Ray of hope

This effect is particularly powerful against the hopeless. Should they choose to do so, a PC can forgo the damage they should inflict and apply ray of hope instead. Instead of dealing damage, the weapon passes harmlessly through its target, taking some of its despair with it. When this happens, a hopeless NPC can perform a Beast check against an arduous (5) difficulty (or an Aggression combo Composure roll if a PC is targeted) to fight off their hopelessness. Each additional attack dealt by the weapon to the individual with the ray of hope effect lowers the difficulty of this check by 1. If the hopeless target succeeds their check, they are no longer in the grip of despair and are temporarily no longer an enemy. They can join the Knights in the rest of an ongoing fight or be too traumatised by what they have lived through to participate (GM‘s choice). Against a band of hopeless, this weapon simply lowers their cohesion. If the character deals enough violence with a ray of hope weapon to bring a band‘s cohesion down to 0, the hopeless regain their sanity and a measure of hope, at least for a while. They remember all they did while in the grip of despair, however. Against other enemy types, equipment with the ray of hope effect deals damage and violence as usual.