Upgrade your account to a Community Supporter account and remove most of the site ads.
Enchanted Trinkets Complete--a hardcover book containing over 500 magic items for your D&D games!

Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="Silverblade The Ench" data-source="post: 5310215" data-attributes="member: 19083">aye game mechanics <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" />but on katana vs bastardswordboth are "hand and a half swords"the katana is NOT some damn "uber weapon" jeesh!!katana was never meant for heavy, dirty work, or cleaving armour etc, katanas could and often did get shattered in battle hence you HAD to carry a back up weapon, the wakizashiit's awesome versus unarmed folk, especially ones who often didn't fight back...try it versus an amroured knight, or skilled sai-wielding martial artist and it's not so uber.katana is a weapon of precision and speed versus flesh, it's almost useless up very close in tight quarters (like in a dungeon or tavern perhaps), hence they had to develop a full martial art form for such situations and another reaosn for a shorter swordkatana isn't so unbalanced as the scimitar, both's curves give great slashing cuts, but katana's chisel tip allows better thrusting stabs.bastardsword had enough mass to drive chanmail or even some plate INTO the body causing damage.Western swords were rarely "sharp" since opponents wore armour, there was no need of having an axe or sword razor edged. In fact such edges are bad vs that kind of armour (shatter)precision weapons like daggers, some rapiers etc were razor sharp thoughSome maces had sharp "flanges" but "sharp" like a knights sword  to help cleave into armour, not slice though, when you hit flesh they'd do terrible damage.likewise, European combat was much more complex than is often thought, especially up close and dirty as real fights wereSo large swords used the heavy pommels as clubs, swords gripped on blade AND handle to use liek a sort of staff, carrying a shorter weapon like a handaxe gripped up near the axehead or "scrimsax" (shortsword used by Saxons), or heavy dagger (misericord of "Knightly" period) and "dirty" unarmed combat (which was actually a major feature of REAL knightly combat not only for practicality of fighting heavy armoured opponent but also because capturing one for ransom was vastly perferrable for wealth and to hope for same fate yourself rather than death)<img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" /></blockquote>

Verification