Using Gladius of Light in Advanced Spells

Okay, makes sense with the stacking rules. I just re-read the Advanced spells section, it does appear that the entire spell would fail to affect living/inanimate objects. It is a little counter-intuitive, but the rules are fairly clear.

Just doing a little math here to see if the higher CTN actually makes the advanced spell worth it. Assuming a d8 Might and d10 Primary with passive Resolve of 3. Using the following average values:

1d6 – 3.5
1d8 – 4.5
1d10 – 5.5
1d12 – 6.5
2d6 – 7

Base spell: Gladius of Light
Base CTN: 18
Base Effect: 1d6 (Primary) damage OR 1d8 (Primary) damage as a speed 4 attack.

Average of 9 OR 10 damage every 4 ticks, 27 OR 30 damage every 12 ticks.

Adapted CTN: 27 (three applications of increased damage)
Adapted Effect: 1d12 (Primary) damage OR 2d6 (Primary) damage as a speed 4 attack

Average of 12 OR 12.5 damage every 4 ticks, 36 OR 37.5 damage every 12 ticks.

Adapted CTN: 29 (two applications of increased damage and adaptation that adds passive Resolve to damage)
Adapted Effect: 1d10 (Primary)+3 damage OR 1d12 (Primary)+3 damage as a speed 4 attack

Average of 14 OR 15 damage every 4 ticks, 42 OR 45 damage every 12 ticks.

Advanced spell: Nier’s Touch
Base CTN: 26
Base Effect: 1d10 (Mi) (Primary) damage as a speed 6 attack.

Average of 15.5 damage every 6 ticks, or 31 damage every 12 ticks.

Adapted CTN: 29 (Exceptional weapon adaptation)
Adapted Effect: 1d10 (Mi) (Primary)+1 damage as a speed 5 attack

Average of 16.5 damage every 5 ticks, or 39.6 damage every 12 ticks.

A cursory look seems to indicate that the advanced spell is not actually an improvement over simply adapting GoL for increased damage. There are some other things I didn’t look at here, such as the fact that Blade of Our Lord is considered an actual Flamberge, so Weapon Mastery and other similar abilities should apply. This could potentially add another die bump to damage, which would come closer to evening out the numbers.

There is also the consideration that with two attribute dice rolling for damage, you are statistically twice as likely to get exploding damage.

The AR bypassing components of Blade of Our Lord are made irrelevant by the fact that GoL would make the advanced spell not affect living enemies who might have those ARs, and GoL bypasses all AR of the creatures it does affect. As the damage is partially fire, however, it should do additional damage to any enemies who have a fire vulnerability (rare as that is).

A cursory look seems to indicate that the advanced spell is not actually an improvement over simply adapting GoL for increased damage. There are some other things I didn’t look at here, such as the fact that Blade of Our Lord is considered an actual Flamberge, so Weapon Mastery and other similar abilities should apply. This could potentially add another die bump to damage, which would come closer to evening out the numbers.

There is also the consideration that with two attribute dice rolling for damage, you are statistically twice as likely to get exploding damage.

The AR bypassing components of Blade of Our Lord are made irrelevant by the fact that GoL would make the advanced spell not affect living enemies who might have those ARs, and GoL bypasses all AR of the creatures it does affect. As the damage is partially fire, however, it should do additional damage to any enemies who have a fire vulnerability (rare as that is).

I think you are missing the limiting text in gladius of light that says “Though it is shaped as a Gladius it has no real weight or balance, making it impossible to use any of the Gladius weapon tricks while wielding a Gladius of Light.”

I would argue that that is limiting text, and thus by the rules it applies to both versions of the spell. Therefore, your flamberge of flaming light is flaming light, and not a real flamberge, and thus no weapon tricks. I’m not sure if that rules out weapon mastery, however. That would apply to any way you cast the base spell, too of course, so it is unclear if someone with weapon mastery gladius (or any other weapon really) can use weapon mastery to bump the spell damage of the base spell gladius of light.

And sadly, though it makes no sense, it seems to me that it would both only effect nonliving enemies, and would not bypass all their AR anymore, because of the way the combining rules work. It would only bypass half their worn armor and all their fire AR. You gain the worst of both worlds – some AR and only being able to hit limited beings. The question is whether the additional die of damage is worth not getting through their AR.

As long as the “Massive Damage” rules are in play, the Advanced spells definately come out ahead, even though the ‘per tick’ damage is a little lower.

My biggest problem with using Gladius of Light in play is being unable to use it for some of my Techniques (Disarm Foe being the main one). Going from +6 (Balanced) to +1 (unarmed) attack bonus has made it a lot harder to get off.
vs infernals with big weapons; Gladius of Light or normal gladius and access to Disarm… So far I’ve been taking GoL and relying on my Av. Which the infernals then ignore by reaming my less well-protected collegues.