Samurai Fighter - D&D 5e Subclass Series

We discuss the next subclass in the series from Xanather's Guide to Everything: the Samurai Fighter! This subclass gets some interesting abilities... find out what we think of this subclass! We are going to be going over each subclass ability then rating each subclass on Roleplay Value, Combat Value, and Overall Class Synergy. We have a very special rating system as well!
Thanks for watching!
Help support the channel by buying D&D Stuff:
Mythic Odysseys of Theros amzn.to/3gxoU6j
Explorer's Guide to Wildemount amzn.to/3gwbuHr
Eberron: Rising from the Last War amzn.to/2XuZ4bw
Xanathar's Guide to Everything amzn.to/3fwtgt0
Mordenkainen's Tome of Foes amzn.to/2PqclOj
Volo's Guide to Monsters amzn.to/33vSG7Q
Player's Handbook amzn.to/33vrRQT
Dungeon Master's Guide amzn.to/3i4u6Pg
Monster Manual amzn.to/3i4uRYC

[@URGE]

Help support the channel by buying D&D Stuff: Mythic Odysseys of Theros amzn.to/3gxoU6j Explorer's Guide to Wildemount amzn.to/3gwbuHr Eberron: Rising from the Last War amzn.to/2XuZ4bw Xanathar's Guide to Everything amzn.to/3fwtgt0 Mordenkainen's Tome of Foes amzn.to/2PqclOj Volo's Guide to Monsters amzn.to/33vSG7Q Player's Handbook amzn.to/33vrRQT Dungeon Master's Guide amzn.to/3i4u6Pg Monster Manual amzn.to/3i4uRYC

[@robertsilvermyst7325]

I paired this with multiclassing into Assassin Rogue to create a Ghost of Tsushima build. The damage dealt was delicious.

[@potassiumchloride2128]

Oo im curious. I would like to play this build

[@danieljames7629]

What was the split on that?

[@LikeTheBirb]

Bump bc also interested in the class split

[@robertsilvermyst7325]

@@danieljames7629 By the endgame, 14 Assassin Rogue, 6 Samurai Fighter. Started character with a 3/3 split, went for the 3 fighter levels first during the campaign, and then went full-on rogue

[@Nighthowlerschannel]

I like how the class at the final mark is the true definition of 'If I'm going down, you're going down with me'.

[@MarkAndrewL]

We did a 20 player PVP tournament in our Adventurer's League Group and a straight Samurai Figher won.

[@ryanpeters1005]

What level?

[@thefracturedbutwhole5475]

@@ryanpeters1005 depending on the level a Zealot Barbarian would be my choice.

[@thevoodooman1609]

"Getting advantage on attacks three times a day" Bold of you to assume that my party sleeps at the end of every day

[@annabaelfire2173]

Half-orc samurai 🤔🤔 takes a killing blow and interrupts a turn, does 4 attacks then action surge then second wind. Enemy continues turn, killing blows the samurai again... Half orc passive kicks in reducing you to 1hp instead....sooo.... Third times the charm?

[@CaramelFop]

that enemy: WHY WON'T YOU DIE

[@annabaelfire2173]

@@CaramelFop I tried this out and my dm made a point to literally target me in every encounter until i died so i didnt make it past lvl 6

[@AgentC6H12O6]

@@annabaelfire2173 your dm is no fun

[@annabaelfire2173]

@@AgentC6H12O6 I changed to a different dm after that lol. I guess he just didn't like that I couldn't go down in battles.

[@SilverFox_82]

@@annabaelfire2173 that’s what are dm did I played a warlock tabaxi but died at level 1and was brought back as a rock know didn’t make it to level 6 after he had a white dragon blow frost and kill all but 2 party members.

[@binolombardi]

It may be worth noting that the additional attack gained from rapid strike benefits from advantage. So it’s ts basically “if you have advantage on your attacks, you gain 1 additional attack without advantage”. At the level you get the feature that would be 3 attacks with advantage, 1 without. Or 6 attacks with advantage, 1 without, if utilizing action surge. Possible bonus action attack of advantage was gained without fighting spirit. It may also be worth noting that the features do not limit you in any way to weapon type or ability mods. Strength based half orc great weapon fighter and dex based half elf sharpshooter with elven accuracy are both great options supported by this subclass.

[@shalomcollege6482]

9 attacks

[@fatbean2000]

Just started my minatour Samari and I started at level 10 and I kicking ass and I am loving it.

[@aptom3333]

Little late to the party but Samurai + Sharpshooter + the Elven Accuracy racial feat from XGtE is basically a delete button. Samurai turns on Fighting Spirit and Action Surge, and makes something go away. By level 6 you can have both feats, and 18 dexterity. Two attacks, plus action surge, and you're rolling 12x across 4 attacks, each dealing 1d8+14; you will hit (even with a -5 to attack rolls, since you're getting to roll 3 times for each attack) and you will leave anything that doesn't die instantly teetering on the brink

[@malchir4036]

I would argue that VH samurai with sharpshooter and crossbow expert is better, especially at level 1-5. It has far better sustainable damage with the extra bonus attack when it's not peaking.

[@TheNewTitorius]

@@malchir4036 Problem is, that gaining advantage on Samurai eats up your bonus action. Using the extra attack of crossbow expert and having advantage is not possible

[@malchir4036]

@@TheNewTitorius You don't have to activate that, and if you do it on your action surge round it's 4 advantage sharpshooter attacks vs 5 non-advantage, at lvl 5. You have 2 regular attacks per round lvl 1-3, sharpshooter enabled at 4, and 3 attacks at 5 on regular rounds. Save these boosts for harder to hit monsters, when you really need to hit, or the action surge damage spike.

[@alexsgamingshow2474]

I have to get back, back to the past, Samurai Jack! ❤️.

[@benkonicki5325]

Researching this for my half orc Samari/ zealot barb.... hehe, lots of extra damage outputs....

[@QueenoftheSkunks]

God I feel so bad for your DM

[@masterofmaddness2026]

I’m thinking of doing a Samurai Beast Master build gonna call him Samurai Fl4k

[@dage9911]

Ayyyyyy borderlands 3

[@masterofmaddness2026]

@@dage9911 exactly

[@dage9911]

@@masterofmaddness2026 I think shadow sorcerer would be better since you can summon a hound

[@masterofmaddness2026]

@@dage9911 that’s true

[@TheCelticCowboy98]

Samurai fighter + Kansai monk = FUN!

[@therapscallion3188]

how well do the abilities actually synergise?

[@heragon58]

How many levels into both?

[@junsonofjack3740]

@@therapscallion3188 I imagine with advantage and whatever the thing is that gives bonuses to kensai weapons, this thing hits as consistently as anyone.

[@duckonquack5337]

I’m a dragon born samurai and I have split personality disorder one is very charismatic and kind the other is demon that can’t be let out. Me campaign is curse of strahd and it’s really good

[@junsonofjack3740]

For a melee fighter I’ve been thinking of a even or two of war cleric. I can do the same, but for an accuracy build, I think an archer is better.

[@nightlordnorris4446]

Dwarf Sorcadin Samurai ✊ because you can never have enough ways to smite your enemies!

[@lloyddodgen]

My Lightfoot Halfling Swashbuckler Samurai is so much fun.

[@danielupton7591]

DM'd a lvl 20 oneshot vs 4 liches, action surge + inherent advantage generator = shredded liches :p :p

[@kaildraconis]

I built a samurai archer for a campaign that didnt ever get off the ground. I was thinking i might make another one or use that one if i start a new campaign soon

[@itsmeanunoriginaljoke9870]

Did you use it? If you did how'd it go? What were some highlights? Sounding like an essay question here.

[@kaildraconis]

@@itsmeanunoriginaljoke9870 i wish but unfortunately no. Covid really screwed over every one of our games in one way or another lol. Online and in person

[@itsmeanunoriginaljoke9870]

@@kaildraconis Well there's always next time... whenever next time is.

[@kaildraconis]

@@itsmeanunoriginaljoke9870 I still think its a super interesting character class

[@Wrathnicangel104]

I made a Blue-Dragonborn (should have used a homebrewed version cause vanilla is weak as hell) Fighter-Samurai I got him to level 7 or 8 I can’t recall right now and finally got him a magic item which was a 2 handed sword (which apparently didn’t realize was that strong) when everyone else had magic item. Sadly I had to leave the group and there was a 2 reasons why but don’t want to type it all. The one thing I definitly should have done as my first asi was to take the skilled, skill expert, or magic initiate as my 1st feat cause I had a hard time roleplaying and keeping up the pace which my dm told me he noticed that and even with the persuasion skill that samurai gains it apparently wasn’t enough since the majority of the group had higher persuasion than I did. Which made me suck outside of combat even more.

[@RyanRedfox]

Oath of Conquest Paladin next please

[@Wineblood]

You guys said multiple action surge, right? You mention it at 3:32 and 9:06, but action surge states "At 17th level, you can use Action Surge twice before a rest, but only once on the same turn." so I'm not sure if this is a house rule you're talking about.

[@URGE]

You are correct. It is once per turn. When you interrupt the turn in the initiative order, you could get both action surges in the same round if you had them both still available (in a round, not in a turn as I mistakenly said - though if you had your turn right before you get to interrupt the enemy turn, it is almost like taking two turns in a row). Thanks for watching!

[@evloh]

You are clearly confusing wisdom and charisma saves btw..... Prof in wisdom is amazing, especially for fighters who are usually weak against it (still a weak trait IMO but your description seems completely off).

[@garyco766]

You say in the video that the advantage is only for a few attacks per day so it's only so useful. This is very shortsighted. The use of this subclass is to pair it with sharpshooter or great weapon master to leverage power attack + advantage. Even at levels 5-6 this is VERY strong and can end a boss, or a non-boss entire fight in a round or 2. At level 11, you get 12 attacks at advantage (and likely +10 damage) in a combat, and get back uses each new combat if you lack them. This is a HUGE ability. If you aren't running sharpshooter or great weapon master, well, choose another subclass.

[@URGE]

You make good points. Yes, advantage goes well with GWM, but you can only get advantage X number of times. Compare this subclass with something like Cavalier Fighter where they can attempt to knock prone every single turn (giving adv on all attacks) or taking Mounted Combatant (giving adv on all attacks with no limit vs an unmounted target) and it makes a bit more sense I’d say. It is hard to not compare it to cavalier fighter, and when compared, cavalier just seems much stronger in pretty much every way. It is not bad by any means, but it doesn’t make sense to us why it is so limited compared to other subclasses/options that are just clearly better considered the whole subclass is based around that Fighting Spirit ability. Hope that makes sense. Thanks for watching!

[@garyco766]

@@URGE If you want to be an archer, cavalier obviously isn't the answer. IMO samurai makes the best archer class just for pure damage output. Cavalier is a great class, but the built in knockdowns don't come until 15th level, much too late. While fighters get a lot of feats, you still only get so many and will generally have to chose between mounted combatant/SM (they go well together) and the polearm/sentinel/GWM builds, at least until high levels. You will find yourself in a lot of indoor combats without a mount, so while awesome, that's not reliable. You can knockdown with shieldmaster, which is great with cavalier, but then you can't use a greatweapon. You can reckless attack as barb. But will only ever get 2 attacks and few feats. Samurai let's you pour down the damage when you need it, regardless of circumstances.

[@sweetkirbychomp8829]

Oath of Devotion samurai build

[@TheNavarch521]

I’d like to ask when multiclassing do I choose both or just one

[@toxicear5274]

Currently playing a samurai and I kinda feel underpowered.

[@aidanbrown2955]

Did it get better?

[@toxicear5274]

@@aidanbrown2955 just told my dm that I wanted to play a different character.

[@aidanbrown2955]

@@toxicear5274 so it did not get better then

[@toxicear5274]

@@aidanbrown2955 lol it was fun, but I guess I was looking for something else. Temporary hit points and pretty much having advantage at all time is cool, also the roleplay opportunities are endless. Just wasn’t feeling my character

[@aidanbrown2955]

@@toxicear5274 I get it, I played a really good Paladin build that was op. It just wasn't fun so I asked to switch as well.

[@williamturner6192]

Boooo! I don't want to use my bonus action for advantage! I'm going war domain cleric 1 instead. Much better.

[@thejadedrabbitTJR]

wait, rouge + samurai = free Sneak attack. this is like barbarian all over again without the fact that the enemy gets advantage on you as a rougebarian or barbarian. that's kinda busted!

[@macenanoro826]

To be fair, sneak attack can only ever be applied once a turn, so you're kinda just a Rogue who refuses to stop stabbing someone after you get them once lol

[@thejadedrabbitTJR]

@@macenanoro826 true

[@BossTripp1]

I thought u guys said u don’t compare to other subclasses? 🤔

[@URGE]

We don’t compare subclasses between different classes, and try to score subclasses individually on their own merit. Sometimes two subclasses have similar abilities or functionality that we mention because it can have very similar power comparison such as two abilities having similar effects, but one subclass has a limited number of uses per day and the other has unlimited uses (with possibly a situational limit). Hope that makes sense :) thanks for watching!