Rules Question

[Tim Chandler]

Hi all,

So, a rules question from me (yes, gasp!)

I'm looking at making a Mantis Bushi, and am a little confused by the
wording of their school technique.
RANK 1: THE WAY OF THE MANTIS
Mantis bushi learn to fight on the pitching decks of ships and to use
anything within reach as a weapon. You suffer no penalties to movement
or attacks for rough or uneven ter- rain. You do not lose Glory or
Honor when using improvised weapons, or weapons with the Peasant
keyword, in combat. You suffer no penalties for fighting with a Small
or Medium weapon in your off-hand if that weapon has the Peasant key-
word. Finally, you gain a bonus of +1k0 to all attack rolls.

So, does this mean if I wield two kama (peasant weapon, small), that I
have no penalty with the off-hand, or with both hands? What if I
wield a katana in one hand and a kama in the other hand?

Here's what I found in the rules on wielding two weapons:
Many players are interested in having their char- acters use two
weapons simultaneously. This is not particularly common in Rokugan, as
the vast ma- jority of bushi use the katana, which is traditionally
wielded in both hands. Exceptions exist, notably with the Dragon Clan
and their daisho technique, the Mantis and their tendency to use
matched pairs of small weapons, and the Lion’s favoring of the ka-
tana and war fan combination.
A character’s handedness is determined by the player. A character
attempting to make an attack with a weapon in his off-hand suffers a
penalty of -5 to the roll if it is a small weapon, -10 if it is
medium, and -15 if it is large. Additionally, attacks made with the
character’s dominant hand suffer a penalty of -5 to attacks as long as
a secondary weapon is held in the off hand. However, a character
wielding two weapons is more difficult to hit due to the larger area
covered. As a result, characters wielding two weap- ons add their
Insight Rank to their Armor TN.

I'm trying to decide if it's better for me to use two kama vs one
katana for combat.

Thoughts?

Tim

[Donald Riddick]

Well, flavor-wise, it is better to have two kama... and there are some bonuses for doing so later in your development.

However, the rules as written allow wielding a katana in your main hand and a kama in the off hand...

The rules as intended have Mantis carrying "matched pairs" of weapons, such as kama, tonfa, knives, etc...

So, in a home game, you'd be hard pressed to find a mantis sensei who would teach you the "Katana and kama" technique, since it doesn't exist in cannon.

But in a campaign game without such oversight, you may be given odd looks by GMs and players for doing something solely for mechanical value without flavor... but there is weird stuff players do in Rokugan.

>So, does this mean if I wield two kama (peasant weapon, small), that I
>have no penalty with the off-hand, or with both hands? 

No penalty, both hands.

>What if I wield a katana in one hand and a kama in the other hand?

You may be labeled by some players and GMs as non-cannonical powergamer... but there is no rules penalty.  Some folks take that pretty seriously in this game, others could care less. GMs may have Mantis and non-Mantis NPCs harass you for your odd school and approach as a result. As to labels, great roleplaying and table behavior can make a huge difference.

Of course, this is just my opinion and I am not an admin.

-Don

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From: Tim Chandler <timch...@timchandler.net>
To: ATL5R <at...@googlegroups.com>
Sent: Tuesday, September 27, 2011 4:49 AM
Subject: [ATL5R] Rules Question

[Tim Chandler]

That works for me. I generally like the idea of the Kama+Kama
approach, but I know that there will be a temptation when I'm getting
beat up in combat to reach for a Katana+Kama.

My biggest worry was making sure that the primary weapon, in eitheir
case, didn't have a penalty attached to it.

Tim

[Donald Riddick]

Kama + Kama is actually better than katana at the higher ranks for Mantis, because you get an extra attack and a bonus on raises... and extra attacks are pretty much the *gravy* of awesome sauce.

Also, there are a couple of additional bonuses from skills.

The most important things to make sure you plan for are:

advantage- great potential: Kama/Knives-  the 0k2 isn't as good as 3k2 (although you can throw it... so carry 4 kama so you can throw two before you close). This allows you to start calling extra attack at rank one, which is something that turns out to be fantastic, without the cost of 4-5 void.

Rank 7 with knives/kama- once you get here, things turn pretty spectacular for you at any rank. You hit almost everything in the game, or you can go for extra damage manuvers

Rank 3-5 with Athletics - Don't forget you roll Athletics to throw kama, and there is *no* throwing weapon short of a spear (which you can't carry many of) that does as much damage as a kama.

Agility 4+ - Kama are best with lots of attacks, and Agility 4 lets you do that in a hurry.

Bishomon's blessing- the 3 raises turns to 4 for damage is not something often done, but to get past damage reduction on things like kappa, with your great potential, you can call 6 raises for damage, still hit a TN 30 with the above, and have a base 10k3 for damage for your kama...  or two attacks hitting the same TN for 7k2 damage, which is as solid as 90% of samurai with katanas...and that is not something to laugh at.

It's all personal choice, but I assure you that the tactical advantages of a powerful, multi-attack weapon that you can use at range and still hit hard is why the Mantis Kama, with the right build, is as scary a weapon as any other schools katana.

I hope this helps...

-Don

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From: Tim Chandler <timchan...@gmail.com>
To: at...@googlegroups.com
Sent: Tuesday, September 27, 2011 9:51 AM
Subject: Re: [ATL5R] Rules Question

[Tim Chandler]

It helps immensely. That was my biggest worry, was being a watered
down combat samurai with the 0K2 damage of the kama. I was trying to
find all the advantages that would assist me, but it got late and I
needed bedtime. I'll look over what you sent and may mail you
specific questions off-list.

Tim

On Tue, Sep 27, 2011 at 10:54 AM, Donald Riddick

[Tim Chandler]

One last silly question:

Can one acquire advantages after character creation? I would think
some of these might be possible, but others would be harder (for
example, acquiring Large). Does this require a work of fiction if you
can do it, or can you just spend the points and get it (and it is the
normal points, or double, or something else)?

Thanks!
Tim

[Donald Riddick]

You can for non-physical/innate advantages... there are details on the character creation site for the campaign.

Disadvantages can only be removed for double cost after approval from the admins (which normally means fiction).

Buying advantages after creation isn't double, but note that you can't buy restricted advantages at any time without admin approval.

-Don

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From: Tim Chandler <timchan...@gmail.com>
To: at...@googlegroups.com

Sent: Tuesday, September 27, 2011 11:54 AM