[Iaijutsu Master]

Iaijutsu focus in other situations than a duel…

Iaijutsu focus its a skill describe in chapter four of OA.
This skill consist in you concentrate our chi (skill check before our attack), draw our katana (or other weapon, u need a quick draw feat), and attack in the same round, if you win the initiative off course. After that our make a unique strike, hitting our opponent flat-footed, and dealing a lot of extra dices of damage, in abase of one d6 for each five points in a skill-check result…A player can do that only in the fist round of the combat, before the beginning of the combat. U can make this strike every time our opponent stays flat-footed…This is a most lethal technique if I have seen...

Some players have some duvets about this skill:

- U can faint (bluff skill) and attack???
- In my point of see, yes. Before our attack, u can make a bluff check (DC is the sense motive check result of our opponent), if our have a successful bluff check , roll the Iaijustu Focus skill check, draw our weapon and attack…for each bluff check after the 1st add +2 to DC.
- In a attack of opportunity ?
- Maybe…this is a good question. In my opinion when the character has be waiting our opponent move, when the opponent move into the threat area…Iaijutsu…

This rule are difficult to use, but it is very cool!!!

[blacxthornE]

I don't know nothing about OA. Never played, and I think I never will.

So I'll go ahead and ask:

Is "Iaijutsu Focus" a skill you invented, or is it included in OA?

[Avantius]

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Iaijutsu focus its a skill describe in chapter four of OA.

Well, he said that... anyways...

Lethality is always fun

[dragonhand777]

Ok, feinting in combat is a standard action (unless you have the feat 'improved feint). Attacking is also a standard action (PHB pg 313).

You cannot perform two standard actions in one round.

So, it would take two rounds, not one to do what your doing. After the round in wich you feinted (if your bluff check beat your opponets sense motive check) your enemy is considered flat footed. Then you should be able to perform Iaijutsu Focus.

[Iaijutsu Master]

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You cannot perform two standard actions in one round

Ok...I have forgotted the Improved feint feat...you need this of course...
Sometimes, a skill roll does not count an standard action, Iaijustu focus, for example, in a formal combat (see table page 82 OA) you can roll the skill and roll the attack, (two standard actions), this skill in a different round do not makes much sense, you opponent do not stays flat-footed after that, I think so...

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Is "Iaijutsu Focus" a skill you invented, or is it included in OA?

Ok, OA is the official book named Oriental Adventures...and the Iaijutsu focus is a skill created for oriental sword techniques...

[Ssri-Tel-Quessir Hitokiri]

Not at all to positive but the way you are using Iaijutsu Focus sounds a lot like a sneak attack. Historically, the Iaijutsu battle, I believe also known as the Battoujutsu battle, was used between two samurai as an honorable way to show which saumrai was better. Using this as part of a bluff doesn't seem all that honorable but it would work only for the first attack of the battle.

Also, you forgot to mention that in order to make this attack you must first have your weapon sheathed. That is the reason that you are only able to do this during the first round of combat and why the Quick Draw feat is necessary to perform the attack. Attacks of opportunity would not work in conjunction with this feat because you would have to sheath and unsheath your sword constantly to Iaijutsu.

You could also look on page 82 of the OA handbook and it will tell you what you can do in normal combat.

[SchizofranicDM]

I agree. Iaijutsu was a formal combat for honor fought between two samurai, usually to settle an insult or to prove one's valor. yes, it involves the ability to draw your weapon quickly in battle and strike with a lethal blow, but this is because most Iaijutsu battles only took one blow. like a duel in the old west, two fighters wold stand face to face and after study and meditation, one would eventually outdraw the other leading to a victory. using Iaijutsu as a sneak attack would befoul the honor and tradition of the Iaijutsu Battle. and let me tell you now, if your samurai is using Iaijutsu as such, unsheath that wakasachi now and disembowl yourself. Or face a true Samurai warrior in Iaijutsu Combat.

[Ssri-Tel-Quessir Hitokiri]

Umm... SchizofranicDM... Its called Seppuku and does not involve disembowling. It does, however, involve cutting your gut so that all your internals come out.

[dragonhand777]

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Its called Seppuku and does not involve disembowling. It does, however, involve cutting your gut so that all your internals come out.

Disembowling is cutting you open so all your internals come out (although actually its your intestins). Hence the term 'disemboweling.'

[Ssri-Tel-Quessir Hitokiri]

My bad. I always get disembowling and castration mixed up. Not a very common mistake I know...

[Darius]

Ssri-Tel-Quessir Hitokiri, on May 16 2004, 02:05 PM, said:

My bad.  I always get disembowling and castration mixed up.  Not a very common mistake I know... 

Weeellll , if your in a hurry and miss your stomach!!

D

[SchizofranicDM]

Well now there's a question for ya, would you rather be castrated and live, or disemboweled and die?

[Iaijutsu Master]

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you are using Iaijutsu Focus sounds a lot like a sneak attack

You not understand my point...Using Iaijustu in a formal combat are not sneak, I have just say some forms to use the skill out of a duel, never dishonorable...

Attack a opponent flat-footed, don't must be a "back stab"...

[Ssri-Tel-Quessir Hitokiri]

Well then if you are not using it to be dishonorable, then the only time that you could use it is when your weapon is sheathed. The reason that the Battoujutsu adds more damage is because of the force of the blade is increased while coming out of its sheath and because you are concentrating on it, or at least that is how it was explained to me. If your weapon is not sheathed then you cannot use the Battoujutsu/Iaijutsu.

An interesting way to get around that is to wear multiple swords. If you have the Quick Draw and Improved Feint feats, you cloud wear like 6 katanas and at the end of the round drop it and draw the new one at the beginning to take advantage of Iaijutsu, as long as you feint. With the Improved Feint feat you can use up your move action to feint and with the Quick Draw feat (which is necessary to Iaijutsu) you could draw the new katana in a snap, literally. The feint could even be the dropping of the katana you are currently holding.

This would work exceptionally well with creatures that you only have a good chance of hitting on your first attack even if the Dex bonus were gone, which even could be nonexistant in the case of some fighters.

Personally, I would prefer death. Living life as a unic would really suck...

[SchizofranicDM]

For the ROLLplaying aspect, having six sheathed katanas is a great idea. However, such a tactic would violate the sacredness of the katana. Master Musashi would roll over in his grave to find samurai exploiting the art of the blade and discarding katanas left and right, even if one were to pick them up again later. Remember that a katana is made specifically for an individual warrior and is treated as a part of him and his family. They are not the mass produced like short swords where entire infantries have at least one to each man. I'm sure you understand this quite well, Hitoriki, for you seem well read in the Oriental Adventures, but for those who don't this post is a reminder of certain ROLEplaying aspects to be considered.