Hi everyone!

During our most recent game this situation came up. So, I was wondering if we could get this cleared up.

It has to do with concealed weapons and actions requiring a readied weapon. The two wordings seem to contradict one another, as many actions require the weapon to already be readied.

During the game it was ruled that the user can draw and use the weapon in the same action, was this wrong?

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Quote

Concealable (CB p.240)
[...]
Concealable weapons can also be drawn more quickly in combat. As part of an Attack action, you may ready or sheathe one Concealable weapon.

Strike (CB p. 264)
Description: You make an attack against a single foe.
Activation: As an Attack action using one readied weapon, you may make a TN 2 Martial Arts check using the appropriate skill for the weapon, targeting one character within the weapon’s range.

As far as I know that's the correct way to play it.

That is the special ability of a concealable weapon; you can ready a concealable weapon as part of the action. It doesn't explicitly say you can use that weapon in particular for the attack action, but as far as I know that's generally how it's read. Being able to draw-and-strike with a weapon in one go is hardly unheard of; that is, after all, the point of Iaijutsu Cut Kata.

Note that you don't have to have everything 'in place' to initiate an action; you can, to a degree, generate the requirements during the action.

For example, you are allowed to declare an attack action at a target that is technically out of range, and then use to modify the weapon's range (for example with the Hawk's Precision kata).

Yes, it reads that with concealable weapons you can draw + attack as a single action if unreadied, or attack and stow if already readied. With water stance you can draw + attack + stow concealable weapons, much to the chagrin of body guards everywhere.

"Dagger? What Dagger? Isawa-sama is just....feeling faint. Maybe he's pining for the Fjords."

Related: Could I cast Biting Steel on a sheathed knife, use opportunities for the immediate strike, and draw & attack?

The invocation says "if you have the weapon readied".

1 hour ago, Harzerkatze said:

Related: Could I cast Biting Steel on a sheathed knife, use opportunities for the immediate strike, and draw & attack?

The invocation says "if you have the weapon readied".

I would argue no. The text of the Invocations states that: "By drawing a pattern along the naked blade, a shugenja can wake the spirits of fire still sleeping within it."

...which you can't do with a sheathed weapon.

You probably could use a Ward though.

Correct. Whilst you can draw it for free duri g the strike - even a free strike - it's not readied whilst performing the invocation and hence not a valid target in the first place.

"Sheathed" is not necessarily the opposite of "Readied".

A weapon laying on a table is not "Readied", nor "Sheathed".

In the case of Biting Steel, you couldn't use the opportunity to get a Strike action because the weapon needs to be readied to use the opportunity in the first place. And Biting steel is not an "attack action", thus, you cannot use the Concealable quality (it needs to be part of an attack action).