[Sacredsouless]

So I was kicking around the idea of a mage (specifically a mystic adept) who would sling some spells but also slice and dice with a fancy sword. Being a fan of Robert Jordan's Wheel of Time series (pretty awesome, even the ones written after he died), I loved the idea of a dude who could summon a sword of fire. Shape material (for fire) seems to be the right idea, but it is an area spell. So I'm looking for either a better spell to use, recommendations on how to mod shape material, or recommendations on creating a new spell that is reasonably balanced for a normal game of SR.

As a note, I planned on the sword doing damage similar to either the Katana/Monofilament or Vibro sword, with bonus effects based on the element used to make the sword (like a fire one would burn whatever it cut through, like auto cauterize wounds type thing).

[Caradoc]

This is something I've considered for a potential character. You could give your Mystic Adept a Possession tradition who can summon Fire Spirits. Egyptian, Psionic and Quabbalistic can each summon a Fire Spirit. You can create a sword as a vessel and Summon the Fire Spirit to possess it and then use a service for it to use its Engulf power as you use it in combat. That will deal an extra damage to each of your attacks.

As far as I can tell from the Street Magic description on Engulf p.100 and SR4A p.294 the Engulf damage is equal to the Magic attribute with net hits rolled for the melee attack adding to this base. What I gather is that once the initial hit is done, the effect can be sustained with LOS to the target and the target is effectively immobile till it can 'break free' no matter whether the spirit is manifested or possessing a person or object.

People will see an effect on the sword based on a Perception threshold of 6 - Spirit's Force. So a Force 4 possessed sword has a threshold of 2 for people to see the effect, and a Force 6 is a bleeding obvious flaming sword!

I wouldn't use the Psionic tradition because it limits drastically the number of spells you can learn.

[Unahim]

Street Magic has rules for making your own spells, and the modifiers that gives. Just take the Shape (Fire) spell and apply a -1 drain modifier to it for restricted effect to make it Shape Fire Sword instead. Perhaps apply a further -2 for restricted target (it can only be manifest right in your hand or something).

DV is a bit trickier, but you could make it force + net hits. (or half force (round up) + net hits, or whatever ends up being reasonable). Note that the energy aura spell already gives a weapon a bonus to DV for net hits + makes the attack that element, so force + net hits for DV shouldn't be higher than what you can get for a weapon's base DV + energy aura anyway.

Of course, you need to sustain it, so a sustaining focus would be a good idea.

As ana side, I think Engulf basiccally glues the the sword to the target, and it seems a bit sketchy at best.

[JustADude]

I wrote up a spell like that a while ago... have a look HERE.

[Sacredsouless]

Thank you for the replies. JAD, I like your spell and I used chummer to toss up my own version. It is restricted to just swords (though I may add an arsenal type version, IDK right now), but the Drain is lesser (chummer says F/2-1, though I think I'll move it to F/2 at minimum)and the weapon is an exact copy of the normal weapon, just with an added elemental effect. Though I think I will also add +1 to the damage and AP because the weapon is magical (thus in my mind, giving it infinite sharpness). So as an example, a summoned fire sword (using the normal sword stats from SR4A) will be (STR/2 +4) with an AP of -1, plus any secondary effects of having a sword made of fire (like cauterized wounds and possibly clothing set on fire). That is with the added damage and AP. Frankly I think it sounds decently balanced. I don't think there is any sword with a DV or AP high enough that adding +1 to both will break it. Please let me know what you think.

Summone [Elemental] [Melee Weapon]
Type: P ~ Range: T ~ Duration: S ~ DV: (F/2)
Developed by mages and mystic adepts who were tired of lugging around and smuggling their weapons, this spell creates a melee weapon out of any handy material. The weapon is an exact copy of the creators preferred weapon, though its magical nature gives it an additional +1 to damage and AP. The weapon is dispelled when the caster is disarmed, drops the weapon, or simply ends the spell (unconsciousness counts as ending the spell). The weapon cannot physically harm the caster in any way (outside of Drain).

Personally for physical image, I see a sword of whatever color with a pattern along the blade that suggests the element used to make it. Like a fire sword would be red (a darker crimson, again IMO), and the sword looked like it had flame decals along the blade, though more realistic. But really anyone can describe it as they want (so if you want a literal flaming sword of fire you can).

[Unahim]

I think that spell of yours needs to do more based upon the hits on the casting test, JAD. As it stands, it seems like a skilled mage and an unskilled one make the same weapon if they cast at the same force.

[Sacredsouless]

I think that spell of yours needs to do more based upon the hits on the casting test, JAD. As it stands, it seems like a skilled mage and an unskilled one make the same weapon if they cast at the same force.

While I can't speak for him, I believe that was the point. Helps keep the spell simple and also, what exactly would the net hits help? Give the weapon a different structure rating for when someone hits it?

[JustADude]

I think that spell of yours needs to do more based upon the hits on the casting test, JAD. As it stands, it seems like a skilled mage and an unskilled one make the same weapon if they cast at the same force.

Take a look at [Element] Aura, Unahim. It uses Force, not Hits, so I was just sticking with the existing canon for how such effects should work. And, in the discussion on the other thread, you'll see where I made the decision to move away from Hits for just that reason.

While I can't speak for him, I believe that was the point. Helps keep the spell simple and also, what exactly would the net hits help? Give the weapon a different structure rating for when someone hits its?

Yeah, pretty much. Also provides more consistency, so the Mystic Adept knows what to expect.

[Unahim]

Yeah, I see your point. I still think it's weird, but now I think so in a broader, RAW encompassing way. I guess it only matters for dispelling.