Paladin with a Katana

[Shifty]

wolfman1911 wrote:

And anyway, swords are for pansies. You want to see a real Japanese weapon of awesomeness, feast your eyes.

So what part of Japan is China located in again?

[wolfman1911]

Just because it seems to be the way that this thread has gone, I'll go ahead and say that was intentional. But if I had it to do again, I suppose I would have said Asian instead of Japanese. . .

[Bruunwald]

I believe the OP is either messing with us, or he has heard various conflicting stories over the years about what the katana represented to the Samurai (see: "the sword is your soul" and other Samurai myths/philosophies) and has mixed up the stories of Samurai supposedly committing ritual suicide when their family daisho were damaged, due to their having "dishonored" their family line by losing the weapons, with the notion that dishonoring the family somehow damaged the weapons (reversing the order of events).

He is then hoping to apply such a rule to his paladin, as if his paladin were a Samurai.

[Funky Badger]

ParagonDireRaccoon wrote:

It's worth mentioning (whether anyone is serious or not, it's a fun thread) that katanas are superior to medieval European weapons because katanas were used several centuries later. I'm sure some of the posters here know Japanese history bette than I do, but comparing a katana to a longsword is like comparing WWII firearms to Civil War firearms.

That said, there is interesting folklore surrounding katanas and a code of honor. If you play a paladin with a katana-with-a-code-of-honor it is likely there would be overlap between the two codes of conduct/honor, but some areas without overlap.

Since that's a lot of seriousness for a light-hearted thread, I'll also mention that a hat rack is a more dangerous weapon than a katana. I saw a martial arts movie where an old guy with what looked like a hat rack for a weapon killed thirty katana-wielding ninjas.

Seperate evolution.

Hit someone wearing Gothic platemail with a katana and the sword will shatter.

[GeraintElberion]

This thread makes me smile.

Good work, OP!

[DetectiveKatana]

The Katana shatters because it is being wielded by a Paladin, and not a true Samurai warrior.

(On a serious note, I would have issues with my Paladin using a weapon that specifically got bonuses to killing a helpless opponent, which the katana has with it's "Deadly" weapon quality.)