Forums of the Megaverse®

Does anyone know of any rules or stats listed anywhere that state definitively whether the Crystal Swords from Island at the Edge of the World can harm vampires?

Im pretty sure the description of crystal devices says magic device, and they can pick from magic powers, so they are magic.
And the western empire book has the most up to date vampire info i think and im pretty sure it says magic, silver and holy water hurts them.

I'm pretty sure Kiralon is right.

"Island at the Edge of the World" on pg88 repeatedly describes this as a branch of magic, making the psionic devices magical in nature. It is even reinforced on pg89 when discussing the "Basic Powers & Data", and specifically Crystal Swords are on pg95 (and I'm sure there are other statements to this effect I am just not going to document them or look them up as it seems pretty clear with just these 3 references).

While "Western Empire" AFAIK doesn't consider Vampire vs Psionic Attacks, the Rifts RPG line does. In Rifts World Book 1 (original pg34, I'm not sure about the revised edition) it does consider the issue with regard to specific powers (at the time all part of the PF2E line) and they are capable of doing damage to a Vampire's H.P (short note some are more effective than others, and oddly enough PyroKinesis isn't addressed). This means that Megaversally, even if you don't consider it a magic device but a psionic device it should be able to damage PB's Vampires (other undead is another matter).

Jung_Yul wrote:Does anyone know of any rules or stats listed anywhere that state definitively whether the Crystal Swords from Island at the Edge of the World can harm vampires?

to answer the literal question...no, there is no text saying if they can or can't.

Jung_Yul wrote:Does anyone know of any rules or stats listed anywhere that state definitively whether the Crystal Swords from Island at the Edge of the World can harm vampires?

Island at the edge of the world, page 96: "The basic ability of the [crystal] sword is to become a powerful magic weapon"

Western Empire, page 216: Magic weapons [etc.] inflict normal damage to the vampire.

I will expand on my answer, While they never say that the [sup]1[/sup]Pionic devices that make up the body of work made by the so-called Crystal mage couldn't hurt Vampires. All I did say was a direct answer to the question posed was ....

drewkitty ~..~ wrote:to answer the literal question...no, there is no text saying if they can or can't.

However, since Pionic devices are mystical in nature, even though not literally 'magical', they IMHO do hurt vampires.

footnote 1: The book that includes the crystal mage text is from the 1st edition books, so the term 'Pionic devices' had not been created yet. As such the writer didn't have the technical terms to write into that book.
-And in the context of the 'time of 1000 magics' psionics, in which that section of text was written in, were considered to be a form of magic. Even though when speaking technically in modern terms, they are not magic.

To broaden the question, do the weapons created by DB15's Crystal Magic count as magical weapons? A couple of the spells e.g. Crystal Throwing Star explicitly mention charging a crystal with magic energy, but others don't. The question might well similarly apply to the weapons created by Pyromancy (Rifter 82).