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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Tony Vargas" data-source="post: 1008625" data-attributes="member: 996">I started to read this thread, then I realized I'd heard it all before - too many times.What really gets me isn't the wild-eyed conviction that the katana deserves some sort of uber-stats, though that bothered me for a long time, no, it's the way people who obviously haven't bothered collecting any solid information try to set eachother straight with such misplaced zeal.  I'm not going to join that club.  You want to know more about historical weaponry, don't read a post by myself (or anyone else here), do some serious research.  Then, keep it to yourself, because, even if you post something perfectly factual, here, it'll be so lost in the sea of half-truth and misaprehension, that we'd never be able to sort it out, anyway.What I will venture, though, are some balanced stats, and a simple rationale for them... just because I have 'em laying around, collecting virtual dust.Remember, D&D isn't an historical simulation, it's just a fantasy game, and it works on pretty simplistic assumptions.  Bigger weapons do more damage, if thier sharp, it's slashing damage,  that sort of thing.Just compare what a katana is - not the myth surrounding it, or the historical minutiae - to the other weapons, and derive some playable stats.A katana is:metalsharpsingle-edgedcurvednot too much under a meter in lengthCoincidentally, that also describes a scimitar.  About the only major difference is that the katana has ample room for two hands.   There're plenty of other differences, but, frankly, they're below the level of granularity you get with the system.So, a scimitar is a one handed, sharp, curved, single-edged, meter-long metal weapon, and it's given 1d6 18-20/x2 as a medium martial weapon.   A katana is basicly similar, but is specifically two-handed - rating it at 1d8 18-20/x2 as a medium exotic weapon (ie: to a scimitar what a bastard sword is to a long sword), would be perfectly reasonable.No need to research a few centuries of japanese history or speculate on hypothetical east-west duels.</blockquote>

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