Draft:Lightsabre

Omega 0.90.4

Lightsabre)Base damage rating30Base hit bonus+20Normal attack typeThrustingHands1Weight20

A lightsabre is a light, accurate one-handed weapon disguised as a grey metal cylinder. Once known, a landed attack delivers separate physical and fire damage. Attacking with an unknown cylinder instead inflicts 100 unstoppable damage on the player.

Generation

Lightsabres occur in random treasure, pawn-shop stock and acquirement. Their item level is 9 and base value 2,000 Au. The random constructor rolls blessing and enchantment; Julie's does not sell them.

An automatum major carries a neutral +0 lightsabre copied from the definition. Its ordinary carried-item drop can provide the cylinder, but the item is initially unknown. The automatum is a level-8 opponent with its own attacks and immunities, so identifying a recovered weapon is a separate concern from surviving the fight.

Identification and damage

Wielding prints a message about feeling one with the Force, but does not identify the cylinder. If its identity is still unknown when a hit triggers the weapon's attack, the player takes 100 unstoppable damage, the cylinder becomes partly known, and the target takes no weapon damage. At 100 HP or less, that damage call is fatal. Use identification before attacking rather than treating the wielding message as safe identification.

Once at least partly known, the attack works as follows:

Target condition	Damage from a landed attack
Neither physically nor fire-immune	20 physical, then 20 fire if still alive
Physically immune only	20 fire
Fire-immune only	20 physical
Immune to both	Neither component damages it

The two immunity checks are independent. Physical immunity does not prevent the later fire component. These are fixed damage calls, bypassing the ordinary random damage, critical and moon calculation; they still require the initial attack to hit.

The information box's damage rating of 30 is the base equipment statistic, not the lightsabre's actual 20 + 20 attack. Enchantment can improve current hit, but does not increase these fixed damage components. No charge is consumed by the weapon attack.

Other uses

Disenchantment can reset a susceptible lightsabre's enchantment, but does not remove the attack's fixed physical/fire components or its unknown-cylinder hazard. Its attack damage and current accuracy can therefore change differently.

Throwing invokes the same special attack after a hit, including the unknown-cylinder self-injury. A known spare lightsabre therefore retains its fixed damage at range, but normally lands on the ground afterward. As a thrusting tool it contributes 60 to tunneling before the wall-breaking roll; a tunneling mishap can still damage or destroy it.

Strategy

Its weight of 20 and base +20 hit make a known lightsabre attractive when burden or accuracy limits heavier weapons. The fixed fire component also gives a way to hurt physically immune creatures that lack fire immunity. Against an opponent immune to both components, more enchantment does not solve the damage problem.

Prioritize identification and curse status over further enchantment. The reliable damage is valuable, but later characters can exceed it with high ordinary damage or other special effects. Avoid spending enchantment solely to raise the displayed damage rating, and use a cheaper digging tool when preserving the cylinder matters more than its strong excavation contribution.