What's his build?

>>50719124
A slim one, but he's jacked under those robes.

>>50719151
This is true

>>50719124
in 5th you could play him just as a champion fighter. due to the fact that hp counts as plot armor points, you could fluff it that he doesn't actually swing his sword till the final hit.

>>50719213
isn't the sum total of non-lethal damage LESS than the sum total of regular hitpoints?

and he does hit SOME people several times before they go down.

>>50719124
whatever else he has he has cleave and greater cleave to cover all the minion groups he takes out...

perhaps some perk that grants himself additional non-lethal damage in exchange for NEVER doing lethal damage of any sort.

>>50719213
Naw bro, he's a battlemaster. Kenshin definitely has maneuvers

>>50719124
You'd have to write two versions
One for him when he's still an assassin, and one for when he uses the reversed blade

He's way too different between the two

>>50719124
Quick-draw based Iaijutsu build, initially dipping Factotem for a little extra mundane utility followed by a few Oriental Adventures Samurai rather than CW before finally angling into Unarmored Swordsage variant with an emphasis on Diamond Mind and Iron Heart disciplines.

>>50719348
Forgot to mention, Exalted feats to deal Non-lethal and bonuses while doing so, probably with a little use of that Shadow Hand stance for Precision Damage and Sap Adept/Master feats since they just need you to deal Bludgeoning damage, which the dull end of a sword would.

A Warblade, I imagine. Diamond Mind for sure.
I'm curious to know how well pacifism even works in D&D.

>>50719407
In 5th edition I'm pretty sure you can make any attack non-lethal by choice, so reverse blade sword is pretty viable.

>>50719458
yes, however as a DM I might allow either an improvement to the weapon somehow for non-lethal or else a nerf to its lethal damage potential.

a reverse bladed katana is a weird thing, they even say so quite frequently

>>50719458
I just mean in the general scheme of the average game. Even if a person could even get their party on board with the idea, I doubt many enemies would just decide to through down their arms, let alone monsters. Why even bother with a Kenshin concept?

>>50719499
yeah, I'd make it more powerful somehow. deals 1d12 non-lethal and 1d10 lethal or something like that.

hopefully, the player would take the roleplay implications seriously when using the weapon lethally

>>50719124
Sword Saint Archetype Samurai from 3.PF

>>50719124

Dex for days. His strength is only decent, but his Con is surprisingly good.

>>50719519
>Why even bother with a Kenshin concept?

I think this is a question that could define a character. Why bother, right? Answering that question would take a lot of introspection, patience, and compassion.

It should be more than what the party thinks, it's what the character is willing to do.

>>50719531
if the PLAYER deals lethal damage intentionally(fumbles ARE a thing) for little reason then roll a hard willpower check, and if they fail take the sheet and flip a coin one way is "he cast away his sword and then himself from a cliff in remorse" the other is "he becomes a near unkillable soulless minion to a non-opposed faction."

>>50719558
This actually a great point

>>50719597
glad you think so, im pretty drunk and totally wingin this shit

>>50719618
THIS IS THE BEST WAY TO WING SHIT

>>50719640
the only way, friend. the only way

>>50719124
>shadowrun 5e
Blades adept with lots of magic (10? 12?), a few points in combat sense, maximum improved reflexes, missile parry? High agility, strength, reaction, and intuition. Code of honor, bad rep, agile defender, fame. His blades skill rating is probably 12 or 13 before improved ability(blades).

Also a houserule that you can use a sword backwards to deal stun damage, rather than the overly-punitive 'hit with the pommel' option that makes you use the clubs skill. If there is a penalty to dealing stun with a blade, his reverse-blade sword negates most of it if not all of it.

>>50719519
>Why even bother with a Kenshin concept?
Because using less-lethal tactics can help you feel like a hero, or at least a person deserving of respect, instead of just another killer who happens to be very strong. It's a welcome change that can alter the tone of an entire campaign in some interesting and uplifting directions.

>>50719693
>use non-lethal to knock a couple guys out while the rest of the party deal with their bad guys
>finish combat and go to check on the rest of the party to make sure they're okay
>party edge-lord slits the throats of the guys you spared while you aren't looking
>bandits don't deserve to live bro

this is how i see it going every time

>>50719964
I suspect the character would refuse to be associated with that sort of person.

possibly crippling the edgelord if he sees such behavior.

>>50719347
Can't you choose to do nonlethal damage on a whim?

>>50720097
yeah but his entire personality is different

>>50719278
In D&D 5e there's no such thing as subdual/nonlethal damage anymore. When you reduce a target to 0 HP, you decide if it was a killing blow or a KO.

>>50719175
that it is

>>50719124
Kensai/Samurai
>thank you UA

>>50719964
That is more or less how it goes in real D&D games, particularly when everyone makes PCs in a vacuum and makes no effort to discuss or coordinate these things in advance. If you attempt to coordinate it with other players long before play begins, you stand a better chance, but there are no guarantees.

In a game like shadowrun where there are real setting and lore incentives to minimize collateral damage, you have a somewhat better chance to get players to sign on with the idea if you ask them before or during chargen.

It also depends on the experience and maturity level of your fellow players. Immature and/or inexperienced players are much more likely to do that, whether for "it's what my character would do", or just to piss you off. I wouldn't use less-lethal options unless I'm in a very familiar group, or else in very limited circumstances like interrogating enemies before just killing them anyway.

Much like many other things, the usefulness of less-lethal tactics is dependent entirely on the GM's whim. If he wants to make your life harder for it, or thinks you're dumb for trying, then that's how it will play out because he will say so. In that case you might as well not bother, and quietly allow him him lose sleep wondering why your PCs all act like psychopaths. Either way, your best bet is to ask him beforehand.

tl;dr: Don't bother unless you can trust your entire gaming group, including GM and all players, to be okay with the notion and not screw it up to troll you.

>>50721552

i'd point out that while non-lethal methods are good and all, sometimes logically you need to silence witnesses. You mentioned shadowrun, and i recall a few times playing that game i've had to tie loose ends that the rest of the party didn't want to deal with.

>>50721617
>sometimes logically you need to silence witnesses

that's not what Himura Kenshin would do. that is what Batosai the Manslayer would do

>>50721654
Yeah, I think Kenshin wouldn't be a shadowrunner so much as a wandering adept hobo with a funky sword and way too much skill with it.

Batosai would be a better candidate for shadowrunning.

>>50719499
>a reverse bladed katana is a weird thing, they even say so quite frequently

I mean, it's basically a falx.

>>50721654

I know Kenshin wouldn't do it, i was just pointing out that there are times where your party may spare someone they really really shouldn't have. Like the time my party just wanted to up and let our captive go after they had seen all our faces, knew our location, and our techy had given them his name.

but yes, kenshin would make a terrible runner. but as >>50721860 Batosai would be a great runner.

>>50719335
the "cut the wicks off of the bombs" maneuver, for example

Kenshin is one of the inspirations for my longest played character. Honestly the best way I could see to play him would be a Stalker from PoW with access to Mithral Current and Scarlet Throne.

>>50722038
or the "cut a radish in half then put it back together" maneuver.

>>50722306
That was the sharpness of his blade, not his skills I think.

>>50722330
it was both. Literally no one but him, saito, and shishio have that level of skill with a sword. Maybe aoshi, by that time.

>>50722358
no, that was the knife he was using. he was looking for the master version of the reverse blade sword after his broke and the guy who makes the reverse blade swords was MIA. he used the knifes sharpness to see if they guy that made the knife is the same that made his sword so he could get a new one

the fact that it doesn't even fucking cut, but push the cells apart without breaking them and you can put it back together and there not be a cut meant it was the right guy

>>50722402
Again, it was both. You think sano could do that? yahiko? Kaoru?

It was explicitly stated that it was because kenshin was the one doing it that it worked. The approximate wording was "only the most skilled swordsman and the best of blades could accomplish this"

>>50722449
Went and watched the episode in question, the exact wording from the old fucker is "Modoshigiri. An advanced sword technique that requires a great sword and a skilled swordsman"

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>>50722511
huh

>>50719124
Astrologist, Karaoke Singer, 1988/2000 Luck stat.

>>50719278
>never doing lethal damage
That's just the plot catering to him, particularly in the Cho arc. He was ready to kill the fuck out of him for putting the child in danger. Furthermore, swinging that sakabato around like he does should have killed a whole lot of people via broken bones, crushed skulls and damaged internal organs.
I actually enjoyed the Enishi fight though, that arc was okay at best but that final fight on the beach, while dumb was fantastic. The epilogue was kinda shit though

>>50722581
I liked badass adult Yahiko

>>50722581
Hey, anything is better than the anime filler arc. That shit was just dumb.

>>50722594
honestly? i like the idea that the character that was shit on the most became easily more badass than the main character, so far as skill is concerned. Its an interesting coming of age mechanic.

>>50722627
>anime filler
IIRC both cho and enishi were part of the manga, or am I remembering it wrong? Cho's fight was a very well done and advanced the plot, while enishi's arc was the finale.

series def peaked with shishio though.

>>50722956
I mean the arc after shishio. The one with the christian whatever, and all that BS

>>50723036
I actually liked the fencer guy. Wish we got a better fight out of it.

But yes, katana jesus was pretty stupid.

>>50723074
what pissed me off the most is that almost everything done in the show is theoretically possible, except maybe the radish thing.

Until katana jesus shows up and just blinds kenshin because reasons. That pissed me off rather badly, to be honest.

>>50723090
Come on, Kenshin makes a miniature blackhole (it's supposed to be vacuum, but that's bullshit and you know it). And then you got people moving so fast they can hardly be seen. And there was that guy who just made everyone freeze with his aura.

I mean, it was shit, but not being realistic is the least of its problems.

>>50723036
Oh, that arc. I remember it having some ok stuff in it, but not great.

>>50723090
I feel like tthe reforming plantes after cuts thing has been proven somewhere,, but I'm not finding anything

>>50719348
Swordsages can't take Iron Heart

>>50723282
>I feel like tthe reforming plantes after cuts thing has been proven somewhere,, but I'm not finding anything

You can try it yourself. Potatoes are rather resistant and will grow back (though probably not stick back that perfectly)

>>50723262
I meant more the moves themselves are theoretically possible. And taken to a superhuman extreme, many of those skills could have the effects they do, potentially. Of course there's the fantasy element, but the skill the guy used in the filler arc is just completely made up shit. It broke the mold way too badly.

As for jin-e, that was less aura and more applied hypnosis.

>>50719124
Kenshin is DMPC level. He is a typical power fantasy protagonist that goes "I am only using 0.infinitum% of my full power forever, in order to never kill anyone ever again." He is basically an edgy but half comic relief precursor of One Punch Man that works backwards to make the current villain look as badass as possible to the extreme extent of even letting himself get horribly wounded before taking action and then instantly defeating the villain with some bullshit (borderline reality bending) technique while being careful to only hurt him as much as needed but never kill him.

>>50723318
Ah, that's fair, I guess. I didn't even notice that they never really explained it. I guess I just assumed he reflected light from his sword or something.

>>50723344
They actually explain it pretty at length when he uses it on himself to get buff as fuck.

>>50723361
I meant Jesus dude, not Jin-e.

>>50719335
>Can fucking send cuts through the air and cut people 40 meters away from him
>Can jump more than 30ft
>When he uses his ki makes leaves around him explode
>Etc
Pretty sure he has supernatural powers

>>50719213
Kensai, if kensai wasn't fighting against being a monk.

>>50723328
Confirmed for never ever read Kenshin but the first 5 chapters.
1. He uses all his potential against certain enemies, of course nameless mooks don't deserve that, sometimes more than once, he in fact is fucked for life because he destroyed his body against Shishio and then Eiji, he can't be a sworsman anymore because of that, he retired
2. You better define what edgy means in your head because if you go with the common definition Kenshin isn't edgy
3. More than once he went for the kill even with his blunt sword because the situation requiered it, luckily the enemy survived, but still fucked his phylosophy
4. He trained through the entire run of the manga, unlike Saitama, he in fact learnt his most powerful techniques (and performed them kinda wrong and that's why he fucks his body)

>>50723719
I also forgot to say.
5. He lost both fights, against Shishio and Eiji. Shishio ended dying because he run out of time, but he won the fight. Eiji won the fight but the memories of his sister made him surrender

So much for the guy who always wins and never uses his full potential, right?

>>50723719
>>50723750
And fuck me, the name isn't Eiji, is Enishi. That happens for watching OOO

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>>50723757
>watching OOO
My man

>>50720663
you cheeky bastard.

>>50720441
But that's only an option with melee, that's bitten me in the ass once or twice.

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>>50719124
>>his

>>50723677
No,he's just that good with a sword.
Got it? Cool things aren't necessarily magic.