Arafelis/Beamklaves

So I was thinking, the thing that bothers me most about Beamklaves- besides being a direct ripoff of lightsabers- is that they're heat-based. This doesn't really seem appropriate to me for Alchemicals. I don't know if I could justify that, but bear with me.

I think that the beam-of-cutting-force thing is fine, but instead of being heat, the relevant power should be electrical. So, for the revised weapon:

The interior of a beamklave is a complex crystal capacitor (say that pi times fast). There are metal contacts in the surface of the extruded portion of the crystal (forged of a highly conductive alloy of the appropriate magical material). Each type uses a slightly different but essentially similar structure.

When activated, the beamklave projects a cutting edge of Essence and lightning. It is relatively hot, and can be used to burn through or melt weak barriers with application and effort (assume that no attack roll is needed against unmoving inanimate objects- the beamklave does damage each round it is in contact with as though all its wielder's attack dice were successes, creating narrow holes or allowing the wielder to slowly cut away heavier obstructions), but its primary effect is its painful electric charge.

Whenever a beamklave comes into contact with a metal object another player is wielding or wearing, that other character is subjected to a nasty shock. Resistance difficulty 2+the Essence of the beamklave's wielder to resist, with 2B automatic damage on a successful roll and 2L and a -1 penalty to actions for one round on a failure. This damage is soaked only with Stamina, but the difficulty of the Resistance roll may be decreased if the character is insulated away from their metal gear. Successful attacks with the beamklave afflict the target with the same shock, so a character could theoretically be shocked by a beamklave up to three times by a single attack- once by a parry with a metal weapon, once from wearing metal armor the beamklave strikes, and once if damage from the beamklave is not totally absorbed by the armor. The penalty stacks.

The weapon is the same Artifact rating as beamklaves as written.

Comments

This isn't really meaningful or anything, but when I first read the RecentChanges entry for this I thought it said 'Beanklave'. And I thought "Cool, a daiklave made of of beans!" How will I ever cope with my disappointment?

Oh, and while I'm just as much a drooling fan of lightsabers as the next man, I really don't like things that pretend to be lightsabers without actually coming out and saying it. I think changing them into some kind of taserklave is probably a good idea. - Falcon

You could have it so that there's five kinds of Beamklaive. Fire = heat, Air = electricity, Water = icey cold ( I know that's canonically an air effect, but... ), Earth = "force", Wood = corrosive, or "death". Maybe. -- Xarak

Yeah... only, the elements of Autocthonia are Crystal, Oil, Steam, Lightning and Metal. Even though there's no Elemental Pole of Steam. GRAH. So instead, it would be a crystalline sword, a sword made of... uh, viscous flammable liquid, a high-pressure jet of steam, a lightning blade, and one made out of metal, of all things. While I can plausibly think of special effects for all of these things except Oil (Go flaming geyser!), I like the idea of combining three of the elements together into something /like/ the original beamklave. It just seems more alchemical-ish.

Also, cold- or at least, ice- has been used a few times for cannonical water, mostly in DB Charms IIRC. Oh- and yeah, beanklaeves would rock. You on it yet, Falcon? - Arafelis

Ahem. Verdant Sower of the Seeds of Retribution. - F

Which Autochthonians book are -YOU- looking at? Mine has a pole of Steam just fine, and a very cool one it is too.
-- Darloth

Hmm. I guess I flipped passed that page. I see it now... Damn Sidereal astrology! - Arafelis

Steam would probably be a big steam powered chainsaw.(Mostly used by Bots fighting in shadowlands...for some reason) If you want ALL the properties of the original, you could say it transforms into a switchblade(heh!) or something. -FlowsLikeBits

Ahahaha. So in other words you have a slightly insane Alchemical fighting gremlins with either Hundred-fold Strafing Methodology or a firewand rifle in one hand and Integrated Arsenal Upgrade on the other... - Arafelis