Holy Weapon (1625)
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Holy Weapon is a Paladin Base spell that allows a paladin to bond with a melee weapon, making it a holy armament and giving it a few additional abilities depending on the properties of the weapon bonded and removing the damage reduction from fighting undead without a bless.
Note: There was a wording change where 'sanctified' referenced items that were 'holy'. The term sanctified now references the Cleric service Sanctify which sanctifies an item decreasing the damage penalty against undead while lacking a bless. Holy Weapon provides the abilities below for paladins, but does not provide the sanctify S6 flare, or anchor ability from Sanctify against Non-corporeal undead creatures.
Procedure
To bond to a weapon, find a holy place, kneel down, and CAST at your weapon. If the weapon is not already holy, you must first cast Consecrate (1604) on it to prepare the weapon. To remove a bond, instead CHANNEL at the weapon. A bonded weapon is unswingable by anyone other than the paladin bonded to it. Bonding to a new weapon will sever your connection with the old one, but it will remain unswingable until the next time the paladin touches it.
The maximum attainable bonding level increases with further spell training in the Paladin Base; the first bonding level is available upon learning Holy Weapon, and an additional bonding level is unlocked for each Paladin Base rank up to 1629. The paladin must retain this training to sustain the bond level.
To actually increase the bonding level, the Paladin must use the weapon in combat. Presuming Holy Weapon functions under the same mechanics as Weapon Bonding for Warriors, it was shown that the bond is increased after Rank# * 100 same-level kills (SLKs). Knowledge of Holy Weapon and 100 SLKs achieves the first rank; 26 Paladin Base ranks and an additional 200 SLKs achieves the second rank; and so on up to 29 Paladin Base ranks and 500 additional SLKs for the fifth rank. As a summation, in total 1500 SLKs are required to fully bond to a weapon; however, note that SLKs are not counted without the proper Spell Research training.
Benefits
Bonding to a weapon gives a bonus to maneuvers that utilize the weapon and increase the paladin's effectiveness and defense against Combat Maneuvers while using the weapon. Additionally, the weapon acts as an enhancive item. These benefits increase as the rank of bonding increases with the weapon and are cumulative per rank.
- At the first bonding level, the weapon gains the ability to return to the paladin when disarmed or thrown. This is an increasing chance per bonding tier, and will be 100% when fully bonded.
- At the third bonding level, the weapon will gain Guiding Light flares if it does not already have category B flares. Item scripts that do not use the category B slot will not block Guiding Light flares. Unlike the flares applied to a sanctified weapon via 1604, weighting on the bonded weapon will not diminish the potency of the flares gained at the third bonding rank.
- At the fifth bonding level, the weapon will be capable of accepting a spell from the paladin to be triggered later before an attack with BESEECH. The spells that the weapon can accept depend on a variety of factors, including which sphere of magic the spell comes from, if it is a spell the paladin knows, and the number of ranks the paladin possesses in Spiritual Lore, Summoning (seed 2 of the summation chart).
CASTing 1625 at the weapon will check the status of your bond.
| Bonding Level | CML bonus | STR/WIS bonus | Special | Description | Paladin Base | Same Level Kills |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 0 | +0 | +0 | Weapon is holy | You are bonded with the steel flail, but you feel that the connection is largely untested. | 25 | 0 |
| 1 | +2 | +1 | The weapon has a chance to return to the Paladin's hand when disarmed or thrown. This is an increasing chance per bonding tier, and will be 100% when fully bonded. | The connection is still fresh and new. | 25 | 100 |
| 2 | +4 | +2 | None | You feel that your connection is strong. | 26 | 200 |
| 3 | +6 | +3 | Grants the bonded weapon Consecrate flares | It is a tried and true friend. | 27 | 300 |
| 4 | +8 | +4 | None | It is almost an extension of your own body. | 28 | 400 |
| 5 | +10 | +5 | Allows a spell to be imbued into the bonded weapon | There is no doubt of the pure spiritual connection you share with it. | 29 | 500 |
Infusing a Spell to a Bonded Weapon
To infuse a spell to a bonded weapon, simply PREPARE the spell, then INFUSE <weapon>. Spells can be infused from scrolls multiple times up to the weapon's mana capacity, or the syntax INFUSE {weapon} with SCROLL {spell number} will drain all eligible charges from the scroll and insert them into the weapon.
Spells known by the paladin, or that can be known by the paladin count as the spell level of the spell being placed into the bonded weapon. In the case of spells known by the paladin, multiple charges can be infused, as the bonded weapon can hold 30 mana + (Spiritual Mana Control skill / 2); the mana will be infused at the time of imbuing and not activation. Spiritual spells that cannot be learned by the paladin (such as from the Major Spiritual spell circle) count as 1.25× the spell's level. Hybrid spells that are semi-spiritual in nature, such as spells from the Sorcerer Base circle, count as 1.5× the spell's level. Spells that are not spiritual in nature count as double their spell level. The infusion process will accept any spell that falls within the level range of the bonded weapon's ability to hold. That maximum level is the following:
| Max Spell Level = 4 × (Bonding Level - 2) + Summationσ=2(Spiritual Lore Summoning Ranks) |
Therefore, with 9 ranks of Spiritual Lore, Summoning, a paladin could infuse a 15th level spell (e.g. Repentance (1615)) into the weapon. In order to infuse a spell such as Bind (214), which counts as a level 18 spell, the paladin would need 27 ranks of Spiritual Lore, Summoning and a scroll to cast the spell from. Pain (711) could be used if the paladin has 20 ranks of Summoning Lore. It should be noted, with only native spells and no lore training, a Paladin can only infuse Pious Trial (1602), Templar's Verdict (1603), and Unbalance (110).
There are multiple ways to set your weapon to invoke its infused spell, set via BESEECH :
- BESEECH <weapon> will command your weapon to invoke its infused spell at the beginning of your next attack only.
- BESEECH <weapon> IGNITE will command your weapon to invoke its infused spell at the beginning of every attack, until it runs out of charges. (Note: There is an internal timer so it will not ACTUALLY invoke on every swing)
- BESEECH <weapon> CONSERVE will command your weapon to invoke its infused spell once per target, to conserve charges. This is primarily intended for use with setup spells.
BESEECH <weapon> EXTINGUISH will set your weapon back to its passive state, such that you will need to command it via BESEECH once again to invoke its infused spell on attack. BESEECH <weapon> SENSE reveals the imbedded spell and the charges remaining.
Infused spells will respect your INCANT settings. Spells permitted for infusion are offensive in nature, support single target use, and include bolt spells.
Spiritual Lore, Religion
Each rank of Religion lore, up to 50 ranks, will add 1 additional point of generic magic item Casting Strength (CS) for spells infused into a weapon. This bonus is limited to half of the paladin’s arcane symbols ranks and is only applicable to spells infused via scrolls.
Spiritual Lore, Summoning
In addition to increasing the maximum spell level that can be infused, each rank will also apply a penalty of -1 TD / -2 Bolt DS to targets, to a maximum of 25 ranks. This target penalty only applies to infused spells.
Messaging
Paladin
Bonding with a weapon:
You gesture at WEAPON. As you call upon the power of DEITY, a [deity-dependent] shaft of light suddenly envelops your WEAPON. Tendrils of energy begin to flow out of it and wrap themselves around you, as if surrounding you in an ethereal embrace. Your awareness of your surroundings fade as you begin to experience visions of the WEAPON from its moment of creation to the present. After a brief moment, your vision returns to normal. The shaft of light and tendrils of energy are gone, but somehow you still feel a lingering bond between you and the WEAPON. Silvery tendrils rise up from your WEAPON and quickly dissipate. Cast Roundtime 3 Seconds.
If you forget to Consecrate (1604) the weapon prior to bonding with it:
You gesture at WEAPON. A dim shaft of light surrounds the WEAPON, but seems to have no effect on it. Perhaps the weapon should be first cleansed of impurities. Cast Roundtime 3 Seconds.
Each time the bonding level increases, the following is reported along with the creature's death message:
You feel your spiritual bond with your WEAPON strengthen.
First unbonding cast:
You channel at WEAPON You focus your concentration on undoing the spiritual bond between you and the WEAPON. As your magic begins to penetrate the star, you encounter a strange resistance from within it. You attempt to overcome it, but the power of your spell fades away too soon. You think that you might be able to overcome it with another attempt.
Unbonding:
You channel at WEAPON. This time you are prepared for the resistance within the WEAPON and you manage to quickly overcome it. You feel the remnants of the spiritual bond between you and the WEAPON quickly fade away. Cast Roundtime 3 Seconds.
Infusing:
>infuse WEAPON You concentrate on infusing the <weapon> and successfully manage to transfer the power of your <spell> into it. The <weapon> pulses <X> times in response. Roundtime: 3 sec.
Elemental Detection
For a weapon bonded to a Paladin, Elemental Detection (405) shows the following:
>prep 405 You gesture and invoke the powers of the elements for the Elemental Detection spell... Your spell is ready. >cast my mace You gesture at a thanot-hafted vultite mace. Your vultite mace resists your attempt to use it. Cast Roundtime 2 Seconds.
Loresong
Verse 2 will show:
In addition, its use appears to be magically restricted in some way.
Verse 3 will show:
The ITEM hums clearly, indicating that the item will prevent itself from being used unless the acting party meets certain conditions.
Verse 4 will show:
The mace has been bound to PERSON via the spell Holy Weapon.
The mace hums clearly, indicating that the restriction's conditions are as follows:
This item is restricted to use by PERSON.