Is Sunblade's ease of use ability magical?


Rules Questions


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Sunblade wrote:
This sword is the size of a bastard sword. However, a sun blade is wielded as if it were a short sword with respect to weight and ease of use. In other words, the weapon appears to all viewers to be a bastard sword, and deals bastard sword damage, but the wielder feels and reacts as if the weapon were a short sword. Any individual able to use either a bastard sword or a short sword with proficiency is proficient in the use of a sun blade. Likewise, Weapon Focus and Weapon Specialization in short sword and bastard sword apply equally, but the benefits of those feats do not stack.

Is the above abilty/quality of the sunblade considered magical?

Is it lost in an antimagic field?
Is it suppressed if the weapon is temporary suppressed or dispelled?

In other words, would a shortsword-proficient or feat-focused user suddenly be unable lose apply their proficiencies or shortsword-related feats while using it in such a situation or is this property considered a part of the weapon's construction, build, or manufacture (ie. just a big sword that's really easy to use)?

Or vice-versa? Would a trained bastard sword user be out of luck if the blade loses its magic temporarily?


Given that it's a legacy item from before 3rd edition, I don't think there's a real answer for that.


Not really.

This is simply because of how the weapon is designed, similar to Celestial Armor's ability to count as light, having higher MDB, lowered ACP, reduced ASF, and so on. The only thing really magical about that armor is that it's +3 and it grants SLAs. Otherwise, anything that's based on its physical properties (as I've described above) is just an inherent design of the armor itself.

Same goes here; the Sun Blade is a specialty weapon that counts as both for specific purposes, simply because of how the weapon itself was designed. There's nothing magical about it, because feats like Weapon Focus and Weapon Specialization would function regardless of an Anti-Magic Field, and if I took Weapon Focus (Shortsword) and wielded a Sun Blade, it shouldn't all-of-a-sudden stop simply because Anti-Magic Fields exist.


Pizza Lord wrote:


Or vice-versa? Would a trained bastard sword user be out of luck if the blade loses its magic temporarily?

Given that it's designed to be handled as EITHER a short sword or bastard sword, why would you think that would happen?

Liberty's Edge

Physically the sunblade is a bastard sword. As no change in physical shape can allow you to use a bastard sword as a short sword, it is a magical effect.


I would read the Short Sword/Bastard Sword duality to be an Extraordinary Ability, and the other properties to be Supernatural Abilities. This has precedent -- although Golems are created by magic, they are not rendered inert in an Antimagic Field, even though they can't use their Supernatural and Spell-Like Abilities while inside one.


Looking into 2nd Edition, I see that the Sunblade actually states 'Its enchantment allows it to be wielded as...' so it appears that its original design and creation intended for it be a magical enchantment making it easier to use. Obviously that's not necessarily carrying any rules-weight here, just some interesting arcana I uncovered.

I am of the mind to consider the ease of use to be a non-magical quality, just based on its manufacture and construction. The celestial armor thing is a good point too (of course, if it turns out that it is a magical effect, that's just one more item that the wearer would have to be careful of if suppressed.

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