hong said:
So, how would you build a katana + trenchcoat guy in 4E? AKA, big sword/light armour. No books here, or I'd do it myself.
4e can handle the schtick, but...
Basically, a fighter using a bladed weapon uses dexterity as his secondary attribute. So he'll probably put Str as his best score, then Dex. And as he levels up, he'll make boosting Dex a priority.
Once he hits Dex 18, the benefit of Hide Armor + Dexterity is equal to the benefit of Scale Armor. So he might as well switch to the lighter armor and get back some speed, and reduce his skill penalty.
I think its reasonable to declare a guy in hide armor with a greatsword to really be a guy in a heavy trenchcoat wielding a katana, especially considering that he's a dex heavy fighter build.
So that's how I'd go. I'd spend a feat or two on skills along the way, as well, to get Acrobatics and Stealth, and I'd pick up opportunity attack feats like the ones that boost opportunity attacks with a heavy blade, in order to get that "flurry of cuts" feel a katana can have.
The only downside is that until you get to Dex 18, you're either using scale armor, or playing with a suboptimal AC. If you start with a 14 dex (human with 16 str, 14 dex, +2 assigned to str for optimization reasons) that's level 14. If you play an Eladrin with the same stats, you could get there by level 8, but you'd be taking an attack roll penalty. Or you could go the human route, and just accept that you have a slightly lower AC than you'd prefer, in exchange for getting more maneuverability and better skills.