Enchantment spells allow wizards to imbue objects with magic powers. Some magic items permit the user to cast spells that he does not know; others have a spell-like effect placed upon them permanently; still others do various kinds of strange and wonderful things.
Most magic items are usable by anyone, but a few may only be used by a mage. The power of a magic item endures until it is removed magically, or until the physical item breaks or wears out, at which point the magic dissolves permanently.
“Enchanting” is the process of creating a magic item using spells from the Enchantment college. Enchantments must be performed using Ceremonial Magic. Unlike most Ceremonial spells, however, enchantments can be performed alone (though most enchanters take advantage of the benefits of assistants). Lone enchanters cannot gain a skill bonus for using extra energy. To perform enchantments, the caster and any assistants must know both the Enchant spell and the specific spell being put on the item at an effective skill of 15 or better. Unskilled spectators cannot contribute energy to an enchantment.
Enchanting always requires time and energy. A particular enchantment might also require a specific item or material (e.g., a gem), or the expenditure of cash for “generic” magic supplies.
A given magic item may carry any number of spells. Each one requires a separate enchantment. The presence of an enchantment has no effect on later enchantments.
Each magic item has a “Power,” which is set upon creation. An item’s Power equals the caster’s effective skill with either the Enchant spell or the spell contained in the item – whichever is lower. The skill penalty for low mana does not apply when determining an item’s Power. Since enchanting is ceremonial magic, the caster can spend extra energy to raise his effective skill, and hence the Power of the item.
Record Power for each magic item created or found (to learn the Power of a found item, the PCs must use Analyze Magic). If an item has several spells on it, each spell has its own Power. Whenever it would be important to know the skill level of a spell cast by a magic item, use the item’s Power.
An item’s Power must be 15 or more for the item to work. Apply a temporary -5 to Power in a low-mana area; thus, an item with less than Power 20 will not work at all in a low-mana zone. No magic item works in a no-mana region!
The GM makes all rolls to enchant magic items. As with other ceremonial magic, a roll of 16 fails automatically and a roll of 17-18 is a critical failure.
On a success, the item is enchanted. On a critical success, increase the Power of the item by 2d – and if the success roll was a natural 3, the item might have some further enhancement (GM’s discretion). The caster will know that his spell went well, but he will have to use Analyze Magic to know how well.
On a failure, the results depend on the method used to enchant the item – see below. A critical failure always destroys the item and all materials used.
This method creates a magic item quickly. It takes one hour per 100 points of energy required (round up). Make the success roll at the end of that time. Succeed or fail, all the energy is spent when the GM rolls the dice.
A lone caster is limited to the energy provided by his FP, HP, and one Powerstone. But assistants can contribute their own FP and HP as described for ceremonial magic. Assistants may also use one Powerstone each. The caster is at -1 to skill for each assistant; therefore, the number of assistants allowed is the number that would reduce the caster’s effective skill to 15. With more assistants, the enchantment won’t work.
If the caster uses HP to cast the spell, his effective skill is at -1 for every HP used. The same is true for assistants, but their skill does not affect the item’s power, as long as their effective skill is at least 15. If anyone but the caster and his assistants is within 10 yards, the spell is at a further -1.
On a failure, the enchantment perverts in some way. It might acquire unpleasant side effects (see the Random Side Effects Table, p. B479), become an entirely different spell, or anything else the GM likes. The caster won’t know his spell went wrong unless he uses Analyze Magic or tries the item!
Example: Tubbs and Hawthorne decide to make some Powerstones as their first independent project, having secured three suitable gems.
Hawthorne has skill 16 in Powerstone and Enchant, while Tubbs has 15 in both, so Hawthorne does the actual casting. After the minimum hour of casting, Hawthorne rolls 12 against his effective skill of 15 – success! Each enchanter spends 10 FP. Hawthorne sets aside the newly enchanted 1-point Powerstone, and they lean back in their easy chairs to recover. Since they both have Recover Energy-15, they recover fully in 50 minutes.
In an eight-hour workday, they can repeat this process four times – five if they stay an hour late. A week later, they have successfully created two 10- point Powerstones (the third gem was shattered in a critical failure, but Tubbs promises he’ll keep the cat out of the workshop from now on).
The following week, a mage comes in needing an emergency replacement staff. Hawthorne selects a good length of wood, and they start enchanting. Hawthorne’s skill with the Staff spell is 17. His effective skill is 15 (-1 for Tubbs, -1 for the customer, who refuses to leave them be while they work). He rolls a 9, succeeding. He spends 8 FP and 8 points from his new Powerstone, while Tubbs spends 9 FP and 5 points from his Powerstone, for a total of the required 30 points.
Use this method when the enchanter wants to be sure it’s done right. It takes one “mage-day” per point of energy required. A mage-day represents a full eight-hour workday for one mage. For instance, an item that requires 100 energy points would take one mage 100 days, two mages 50 days, and so on. A mage may work on only one enchantment at a time; he may not “work two shifts,” either on the same or different items.
All of the caster’s assistants must be present every day. If a day’s work is skipped or interrupted, it takes two days to make it up. Loss of a mage ends the project!
Make the success roll at the end of the last day. There is no FP or HP cost to the enchanters – they invested the energy gradually as the spell progressed.
On a failure, the enchantment didn’t work. The time was wasted, and any materials used in the spell are lost. (Exception: If the mage was adding a spell to an already-enchanted item, it is unharmed, though extra materials are lost.)
Time spent enchanting with the Slow and Sure method counts as on-the-job training (p. B293); the enchanter must split these hours between the Enchant spell and whatever spell is being enchanted into an item.
If a mage is interrupted while enchanting using the Slow and Sure method, note the following:
other spell use is at -3. (If he stops concentrating, he loses the day’s work.)
A wizard who is bothered while not actively working on his enchantment is at no disadvantage!
An item may carry any number of spells; each one requires a separate enchantment. The presence of a spell on an item does not affect further enchantments. Exception: The Bane spell limits an item’s use, but makes it easier to enchant it further.
Placing multiple spells on a single item has advantages and disadvantages. A multiply enchanted item is easy to carry and use; dedicated Powerstones can be used by all the spells in the item. On the other hand, that single item is vulnerable. If it breaks, all the enchantments are lost… and a critical failure while adding a new enchantment destroys the item and all previous enchantments.
Some spells have “item” options that do not create an item. Typically, this entails making the spell permanent with the expenditure of substantially more energy – usually 10 or 100 times the usual casting cost. Generally, spells with this option take an area or person as their subject and thus cannot be enchanted into an item. Nevertheless, the resulting effect is a true enchantment, and can only be removed with Remove Enchantment.
Some magical items are not created by enchanters. Alchemists can create a variety of enduring objects with magical power – alchemical amulets and talismans, homunculi, and the philosopher’s stone, to name a few. Other items become magical spontaneously; very-high-mana zones sometimes generate magic items with weird and potent abilities.
Remove Enchantment and Suspend Enchantment will still work on these items, but at a -2 unfamiliarity penalty.
Magic items follow the rules for the spell(s) they contain. Many give the user the power to cast the spell – perhaps only on himself, possibly on any subject. Some are usable only by mages; that is, they only work for users who possess Magery. If an item has any “mage only” effects on it, only a mage may use the item’s powers. A spell’s description will explain if it can be placed into a magic item. Unless specified otherwise:
spell does).
for the kind of spell being cast. Power is at -5 in low-mana areas. A Resisted spell allows a normal resistance roll; use the item’s modified Power as the caster’s skill in the Quick Contest.
count.
The new owner of a magic item may not immediately learn its powers. “Always on” items (see below) or items with Link spells are the easiest to figure out. Other items will not work until they are willed to do so, and the user must will the correct effect. Thinking “Do something!” at a magical item will not activate it.
Some effects (increased attributes, for example) are obvious once the item is activated. Others (water breathing, skill augmentation) will not be apparent until a situation occurs where they can take effect. In these cases, the GM should try not to drop too many hints about the item’s nature.
The Analyze Magic spell reveals any enchantments on an item.
Certain magic items are “always on.” For the item to work, the user must wear or carry it in the usual manner (a ring on a finger, a sword in a hand, and so on). These items don’t let the wearer cast the spell – they automatically cast the spell on the wearer at no energy cost. If an arrow or dart is enchanted with hostile magic, it may be carried without harm; in this case, only a person stuck with the projectile qualified as “wearing” it. The effects continue until the item is removed by a successful Physician or First Aid roll (requires one minute) or is ripped out (doing the same damage that it did going in).
For all “always on” items, unless specified otherwise:
cost are all irrelevant. The item does not let the wearer cast the spell – it puts the spell on him, at no cost, as soon as he wears or wields the item. An “always on” item can be designed to phase in its effects over a few minutes, so that the source of the effect is not obvious; this does not affect cost or difficulty, and is often used on hostile items intended as traps.
Plentiful magic items are not appropriate to every campaign, and GMs may wish to limit the number of magic items in circulation. The simplest way to do this is to restrict Quick and Dirty Enchantment – either prohibiting it outright, or changing its parameters to require a day of enchanting per 100 energy points, rather than an hour. This makes minor magic items much more tedious and costly to produce.
Alternately, the GM can institute setting elements to restrain the availability of magic items, such as the following:
Disorganization: Enchantment on any large scale typically requires ample assistance. If enchanters are rare, or if wizards don’t often get along, the resources may rarely come together for an enchantment.
Fragility: Enchantment confers no particular durability to an item, and owners of magic items often insist on bringing them into dangerous situations. Since a magic item loses its power when damaged, breakage inevitably reduces the quantity of magic items in circulation.
Limiting spells: Many magic items have limiting spells cast upon them, and do not work for anyone but their intended user.
Harassment: It’s not hard to disrupt an enchantment. A Slow and Sure Enchantment can be disrupted easily by organizing a distraction. Delaying one member can throw off a circle of Quick and Dirty enchanters. If enchanters’ rivals and enemies are in the habit of trying to disrupt enchantments, dealing with these disruptions drives the cost of magic items up and the supply down.
The cash price of magic items is up to the GM. For a typical TL3 fantasy setting with plentiful wizardry and shops full of magic items, it should be possible to commission a magic item for about $33 per energy point. For instance, a sword with Accuracy +2, a 1,000-energy item, would cost $33,000 over and above the cost of the sword and any materials required for the enchantment.
This price, however, assumes that enchanters are using the reliable Slow and Sure method; low-energy-cost items could be mass-produced using the Quick and Dirty method. A talented enchanter with skill 20 and five assistants could pour 60 energy into an item easily, without the use of Powerstones or HP. The exact breakpoint is up to the GM, but the availability of Quick and Dirty Enchantment is sure to drop the price of minor magic items drastically. Therefore, at the GM’s discretion, any magic item that a typical enchanter or circle of enchanters could produce with Quick and Dirty Enchantment (60 energy is a reasonable default) costs only $1 per energy point. Thus, an Accuracy +1 arrow would be $25, and a magic staff would be $30, but that sword with Accuracy +2 is still $33,000.
In all cases, add the cost of the item to be enchanted and any special materials required to the cost for the enchantment itself.
These prices go upward as enchanters become rarer, of course. See Economics and Enchantment for a more detailed treatment of how to figure out magic item prices in different settings.
The prospective buyer also has to find an enchanter capable of producing the item he wants – one capable of casting both Enchant and the spell(s) to be placed on the item. Some settings have shops devoted to magic items, which are likely to have done that work for him; if he must track down a competent enchanter, it may take a good deal of time and effort over and above the actual price to get the desired item.
In worlds where magic is unknown or secret, magic items have no fair market value. Each item is a one-of-a-kind treasure, and the seller can often name his own price!
In any world – especially one where magic is plentiful – $33 per point is a lot to pay for a magic item. Fortunately, most people don’t have to. In a world where lots of people have magic items, lots of people have magic items that they don’t want anymore. Buying them is usually cheaper than paying an enchanter to make something new.
Several sources provide good second-hand magic items. In some settings, the vast majority of magic items are commissioned by nobles with more money than sense – or taste. Some of these foibles become family heirlooms, but most wind up gathering dust in some closet until the family falls on hard times and nonessential trinkets must be sold off. Worse, some items go out of style. To a typical scion of privilege, a sword with one of those tacky basket hilts from when his father was young is worthless, QuickDraw enchantment notwithstanding. For this and other reasons, cast-offs from nobles form the lion’s share of the second-hand market.
Another important source of used enchantments is the adventuring party. Exploring lost cities, defeating evil necromancers, clearing infested dungeons – whatever adventurers do, they tend to run across some magic item or another. They can’t possibly use them all; they sell them for money to fund the next expedition.
Most used magic items pass through the hands of enchantment brokers, often failed enchanters who couldn’t make it as working enchanters but still have an eye for quality. They offer magic items at a discount of up to 40%, dropping prices to about $20 per energy point. Brokers don’t usually handle items that can be enchanted with Quick and Dirty Enchantment; the margin of profit is too narrow.
The downside to buying secondhand is that you can’t always buy exactly what you want. Some enchantments are not available used; if the broker doesn’t have a wand of Stench, you’re out of luck. You may only be able to find the enchantment you want in an inconvenient form – perhaps the unfashionable sword mentioned before, or maybe the broker’s Purify Water item is the size of a hula hoop. Sometimes the only item that does what you want has another spell on it, or an irksome Limiting Enchantment. The GM is not encouraged to go overboard, harassing the players with ridiculous items, but sometimes you get what you pay for when you buy cut-rate.
Sometimes the PCs are on the other side of the transaction. When they are trying to realize a profit on items found on adventures, an enchantment broker is likely their only buyer. Brokers usually try to buy at double the discount from the new price – so an item that they might sell for 30% off, they try to buy for 60% off. PCs can try to sell directly, but it may be hard to find an interesting buyer. Even if they can locate someone who might want the item in question, they have to compete on price with the brokers, and they lack whatever reputation the brokers have to rely on.
If a PC is trying to sell items that he has enchanted, however, things are slightly different. Brokers buy new items, and sometimes can be persuaded to pay a higher rate than they otherwise might; the assurance of an item’s enchanter is worth more than that of some scruffy adventurer who dug it out of a crypt. If the PC has any connections (perhaps through the Mages’ Guild), an established enchanter may be willing to sell the item on consignment. Some enchanters carry a few minor items as examples of craftsmanship and impulse buys; for a 10% cut, they may agree to sell a PC’s magic item. The PC enchanter will get paid when the item sells, not before.
The Powerstone is an essential tool for a wizard. Even a mana source with only a few points’ capacity can extend his magical efficacy immensely. As such, they are hotly sought after.
A typical Powerstone for sale is quirk-free. Powerstones with a single noncrippling quirk are usually marked down about 10%; Powerstones with multiple quirks or a single crippling one are marked down at least 50%.
The following assumptions are incorporated into the table below.
Materials: The cost of an object suitable to be enchanted into a Powerstone of capacity P in an energy-effective manner is equal to: $10xP^2 + $40xP. However, 1 in 54 castings of the Powerstone spell causes a critical failure that destroys the object. Powerstone prices account for this risk; hence, the true materials cost is divided by 53/54 to the power of P.
Labor: Assuming the default $1/point of energy cost, each casting of the Powerstone spell costs $20. The possibility of failure is already incorporated into the $1/point figure, so labor costs are simply $20xP.
| Capacity | Cost |
|---|---|
| 1 | 70 |
| 2 | 165 |
| 3 | 280 |
| 4 | 425 |
| 5 | 595 |
| 6 | 790 |
| 7 | 1,000 |
| 8 | 1,300 |
| 9 | 1,550 |
| 10 | 1,900 |
| 12 | 2,650 |
| 15 | 4,050 |
| 20 | 7,350 |
| 25 | 12,000 |
| 30 | 18,500 |
| 35 | 27,000 |
| 40 | 38,000 |
| 45 | 52,000 |
| 50 | 69,500 |
| 60 | 120,000 |
| 70 | 195,000 |
| 80 | 300,000 |
| 90 | 460,000 |
| 100 | 675,000 |
As mentioned above, magic items bought new in a TL3 abundant-magic setting should cost $1/energy point up to about 60 points, and $33/point above 60 points. These figures were not arrived at arbitrarily; instead, they follow from the structure of the enchantment system and certain assumptions about the role and capacity of a typical enchanter. Naturally, those assumptions might not apply in all settings. Thus, this section explains how to take different assumptions about the role of magic in a particular world and arrive at price points that are more appropriate for that world than the default.
Most enchantments are performed using ceremonial circles. A lone enchanter takes a long time to do anything with Slow and Sure Enchantment, and lacks the energy reserves to accomplish much with Quick and Dirty Enchantment.
Thus, enchanting lends itself to two tiers of enchanters – master enchanters, highly skilled and able to lead large circles, and journeyman enchanters, who participate in a circle but aren’t skilled enough to lead it. To determine the price of magic items, we need to know three things: the average salary for a master enchanter, the average salary for a journeyman enchanter, and the average size of an enchanting circle. While other parameters matter, those three are critical.
For our hypothetical abundant-magic setting, we posit that a journeyman enchanter makes an Average salary, while a master enchanter makes a Comfortable salary (pp. B516-517). Thus, monthly pay for a journeyman enchanter is $700, while monthly pay for a master is $1,400. At the same time, we posit that the average master enchanter has Enchant-20, and can therefore lead a circle with up to 5 assistants.
In Slow and Sure Enchantment, each enchanter contributes one point of energy per day, no matter how large the item or the circle. Thus, the cost of a point of energy is equal to an enchanter’s daily pay.
We assume an Average salary for all Slow and Sure enchanters; there is no real advantage to having a master on hand for these projects, and they cost more. Thus, most Slow and Sure projects are done by groups of two or three journeyman enchanters.
Assuming a five-day workweek, most enchanters put in an average of 22 workdays per month. So the cost per point should be equal to $700 divided by 22.
However, enchanters also have to assume responsibility for the possibility of failure. Failed enchantments are rare; since enchantments must be cast at skill 15 or higher, they succeed at least 95% of the time. However, the cost of replacing that 5% of failed projects must be figured into the daily rate.
Thus, the final labor cost per point is equal to $700 (monthly pay) divided by 22 (workdays/month) divided by .9547 (chance of success), or about $33.
Quick and Dirty Enchantment is where master enchanters come into their own; their skill determines how many enchanters may join a circle, and thus how many points of energy are available for any given item.
We begin by assuming that every enchanter working in a Quick and Dirty circle contributes 10 energy to the enchantment. (Obviously, some enchanters will be able to contribute more or less, but 10 is a reasonable average.) Powerstones are essentially irrelevant; a professional Quick and Dirty enchanter, as we will see, performs several enchantments each day, and trying to use Powerstones is not a good return on investment. We also assume that the average enchanter knows Recover Energy at 15.
So, Quick and Dirty Enchantment takes place in cycles of one hour enchanting and 50 minutes recovering 10 FP. An eight-hour workday therefore yields about 4.4 cycles (some days the enchanters stay late, others they pack it in early).
The number of enchanters in a circle depends on the master’s Enchant skill; since every member of the circle subtracts 1 from his skill, and his effective skill must remain 15 or higher, the number of enchanters beside himself is equal to his Enchant skill minus 15. Therefore, our standard circle size is six – the master plus five assistants (Enchant-20 minus 15).
This determines the largest item a standard circle can make with Quick and Dirty Enchantment: 60 points, at six enchanters and 10 points per enchanter. It also determines the circle’s total energy output per day: six enchanters times 10 energy per cycle times 4.4 cycles per day is 264 energy per day.
To figure the total labor cost for a day’s work, we add the monthly salary for the master ($1,400) to the monthly salary for the five assistants ($700¥5, or $3,500), and divide by the 22-workday month for a daily labor cost of $223. Finally, we divide the total daily labor cost ($223) by the chance of success (.9547), and then divide by the total energy produced per day (264) to get the average cost per point of energy, which is about $.90. For ease of use, we’ll round that to $1/point.
These numbers show why there’s such a breakpoint in magic item prices. Quick and Dirty Enchantment is vastly cheaper; it’s completely uneconomical to make any magic item which can be made with Quick and Dirty Enchantment any other way. The limit, then, is the number of enchanters that can be packed into a circle. In settings where master enchanters have Enchant-24, the viable threshold for cheap magic items is 100 points; where they have Enchant-16, the threshold is 20.
Similarly, the numbers change a lot if the social status of enchanters changes. If journeyman enchanters become Comfortable while master enchanters become Wealthy, the price for Slow and Sure Enchantment jumps to nearly $70/point, while Quick and Dirty leaps to $2/point.