Has anyone ever tried one? I'm almost done with my current party and just started thinking of what I'll try next. I've never had a 4 hybrid party, so I'm looking at Sam, Valk, Ranger and Monk. I want to try out races I haven't used frequently, and the Sam spot comes down to Dracon or Mook. Neither is ideal, but I'm not concerned with the "best" party. The Mook is appealing for the use of the Giant Sword with an eventual 125 sword skill. Any thoughts?

I've had a Mook Samurai in one of my parties, and he was pretty fine. He eventually got another sword, but the giant sword will suit fine, of course [img]smile.gif[/img] Can't say more, it's quite some time ago...

Cheers,
Philipp

Since the Sword bonus overcomes much of the "penalty" for dual-wielding, it's a waste to have only one sword. Also, the GS is very heavy and takes a LOT of Stamina to swing, and rarely gets lightning strikes.
OTOH, it is Extended, and has a nice KO chance; i have had fun with it...

I ran a Giant Swords party which was Fighter, Ranger, Lord and Samurai.

As Scatter says, stamina takes a beating so the Lord was more often casting Rest All instead of swinging the sword.

I assume you would have someone in the party to cast the Stamina spell?

I ran a 4-hybrid party of Sam/Lord/Ranger/Monk, and it worked well, though slow to start because of the late spell development. Later this was a powerful team, especially as all magic bases were covered.

However, my Samurai was a kitty and the ranger was a Mook. I typically used Mooks as either Rangers or Psionics.

The Giant Sword can be a powerful weapon, but it does eat up amazing amounts of stamina, especially in long combats. You may want to try experimenting with duel-wield vs. GS and see which works better for you.

<center>Nightowl2</center>

The only reason I would favour a Giant Sword over any of the other weapons in the same sort of league is if I really needed an extended range sword due to all the other short range slots being taken.

The stamina drain is so high that it's often more of a hindrance than a great help. Scatter's point about dual-weilding is a good one, too. There're just so many better options for a Samurai than the GS.

Having said that, I think a Mook Samurai would work quite well. The bonus points at creation are pretty good for a hybrid and the Mook does have a higher Senses rating than a Dracon which will help with To Hit bonuses, Initiative and Critical Strike.

xfactor

Also there is no reason why not to use a Female for the "Necklace of Endurance" - which might help ;)

Stamina regen items are useless in combat unless you go on "defend" a lot.

Didn't know that

So what's the big deal about having a Female Bard for the regen???

so when you do "defend" it goes up faster; and when combat's over it recovers faster.

By the way Scatter and Wild Rose, I've used two necklaces of endurance on a female rogue, and I did notice quite a difference in combat actually.

No never tried it. My mook is always Ranger or Alchemist. My Felpurr is always a Samurai. This is fixed and I don't change it. Because the Felpurr ( with the hunter voice/personality ) look like my cat who loves to hunt. :D

Regardless of Giant Sword usage, Mooks are one of the top races for a Samurai, equal to the Felpurr and exceeded only by the Hobbit. I'd say make the Mook anyway, and if you have trouble with stamina drain from the Giant Sword, there's nothing wrong with switching to Bloodlust or Fang (or, if you're lucky / manipulative, a Light Sword or Muramasa Blade). Shield skill is easy to train if it's too late to get your dual-weapons skill up.

Dracons Samurai are as good as Hobbits if you ignore Senses. (i.e don't plan on putting points into it either at creation or level-ups). You'll have to invest more into Close Combat and Critical Strike than you would for a race/plan involving higher Senses, but will be able to max the remaining key Samurai attributes (Str, Int, Dex, Spd) sooner.

The larger the party, the less of an issue the stamina drain of the Giant Sword is. I always play full parties, so it's never a problem for me. The extended reach option you get from the Giant Sword is very handy, not just for striking from behind other party members but also for striking enemies that haven't quite gotten into short-weapon range.

I had a Mook Samurai and he did pretty well. (Well, except when the party started out, and he would get 6x lightning strike and miss about every time. What's worse was I gave him the "Say, isn't that a song?" voice, and it sounds (to me) like he has a slight lisp, so this is what I got:

"Thith is terrible!"
"Thith is terrible!"
"Thith is terrible!"
"Thith is terrible!"
"Thith is terrible!"
Mu Tang hits for 6 damage.
"Thith is terrible!"

I'd say go for it. How many samurai have you played in this game? Probably lots. Do they all have to be perfect, dual-wielding death gods? Your giant sword-wielding Mook samurai is not going to be the most efficient samurai you've ever had, but so what? Try something new. You'll probably hate him (or her) to begin with, but I bet you will have a lot of fun with this character before the game is done.

Your party looks very melee-heavy. With such parties, i often don't use bows or slings (after the start). Instead, i use both short and extended melee weapons. In this case, Mook for samurai is an excellent choice. And the stamina drain isn't that much a problem then, since he'll only use giant sword if no enemies are in close range.

With this party, it would be:
Samurai - Marumasa + Enchanted Wakazashi / Giant Sword
Monk - Hand & Feet / Zaitochi Bo
Valkyrie - Mauler + Diamond Eyes / Dread Spear
Ranger - Bow or XBow only

my experience has been with +1 regen on a felpur samurai, it buys you an extra round or two of combat before you need to rest. Don't remember if it was big deal or not when singing (or gadgeting).

So far the party has been overly melee-heavy. Level 10 currently, but magic skills are around 30. I have spell picks saved for each character in anticipation of my next level up. I haven't even gotten a Giant Sword yet (my Valk just learned Magic Screen, which I figure to be a bare minimum before obtaining one), and my party has taken the route through the swamp and SE Wilderness to get to the Mountain Wilderness. Really just wandering aimlessly and out of order, but now the plan is to get the GS as well as the SOD for my monk (using the Hayai Bo now, which isn't great). Then up to Bela for the Eagle Eye Bow and Dread Spear. Should make these guys a little easier to play. So far it's been a lot of running and hiding, especially in the Wilderness Clearing. I got trapped in the Gazer cave with 3 greater Picuses and a herd of hogars wandering about. Not good at all...

That is awesome. Funny stuff. And you're dead on - all other samurai's have been pretty much the same character - I'm just looking for variety. Thanks.