Teppou Bushi

Samurai, masterful warriors dedicated to honor, While the katana is the traditional weapon of the samurai, the teppou bushi embraces the future of warfare, learning to use gunpowder and lead alongside her steel blades. Teppou bushi characters are predominantly members of the buke, or samurai, caste, but some ambitious daimyo surreptitiously train their lesser soldiers to be gunmen.

The teppou bushi is an archetype of the gunslinger class.

Class Skills

The teppou bushi possesses Knowledge (engineering) as a class skill.

Weapon and Armor Proficiency

Teppou bushi are proficient with all simple and martial weapons, with the katana, wakizashi and with all two-handed firearms, such as the musket. (To be proficient with other firearms, a teppou bushi must take the appropriate feat; however, all firearm related abilities will work with any firearms for which the teppou bushi is proficient.) Teppou bushi are proficient with all light and medium armor, but not with shields or heavy armor.

Gunsmith

A teppou bushi must select a musket when she chooses a battered firearm at 1st level. Otherwise this ability is the same as the standard Gunsmith ability.

A Struggle for Honor

Teppou bushi are viewed with suspicion by more traditional samurai and must strive harder to prove their honor. A teppou bushi subtracts one from her class level when determining her maximum honor, and, unlike other classes, a character who begins as a teppou bushi may not possess an Honor score until she is second level (that is, her maximum honor equals her class level -1 and then divided by two, with a minimum of 1 at 2nd level). Otherwise, a teppou bushi gains and loses Honor as normal. A teppou bushi with an Honor score of at least 1 may, once per day, if she has no grit remaining, raise her amount of grit to 1.

Deeds

A teppou bushi gains the following deeds, replacing standard gunslinger deeds as required:

Determined (Ex): As a standard action, the teppou bushi can spend one use of her grit to remove the fatigued, shaken, or sickened condition. If the teppou bushi is at least 8th level, she can alternatively remove the exhausted, frightened, nauseated, or staggered condition. If the condition has a duration longer than 1 hour or is permanent, this ability removes the condition for 1 hour, at which time the condition returns.

This deed replaces Deadeye.

Unstoppable (Ex): When the teppou bushi is reduced to fewer than 0 hit points but not slain, she can spend one use of grit as an immediate action to instantly stabilize and remain conscious. She is staggered, but does not fall unconscious, or begin dying if she takes a standard action. She immediately falls unconscious if she takes additional damage from any source (unless, of course, it’s enough to kill her), and must thereafter stabilize as normal.

One Man Volley (Ex): At 1st level, as long as the teppou bushi has at least one point of grit remaining, she may take a full round action to unleash a salvo of fire at her enemies, using her firearm. When using this ability, she makes as many attacks as her base attack bonus allows for, and gains one additional attack at her highest base attack bonus. She must still use ammunition as normal, but she may reload her weapon as a free action during this full-round action. All attacks, including the extra attack, gain a -4 penalty to hit and are resolved using the target’s normal AC (as opposed to the target’s touch AC), regardless of how many range increments away the target is. At 7th level, the penalty to hit is lessened to -3.

At 14th level, the penalty to hit is only -2. This deed replaces the Gunslinger’s Dodge and Startling Shot deeds.

Disciplined Reloader (Ex): At 3rd level, as long as the teppou bushi has at least one point of grit remaining, she can reload any two-handed firearm as if it were one-handed.

This deed replaces Gunslinger Initiative.

Greater Determination (Ex): At 11th level, a teppou bushi can use her grit to negate some of her deepest wounds. After a critical hit is confirmed against her, the teppou bushi can spend one use of her grit as an immediate action to treat that critical hit as a normal hit. Effects that only trigger on a critical hit do no trigger when the teppou bushi uses this ability.

This deed replaces the Expert Loading deed.

Teppou Bushi’s Resilience (Ex)

Starting at 2nd level, so long as the teppou bushi has at least 1 grit, she gains DR 1/– when wearing armor. At 7th level and every 5 levels thereafter, this damage reduction increases by +1.

This ability replaces Nimble and the Evasive deed.

Tanegashima Training (Ex)

Starting at 5th level, a teppou bushi increases her skill with two-handed firearms. She gains a bonus on damage rolls equal to her Dexterity modifier, and when she misfires with a two-handed firearm, the misfire value increases by 2 instead of 4. Every four levels thereafter (9th, 13th, and 17th), the bonus on damage rolls increases by +1. At 11th level, the teppou bushi never misfires with a two-handed firearm.

This ability replaces Gun Training.

Section 15: Copyright Notice

The Way of the Samurai Copyright 2012, Steven D. Russell and Michael Tumey, all rights reserved; Author Jonathan McAnulty

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