Talk:Samurai (5e Class)

Just... Why did you create this?

Was is for a bet of who can cherry pick the most efficient combat oriented stuff among fighter, monk, barbarian between editions and slip in more combat stuff?

For future note, just changing things in the class to make it overpowered does nothing for both the player and the one making it. Pay attention to modifiers that are being added to the class overall and think about them from a practical standpoint. I am currently playing this class and will be modifying it to keep it to a proper 5e setting, and not game breaking.

Yep, as is this class is dumb. Cherry picks the best features from other classes. Honor surge is action surge, Deflect is a monk's deflection but better, etc. Xanathar's Samurai is a better example of how to do a samurai in 5e.--ADragon (talk) 13:31, 29 March 2019 (MDT)

Starting to think someone just wanted to make a meme class. D12 hit die is absurd--ADragon (talk) 19:28, 31 March 2019 (MDT)

Gr7mm's NeedsBalance request

Round 1
Daisho Super setting specific on the weapons. This should provide the reader with the mechanical equivalent for the setting specific weapons listed outside of the equipment list. Sigil carving is phrased weird, suggests that normally it can't be done. Recommend changing to a form of 'some do this" kind of statement. The weapon recovery over a long rest is cool, no real issues there. But the bit about the "minds eye" is confusing and offer's no context. Overall starting equipment does not need to be listed in the classes features unless they are truly extraordinary like the items made by Warlocks Tome or Blade pact boon features. There is no limitation on how far these weapons can be retrieved from either, nor any discussion about how to replace or create new bonds with other weapons.

I think that the class should maybe get a set of fighting styles to choose from and then bump the Stance entry into 2nd level. The class doesn't need and Action Surge ripoff anyway.

Fighting Stance

The stance thing has been done so much that it should be a simple mechanic to nail down by now, but this still manages to fail. To start with, it has the PC learn 8 out of 7 stances by 15th level. The class should be incapable of learning every option it has and then some. Multiple stances sounds like it shouldn't be an issue until you actually take a look at what its talking about, but we'll burn that bridge when we get to it. It seems to combine some of the most fiddly mechanics and concepts from the Bo9S and holds onto their mechanics hoping it'll provide a sense of control to the heap. TLDR, it doesn't. Activating all 8 out of 7 stances at once is way too much. 2 stances at once is really cool and I think could stick around once the stances themselves are handled properly. Overall as I look at the stances, the more I realize that the whole feature should be pushed to 2nd level so it can still do cool things without outshining the classes that the features are taken from. The last line should read as follows: You can enter a stance as a bonus action. You can remain in a stance indefinitely or until you activate a different Stance, are knocked prone, become grappled or restrained, become incapacitated, or the stance ends itself. The effects of a stance only apply while you are in a stance.

I made a point to remove the bit about "end of combat" as that is not a standard metric of encounters in 5e.

Stone Stance Your AC and weapon damage are increased by five, but your movement speed is reduced by half (rounded up) and attacks of opportunity made against you are at advantage . In addition, Enemies attacking allies other than you within 5 feet gain disadvantage on their attack.

As is, this stance does several things that are very problematic. It launches the PC's AC higher than any other non-magical static bonus, provides a free bonus to all attacks that would make a legendary weapon blush, and outclasses the protection fighting style in every way. The use of THP should help retain a sense of durability, though I am unsure of allowing Con mod and Proficiency or if it should just scale with Samurai level. With the intent of the stance in mind I recommend the following:

When you enter this stance and at the start of each of your turns while you have at least 1 hit point or more remaining, you gain a number of temporary hit points equal to your Constitution Modifier (Minimum of 1) + your proficiency bonus. These temporary hit points last until you are no longer in this stance. When you hit a creature with a weapon attack, you can immediately use you bonus action to deal an additional 5 damage to the creature. If a creature within your reach becomes the target of an attack, you can use your reaction to impose disadvantage on the attack roll. Opportunity made against you are rolled with advantage. If you use more than half of your movement speed in a turn, this stance immediately ends.

Wind Stance. This one is pretty straightforward, but it also allows the PC to do what the rogue and monk can do before either of them... Aside from some wording cleanup and removing the bit about "strike from the void" this one has a pretty neat mobility set into it without too many glaring issues. Even then, this is the least of the classes problems if the stances get moved to 2nd level.

(Taking a recess from this project atm)--Gr7mm Bobb (talk) 19:03, 30 May 2019 (MDT)

Alrighty, back at it today and I'm beginning to think that the class could use a friendly restructure overall. Like shifting around some class features and such. Then we can dive into the core mechanics of the classes design, which appears to be its stances, which is pretty cool and flavorful and not something that a core class does. So that sort of foundation is pretty ideal when making or working with a class outside of the core 12. I don't mind when abilities are cherry picked from classes if it makes sense and does not do it better then that class that the piece was stolen from. The only real issue that arises after that is when the new class takes something that is iconic or pivotal to another classes identity. (action surge, ki, sorcery points, inspiration, extra attack+, sneak attack, martial arts, cunning action, smite, etc.) I'm not saying they should be "off limits" but they should be measured with the same weight they bear in the original class. If you're making a Martial class things that are great to steal would be Extra Attack and Fighting styles. Use those and no one will bat an eye and you get a nice solid combat bump without having to re-invent the wheel. I'm going to start sorting through the entirety of the class and try and get it clear and concise so it can be fun and balanced for those that use it. Since the original author has not contributed to the class since 2016, I'm going to try and take charge and even this thing out. Wish me luck and feel free to help if you see something that would be effective in these goals.--Gr7mm Bobb (talk) 12:33, 31 May 2019 (MDT)

I'd like access to make changes.

I just spent the last half an hour doing grammatical and wording edits. Probably should've checked to see if I could actually edit it. Ah well. But most of the changes i made were simply making the abilities more coherent. I really enjoy playing this class in a pure-homebrew campaign. I suppose that could make me bias but I wouldn't add something like "while in this stance you are immune to damage" of course. I know that it's been brought up that this class is essentially a few of the official ones pieced together, which is why i'd like to offer some ideas to make it seem more Samurai like and less like the XGE one. I wouldn't rewrite the class obviously but a few flavour texts here and there that would make it feel more like a Samurai. ---- Ancalagon

Deflect

I think that Deflect should simply be taken off the class. It doesn't really make sense that you can throw back an arrow with a sword, plus it's just a ripoff of the Monk. Possible changes could be either just take it off and forget about it or add a bit to Parry. Parry is currently "when another creature hits you or another creature with an attack, you can use your reaction to reduce the damage dealt by the attack by 1d6 + your Dexterity modifier + your Samurai level. You can use this feature twice, you regain all expended uses when you finish a short or long rest. You gain an additional use of this feature at 7th and again at 15th level." My thoughts would be one of three changes: 1. Change the die rolled to 1d8 at the 6th level, 1d10 at the 11th level and 1d12 at the 16th level. 2. Increase the number of uses, instead of gaining extras at 7th and 15th, make it 6th, 11th, 16th. 3. At the 9th level, as long as you are wielding your Katana you can use parry on ranged Attacks/Spell Attacks. The way it's written now, it's unclear if it means hit by a melee attack only. But most likely that's the case. At any rate the throwing an attack back with a sword doesn't make sense and is easily fixed. ----Ancalagon 10/29/19

Archetypes

Am I the only one who thinks there are too many Archetypes for this class? I know it's nice to have options but I think 3 solid Archetypes would make the class a lot easier to understand. Yojimbo and Shoyu seem all over the place, Kyudo and Iaijutsu Master actually seem like Samurai style fighting, and Shogun is pretty much just yelling but i guess it works.

  Shoyu could be simplified by changing the way you gain access your ancestors. Just make it so you gain the corresponding ancestor if you are Lawful, Neutral or Chaotic. And if the player acts not according to the alignment then the ancestor refuses to help them (DM's choice). This would nudge the player to be more consistent. 

  Yojimbo gives you spells that make no sense if you're trying to replicate the effect with a weapon. I get what they were going for and it's actually pretty cool but maybe make up the effects instead of saying you cast spells. Or just get rid of the archetype altogether. 

  Shogun works but I think you'd have to change Shogun Stance's name as it has nothing to do with the Archetype. 

  Iaijutsu Master and Kyudo may need a bit more tweaking but they are pretty balanced otherwise.

As it was pointed out, the core mechanic of the class are the Stances. Perhaps incorporating them into the Archetypes would serve them better? Although the combos don't all make sense. This brings up the issue that the Archetypes feel disconnected from the main class features, like it's two different classes parallel to each other. With Kyudo you could play off the stances pretty easily and have it make sense- each stance granting different arrow types/damage with their own effects. Iaijutsu Master plays off them well already so not sure if you'd need to change that much. Shogun is mainly buffing your allies so I guess they use the stances for themselves. Yojimbo is straight defensive, so some stances mean little to it. Shoyu is the most disconnected from the class by far, it could literally be its own class as it is three "paths" already. Each with their own abilities and playstyles.

Final thoughts would be to focus on Shogun, Iaijutsu Master and Kyudo. Ditch the other two. Try to incorporate the stances into the Archetypes even it's something small. Obviously the class is combat based, which some consider 'overpowered' but in my experience it makes the character useless anywhere else. So they should at least be great in combat, so a bit of extra damage from them is expected. I won't do any big changes for a while but if no one has any objections then I'd like to go ahead and just do it. ----Ancalagon 11/1/19

Connecting this class closer with the subclasses is a great idea. The core ideas of the subclasses seem to match what you simplified them into above. Making the class's features work hand in hand with different subclasses is very important. With these balance concerns addressed, this class will be well along than it is now. Go ahead, be bold and make your changes. Just make sure to remove {{needsbalance}} too then! --Green Dragon (talk) 08:17, 19 November 2019 (MST)

Level Changes to Abilities

So as the table is currently, levels 7 and 13 are open. Which is fine, you don't need something at every level. But my thought is that the others seem a bit clustered. Level 5 sees Extra Attack, Honor Archetype Feature, and the additional Fighting Stances. Making level 5 a very powerful milestone for the class. I would suggest moving either Extra Attack or the Archetype Feature to level 7. Also two others stick out; move Precise Strike to level 13 and move Supreme Meditation to level 17. Simple reason being to leave Ability Score Improvements as the only level up feature for their levels. ----Ancalagon 11/22/2019

Lightning Blade

In regards to the recent change to Lightning Blade (Iaijutsu Master level 7 ability), I don't think bringing the level that you no longer take a point of exhaustion is necessary. It's a very powerful ability that plays well off of its drawback. This change just seems to be an attempt to make the Iaijutsu Master Archetype more powerful. Unless a solid argument as to why it should be level 11 that the drawback no longer happens, I suggest undoing that particular change. --Ancalagon 1/1/2020

Class feature progression

Hi, I’m currently playing this class in a home brew game and I’ve really liked a lot of the changes made over the past few months. I’ve been playing the class as a Kyudo subclass and I had some suggestions that I think could help balance the class and make the progression more gradual. Since most of the changes involve moving existing things around I’ll add my table suggestion below and add any notes after it.

• Level "Prof. Bonus" Features
• 1st +2 Daisho Set, Parry
• 2nd +2 Bushido, Fighting Stance (+2)
• 3rd +2 Honor Archetype
• 4th +2 Ability Score Improvement
• 5th +3 Extra Attack
• 6th +3 Honor Archetype Feature
• 7th +3 Fighting Stance (+2), Parry x2
• 8th +3 Ability Score Improvement
• 9th +4 Crucial Seppuku
• 10th +4 Honor Archetype Feature
• 11th +4 Possessed Blade, Void Stance
• 12th +4 Ability Score Improvement
• 13th +5 Precise Strike
• 14th +5 Honor Archetype Feature
• 15th +5 Fighting Stance (+2), Parry x3
• 16th +5 Ability Score Improvement
• 17th +6 Supreme Meditation, Bushido x2
• 18th +6 Honor Archetype Feature
• 19th +6 Ability Score Improvement
• 20th +6 Ronin, Kami's Stance

The biggest change I would suggest is removing the level 6 and 14 ASIs. I don’t think the class needs them since it already has plenty of features. It makes more sense to give it the base amount of ASIs, rather than the Fighter amount. This opened up space to move the subclass features a bit and spread the fighting stances out too. The second biggest change is at level 11, where the Void Stance is gained. In order to balance the Void Stance at the lower level it was given a restriction that leaving the Void Stances gives you a point of exhaustion. This restriction is removed at level 15. If this is still unbalanced then the Void Stance could be flipped with the last two stances that are gained at level 15. These changes were made with the Kyudo subclass in mind and I didn’t balance them with the other two subclasses, although I don’t think that should cause a problem. Thanks for all the work you’ve done to make this class fun so far. The only other major change I would suggest involves replacing the Possessed Blade feature, but it doesn’t necessarily affect the above changes--Jguilmon (talk) 07:48, 5 February 2020 (MST)

I would agree with the ASI suggestion. As pointed out in one of the earlier posts on the discussion board this class started out as quite a mess. I hope you've enjoyed the changes to Kyudo, always a challenge making a non-magical archer work. The fighting stances are definitely a tricky part of the class to balance, in terms of power/abilities and level learned. Interesting idea about swapping Void Stance with the last two learned, I tried to trim Void Stance to be less combat oriented so learning it a few levels earlier shouldn't be a problem- change you are unable to use any stance for two turns into simply switching out leaves you with a point of exhaustion? The problem with that is it makes the stance only to be used in combat rather than using the blindsight for recon primarily, plus two full turns in combat is quite a lot since the stances are the core of the main class. So I'd leave that alone for now. Possessed Blade is something I came up with to add a different ability than the previous one which was simply copy and pasted. I would like to know the reason for wanting to replace it, I know it's more or less just Spiritual Weapon but it would also be able to be used outside of combat which this class has very little of. Last is the table; 1. get rid of 6/14 ASI, 2. fighting stance from 5 to 6 and leave Archetype feature at 7, 3. Void Stance to 11 and Fighting Stance to 15, 4. Archetype feature from 15 to 14. --Ancalagon 2/5/2020

For the Void Stance, the exhaustion was just added as another limitation. You are also still unable to switch to another stance for 2 turns. The exhaustion was originally added to help balance the previous Void Stance but the new one still seems strong enough to warrant it below level 15. I do like the Possessed Blade feature as it’s written. The only reason it was removed was because I had a different feature that seemed important to add and I didn’t want to add something without taking something else away. The feature I added is: “Enlightened Blade - At the 11th level, you have progressed along the way of the warrior. You gain proficiency in Wisdom saving throws. Also, attacks made with your Daisho weapons count as magical for the purpose of overcoming resistance and immunity to nonmagical attacks and damage.” I feel like the Daisho feature has a major flaw, in that it is meant to be your character’s primary weapon but since it’s added at level 1 it’s just a basic 5e weapon. This makes it more and more underpowered as you go, especially once other characters start getting magical weapons. That would be fine as a trade off but the increasing amount of resistances and immunities to non magical damage cut the class’s damage dealing in half if you are using your intended weapon. I felt that this feature was necessary and the Possessed Blade just seemed like the easiest to replace of the features in that level range, but it could easily replace the Crucial Seppuku or Precise Strike instead, or it could be added without removing anything else. Overcoming resistances and immunities seemed like it was a bit thin to carry a whole feature so I moved the Wisdom saving throw proficiency from Supreme Meditation down to give it a bit more since it seemed to match the theme of a more enlightened warrior, although it isn’t necessary to move if it should stay at level 17 --Jguilmon (talk) 12:21, 5 February 2020 (MST)

I would rather reduce added damage to Void Stance than tack on exhaustion. As I said, I was going for a more non-combative style with that stance anyway- so maybe 1d6 or 2d4 instead of 2d6 or just add damage to one attack per turn. But moving it to 11 is still a pretty good idea. As for Possessed Blade it would be easy enough to add in that your Daisho weapons become magical at say level 8 in its description. The proficiency in Wisdom Saving throws fits with Supreme Meditation pretty well I think. Honestly I'm just glad someone else finally added something constructive to the class. --Ancalagon 2/5/2020

I think your point about the Void Stance makes sense. I haven’t tried the updated version yet so it’s likely fine at level 11 as is, with 2d6 and no exhaustion. I do like the Possessed Blade feature you added, and the notes above are reasonable. I may have been too cautious about adding something to a class I’m actively using without removing something at the same time. I agree that the Wisdom Save proficiency does fit well with the Supreme Meditation as well. There was another notable change in the table I added above that I forgot to call out. I moved the Fighting Stance feature so that it starts at level 2 rather than level 1. This was due to some comments above on this page about how it gives abilities ahead of when other classes get their version, specifically calling out Wind Stance and Rogues. This seemed like a fair point so I moved the Fighting Stances to start at level 2 and moved Parry to level 1 since it is a defensive feature and is fairly reasonable. While this leaves the class at the same point as of level 3, it does make it weaker at level 1 and stronger at level 2. That covers all the major changes I can think of for the class, although I do have some tweaks that I can collate and add later. Thanks for all the work you’ve done in this class. --Jguilmon (talk) 18:40, 5 February 2020 (MST)

I made a list of changes and added in that change to fighting stances starting at 2. I did change Wind Stance so it wasn't overpowered. I think what's been said is a good amount to change for now, so I'll see if I can get the page unlocked. --Ancalagon 2/6/2020 9:41am EST

Just give an admin the heads up when the page should be locked again. --Green Dragon (talk) 15:05, 6 February 2020 (MST)

Stance Balancing

It's not that I think the stances are too overpowered as they are currently, but I think each one should have a drawback to use. This simply justifies any extra power they have. Right now most of them are fine but Wind and Lightning could use a negative. For Lightning I am simply thinking that after using the dash attack, movement speed becomes 0 until the beginning/end of the next turn. Wind is the obvious choice of OP in the stances, as it is almost a free dodge action. Therefore I suggest a -3/-4 to damage rolls while in that stance. Please feel free to add any other suggestions to stance balancing. --Ancalagon 3/7/2020 11:04am EST

Been mulling over Wind Stance for a while, instead of penalty to damage output I was thinking of having disadvantage on attack rolls against creatures larger than you. Reasoning is simply that wind has trouble affecting larger things, if we're going for some sort of logic. --Ancalagon 5/7/2020 12:34PM EST

Iaijutsu Playtest

Bushido is way overpowered than it should be. It's outright better than Fighter's Action Surge, which only gives you additional action. While being in a Stance can justify additional bonus action (although Stances itself have way too many usages that you can even expend in a day. At lvl 20 you get to have 20+Con Mod Stances, and at Lvl 3... 3+Con. You can at least get into 3 Combats in a day and it doesn't feel like you used that many), no way it should grant you another 3rd attack ACTION, stacking just sheer power that you can deal with Fire Stance. The 3rd attack action should be removed, period.

Ritual Dueling is first thing you get as Iaijutsu Samurai, and it's broken. As a BA, you can put this on 1 target for +5 Attack Rolls (and later at Lvl 13, +5 Damage Rolls). It might sound fine and it's even a concentration, but the static bonus is way too high. At same level Shogun gets AoE Frighten once per SR, and Kyudo gets bonus 1d4 damage that upscales. With Iaijutsu, you can give something like Great Weapon Master to use the +5 bonus and deal, at Level 13, +15 Static Damage bonus. This feat itself can one shot bosses that are MEANT to be tough for the whole party and not one shotted by just one stabby dancing person. Fact you get this much from Proficiency x 2 per Long Rest (or restore half as much on SR) is absurd.

Strike from the Void everything about this is just no. Add Proficiency to damage rolls AND reaction for non-counterspellable Misty Step? Letting you DODGE an attack and move out of enemy's range? This annoyed GMs, both in survivalbility and DPS number. Combine this with Ritual Dueling and Fire Stance at 13th Level, and you deal 1d8 (Katana) + 20 (Dex, Ritual, Fire). Add something like GWM (for one-handed weapons, though you're not required to run Dex for this subclass) and it becomes +30. No other classes have THIS many bonuses, even with GWM. Another problem is the dodging aspect. I don't think there should be an universe where Misty Step is a reaction. With the usage so high as Half Samurai Level, you can avoid one big boss's attack or move out of horde's range, or mitigate fall damage. This feat should not exist. Extending the attack by 5 ft. range for 1 attack is nothing compared to the auto-dodge as a reaction to the point Parry, the main class feat, is thrown aside in replacement for this teleportation dodge, definitely is a red flag there.

One Strike, Two Cuts nothing to say much about this, just, Level/2 usages is kinda too much.

Ronin this is ultimate capstone ability. By that I mean the strongest from any class I've seen. You get FOUR benefits: Improved initiative, +4 Damage (and can dual wield without losing other benefits. So you can gain one-handed benefits like Dueling and still dual wield), bypass resistance/immunities + nullify nat 1's, and finally, 65 ft. movement speed with special attack to deal 13d6+Weapon damage, for max movement. Oh and add resistance to Physical damage while we're at it. This is too good for a capstone.

Overall, lot of features have too many usages than you'd expect to run out in a combat, and many of them are too good in comparison to a Fighter, Barbarian, Paladin's Smites, etc. Bushido itself may as well use Action Surge, because having bonus action means you can set up for more things. More things to one shot bosses or enemies HP with 1 attack using Stances, Ritual, etc. Other subclasses are rather fine, it's just Iaijutsu is definition of DPS God. Games I played with this class, GMs had (and will) implement HP Bars so they don't take 1 turn to be killed and instead, many, many turns. Which is something wrong if 1 player is the actual threat in comparison to the whole party. Lot of boss fights are built around Boss vs. Party fights, it shouldn't be Boss vs. Samurai. At Lvl 17th, they can deal 500+ damage with Bushido, Ritual, Fire + Lightning, GWM, etc. to a CR 30 Demigod. Downscale the damage output, usages, etc., follow the similar balance pattern as other subclasses, and Iaijutsu should be fine subclass, not an overpowered one. -- Kat5 28/04/2021 03:48 (GMT+2)

Yeah I never got the chance to playtest past level 6. I will say I did have the pure homebrew idea for it, not really to be used in normal campaigns with other players using classes from the PHB. But I'll share my thoughts on what you've brought up. BUSHIDO- I didn't want it to just be the Fighter's Action Surge, so I made it only work for attacks as you can do a lot more with an extra action. It also depends on the dice roll, granted with Ritual duelling you do have a much higher chance to hit with the plus to hit but one miss and the ability stops. I would be alright with "make a second and third attack" instead of the full attack action. NUMBER OF STANCES- since the stances can be ended early, fighting enemies that grapple can reduce your total quickly, which I found out while playing. If you think having that many at level 20 is too much, level 20 basically being a god anyway. The stances aren't unlimited but at that level you shouldn't run out quickly by any means. RITUAL DUELLING- I think should be limited is uses, to either straight Prof or CON mod. As for damage, can just make that once per turn, nulling that GWM abuse. STRIKE FROM THE VOID- make it an action and that should cover everything. ONE STRIKE, TWO CUTS- yeah I'd agree lowering uses to CON mod. RONIN- so here's where I'm sort of torn, of course I agree it is strong but again, this is a pure DPS subclass, it doesn't do anything else. Compare this with a normal level 20 Wizard and it loses every time. I didn't notice that I forgot to limit the reroll 1's though, that's not good, but it'd be easy enough to just change so you had to use a charge. Also I'd get rid of the AoO, that's too much. I appreciate the feedback though, as I said I haven't been able to completely playtest Iaijutsu Master so what I put was basically just a best guess. I have to ask though, did you start out playing this at higher levels? ---- Ancalagon 2/5/2021 11:47am EST

Sorry for late response, I wasn't actually expecting to be responded. But, thank you for your response! No, I started at Level 3, all the way to Lvl 20 (although the game ended exactly as I reached lvl 20, my last battle at Level 19 was nutty. A power-fantasy Lvl 20 Barbarian mixed with Monk proved to be harder fight than CR 30 homebrew Demi-God, with 876 HP, instant kill Dex Save and that was the second phase form. I one shotted the first phase at lvl 17 lol). Luckily for the campaign I was in (and many other campaigns with same group), we don't level up traditionally and instead we are levelled up when we win a fight, with more harder encounters for consistent level ups. So it was easy to playtest the class while playing with the campaign normally. Honestly I didn't really find being grappled to be that much of problem. Firstly, GM never really tried grappling my character unless it's something they specialize (even when he knew my stances could be stopped by being grappled). While it did happen sometimes, it wasn't often to find at start of long rest, I had (with 16 Con and Level 8)... 10/13 stances left. Maybe it's because I didn't fight THAT whole lot after the arena fights, but it didn't really felt like that much were spent. As for Ronin, I also agree Capstones should be kinda ultimate god feature (many of my games I talk with the GM to buff other classes capstones. Sorcerer's Capstone is just OOF), but it shouldn't be something bizarrely crazy as having 65 ft. movement and can use an action to, for one attack, move 65 Ft. (if in Wind Stance, double that to 130 as BA Dash) to deal... 26d6 bonus damage. All while having other features granted by the capstone. Although I would've used my flair combo of attacks with many static bonuses, with Flying Strike being, and quite literally, being sent up in the air by 500 ft. and fall down to make a Meteor Strike. I'm not sure if this is actually possible, but it was funny and GM allowed it, since I was too powerful anyways.

Again, thank you for responding to my feedback and nerfing these abilities as noted! Hopefully this class will blossom well! - Kat5 26/05/2021, 8:30 (GMT+2)

I'm glad someone is giving playtested feedback on it. I enjoyed making all the changes I did but I only had it locked because of vandalism. I knew it was going to need some touch ups at some point. I recently had a chance to play a one shot with the Level 20 of this class. Can't say I was getting any crazy numbers for damage, maybe averaging 50-60 per round? Granted it was a homebrew boss so it was quite tough. Anyway, looking back at your first message I noticed the Strike From The Void comment was incorrect- the bonus damage only applies to your Daisho weapon, so if you choose to use something else you wouldn't get the bonus. When I played I simply changed the reaction into an action and it didn't seem broken at all, I teleported into a tree then the boss cut the tree down with me in it. As for the number of stances, seeing as it's the core of the class I don't think it should end up with anything less than 10 at level 20. Change it to double prof. so you end up with 12 at 20 but a lot less early on. I want to clarify that the Flying Strike doesn't actually give a flying speed. So if you used it to fly up and plummet down, that is wrong hahaha. As for damage for the Flying Strike, in order to hit for the same as Meteor Swarm (by itself without other bonuses), you would need to move 200ft in a single movement action. Which is impossible unless you do indeed fall from the sky. If anything I'd just limit it to twice per LR instead of 5 times. Plus put a cap to the distance or have a concentration check for anything over a certain distance. But yeah I'll get the page unlocked and make the changes brought up. ---- Ancalagon 26/5/2021 7:16pm EST

Oh, I know it doesn't give flying speed, but there was piece of text that said Falling from great heights does not injure you. So, I interpreted as I don't take any falling damage, and if I am thrown up by 500 ft. (possible by certain character with reallllyy high strength, or, dropping off from the helicopter (yes, we had helicopter in DnD. Yes, it was made by our artificer)) and falling itself is 500 ft. per round, I could deal that huge amount of damage from Flying Strike as a bonus. As for how I was dealing that much amount of damage, Daisho let's me apply to new weapon if I carve a symbol on it. This includes magic weapons, in essence. Here's the calculation how i dealt that much damage, using 20 Dex and normal magic weapon, abeit with several homebrew features and items: Weapon (1d8+11 [5 Dex, 6 Prof]) + One-Handed GWM (+10) + Ritual (+5 Damage) + 6 (Fire Stance) + 7 (Fire Sheath item, apply Alchemist Fire that deals extra damage for 3 turns) + 4 (Ronin's Lvl 20 Bonus). ONCE PER TURN, add +12 (Iaijutsu ASI feat, add half of my Init Bonus to the attack on first draw strike. Yes I had +24 Initiative.) + 5 (Stone Stance, can be swapped for Lightning Stance or anything else).

Based on the roll I made on Rolz, I got average 66 on first attack, then rest around 48. If enemy is immune to fire, then I'd swap to Void Stance for 2d6 Necrotic/Cold damage. And, I could make 3 attacks per turn (another attack from Veteran Warrior feat) with bonus attack as an Reaction (One Strike Two Cuts). Although I don't add Dex and Prof, it's still an attack and so, I kinda interpreted it as counting my other bonuses. GWM, Fire Sheath/Stance, etc., with average 57 bonus damage. With combination of Bushido, I could deal 66+57 = 123 damage on first strike (if both hits), then, rest of 8 attacks after first with 47x8 = 376 damage, not accounting for Crits or potential misses. Now, I didn't have any special weapon that boosted my damage, just minor 1d4 healing per hit, but, I could've applied +3 upgrade to it (or artificer's infusion) and make the damage/attack accuracy count higher. I still have the sheet in hand, full Lvl 20 in a Google Slide, if you want to see it (am still new to this Dandwiki editing front so not sure if there's some sort of private message board or it's all done in Discord lol). -- Kat5 27/05/2021, 07:02 GMT+2

Hm, seems like the easy solution is to limit bonuses to one attack per round. I've also never heard of the Veteran Warrior feat before, I looked it up and yeah that does boost the attacks quite a bit. Also for the Daisho it's only the one weapon you choose at the start. The symbol is simply for summoning it back. You can enchant it with whatever but the Daisho is a single weapon you get at the start of the class. Don't worry, I'm reading through everything and noticing a good amount of changes to implement. However I don't want to nerf it too hard or they'll be no point in playing it. It kinda seems like you choosing GWM and whatever gave you half your initiative to damage did wonders for your damage output. But I definitely see a few things that are abuseable. Again I didn't get a chance to test everything so the numbers were off the top of my head, without calculating in combos and such. ----Ancalagon 28/05/2021 3:31pm EST