powerful fist vs. katar

[pfann]

My monk character, of course, has powerful fist which makes his damage a d6 instead of d4. A katar only has damage die of d4.

So my question is why would I want my monk to use a katar (the punching dagger) when my fists deal more damage?

Outside of changing the damage from B to P, it would actually lower my character's ability to deal damage even though both fist and katar are used in a punching manner. A katar has the Monk classification but it doesn't seem to make sense for a monk to use it at all. Powerful fist also removes the -2 non lethal/lethal penalty so there's no benefit there either.

[K1]

A katar has the deadly trait that fists don't have.

It has a different type of dmg.

It doesn't have the finesse trait ( so you will be relying on str ).

It can be made out of special materials, like Silver and Cold Iron.

It also has the knife specialization, which deals persistant dmg.

Depends your monk setup, it could or couldn't be a good weapon for you.

[Fuzzy-Wuzzy]

In addition to K1's points, some monsters hurt you when you hit them with your bare hands (like fire elementals). A spare cheap monk weapon is nice to have when you run across those.

[pfann]

thanks for the input.