Katana - 1 Hand or 2 Hand

[Nightcloak]

Hello everyone, im new to these forums, and am planning on building either a Kensai/Monk or Kensai/Thief. Of course I wish for him to weild a katana, since I got the whole dual weilding is superior to single wielding swords out of my system. My first question is what does the Katana fall under in terms of proficiency, two handed style or single handed style? (Note: not looking for a sword and shield style, i'm more the the finessable, dodge the blow type.) Thanks for you help everyone.

BTW: I am fairly new to BG2SoA/ToB after buying these games a while back and letting them collect dust since I became addicted to Diablo 2, which untill recently I was enlightened in the art form of the D&D universe, its complex rules, in-depth roleplay and such, have figured out that, they are indeed vastly superior in every way comparable. (ofcourse, only in my opinion)

[Brainless One]

Katanas are one-handed, and the most powerful weapon. They use katana proficiency, and just to warn you, magical katanas will be hard to find, due to their potency.
-Brainless One

PS: WELCOME TO IRONWORKS!

[Lord]

[img]graemlins/thewave.gif[/img] Welcome to IW! [img]graemlins/thewave.gif[/img]
Like Brainless One said, they're one-handed. However, magical katanas actually aren't hard to find.

[Jaradu]

Welcome to Ironworks. Nightcloak! As Brainless One said, Katanas are one-handed. They are also quite rare, especially magical ones. By the way, you can't have a Kensai/Monk - that's an illegal combination. You could have a Kensai/Thief, but it would have to be dual class not multiclass. You can dual from a kit to a class, but not from a class to a kit or kit to a kit. I'm not the best at explaining the multiclassing and dualclassing rules but there are a lot of friendly people here who can word it better.

I'm glad you like D&D - In my opinion it is the best combat system there is.

[Nightcloak]

Ah my deepest thanks to all! - It is great to find a good community, especially after the years this game has been on the market. Very interesting that katanas are indeed one handed, i've always seen depictions of eastern warriors using two hands, but then again katanas do come in different sizes [img]smile.gif[/img] . Im not a samurai/monk enthusiast, but I prefer quick agile characters that either dual wield, but like I said, over some character concept and logic, wielding two weapons in real life leaves me to think you will have less precision/control, not to mention your would become extremely bulky whilest moving, jumping, and performing acrobatic acts.

I'm not much of a powergame, but ofcourse I would want a strong character, but I am motivated for logical roleplay purposes. Thank you all for answering my question, I am sure I will have many more! [img]smile.gif[/img]

[teardropmina]

Originally posted by Nightcloak: Im not a samurai/monk enthusiast, but I prefer quick agile characters that either dual wield, but like I said, over some character concept and logic, wielding two weapons in real life leaves me to think you will have less precision/control, not to mention your would become extremely bulky whilest moving, jumping, and performing acrobatic acts.

a person's experience and knowledge would detect the limitation of the logic he/she adapts. In Chinese martial arts, many fighting styles are dual-weidling based. Precision and control comes from practice, not just determined by weapon wiedling styles. A single handed War Hammer could be tougher to control than two short blades.

If you want to toss "real life" into RPG (or any kind of games), get rid of healing potion first. In real life, once you hurt, your physical condition will deteriorate and cannot fight the same way as you're not hurt. If the magical healing potion is granted (you can drink the potions and go on fighting as usual), I don't see how dual wiedling fighting style is not "logical" especially when in real life, imo, it's more possible for a hard-working warrior to be extremely agile and proficient in two weapon fighting than some wizards discover a recipe for the almighty healing potions.

[Nightcloak]

Well, im thinking purely in terms of movement and such, mostly along the lines of performing acrobatic feats and such. I am not saying that dual wielding is a faulty art form in any way at all, like I said I have quite a tast for it, especially over a damn blasted shield. But, running through my head, and the fact that this is being a fantasy game, i'm thinking of thinks like backwards hand springs, thrust and slash control while performing such feets, having a free hand for environmental control if need be, switching from light to hard strokes, most off all I have an affinity for sneaking and hiding, so bulkiness of a weapon, how fast it can be drawn/gripped comes to mind. This is not purely logic I admit, since the fantasy world does coincide.

And I agree with you greatly! - A strong warrior can be quick and agile as well! I don't understand why if your strong, you can't be so dexterous. When I envision my character, he has the frame of an elf, average to a bit smaller that 5'6'', muscular to the point of tonning your body, and extremely fast, able to fight without encumberance, and has a dislike for heavy armor and such. For this, I do agree with you whole heartedly.

Examples of stats settings that don't make sense to me.

Elves: Are dexterous and intelligent, but that being are bad at strength and constitution, warriors are the same way around.

OT* - going to see Van Helsing now, rushing, catch you guys later - I LOVE THESE FORUMS! (sorry caps).

[TheGodThatFailed]

I just have to say,if you put 3 on 2 wepon fighting and then 5 on katana with a paladin...Ouch.

[JrKASperov]

Who cares about reality, this is the Forgotten Realms, magic galore!

[Nightcloak]

I'm not looking to powergame, I just want to play a concept, not what is deemed systematically superior, but I suppose i'll give it a try, once I play my blade, but he won't be using katanas, more like short swords. I think it would be hard to dual wield full size katanas around effectivly, in real life.

And trailing off of the subject, my pet peeve of the Kensai is only that he can't use sometype of missile weapon. Especially after I multiclass to say thief or what not. I would of really enjoyed getting some use out of throwing daggers or shortbows. Speed and effectiveness is my thing.