Upgrade your account to a Community Supporter account and remove most of the site ads.

Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="Shayuri" data-source="post: 1689306" data-attributes="member: 4936">1) Judging by the SRD, only weapon abilities that specifically note needing to be activated can be de-activated. So I'd have to judge that Brilliant Energy is a permanant change to the weapon's nature. I wonder what happens when it's suppressed by a Dispel...hmm...2) It's something to view with a measure of caution, I think...I will explain below.3) By a strict interpretation of the rules, force effects have no special defensive properties against brilliant energy. Brilliant energy is not incorporeal, nor ethereal (but see below).4) If you used Brilliant Energy as written (with apologies to Hypersmurf, but technically no ability to pass through walls is granted, though the flavor text implies it), I can't see an issue with making it apply to ranged weapons. However, if the Hypersmurfian variant is used, then there could well be. <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" />--I myself am not a big fan of Brilliant Energy as written. It's confusing, and oscillates between being nigh-all powerful to being completely useless...without much room in between.Forgive me if I sneak a house-rule suggestion into this Rules Forum answer. <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" />I would suggest making Brilliant Energy strike as an incorporeal touch. Force effects would apply, but armor, shield, and natural armor would not, unless augmented with the Ghost Touch extra. This isn't nearly as bad as saying armor is useless against it, since there is an available enhancement to counter it (and it's cheaper too). It also helps make Ghost Touch more attractive for a +3 armor mod, since incorporeals are fairly uncommon, especially at high levels. Plus, it uses an existing set of rules, thus avoiding a lot of confusion over what it can and can't bypass, under what circumstances.Plus, it would allow Hypersmurf's wall-piercing arrows, which I think are just too cool. <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" />But that's just me.</blockquote>

Verification