Those gauntlets inspired a character of mine, and bhu's not a hard-ass about out-of-the-book items staying that way; my DM allowed for more charges, and later perm enhancements (never to anything past +6 daggers with charges) on that, and it inspired a wicked character who was build around the good ol' daggers. Really want to dig him up now...
I've decided to focus on getting done with Ronin, with maybe a 1 or 2 level dip into yojimbo at some point if I really need it. Nintai is what sold me, though really the Yojimbo capstone is perfect for a ronin-enhanced samurai. I'll be fighting with myself for that one; you've made some appeallingly difficult to decide between classes, bhu! Gonna write a report on the class as I like it and thoughts on long consideration at some point.
As for this charrie though, I'm probably gonna go ronin, and pick up leadership for a ninja onna-bugeisha/kagemusha, and the start of his rise as a leader of men after his descent to darkness. Yep, I've thought a lot about this charrie's potential development, and because of that, I've got more to ask you about, bhu, specifically regarding the awkwardness of leadership and this classes role in a non-period campaign.
Also, I'm gonna be focusing the hell out of charisma, so what items do you guys know of benefit from a high charisma, such as cha to damage (were there not heartfire gauntlets making cha-to-dmg as fire dmg somewhere?) or AC (a bastardised monk's belt)? I'm probably gonna try for the stunning property on my weapon if I can get my charisma above a +2....