Is there any way to make the Iatjusu focus skill useful?

[Kae'Yoss]

Cha mod to extra damage dice is not absurd. What are you thinking, that the iajutsu master will have a +10 cha mod?

Even with a +3 mod, you can easily get +15 by mid levels. Nothing to be sneezed at.

CC iatjutsu focus isnt going to be useful, and i cant really think of wizards, etc taking this. Its clearly a fighter type skill and you need to focus on it to do any good.

Wizards, no. Espeially since there are no wizards in Rokugan. It's mainly for samurai, fighter, berserkers, rogues, ninja, maybe sohei. But not just for fighters

Starting combat within melee range of an enemy is just about impossible, unless you are using high level invisibility spells constantly, and none of the enemies you are fighting can stop it.

Or you play in an oriental setting, where you not run around in dank caves like a madman, hacking at monsters, but have adventures in cities and other civilized areas.


If only I remember where that part about "Why is that samurai sneak attacking" was in. I think it was a sidebar, but I'm not sure. It might be in one of the Rokugan d20 books, but I don't feel like looking through 2 dozen books right now.

 

[moritheil]

The level 10 ability does nothing. Free surprise round when you start within mele range of an enemy? WTH? When has this ever happened without relying on stealth or magic? No enemies lets you walk up to them and start combat, most times the enemies start the combat by showing themselves to the party.

We should totally ban sneak attack, sudden strike and skirmish attack. OMG class abilities THAT LET YOU DO DAMAGE and you can use them every round!

As someone who has played L5R, I strongly suggest you go and read a bunch of the fiction on the AED site - or talk to some iaido students in real life. That is the sort of flavor they are aiming for with that skill - the ability to make one single, perfect, deadly strike.

If you just want the mechanics of it, your high Cha ought to enable you to bluff your way into melee range. Sure, it won't work for many situations - but that's intentional.

As a side note, consider that AED has class ability for those of the Ronin school in their later edition Rokugan books - it's analogous to a death attack, requiring the Ronin to size you up for a round or two before using it. That has tremendous ramifications in terms of social posturing. A similar thing could be true of iaijutsu masters - people who have some idea of what they are capable of will appear paranoid when they refuse to get too close to them, thereby losing face and influencing important negotiations . . .

I don't really get why you continually assert that this skill is underpowered. You are essentially getting a less useful version of sneak attack at no cost but skill points.

 

[Storyteller01]

Cha mod to extra damage dice is not absurd. What are you thinking, that the iajutsu master will have a +10 cha mod?

No, but with an 18 CHA and a maxed roll (the skill caps at 9d6), the iaijutsu master just earned 36 extra points of damage (45 damage minimum).

CC iatjutsu focus isnt going to be useful, and i cant really think of wizards, etc taking this. Its clearly a fighter type skill and you need to focus on it to do any good.

That's the point.

Starting combat within melee range of an enemy is just about impossible, unless you are using high level invisibility spells constantly, and none of the enemies you are fighting can stop it.

Again, that's the point. That's why there's a PrC or magic to make it work.

 

[Sejs]

Cha mod to extra damage dice is not absurd. What are you thinking, that the iajutsu master will have a +10 cha mod?

CC iatjutsu focus isnt going to be useful, and i cant really think of wizards, etc taking this. Its clearly a fighter type skill and you need to focus on it to do any good.

Starting combat within melee range of an enemy is just about impossible, unless you are using high level invisibility spells constantly, and none of the enemies you are fighting can stop it.

No, you know what, you're right. It sucks.

Don't bother with it, Question. Just forget the skill exists.

 

[Kalshane]

I had a Samurai/Iaijutsu master in one of my games and the combat pretty much went like this: Combat starts. Hiro wins initiative and charges the bad guys, dropping one of them with ridiculous amounts of damage from his Iai strike. Remaining bad guys gang beat Hiro into greasy smear because he's all alone away from the party. If he does survive to the second round, he's getting out-damaged by the other characters because his entire focus is on delivering an devastating iai attack.

I did House Rule that using Iaijutsu Focus to score extra damage outside of an Iai duel required the character to have Quick Draw as a feat. It prevented characters from just dipping into it for the extra damage potential and it made sense to me. Plus, the feat modifying a skill thing has a precedent in the Track Feat allowing you to use Surival for tracking.

 

[IcyCool]

Hiro wins initiative and charges the bad guys, dropping one of them with ridiculous amounts of damage from his Iai strike.

His full name wouldn't happen to have been Hiro Protagonist, would it?

 

[Kalshane]

His full name wouldn't happen to have been Hiro Protagonist, would it?

Not quite. He was no Deliverator.

Actually, I'm drawing a blank trying to remember his family name. It's been a couple years since that campaign ended.

 

[Aaron L]

Hiro Yuy.


Question, this skill is completely situational, intended only to be used by Samurai in duels of honor, and is not a general purpose "add damage for free" skill. It is very limited intentionally, because there is no way in Hell they are going to add a simple skill that can add +9d6 damage to your melee attacks.



It is to emulate the genre and setting of Samurai, to be used as a one shot opening attack during a duel to portray the classic "draw slash thump" style fights, often seen in anime. Nothing more.

I had wanted to take this skill for my Quick-Drawing Bladesinger, but my DM nixed it

 

[Drowbane]

Was he? That Traitor! Turning his back on the Kakita School for that upstart Mirumoto School

Naw, after a sucessful Iai-strike he would sometimes leave his katana "sheathed" in his enemy and then go for an Iai-strike with his wakizashi...

mechanically yes, but try asking a dwarf to do the same thing with just really good steel.

an excellent point.

Also, even though Adamantine weapons have changed in 3.5... have Kakita Katanas?

What if two Iajutsu Masters squared off? Would they both get a surprise round on the other? Are they required to make some kind of check (sense motive or some such) to see who strikes first? Does it just go straight to initiative?

an equally excellent question. I would guess that if two Iai-Masters where going to have it out... they would have an Iai-Duel. Yes, I'm aware this dodges your real question... but I'm ok with that.

Cha mod to extra damage dice is not absurd. What are you thinking, that the iajutsu master will have a +10 cha mod?

CC iatjutsu focus isnt going to be useful, and i cant really think of wizards, etc taking this. Its clearly a fighter type skill and you need to focus on it to do any good.

Starting combat within melee range of an enemy is just about impossible, unless you are using high level invisibility spells constantly, and none of the enemies you are fighting can stop it.

Actually, the first Iai Master my old group saw (we had all made 18th lvl characters for a mini-campaign) did happen to have a +10 Cha Mod... he was routinely doing Iai for +10d6... +100dmg. Perhaps absurd for a SKILL?

Note: we all were greatly amused when one of the major BBEGs happened to be a Minotaur (never flat-footed)

No, but with an 18 CHA and a maxed roll (the skill caps at 9d6), the iaijutsu master just earned 36 extra points of damage (45 damage minimum).

nitpick: 10d6 with a feat out of OA (hell if I can remember what it was though)

 

[Kae'Yoss]

Hiro Yuy.

Not Yuy Hiro?

It is to emulate the genre and setting of Samurai, to be used as a one shot opening attack during a duel to portray the classic "draw slash thump" style fights, often seen in anime.

... or in ancient Japan, but they probably just stole it from Dragonball