Reading over the rules of the Iaijutsu Strike, I came across a situation I'm not quite sure to handle.
It says that that after I challenge but before I attack the target of my challenge, I may perform an Iaijutsu strike. To me, I see this as 2 things :
1) I can attack someone on one turn, and then next turn, Swift action challenge, full round Iaijutsu because in theory i haven't attacked the target of my challenge yet (I attacked before he was my target, as weak as an argument that may be).
2. I can only Iaijutsu as a first hit on any creature even before I have challenged it.
I find the rules are vague enough to be able to exploit the first situation, but I just want some feedback to hear what your opinions are.
Thanks
Wow that is kinda bad.
I would go with option one after reading it.
Good luck.
Yeah, I'd go with the 1 as well.
Ok, that's what I was planning on doing, I just wanted to see if it made sense to others as well.
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The problem with the first interpretation is that in the line following what you quoted it says that in order to perform the strike your sword must be sheathed. So you can't attack with it before doing the iaijustu strike. This is the iconic move where in one motion the samurai draws and attacks with one motion.
It's not number 1 and that's why the archetype sucks badly.
Iaijutsu Strike requires that your sword be sheathed at the start of the round, for you to issue a challenge as a swift action, then to attack them as you unsheathe your sword.
While the implication from this and the Challenge feature seem to indicate that it was maybe intended to be an ability used to initiate or at the beginning of combat, there's nothing that limits it that way.
So as long as your weapon is sheathed at the beginning of the turn you are issuing the challenge, you can use Iaijutsu strike. Of course, because it's a full round action, that means you're likely next to your opponent already (or at least within 5' of them), and you don't have a weapon drawn (and you couldn't full attack the round before or attack and move because you had to sheathe your weapon - quick draw only applies to drawing and sheathing also provokes). So unless you have IUS, a natural weapon, an odd non-hand weapon, or intend to do some Drop/Quick Draw style shenanigans, you won't be armed.
Beyond that, as you note you're playing a bit loose with the "before you have attacked the target of your challenge" language. It is certainly possible that a GM might read that more fluidly, meaning you've already attacked the target, just before that creature was the target. It's not an unreasonable reading either, since the IS is supposed to be something of an unexpected sudden attack. So while I think you can probably do 1 by the rules, it might not fly for every GM. Expect table variation.
The problem with the first interpretation is that in the line following what you quoted it says that in order to perform the strike your sword must be sheathed. So you can't attack with it before doing the iaijustu strike. This is the iconic move where in one motion the samurai draws and attacks with one motion.
However, if I get close, hit with a reach weapon, and next turn I challenge, drop weapon, 5 foot step, and use my katana I negate the issue that you're talking about because my sword never left the sheath and I still have a move and standard action in bank for the full round Iaijutsu strike.
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Iajutsu does require you to have a sheathed weapon, so that you can draw it and strike in one motion. Of course, what martial character worth his salt only has one weapon?
I can see having, say, one katana for your basic goblin-hacking and then when the BBEG shows up, you carve your way to him, then drop your first katana to Iajutsu him with Wind of Inexorable Dawn, your FAVORITE katana.
By this interpretation, Option One starts to look less like a loophole and more like a legitimate cinematic moment. It's not necessarily the first blow of a battle, but it's the moment at which you dramatically bring to bear your finest sharpened steel; when you lock eyes with your foe and make it known that NOW it's serious.
Yes, but you've already attacked the target of your challenge.
It technically doesn't matter that you attacked him before you challenged him, that isn't how the ability is written.
Basically the only way this works is you walk up to them, next round you challenge as a swift and perform the attack as a full round action.
It's basically unusable until he is allowed to use it as a standard action at level 10.
In the American old west, gunfighters would meet at high noon (so there would be no sun in their eyes) and stand in the street, guns in holsters, then do that whole quick-draw-shoot thing. That's how duels were handled with guns.
In the Japanese old east, samurai occasionally did the same thing with katanas, though the range was usually much closer. Iaijutsu is the art they studied to become good enough to survive these duels.
It was also used for surprise attacks, though Bushido really frowns upon such an unfair advantage in a fight, so honorable samurai would only use it in sudden-self defense, such as when an enemy tries to make a sudden attack at the samurai while his katana is still in the saya so the samurai uses iajutsu techniques to draw and kill the attacker.
In any case, a good iaijutsu maneuver should end with the blade back in the saya, after the enemy is slain and the blood has been shaken off. It would all be a single move involving draw, kill, shake, sheath in just a few seconds total.
That's not what happens in Pathfinder. The sword saint keeps his katana in hand after his initial attack (so would a real samurai if his first attack missed or there were two attackers). But at least they got the part right about starting with the katana in the saya.
As for the ruling, it clearly says "After the sword saint has challenged a foe but before he has attacked the target of his challenge". There is only one way to read this: ANY attack already made against this target invalidates the ability.
Why?
It says "before he has attacked" which is the Present Perfect tense.
We use the Present Perfect to say that an action happened at an unspecified time before now. The exact time is not important. You CANNOT use the Present Perfect with specific time expressions such as: yesterday, one year ago, last week, when I was a child, when I lived in Japan, at that moment, that day, one day, etc. We CAN use the Present Perfect with unspecific expressions such as: ever, never, once, many times, several times, before, so far, already, yet, etc.
So, by English grammar rules, the wording the devs have used very specifically forces us to apply the phrase "before he has attacked" to an unspecified time before now.
If they wanted it to mean "After the sword saint has challenged a foe and before he next attacks the target of his challenge", then they should have worded it that way, and it's the exact same word count so it's an unreasonable stretch to assume they confused it for brevity.
TL;dr: It can only be read as "After issuing the challenge against a target the swordsaint has not yet attacked, but before he makes his first attack against this target..."
By that logic, I could fight someone, and they flee. I encounter them 3 days later, and I can`t challenge and Iaijutsu Strike them because I have attacked the target of the challenge before in an unspecified period of time.
Technically correct.
It's a really bad archetype.
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By that logic, I could fight someone, and they flee. I encounter them 3 days later, and I can`t challenge and Iaijutsu Strike them because I have attacked the target of the challenge before in an unspecified period of time.
Yep, the rules definitely support that.
That's why we have GMs.
Me, I would say that the limitation applies on a per-encounter basis. I assume that's the RAI, though really, there's no proof so it's just my assumption.