Kara-Tur Handbook

[Moriand the Great]

Hi everyone, I'm and old player of NWN and have just rediscovered it again and its great to see Baldur's Gate world still up and running.

So introductions aside I've rolled myself a character that looked Asian and decided to attempt RP'ing a samurai from Kara-tur but didn't have a clue about the mechanics of that class or any information about Kara-Tur in general. which after about a week of searching the interwebs I found this website which is a gem of D&D rule books, campaign settings, and adventures.

And after much scolling I found this for those of you who may be interested.

https://rpg.rem.uz/Dungeons%20%26%20Dra ... ntures.pdf

A great resource about races, language, and class mechanics.

Dou itashimashite
Katsuyori Takeda - wondering samurai

[Archaos]

The 3.0E version also exists.

http://www.tjlee.com/DnD/OrAdventures.pdf

[Moriand the Great]

Great find. I guess the nest step is too work out to implement some of these classes in, are there any tools or programs that are used to create and test new classes?? and any eastern item appearances paks that coulds be added. I'm happy to volunteer some time into it as I enjoy that type of thing.

[Deathgrowl]

Oriental Adventures is D&D core supplement and not Forgotten Realms specific. Some of it will contradict setting rules, and thus you should always go with Forgotten Realms rules above anything from Oriental Adventures.

It's a decent source for some stuff. Just make sure it doesn't conflict with the setting.

[Moriand the Great]

Yes I hear you but im thinking about class mechanics. Baulders Gate has so far the Monk, weapon master (kensai), bear warrior and hints towards a ninja like class from oriental adventures, would it be too much of a stretch to add Samurai and Sohei warrior monks into mix? or at least try to emulate them.

for example:

Samurai Hit Die: d10
CL BAB Fort Ref Will Special
1st +1 +2 +0 +0 Daisho proficiency
2nd +2 +3 +0 +0 Two swords as one(two weapon fight)
3rd +3 +3 +1 +1 Kiai smite 1/day
4th +4 +4 +1 +1 -
5th +5 +4 +1 +1 Iaijutsu master
6th +6/+1 +5 +2 +2 Staredown
7th +7/+2 +5 +2 +2 Kiai smite 2/day
8th +8/+3 +6 +2 +2 Improved Initiative
9th +9/+4 +6 +3 +3 -
10th +10/+5 +7 +3 +3 Mass staredown
11th +11/+6/+1 +7 +3 +3 Improved two swords as one(improved TWF)
12th +12/+7/+2 +8 +4 +4 Kiai smite 3/day
13th +13/+8/+3 +8 +4 +4 -
14th +14/+9/+4 +9 +4 +4 Improved staredown
15th +15/+10/+5 +9 +5 +5 -
16th +16/+11/+6/+1 +10 +5 +5 Greater two swords as one(what ever this is)
17th +17/+12/+7/+2 +10 +5 +5 Kiai smite 4/day
18th +18/+13/+8/+3 +11 +6 +6 -
19th +19/+14/+9/+4 +11 +6 +6 -
20th +20/+15/+10/+5 +12 +6 +6 Frightful presence

[chad878262]

Weapon Master is not Kensai and has no Asian theme to it. It is a custom/homebrew class originally developed by Bioware for NWN1 which was carried over to NWN2.
Monk is part of 3.5 core rules and is not supposed to be associated to Asian theme. FR has it's own lore of monasteries throughout Faerun.
We specifically changed "Ninja" to "Phantom" in addition to other changes we made because we do NOT want to change the Sword Coast in to being something akin to Oriental Adventures. If you would like to RP a warrior from the far east of Toril having traveled the long road to the Sword Coast then that's within your rights to create your story. However, based on past discussions and decisions it is unlikely that we will introduce more Oriental Adventures themed classes.

[Deathgrowl]

Weapon Master is not Kensai and has no Asian theme to it. It is a custom/homebrew class originally developed by Bioware for NWN1 which was carried over to NWN2.

No, it's actually based on Weapon Master from the 3.5 supplement source book Sword and Fist, page 38-39.

[Moriand the Great]

I understand the need to keep the TFR core setting and agree with that, I was very surprised when the Monk class first came out and thought to myself it doesn't belong nor fit the traditional setting that I was used to, being the more Western medieval based.

but I gotta say with the additional classes that have been added to Baulders Gate, and please don't see this as an attack, it looks like your cherry picking from a eastern setting and justifying it how ever which way you like which you are entitled too, it just appears hypocritical when its said you want to keep true to the forgotten realms setting sword coast.

And yes the worst case scenario a server full of Ninjas, Monks and Samurai in a sword coast setting is very slim, perhaps a discussion about compromises, make some classes DM pending/request as an example to restrict an imbalance.

So far a good discussion.

[CrimsonMist]

The way I see it, and this is a personal bugbear with how D&D3.5 went, a lot of the time creative building could have reduced the need to have a specific PrC for every single option.

If we had the right feats you could make a Samurai, for instance, just by taking Fighter levels, choosing appropriate feats at level up and altering your own play style and RP.

[Deathgrowl]

but I gotta say with the additional classes that have been added to Baulders Gate, and please don't see this as an attack, it looks like your cherry picking from a eastern setting and justifying it how ever which way you like which you are entitled too, it just appears hypocritical when its said you want to keep true to the forgotten realms setting sword coast.

We have phantom (ninja), and that's it. I was against it, personally. But what other cherry picking from eastern setting do we have?

And yes the worst case scenario a server full of Ninjas, Monks and Samurai in a sword coast setting is very slim, perhaps a discussion about compromises, make some classes DM pending/request as an example to restrict an imbalance.

Slim? I keep seeing Chinese and especially Japanese style names all the time, even without these classes. And if you want to talk about thin justifications for things, these characters tend to have the absolutely thinnest reasons for being on the Sword Coast.

I know why it happens, though.

Anime pollutes everything.

[chad878262]

It should also be noted that it was more a case of 'cherry picking' from Kaedrin's PRC's rather than from Oriental Adventures. As DG stated it did not go in without a LOT of discussion, but it does offer a unique style of rogue-like gameplay. The name change was, indeed because while it is nice to provide options to players we do not want the Ninja 'lore' included in the class mechanics for reasons previously mentioned.

In the future it might be that additional classes from Kaedrin's get added, but it will be on a case by case basis and any changes to mechanics or lore will be based on what is deemed desirable by the Admins and DM Team with feedback from QC.

[Archaos]

Weapon Master is as "asian" as the Monk, actually.
And yes, it existed in 3.0E.

Don't forget, Weapon Masters get KI Damage and KI Critical.

The only other class with Ki abilities is the Monk. And Ki/Qi is a very fundamental, chinese word in chinese martial arts.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Qi

By the way, the argument that Monks don't fit in the Sword Coast is total nonsense.
Monks existed in both Forgotten Realms lore and DnD since the 1E days.

There are Monk monasteries of Lathander, Ilmater, Kossuth, Shar etc.
Ilmater himself has Monk levels.

And once again, DnD is not a medieval simulator.
There are flying ships, dinosaurs, pharaohs, frost giants and genies but suddenly Monks/Samurai/Ninja are too much?

No one is stopping people from making Rogue/Monks or Phantoms and call them Ninja.
Or Fighter/Weapon Masters with Katana and call themselves Samurai.

As for why people are on the Sword Coast, the same reason we have people from Thay or Lantan or the Spine or or.
Because people always traveled without a super serious reason.
Thay and Rashemen are half-way to Kara-Tur if you look at the map of Toril.