you could also do a sword-singer if you like the concept of samurai, basicly it is a redguard swordsman with an increadably strong sword (made of his soul in fact) and some magical talent

Funny I was just talking about Samurai as my favorite build. I used an orc (for the cultural similarities and berserk being boss) I immediately went for larkashbur to get the free set of Orcish armor (though I plan on switching for blades armor with possibly a dragonplate helm.../shrug). Progressed far enough to pick up the free blades sword in riverwood. Skills are - one handed (empty free hand for duels and dual wield with an ebony dagger for larger battles), restoration (though alchemy works too) conjuration (ancestor sword and atronach ancestor?) and block for slow time (more for the drama than anything. My goal was to be able to draw the blade, drop into a block during a power attack then attack for the one hit kill).

My samurai will likely aid paarthunax and the stormcloaks (though aiding the empire makes sense too).

Good luck!

Use ebony blade, since its the only 2h katana and would look more like a samurai holding it that way.

Use a combination of blades armor and orcish armor. Probably blades armor and an orcish helm, if it blends. If not, full blades


Altmer have golden skin and almond-shaped eyes so I think they would look more like a samurai, despite not being a warrior race

Lore wise, Akaviri descendents are human and part of the empire. That would make Imperials the number one choice. It's not that difficult to make them asian looking, except the available haircut.

race- any
weapons- ebony blade if you want a no-dachi (two handed sword) and blades sword if you want katana
armor- blades armor, or just monk robes and make sure to get the samurai haircut
perks- tow handed, one handed, light armor, archery
attributes- 2/3 stamina, 1/3 health
goals- be honorable!

How awesome! Gonna go make this right now.

What is the samurai hair cut?

there are a few that resemble this; http://www.haircareresources.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2010/02/Chonmage-Hairstyles-1.jpg

Orc for sure.

Race and Goals

Be an Argonian, out of all the Tamrielic races they resemble the most to the Tsaesci (Snake people) of Akavir, which has been speculated to be a land with a lot of Oriental Influence. They are also a docile race, I don't think Samurais are known to be antagonistic, which fits more with an Orc. If you wanted to make a Shogun, I would say go Orc.

Edit: You could also be a Khajiit, they are similar to the Tiger people of Ka'Po'Tun (another place in Akavir)

Alternatively, you could be a Nord who is a descendant of several Blades members. He fights for the Stormcloaks, because he wishes to stop the foreign threat to his homeland (Imperials and Thalmor). Your disposition should be Good, and you should also have a distrust of foreigners. Be honorable, never lie, cheat or steal. Destroy the Dark Brotherhood and don't join the thieves guild. I don't think there is anything wrong with obtaining Daedric Artifacts, as long as you don't abstain from your Samurai code. Besides, you will probably want to get the Ebony Blade, which is a Two-Handed Daedric weapon that is glitched to be affected by One-Handed skill.

Skills

One-Handed
Restoration
Alteration
Speech
Smithing
Enchanting

Armor and Weapons

As a Samurai, you should not use any armor (you said you were being a Samurai, not a shogun), you should only wear robes or normal clothes. Mage and Expert College Robes would suffice. This will add a good addition of challenge to the game, but you should use the Alteration to help alleviate the lack of armor. As for weapons, at the start I would use steel, but then as soon as you have the chance, go to Boated Man's Grotto to obtain Bolar's Oathblade, a unique Katana. If you want to dual-wield, I would recommend completing the MQ to the point where you meet Delphine, there is another Katana in her secret room. At +30, you can switch to Ebony Swords and Greatsword, while they're not Katanas, the cloud-style pattern imprinted on the Blades reminds me of a design on a Kimono I saw. For Health, Magicka and Stamina, you will want to have an equal amount of all of them. You should have no more than 200 Stamina and 250 Health, the rest can go into Magicka, Enchanting and buying enchanted items can help with this.

Hope this helps.

My char I play atm is inspired by Samurai, but not an attempt at a direct port, of the historical Samurai.

https://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/SnJxMYPT9M65nW7d0-LjfyoKPEtew84gZ_Zca0NBAd8?feat=directlink

And

https://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/825BF0U-_qL8YfG3J-7nas_D0JssVSVDGNXYJdyuPFU?feat=directlink

I dunno if you are on a pc, but the sword is from http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/downloads/file.php?id=1002, I'm pretty sure there's a twohanded katana in there, I just didn't have the mats starting out. The armor is leather and from http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/downloads/file.php?id=10680.

As you can see I made an Altmer to get the oriental look. I plan on using alot of magic too, as I said the Samurai is more of an inspirational thing. You can use a circlet if you want, theres the Savant one which is light armor, else http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/downloads/file.php?id=7696 light armor circlets.

I used an imperial because I just can't picture an Orc samurai. But anyway I'm pretty sure I picked something like that, where I think he was mostly bald on the top and front of his head but in the back there's a pony tail kind of thing.

Are you implying samurai didn't wear armor?

Samurai wore armor They wore lots and lots of armor, actually.

Samurai = warrior class in medieval Japan. The modern portrayals of Samurai are of the Samurai from Kamakura to Edo era Japan.
Shogun = military leader of Japan.


Not sure what Shogun have to do with Samurai armor...

Samurai did wear armor, it was ignorant of me to forget about that, but more usually they would wear robes, no? Armor was for battle, after all.
I was giving him my opinion of how he should play a Samurai. He can just as easily use Heavy Armor (Orcish and Blades) and forget about Alteration.

Well, yes, when walking around randomly they would wear every day things. Just like European Knights and pretty much any warriors that wear armor. No one wants to wear that stuff 24/7, it gets smelly xD

I picked up Bolar's Oathblade but I don't like using it because the enchant only gives you 5 hits before it empties meaning that every fight you're going to have to blow a soul gem on it. That's not only costly but damn annoying.