Well, he's tall (6,5), and the FRP Armory table gives Hits/Crits on par with broad and longsword. Plus, it states the Katana can be used 1H at a -10 BO. Seems adequate, even though the Katana might feel cumbersome. But then, why does it grants the same - or almost - damage as basic 1HE swords ? And worse, less than half a 2H sword's ? Well, because a Katana is 5 pounds, like the 1HEs, while a 2H is 6 to 12.
So, my Elves are almost all semis/multiclassed, their racial weapon is sharp and elegant, fast/light, and it can be used 1H (for a matter of casting) or 2H (for a matter of balance and swiftness) naturally. They don't feel the need to develop another weapon (their's is powerful to 20s and historical) or dual wield (Elves have NEVER been pure
fighters and less than rarely overcome their racial mentality) . As only Elves can be W/M...
Reminder, this very setting is everything but balanced, and meant to bring an epic/human feeling. When we play it balanced, Elves are severely restricted.
Spending the second cost when gaining the first through similarity sounds sounds logical and undebatable
Why the player wants to use another weapon - not a second one, another - is something out of reach.
Then I'd like to know how you'd tune the W/M so it feels less cramped. Sadly, most players I know didn't even consider it... It felt, I dunno, useless ? Meaningless ? Botched ? Noble Warrior, Paladin, even Armsmaster seem so much more legit, why ? Through years, only a very few of us gave it a go, most left it, so too few opinions.
Some of us thought it was a matter of lists, and, indeed, I tend to assign the 3 base lists + Body renewal, then, as for the Paladin, limit access to other lists at starting level+5. It feels ok for donjon crawling and campaigns, tends to narrow things so W/M doesn't feel like a very potent Fighter AND full Mage. Might just be a matter of
feeling.
About armors and Transcend, we find RM2 rule overly stupid tbh, so Chan has no limitation, Ment being "acting like a divinity but to a minute scale" (Ch&Ca) keeps its headcovering limitation, and Ess is managed as basic Chan, with organic/metallic limitation. For Ess, and in a way Chan, the true limitation is about movement/casting, not material in itself, and the fact pure user are supposed to be geek weaklings ; so we set a malus to be overcome by ST+AG, then adding the eventual remain to ESF. We also dont limit to AT11 and 12 being creatures only, so a AT12 is perfectly fine, though almost as encumbering as AT20, even lighter (what we could test IRL). As you get blur, magical shield, and so on, defense is no problem, and caster have acces to a (high level) mystic armor/defense list anyway. So, basically, TA is only required to use metallic ATs. Yummy
All in all, I've played both W/M, original, this way, multiclassed, and Paladin, we've had all kinds of W/M and Paladin-like, and frankly, even if my Pal is basically
me for 20 years, I loved W/M.
We never felt W/M was OP, we felt the original lack versatility - why have skills if you can't raise anything but combat ? Quite low on fighting, even (though far better if we locked at 150). The most fun and feeling of achievement was my multiclassed, but it really required fine tuning until it was balanced (this one led us to leave /lvl boni AND lock 150). The house-ruled above had a feeling of epicness, without being OP : You just can't cast a non force spell AND attack/defend in our games, point blank, and except LB, bolts aren't OP either. And... you must be able to reach your foe from far through your friends, or be melee and cross fingers your init won't have you cut in half while casting or recovering.
Whatever, at least we'd never get this utility feeling, where casters end being Fly/Teleport dealers or Bacta tanks
So to say... We had some old DnD players dying for W/M. The funny is, they were absolutely unable to do anything worth with it, unable to choose between melee and magic, unable to do anything worth in any... And they eventually shine when ROCOII went on. In games like Baldur II, the only way a W/M would justify was to use the Kensai kit, kinda cheating the rules. All in all, with very few tweaks (and I know my tweaks are more then few), RM W/M is fine, in all means. It's virutally impossible to convince me it's OP
As for DS, I'm quite interested in some points, we've tried many house rules, what could lead to other system questions anyway ; I may start another thread.
Yeah. I love telling stories, so long posts.