In regards to Iajutsu and Kenjutsu couldn't we make both usable in the same situations but in different ways?

Iajutsu is the art of the draw after all, so in a skirmish it would focus on taking out a single foe in one slice, but with the risk of lower defenses thanks to having the blade sheathed.

Kenjutsu would be more balanced for skirmishes, and reactionary in a duel, again focusing on defense whereas Iajutsu is focusing on the strike.

In regards to Iajutsu and Kenjutsu couldn't we make both usable in the same situations but in different ways?

Iajutsu is the art of the draw after all, so in a skirmish it would focus on taking out a single foe in one slice, but with the risk of lower defenses thanks to having the blade sheathed.

Kenjutsu would be more balanced for skirmishes, and reactionary in a duel, again focusing on defense whereas Iajutsu is focusing on the strike.

That sounds like a nice houserule, but for the rulebook I'd prefer the skilltree-suggestion.

So, the comment about using Kenjutsu for the strike has gotten me thinking. And these are the results.

What if, instead of a single Skill covering all aspects of Iaijutsu, we split the roll into three Skills? Specifically, create a new Emphasis for both Investigation (Assessment) and Meditation (Focus).

A duelist would now roll Investigation (Assessment) / Awareness (or Perception), then Meditation (Focus) / Void, then Kenjutsu (Katana) / Reflexes. Substitute your weapon Skill of choice for the Strike roll if you are using a different weapon than a Katana, dealing with the Breach of Etiquette and all.

What are the opinions of that?

Edit: This solves both the "Parangu Lee" and the "Useless in a real fight" problems. Just have the Techniques and Kata which run off of Iaijutsu run off of Meditation (Focus) or Kenjutsu (Katana) instead.

Not entirely convinced about the particular choice of Skills, but I really like the general idea.

I'm really kind of OK with a duelist being useless in a real fight, if they don't have any skill but Iaijutsu. Iaijutsu is already one of the most mechanically significant skills (and that's discounting things like PBP, where it's sometimes the only skill that matters), given the stakes when you get in a duel. I don't have a problem with a duelist having to drop more xp into kenjutsu if they want to be good at a skirmishes in addition to being good at duels. Out of all the little things in the system that one might tweak, this seems like it's #72 on the list (if it needed to be on the list at all, which I don't think it does). Even if you're just looking at dueling, there are actual mechanical issues to be addressed, like whether the schools that have big bonuses for dueling are just too much, or (close to my heart) why the Mirumoto bushi isn't better at dueling, when it should be at worst 1B to the Crane's 1A in that category. Or how Luck is broken.

My stance with it is I do not take iaijutsu with my Unicorn Clan characters because it is anti-thematic. We are just not that much into the whole dueling scene. Many Unicorn Personalities are good at kenjutsu, possibly even master level swordsmen. Being able to draw a sword quckly from a saya I do not feel makes someone a master swordsman. Therefore I am with the camp of keeping iaijutsu and kenjutsu as seperate skills. Investing in both if you want to be a traditional samurai swordsman. I would also like to see more gaijin styles available for my unicorn bushi.

Now to be The Master Swordsman would you also need to know the dervish styles of the Burning Sands, the Yodatai Legionare's style of sword and shield, the Thrane and Merenae styles of fencing, the many variations of Niten style of the Dragon Clan, the perfection of Kakita's One Sword-One Cut and so forth?

Not entirely convinced about the particular choice of Skills, but I really like the general idea.

What would you choose instead?

My stance with it is I do not take iaijutsu with my Unicorn Clan characters because it is anti-thematic. We are just not that much into the whole dueling scene. Many Unicorn Personalities are good at kenjutsu, possibly even master level swordsmen. Being able to draw a sword quckly from a saya I do not feel makes someone a master swordsman. Therefore I am with the camp of keeping iaijutsu and kenjutsu as seperate skills. Investing in both if you want to be a traditional samurai swordsman. I would also like to see more gaijin styles available for my unicorn bushi.

This ties into my argument for why Iaijutsu should not be its own separate Skill. It is a style of swordfighting. If a Moto scimitar dervish, a Mirumoto niten master, and Lee the Parangu Bandit Lord all use the same Skill, why should the Kakita duelist be different?

Well as I posted earlier dervish dancing for that specialty would be a seperate skill just like iaijutsu, same with fencing, sword and shield, and any other specialized form would require its own seperate skill. What I might do as a gamemaster us allow you to default anyone of th specialized styles at half your kenjutsu skill level, or at your kenjutsu skill level with the expenditure of a void point.

I'm really kind of OK with a duelist being useless in a real fight, if they don't have any skill but Iaijutsu. Iaijutsu is already one of the most mechanically significant skills (and that's discounting things like PBP, where it's sometimes the only skill that matters), given the stakes when you get in a duel. I don't have a problem with a duelist having to drop more xp into kenjutsu if they want to be good at a skirmishes in addition to being good at duels. Out of all the little things in the system that one might tweak, this seems like it's #72 on the list (if it needed to be on the list at all, which I don't think it does). Even if you're just looking at dueling, there are actual mechanical issues to be addressed, like whether the schools that have big bonuses for dueling are just too much, or (close to my heart) why the Mirumoto bushi isn't better at dueling, when it should be at worst 1B to the Crane's 1A in that category. Or how Luck is broken.

My concern is less with whether the dueling master is a bit lost in a "real fight", and more with master swordsperson being rather helpless if a swordfight happens to be a formal duel.

So, the comment about using Kenjutsu for the strike has gotten me thinking. And these are the results.

What if, instead of a single Skill covering all aspects of Iaijutsu, we split the roll into three Skills? Specifically, create a new Emphasis for both Investigation (Assessment) and Meditation (Focus).

A duelist would now roll Investigation (Assessment) / Awareness (or Perception), then Meditation (Focus) / Void, then Kenjutsu (Katana) / Reflexes. Substitute your weapon Skill of choice for the Strike roll if you are using a different weapon than a Katana, dealing with the Breach of Etiquette and all.

What are the opinions of that?

Edit: This solves both the "Parangu Lee" and the "Useless in a real fight" problems. Just have the Techniques and Kata which run off of Iaijutsu run off of Meditation (Focus) or Kenjutsu (Katana) instead.

I don't get it, you said that it's a huge trade off to spend XP on one skill to be able to duel properly and now you're suggesting to split it into 3? Which bring it even more costy? I would like to understand your goal now? Changing something for the sake of changing something?

If there's no plus value in this kind of change, better not change it. That's my opinion.

So, the comment about using Kenjutsu for the strike has gotten me thinking. And these are the results.

What if, instead of a single Skill covering all aspects of Iaijutsu, we split the roll into three Skills? Specifically, create a new Emphasis for both Investigation (Assessment) and Meditation (Focus).

A duelist would now roll Investigation (Assessment) / Awareness (or Perception), then Meditation (Focus) / Void, then Kenjutsu (Katana) / Reflexes. Substitute your weapon Skill of choice for the Strike roll if you are using a different weapon than a Katana, dealing with the Breach of Etiquette and all.

What are the opinions of that?

Edit: This solves both the "Parangu Lee" and the "Useless in a real fight" problems. Just have the Techniques and Kata which run off of Iaijutsu run off of Meditation (Focus) or Kenjutsu (Katana) instead.

I don't get it, you said that it's a huge trade off to spend XP on one skill to be able to duel properly and now you're suggesting to split it into 3? Which bring it even more costy? I would like to understand your goal now? Changing something for the sake of changing something?

If there's no plus value in this kind of change, better not change it. That's my opinion.

I would guess that the idea is to have all of the skills involved be useful for something besides duelling? Bringing Investigation into it is an interesting thought, and makes some sense given the crossover between duelist and magistrate... but this really doesn't do anything to remedy the problem of a master swordsman being helpless in a duel, because the Strike roll is really the least important part of a duel (I mean, you have to be good enough to hit your opponent, but it's usually a formality after the all-important Focus round). It just makes duelling success dependent on being great at meditating, rather than being good at the specific iaijutsu skill the way it currently does.

Really, I think if you want to do something about duelling, it's best to start with the fact that it fundamentally all comes down to a single contested roll. That's where all the weird mechanical incentives come in.

I also don't have a problem with a skirmisher not being good at a duel. Conceptually, there's clearly a distinction to be drawn between the two, so it's not like we're talking about the exact same thing here. The sort of meditation/quickdraw aspect of iai is not the same as the maneuvering, feinting, and so forth of a skirmish. And kenjutsu is already that skirmisher's single most important skill. I don't have a problem with him needing to drop a few xp in iaijutsu to not be hopeless in a duel. I mean, the cost of going from Iai 0 to Iai 3 is only 1xp more than going from kenjutsu 4 to kenjutsu 5, right? So just prioritize differently. Certainly one would expect a samurai at a bushi dojo to specifically train on how to duel. Maybe you aren't really a 'master swordsman' if you've never bothered to study Iai.

(and, again, unlike other random kinds of swords, iai is significant enough to the setting to justify breaking it out)

Would it help to call it Iaido instead of Iaijutsu? That would emphasize how divorced Iai duels are from a skirmish.

There's a limit to how much mechanical oddness I'm willing to tolerate in the name of "it's not significant to the setting".

You're also overstating the insignificance of other weapons. The setting is full of people using swords other than katanas and similar weapons. Armed peasants and merchants, Yobanjin, Naga, Nezumi, some Unicorn, all the various far-off foreign cultures the Rokugani have come in contact with, etc... they're not using "samurai style" swords for the most part, are they?

I would guess that the idea is to have all of the skills involved be useful for something besides duelling? Bringing Investigation into it is an interesting thought, and makes some sense given the crossover between duelist and magistrate... but this really doesn't do anything to remedy the problem of a master swordsman being helpless in a duel[...]

Oh I clearly understood that, I just want to understand why he said that buying 2 skills instead of 1 is bad when you want to be good at dueling and in skirmishes. He said:

In response to the 28 XP Argument, which should really be 30 XP for the Skill at 7, Plus Emphasis, i would say yes. I do consider it unreasonable that for the cost of an Attribute at 3 and Void 3, all you get is +7k0 to a roll someone in your party WILL need to make in most games.

and how he's suggesting to have a high Meditation skill with a few Investigation Skills, instead of just Iaijutsu Skill. Which brought the same problem, if not worst, of something he considers unreasonable. Also, as you've said, this doesn't solve the problem of a swordmaster being helpless in a duel. That is what I don't understand.

I'm not against improvements for the duelist, far from that, I really enjoy duelist, but if there's a change, it needs to be well done, not just patched in as this suggestion of splitting the Iaijutsu skills in 3. Which, in some case, using the "Substitute your weapon Skill of choice for the Strike roll if you are using a different weapon than a Katana" creates a even worst situation for a Shiba Bushi, for example.

I'll point out why the Shiba Bushi will have a bad time with a change like this:

- He'll need a good Spear skills level since they tend to favor Spears.

- They'll need Meditation, Investigation and Kenjutsu Skills for duelling, instead of Iaijutsu Skills. (Don't tell me they should use Spears as their "Iaijutsu skill" please...)

- They still need some defensive skills for their job as Yojimbo.

I'm not saying that Meditation, Investigation and Kenjutsu are bad skills, but it's a heavier trade off than it is now to be able to have this iconic feature of the setting. So by taking the "unreasonable cost" to be able to be skilled (as having the skills points) for a duel, this suggestion just don't fit...

@Crawd -

At this point, I'm basically throwing ideas at the wall and seeing what sticks. I am not a designer on whatever the next form of L5R RPG will be, and the only expertise I have comes from being a GM of L5R RPG for over a decade. From that experience? No two gaming tables will ever be exactly alike. House rules exist to adjust the RPG base rules into a format that maximizes the fun of the people at the table. For my current L5R game? That has meant making Iaijutsu an Emphasis of Kenjutsu, a rule hack that was greatly appreciated by the Kakita Bushi in my game (as well as the Isawa Fire Shugenja who has a fascination with dueling). As such, I have seen it increase the fun at the gaming table, and I figured putting it up here might be good.

At this point, I've seen the reaction to the Iaijutsu roll up into Kenjutsu. So, to encourage further discussion, I put out another way to change the rules surrounding Iaijutsu dueling to see if those could ALSO be fun.

The chief argument against the Iaijutsu Skill is the cognitive dissonance that comes from the idea of the "Master Duelist" who is basically useless once his sword out of his sheath, and the "Master Swordsman" who is incapable of handling a formal challenge. And so, in the interests of encouraging discussion, I am coming at it from various angles to see if something better than the current system can be created.

@Daramere -

And that is why I put forward the question of "Should Focus be an Emphasis of Meditation?" earlier. Again, the main problem I, personally, have with Iaijutsu (or Iaido) is that the Skill is effectively dead weight on your character sheet outside a very specific, albeit iconic, aspect of the game. It makes a character who wants to be a Master Duelist spend XP in a way which may make them less effective, point for point, than another bushi. One solution to this is to come up with other uses for the Iaijutsu skill. Another solution is associating the rolls that use that Skill to other, more robust Skills.

@General Tacitus -

L5R RPG 1st Edition (or 2nd Edition? I don't have my copies of the old rules on me at the moment, so I may be getting this wrong) had a system of dueling where characters had a Focus Pool, or a number of times they could "Focus". Whomever lost the Assessment would have to call "Focus" or "Strike" first. If they called "Focus", they would have to make a Void/Iaijutsu roll TN 5 + the TN of the last time someone called "Focus" in the duel. If they failed, or called "Strike", the other person would get to draw their sword and swing, with a Free Raise on the attack for the total number of times that "Focus" had been successfully called in a duel. This would lead to a series of back and forth rolls against an ever-increasing TN, which did wonders for a heightening sense of tension.

This deals with the idea that Dueling is essentially a single, all-important roll but making a series of escalating rolls. Additionally, it gave the non-duelist an "Opt Out" option where they would just call "Strike" on the first round, take the hit, then win the skirmish.

Addendum: Your Focus Pool was equal to your Void Ring, with an Advantage (Balance), a Technique (Kakita Duelist), and a Mastery Level (Iaijutsu 5, I think?) giving you each an additional Focus. You can also spend 1 Void Point to Focus when you were out of Focus Pool.

Opinions? Is the Focus Pool mechanic a better version of dueling than the one in 4th Edition?

There's a limit to how much mechanical oddness I'm willing to tolerate in the name of "it's not significant to the setting".

You're also overstating the insignificance of other weapons. The setting is full of people using swords other than katanas and similar weapons. Armed peasants and merchants, Yobanjin, Naga, Nezumi, some Unicorn, all the various far-off foreign cultures the Rokugani have come in contact with, etc... they're not using "samurai style" swords for the most part, are they?

I don't agree that it's a "mechanical oddness." RPGs are not reality simulators. L5R (like most RPGs) divides the things people can do up into a number of skills. Those skill divisions are never going to map precisely to how life works. Fighting with a katana and some other sort of sword are not the same thing. There is some overlap. (if you've trained to swordfight, and I have never trained to fight with any sort of weapon, you are going to have a leg up if we're both handed a sword to fight with, even if it isn't the sort of sword you're used to). I don't want, and I'm pretty sure most L5R players don't want, a system where every single weapon gets its own skill. So they're going to be grouped. You could even make a case to just group all weapons (or all melee weapons) into one skill, and then just have everything else be emphases, techniques, and such (this is, after all, basically what the granddaddy of them all does - you have an attack bonus, and as long as you're proficient with a weapon (and warrior types are generally proficient with almost all of them) then you use that attack bonus).

Also, your examples generally emphasize the relative unimportance of non "samurai sword" weapons. L5R is a game where the PCs are samurai. The vast majority of the time they're Great Clan samurai. They are not merchants. They are not peasants. They are not Yobanjin. They are not naga. They are not ratlings. They are not gaijin. Those groups are not important. Those groups are not significant. How character creation works should not be based on what matters or doesn't matter to them. You are basically left with some Unicorn. You don't break out a separate skill just for the portion of Unicorn who favor the scimitar, unless you're just making every weapon and/or fighting style its own skill, and I don't see how that would be good for the game.

There's a limit to how much mechanical oddness I'm willing to tolerate in the name of "it's not significant to the setting".

You're also overstating the insignificance of other weapons. The setting is full of people using swords other than katanas and similar weapons. Armed peasants and merchants, Yobanjin, Naga, Nezumi, some Unicorn, all the various far-off foreign cultures the Rokugani have come in contact with, etc... they're not using "samurai style" swords for the most part, are they?

I don't agree that it's a "mechanical oddness." RPGs are not reality simulators. L5R (like most RPGs) divides the things people can do up into a number of skills. Those skill divisions are never going to map precisely to how life works. Fighting with a katana and some other sort of sword are not the same thing. There is some overlap. (if you've trained to swordfight, and I have never trained to fight with any sort of weapon, you are going to have a leg up if we're both handed a sword to fight with, even if it isn't the sort of sword you're used to). I don't want, and I'm pretty sure most L5R players don't want, a system where every single weapon gets its own skill. So they're going to be grouped. You could even make a case to just group all weapons (or all melee weapons) into one skill, and then just have everything else be emphases, techniques, and such (this is, after all, basically what the granddaddy of them all does - you have an attack bonus, and as long as you're proficient with a weapon (and warrior types are generally proficient with almost all of them) then you use that attack bonus).

Also, your examples generally emphasize the relative unimportance of non "samurai sword" weapons. L5R is a game where the PCs are samurai. The vast majority of the time they're Great Clan samurai. They are not merchants. They are not peasants. They are not Yobanjin. They are not naga. They are not ratlings. They are not gaijin. Those groups are not important. Those groups are not significant. How character creation works should not be based on what matters or doesn't matter to them. You are basically left with some Unicorn. You don't break out a separate skill just for the portion of Unicorn who favor the scimitar, unless you're just making every weapon and/or fighting style its own skill, and I don't see how that would be good for the game.

First, a game cannot be built strictly around what the PCs do or what the PCs are -- we ran into that during the Shugenja discussion when someone claimed that the entire class should be built around the "special case" player characters who'd never act as "normal priestly Shugenja". The world is bigger than a handful of people, and they matter in the setting at least as much as the PCs do. They need to be constructed under the same rules and work in the same system as the PCs.

Second, there are rules in the current edition of the game for playing (or using as NPCs) many of those things you say the PCs won't be. Naga, Nezumi, etc. And there are rules in older editions for playing even more of those things, that could easily be adapted to the current edition. And there are minor clans with a lot of appeal to some players. Assuming that the players will be playing "Great Clan samurai" is a dubious assumption at best.

Third, an RPG is in fact a reality "simulator" -- it's just that the reality might not be OUR real-world reality. The rules exist as a map of the terrain that is the "reality" of the game.

@Crawd -

At this point, I'm basically throwing ideas at the wall and seeing what sticks. I am not a designer on whatever the next form of L5R RPG will be, and the only expertise I have comes from being a GM of L5R RPG for over a decade. From that experience? No two gaming tables will ever be exactly alike. House rules exist to adjust the RPG base rules into a format that maximizes the fun of the people at the table. For my current L5R game? That has meant making Iaijutsu an Emphasis of Kenjutsu, a rule hack that was greatly appreciated by the Kakita Bushi in my game (as well as the Isawa Fire Shugenja who has a fascination with dueling). As such, I have seen it increase the fun at the gaming table, and I figured putting it up here might be good.

At this point, I've seen the reaction to the Iaijutsu roll up into Kenjutsu. So, to encourage further discussion, I put out another way to change the rules surrounding Iaijutsu dueling to see if those could ALSO be fun.

The chief argument against the Iaijutsu Skill is the cognitive dissonance that comes from the idea of the "Master Duelist" who is basically useless once his sword out of his sheath, and the "Master Swordsman" who is incapable of handling a formal challenge. And so, in the interests of encouraging discussion, I am coming at it from various angles to see if something better than the current system can be created.

I'm very well aware that each gaming table is very different and there's a need to adapt the gameplay based on a specific gaming table. That's why I was trying to understand your idea. I was looking at the pro and cons, but I've had a hard time to understand how does it fit with your argument, which was the fact that it's unreasonable to spend XP for a skill where there's another skill that use the same tool.

I'll be honest, the idea of using other skills isn't bad for some dueling part, it's the Kenjutsu for Iaijutsu that still bothers me. I think it might be even better to give another function to Iaijutsu Skill, the problem is what? Here's some random ideas:

- Some kind of "non-dueling stats" investigation, kinda like the Assessment Roll but for non-duel information?

- Some kind of "combat meditation" that will provides some combat manouevers free raise? (Like disarming)

- Create a Void 3/4 Kata that will allows the user to substitute Iaijutsu on one Roll per turn instead of Kenjutsu? (These are done for Trait, why not for skills?)

- Some kind of first strike attack in a skirmish with some bonus for that first attack? (Should be only on the first attack of the whole combat and it could be like add Iaijutsu skill to both Attack and Damage Roll)

One of the present advantages to Iaijutsu is that it allows you to ready a Katana as a Free Action at Iaijutsu 3. This means a standard starting character (no Skills higher than 4) will be able to ready their primary means of attack as a Free Action, rather than a Simple Action. The mechanical advantage of that can be huge, as it allows you to effectively get a free attack in the opening of a Skirmish where people aren't starting with their weapons readied.

However, by the time your opponents can get Kenjutsu 5, it ceases to be an advantage.

Adding something to the Iaijutsu Skill would be good, and I think it would be best to incorporate it into Kata. Right now, the Kakita Bushi (Rank 1) is the only Technique that uses Iaijutsu outside of duels. For uses of it outside of combat, I like the idea of Iaijutsu allowing you to take an assessment of someone's skill. Regarding the Kata, I would make it more Air 3/4, and have it add your Ranks of Iaijutsu to your TN to be Hit while in Center.

Actually, that's a good point. I would like to see Iaijutsu as a Skill interact more with the Center Stance. The Defense Skill interacts with Defense and Full Defense. Why shouldn't Iaijutsu interact with the Center Stance?

Second, there are rules in the current edition of the game for playing (or using as NPCs) many of those things you say the PCs won't be. Naga, Nezumi, etc. And there are rules in older editions for playing even more of those things, that could easily be adapted to the current edition. And there are minor clans with a lot of appeal to some players.

Actually, there are rules to play as Nezumi, Naga or Ogre in the current edition too. They are in the Enemies of the Empire book.

Second, there are rules in the current edition of the game for playing (or using as NPCs) many of those things you say the PCs won't be. Naga, Nezumi, etc. And there are rules in older editions for playing even more of those things, that could easily be adapted to the current edition. And there are minor clans with a lot of appeal to some players.

Actually, there are rules to play as Nezumi, Naga or Ogre in the current edition too. They are in the Enemies of the Empire book.

That's what I meant, regarding the Naga, Nezumi, and some others -- my wording probably wasn't clear.

One of the present advantages to Iaijutsu is that it allows you to ready a Katana as a Free Action at Iaijutsu 3. This means a standard starting character (no Skills higher than 4) will be able to ready their primary means of attack as a Free Action, rather than a Simple Action. The mechanical advantage of that can be huge, as it allows you to effectively get a free attack in the opening of a Skirmish where people aren't starting with their weapons readied.

However, by the time your opponents can get Kenjutsu 5, it ceases to be an advantage.

This is why I house-ruled a different Kenjutsu 5 mastery ability. In my campaign, the only way to be able to draw as a free action is with Iaijutsu, because in real life, that's what the skill is . And it makes the skill one that every serious katana-user ought to pick up three ranks of (no free-drawing any other sword; sorry, Moto, you can suck it :-P ). You use the Iaijutsu skill when you are trying to strike instantaneously from a sheathed position: this is primarily dueling (I ignore the Mirumoto already-drawn idea and just say they draw both blades in the strike phase), but can also be a surprise attack or defending yourself against same. So Iaijutsu is the skill of that single movement, and preparing for it in a duel. Kenjutsu, on the other hand, is the skill of body positioning and feinting and all the other things that go along with normal fighting.

Seen from that angle, you very easily could be a great iaidoka and a terrible swordsman, if you never practice the other skills that involve having a sword in your hand. And you could be a great swordsman but a terrible iaidoka, if you spent insufficient time drilling that quick draw from the sheath. But any bushi with half a brain in his head will practice both, unless he expects to spend his entire life with a tetsubo in his hand, far away from court.

(Yes, my approach does make hash of the system in one regard, which I just sweep under the rug: how does the Strike phase of a duel play out if the person who won Focus did so on the basis of a fabulous Void but has only one rank of iaijutsu, and therefore can't free-action draw? When their opponent lost Focus but *does* have that mastery ability? I decided I'm okay with ignoring this because the situation has not and will not arise in my campaign.)

Up until now I like Kinzens idea most. Giving more importance to Iaijutsu is also a good idea to handel the "useless-skill-problem".

Also I have to say that being a Bushi is not only about being good at fighting. A Bushi is still a Samurai, he should be able to fight with words too. So the player should invest at least 1 point in Ettiquette and Courtier. A Bushi should also hone his creative side, so the player should invest at least 1 point in at least one Artisan, Perform, Craft or the Acting Skills.
Those seem to be useless, but it depends on the campaign.

I advised one of my groups to take at least one of the Perform or Artisan Skills per PC, for a long time it seemed they wouldn't need it.

But at the end of one chapter in this campaign the should announce the name of a Fortune and how the Fortune got it's name and an edict of the Empress. They worked together and decorated the podium with Origami, told the story of the Fortune and announced the name through a poem, while the Shugenja cast some magic so that the Origami will fly over the audience and some musicians were hired to support the "show".
So they all "wasted" 1 XP for a great idea and earned Honor and Glory for the use of this "wasted" 1 XP.

I don't see any problem with "wasting" 1 XP for Iaijutsu.

Giving it more use? I'm totally ok with that.

I always handle the various weapon skills as "Lore/Medicine/Investigation"-Skills, when it comes to recognise the origin of a wound, so Iaijutsu could be used to recognise that some person were killed with the XYZ-Iaijutsu-Technique. Maybe this could lead to a special Sensei who would know the culprit.

Making the "ready your weapon is a free action"-thing Iaijutsu-exclusive? Why not, it makes sense. The Moto could get this for their Scimitar through a school-technique at some Rank for compensation.

Merging Iaijutsu with Kenjutsu in some way? Sorry...but that doesn't sound like an good idea to me. It would ruin the feeling of forma duels are something special. I'd rather see weapon-emphases for Iaijutsu than "canceling" the skill.

Also, as far as I remember most of the Minor-Clan-Samurai also start with a Daisho and Kenjutsu, so the mosst Minor-Clan-Samurai start with a Katana. I don't see how they fit in the row with the "non-Katana-Bushi". Additionally I don't really understand how the Naga, Nezumi or Ogres fit in the picture, since they don't even use the exact same creation rules and can't use some of the Skills from the Corebook-List...

I question why Iaijutsu needs to be a seperate aspect of kenjutsu at all.

While not every Bushi in the setting is a grand duelist, the problem of iaijutsu creates as a seperate skill are very real. It doesn't just create thematic weirdness, but it puts enormous strain on Bushi in social games, not just in terms of skills, but in rings as well.

Iaijutsu as a seperate skill creates the problem where Bushi are forced to be antisocial rejects because they did not focus on iaijutsu. It is such a high stakes scenario and it is one of the primary benefits of being a bushi in a social situation, but very few bushi schools are good at it, and because a bushi is a warrior, most bushi PC I have played with who were not a Kakita has expressed extreme anxiety at the idea of entering a court setting due to the in universe expectation that they will be good at something the mechanics force them to be terrible at.

While a Bushi can indeed learn social skills to contribute, and invest ranks in Iaijutsu, there is no real way to get around the fact that Iaijutsu requires you to specialize in the air and void rings to really have a better than even chance at winning, which means ironically a courtier is much more likely to be an expert duelist than their yojimbo and have the school's technique advantages socially to boot. Even Shugenja have an advantage on the bushi, especially air shugenja, who already have many advantages in court. And as a bonus the courtier or shugenja can choose to not carry a katana to dodge traditional duels, something no bushi can do. While obviously a bushi shouldn't replace a courtier, there is a clear effort to make every samurai school type useful in any sort of campaign set up, from war to court, and iaijutsu wrecks that balance pretty thoroughly.

Iaijutsu as a lone skill has seemed like a perpetual design loser that makes bushi feel like the worst warriors in court, deemphasizing their school's supposed advantages and creating a massive lore-gameplay disconnect. A better way to play up the differences between a general swordsman and a master duelist would be to rework the mastery system as a sort of 'chose your own perk' system, which would have the added benefit of increasing character diversity overall and adding a lot of value to skills that they didn't have in 4e.

Also, as far as I remember most of the Minor-Clan-Samurai also start with a Daisho and Kenjutsu, so the mosst Minor-Clan-Samurai start with a Katana. I don't see how they fit in the row with the "non-Katana-Bushi". Additionally I don't really understand how the Naga, Nezumi or Ogres fit in the picture, since they don't even use the exact same creation rules and can't use some of the Skills from the Corebook-List...

They're just all mentioned in the list of things that can be played other than "major clan samurai", in refutation of the idea that the game is only about "major clan samurai" and everything else is irrelevant.