Spell Blade

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A type of Status Buff spell seen in some RPGs that temporarily imbues the user's weapon with magic, letting them deal out elemental damage or cause Standard Status Effects with their attacks. Among other uses, this is one method to create a Flaming Sword. Usually a preferred tactic of the Magic Knight.

See also Item Crafting, which lets you permanently add effects like these to a weapon. Not to be confused with Elemental Crafting or Socketed Equipment. Compare and contrast to The Magic Touch and Elemental Punch.

Examples of Spell Blade include:

Anime and Manga

• In The Slayers, one of the Sword of Light's capabilities is that it can absorb spells cast at or blocked by it, and be used to deliver them point blank For Massive Damage.
  • The Astral Vine spell temporarily charges an object with magical energy so that it can hurt mazoku - it's frequently used by Zelgadis to enhance his sword. Amelia invented a similar spell, Visfarank, which affects the caster's hands and feet.
• In Fairy Tail, all the magic in Edolas comes in this form, however Edolas magic/weapons are of significantly lower quality than Earthland magic (The flame staff can only do one strong attack before expiring)
• The chakra-flow technique in Naruto is used by many characters to enhance bladed weapons with Elemental Powers.

Fan Works

• In the Harry Potter/Sword Art Online crossover Mystic Knight Online by jgkitarel, Akihiko Kayaba gives Harry a unique sword skill that exploits his magic to create elemental effects with his blade -- in order to keep Harry from ripping SAO apart from the inside with uncontrolled magic use.

Tabletop Games

• Warhammer Fantasy Battle: Wizards using the Lore of Fire can cast Flaming Sword of Rhuin, which enhances the weapons of the troops targeted with it by setting the edges on fire. Wizards of Metal can use Enchanted Blades of Aiban to make troop's weapons into Absurdly Sharp Blades.
• Dungeons and Dragons:
  • The arcane spell "Magic Weapon" and "Greater Magic Weapon" which enchant a weapon with a +x to attack/damage. A druid can do the same thing to natural weapons (claws, etc.) with the "Magic Fang" line of spells. Other spells exist to bless a weapon (for fighting evil creatures), turn it into a specific metal (such as silver to fight lycanthropes), or even turn it into Pure Energy that passes through non-living material like armor. Psionics gets in on the action with "Metaphysical Weapon/Claw" and "Weapon/Claws of Energy".
  • Also the "Mighty Wallop" line of spells, which make bludgeoning weapons hit as if they're x times bigger than the actually are.
  • The artificer's "Weapon Augmentation" infusion does this, allowing him to temporarily imbue a weapon with the abilities of any magical weapon.
  • The paladin spell "Holy Sword" and the Eberron cleric spell "Heroes' Blade" turn a sword into a holy blade for a ton of bonuses and awesomeness.
  • The duskblade takes a different approach, with the ability to cast spells on enemies as they strike them with their weapons. The arcane archer and enlightened fist Prestige Classes get more limited versions based on arrows and fists respectively.
• Pathfinder, being based on Dungeons and Dragons 3.5, shares most of its examples. The magus class combines duskblade-style spell channeling with the ability to grant temporary enchantments to its weapon.
• The Legend Game System not only has the basic Flame Blade spell, but the tactician class also has one that lets their allies' weapons cut away magical buffs.

Video Games

• Final Fantasy V: The Spell Blade ability used by Mystic Knights is the Trope Namer. It's considered to be something of a Game Breaker, since swords imbued with Standard Status Effects will cause that effect 100% of the time as long as the attack itself hits and the target isn't immune, making Break sword an easy way to dispatch of many enemies. On top of that, weapons imbued with Holy or third tier elemental spells will deal instant death to enemies weak to their element, and Flare will simply make you deal huge amounts of damage with every attack.
  • The Nintendo DS remake of Final Fantasy IV gives Cid the "Upgrade" ability, which lets him use certain items to add an element to his hammer's attacks.
  • In Final Fantasy IV: The After Years this trope occurs with several of the band attacks.
  • The Spell Blade class in Final Fantasy Tactics A2 attacks with a sword imbued with one of various Standard Status Effects.
  • Final Fantasy Tactics Advance has the Gladiator class, several of their abilities wrap their sword in elemental magic (fire, ice, lightning)
  • In Final Fantasy IX Vivi could do this for Steiner when they were in the same party.
  • In Final Fantasy X Wakka can inflict Standard Status Effects on enemies through these abilities as well as his Element Reels Overdrive.
  • In Final Fantasy X-2 Characters in the Warrior dressphere could deal out attacks like this, the skills themselves where named after recurring elemental swords like Flametongue and Excalibur.
  • In Final Fantasy XIII (and XIII-2), the uncommonly used En-(element) skills do this as well as the Strike line of attacks.
  • In Dissidia Final Fantasy the Trope Namer is the EX Burst for Idiot Hero Bartz Klauser while other characters get similar variations such as Jecht Blade which wreathe's said character's weapon in fire as well as Cecil's Soul Eater, Shadow Bringer and Saint's Fall do the same with dark and holy magic respectively.
• In the Kingdom Hearts series there are the single attack versions such as Roxas and Xion's Event Horizon, Sora's Ars Arcanum, Riku's Darkstrom and the recurring Fire, Ice, Lightning Edge commands. There is also the temporary buff version in Birth By Sleep with the Command Styles Firestorm, Thunderbolt and Diamond Dust.
• Seiken Densetsu 3 has various "Saber" spells, which can be used on not only the user, but their allies as well. There is one Saber spell for all 8 elements, with Moon Saber letting you absorb the enemy's HP and Leaf Saber absorbing MP. Duran and Charlotte can learn most of these spells, and Kevin can learn a few as well depending on what class you make him. There are also items that can replicate the effects of these spells. Some bosses will even deliberately cast a saber on you of an element that they absorb.
• In Tales of Symphonia, Sheena learns spells like this every time she forms a pact with a summon spirit (Tethe Seal or Sylva Seal, depending on which world the Spirit resides in). The spells would temporarily give one person's weapon the elemental properties of the spirit in question. There are also items called "Quartz" that have the same effect when used in battle.
• They have something like this in Star Wars: The Force Unleashed.
• Fayt from Star Ocean: Till the End of Time can impart his sword with basic elemental powers, and in late-game, with Holy magic.
• In Eternal Darkness, the characters can enchant any weapon from various periods of history. This ends up with the situation where you can have an enchanted assault rifle with attached grenade launcher.
• Warhammer Online: Based on the tabletop version above, Empire Bright Wizards can cast Flaming Sword of Rhuin to set the edges of his party's weapons on fire. Dark Elf Sorcerers can give their party's weapons ice upgrades.
• Fable brings us augments, some of which can upgrade their weapons with elemental power like fire and electricity.
• Several mage abilities in Dragon Age Origins add elemental damage/effects to your entire party's weapons.
• In Magicka one of the options you have in spellcasting is to channel your spell through your melee weapon.
• Dual techs between Crono & Marle or Lucca in Chrono Trigger produced this effect.
• This ability is a trademark of Shamans in World of Warcraft, used to improve a weapon's melee speed, spellcasting power, or healing power.
• In the MARDEK series, while it isn't an actual buff or effect, Mardek's Magic Sword abilities such as Flame Slash and Earth Slash are explained as being sword attacks enchanted by Rohoph's power.
• In Last Scenario, Gust Strike and Rocksmash, Gust Strike being the first spell you ever get.
• In Exit Fate, the *strike spells.
• In Dungeons of Dredmor, damage buffs are standard weapon enchantments from the Anvil of Krong, and commonly applied by various potions, mushrooms, and passive buff skills.
• In the fifth and final Legacy of Kain game Defiance ^{[dead link]}, Raziel gains multiple elemental upgrades for his Wraith Blade to eventually meet his destiny.

Western Animation

• Sleeping Beauty: How the fairies give Prince Phillip a Sword of Truth and a Shield of Virtue to fight Maleficent. They even add an extra incantation before the final blow.