How powerful are katanas in your campaign...

Go back to your containment board

Katanas should be treated like other swords, it's a matter of the techniques used with them that matters. Any sword can have someones heart and soul put into the creation of it, any sword can be masterful.

...

Not true. Katanas are folded millions of times and are extra-sharp. I'd give them a critical hit on 18-20, at least.

I get why katanas generally are great, just not why old mountain ones are especially great

No more powerful than their counterparts. They exist as a flavor and little more. Only exception being a legendary two hander that will likely be found when these chucklefucks approach their max levels.

Someone can claim the swords are superior and should be given bonuses, and that's a nice opinion to have. I don't share that opinion however. Enjoy your curved sword.

if i could slap with my dick through internet then i would give you 20% tip

Mountain water makes the steel much tougher when folded.

>enjoy your curved sword
I don't know if its because I haven't slept in 12-16 hours but that made me laugh hard enough to spit my Pringle well done sir

>20 posts
>no katana copy pasta yet
You tried op, this place is full of new fags

I tried in subtler bits and pieces

Does your sword curve left or right?

In one campaign, Japanese style weapons are exactly the same as their closest western counterparts. They're just fluff. I would give them more depth, but the system doesn't have the armor mechanics to support what I want to do.
In my other campaign, it's very similar because almost every is a razor-sharp vibroblade so there's no real advantage that a katana could give. The only legendary blade I've made so far is a katana, but it's stats and aesthetics were designed as a reference/joke.

They're about the same as European swords, I know real katanas can cut through a tank from a mile away but I don't want them to be the only option for players.

Katanas are seen as inherently evil weapons of oppressors, because they are used to cut down unarmed peasants. People largely believe that in order to make one, you have to subjugate a demon and bind it into the sword. Smiths know that it's horseshit but it sells so they perpetuate the myth. As a result smiths also double as the guy to go to when you think your home is haunted or your child is possessed.

In terms of stats they do 1d6 and break easily against armour, but give advantage on intimidating farmers and the superstisious.

He didn't say it doesn't. He said all epic swords are katanas, not that all katanas are epic.

You can use much more refined and skillful techniques with katanas though.

Then that's the difference, the sword itself doesn't need to be any better.

"no"

I'm stealing this, this is really neat.

That's some good shit right there.

They’re good for slashing, but they’re too short to be of much good in a meta dominated by coat of plates + sword + board. They’re used ceremoniously in some parts of the world because they’re harder to make, but even then they’ve fallen out of favor for the sake of full-basket rapiers

I have a full-stop Fantasy Japan setting, so...they're fairly powerful, yeah. They ARE, however, highly restricted to true Samurai. You want a Katana, you actually have to BE the right social class.

They are extremely powerful since they are actually the dormant form of the world's dragons.

They are equvilent to a masterwork bastard sword.

>You want a Katana, you actually have to BE the right social class.
What if someone punks a samurai and takes his shit?

Katanas are literally shit, made from shit quality materials too.

Even the Japs themselves would use them as a secondary or even tertiary weapon.

They are shit unless they are magical or used by someone with martial powers.

Weapon of choice for an isolated, inherently psychic human civilization, dwelling in a heavily forested crater. They are serviceable blades, but not given any air of respect or mystery within it, as the most respected warriors can just form weapons of raw telekinetic force. For the most part, they go to those who effectively blank or focus on telepathy or precognition in their fighting style.
Like the Japanese, the laborious technique of folding the steel is done to mitigate the poor quality of their iron.

high critical threat range (17-20), but take -5 to attack against heavy armor. No, i do not apply the same penalty to longswords or short swords, the katana just can't stab for shit without that brittle spine cracking. great for murdering lightly armored peasants and fleshy monsters though.

FOLDED

1000

TIMES

Why the FUCK are you idiots posting in a troll thread using Veeky Forums bait that is so old that half of the people on Veeky Forums right now weren’t even done being teenagers when it was first used?

Hide the fucking thread.
Goddamn Hiroshimoot and his lazy motherfucking management.

About as powerful as any other sword, so not very.

because it's fun

Maybe we just want to talk about katanas

What do they eat?

Are you playing Tenra Bansho Zero?
Andy?
In TBZ, the character would get to keep it for the scene, but then have to get rid of it or upgrade their "Station" stat.

Asking about Katanas around here is folly
They've been memed too hard.

Arms and armorfag here.

I know it's a b8 thread, but I like to mention that I treat them as longswords, even if somewhat different.

Katanas only have a tempered edge, making them fragile and hard to maintain or sharpen, but saving resources as with early European swords. This does allow them to be slightly sharper, but most swords within the time period that Europe changed design (Making the whole sword of homogeneous build) was when swords were not just slashing weapons, but piercing weapons to get through mail and into chinks of armor.

Katanas are alright, not really significantly better or worse than straight swords or other curved swords.
Tetsubo are powerful weapons for powerful people, though.

About the same as any normal sword in my setting.

There is a giant stone katana in my world on the southern coast, that was said to belong to the gods. It's about 1.5km tall and the local races built a city around it's base ages ago. It's the basis in my world for all other katana-styled blades out of that region.

As useful as any other weapon until higher levels, when Martial classes become so strong that every sword breaks within a single swing and hand to hand combat is the order of the day, except for one crazy asshole who literally carries a huge crate on his back filled with hundreds of assorted weapons, draws them at random and swings them just once, destroying them and his target at the same time.

And yes, he has six arms.

>Guaranteed replies
Too much bait.
But its a sharpened iron bar, hardly something that requires masterwork craftsmanship

That picture makes me slightly sad

That you'll never get a girl hooked on smack and use her body for your selfish pleasure right up until the point at which the devil in the needle has robbed her of beauty and then you engineer an 'accidental' overdose and find a new one?

Yeah, sure sucks that I'll never get to do that four times so far.

A bit weaker than your average longsword, but with a higher crit range

I do something similar. But also include that western swords (well larger ones) can also use spear techniques and blunt strikes via Halfswording and Mordhau.

>Yeah, sure sucks that I'll never get to do that four times so far.
>four times so far.

My setting has some legendary swords that happen to be katanas, but they come from a Rokugan based planet so is kinda justified.

They're easily broken versions of real sword made for pseudo-Knights of the far east that like to spin, perform needlessly fancy moves, and roll around instead of fighting like real men.

Funnily enough Tenra doesn't give a shit about katanas. Or wakizashis. The example kugutsu, so a geisha if not a full-fledged prostitute, has a katana. So much for muh bushi weapons, I guess.

They crit on a 19 but always break on the first swing.

Nah, I'm sad for bep, because destroyers are for protecting, not lewding. Usually.

>How powerful are katanas in your campaign?
Less damage than longswords but higher crit
Bad against armor unless you are the crit master, in which case it becomes pretty strong, but dodge focused characters fuck crits

>the craftsmanship techniques needed to produce a real katana have been lost to all but a few legendary smiths.
Thats dumb, if a design is so shitty that it requires a master smith to create it has no business being a weapon

>an ancient civilisation forged them in mountain forges.
Well, clearly they died so the weapons cannot be that good.

Careful newfriend, while you were out getting mad at Veeky Forums threads
>I was studying the blade
While you were ranting about trolls
>I was cultivating inner strength

Depends on the smith

But katanas and other Japanese weapons are the hallmarks of dragonborn and to a degree, kobolds and dragons in general though dragons don't really need them.

So far my group has only seen them used by weeb skeletons. Along with kunai

Katanas: 1d6
Long swords: 1d8

I’m a lot less weeb,
If you want to play a ‘samurai’ or a ‘ninja’ as opposed to a Fighter or Assassin
You do you
Tanto is the same as a dagger
Nodachi is a great sword
Wakizashi is a long sword
Kodachi is a short sword

It just looks Asian instead of European

Why the Wakizashi as a Longsword? Weren't those more comparable to something like a Gladius, so a shortsword?

I agree with your overall intent though. This also happens to be exactly what the 5e PHB and DMG say to do...

They are weak just like their creators and any PC that gets one is instantly assaulted by a band of rabid goblins.

Wakizashi is the most common katana and I associate that with Long sword as a kodachi is a short katana

There are actually several different fighting styles for your run if the mill cruciform longsword, each with their own uses and techniques.

But western culture doesn't have a weeb equivalent and has never gotten as masturbatory as the Japanese regarding their own history, so I'm not surprised you didn't know.

One of days I am going to learn the source of that pic.

That's it. I'm sick of all this "Masterwork Bastard Sword" bullshit that's going on in the d20 system right now. Katanas deserve much better than that. Much, much better than that.

I should know what I'm talking about. I myself commissioned a genuine katana in Japan for 2,400,000 Yen (that's about $20,000) and have been practicing with it for almost 2 years now. I can even cut slabs of solid steel with my katana.

Japanese smiths spend years working on a single katana and fold it up to a million times to produce the finest blades known to mankind.

Katanas are thrice as sharp as European swords and thrice as hard for that matter too. Anything a longsword can cut through, a katana can cut through better. I'm pretty sure a katana could easily bisect a knight wearing full plate with a simple vertical slash.

Ever wonder why medieval Europe never bothered conquering Japan? That's right, they were too scared to fight the disciplined Samurai and their katanas of destruction. Even in World War II, American soldiers targeted the men with the katanas first because their killing power was feared and respected.

So what am I saying? Katanas are simply the best sword that the world has ever seen, and thus, require better stats in the d20 system. Here is the stat block I propose for Katanas:

(One-Handed Exotic Weapon)
1d12 Damage
19-20 x4 Crit
+2 to hit and damage
Counts as Masterwork

(Two-Handed Exotic Weapon)
2d10 Damage
17-20 x4 Crit
+5 to hit and damage
Counts as Masterwork

Now that seems a lot more representative of the cutting power of Katanas in real life, don't you think?

tl;dr = Katanas need to do more damage in d20, see my new stat block.

I suppose this is a callback to the olden days of shit threads?

Since people have been bitching about "nu-tg" shit threads?

1d2-4 dmg with a +8 penalty to THAC0. Trash weapon deserves trash stats.

Hearts might weaken the structural integrity of the blade, unless you're doing some crazy blood ritual. Souls are usually a pretty good choice, though.

The thinner air at higher altitudes credit the smith for having the endurance to forge a proper blade.
The water, being closer to heaven, is blessed seemingly with the will of the Kami, and when the raging hot metal is quenched in said 'kamimizu' the divinity is absorbed, giving the already superior mountain steel the temperance to not only retain its shape, but to also be nigh unbreakable.
The wood, used to stoke the forge's flames, are also ceremoniously cut from trees that grew from this blessed water and air. The very essence of the hallowed wood absorbing into the blade through the forge's hearth.
When a blade is forged in such a manner, it brings all elements of nature together, with a helping of divinity, making them the best blades amongst heaven and earth.

>don't post copypasta, get accused of being newfag
>post copypasta, get berated for beating a dead horse and spouting old meme

Damned if do, damned if don't. Welcome to Veeky Forums, population (You).

Powerful enough to cut deep into an unarmored person, stab decently as well, and fail miserably against plate armor.
My setting is pretty true to life, at least until the supernatural gets involved.

>Wakizashi is the most common katana

Great for cutting down unarmored peasants and breaks instantly into smallest splinters upon hitting anything else.

Anything.

You wanna slice that knight? Shatters. You hit that leather armor-wearing rogue? Shatters. You wanna cut a dog in half? shatters. A peasant wearing leather clothes? Shatters. A skeleton? Shatters. A dog? Shatters. Bread? Shatters.

Can cut an unarmored peasant straight in half, though.

If you think it's stupid, you clearly haven't ascended to highest tiers of katana memes.

In my campaign? Same stats as a longsword, but also count as a 100gp art object.

In pathfinder there are literally ninja and samurai classes

But heart is all you need to truly wield a katana.

en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_sword

But pathfinder is shit
5e is the best

>en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_sword
literally makes the distinction between katana and wakizashi in the first paragraph.

I'm playing WoD. So you know, they do sword damage. Because they are swords.
My character happens to be a japanese man, living in japan, who is a skilled swordsman. He even has possession of his family's heirloom katana. Although he doesn't carry it around most of the time, because people get ansy if the obvious yakuza is wandering around Osaka with a fucking sword.

You're telling me the market isn't flooded with crappy imitations? Bah. They're just single edged cutting swords, every wannabe smith and their dad would be pumping them out.

that katana looks weird
it's not curved enough

They're cool, but they're just swords. If there's something special about them then it's not intrinsically exclusive to katanas and more likely related to it being imbued with magic/improved with technology/just really sharp I guess.

oWoD or CofD? And what splat out of curiosity?

How so exactly ?
Complex martial arts existed for many types of weapons, there's really no reason for the ones based around the japanese sword to be more refined.

Curvature depends on the smith's style though, historically some japanese sword had very limited curve as well. A curve of 1.8cm is typical, smaller isn't uncommon, but that would mostly be edo period swords though.

They are made by the skill-less, near sighted boy fuckers of the east. Generally inferior in construction to a western sword, katanas come in two varieties, those that fold, and those that shatter.

>I'd give them a critical hit on 18-20, at least

Also a critical faliure on a 1-10, and Roll on a chart for rust 1d6 times a day, and -1 to hit and an AC penalty when fighting anyone with a superior, european weapon design.

>Wakizashi is a long sword

oh? So a Wakizashi is a 115-130 cm long two handed weapon with a 90-95 cm blade?

>How powerful are katanas in your campaign?
They're pretty much just an average sword, but with reduced damage in favour of a better to-hit. They're also tougher to get outside of space-japan.

pssst, you misspeled "inferior"

Being single edged is a HUGE limitation on the katane. While the longsword allows striking with the long or short edge, the katana only has a long edge. Also - no quillons, no pommel - go on and try to mordhau with a katana.