Introduction

The Japanese word ronin means "one who is tossed about, like waves in a sea" and is used to describe a masterless samurai. In brief, there were two things that truely mattered to a samurai: his honor and his master. A samurai's sole sole purpose was to defend and serve his master; one became a ronin under two circumstances. The first was when the samurai had shamed himself in the eyes of his master, but refused to commit seppuku, a ritual suicide meant to prove the samurai's unconditional and ultimate devotion to his master, effectively redeeming the warrior of whatever shame he had bestowed upon himself. History shows that most of these ronin were weak of spirit and most often became thieves and bandits, forsaking bushido (the way of the samurai) altogether. The second case of a samurai becoming a ronin involved the samurai's master simply being killed in one of the countless battles that took place. There were still many who committed seppuku, many who became outlaws, as well as many who simply enrolled themselves under a new master's flag. But there also were few who stayed true to bushido and chose to become musha shugyo (warrior pilgrims) to traverse the land, perfecting their bodies and minds alike, or yojimbo (bodyguards for hire).


Character Concept

The yojimbo, although a formidable opponent, is not as effective in one on one combat as the musha shugyo. He spends more time taking part in small skirmishes and is most effective when fighting groups of slightly lesser enemies. What he lacks in concentration ability, compared to the musha shugyo, he makes up for with pure instict. His attacks aren't as precise or as damaging as the duelist's, but he is better at fighting when surrounded, avoiding and dealing blows all around, as if having eyes in the back of his head.

In Neverwinter Nights, this amount to a high number of attacks (Improved Two Weapon Fighting), ability to swiftly attack any number of nearby opponents (Improved Cleave, Improved Whirlwind Attack) and high criticals (15-20/x3 or more, Overwhelming Critical). Because of game limitations (no possibility to wield a katana as a two-handed weapon), you will be using two katanas instead of the customary samurai longsword (katana) and shortsword (wakizashi), which make up the daisho (a samurai's soul).

The character's alignment is a choice for you to make based on personal preference, but since the concept is of a ronin who has stayed true to bushido, it should not be any evil. Read the descriptions carefully and decide which fits your character best. The alignment I found most fitting was Lawful Neutral (which yields an added bonus of being immune to Smite Good/Smite Evil), followed closely by Chaotic Good.

This character requires both a high Strength and high Dexterity, and as such you will be taking Dexterity for your extra attribute points at levels 4, 8, 20, 24 and 28, while raising Strength at levels 12, 16, 32, 36 and 40.

Keep Discipline maxed out at all times. You will also need four ranks in Intimidate towards the goal of becoming a Weapon Master. Since it's a cross-class skill for a Fighter, you have two ways to go about it. If you decide Intimidate is a skill you want, take it at character creation and keep raising whenever you get the chance. If you decide you just need the pre-requisite ranks, use the points elsewhere at character creation, and raise Intimidate by one at levels 3, 5, 7 and 9. This will come at an expense of four points in another skill, and you must decide which is least valuable of the ones you pick. I recommend not taking Intimidate past the necessary value and take the following skills as your main ones: Persuade (a samurai should excel in combat, but never seek it, always trying to find a peaceful solution, if at all possible), Lore and Tumble (although partially nullified by Spring Attack, it helps early on and gives you a +4 natural AC bonus by the end).


Character Statistics and Feat Progression

RACE: Human
CLASS: Fighter
ALIGNMENT: Lawful Neutral
ATTRIBUTES: Str 16, Dex 16, Con 13, Wis 8, Int 13, Cha 8
SKILLS: Discipline 4, Lore 4, Persuade 2, Tumble 2

Level 1: (Fighter 1) Ambidexterity, Two Weapon Fighting, Weapon Proficiency (Exotic)
Level 2: (Fighter 2) Weapon Focus (Katana)
Level 3: (Fighter 3) Dodge
Level 4: (Fighter 4) Weapon Specialization (Katana)
Level 5: (Fighter 5) --
Level 6: (Fighter 6) Mobility, Spring Attack
Level 7: (Fighter 7) --
Level 8: (Fighter 8) Expertise
Level 9: (Fighter 9) Improved Two Weapon Fighting
Level 10: (Fighter 10) Whirlwind Attack
Level 11: (Weapon Master 1) --
Level 12: (Fighter 11) Improved Critical (Katana)
Level 13: (Weapon Master 2) --
Level 14: (Weapon Master 3) --
Level 15: (Weapon Master 4) Power Attack
Level 16: (Weapon Master 5) --
Level 17: (Weapon Master 6) --
Level 18: (Weapon Master 7) Cleave
Level 19: (Weapon Master 8) --
Level 20: (Weapon Master 9) --
Level 21: (Fighter 12) Epic Weapon Focus (Katana), Epic Weapon Specialization (Katana)
Level 22: (Weapon Master 10) --
Level 23: (Weapon Master 11) --
Level 24: (Weapon Master 12) Great Dexterity I
Level 25: (Weapon Master 13) Improved Cleave
Level 26: (Weapon Master 14) --
Level 27: (Weapon Master 15) Great Dexterity II
Level 28: (Weapon Master 16) Armor Skin
Level 29: (Weapon Master 17) --
Level 30: (Weapon Master 18) Toughness
Level 31: (Weapon Master 19) Improved Whirlwind Attack
Level 32: (Weapon Master 20) --
Level 33: (Weapon Master 21) Great Strength I
Level 34: (Weapon Master 22) Epic Toughness
Level 35: (Weapon Master 23) --
Level 36: (Weapon Master 24) Great Strength II
Level 37: (Weapon Master 25) Epic Toughness
Level 38: (Weapon Master 26) --
Level 39: (Weapon Master 27) Great Constitution I
Level 40: (Weapon Master 28) Overwhelming Critical


Submitted By: Aremah