Katanas

satantrik · Post by **satantrik** » Mon Jul 05, 2004 3:19 am

I've seen this debate before, but here are my two cents:

Katanas should be differentiated from [censored] Swords by allowing them to be finessed like Rapiers. So, in a way, Katana is to [censored] Sword as Rapier is to Scimitar. Doesn't seem unbalancing, and actually makes sense in a way. Any feedback?

rkanodia · Post by **rkanodia** » Mon Jul 05, 2004 3:51 am

We've gone over katanas before. Basically, if you make a katana a [censored] sword plus something else, that's a bad situation. If you've got a balanced way to differentiate them, let's hear it, but I don't think it's getting changed in the foreseeable future.

JesterOI · Post by **JesterOI** » Mon Jul 05, 2004 4:00 am

changing a katana like that would require a hak pack i think.
and a hak pak is not going to happen.

satantrik · Post by **satantrik** » Mon Jul 05, 2004 11:20 am

Does anybody know for certain if this can be changed in-module, with scripts or does it require a hak pak?

To me it seems balanced. For characters that are strength focused, [censored] sword or katana is simply preference. For dex characters katana is ideal if they want to use a weapon of size M (and give dex characters another exotic weapon to choose from besides the kurki). This, to me, is the "same difference" between rapiers and scimitars. The rapier and scimitar are balanced against each other quite well, IMO.

JesterOI · Post by **JesterOI** » Mon Jul 05, 2004 2:15 pm

I refuse to use longsword, bastardsword, katana, or greatsword.
All four of those will be resisted by slash resist and/or peirce resist. (And no doubt be affected by immunity and vulnerability (though vulnerability isn't worth it).
Exotic weapon feat is a waste unless you want to use kukri's, or maybe possibly any of the three doubleweapons.

The rapier and the scim are the same damned thing except for the base damage type on each. I use them both.

lord_modred · Post by **lord_modred** » Mon Jul 05, 2004 3:54 pm

i refuse to use weapons in general! it's not that im a pacifist or anything... i just like watching people shrivle into unidentifiable husks via horrid wilting... so much more entertaining

JesterOI · Post by **JesterOI** » Mon Jul 05, 2004 4:10 pm

Horrid wilting is useless by itself in pvp.

lord_modred · Post by **lord_modred** » Mon Jul 05, 2004 8:05 pm

thats what time stop is for

chrisem · Post by **chrisem** » Mon Jul 05, 2004 11:25 pm

I think it would be a neat idea. (with buts, read below)

When NWN came out using 3rd edition rules, it essentially made the katana useless due to the loss of the speed factor stat (no longer even in 3rd ed). It's now basically just a matter if you prefer east over west and also if you want to risk a lack of high-level gear (ie: if the devs have bothered to make any real kick-[censored] katanas).

Finesse sounds like a great way to give that back, you're only adding dex to stat bonus and still using str on your damage bonus that way, so it's not too much of an imbalance. Now the only thing with that is now the [censored] sucks, becuase you're supposed to have the option of using the [censored] two-handed and get what was it - a d10 instead of 2d4 or was it something else? Can't remember.

Of course, you do have to take exotic weapon to get either. That could be considered a good tradeoff considering a lot of other exotics already have some uniqueness to them.... but really, I dunno if the making extra work for the devs to make sure that they didn't throw the balance off is a good idea.

Unfortunatley most of this stuff is hardcoded in nwn anyway as far as I know, so changing these kinds of things would be messing with a lot. I'm almost positive the [censored] tweak would be a total no go and to play with weapon finesse stuff like that, if possible, sounds a bit like trouble

satantrik · Post by **satantrik** » Mon Jul 05, 2004 11:42 pm

One thing that I wish was possible is to choose two-handed or one-handed wielding for weapons of your same size. This is possible in 3e rules, so for instance one could choose to wield a longsword one handed (and therefore wield a shield) or twohanded (and get 1.5 times str bonus to damage). Same thing with [censored] swords. [censored] swords did have two different damages: one-handed: 1d8 versus size M and lower, 1d12 versus size L and above; two-handed: 2d4 versus size M and lower, 2d8 versus size L and above. 2e katanas are basically the same thing, but get 1d10 one-handed versus size M and below and 2d6 two-handed versus all size categories.

Gil-Este · Post by **Gil-Este** » Tue Jul 06, 2004 10:59 am

i thought [censored] swords could be wielded two-handed with the martial proficiency feat and one-handed with the exotic proficiency feat. and i don't think it really makes sense to wield one-handed things like longswords in two hands, that isn't what they were designed for and it would be a clumsy weapon in two hands (especially since there isn't enough space on the hilt).