Radiant Armaments

The exotic, highly personalized equipment of a magical girl is in many ways inextricably twined with her own essence. No crude tools, they are physical manifestations of her inner light, with a singularity and truth of purpose few mortal craftsmen could ever hope to match. The armaments of an evoker are, to many, her symbol – her costume an icon by which others can remember her light.

While they may bear superficial resemblance to mortal weapons and armor, the equipment of an evoker maintains a power detached from its oft-whimsical appearance. Upon gaining the Radiant Armaments class feature, the magical girl selects device and costume archetypes that most closely match her attire, using their stats regardless of what her actual outfit consists of. An evoker is always proficient with the weapons and armor that form her costume.

A magical girl may summon her costume as a full-round action, and dismiss it with the same. Summoning or dismissing her device requires a move action. However, if she wishes, an evoker can compress her device into a small, innocuous trinket rather than dismissing it – compressing a device into, or retrieving it from, this storage form is an action equivalent to sheathing or drawing a weapon. It is possible to temporarily rob a magical girl of her device by stealing this trinket, but it will always find its way back to her if she spends 1d4+1 hours looking for it, regardless of the contrived circumstances needed to permit such a recovery.

Radiant Armaments always count as Masterwork, gaining all the benefits of such. Masterwork benefits have been accounted for in the following tables. An evoker’s costume and device may be enchanted normally, but the evoker herself must be present throughout the enchantment process for the effects to take hold. Radiant armaments brought into an antimagic field or similar effect will continue functioning normally, but any Imbuements applied to them will be suppressed until exiting the field.

Light
A light costume provides great resilience while hindering its wearer little, if at all. The most common form of armor across the different varieties of magical girl, light costumes frequently take the form of gowns, suits, dresses, or other unarmored clothing, revealing its protective prowess only when struck. A light costume counts as a suit of light armor.

Medium
Though such generalist armor is generally eschewed by common adventurers in favor of more extreme equipment, there are many magical girls who find a middle-of-the-road quite approach rewarding to their unique combat style. Like a heavy costume, a medium costume is quite clearly designed for defense, but is significantly less restrictive. A medium costume counts as a suit of medium armor.

Heavy
A heavy costume burdens its wearer, but offers much greater protection. Perhaps as a side effect of its more obvious presence, a heavy costume is far less likely to take a non-militant appearance. Often, it incorporates metal or leather into its design, forming itself as a stylized mimicry of armor in much the same way the a light costume mimics clothing. A heavy costume counts as suit of heavy armor.

Aura
Not all costumes manifest as discrete entities - some magical girls prefer to channel their radiant power directly, calling upon the pure power of her imbuements rather than distancing herself through the medium of some physical item. While an aura does little to protect its wielder directly, it allows her to effortlessly empower her armaments towards their full potential. So long as she is manifesting her aura, the evoker gains a number of motes equal to half her evoker level (minimum 1 mote), which are seperate from her normal mote pool and may not serve any function other than to be invested in imbuements or lightforge feats. While manifested, an aura invariably gives off some sort of tell-tale visual effect, such as patterns of glowing runes, or even transforming the evoker's skin to a shining coat of silver. An evoker manifesting an aura costume does not count as wearing armor, and loses the Armor bonus to AC of any armor she might currently be wearing. Armor bonuses from a non-armor source (such as a spell, or Bracers of Armor) still apply normally, as do any other bonuses to AC.<

Versatile
A versatile device may be wielded as a one-handed or two-handed weapon. When an evoker wielding a versatile device readies her costume elements, she may select a single Device Effect to assign to her versatile weapon. She gains the benefit of the chosen Effect. This bonus device effect does not count against the evoker's limit, and she may not invest motes in it, or use its cartridge effect. Most commonly, weapons of the versatile archetype are modeled after swords, axes, or maces, but such unusual choices as a frying pan or still-living ferret are not entirely unheard of, and even the most mundane weapons are usually given a personal flair.

Mighty
A mighty device is wielded as a two-handed weapon. When making a full attack with a mighty device, an evoker may choose to forgo all attacks after the first. If she does so, her attack deals x2 damage, with the multiplier increasing by one for every attack sacrificed in this manner. Extra damage from a Blast, Strike maneuver, or similar effect is not multiplied on a hit. Mighty weapons are often exaggerated by their wielders, made to look far heavier and more powerful than they actually are. Upscaled weapons of almost any type may be wielded as a mighty weapon, and some eccentric magical girls go so far as to model their armament after something that, while heavy and large, is not a weapon at all.

Stance
A stance has no physical form, instead infusing the evoker’s body with radiant power when activated, allowing her to fight completely unarmed. While active, a stance grants the magical girl the benefits of the Improved Unarmed Strike feat, and gives her unarmed strike the properties shown on the above table. While using her stance, an evoker’s attacks may be with either fist interchangeably or even from elbows, knees, and feet. This means that the evoker may make unarmed strikes even with her hands full. There is no such thing as an off-hand attack for an evoker with this ability striking unarmed. While active, a stance invariably gives off some tell-tale visual effect – the evoker’s fists may glow brightly, or her body may be covered in luminous tattoos. Activating or deactivating her stance is an action equivalent to drawing or sheathing a weapon. An evoker with a stance active is still unarmed. An evoker with a stance weapon qualifies for feats as if she possessed the Improved Unarmed Strike feat, though she only gains their benefits while her stance is active unless she acquires Improved Unarmed Strike on her own. Lastly, an evoker manifesting a stance device may add her evoker stat modifier to her weapon damage rolls.

Implement
An evoker may only select the Implement device archetype if she is capable of manifesting Blast illuminations. An implement is wielded as a one-handed weapon. While of little is as actual weapons, an implement can serve as an invaluable aid in channeling simple illuminations. Whenever the evoker readies her illuminations, she may assign a single readied illumination to her implement. The chosen illumination must be a standard-action Blast illumination. As a full-round action, the wielder of an implement device may evoke its assigned illumination without expending motes. Implements are not generally intended to see heavy combat, serving purely as a focus for radiant power and little beyond that. As such, they tend to take inoffensive forms such as books, staves, or scepters.

Bolt
A bolt device is a ranged weapon, and requires two hands to fire. Bolt devices reload automatically, provide their own ammunition, and are incompatible with ammunition for other weapons. When attacking a target at great distances, a bolt device suffers only a -1 penalty for each range increment beyond the first. Additionally, an evoker wielding a bolt device may add one half her evoker stat modifier (rounded down) to her weapon damage rolls. Most commonly, these devices take the form of bow, guns, or heavy crossbows, but it is not unheard of for them to be formed in more exotic shapes – such as a pair of gloves that hurl and subsequently regenerate shards of razor-sharp crystal.

Marksman
A marksman device is a ranged weapon, and requires only one hand. Marksman weapons reload automatically, provide their own ammunition, and are incompatible with ammunition for other weapons. When attacking a target within the device's first range increment, the wielder of a marksman device may ignore miss chance due to cover on the first attack against a given target each round. This does not negate any other effect of cover. Marksman weapons most frequently manifest as hand crossbows, pistols, or thrown weapons of some sort, but some evokers manifest them as trinkets that fire bolts of solid force, or other strange compositions.

Tricky
A tricky device is wielded as a light melee weapon, and may be used as a thrown weapon. An evoker attacking with a tricky device may choose to use her Dexterity modifier in place of her Strength when calculating weapon damage. Additionally, after being thrown, a tricky device immediately returns to the evoker's hand, ready to be used again. devices often take the form of lightweight, subtle objects such as needles, fans, daggers, or even a handful of dice.

Flexible
A flexible device is wielded as a light melee weapon, and possesses a reach of 15 feet. Unlike most reach weapons, the wielder of a flexible weapon may attack freely into adjacent spaces, and does not threaten the space into which she could make an attack. Flexible devices generally manifest as ribbons, chains, whips, or streamers of pure energy. While the specifics vary from evoker to evoker, most magical girls wield a flexible device like a living thing, dancing a twisting both in and out of combat, seemingly of its own accord.

Vigilant
A vigilant device may wielded as a one-handed or two-handed weapon. A vigilant device is a reach weapon, but an evoker may shift her stance with a vigilant weapon, allowing her to wield it as a standard melee weapon. Changing between reach and standard stances with a vigilant device is a swift action, or a free action if the evoker is wielding the device two-handed. Evokers often manifest vigilant devices in the guise of polearms, lances, spears, and other weapons with the sort of reach this device archetype provides. Others choose to manifest a smaller weapon, reach becoming apparent as it lashes out with a razor-sharp shockwave of radiant power.

Harmonious
An evoker may only select the Harmonious device archetype if she is capable of manifesting Companion illuminations. As a full-round action, the wielder of a harmonious device may command her currently active companion to move as if it had taken a move action to move, then execute its basic attack once. If the evoker somehow has multiple active companions, she may command only one of them in this manner. A harmonious device is generally not intended to see much use as an actual weapon, and most often takes the form of a tool by which an evoker may communicate with her companions. Instruments are by far the most common manifestation of this device archetype, but among crueler evokers whips and other implements of punishment are not unheard of.