Hi there! I was looking at the Khyber Knife and scratched my head a little bit. I've decided to come up with this thread and see what you guys think. I'll keep it as concise as possible and leave the walls of text out.
So, let's start off with some stats:
Khyber Knife
weapon length: 60
weight: 0.5
speed rating: 108
weapon length: 60
thrust damage: 23 pierce
swing damage: 26 cut
slots: 0
528 gold
Hand Axe
weapon length: 48
weight: 1
speed rating: 103
weapon length: 48
thrust damage: 0 pierce
swing damage: 28 cut
slots: 0
Bonus against Shield
1,010 gold
Hammer
weapon length: 40
weight: 1.5
speed rating: 101
weapon length: 40
thrust damage: 0 pierce
swing damage: 21 blunt
slots: 0
Knockdown
589 gold
According to these weapon lengths, the Khyber should be able to block (after all, it's more like a shortsword).
Now, regarding the use of the weapon in a historical context, I found a pretty solid video about the Khyber Knife:
What I propose (with a tidbit of information on each stat):
Khyber Knife
weapon length: 60
weight: 0.5 ---> .9 (falls just short of Short Falchion and 1*)
speed rating: 108 ---> 105 (2*)
weapon length: 60
thrust damage: 23 pierce ---> 20 pierce (2*)
swing damage: 26 cut ---> 29 cut (3*)
slots: 0
528 gold ---> 1290 (Price up, between Short Falchion and Falchion)
1* We'll keep the weight down even though it's historically fairly heavy. It's 4d while the Short Falchion is only 3d.
2* Let's compare to the Wakizashi (which I consider overpriced for its stats):
Wakizashi
weapon length: 70
weight: 1
difficulty: 4
speed rating: 104
weapon length: 70
thrust damage: 21 pierce
swing damage: 29 cut
slots: 0
7,553 gold
This will make the Khyber inferior in every way except: Gold, speed rating, difficulty
3* I'm honestly stuck at the cut damage; 29 will outperform the hand axe, but hand axe has damage v shields
If anything, this weapon just needs to have blocking.Total Buffs v. Nerfs: 3 buffs (blocking, cut damage, weight) against 3 nerfs (cost, thrust damage, speed)
Let's show some love to Middle Eastern warriors :D
Artyem's thread that I dug up:
http://forum.melee.org/suggestions-corner/khyber-knife-blocking/