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According to 'help weapon finesse', this feat only works with a rapier the same size as the PC, or any smaller weapon. However, when I wield a medium-size short sword, I still get the higher hit bonus.

This short sword is covered with a deep black substance that
protects it from damage.
It is a short sword in the thrusting blades category of weapons.
It can be picked up, held, held in both hands.
It cannot be worn with any other armour.
It is medium in size and would fit any body type.

It makes sense to me that this would work, but the help file should be updated if it's intentional.

Tamryn wrote:According to 'help weapon finesse', this feat only works with a rapier the same size as the PC, or any smaller weapon. However, when I wield a medium-size short sword, I still get the higher hit bonus.

Unless the PC is a gnome (size: small) this makes sense? Or am I missing something?

The second line in your score tells you your size next to your race.

Ex:
Race: human Size: medium Gender: female
Race: halfelf Size: medium Gender: female


Is the actual problem that the weapon is not light, per chance?

Plus I think all the thrusting weapons are considered light weapons in fk aren't they?

Mele wrote:Unless the PC is a gnome (size: small) this makes sense? Or am I missing something?

Well, a medium sized short sword is neither a rapier nor smaller than a medium-sized PC, which is why I assumed it wouldn't work. If that's how it's meant to work then that's fine (I don't mean to waste your time with an in-depth discussion of medieval/fantasy sword fighting techniques), but it would be nice if the help file could be updated. The first thing I did after reading it was, understandably, to go out and buy a rapier.

This feat allows you to use your dexterity rather than your strength in order
to hit your opponents. This feat only works with light weapons.

* For purposes of this feat, a light weapon is a rapier of your PC's size or
smaller, or any weapon at least one size smaller than your PC.

I think the confusion here is the wording at the bottom, "a light weapon is a rapier of your PC's size or smaller". For those who aren't familiar with d&d, it's not clear that there are other medium-sized weapons considered to be light weapons.

This feat needs to be reworded. Short swords are light weapons and weapon finesse applies to them. The rulebook states:

With a light weapon, rapier, whip, or spiked chain made for a creature of your size category, you may use your Dexterity modifier instead of your Strength modifier on attack rolls.

I tested this against the d20 definition and confirmed that it applies to short swords, rapiers, and whips. It does not appear to apply to chains. I modified the help file to reflect this.

I was wondering if the single edged weapons currently count under the weapon finesse feat. I know in d20 cutlasses/katanas both count under it. I think sabres as well.

http://www.dandwiki.com/wiki/Katana

http://www.dandwiki.com/wiki/Cutlass_(3.5e_Equipment)

I'm not sure where dandwiki.com is getting that, but here's the pathfinder entries on those weapons.
http://www.d20pfsrd.com/equipment---fin ... ons/katana
http://www.d20pfsrd.com/equipment---fin ... ns/cutlass

Neither of them are light weapons - I don't see how a katana -could- be a light weapon, as it's similar to a bastard sword, in that it can be used both one handed and two handed.

We go by this weapons list:
http://www.d20srd.org/srd/equipment/wea ... bleWeapons

It doesn't explicitly list katana or cutlass. Our internal table has katana as a single-edged (one hand) or great blade (two hands), so I see no possibility of it being a light weapon (breaks the wield in one hand definition). Cutlasses are very similar to scimitars, it seems to me, and scimitars do appear in the d20 table but not as light weapons.

So it is true in both current coded fact and I think principle that neither of these weapons falls under the light weapon rubric.

Oriental Adventures says a katana functions as a bastard sword, except 'proper' katanas are always masterwork. That matches the in-game representation pretty well.

Note the category listing at the bottom of that dandwiki page: "User" means "homebrew"

I concur that it should not be considered a light weapon. That role falls to the smaller wakizashi.

I see that the 2001 Oriental Adventures book does say that the "katana is a masterwork bastard sword that grants a +1 bonus on your attack rolls". I have two problems with that. First, as the original 1985 Oriental Adventures points out, the katana is a "singled-edged slightly curved" sword; as opposed to a straight, double-edged sword with a more significant thrusting edge. Secondly, the idea that they should all be masterwork seems to be born more of fantasy than reality as John Clements points out.

Through popular media and modern schools of swordplay the katana has acquired a somewhat esoteric reputation for its "secret art" of swordsmanship. By contrast, the little-known ingenuity of the Medieval longsword and its systematic craft of fencing have remained obscure even among modern fencing instructors and historians.
John Clements Longsword and Katana Considered

That's neither here nor there, as you point out, because the majority if katanas in the game are magical and masterwork, but I do not feel that we should make any changes to upgrade those three or four which are not.