Materials are easy, the weapon trails in the pic on the very first post use materials, the one of the mace uses the shader. Materials are easy just make some code like this:

material my_test_material
{
emissive_red = 255;
diffuse_red = 100;
//whatever
}

Check the manual on this, it covers it well. Look at the sample materials listed under the example. To assign a material to an object, just add this to the object's ACTION: my.material = your_material_name_here;

B). Was pretty much what I was leaning towards, but with charging you would be able to attack WITHOUT charging, but if you charge you can use a stronger attack. Like ZELDA. Actually what I had was a damage bonus based on the charge, and if you charge up all the way there was a chance that you would leave your weapon stuck in the enemy until it dies.