use those starting points wisely and spread them out between those stats. Iaijutsu Attack uses your Cha modifier, but the return on that will be very minor compared to skills and feats invested but it is useful nonetheless just note that +1, 2, or 3 to the Iaijutsu skill isn?t going to make or break this build. Con is important for obvious reasons? more HP?s = less death. Strength will only be important till you take your 1st Iaijutsu Level. After that its only usefulness is allowing to carry more loot. If you really want to, feel free to move Cha points to Str to help you early on and for convenience later. In order of importance you want DEX, WIS, INT, CON then CHA & STR.
Recommendation: Assuming Human
(Hardcore v1) <Hardcore v2>
STR 10 (
<15>
DEX 14 (14) <14>
CON 14 (12) <10>
WIS 16 (16) <16>
INT 12 (12) <10>
CHA 10 (14) <10>
Put 2 points into WIS at some time so you can pick up Epic Daisho Feats
For a well balanced build put 8 points into DEX as you level for +4AC & +4AB
(For a hardcore v1 build put 8 points into CHA.)
<For a hardcore v1 build put 8 points into STR. You will need 2 more STR from feats>
Hardcore v1 will give a more powerful Iaijutsu attack but beware it will make you a 1-trick pony. If you can get CHA to 25 however you can gain access to the Legendary Commander feat.
Hardcore v2 will give you access to Devastating & Overwhelming Critical feats. This build will critical a lot, probably on average of 2 critical hits per round, so those feats can make short work out of a lot of enemies. I personally despise critical hit builds since they are situational. The thing is, most creatures will die in 1 or 2 rounds anyways so critical hits really aren?t necessary to begin with and tougher monsters are usually immune to it so at times when you need it the most, it will not even be available to you. I prefer to use my feats and ability points elsewhere but it is really up to you and how you want to play.
Level Progression: Is completely up to you but starting with Ninja gives you the most skill points to use. Simply play the 1st level as a rogue then switch right away to Samurai to maximize your AB and throw in up to 3 ninja levels before level 20 to maximize needed skills. IMPORTANT do not take more than 4 Ninja levels pre-level 20 or you will lose 1 AB in the final stats. Post-level 20, you can mix & match however you like. The Ninja is the least important of the build but it does help make the game more fun since it provide useful skills and more sneak damage for Iaijutsu Attack. You could replace ninja with rogue levels if you wish but then you would lose the Ninja AC feat and you would need to take the Exotic Weapon Proficiency feat. I don't recommend that route since your AC and saving throws will suffer and the only real benefit will be the use magic device skill but you will have to invest heavily into hide and move silently whereas with ninja, you can go invisible via Ghost step and completely ignore those 2 skills. Also, try to hold off on Iaijutsu Master as long as possible to avoid the experience penalty of a third class.
Feats: 20 total (21 for humans). Improved Initiative & Weapon Focus Katana are required for Iaijutsu Master, but those are great feats anyway especially since Iaijutsu Attack requires an initiative check. Make sure to get all the initiative enhancing feats you can. Also remember that you will be able to enchant your weapons with feats as well. I would place haste and cleave on my wakizashi and forgo those feats entirely.
Recommendations: Anything that raised your AB with equipped weapons. Epic Daisho for better Samurai weapons (needs WIS 19), Dual wield feats. Initiative feats. Iaijutsu Attack focuses. Toughness, you will need the HP?s especially if you don't reroll.
Skills: Tons of points to use. Remember that you don't need to worry about hide and move silently since your initiative attacks will be high and the Ninja class can innately go invisible by using one of their ki. Use those skill points for other stuff unless you reaaaaallly love sneaking around.
Recommendation: Tumble, Discipline, Iaijutsu Focus, Spot (to help against sneak attackers).
1: Ninja
2: Samurai
3: Samurai
4: Samurai +1 Dex
5: Samurai
6: Samurai
7: Ninja
8: Samurai +1 Dex
9: Samurai
10: Samurai
11: Samurai
12: Samurai +1 Dex
13: Ninja
14: Samurai
15: Samurai
16: Samurai +1 WIS
17: Samurai
18: Samurai
19: Ninja
20: Samurai +1 WIS
21: Samurai
22: Samurai
23: Samurai (recommend you take Epic WIS here to get 19 WIS)
24: Samurai (Level 20 Samurai)
25: Ninja +1 Dex
26: Iaijutsu Master
27: Iaijutsu Master
28: Iaijutsu Master +1 Dex
29: Iaijutsu Master
30: Iaijutsu Master
31: Ninja
32: Iaijutsu Master +1 Dex
33: Iaijutsu Master
34: Iaijutsu Master
35: Iaijutsu Master
36: Iaijutsu Master +1 Dex
37: Ninja
38: Ninja
39: Ninja (Level 9 Ninja)
40: Iaijutsu Master (Level 11 I.M.) +1 Dex
ENDING STATS
Balanced (Hardcore)
STR 10 (
DEX 24 (14)
CON 14 (14)
WIS 19 (19)
INT 12 (12)
CHA 10 (22)
- Using dexterity build
- Naked except for katana (+5 +1d4 cold) and wakizashi (+5 +haste +cleave)
- Completely unbuffed
- Note that this is not meant to be a hardcore cheesy build.
AC 35
HP 422 (without any rerolls)
Fort 24
Reflex 27
Will 26
Base Attack: 29
Main Hand: 43/38/33/28 (17-20) x2 @ 1d10 +5 +1d4 (Perma-Hasted)
Off Hand: 43/38/33 (19-20) x2 @ 1d6 +5
Sneak Damage: 5d6
+1 more attack from haste
---------------------------------------------------------
8 Attacks total (I think)
+ Extra attacks from feat ?1 Strike 2 Cuts?
+ Iaijutsu Attack at the start of combat for good damage
Ending Skills:
Disable Traps 42
Discipline 44
Iaijutsu Focus 44 (+13 from feats = 57)
Open Locks 42
Persuade 40
Search 32
Spot 44
Tumble 54
- To actually use this guy to his full potential you need stat boosting items
o +INT crown will give him more AC
o +WIS necklace will give him more AC & Will
o +DEX belt will give him more AC & AB & Reflex
o +CHA cloak will grant more Iaijutsu damage
o + CON boots will grant more HP?s & Fortification
o Get some immunities and +AC and saving throws on the rest of the items
If you can get him the above items you can boost his AC another 20 or so, boost all his saving throws by about 4, boost his damage a little, & get him some much needed spell immunities.
~ This character hits so fast that I can?t really discern where rounds start and when they end. It almost seems like he is pulling off several sneak attacks per round along with rend, and 1 or 2 double attacks from ?1 Strike 2 Cuts.? I cant tell what his Iaijutsu Attack does because it keeps popping up errors in the combat text but the range I saw according to the floating numbers ranged between 36 & 72. Most of the hits don't even show up so I am not sure how good of a range that is. I ran through a few areas and killed everything in site in the OC, nothing survived past the 1st round if I used Iaijutsu Attack. Very rarely, there was something that made it to the second if I didn?t use Iaijutsu Attack. I did get hit a few times but then again I was naked.
Advantages: Very playable and very nicely balanced for a melee build. Tons of feats & skills. Resists are all within acceptable range, and AC is very high. You get very powerful weapons with permanent haste very early in the game for only about 25,000 gold worth of items. Add cleave for another 30,000 and you wont have to waste feats getting it. Iaijutsu Attack gives a nice burst of damage at the start of combat, and your high dexterity allows you to hit very frequently.
Disadvantage: Despite all the feats you get and the feats from Daisho, you will still want more. Upgrading your Daisho can get expensive depending on what you choose to put on them. Opening with Iaijutsu required me to un-equip both weapons and then re-equip them manually after the attack since it doesn't automatically re-equip the off hand wakizashi. I really didn?t like having to re-equip all the time and I am unsure of whether or not this was by design, or if I am missing something here. I had issues with Iaijutsu and Soulknife also like I mentioned up at the start of this guide. I for one would never play with the Iaijutsu Master class if I had to put up with that annoyance the entire time.
-Lastly, I was unable to make some of the weapons Stradivarius mentions in his builds. It seems to me that there is a cap of 200,000 points worth of enchantments on each weapon the samurai has. I reached those limits with the few enchantments I noted above. It was impossible to put something like 1d12 fire damage because it required a potential of over 300k. The 200,000 cap didn?t seem to change post Samurai level 17. It stayed the same up to level 21. You can still enchant them using normal ingame means however, so they can still be some of the best weapons in the game. EDIT: I learned that to make those weapons you need to have an Epic Samurai with 19+ WIS. With that knowledge you could re-arrange the levels to gain better samurai weapons.
