Brilliant energy not all it's cracked up to be?

Question

I have this sai and it's already a speed weapon. That character will be taking improved disarm. Am looking at the entry for brilliant energy. "A brilliant energy weapon ignores nonliving matter." Obviously intended to pass through armor and such, but also golems and undead. It looks like not only can I not sunder with it but disarm would be ineffective as well.

This character would do well with a weapon which could switch between being brilliant and not brilliant, but I don't remember if turning on/off weapon enchantments was a homebrew thing or if there is an option in any of the 3.5 core rules. Anybody have an alternative to this? I don't want to give up passing through armor just so she can disarm every now and then.

Answer 1

Brilliant does indeed ignore all armor and hardness. You can't sunder with it and disarm is debatable, though Luke Skywalker managed it. Are you really going to be able to afford brilliant as a weapon enchant anyway; it's a +4 bonus?

There's no RAW way to turn off a weapon enchant. You could try to convince your GM to make it an extra-cost option on the enchant. Or you could try to add it via an add-on, like those weapon power crystals from the Magic Item Compendium. Or just have an item where you can cast the spell Brilliant Blade (Complete Arcane) when you really want it (likely to be a lot cheaper too) and use the weapon normally most of the time.

Answer 2

Your assumptions are right.

I'd like to point out that turning on and off enchantments is a feature of certain enchantments such as flaming. I suggest you to have two separate weapons, one for disarming and one for ignoring armor. Which one to unsheat is up to you.