The Way of the Samurai

For the purposes of this guide I will be using the standard color-coding:Red: Almost completely uselessOrange: Not terrible, but you can usually find something betterGreen: A solid choiceBlue: Simply outstanding

Samurai vs. CavalierSince the Samurai is an alternate class for the Cavalier, it’s only natural to compare the two classes. While they obviously share quite a few features like challenges and orders, the two are still distinct enough that has their own unique playstyle. Because Samurai is an alternate class for the Cavalier, in many cases there will be a direct comparison to what the standard Cavalier can do. For some character concepts, I feel that while the Samurai is still quite objectively capable of filling the role the Cavalier is simply a superior way of realizing those types of characters.

So, let’s discuss the two biggest differences between the two.

Tactician vs. ResolveThe Cavalier gets the Tactician ability, which grants bonus Teamwork feats along with the ability to give your allies the benefit of those feats. Tactician can be a very powerful ability if you set it up right, but as the name implies, teamwork feats require that you work with other members of the party in a coordinated fashion. That’s not always easy to pull off.

Resolve doesn’t require working with your team; all the benefits of Resolve will benefit your Samurai only. It’s an almost entirely defensive ability, allowing you to remove negative conditions, roll twice on saving throws, negate critical hits, and even take the sting out of save-or-dies.

Mounted Combat vs. Weapon Specialization and Burst AbilitiesWhile the Samurai still gets a class mount and a one features geared toward mounted combat, they really don’t benefit much by fighting from horseback. While the Samurai can still do mounted combat, the Cavalier just does it so much better. Cavaliers, by contrast, get a big bonus on handle animal, and can be absolutely devastating when they perform a mounted charge.

For the Samurai, they get a mix of offensive and defensive boosts. Weapon Expertise unlocks access to fighter feats for a single weapon, and you gain the Honorable Stand and Last Stand abilities, which can seriously boost your character’s endurance.

Ability ScoresStrength: The samurai is ultimately a melee class, which means you’ll want strength.Dexterity: A tertiary stat as long as you’re in heavy armor, but it is a requirement for two-weapon fighting.

Constitution: Everyone wants hit points and Fortitude saves.Intelligence: Generally not that important.Wisdom: Don’t dump it (your will save needs all the help it can get) but it’s a tertiary stat.Charisma: Can be a dump stat, but quite a few orders will get very good use out of it, so many builds it is a secondary stat.

RacesCore Races

Dwarf: Not a bad choice overall. While there’s no bonus to the Samurai’s primary stat, Constitution and Wisdom are both useful, and Charisma is a common dump stat for many builds. If you’re planning to wear heavy armor anyway their speed is a non-issue and most of their racial bonuses can be useful for a martial character. The Favored Class bonus is also pretty nice; adding extra damage to the challenge makes a good ability even better.

Elf: Constitution penalties are a bad thing on any frontline class, and the bonuses to dexterity and intelligence don’t make up for it. They’re not as terrible as finesse fighters/dual wielders with wakizashis, but if want to focus on that there are plenty of races that can get a bonus to dexterity without taking a hit to Constitution in the process. If you insist on playing an Elf, swap out Elven Magic for something a martial class could actually get some use out of (there are several decent options in the APG). Favored Class bonus adding extra HP to your mount is alright, but not great.

Gnomes: Gnomes just don’t have a lot going for them as a Samurai. The strength penalty and small size hurt their damage, and the rest of their racial abilities don’t bring much to the table to offset that. Small size does make them good at mounted combat though. The favored class bonus also increases your mount’s speed. All in all, Gnomes make better Cavaliers than Samurai.

Half-Elves: The floating stat bonus and generally useful but not great racial bonuses make them a solid green. Multitalented makes them an ideal choice for any Samurai who plans on multiclassing. I’d suggest swapping out Adaptability for Dual-Minded; any martial character is going to love a +2 on will saves. The Favored Class bonus adds to your mount’s base speed, so it’s a bit underwhelming.

Half-Orcs: Not shabby at all. The floating stat bonus is always good, and their bonus to intimidate can come in handy for some builds. Orc Ferocity overlaps with the Unstoppable Resolve ability, but there are several good options for a swap-out in the APG (I would personally recommend Sacred Tattoo or Toothy). The Favored Class Bonus can add to your mount’s HP. Half-Orcs (and full Orcs) can also take the Beast Rider Racial Feat, which adds several new options for your mount that are a lot beefier than the horse, including the Pteranodon for flight.

Halflings: The Halfling really shines at ranged mounted combat, but that’s at best a secondary role for the Samurai. Still, being small size makes staying mounted in close quarters much less of a problem, and while their lower strength and small size reduce their damage somewhat, it’s not enough to be a deal-breaker. The favored class bonus adds damage to their attacks of opportunity, which is nice but seems a bit weak compared to the Dwarf’s bonus. Halflings also get access to the Order of the Paw, which is a decent choice but not all that great for a Samurai.

Humans: As always, humans are a good choice. A floating stat bonus is terrific, and everyone likes extra skill points and a bonus feat. Since the Samurai is an alternate class for the Cavalier, you should also be able to use the human favored class option to boost your banner bonus. The Favored Class Bonus boosts up your banner, which is always nice.

Featured Races in the Advanced Races Guide

Aasimar: Bonuses to wisdom and charisma are reasonably useful, and not taking a hit any of your ability scores is nice. Skill bonuses to diplomacy and perception are great. The daylight spell-like ability can be quite handy in some situations, and you get five points of resistance to three different elements. Their Favored Class Bonus is a nice damage boost for your challenge, but for some reason it’s on a +1/4 levels progression compared to the +1/2 progression Dwarves get.

Will add further examination of the Aasimar once Blood of Angels comes out.

Catfolk: Dexterity and Charisma can both be useful stats for a Samurai, and getting a racial bonus on Perception and Survival takes some of the sting out of the Wisdom penalty. Their Favored Class bonus also adds to the banner bonus.

Dhampir: Dexterity and Charisma are still useful, but taking a Constitution penalty is always gonna sting. Negative Energy Affinity could be a problem at early levels, so you might want to check with your party to make sure they’re aware of how it works and will keep some healing options for you. No unique Favored Class Bonus. Not much to recommend them for Samurai.

Drow: Same stat bonuses penalties at the Dhampir, which will always sting for a frontliner. However, the Drow do get a pretty nice suite a racial abilities, and the racial feats can bump up your spell-like abilities. No unique Favored Class Bonus though.

Fetchling: The Advanced Races Guide really likes races with bonuses to Dexterity and Charisma, doesn’t it? Fetchlings do get some very nice racial bonuses for a melee type though, The Gloom Shimmer substitution is especially nice; a martial class loves getting Displacement as a Spell-like ability. No unique Favored Class Bonus though.

Goblin: Small size and a penalty to Strength hurts for a melee class. The big bonus to Dexterity and access to a bite attack via substitution options can make up for that a bit. Still, I can’t help but think that Goblins make better Luring Cavaliers than Samurai. Their Favored Class bonus can be put into boosting their mount’s HP.

Hobgoblin: Bonuses to Dexterity and Constitution, with no penalty. Very nice. Their sneaky racial ability comes with some great substitutions, like a bonus to intimidate or to attack rolls against spellcasters. Their Favored Class Bonus also adds into Intimidate, making them very good for Intimidation-focused builds.

Ifrit: Bonuses to dexterity and charisma can be reasonably useful, and the hit to wisdom isn’t a deal-breaker. The spell-like ability and elemental resistance are nice to have too. Still, while there’s no huge issues, there’s also nothing to really make this race stand out above the other choices for a Samurai. They don’t get a unique Favored Class bonus

Kobold: Small size, -4 strength, and -2 Constitution. Do I even need to go on from here? Kobolds can be awesome, but not as frontline melle types. Their Favored Class bonus adds to their mount’s charge and withdraw speeds.

Orcs: +4 to strength is extremely nice for frontline melee, though the penalty to all of your mental stats hurts. Their Favored Class Bonus adds to their CMB for Bull Rush and Overrun maneuvers against challenged targets. Dovetails very nicely with the Order of the Seal’s free Bull Rush maneuvers against the target of your challenge.

Oread: Very nice stat bonuses, and ideal if you pick order that doesn’t benefit from Charisma. Their spell-like isn’t terribly useful unless you plan on using a sling (or you can sub it out for another semi-useful ability. and the elemental resistance probably won’t come into play all that often. They have no unique Favored Class Bonus.

Ratfolk: Small size and a Strength penalty, with bonuses to Dexterity and Intelligence. Like Halflings, Ratfolk are probably better off as Luring Cavaliers than Samurai.

Sylph: Same stat modifiers as an Elf, and the constitution penalty still stings on a class that wants to be on the frontlines. Their spell-like ability is also pretty situational, though some of the substitution options are pretty nice. Considering the identical stat bonuses, it’s no surprise that I’d rate it about the same as the Elf.

Tengu: Nicely oriental themed, but their stat bonuses don’t offer that much to the Samurai and the constitution penalty hurts. Sword-training goes to waste on the Samurai. The natural bite attack is very nice, but there are other ways to get a bite attack with other races.

Tiefling: Passable stat adjustments as long as you don’t plan to use charisma, and most of their secondary bonuses fall into reasonably useful but not quite amazing. The skill bonuses to bluff and stealth aren’t that useful for a Samurai, but darkness is a handly SLA and getting five points of resistance to three elements is pretty nice.

If using Blood of Fiends, Tieflings get even better. Demon-spawn, Oni-Spawn, and Qlippoth-spawn all bring in strength bonuses, and someof them have better skill bonuses a Samurai is likely to get a bit more use out of (like Perception or Intimidate). You also get the option of trading out your spell-like ability for neat abilities like being able to wield large weapons with no penalty, a point of natural armor, save bonuses, mental stat bonuses, extra hp, damage reduction, etc.

Undine: The strength penalty is going to sting, but considering that and your dexterity bonus this race is probably going the finesse/dual wield/agile weapon route anyway. Wisdom is a good secondary stat, and the Undine has one of the better spell-like abilities (using maneuvers at range is always nice and you can probably find some utility options for it).

Uncommon Races in the Advanced Races Guide

Changeling: Bonuses to Wisdom and Charisma are nice, but you take a Constitution penalty to get them. You’ll probably want to pick Annis Hag heritage for the bonus on melee damage. Getting a bit of natural armor is nice, and claws as backup melee weapons could come in handy. Passable, but nothing all that great.

Duergar: The Charisma penalty can really sting, but there are plenty of Samurai builds that don’t rely on Charisma. Enlarge Person as a spell-like ability is wonderful for any melee type, and invisibility can also come in handy. On top of that, Duergar get a couple handy immunities and a save bonus against spells and spell like abilities. In they got the Dwarven Favored Class option for the Samurai/Cavalier (you could always try to talk your GM into allowing it since Duergar don’t have a unique Favored Class Bonus) they’d be even better.

Gillmen: (Higher if in an Aquatic Campaign) Bonuses to Constitution and Charisma are both good, and the Wisdom penalty is somewhat offset by the racial bonus to will saves against enchantment spells (as long as you’re not up against Aboleths). However, the viablity of this race is likely to be will be very campaign-dependent. In an aquatic campaign their Swim speed ability to breathe underwater could be a huge boon. For a land-based campaign their Water Dependant rule can sting (and trading it out makes you vulnerable to fire, which tends to be the most commonly used type of elemental energy).

Grippli: The bane of all melee classes, small size and a strength penalty, rears its head once more. Their racial bonuses can be reasonably useful though, especially the substitution that give them the ability to poison their weapons.

Kitsune: Bonuses to Dexterity and Charisma accompanied by a Strength penalty. A Finesse & Performance Combat build might be a good idea. The shape change racial ability can be handy, you can swap out the useless for a martial character magic ability to boost up your shapeshifting, and you have a natural bite attacks. You can also spend a feat to pick up some handy spell-likes such as Displacement. Not a shabby choice at all.

Merfolk: (Incredible in an Aquatic Campaign) Absolutely amazing stats (three +2s and no penalties) and a natural armor bonus and immunity to being tripped. However, even more than the Gillmen their viability will depend on being in an aquatic campaign. Without the Strong Tail substitution Merfolk can barely move outside of the water, and even with it they still have a painfully slow 15 ft move speed. Going with the Naginata can help offset your speed a bit by granting reach, and magic can eventually take the sting out of your slow move speed. Mounted Combat might also be something to consider; your slow move speed doesn’t matter as much if your mount does the moving for you.

Nagaji: Bonuses to Strength and Charisma, and a penalty to Intelligence. That’s a good start. On top of that they get bonus natural armor and a bonus against mind-affecting spells (something any low-will save class appreciates). Their skill bonuses are also pretty handy, especially if you can get a reptilian mount.

Samsaran: Bonuses to Wisdom and Intelligence accompanied by a Constitution penalty. Many of their racials are really made for casters too. Nothing to reccomdent them for the Samurai.

Strix: Racial Flight. Their ability score adjustments are a bit weak, but the dexterity bonus is good and plenty of builds don’t depend on Charisma. The bonus to hitting humans will be handy in many cases, and you can substitute their nocturnal ability to get a racial bonus to Perception and gain it as a class skill. They also a +2 to saves against illusions (anything to shore up your weak will saves is nice) that can be subbed out for a +1 to Fortitude or Reflex saves. And oh yeah, flight as a racial ability.

Suli: Same ability score adjustments as the Nagaji. Still quite nice. Getting five points of resistance to all four elements is useful, and the racial skill bonus to diplomacy and sense motive doesn’t hurt at all. Elemental Assault is a wonderful racial ability for any melee character; it basically gives you a corrosive/flaming/fronst/shock weapon for free. I’d recommend the Incremental Elemental Assault feat to get a bit more use out of it at higher levels.

Svirfniblin: I might have to make an exception to my dislike of small races with penalties to strength. No other small race comes with a +2 racial dodge bonus to AC and +2 to all saving throws. The huge charisma penalty will be a problem for some builds, but all the other goodies they bring are enough to make up for it.

Vanara: Bonuses to Dexterity and Wisdom, and a penalty to a potential dump stat. The prehensile tail could come in handy, and climb speed is useful (or you could sub it out to get all knowledge skills as class skills). Still, there’s not much to make them stand out as an amazing choice.

Vishkanya: Dexterity and Charisma are useful scores, and the penalty to Wisdom is partially offset by the racial bonus to perception. Being able to poison your weapon as a swift action is pretty nice for any melee character. You can even take a feat to make your venom inflict staggering and unconsciousness instead of dexterity damage. All around, a pretty decent choice.

Wayang: A small race without a strength penalty. Interesting. Sadly, none of their unique racial abilities are of particular use for a Samurai, though the bonus to perception is always nice and their Light and Dark ability could be great if you run into a situation where the bad guys are tossing negative energy around.

Race Builder: If you’re allowed to use it, you can probably make something ridiculously good for your character. This is why you probably won’t be allowed to use it by most GMs.

Combat StylesArchery:Even though you can take weapon expertise with the Longbow and get the mounted archery feat, you only get your challenge bonus damage on melee attacks. That really kills focusing on archery as an option, though you’ll still probably want to have a bow handy for those times when ranged combat is the only option.

Archery Feats (Just in case you really want to do archery)Point Blank Shot: Decently useful on it’s own, but it’s main value is that it’s a prerequisite for other feats.

Precise Shot: Odds are you’ll be firing into melee pretty frequently, so being able to ignore the -4 penalty is pretty nice.

Clustered Shots: Very handy for dealing with Damage Reduction.Improved Precise Shot: Cover and concealment can really throw off an archer’s game, so ignoring those penalties is great.

Rapid Shot: Extra attacks are almost always worth it.Manyshot: See previous statement about extra attacks.

Deadly Aim: Power attack for the bow.Point Blank Master: You can meet the Weapon Specialization prerequisite if you take the bow for your Weapon Expertise weapon. Not that I would advise doing so, but it is technically an option, and if you take that route this is a nice feat to have.

Mounted:Not a bad choice per se, but if you really want to focus on fighting from your mount it might be better to just play a Cavalier. Don’t be fooled by the fact that you get Mounted Archer; the rest of your class abilities don’t support it. For a mounted archer, the Luring Cavalier and other classes offer a far better choice.

Mounted Combat FeatsMounted Combat: If you do plan to ride your mount on a regular basis, spending a single feat here might not be a bad idea. It’ll give your mount a good durability boost.

Ride-By Attack, Spirited Charge, Etc: Play a Cavalier.Trick Riding: An extra ride check to negate a hit and no penalty for riding bareback. Reasonably useful.

Mounted Skirmisher: The ability that might actually make a focus on mounted combat worth considering. Lets you move up to your mount’s speed, and still make a full attack.

Sword and BoardThe boost to AC is nice, but a shield bashing build is a very feat-hungry combat style, and the Samurai doesn’t really bring anything to the table to make sword and board all that appealing.

Sword and Board FeatsImproved Shield Bash: Lets you keep your shield bonus to AC in combat. Obviously a must-have.

Shield Slam: Get a free Bull-Rush when you shield bash. Decent, but you’ll be using so many feats on your combat style that you will have trouble affording Improved/Greater Bull Rush to really make the most of it.

Shield Master: Negates any attack penalties on your shield bashing (such as the ones from two-weapon fighting) and lets you add your shield’s enhancement bonus to attack and damage as if it were a weapon enhancement bonus.

Bashing Finish: A free shield bash every time you crit. Not shabby at all, since you’ll probably be using an 18-20 range weapon in your other hand.

Shield Focus & Greater SF: Each of these grants +1 Shield AC. Not that impressive, especially for a very feat-starved build.Two-Weapon Fighting: Look under the Two Weapon Fighting Combat Style

Two-Handed Weapon:Gets the most out of Power attack, and comes with a much lower feat cost than any other combat style. A very solid choice, especially since it frees up feats for diversifying the rest of your character.

Two-Handed Weapon Feats:Power Attack: Trade -1 on your attack rolls for +3 damage. Not a shabby trade as long as it doesn’t kill your chances of hitting.

Furious Focus: Lets you ignore the Power Attack penalty on your first attack each turn. Very handy, and especially nice any turn where you can’t make a full attack.Cleave: Decent at early levels, but it doesn’t age all that wonderfully.

Great Cleave: Not very useful unless you’re being swarmed by hordes of enemies.

Shield of Swings: Cut your damage in half to gain +4 AC and CMD. Situationally useful, but most of the time you’re better off if you focus on killing the bad guy faster.

Two Weapon Fighting:Wakizashis make great weapons for any two-weapon fighter, and Challenge will add damage to all your attacks. It is still a very feat-intensive combat style though, and it also requires a large-ish investment into Dexterity, so be wary.

Two Weapon Fighting Feats:Two Weapon Fighting: Kind of a must-have to dual-wield.

Double Slice: Adds your full Strength bonus to your off-hand. Extra damage is always good.Two Weapon Defense: +1 AC (+2 when fighting defensively). +1 AC for a feat generally isn’t that great of a trade, and there are better ways to get a Shield Bonus to AC.Improved TWF: Get your second iterative attack with your off-hand weapon. More attacks is good.

Greater TWF: Getting a third iterative attack with your off-hand weapon is nice, but the penalty on the third iterative is high enough that this isn’t a must-have.Two Weapon Rend: If you successfully hit with your main-hand and off-hand weapons, you deal an extra 1d10 + 1.5 Str damage. it’s an extra hit you don’t even have to roll for.

Weapon Finesse: Wakizashis are light weapons and you’ll need a fair bit of dexterity for the TWF prerequisites anyway, so this might be worth considering. Since you can still get a large chunk of damage from challenges, not having as much strength isn’t as painful as it could be. Goes up to blue if you have some way of adding Dexterity to damage, such as the Agile weapon enhancement.

Piranha Strike: Power Attack for light weapons. Sometimes, you just really want to hit harder.

Class FeaturesChallenge:The bread and butter of the class. Doing extra damage on every attack equal to your Samurai level is great.

The only downsides to the ability are that it can only apply to a single target, and it reduces your AC against attacks from any enemy other than the one you challenged. This can make life unpleasant if you get focus-fired, especially if you’re up against a horde of weak enemies instead of a smaller number of tougher opponents.

Generally speaking, you’ll want to use this ability on the biggest, nastiest opponent in the encounter. It’s good tactical sense, and it also makes for nice roleplaying.

Note that your choice of order will add secondary bonuses to your challenge.

Mount:While the Samurai doesn’t get all the useful class abilities that the Cavalier has to make mounted combat scary, your mount is still an animal companion, and that’s nothing to sneeze at.

Just how useful this ability is will depend on how willing your GM is to accept mounts that aren’t on the list. If your GM will let you take something like a Dire Wolf or a T-Rex instead of the normal choice between a horse or a camel, then this can give you a useful flanking buddy even if you never ride at all.

Small races are likely to get more out of this ability, since their mounts are medium sized and their base list actually has mounts like the wolf and boar that have decent combat utility already.

Resolve:An excellent ability that ages very well, and comes with three very nice uses right out of the gate. Determined: You can spend a use of your resolve to remove a lot of conditions. At level 8, the list of conditions expands to cover some really painful ones, like nauseated and staggered.Resolute: Roll twice and take the better result on a Fortitude or Will save. Not quite as good as a re-roll, but still a very nice option to have for those saves where there are serious consequences for failing.Unstoppable: If you’re at negative hit points, you can auto-stabilize and remain conscious. Hopefully it won’t get as much use as resolute and determined, but if things go wrong it can save your life.

Weapon Expertise:Quick Draw with a single weapon, a bonus to confirming crits, and access to Weapon Specialization and other fighter-only goodies. Since there are only four weapons to choose from

it does tie the Samurai to a fairly narrow selection, but the four weapons you get are all very nice choices, so the limitation isn’t as painful as it could be. Wakizashis are great for a two-weapon fighter, Katana works for sword & board or two-handed, and the Naginata is a fine reach weapon. The Longbow is also a good weapon, but since you can’t use your challenge with it I wouldn’t recommend taking Weapon Expertise with it.

Mounted Archer:Ranged attacks really aren’t the Samurai’s strong suit. I suppose there are situations where the ability could be useful, but in the end you’ll want to be in melee whenever possible.

Banner:A bonus to charge attacks and saves against fear effects for the entire group. Not quite as useful for the Samurai as it is for the Cavalier since Samurai don’t have the Cavalier’s huge bonuses for charging, but passive bonuses are always good to have. Goes up to green or even blue if you’re in a party where the other melee characters have good reasons to charge (such as bonus damage on a charge or Pounce).

Bonus Feats:Bonus Feats are always great. You’re restricted to Combat Feats, but that’s a fairly painless restriction for any martial class.

Greater Resolve:Spend a point of resolve to negate a critical hit on your character? Yes please.

Honorable Stand:Taking an honorable stand nets you immunity to fear effects, your character will no longer go unconscious when he falls to 0 hit points, and you gain the option to spend resolver to re-roll a failed saving throw. All fairly nice abilities. The one downside is that if you decide to make an honorable stand, withdrawing from the battle will cost you the ability to make any challenges for the next 24 hours.

Demanding Challenge:If you threaten the target of your challenge, he’s -2 AC for attacks made by anyone else. Great if your party is focusing fire on the target of your challenge, which will happen a lot if you use your challenges on the biggest and nastiest opponents. This is especially nice if your Samurai is from the Order of the Dragon, since the combined effect can make it very easy for any ally to start scoring hits.

Greater Banner:

A passive bonus to saves against charm and compulsion effects (one of the eternal banes of martial classes) and you can spend a standard action to grant all of your allies a re-roll of one saving throw. Not shabby at all.

True Resolve:If your Samurai is going to die, you get the option to spend all your resolve for the day to end up stabilized and unconscious at -1 hp. Not dying is always nice, and by the time you reach level 17 your party should have ways to get you back into the fight. Having to spend all your daily resolve stings, but it’s better than dying, and you can still regain uses of resolve by defeating the target of a challenge.

Last Stand:All things considered, this is a slightly underwhelming capstone. All physical attacks do minimum damage to your character unless they’re critical hits (don’t forget you can spend resolve to turn a crit into a non-crit). Plus, attacks from anyone other than the target of your challenge can never reduce you to negative hit points.

The big downside is that this ability only provides its protection against physical attacks; if it’s a spell, supernatural ability, or anything else you get nothing from it. At level 20, odds are you’ll be facing plenty of non-weapon sources of damage. Additionally, since it only reduces variable damage, this ability won’t do much if your opponent gets most of his damage from static bonuses.

SkillsGetting 4 + Int skill points to work with gives you some room to consider your options. The Samurai skill list isn’t shabby at all, especially for a martial class. The Samurai has the skills to make a decent face if you want to go down that route.

Note that Samurai gain additional Class skills based on their choice of Order.

Bluff: A useful social skill, and has a combat option with feinting.Climb: Poor climb; so unloved. At most, put a single rank in it for life’s just in case situations. With the class skill bonus and your high strength mod that should be enough.Craft: Usually not worth it.Diplomacy: A very handy skill to have for whenever you need a bit of persuasion and charm, though it lacks the potential combat utility of the other two face skills.Handle Animal: At most, put enough ranks into the skill to control your mount in combat and teach it new tricks out of combat.Intimidate: A very useful face skill, especially since you can take Intimidating Prowess to add your strength modifier to your intimidate checks, making it viable even for samurai who dump charisma. It’s also the face skill with the best combat utility for a samurai.

Profession: Usually not worth it.Ride: If you’re on a horse, max it. Otherwise, ignore it.Sense Motive: If you plan to spend any time as the party face, this is a good skill to have.Swim: Swim is just as unloved as climb. Same advice applies as with climb, although if you anticipate spending a lot of time on the water, it might be worth investing more into this skill.

OrdersWhich order your samurai belongs to is a very important part of the character. Your Challenge, skill list, and several major class abilities are directly tied to which order you choose. In addition, each order comes with a set of edicts your character must follow. Fortunately, the consequences of breaking your order’s edicts are nowhere near as harsh as the penalties some classes suffer for violating their code of conduct – the only consequence is the loss of your order’s challenge bonus for 24 hours. Certainly much less painful than needing an Atonement spell.

Order of the Blue RoseEdicts: The samurai must avoid needless bloodshed, seek a peaceful resolution to conflicts whenever possible, and treat any captured prisoners with respect. This edict is not too restrictive if your party is leaning towards Lawful Good anyway, but it can be a real problem if the other members of the party are fond of solving problems as violently as possible. This edict is probably the most likely to cause tension with other characters, so it might not be a bad idea to check with the other players before taking the order. A pacifist really isn’t going to mesh too well with a hack-and-slash focused party.

Challenge: Getting an attack bonus is very nice, but it only applies against intelligent opponents, and you have to offer them a chance to surrender first (which takes a standard action if done during battle). Depending on the situation and your GM, you might be able to satisfy the requirement to offer your opponent a chance to surrender during pre-battle banter, which can take a bit of the sting out of the action cost of this challenge. Your character also doesn’t need to be threatening the target of their challenge to gain the benefit of this ability, which is a plus.

Skills: Knowledge (history) and knowledge (nobility) generally aren’t the most well-loved knowledge skills, though as always with knowledge skills a lot will depend on the details of the campaign. The bonus to diplomacy checks for resolving conflicts can be very useful, though the requirement that the samurai be a neutral third party to the dispute can really complicate things.

Flat of the Blade: Gain the ability to deal nonlethal damage without the usual -4 penalty, and you inflict two additional points of nonlethal damage when using this ability. This makes capturing opponents alive much easier to pull off, if you’re in a situation where that’s important. The Enforcer feat meshes wonderfully with this ability.

Inner Peace: Ignore damage up to your Cavalier level + Charisma modifier. While the ability is fairly underwhelming at first, at higher levels it can effectively give you an extra 80+ hp.

Shield of Blades: Requires taking a total defense action. At level 15, granting adjacent allies +2 AC and potentially deflecting a single attack is a fairly underwhelming bonus when you’re giving up your ability to attack to get it. The only time I might consider using it is if actually attacking was completely impossible. As a general rule, martial classes need to actually do damage to the enemy in order to win a fight.

Order of the CockatriceEdicts: The samurai must accept payment and rewards, demand at least an even share of the loot, and pursue every opportunity to advance their own power and prestige. This should come pretty naturally to most tabletop gamers.

Challenge: A morale bonus on damage is fairly underwhelming already – your Challenge adds plenty of raw damage as it is – but what really kills this one is that you lose the benefit of this bonus if anyone else threatens your target. Unless most of your party relies on ranged attacks, you’re not likely to get this bonus reliably.

Skills: Appraise is generally a fairly unimpressive skill. If you’re willing to go down the performance combat route you’ll be able to some use out of perform as a class skill, but otherwise it’s fairly useless too. Adding your charisma bonus to the DC of any intimidate check made against you is also rather underwhelming.

Braggart: Enough about the weakness, now we get to the part where the Order of the Cockatrice starts looking really good. Dazzling Display as a bonus feat, and it’s cut down to a standard action instead of being full-round, and a +2 bonus against demoralized opponents on top of that. This is just solid gold.

Steal Glory: An attack of opportunity whenever someone else crits the target of your challenge? Very nice, especially if someone else in your party makes their character a crit-fiend. Naturally, you’ll want Combat Reflexes to get the most out of this, but getting high enough dexterity to really benefit from the feat could push you into MAD territory.

Moment of Triumph: Get a competence bonus equal to your charisma to your ability checks, AC, attack rolls, damage rolls, saving throws, and skill checks. Oh, and you auto-confirm any critical hits. As long as you have the charisma to take advantage of this, it’s a great ability. The only downsides are the fact that it’s only usable once per day and only lasts a single round, plus it doesn’t stack with Inspire Courage.

Order of the Dragon

Edicts: Work with and protect your allies. Like with the Order of the Cockatrice, this should come pretty naturally to most PCs.

Challenge: Grant all of your allies a bonus to hit the target of your challenge. Very good for focusing fire on any boss-types. The only downside is that you have to be threatening the target of your challenge.

Skills: Probably the best selection of skills for any order. Perception has an entirely deserved reputation for being the most commonly rolled skill in the game, and survival is very useful for any character who plans to spend time out in the wild. The bonus to Survival when providing food and shelter for your allies is also quite handy.

Aid Allies: It’s combat utility is questionable at best since you have to spend a standard action to grant an ally a one-round bonus, but it has great out-of-combat utility. The DC for aiding another on a skill check is only ten, so you shouldn’t have a hard time handing out skill check bonuses like candy.

Strategy: Spend a standard action to give allies +2 AC or attack for a single round, or the ability to move their speed as an immediate action. Aside from the boost to move speed, this is generally going to be pretty underwhelming. I’m not a big fan of spending a standard action to give some small one-round bonuses to my allies when I could be hitting the bad guys with my sword instead.

Act as One: Remember how I said I hate spending standard actions on anything other than attacking? Well forget that. For your standard action, all your allies get a 30 foot move and attack as an immediate action. And they all get +2 to hit and +2 AC for the rest of the round. On top of that, they can count as charging for this attack, which means they can get your banner bonus. What’s not to love?

Order of the LionEdicts: You must protect the life and lands of your sovereign, and obey them without question. How much of an issue this is going to be will really depend on who your king is and the GM has in mind for the campaign.

Challenge: A bonus to Dodge AC (so it stacks with everything) against attacks made by the target of your challenge. And it doesn’t require that you threaten the target of your challenge to get the bonus. Very nice indeed.

Skills: Knowledge (Local) and Knowledge (Nobility) are nothing to write home about, and the bonus to knowledge (Nobility) checks about your sovereign is less than amazing too.

Lion’s Call: Costs a standard action (boo!) but it gives your allies a bonus on saves against fear equal to your charisma modifier, and adds a +1 bonus on your to-hit rolls (though since it’s a competence bonus it won’t stack with inspire courage). The fact that it lasts a number of rounds equal to your samurai level somewhat offsets action cost, though.

For the King: Spend a swift action to give your allies a bonus to attack and damage rolls equal to your charisma modifier for one round. It’s only a single round and you can only do it once per encounter, but it’s still a rather nice little bonus. Too bad it’s a competence bonus, and thus doesn’t stack with Inspire Courage.

Shield of the Liege: Giving adjacent allies +2 AC is pretty minor at this level. Being able to redirect a single attack towards yourself can come in handy if you’re in combat alongside a fairly squishy ally, but even then it’s only going to be a single attack, and level 15 it’s pretty rare to be up against an enemy that only attacks once. Still, could be useful if you go for a tank build with a really high AC.

Order of the SealEdicts: You have something you are responsible for protecting, which can be anything from a specific object (like a powerful magical artifact) to a specific location or even a particularly important secret. You must do everything within your power to protect your charge. Just how restrictive this edict is will depend heavily upon what charge you are guarding. It is a very good idea to talk to your GM beforehand to work out something that fits within the story of the campaign.

Challenge: Any time you make a full attack against the target of your challenge, you get a free bull rush or trip attempt that does not provoke an Attack of Opportunity. Free combat maneuvers are always pretty nice, and bull rush and trip are two of the better maneuvers in the game. If you can afford the feats for Improved/Greater Trip or Bull Rush, you can get terrifying mileage out of this ability.

Skills: Disable Device can be quite handy to have, and Linguistics can be very useful in most campaigns. The bonus to Bluff checks is very specific, but quite useful if you’re guarding a dark and terrible secret.

Keeper: The Samurai picks a location or secret they swear to protect, and then gains bonuses whenever they’re protecting that charge. Can provide some decent bonuses, but its actual use can be fairly situational. A bit of creativity can be very useful here, such as saying you’re protecting the road your character is walking along so you can gain a bonus against any marauding baddies that might attack travelers along the road.

I Shall not be Moved: A +2 bonus to CMD against a lot of maneuvers, provided you don’t move more than five feet during your round. It’s not a huge bonus, but since you’ll often want to be up close in the enemy’s face and full-attacking, you’ll get decent use out of it.

Staggering Assault: Make a single attack and a bull rush attempt as a full round action. You’ll usually be better off just full-attacking, especially since your challenge feature lets you make full attack and toss in a free bull rush anyway.

Order of the ShieldEdicts: You swear to protect the helpless common folk. Generally speaking, any good-aligned character will be doing this anyway, so it’s not a very hard rule to follow.

Challenge: Gain an attack bonus against the target of your challenge if they attack anyone other than you. Bonuses on hitting are very nice. Since you gain the attack bonus for an entire minute after your opponent attacks someone else, all you need is one attack directed elsewhere to get the bonus for the entire combat. As long as your opponent isn’t 100% focused on you and you alone you’ll get the bonus, but since it requires an opponent to take a specific action you can’t ever rely on it.

Skills: Heal and Knowledge (Local) aren’t terrible skills, but they aren’t exactly great either. The bonus to heal checks on anyone other than yourself is going to be handy if you actually plan to use heal very often. However, magical healing is likely to leave more mundane medicine behind quickly in most campaigns.

Resolute: Converts a small amount of lethal damage into nonlethal damage. If you get downtime between fights or some way to reduce/resist nonlethal damage, this can be a kind of substitute damage reduction, and it can be the difference between getting knocked out and being dead/dying. Also worth noting that you effectively double the effects of any healing you have when you’ve got a mix of lethal and nonlethal damage.

Stem the Tide: A very nice ability. Stand Still as a bonus feat, and on top of that you make a standard attack of opportunity to stop the enemy instead of a no-damage combat maneuver. Makes for a wonderfully sticky character.

Protect the Meek: An immediate action to move up to your speed (or your mount’s speed) and make a single melee attack. The big downside of this ability is that for the round after using this ability you’re staggered, but you can always spend a point of resolve to fix that.

Order of the StarEdicts: You swear to follow the teachings of a particular faith, and protect priests and followers of your religion. Exactly how restrictive this is will really depend on whom you choose for a

deity, as some gods can have difficult expectations of their followers. Also, since For the Faith and Retribution are much more effective if other members of your party share your faith, this might be something to discuss with other players during character creation.

Challenge: A scaling bonus to saving throws is great, but it’s suffers due to the fact that you have to be threatening the target of your challenge to get the bonus. Investing in feats like Step Up and Stand Still to keep the target of your challenge locked into melee with you might be a smart move.

Skills: Heal and Knowledge (Religion) are both decently usable skills. Knowledge (Religion) is one of the more frequently used knowledge skills, so you’ll get some decent utility out of it, and you get a bonus to knowledge checks about your own religion.

Calling: (Blue if multiclassing) Spend a standard action, and any time in the next minute you can gain a bonus equal to your charisma modifier on a single attack role, saving throw, ability check, or skill check. Also, if you’re multi-classed to Paladin or Cleric you can count half your Samurai levels for purposes of scaling Lay on Hands or Channel Energy, which makes this a very good choice if you plan on multi-classing.

For the Faith: As a free action, gain a morale bonus on your attack roles equal to your charisma modifier for one round. You can also give half this bonus to your allies if they share your faith. Not as good as the Order of the Lion’s similar ability, though being a morale bonus does at least mean you can stack it with Inspire Courage. However, it also means it won’t stack with your banner, if you’re planning to charge.

Retribution: You gain a free attack of opportunity at +2 to hit against any opponent who strikes you or an adjacent member of your faith. Free attacks are always wonderful.

Order of the SwordEdicts: Your samurai must follow the rules of chivalry. Show courage in the face of your enemies, grant mercy to a beaten foe, give charity, and protection to the weak and helpless, and act with honor at all times. While it’s a nicely iconic code, it’s also rather restrictive.

Challenge: A bonus to attack rolls ... whenever you’re mounted. If you really want to focus on mounted combat, you’re probably better off going with a Cavalier.

Skills: Knowledge (Nobility) isn’t one of the better knowledges, but Knowledge (Religion) is, and you get a bonus to sense motive checks to tell if someone’s lying. Not bad, but not amazing either.

By my Honor: As long as you maintain your current alignment, you gain a +2 morale bonus to one of your saving throws. Not too shabby at all.

Mounted Mastery: Tons of great bonuses … to mounted combat. And most of these bonuses only kick in when you’re making a charge attack. If you want to do mounted combat and focus on charging, you’re better off playing a Cavalier.

Knight’s Challenge: Essentially a special once-per-day boosted version of your ordinary challenge. Add your charisma bonus to attack and damage, and you get a +4 bonus for confirming any critical hits. Very nice indeed.

Order of the TomeEdicts: Your Samurai must protect written knowledge, though when dealing with dangerous forbidden knowledge you can choose to destroy it instead. Gives your character an interesting draw, and isn’t overly restrictive.

Challenge: A +2 to saving throws against spells and spell-like abilities of your target is very nice, and getting the bonus to Bluff and Sense Motive checks is gravy. So why is this red? Because unlike every other Order’s challenge bonus, the Order of the Tome’s bonus doesn’t scale up as you level. Unless you’re in a campaign that’s sticking to low levels, the bonus not scaling up is going to leave it looking very inferior to other Orders as the game progresses.

Skills: Gain three skills instead of the usual two, and all of them are good. Knowledge (Arcana) and Knowledge (Religion) are two of the more commonly used knowledges in the game, and Linguistics isn’t shabby either. Plus, your skill bonus applies to all Linguistics checks, as opposed to the more narrow bonuses most classes get.

Specialized Knowledge: Pick Knowledge (Arcana) or Knowledge (Religion), and add ½ your Samurai level to any skill checks that involve books, scrolls, or anything other form of written knowledge. This choice will be important for how your later abilities develop.

Powerful Knowledge: Gain the ability to cast spells from scrolls at caster level of your Samurai level - 4. If you picked Knowledge (Arcana) for Specialized Knowledge you use arcane scrolls, while Knowledge (Religion) unlocks Divine Scrolls. You use Linguistics in place of Spellcraft for deciphering scrolls, plus you gain a scaling bonus to intelligence/wisdom for purposes of casting from scrolls. The only downside is that scrolls are one-use and not a very cheap way to pick up spellcasting; as nice as the option is, the gold cost can add up if you plan to use this ability regularly.

Defensive Knowledge: Pass your bonus to saves against your challenge target’s spells and spell-like abilities to any adjacent allies. The +2 bonus isn’t worth clustering together and presenting

a nice target for an AoE spell. You can also grant a limited number of re-rolls on failed saves (based on Int or Wis, whichever is your scrollcasting stat) to allies who can see and hear you. Re-rolling failed saves is nice, but otherwise this ability is unimpressive.

Order of the WarriorEdicts: Protect the life and lands of your liege, be truthful, courageous, and respectful of your elders and betters, loyal to your friends and lord, and conduct yourself with honor and dignity. A very thematic list, but it is also a pretty darn long one.

Challenge: Damage reduction against attacks made by the target of your challenge. A bit underwhelming, but still not bad.

Skills: Knowledge (History) and Knowledge (Nobility) are two very circumstantially useful Knowledge skills. The bonus to Knowledge (Nobility) rolls when dealing with your homeland may or may not be useful.

Honor in All Things: Gain a +4 morale bonus on a single saving throw or skill check as a free action. I’ll take it.

Way of the Samurai: Take a standard action to focus, and any time in the next minute when making an attack roll, saving throw, or skill check you can roll three times and take the best result. Also expends a use of your resolve. Very handy for those times when you absolutely, positively have to pass a roll.

Strike True: A standard action attack that is an automatic critical threat that inflicts maximum damage, ignores damage reduction, and inflicts one of several nasty conditions. To really make this terrible, use the Naginata with its x4 critical multiplier for this attack. Too bad it’s only once per day.

RoninEdicts: Ronin have their own personal code, which you’ll need to work out with your GM. Since you’re making up your own code, you won’t be restricted any more than you want to be.

Challenge: Gain a bonus to attack rolls and AC against anyone who targets you with a challenge, smite, quarry, or any similar ability. It’s an incredible bonus when you can get it, but highly situational to say the least.

Skills: Knowledge (Local) and Survival are both good skills, but you don’t get a secondary skill bonus like all the proper orders do.

Self-Reliant: Re-roll will saves against any effect with a duration of longer than one round. A huge lifesaver against one of the common banes of martial classes, mind control spells. Also, if you’re bleeding out, you get to roll twice when attempting to stabilize.

Without Master: A once-per-combat ability that can provide one of three benefits; an attack that would leave you dying (but not dead) instead merely reduces you to 1 hp, a re-roll on a critical confirmation roll, or the ability to take 10 on a skill check during combat. The versatility of this ability is a huge boon; odds are at least one of the three uses will come in handy at some point during and encounter.

Chosen Destiny: When facing charm and compulsion effects (as previously mentioned, a frequent bane of martial classes) you can roll twice and take the better result. On top of that, once per day you can treat any d20 roll as a natural 20.

Archetype: The Sword Saint

Since the Samurai got its introduction in Ultimate Combat, it hasn’t received much in the way of archetype support yet. However, the one archetype they do have, the Sword Saint, is decent. Here’s what they get:

Iaijutsu Strike: A special attack against the target of your challenge that grants 1d6/2 levels bonus damage. Initially takes a full round action, but at level 10 it goes down to a standard action. Multiple d6s of bonus damage is always nice, though the ability is a bit underwhelming for levels 6-9 where you’d need to give up your iterative attack.

Replaces your Mount.

Brutal Slash: Gain a bonus equal to half your level to confirm critical hits with Iaijutsu slash. With that much of a confirmation bonus on top of the bonus you get for Weapon Expertise, you are likely to confirm any crits as long as you don’t roll a 1. Best of all, it’s replacing the nigh-useless Mounted Archer ability

Terrifying Iaijutsu: Your Iaijutsu Strike now forces all nearby enemies to make a will save or become shaken. Shaken is always a nice debuff, though this loses a bit of its shine if your build already has other ways of inflicting shaken on your enemies.

Replaces your Banner.

Roaring Iaijutsu: Now your Iaijutsu Strike adds a deafened condition to go along with shaken. Deafened isn’t incredibly useful against most opponents, but enemy casters will hate it since it adds Arcane Spell Failure. Still, this is probably the worst trade of the lot.

Replaces Greater Banner.Feats

Going over every single feat you could possibly select would take forever, so instead I’m just going to mention some of the better feat tress to consider (aside from the combat style feats, which were already discussed earlier).

Critical Feats:The Katana and Wakizashi are both 18-20 weapons (plus Order of the Warrior lets you automatically threaten a crit once per day) and weapon expertise will already give you a +2 to confirming critical hits, so this is a good choice. You can’t grab critical mastery sadly, but even without it you can attach some nasty conditions to your critical hits.

Improved Critical: Doubles your weapon’s crit range. Doesn’t stack with the keen enhancement, so it’s up to you whether you’d rather put the enhancement on your weapons or spend a feat on it.Critical Focus: +4 to confirm critical hits. Few things are more disappointing than failing to confirm a potential crit.

Bleeding Critical: Adds 2d6 bleed damage, and unlike most types of bleed damage, multiple instances of it will stack with itself. No save, but not everything can bleed and any type of healing ends the effect.Blinding Critical: Permanently blinds your opponent if they fail their Fortitude save. For any enemy that relies on their eyes to function, this is pretty much a death sentence.Crippling Critical: Cuts your opponent’s movement speed for one movement mode in half for one minute on a failed save. No thanks. If you really want to slow down your enemies, take exhausting critical instead, which cuts their movement speed for all movement modes in half until they get an hour of sleep (on top several other nasty effects)Deafening Critical: Permanently deafens your opponent on a failed save. Deafness usually isn’t all that impressive unless you’re against a caster (and most casters who eat a critical hit from you have bigger problems to worry about than 20% Spell Failure).Sickening Critical: No save, and sickened is a nice -2 on just about everything. Can be especially brutal if you also have an intimidate build to stack shaken on top for a total of -4 to everything.Staggering Critical: Staggers your opponent for 1d4+1 rounds, reduced to 1 round on a successful save. Denying your opponent the ability to take full-round actions is wonderful.

Stunning Critical: Stuns your opponent for 1d4 rounds, reduced to staggered if they fail the save. Very nice effect, especially since even a successful save still leaves them in a bad situation.

Tiring Critical: Fatigued isn’t the nastiest of conditions and a lot of enemies are immune, but the fact that your opponent gets no save is always a plus.

Exhausting Critical: Exhausted is a much more unpleasant condition than fatigued, and your enemy still gets no save.

Eldritch Heritage:If you’re already investing in Charisma for your Order’s abilities, this line of feats isn’t a bad choice at all. While some bloodlines don’t really add much to a martial class like the Samurai, others will either directly boost your combat abilities, or add in fun new options like flight or a couple of spell-like abilities. All Eldritch Heritage feats have a charisma requirement (up to 17 for Greater Eldritch Heritage), and taking the first Eldritch Heritage feat also require taking Skill Focus in a skill related to the bloodline.

Frankly, I admit that some power get very high ratings not because they’re necessarily good from a combat optimization point of view, but just because they let you do the kind of things a martial character normally can’t pull off. Controlling the weather, new movement and vision modes, or the ability to go into people’s dreams to modify their memories might not boost up your raw combat ability, but it gives your character some really fun options you just couldn’t get any other way. unless you took multiple levels in a casting class.

While it’s not a required part of any of the feat trees, Quicken Spell-like Ability can be very helpful. Quite a few of the abilities would be incredibly useful if not for the fact that they take a standard action to use. Turn them into a swift action, and the spell-like ability goes from slightly useful to incredible.

One other thing worth mentioning; if you get a weapon with the conductive property, then you can channel any touch attack abilities through your weapon. That can make some otherwise unimpressive abilities a bit more lethal, and any melee touch attack powers are being evaluated with this capacity in mind.

There is one last possibility to consider; while it’s currently a gray area in the rules, it is possible that you may be able to take the variant bloodlines listed in Ultimate Magic, which allow for a few ability substitutions. While it is something that will need to be discussed with your GM beforehand, I’ll be listing those options simply for the sake completeness. Substitution powers will mainly be considered in comparison to what they replace: Something mediocre is still a good trade up from something useless, and gaining a good ability at the cost of an amazing one is a poor trade. The Sylvan substitution of the Fey bloodline is possibly not allowed, since it also replaces the Sorcerer’s bloodline arcana (the rules are pretty debatable).

Aberrant Bloodline: Skill Focus is the fairly useful Knowledge (Dungeoneering). 1st level power is an acid ranged touch attack.

The Warped substitution lets you daze an enemy for one round. Dazed is a very nice condition to inflict, though this really shines if you can quicken it so you can follow up with further attacks while your opponent is dazed.

3rd level power does nothing for martials.9th level power eventually gives 50% fortification.15th level power gives 10 + level spell resistance.

Abyssal Bloodline: Skill Focus is Knowledge (Planes), which can be handy. 1st level power gives you some passable but not great natural weapons.3rd level power gives you resistance to electricity and poisons.9th level gives the absolutely amazing scaling inherent bonus to strength (tops out at +6).

The Brutal substitution provides temporary flight. Not a good trade at all; flight is nice, but there are plenty of other ways to get it. High inherent bonuses are much harder to come by.

15th level offers nothing for martials.Accursed Bloodline:

Skill Focus goes into the incredibly useful Perception, 1st level power gives you a passable but not amazing fear blast 3rd level power gives save bonuses against charm, cold, fear, fire, and sleep effects (topping out at +4)9th level power gives a decent but not great staggering blast, 15th level power gives Ethereal Jaunt and Nightmare as spell-like abilities.

Aquatic Bloodline: (Blue if in an aquatic campaign)Skill Focus goes into swim. Not off to a good start. 1st level power is a touch attack that does a bit of damage and sickens for one round.

The Seaborn substitution provides a ranged touch attack that can knock an opponent prone and push them five feet back. Could be quite useful, but so is the ability it replaces.

3rd level grants a bit of natural armor and cold resistance, as well as a Swim speed and Blindsense while in the water.9th level grants Telepathy and Suggestion, but only while in the water, and only when dealing with aquatic creatures.15th level grants Control Water as a spell-like ability.

Arcane Bloodline: Absolutely nothing for non-casters.Boreal Bloodline:

Skill Focus goes into Survival. Good start.1st level power lets you add the Frost or Icy Burst properties to your weapon. Nice.3rd level adds cold resistance and the ability to move over ice and snow.9th level grants some situationally useful bonuses in snowy or icy areas, but the real prize is getting an ability that emulates Fire Shield (Chill Shield variant only) and adds a 20% miss chance.

The Rime-Blooded substitution gives you a blasting power. Blasts add a nice bit of versatility, but you’re giving up a very good melee buff in this case, so it’s a bad trade.

15th level power lets you basically create a blizzard centered around yourself. Handy for making those situational bonuses in snowy/icy conditions bonuses no longer be situational.

Celestial Bloodline:Skill Focus goes into Heal. Not the best of skills1st level power is a ranged touch blast that does minor damage to evil aligned and minor healing to good aligned. If your party is good, you can use it for a bit of free post-combat healing.3rd level gives resistances to acid and cold.9th level grants wings, though sadly they’re temporary ones.

The Empyreal substitution lets you channel energy once per day at your sorcerer level -4. Not that impressive, especially since until you get Greater Eldritch Heritage you’ll be at an effective -6 cleric levels for your channel.

15th level lets you reroll one d20 roll per day. Rerolls like that can be literal lifesavers.

Daemon BloodlineSkill Focus goes into Heal. Not the best of skills1st level power lets you make someone so hungry that they start taking starvation damage until they eat. Not sure how to rate this one.3rd level gives resistances to acid and poison.9th level lets you shed harmful conditions by temporarily aging. Old age penalties aren’t nice for martials, and resolve already lets you negate a lot of harmful conditions.15th level is a spell-like ability dimension door, except you have to emerge next to a dead creature, and on arrival you have a modest acid burst centered around you.

Deep Earth Bloodline:Skill Focus goes into Knowledge (dungeoneering).1st level grants a semi-useful ranged trip ability.3rd level grants the stonecunning racial (or improves your bonus if you already have it) and eventually adds tremorsense and x-ray vision. Tremorsense and x-ray vision are pretty cool things to have.

9th level allows you to temporarily make your weapon a bane weapon against oozes, creatures with the earth subtype, or constructs. Situational, but great when you run into something you can use it against.

The Bedrock substitution replaces this with a swift-action to gain DR 10/Adamantine for a limited number of rounds. Unless you anticipate running into lots of constructs, oozes, and earth elementals this is probably a good choice, since you’ll be on the frontlines taking hits.

15th level gives a temporary burrow speed equal to half your move speed. Being able to burrow through solid stone has some definite advantages.

Destined Bloodline:Skill Focus goes into Knowledge (history). Not the best start.1st level lets you grant a nicely scaling insight bonus to a single d20 roll. The standard action to use and 1 round duration make it impractical for combat (unless you quicken it), but for out-of-combat things like skill/ability challenge it can be quite useful.

The Karmic substitution lets you inflict a curse on any enemy who hits you in melee, which gives them -2 to hit and damage. Very handy for a frontliner, so it’s down to a choice of out-of-combat utility vs. an in-combat debuff. Boils down to personal preference.

3rd level gives very good luck bonuses to you AC and Saving throws during surprise rounds. Ideally you shouldn’t be getting ambushed in the first place, but defecation occurs in any campaign, and when it does this is quite nice to have.9th level grants a few re-rolls on attack and critical confirmation rolls. Any martial character will love this.15th level lets you attempt a DC 20 Will Save to gain the same effects as your True Resolve Class Feature, except it doesn’t drain all your resolve. Not having to burn all your resolve is nice, plus it’s a good backup if you’re knocking into dead territory twice in one day.

Djinni Bloodline:Skill Focus goes into Knowledge (planes).1st level grants an electricity ranged touch ray.3rd level adds in resistance to electrical damage.9th level allows you to temporarily transform into a whirlwind. Anything that lets you shapeshift gets cool points.15th level grants you permanent flight. That’s very nice indeed.

Draconic Bloodline: (You must pick a specific dragon type, which determines the details of your breath weapon and energy resistance)

Skill Focus goes into Perception. Win.1st level grants some mediocre temporary claws you can use as natural weapons. Could be useful if you ever end up unarmed.

The Linnorm substitution swaps out your claws for an elemental ranged touch attack. Either one is modestly useful, so it probably depends on how often you anticipate being disarmed or otherwise denied access to your main melee weapon.

3rd level grants energy resistance and a big bonus to natural armor (caps out at +4)9th level is a Breath Weapon. Who doesn’t want their samurai to be able to breathe fire?15th level is permanent flight again. It’s still just as good as it was before.

Dreamspun Bloodline:Skill Focus goes into Sense Motive. A useful social skill.1st level power is pretty useless for most situations, but could be handy if someone else in the party uses sleep effects (like a Witch with the sleep hex).3rd level offers an insight bonus to initiative checks. It’ll eventually level up to an even bigger bonus than if you took Improved Initiative.9th level lets you go into people’s dreams and either steal information or modify their memories. That’s a fun set of abilities.

The Visionary substitution gives you divination as a spell-like ability. Quite a useful information gathering ability, but so is the ability to go into people’s dreams and steal information from them. I’d lean towards the original being the better choice, just because it’s more unique; any cleric can cast divination, after all.

15th level grants two spell-like abilities that let you scry, and put people in the area you scry to sleep. The sleep effect is sadly HD-limited and probably won’t be that useful, but it’s still another fun pair of abilities.

Efreeti Bloodline:Skill Focus goes into Knowledge (planes).1st level grants a fire ranged touch ray.3rd level adds in resistance to fire damage.9th level Lets you shapeshift into an Efreeti. This grants the bonus that go along with the Giant Form I spell, along with the Efreeti’s Heat ability. Giant Form I is an incredible buff for a martial class.15th level increases your base land speed goes by 30. That’s a pretty huge boost.

Elemental Bloodline: (You must pick one of the four elements)Skill Focus goes into Knowledge (planes).1st level grants a ray attack of your element.3rd level grants resistance to your element.9th level gives you a fire/ice/lightning/acid blast spell-like ability

The Primal substitution is only useful for casters.15th level gives a movement bonus based on your element (Identical to the ones granted by the Djinni/Efreeti/Marid/Shaitan bloodlines).

Fey Bloodline:Skill Focus is Knowledge (nature), which should get some decent use.1st level gives a no-save melee touch attack that makes them unable to take anything other than a move action on their next turn.3rd level grants Woodland Stride, as the Ranger/Druid ability.9th level allows you to use Greater Invisibility as a spell-like ability.15th level is only for casters. And you were doing so well...

Infernal Bloodline:Skill Focus goes to Diplomacy, which is a great social skill.1st level gives a no-save melee touch attack that makes enemies shaken, and causes them to radiate an aura of evil.3rd level adds resistance to fire and poisons.9th level give you a hellfire blast that deals damage and makes enemies shaken.

The Pit-Touched substitution gives a scaling inherent bonus to constitution. A little bit of blasting is nice, but Constitution is a very important secondary stat for samurai; you will like having the extra HP and a boost to your fortitude saves a lot more than being able to use a passable blast a couple times a day.

15th level is permanent flight again. It will never stop being great.Maestro Bloodline: (Green if you plan to use Performance Combat)

Skill Focus is Perform. Normally useless, but good if you take an interest in Performance Combat.1st level gives you a one-round daze ability that can work on any creature equal to your level.3rd level gives Fascinate as the Bardic Performance.9th level allows you to understand any spoken language, and speak it.15th level gives Greater Heroism as a spell-like ability. That’s a very nice buffing spell.

Marid Bloodline: (Green in an aquatic campaign where the swim speed is useful)Skill Focus goes into Knowledge (planes).1st level grants an ice ranged touch ray.3rd level adds in resistance to cold damage.9th level lets you unleash a line of water that does damage and can cause temporary blindness on a failed save.15th level gives a 60 foot swim speed. Not so great.

Oni Bloodline:Skill Focus goes into Intimidate, a perennial favorite of mine.1st level grants a melee touch attack that cause nonlethal damage over time.3rd level gives you alter self as a spell-like ability, eventually allowing you to do so at will.

9th level gives gaseous form as a spell-like ability. Great for those times when you really need to GTFO.15th level adds an ability where you auto-stabilize and start regenerating if brought below 0 hp. Not as useful when you can use resolve to stabilize while dying, but the regeneration is still a nice touch.

Orc Bloodline:Skill Focus goes into Survival.1st level gives an ability that allows you to grant a huge one-round bonus to attack, damage, and will saves (tops out at a +10 bonus) as a standard action. If you take the Optimistic Gambler trait, you can bump the duration up to 1d4+1 rounds, which makes it much better. Plus you can quicken it to knock it down to a swift action.3rd level adds bonuses against fear (and eventual immunity to it), and an increase in your natural armor.9th level Scaling inherent bonus to strength!15th level Spell-like ability that is effectively Giant Form I.

Pestilence Bloodline:Skill Focus is Heal.1st level gives you a no-save melee touch attack that sickens your opponent for several rounds.3rd level grants eventual immunity to the nauseated and sickened conditions, and the negative effects of diseases. Resolve can solve sickened and nauseated, but not disease, and in any case saving some points of resolve never hurts.9th level swarms will no longer attempt to attack you, and you can command swarms if your level exceeds their hit dice. You also gain a natural armor increase that tops out at +3.15th level adds a disease breath weapon that allows you to afflict all who fail the save with two diseases of your choice.

Protean Bloodline:Skill Focus goes into Knowledge (planes).1st level grants an ability that serves as a Tanglefoot Bag.3rd level adds in resistance to acid damage and a save bonus against polymorph, transmutation, and petrification effects.

The Anarchic substitution is a caster-only benefit.9th level gives an aura that disrupts ranged attacks and movements speeds in an area around you.15th level Grants a spell-like ability that combines dimension door and black tentacles. Either one of those on their own would be nice, but combining the two? Very awesome.

Rakshasa Bloodline:

Skill Focus goes into Disguise.1st level lets you gain a bonus to bluff checks and can beat magical effects that compel truthfulness3rd level gain detect thoughts as a spell-like ability. Who doesn’t love mind-reading?9th level permanent nodetection on yourself. I always like permanent passives.15th level Alter Self at will. Shapeshifting is another fun option.

Serpentine Bloodline:Skill Focus goes into Diplomacy, a terrific face skill.1st level gives a poisonous bite attack. I’ll take it.3rd level Speak with animals (reptiles only) and a viper as a familiar. Sadly, your familiar will probably never be all that great.

The Envenomed substitution lets you poison your weapon as a swift action, with a scaling poison DC. You get a decent number of uses (1 per 3 levels) and the poison does constitution damage (always useful). A worthwhile trade, especially since it’s replacing a weak ability.

9th level bonuses to Escape Artist checks and natural armor.15th level an enhanced version of Creeping Doom as a spell-like ability.

Shadow Bloodline:Skill Focus goes into Stealth. For samurai, there is no honor is stealth.1st level a melee touch attack that does a bit of nonlethal damage, and dazzles the target for one minute. Sadly, any enemy with low-light vision or darkvision (AKA 95% of enemies you will encounter) is immune to the dazzle effect.

The Umbral substitution gives you an ability that boosts your stealth checks. Samurai aren’t really a stealthy class, but since you’ve already got a skill focus in stealth you might as well get some use out of it.

3rd level gain darkvision, or extend its range if you already had it.9th level effectively gian Hide in Plain Sight and Shadow Jump15th level spell-like ability that combines deeper darkness and entangle

Shaitan Bloodline:Skill Focus goes into Knowledge (planes).1st level grants an acid ranged touch ray.3rd level adds in resistance to acid damage.9th level is useless for non-casters.15th level gives a 30 foot burrow speed. Could be quite useful

Starsoul Bloodline:Skill Focus goes into Knowledge (nature).1st level grants a very weak fire blast effect.

The Void-Touched substitution changes the element of the blast effect from fire to ice. Fire resistance is a bit more common, but it’s still not a big difference.

3rd level adds low light vision, minor cold resistance, and eventually your character no longer needs to breathe.9th level Spell-like ability that creates a wall of fire which can fascinate enemies.

The Void-Touched substitution grants deeper darkness as a spell-like ability. both are decent battlefield control. This substitution could go up to blue if you have access to blindsight or some other effect that lets you fight effectively in total darkness, since you would be able to effectively blind many opponents.

15th level A caster level boost you gain nothing from, but there is also a spell-like to teleport your enemies into outer space. That’s ... pretty awesome.

Stormborn Bloodline:Skill Focus goes into Knowledge (nature).1st level power lets you add the Shock or Shocking Burst properties to your weapon. Not shabby at all.3rd level resistance to electrical and sonic damage, situational blindsense against fog, mist, and weather, and wind has less of a negative effect upon you.9th level gain a lightning bolt blast which can also deafen its target on a failed save.

The Arial substitution gives you Control Winds as a Spell-like ability. Not as good for blasting, but it has some nice defensive/utility uses.

15th level you gain the ability to turn into a lightning bolt and move at 10 times your normal speed, shocking everyone you touch. Turning into a lightning bolt is cool.

Undead Bloodline:Skill Focus goes into Knowledge (religion).1st level gives a melee touch attack that makes opponents shaken for several rounds. Would be better if not for the fact that samurai have plenty of other ways to make their opponents shaken.

The Sanguine substitution allows you to drink the blood of the recently slain for sustenance and healing. Unfortunately the healing is limited to a single d6, so it doesn’t scale well.

3rd level adds resistance to cold and nonlethal damage.9th level you can make skeletal arms erupt from the ground, dealing damage and holding enemies in place for one round.15th level the samurai now has the ability to turn incorporeal. A handy way of doing all kinds of things.

Verdant Bloodline:

Skill Focus goes into Knowledge (nature).1st level can use vines to perform a number of maneuvers at a distance.3rd level gain the effects of a ring of sustenance and a bonus to saves against poison and sleep.

The Groveborn substitution is only beneficial to casters.9th level a number of plant-related spell like abilities, most significantly the plant shape polymorph spells.15th level Can extend roots into the ground, reducing your move speed to 5 feet, but gaining bonuses to CMD and natural armor, termorsense, and fast healing.

Intimidation Combat Feats:Samurai can make very good Intimidators. It’s a useful face skill, and in combat you can use it to make your foes shaken. Shaken gives your opponents a -2 to just about everything (attack rolls, damage rolls, saving throws, skill checks, and ability checks). Not a game changer, but still a nice little debuff.

Cornugon Smash: Attempt to demoralize your opponent as a free action when you hit him with a Power Attack. Pretty nice.Dreadful Carnage: Get a free action to demoralize all enemies within 30 feet when you make a kill. Awesome, since it’s a free-action Dazzling Display.Intimidating Prowess: Adds your strength modifier to all intimidate checks. Odds are you’re going to have a very high strength modifier.Dazzling Display: Demoralize all enemies within 30 feet as a full-round action. Remember, you can get this for free and reduce the action cost to a standard action by going Order of the Cockatrice.

Shatter Defenses: Makes any shaken, frightened, or panicked opponent you hit flat-footed to your attacks until the end of your next turn. Almost always makes them at least a little easier to hit, and if you’re up against an opponent who heavily relies on having his dex bonus...

Deadly Stroke: Gives you a standard action attack against flat-footed or stunned opponents that does double damage and causes Constitution bleed. A great way to use your standard action.

Performance Combat:Well worth considering for the bonuses you can get, especially if you’re an Order of the Cockatrice Samurai since Dazzling Display is a prerequisite for most performance combat feats and you’ll get perform as a class skill.

Performing Combatant: If you want to use Performance Combat feats in battles that aren’t normally subject to performance combat rules, you need this feat.

Masterful Display: Lets you gain the effects of two Performance Combat feats at the same time.Dramatic Display: A +2 bonus on attack rolls and combat maneuvers. Very nice.Hero’s Display: The good old 30 foot demoralize bubble, but now as a swift action. Nice indeed.Mocking Dance: Spend a swift action for either a five-foot step or move up to your speed.Murderer’s Circle: Swift action to move to any space adjacent to your opponent without provoking an attack of opportunity.Savage Display: +1d6 damage. Who doesn’t love extra damage?

Teamwork Feats:Once again, it’s not so much a case of the Samurai being bad at Teamwork feats as it is that the Cavalier just does them so much better thanks to the Tactician ability.

Weapon Focus and Specialization:Since weapon expertise unlocks this for you, it’s worth considering. The whole tree will cost you four feats, and you’ll get a flat +2 to hit and +4 damage on all of your attacks out of the deal. Not the most exciting of feats, but hitting harder and doing more damage when you hit is the bread and butter of any martial class.