Imbuement: Glowing Sword

[lvalero]

A common trope in fantasy is the ability to make your attacks glow. I am looking for a power to make your sword (or fists or whatever) lit so you can see your enemies even in the dark.

Possible "power ups":

- Used with a throwing weapon you can light your arrows and keep them "burning" if they are stuck on a wall or on an enemy.
- Used with a throwing weapon the light could "explode" filling the area with real sunlight/moonlight/etc...
- The light could be as dim as a candle or as high as the sun but in that case it could affect also the caster.

It seems like a good candidate for a Level 1 Imbuement. However I am not sure how to model it.

Example

Glowing strike: DX/Very Hard
Requirements: Imbue 1

Imbues your attack with white light. Can be used with melee attacks or with ranged attacks.

If you use this power over your "natural attack" you show an aura of light and even your hair glows!

Base effect: Dim glow like a candle
-2 Brightness of a torch
-4 Glare as bright as day. Counts as "sun light" against vulnerable creatures
-10 Brilliant flash of light. As per "Flash spell"
-2 Change the color of the light from base white to another color
-2 Make the light directional

My question to the hive-mind. Has somebody created this power (even if it is not an "imbuement")? How would you model it?

Thanks!

[Anders]

Affliction Blindness, with Create Sunlight and Perk: Accessory (Torch) as Alternate Abilities. Probably.

[Dinadon]

This has already turned up in a Pyramid article, back in 2009!

It is simply a perk letting you treat a weapon like a torch. It was included in an article about the Mystic Knight, for Dungeon Fantasy.

For more offensive capabilities the Dazzling Display imbuement should already cover most lighting scenarios. Longer durations aren't really in theme for Imbuements, so should really be brought as an advantage (Guided and Homing Imbuements only delay when an attack is resolved, so don't work as a good comparison).

[GnomesofZurich]

Pyramid #3/13 has the Illumination imbuement perk, which makes an item you're able to imbue glow like a torch, without costing FP. It's basically an application of the Accessory perk.

[Polkageist]

The perk is easily the perfect starting point to formulating the rest of the effects.

I suppose the question I would ask is if you want to make it modular, where the player dictates which direction they want to take the perk or if you want to direct the power ups so that if/when the player takes the perk beyond just "sword glows as torchlight" it's clearly defined what they get and what it does. Super close together.

I could say that maybe you could use it like layered perks? Some of the power ups aren't all that intense so making them an additional perk with the prereq perk being the 'glow as torch' one could work.

Variable strength, that's a perk-level thing.
Staying lit after throwing/shooting for arrows is also perk level

Having the light treated as 'true sunlight' or the like is a bit more than a perk since that can have some significant advantage when fighting enemies that are vulnerable to that sort of thing. Depending on the campaign that could cost a fair bit more than just a perk.

[lvalero]

Thanks for the answers!

I didn't know it has been already covered in a Pyramid article. It is good advice, thanks!

The reason of builiding as an imbuement is twofold.

For one side I want this power to be scallable but not too much "free-form". I don't want the player to dictate "any" light-power they like. I prefer to give them 3 of 4 perks/abilities related to the concept "you can put light in your weapon".

The second reason is because I have a sub-system of "Ki sigils" / "Ki jutsus" in my DF campaing based on imbuements and I liked the idea of adding this "sigil" also as an imbuement so the cost and the "inner building" of this power seems similar with the rest.

Anyway, I like the idea of a leveled perk perhaps combined with AA. I will think about it.

Lot's of thanks!

[Gumby Bush]

Accessory (Illumination) Special Effect: requires item you can imbue. The description says it last indefinitely, but it is not at all clear that is supposed to apply to an arrow stuck in a wall fifty feet away.

To be able to stick it on an Arrow to light a far off location and have a duration after you release it, I'd be inclined to increase the cost. Breaking the rules a little tiny bit, adding (Persistent +40%; Ranged +40%; Mana Sensitive -10%) would boost the cost by a point.

[Varyon]

I'd be inclined to have [1] give illumination comparable to a candle (1 lux, -4 at 2 yards). [2] comparable to a torch (20 lux, -2 at 2 yards), and so forth, at +8 SSR to lux (and thus +2 to illumination level; see Powers: Enhanced Senses) per level ([1/level]). After that, you've got some further options. The above is for 360-degrees; a further [1] (or perhaps +20%) lets you concentrate this down to a 60-degree cone, for +2 to illumination level (and/or a 120-degree cone, for a +1 to illumination level), or you can have your light set at such a concentration at no further cost (so [2] can get you a 60-degree arc that puts you at +0 at 2 yards, but you can't widen it to 360-degrees). Needing to "imbue" an object with it instead of generating it yourself is a Feature. I'd say by default an imbued object sheds light only while held by the character; add Persistent (it's already functionally an Area Effect) and Extended Duration if it keeps producing light for some time after the character releases it.

What wavelength(s) the light operates in is generally a Feature; being adjustable is probably +20% if limited to one of IR, Visible, or UV, +35% for two of those, or +50% for all three. If it's only visible to certain characters, like Mage Light, I'd be tempted to say +20% if such characters are Very Common, +40% if Common, +60% if Occasional, +80% if Uncommon, or +100% if Rare (being able to switch between a natural wavelength and this is probably worth a further +20%).

The above is a very rough draft, but could be a jumping-off point.