let me be more concise:

is it possible to have a sword have one of the visual effects applied to the blade part of the sword, and have it activated and deactivated like a lightsaber???

I like your thinking stingerhs. I'm going to see what I can do.

I tried

Flamebumpout (2062) : no effect
Flameimpact(1039) : no effect
ShieldBlue1 (2040) : no effect

:(

Too bad, that would've been slick.

oh well, thanks for trying tk. :D

out of curiousity, what methods did you try??

This was the final .nss file I tried using, attached to my VFX armband's dialog
void main() {
int nEffectNumber;
object oPC=GetFirstPC();
object oItem =GetItemInSlot(INVENTORY_SLOT_RIGHTWEAPON,oPC);
string cmMessage;
if (!(GetIsObjectValid(oItem))) {
cmMessage = GetName(OBJECT_SELF) + "-" + "Right weapon not valid";
SendMessageToPC(oPC, cmMessage);
oItem =GetItemInSlot(INVENTORY_SLOT_LEFTWEAPON,oPC);
if (!(GetIsObjectValid(oItem))) {
cmMessage = GetName(OBJECT_SELF) + "-" + "Left weapon not valid";
SendMessageToPC(oPC, cmMessage);
return;
}
else {
cmMessage = GetName(OBJECT_SELF) + "-" + "Left weapon is valid";
SendMessageToPC(oPC, cmMessage);
}
}
else {
cmMessage = GetName(OBJECT_SELF) + "-" + "Right weapon is valid";
SendMessageToPC(oPC, cmMessage);
}

effect eVFX;
for (nEffectNumber=1; nEffectNumber<7000; nEffectNumber++) {
eVFX=EffectVisualEffect(nEffectNumber);
if (GetIsEffectValid(eVFX)) {
cmMessage = GetName(OBJECT_SELF) + "-" + "Attempting to apply " + IntToString(nEffectNumber);
SendMessageToPC(oPC, cmMessage);
ApplyEffectToObject(DURATION_TYPE_PERMANENT, eVFX, oItem);
}
}
}The debug messages showed up but no effects...