Brilliant Energy

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What does it mean when a sword has the brilliant energy ability(swords that have this include Brilliant short sword +5 and Dwelnar's Folly). It says it ignores targets armor and shield bonus' but what does this mean does it actually mean that your attack roll to hit doesnt count their armor and sheild to their AC or is it something else?

Cause so far all i can tell it does is make those weapons REALLY REALLY expensive(Brilliant short sword +5 is worth over 100 000gp when the same sword without brilliant energy is only 35 000) so it must do something really really good right to warrant such a price?

 

Pretty much means it is capable of hitting anything, no matter how much damage reduction they have.

 

Oh so it would take away all damage reduction even like 10/- where it reduces no matter the enchantment? cause otherwise just being +5 would ignore resistance.

 

Brilliant is just that it ignores targets armor and shield bonus to AC. Against a heavily armored enemy they can make a big difference, but for unarmored enemies it's not different than a normal short sword +5.

 

OHHH ok i though Harbour Boy meant it ignored damage reduction. But its what i thought which is good

 

Maybe I'm getting confused with the fact that any +5 weapon pretty much gets past any damage reduction (given that I don't remember ever seeing DR greater than 5)

 

isnt just - better then +5? like what a barbarian gets?

 

"Maybe I'm getting confused with the fact that any +5 weapon pretty much gets past any damage reduction (given that I don't remember ever seeing DR greater than 5)"

Yes it gets through (almost) all damage reduction, but your initial comment was misleading because it is the "+5" part that makes damage reduction largely a non-issue, and the OP sought clarification on the nature of the "brilliant energy" property of a weapon. Basically brilliant energy does precisely what it says on the tin, as explained by Muddle.

Brilliant energy is basically a huge bonus to hit against highly armored enemies.

+5 is a bonus to hit and damage, and an enchantment level that cuts through nearly all damage reduction.

 

Does a Barb get DR+5? I don't know, never gave it much thought.

With the 'Brilliant Short Sword +5' you get two advantages.
Brilliance ensures that the AC you have to work against is lessened. All armour and sheild bonus is ignored so you will hit more often.
When you hit, the +5 enchantment will ensure that you deliver the maximum amount of damage, without being hindered by Damage Resisance.

If you have the 'forgotten items pack' you should get also a bastard sword which has the user under the influence of Executioner's Eyes.
Going against normal usage, with this short sword in your main hand and the bastard sword in your off you will be amazed how much better the odds suddenly turn in your favour.

 

Barbarian should get Damagereduction 1/- wich means its a "generic" damage reduction that is unaffected by the enchantments of weapons. in other words, its much better than other damamge reduction, also why it is usually less than other damage reduction (barb gets 5/- at level 20 dont they ? dont recal from head atm).

Unless memory fails me again, iwd2 should handle this similarly (or just have it at +6 so no weapons gets through anyways)

 

1 point of DR at L11 and an additional 1 point every 3 levels. So an L20 Barb would have DR 4/-

 

Mostly usefull for ignoring arrows.

 

whats OP?

And what is this forgotten aitems pack?

 

I think OP is the Original Poster, sort of a message board pronoun instead of using the screen name. Isn't the forgotten items pack the one where you get the genie merchant in the Wandering Village?

 

I thought that was the collectors edition bonus merchants but i still cant remember their being any bastard sword with executioners eyes on it

 

My bad. It comes from the 'Stronger Bastard Swords' component of the EoU. The 'Include Forgotten Armor and Shields' component of EoU nets you quite a few good sheilds early in the game.

The sword I mentioned, you will get in the Ice Temple. Just check the readme of Weimer-IWD2-Ease.

 

I dont like that Mod it is way to much infavour of bastard swords and much too unbalanced it makes them ultimate and every other weapon pathetic in comparison. And bastard swords arent that bad the bastard sword of heroism is ok all on its on