In bad 1980s ninja movies, shuriken are associated with ninja, but actually they were used throughought East Asia and were used by samurai. There is nothing "exotic" about such a throwing blade other than the style being uncommon in the West. How about giving samurai shuriken proficiency?
Or you could just make them proficient with shuriken, which are weaker than darts. Also, this is one of those history lessons that is painless: no one HAS to use shuriken if they don't want to.
In bad 1980s ninja movies, shuriken are associated with ninja, but actually they were used throughought East Asia and were used by samurai. There is nothing "exotic" about such a throwing blade other than the style being uncommon in the West. How about giving samurai shuriken proficiency?Historically correct, but not meshing with a more popularist model... incidently Samurai get three weapon proficiencies MORE that the Cav. Giving a 4th does nothing for the balance.
Remember that quality matters more than quantity. Katana proficiency is a nice boon, but what it amounts to is just a +1 damage compared to a longsword. And at higher levels, most optimizers wouldn't use a longsword but a scimitar (since crits matter more than +1 damage), so the benefit is even smaller.
The weapon proficiency bonuses are so low they can easily be filled by some other ability being slightly weaker than the original.
Or even just different. Proficiency with one sub-par "Exotic weapon" counts as flavor more than an "ability."
the Nodachi/Odachi should be on the list as well. as should the Zanbatou and the Kodachi.
Honestly, I'm of the school that every warrior's second weapon should be a cold iron morningstar and an oil of GMW. There's nary a DR that can be found what can withstand a cold iron morningstar and some buffs. One or two points of damage is not much in the grand scheme, compared to critical ranges, DR penetration, reach, etc.
|
...why even have the bastard sword at all as an exotic weapon?
Because using the "popularist model" (as Helaman calls it) is a samurai with a katana (and probably a wakizashi). While historically, this may not be very accurate (seems they used polearms and bows more than anything), we're not playing a historic re-enactment game. We're playing a fantasy game. The "fantastic" image of a samurai does not include throwing shurikens, but it does include the katana.