Post/Author/DateTime	Post
NeueRegel 08-26-05, 04:52 AM	Heyas. 3.5 sword +1, brilliant energy, flaming. armor +1, fire resistance. The sword ignores the armor, but what about the flame? NeueRegel Edit: Forget it. Upon better examination, the sword only ignores The AC bonus and enhancements of armor. Not magical effects, such as fire resistance or fortification (which I had originally and erroneously used in the example). Pretty friggin weak "+4" enchantment. Unless I'm missing something. Effective versus almost no monsters, and only about 25% of humanoids. Bleh. Now, if it worked versus force effects too, it would be viable as "+4"; Then bracers at least would slightly add to the % of humanoids. Oh well.
Santrilla 08-26-05, 05:28 AM	Not a useless enchantment at all. All your attacks are now touch attacks, so for the majority of enemies (assuming you fight mainly humanoids) you've only got to deal with dex and natural bonuses to AC. Plus, you've basically got a lightsabre, which has a L337 rating of 25. :D
NeueRegel 08-26-05, 05:39 AM	Not a useless enchantment at all. All your attacks are now touch attacks, so for the majority of enemies (assuming you fight mainly humanoids) you've only got to deal with dex and natural bonuses to AC. Plus, you've basically got a lightsabre, which has a L337 rating of 25. :D If only that were truly the case, then the "+4" would be agreeable. You forget the difference: touch attacks also ignore natural armor; brilliant energy does not. :( I worded that pooly; obviously you did not forget. I meant to say, that the "+4" would be warranted if it did ignore natural AC too. C'mon: between speed and vorpal on the chart? For a tiny slice of opponents (pun intended). I don't and won't change the rules, I'm just wondering why the designers thought so highly of this special ability. It's nice and cute and all, but only worth a "+1 or 2". Neue
q'afuu 08-26-05, 09:31 AM	Considering Vorpal sucks, I wouldn't use that as a benchmark. ;) Anyway, certain enhancements will be worth more in certain campaigns than in others. Holy is a wonderful enhancement that's absolutely worth it's cost - unless you're in a morally ambiguous campaign. Undead bane? Excellent, except if you never even see a single undead creature. Brilliant energy is totally worth it's cost, as long as you regularly fight armoured opponents.
NeueRegel 08-26-05, 03:50 PM	I thought some more of my original post whilst at work today. (I have lot's of free time to let my mind wander, as long as I don't mind losing fingers now and again). I guess brilliant energy isn't so crazy-limited as I originally was thinking. Truth be told, if you put it against a player who prided himself in finally having +5 armor and +5 shield for +20 AC, and then told him he was outta luck, he'd be cursing a blue streak, between tears of rage. I "suppose" that a potential +20 "to hit", even versus a very limited opponent-clientelle, is nothing to sneeze at. Sorta like a true strike-fighter-bane weapon, I suppose. The "potential" is what I really at first "missed"; Our campaign PC's and NPC's alike just don't have that kind of magic of any kind, or armor. So I was stuck in the box of our normal +2 elven chain/no shield and the like being about the "best", and that a brilliant energy sword was awfully pricey to do "just" that. It's still awfully pricey, I maintain that. An extra full-bab attack works against anything (That you can affect). Not everything has a neck, but sure-kill-no-save-no-defense is impressive as hell even if the munchkins don't think it's enough. But an (impressive-possibly) bonus to hit versus a very select group (armoured peeps) with a trade-off that you can't even affect whole other groups to boot (undead, constructs, objects- disarm and sunder?)... I still don't see it being +4. At best, such a weapon would be a secondary weapon, carried "just in case I run into a fighter", like many people carry a secondary silver weapon "just in case I run into a werewolf". A secondary weapon at +4? Maybe if you could turn the "brilliance" power On/Off, like you could the elemental weapons, you'd have something... Neue
Santrilla 08-26-05, 04:49 PM	Brilliant Energy is something of a targetted tactical weapon. Against the fighter you mentioned, it's really impressive; against some other foes, they're pants. The same goes for Vorpal, Bane, and many other enchantments. In fact the only enchantment that will absolutely work for everyone is a basic +X enchantment (and even THAT is useless against antimagic :P)
Rulebook 08-26-05, 06:21 PM	lol so i suppose im the only one who ever used the things to stab people through WALLS.
Ogre4Hire 08-26-05, 06:32 PM	lol so i suppose im the only one who ever used the things to stab people through WALLS. *Memo to self: consider investing in Brilliant Energy Longspear for door probing.* Overall, Brilliant Energy is much more effective when used by an NPC on the party, since it's virtually assured to work on at least two party members (cleric and fighter). PCs are usually SOL with it when fighting pretty much everything that isn't a Humanoid (and to a much lesser extent a Monsterous Humnoid since many of them wear armor as well). But as a player, I'd much rather plunk down the change for Wounding, Speed, or Thundering+Keen, all of which work on a much broader cross-section of enemies.
TyraaloftheFist 08-26-05, 11:42 PM	You know, I always thought it ignored natural armor, along with shields and normal armor; fighting a dragon, with that interpretation, is slightly less of a problem than eating the stereotypical fruitcake (hard, but doable) and the ability is justified at +4...seriously, you ever look at a Great Wyrm Red Dragon's AC when they can't rely on their Natural Armor for defense? 'Tis poopeh.