glowing magic items?

[Yqatuba]

So apparently 1/3 of all magic items glow like a torch. What color would the light be? I figure it's either random or depends on what school the magic is.

[Dajur]

Where does it say that 1/3 of all magic items glow like a torch?

[Melkiador]

I think it’s only magic weapons that have that chance. But most people forget or ignore that rule.

[Kayerloth]

CRB, Magic Items, Weapons wrote:

Light Generation: Fully 30% of magic weapons shed light equivalent to a light spell. These glowing weapons are quite obviously magical. Such a weapon can't be concealed when drawn, nor can its light be shut off. Some of the specific weapons detailed below always or never glow, as defined in their descriptions.

Plus what Melkiador says - I've rarely seen the rule followed, but then at this point it's been a long time since I've seen magic items randomly generated. They are typically chosen and placed by the designer of the adventure whose either the AP or Adventure writers/editors or the GM.

The frequency with this being ignored is such that the Sword of Subtlety doesn't even denote that it does not generate light ... making 30% of such swords pretty useless beyond being +1.

[Soulgear]

Our GM ruled that all bladed magical weapons glow, color to be determined by possessor. No other magical weapons glow.

[avr]

Usually weapons won't glow unless you're using random tables to generate them, and I don't. If I wanted to make a glowing weapon, runes on the blade or haft might glow in line with the maker's magic source (golden positive energy, red or black negative, blue arcane magic), or a badly made weapon might shed sparks similarly, or a weapon made by the fae might reflect more light than actually falls on it.

[Gug on the Silver Mountain]

Weapons tend to glow when the DM want the wielder to look awesome. Colour depends on the theme, Graveknight's greatsword might have ominous glowing pale green or purple runes, paladin's longsword might shine golden.

[Cevah]

If your party of 4 has a single magic weapon each, then the party has a 75% chance of generating light. If the party has darkvision all around, they are then screwed due to the light coming from the weapons.

On the other hand, a party of humans don't need to spend resources to see in a dungeon.

/cevah

[Maquist]

I've generally played it is the weapons *can* glow, and the light can be volitionally turned on and off by the wielder with a thought. As for color, I usually default to a cool blue to white light color, sort of similar to a lot of LEDs. I've never had someone ask about changing the color, but I'd probably let it go with a standard action to focus on the item, no check if they've wielded it for a while. Maybe a Charisma/Intelligence/Wisdom or UMD check with no consequence for failure if it's something they just recently picked up.