Swords Plus One
The first and most massively important thing I can say about magic items is this. There is no such thing as a magic item. There are swords carved out of the bones of dragons, talismans made from the chains worn by the first of the Cloistered Brethren of Chains during the Binding War and flutes made from reeds cut from the banks of the River of Whispers and anointed with the tears of blind men, but there are no "magic items". Magic items are unique, each and every one. They are also rare, most people go their entire lives without seeing one. PCs will probably be luckier in that regard, but nevertheless the creation, location and use of magical items is not a trivial thing.
Making Magical Items
To make a magical item, you need at least 3 ranks of an appropriate Craft skill. You also need to be able to afford the raw materials, as if making a Superior Item of the appropriate type. Making magical items is a five step process, which begins here...
Conceptualisation
The conceptualisation of a magical item has two steps, which can be carried out in either order. One is to work out what the item will do, the other is to work out how it's made. These can be worked out in either order because it's up to you whether you think "Hey, I wonder what a blade forged in dragonfire and cooled in the River of Shadows will do?" or "Hmm, I wonder how I'd make a talisman to protect me from the Vitriarchs...".
The most important thing to remember in the Conceptualisation stage is that there must be an intimate connection between the effects of the item, the nature of the maker, and the process of creating the item.
Finding
The first step in making magic items - finding - is to choose and find a suitable material or materials to make your item from. The material should be suitable both to the magical effect you're after and the form the artifact is to take. When it comes to working out the final power of the artifact, you'll total points gleaned from all three stages of construction. Points from the finding stage are based on the material and are as follows:
- 0 Points: Mundane materials; steel, wood and the like.
- 1 Point: Prepared mundane materials. Alchemically purified steel, ritually blessed wood. Bone and blood.
- 3 Points: Significant materials. The wood of a tree struck three times by lightning, the bones of a necromancer, the blood of a noble man born of humble roots.
- 7 Points: Extremely significant materials. The wood of the oldest tree in the Western Forest. The blood of a dragon.
- 13 points: Truly unique materials. The wood of the First Tree. The heart of a dragon. The eye of a god.
If there is more than one material involved in the construction of an item then you add the total value of the most significant item and half the value of the second most significant item (round up). An item of human bone and dragon's blood, for example, would be worth 8 points.
Forging
This step is the process of taking the raw materials and shaping them into the item you want. This step is called "forging" because I like the idea of all three steps beginning with F, and because most magic items are metallic. It could, of course, actually be "whittling" or "weaving".
- 0 Points: Forged by normal means for another man.
- 1 Point: Forged by the hand of the intended user. Forged by an Alchemist.
- 3 Points: Forged in a natural phenomenon such that part of that phenomenon is forged into the item (forged in a volcano, woven in a high wind).
- 7 Points: Forged in a manner innately divine and magical (e.g. carved on the Shattered Plain using glass picked from the ground).
- Binding Up Within the Item A Great Part Of Your Power: If you're a Sorceror you can get +3 points for every level of Magic you tie up in the item - these levels of magic become unavailable to you if the item is destroyed or you lose possession of it.
- Using Significant Tools: Can give you a +1 or a +2, depending on the nature of the tools.
Fixing
The final stage in the creation of magical items is the fixing, finishing the thing off and binding both of the previous steps together. Points from fixing come from the significance of the action used to fix the artifact. The fixing is the coda to the whole thing, and symbolically marks the beginning of the life of the artifact. The nature of the fixing will touch the entire nature of the artifact. Remember, the fixing sets the fate of the item in a big way. If you kill somebody with it you've got a terrible and baleful thing, if you use it to feed the hungry you have something benevolent.
- 0 Points: No significant fixing. The item is forged normally, tidied up and used.
- 1 Point: The item is anointed with tears or with blood. The item is prayed over or alchemically treated.
- 3 Points: The item is cooled in one of the Rivers of the North, or in human tears. The item is taken to the Burned Realm and buried in the ash. The item is used to kill a man.
- 7 Points: The item is cooled in the tears of a God. The item is taken to the Glass Tower and used to catch the reflection of a Vitriarch. The item is taken by another man and used to kill its creator.
Actualisation
The process of finding will take place either on an adventure or between adventures. The process of forging will usually take place between adventures, but not always. The process of fixing may take place on or between adventures. As a result, preparing a magical item can take from one to three adventures to sort out (or you can do it in one if you find your materials on an adventure, forge them in downtime and skip fixing them). In real time this probably works out as a term or two, significantly more if you take into account the problems of waiting for the right adventure to show up. Okay, so you've got these points, what do they do? The points are a measure of the power of the artifact, which measures the kind of effects it will produce:
An item, once found, forged and fixed, will have somewhere between 0 and (potentially) forty-something points invested in it. Items come in roughly five levels of power:
- 0-10 Points Items on this scale barely register. They provide occasional slight advantages. In game mechanical terms, every point invested in the item gives you 2XP worth of skills that the item can, in a roundabout way, confer on its user. Please note that this is a simple system kludge designed to represent minor magical effects. It will never give you spellcasting, and the effects need to be suitable to the item. Please note that despite the generic nature of this mechanic, we are Not At Home to Gauntlets of Ogre Power.
- 10-20 Points Overlap deliberate. Here things get a bit more interesting. You can start getting explicit spell like effects. I cannot believe I just typed the phrase "spell like effects". As a very rough rule of thumb, items at this level can use - uggh - "spell like effects" roughly consistent with level 1-2 spellcasting, on a per encounter or per adventure basis. Assume every point invested in the item gives you one use per adventure, or every 5 points gives you one use per encounter. Then try to put it in better terms.
- 20-30 Points Here effects get consistent with level 3-4 spellcasting, possibly even level 5. Roughly, assume 2 points invested in this item gets you a use per adventure, 10 a use per encounter and more-or-less-the-whole-thing an at will.
- 30-40 Points At this level, you get into seriously puissant "owning this thing will change your life" territory. Permenant alterations to skills and abilities are the order of the day.
- 40-50 Points At this level, it's the One Ring.
Examples: Noted Artifacts Extant in the White City
The Seven Shard-Knives
The Seven Shard-Knives were made from slivers of glass found in the Shattered Plain, and were constructed in that place by a Glass Sorceror of ill repute. They are currently in the hands of the personal guard of Lemuel D'Artois. The Shard-Knives count as superior quality daggers for combat purposes, and Vitrify those they wound.
Ash-Blessed Swords
Many of the Priests of the Temple of Ash forge their own weaponry dedicated to the cause of the Burned Lords. These weapons tend to be relatively minor artifacts, counting as superior quality and sometimes inflicting +1 damage against the undead or against necromancers.
Vengeance
This was a particularly baleful weapon created some hundred years ago by a Blood Sorceror whose village was put to the sword by a noble of a line now extinct for relatively obvious reasons. The sword is said to have been steeped in blood at every stage of its creation, finally fixed when it was driven into the heart of the youngest daughter of the noble in question. It is said that this sword killed all but one of the offending line of nobility, and that the last in that line took up the sword to seek revenge for the death of his family. So the cycle began and so it continues. Anybody who takes up the sword becomes a potent instrument for vengeance, implacable, indefatigable and near unstoppable. However, as an eye for an eye leaves the world blind, those who bear the sword inevitably fall to it.
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