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May 10, 2010 -- 9:31PM, RPJesus wrote:

To paraphrase a demotivator, it's a bastard sword from Japan with a great PR campaign. 

To be fair, part of that PR campaign is that iron was really rare in Japan, which encouraged them to be high quality (if the raw material costs too much to mass produce the item, then you may as well pay for a very skilled artisan) and have ownership restricted to wealthy (therefore well-fed and well-trained) people.

A strong warrior with a few feet of steel and the training to use it may as well be a superhero to a nutritionally challenged serf who's best weapon is a garden tool.

I'm kind of digging representing any exceptionally sharp version of a sword with the brutal propery (since it's sharper it cuts deeper more reliably). You'd have to step down the damage die just for balance sake. Call it "Japanese" or "Damascus" or "High-carbon steel" or just plain "Sharp" it's all the same property.

i.e.
Longsword 1d8 versatile -> Damascus Longsword (or Katana) 1d6 brutal 1 versatile heavy blade
Greatsword 1d10 2h -> Damascus Greatsword (or naginata) 1d8 brutal 1 heavy blade
Shortsword 1d6 light blade -> Damascus Shortsword (or wakazashi) 1d4 brutal 1 light blade

What I like is that either version has the same average damage (which helps keep things balanced) but makes a nice tradeoff: The "sharp" blade has more reliable damage (make deeper cuts more easily) but a lower damage die (the material that can hold such a sharp edge is rarer, so the blade is lighter weight).

May 10, 2010 -- 10:29PM, BlackKnight1239 wrote:

Katanas are Underpowered in 4th Edition

That's it. I'm sick of all this "bastard sword" bull*** that's going  on in the 4th Edition 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 4th Edition  system. Here is the stat block I propose for katanas:

(Superior One-Handed Melee Weapon)
2d10 base damage
+5 proficiency bonus
Heavy blade, light blade (counts as both)
High crit, off-hand, reach, versatile

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 4th Edition, see my new  stat block.

The Katana is one of the finest examples of the art of swordcraft ever however I think you are underestimating European weapons. Either weapon in the hands of a trained swordsman would certainly kill it's opponent with a well placed strike. 

Having a better made weapon does not immediately translate to more damage. A well made longsword could cut through an opponent all day long much like a Katana. Human beings in real life are much less resilient than D&D characters if you use a literal translation of HP. Much of the Katana's strength is in it's wielder. The Samurai trained religeously in the art of Bushido and were a force to be reckoned with on the battle field but most commonly were pitted against common soldiers who used farm implements in battle or weapons derived from them and often had little to no formal training aside from the sound advise of "Put the pointy end in the other guy". 

I have great respect for the Katana and the rich history it represents but you must consider it in the context of it's enemy which wore relatively light armor and so did not require the forced momentm that the europeans needed in order to penetrate heavy armor.

European weapons on the other hand favored stabbing with a reinforced tip to break through a thicker defense. The martial arts that the European swordsman studied were not that dissimilar from Asian martial arts with a focus on balance and control of motion. The reason this is not as well known is the lack of practicing swordsmen who trained in the classic styles. The Japanese have a deep cultural link to their martial arts however the European style was one of practicality and when the English Longbow and soon after the Crossbow made fighting styles obsolete, the swordsmen picked up bows and crossbows of their own and used the best weapon available at the time. The European martial arts are all but lost now, remaining mainly in manuscript but current day practitioners would very likely surprise you with the similarities to traditional Japanese swordplay albeit with perhaps a more utilitary appearance.

I would compare it much like Akido and Krav Maga, Both get the job done but one is more fluid and the other is a more compact form of ass kicking.

P.S. I missed the sarcasm because I know people who actually think that way.