Katanas in D&D (3.5 Weapon, PEACH)

[Noctis Vigil]

I did this because it's always bugged me that there were no stats for them (at least not in any book I have; feel free to poke me in the direction of the book containing them if there is and I don't know it).

Katana
This exotic one-handed longsword is slightly curved, with a single edge. It is designed to be swung and drawn swiftly. As such, it can be wielded with the Weapon Finesse feat, and deals an extra 2d6 damage when using the Iaijutsu Focus skill with it. This weapon may be wielded two-handed at the user's option. When wielded in the main hand with a Wakazashi in the off hand, reduce the penalty on your primary weapon for dual wielding by 1.
Damage: 2d6
Crit: 18-20/x2
Cost: 150 gold

Wakazashi
This exotic one-handed shortsword is slightly curved, with a single edge. It is designed to be swung and drawn swiftly. As such, it can be wielded with the Weapon Finesse feat, and deals an extra 1d6 damage when using the Iaijutsu Focus skill with it. This weapon may be wielded two-handed at the user's option. When wielded in the off-hand with a Katana in the main hand, reduce the penalty on your off hand weapon for dual wielding by 1.
Damage: 1d6
Crit: 18-20/x2
Cost: 100 gold

[TuggyNE]

I believe Oriental Adventures said they used the stats of the bastard sword straight. (Except that they're always masterwork.)

Also I totally thought you might be reposting "Katanas are Underpowered in D&D". ;_;

[Raiki]

I did this because it's always bugged me that there were no stats for them (at least not in any book I have; feel free to poke me in the direction of the book containing them if there is and I don't know it).

Actually, there were stats in Oriental Adventures. (Go figure, right?)

I believe the Katana and Wakizashi were just masterwork bastard/short swords (though I may be mistaken). Either way, I know they didn't have bonus Iajitsu Focus damage, and for what it's worth I don't think that adding it is balanced. Though, to be fair, nothing about IF is balanced to begin with, so that's hardly your fault.

Anyway, if you run particularly High-Op games this should be fine, but otherwise just look in OA.

Edit: I should have known better than to comment about OA. There are always ninja lurking about.

~R~

[Noctis Vigil]

Edit: I should have known better than to comment about OA. There are always ninja lurking about.

You should have expected to find ninjas in a thread discussing katanas.

As for if it's overpowered or not, I can't say as it gets used much at my table, so no idea how strong it really is. I can say I GM strictly gestalt, with any combo imaginable allowed, so an extra 2d6 damage when using a particular skill in exchange for an exotic weapon proficiency feat just doesn't break my games. Besides, melee needs more good things, and if you spend a feat to be proficient with these, you've earned the right to do 2d6 more damage. (EWP pretty much never gets used. Why? Name me a weapon worth using it on. I try to fix that, and most exotic weapons at my table have an exotic effect added to them; if they don't, they probably got reclassified as martial.)

[Raiki]

(EWP pretty much never gets used. Why? Name me a weapon worth using it on. I try to fix that, and most exotic weapons at my table have an exotic effect added to them; if they don't, they probably got reclassified as martial.)

Spiked Chain.

But yeah, in a gestalt game Iajitsu Focus isn't really overpowered. Even if you *can* wind up adding like 30-40d6s of sneak attack/sudden strike/IF damage to an attack, it doesn't even compare to a Wizard//Archivist 20.

In that case, I say go to.

~R~

[Ashtagon]

I did this because it's always bugged me that there were no stats for them (at least not in any book I have; feel free to poke me in the direction of the book containing them if there is and I don't know it).

Not in any book you play with? You play without the DMG then? Because they are in there (chapter five).

Also, http://1d4chan.org/wiki/Katanas_are_Underpowered_in_d20

[awa]

do i think a new stats that make katana better then other exotic weapons is necessary? no.
do i think it will break your game? Also no. (accept maybe at low levels)

it make two weapon fighting a bit better but your also buying two separate exotic weapon feats so that's hardly broken.

its much stronger then the average exotic weapon but the average exotic weapon is not worth a feat.

basically i suppose the question comes down to whether this weapon obsoletes all the other weapons and it really doesn't many non fighter martial characters would rather have the feat i suspect.

also it appears to have a 20/X2 crit range is that deliberate.

[Noctis Vigil]

also it appears to have a 20/X2 crit range is that deliberate.

I totally forgot to add crit modifiers to the stat blocks. Added, and thanks for the catch.