Change to Katanas

[Drakill Tannan]

I can't find anything to back me up in the internet, but i belive Katanas were special because of how extremly light they where.

[Howlando]

The "katana" base item in EFU is generally not from kara-tur, but is just a model to reflect other kinds of weapons (special weapons from Manchaka, or certain other places...)

[Ghost]

Katanas were special because of their construction methods, the steel being folded hundreds of times which is far more advanced than how smiths in Europe created blade, not only giving the surface of the steel an almost "liquid" appearance, but creating a sharper edge. Also being curved gives them a far better cutting edge than a straight sword.

Katanas, however, were bad at defense compared to a longsword (no crossguard to speak of, for instance) with fights being quick, with wide, often  downward slashes through the opponents shoulder, or across at the torso. It's why you see the Japanese samurai armors looking like this. To defend from those downward sweeps more than anything.

Also, these sweeps are normally large and arcing. A katana is as heavy as a longsword, and is much worse at thrusting because of it's curve. This is not a finessable weapon.

[Nightshadow]

To be fair, it is a graceful weapon, it is balanced in such a way as to eliminate the need for a pommel. That said, Ghost is right, you don't go for a few quick stabs with it, you cut your opponent down into smaller pieces with it. It has really great cutting power thanks to, also as Ghost said, its curved blade and how it was folded hundreds of times. The sword is fine as is, but I always imagined it as being in the same boat as scimitars, being slightly lower damage but a high critical range, and when I DM PnP games, I always say to anyone using a katana, which rarely happens, honestly, "If you use a katana, it's not a bastard sword, it's a 1d8 weapon with 18-20x2 critical."

[MrGrendel]

Going to drop in here and mention a few things I've learned about weapon comparisons here, regarding japanese and european swords, some common misconceptions and little-known tidbits.

• Japanese ore was poorer than european. The reason they had to fold their metal so much was to distribute the impurities. They weren't making the metal itself better - they were compensating for having somewhat worse ore to begin with. In fact, having to fold the metal is undesirable.

• Katanas are typically not folded more than 15-20 times at most, except for mythological weapons. Besides spreading out the impurities, folding the metal does one more thing. Repeated folding actually makes the metal softer. This is why katanas have to be made out of more than one piece of metal. The edge of the katana, made of harder metal, is basically welded into the other parts.

• This "layered" construction method japanese smiths had to use is also partly why katanas are heavier than european swords of the same length. That's right. Katanas are neither stronger than european swords, nor are they "light." A longsword typically weighs the same as a katana while being a good few inches longer, as well as having some flex to the blade, which helps manage impact stress. Due to it's construction, a katana will break before it flexes.

• Most european swords were intentionally made with chisel-like edges rather than sharper ones. The first piece of metal armor you try to slice through with a very sharp weapon will ruin your razor edge completely. A heavy blow with a chisel-edge on the other hand may cleave through harder armor - or if it can't penetrate, at least do plenty of impact damage to a small area.

• While the katana's point will never pierce something like chain or plate armor, the type of point it has is actually very effective at piercing cloth or leather armor. A point with no edges, like a bodkin arrow has, actually may have a lot more trouble getting through layered cloth armor - it pierces a little bit, but without an edge to slice the hole larger, the thicker part of the weapon gets stuck.

[Porkolt]

I'll only be pleased with any changes made to the katana if they include making it at least 6 feet long.

[N/A]

Just watch Deadliest Warrior on SPIKE. That show will show you that a katana can cut anything.

[Porkolt]

Mythbusters couldn't get it through a gun barrel.

[N/A]

Of course. They are not samurai super warriors.

[Bearic]

What we need are some wakizashi, those could be used for finesse; they're dinky.

[ScottyB]

Of course. They are not samurai super warriors.

I thought they built a robot to do the swinging for them; and if a robot samurai can't do it, no one can.

[N/A]

Scotty, I like to remind you that The Rule of Cool applies especially to when super samurai use the blade, because when they do, katanas are just better.

[Nightshadow]

As Dante Morgenstern is getting into smithing right now, I went looking for info on smelting and forging and all that other good stuff. Found this, looks interesting, detailed, hopefully accurate. I've yet to read through it, I'll edit this post later with my opinions on it.

http://www.forging.org/fierf/pdf/japanesesword.pdf