What would the cost upgrade be for a Brilliant Energy weapon that could toggle?

[Wiggz]

Presumably a Brilliant Energy weapon is always 'on'... but what if you could turn it on and off as a free or swift action? What would a reasonable cost upgrade for that be?

[Harley Quinn X]

There's no real set price for something like that, so you'd have to make it up, and talk with your GM about it.

Given that letting it toggle would make the sword more useful (being able to still hit both sets of creatures with little/no action loss), I would not be surprised if you get many answers stating it would probably be more than just getting Brilliant Energy put on.

[Wiggz]

Harley Quinn X wrote:

There's no real set price for something like that, so you'd have to make it up, and talk with your GM about it.

Given that letting it toggle would make the sword more useful (being able to still hit both sets of creatures with little/no action loss), I would not be surprised if you get many answers stating it would probably be more than just getting Brilliant Energy put on.

I figured that Brilliant Energy was so expensive (+4, I think) that when the ability was 'off', the sword wouldn't be especially effective, maybe a +1 enhancement, so it wouldn't be a terribly effective weapon - but it wouldn't be useless either.

Would a +1 Brilliant Energy weapon that could be converted to a +1 weapon really be worth that much more than a +1 Brilliant Energy weapon would be on its own?

Maybe treat them as two separate weapons when it came to cost? i.e. 100,000 for a +1 Brilliant Energy weapon + 2,000 for a +1 weapon when the Brilliant Energy wasn't in effect, something like that?

[Eltacolibre]

This kind of stuffs fall into dm territory really, they can judge however they want to deal with it. But well as a frequent DM/GM myself, I'll probably just add a little bit to the cost or a special condition trigger/toggle would be more interesting.

[fel_horfrost]

Most magic weapons can be created with a command word to activate it's properties though it has to be created that way. It shouldn't cost any more than one without one.

[Thomas Long 175]

This is one occasion where I disagree.

Certain magical properties do take a standard action to activate. These ones can be turned off. The rest are part of the weapon, impossible to deactivate.

In this case, such an ability would be more powerful than if it was always on. Why?

Brilliant Energy

Brilliant Energy wrote:

A brilliant energy weapon has its significant portion transformed into light, although this does not modify the item's weight. It always gives off light as a torch (20-foot radius). A brilliant energy weapon ignores nonliving matter. Armor and shield bonuses to AC (including any enhancement bonuses to that armor) do not count against it because the weapon passes through armor. (Dexterity, deflection, dodge, natural armor, and other such bonuses still apply.) A brilliant energy weapon cannot harm undead, constructs, or objects.

The ability to turn it off means that you can free action off your brilliant energy whenever you hit the stuff it makes your weapon worthless against, and then standard it back up at the end of the fight.

It basically makes you capable of circumventing restrictions placed into the enchantment you chose. Without a limit on how much you can use it per day if its an optional thing, its flat out better than always having it on.

[Eridan]

GM opinion / Houserule

A brilliant energy weapon is partly transformed into light. On my table you can transform is back (=turn of brilliant) with a special enchantment. Lets call it 'Retransformative'. It uses the rules of the 'Transformative' enchantment but its transformation is limited to turn of the brilliant enchantment. Through this limitation it is a little cheaper .. lets say 6k.