D&D 5E (2024) 2024 Kensai?

[Bill Zebub]

Yeah, we ignore weapon mastery. It’s too fiddly for our tastes.

Yeah, totally unnecessary layer of fiddli-ness, and deeply marred by the idea that "you're expert in a subset of weapons...but you can forget your expertise and learn a new one by sleeping on it."

Just...yuck.

One option is to blend the battle master with the monk where you use ki points to do maneuvers. I’d need to think about it more to see how viable that is.

Oh that's an interesting idea. I dislike multi-classing in general, but that's worth thinking about.

And katanas should definitely be finesse longswords in my opinion. Just make them light too and you’re good to go.

No! My swordmaster uses a straight, double-edged blade, wielded 2-handed.

 

[Savage Wombat]

I let a Kensei monk in my current game have Weapon Mastery - it seems to work fine. She took Nick, of course. (I let the Battle Smith Artificer have one too, to be fair.)

 

[Marandahir]

Are there official translations of kanji to English, or just convention? Certainly as fluid as English is, "sai" could have a range of pronunciations.

And I have about a hundred pet peeves far more picky and arbitrary than that, so I'm in no position to criticize....

Yes, Romaji is also used by the Japanese language, and the official Romaji for 剣聖 (けんせい) is KENSEI

Standard Japanese vowel sounds are very similar to standard Spanish vowels, if that helps. Just 5 vowels to worry about, AIUEO – Ahhh, Eeee, Oooo, Ehhh, Ohhh.

In this context, Ken means Sword, and Sei means Saintly or Spiritual – i.e., a Sword-Saint like Miyamoto Musashi.

Sei is often used in Japanese pop-culture to denote Divine Magic, Clerics, Sacred Power, Monks' wisdom, etc, in contrast to Mahō for Arcane Magic, Witchcraft, Wizardry, etc.

 

[Bill Zebub]

Yes, Romaji is also used by the Japanese language, and the official Romaji for 剣聖 (けんせい) is KENSEI

Standard Japanese vowel sounds are very similar to standard Spanish vowels, if that helps. Just 5 vowels to worry about, AIUEO – Ahhh, Eeee, Oooo, Ehhh, Ohhh.

In this context, Ken means Sword, and Sei means Saintly or Spiritual – i.e., a Sword-Saint like Miyamoto Musashi.

Sei is often used in Japanese pop-culture to denote Divine Magic, Clerics, Sacred Power, Monks' wisdom, etc, in contrast to Mahō for Arcane Magic, Witchcraft, Wizardry, etc.

Oh! Huge misunderstanding! I was talking about a Ken doll wielding a Sai knife.

Which I would just love to generate in Midjourney and share with y'all, but I'm already on pretty thin ice with somebody whose name rhymes with Horace.

(I saw Red One, so I've become very cautious of uttering...or even typing...certain names.)

 

[Horwath]

No news, but I would keep it simple.

3rd level:
proficiency with all weapons and treat all weapons as Monk weapons
fighting style
2 weapon masteries
kensei shot(based on martial arts die)

6th level:
weapons can deal force damage instead of normal type for them.
spend 1 point to deal extra martial art die damage on an attack. once on your turn.
2 pts for 2 dice at 11th level, 3pts at 17th level for 3 dice.

11th level:
spend up to 3 pts to enchant a weapon for 1 min to deal up to 3d6 extra damage.

17th level:
deadly strike:
spend 5 pts to turn a hit into a crit.
once on your turn.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

No news, but I would keep it simple.

3rd level:
proficiency with all weapons and treat all weapons as Monk weapons
fighting style
2 weapon masteries
kensei shot(based on martial arts die)

6th level:
weapons can deal force damage instead of normal type for them.
spend 1 point to deal extra martial art die damage on an attack. once on your turn.
2 pts for 2 dice at 11th level, 3pts at 17th level for 3 dice.

11th level:
spend up to 3 pts to enchant a weapon for 1 min to deal up to 3d6 extra damage.

17th level:
deadly strike:
spend 5 pts to turn a hit into a crit.
once on your turn.

Pretty similar to what I was thinking, although I doubt WotC will use Japanese names for subclasses these days (however you anglicise the spelling) so it becomes Warrior of the Sword.

Like hexblade, it's pretty clear "backwards compatibility" fails for this subclass.