Katana Rant

In general no one is going to be happy with every weapon damage rating from Palladium and I'm no exception. Even if the system pleases some people, not matter what Palladium does, it won't please everyone. However, that being said, I find a certain trend in Palladium damages to be beyond the normal level of what one could consider not good. This is the weapon damages for katana and wakizashi, especially tech versions of these which have awesome damage capabilities for absolutely no reason what so ever. When the katana and wakizashi were first introduced to Palladium, they had a system somewhat different from other weapons in Palladium. They introduced the idea of high quality weapons (3D6 damage) (outside of the fantasy system) that do more damage than the average weapon (2D6 damage). This was a great idea in it's inception (especially since it meant that the comparative cost differences between the average weapon and an exceptional, high quality weapon meant that unless characters were given these weapons to start, they wouldn't be able to get their hands on them for a while).
With the exception of the little problem in N&S where two weapon damages were listed for these swords (compare the description of Daisho to those of the Katana and Wakizashi), things were quite simple. Now enter later books with these weapons (typically reprinted directly from TMNT/N&S).

Rifts: Japan really gave these weapons a working over, destroying their credibility as real weapons, instead making them super weapons, regardless of their construction! The first appearance in the book is their mention in the magic items. However as these apply to Mega-Damage magic swords, it's not really useful for comparison. The first S.D.C. mention of these weapons is under the "Living Samurai Sword" in the Traditional Samurai O.C.C. description. Here it states that these swords start out as "excellent S.D.C. weapons; the katana inflicts 3D6 or 4D6 S.D.C. and the smaller wakizashi does 2D6 S.D.C." As we can see, this ups the normal level of damage to that of a weapon much larger. Aside from the bad idea of further making these into Rune weapons (magic weapons I could see, but Rune weapons are supposed to be a little known art that only the Splugorth and a few others possess) and giving the samurai the ability to forge these weapons (a bad idea since you could have high level characters busting out Rune weapons left and right, not too mention that the samurai weren't swordsmiths at all), the "Living Samurai Rune Sword" plays no further part in the discussion. The next mention of these weapons is as Vibro weapons. M.D.C. aside, it's clear that the damage for these weapons was taken directly from Rifts: Japan's revised S.D.C. damage, making them much more powerful than swords of equivalent length and construction. Now since Vibro-blades do damage by surrounding the weapon by an "invisible, high-frequency energy field" it seems a little ridiculous that these weapons should do more damage than a weapon of comparable construction and length. It's also important to note that even "high quality" construction swords would not have damage above those of regular construction, since the damage is from the energy field, not the weapon itself. Of course, Rifts: Japan also continues the high quality weapon damage for average, "mass-market" version of the katana and wakizashi, which makes no sense upon first inspection. However, considering that advanced machining processes allow better sword blades to be produced, it is possible that these mass-market weapons could indeed do the higher damages. However, this would also hold true for other swords and bladed weapons as well, and granting it exclusively to the katana and wakizashi is ridiculous.

Heroes Unlimited 2 (in the HU Gms Guide) continues the original damage breakdown between average and high quality katana and wakizashi, which is good, however, when we move on to more advanced (alien) technologies, we come to problems. As we can see from Aliens Unlimited (sorry, I don't have the revised edition, so if these are changed, someone say so) there are several new ways of doing melee weapons; Kisentite, Vibro-blade (new to HU),and Energy Melee Weapons. Kisentite is a very hard, dense metal that is close to indestructible and can withstand damage and heat without any ill effects. Damage from these weapons comes from their amazing sharpness. Kisentite weapons typically add a damage bonus of 1D6 to weapons, but the Kisentite Katana as we can see does a whopping 4D6+3! Now, since the HU base for an average katana is 2D6, why are we seeing this huge increase in damage (2D6+3)? Other Kisentite swords do 2D6+3 (which doesn't make much sense for one handed swords, short swords maybe, but long swords (and swords of roughly the same length) do 2D6 damage initially, so they should be doing 3D6. Overall, with the exception of Kisentite Katana and Kisentite Knife, we see little damage increase for Kisentite weapons at all. So why is it that the Kisentite Katana does such incredible damage? A good question. Since Kisentite is the material used for these weapons, it's doubtful that they can be combined with other elements for increased flexibility and the structural traits that make exceptional katana do extra damage. So why are they doing more damage than normal Kisentite swords...it will remain a mystery. Next we have Vibro-Blades. As we discussed earlier for Rifts: Japan, the extra damage in this case comes from the energy field surrounding the blade. Vibro-Blade weapons typically add 1D6+3 damage to the weapon. So then why is it that the Vibro-Blade Katana does a whopping 5D6 damage? It can't be because all the vibro-katana are using exceptional quality blades, as none of the other weapons have these exceptional quality modifiers that would be present (not too mention that since the damage comes from a vibrating energy field, the exceptional quality bonus would be nullified). Last least are the Energy Melee Weapons. Energy weapons do damage by using a magnetically shaped energy blade in place of a standard matter blade. Energy Melee Weapons typically add 2D6+3 damage to the weapon type. Now since there's no way to even apply any form of exceptional construction to the blades of these weapons, how is it that the Energy Katana does a whopping 5D6+3 damage!?! Since the typically blade does 2D6 damage, and the energy version adds 2D6+3 to that, where did the extra die of damage come from!?! As we can see, overall all of these new tech advantages single out katana for higher damages, based on nothing.

Last but not least, I should probably discuss the presence of Katana and Wakizashi in Palladium Fantasy. Since the rules for high quality (i.e. dwarven and kobold forged) weapons works somewhat different, we're offered two approaches to the damage. First, we can use the original damage system, negating the Dwarf and Kobold construction modifiers. Or we can use the Dwarf and Kobold modifiers, and discard the original damage system. In either case, these bonuses should NOT be stacked! This means you aren't going to see any Dwarven-constructed high quality katana doing 3D6+4 damage (in the system as it stands now). Adding magic damage modifiers on to exceptional quality weapons should be left to the GM's discretion. Another area of note are the new weapon metals available from Northern Hinterlands. Korobite can be used to allow weapons to harm supernatural creatures, but this does not modify the damage in any way. Black Iron allows blades to be made incredibly sharp (+2 damage). White Iron allows blades to be incredibly flexible and well balanced (+1 to strike). Since these last two materials are typically forged by kobold weaponsmiths in PF, it is debatable whether or not additional damage modifiers could be applied to them (again, this would be up to the individual GM). However, after questioning Bill Coffin about one interesting aspect, yes, it is possible to forge weapons from a combination of Black Iron AND White Iron, giving a weapon both of those bonuses. Overall, how these weapons work in PF is up to the individual GM, however, they should keep the materials used, magic modifications available, and manufacturers (i.e. dwarves and kobolds) in mind.

Making katana and wakizashi do extra damage based on their high quality construction, rather than average construction, puts these weapons in an awkward position (not to mention making them munchkin bait). They are singled out as superior damage weapons for tech modifications and average construction techniques for no supportable reason. This should be fixed by reducing the damage of these weapons to reflect normal damage levels, making them just another weapon available for personal style selection, rather than superior weapons chosen for unjustifiable damage.