The Art of Magic Item Creation
by Thomas A. Stobie, SFO
This document addresses and builds upon the creation of magic items in the Rolemaster Standard System/Rolemaster Fantasy Roleplaying.
This document discusses the creation of magic items except potions in the Rolemaster System. Potions are addressed in a separate document.
It discusses alchemist enchantment spells, the recharging of single use items, provides a more balanced approach to chargeable items, addresses crafting magical receptability into items, discusses additional spell mastery uses in magic item crafting, provides some recommendations about Creating Magic Items, and illustrates the process with a few examples.
Looking at the Alchemist spell lists, you notice a number of spells with a 24 hour duration. These are the enchantment spells. Let us consider how they work. They permit the alchemist to spend a major part of his active day enchanting an item with that ability. I consider this around 10 hours of active work with light activity and sleep for the rest of the day. It is not possible to do more work in the day and shorten the time as the enchantment process itself is draining on the alchemist and the light activity and sleep (meditation) is required.
An item that has stored a single use spells has an affinity to hold that spell, so it is much easier to reenchant to hold that spell again. This affinity fades slowly over time from when the single use was used.
To recharge a single use item that is not broken or consumed in the use, an alchemist needs to cast the same spell (with the same spell mastery modifications, if any) and an Imbedding spell of the same level used in the item's original creation for a number of days.
Time Requirements to Recharge a Single Use Item: (round up to the whole number of days)
[Level of spell + Level of Imbed Spell] x [Recharge Delay Factor]
/[Increased Alchemical Potency from Spell Mastery of Imbed or 1, if none applied] days.
Recharge Delay Factor Table
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Treasure Companion focuses on Wands, Rods, and Staffs (as defined below) as the types of chargeable items with certain associated properties (I have listed these in the table below).
Treasure Companion Chargeable Item Properties Table
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As seen in the table the spell levels affected and the number of charges both go up independent of each other. This results in low number of charges for low level spells, and more charges for higher level spells. I believe that a fairer system would determine the number of charges based on the power of the Charge spell and the level of the spell with charges.
I propose a more flexible classification scheme based on the size of the object charged, and specifc Charge spell used. To give greater flexibility, I propose a new set of Charge Spells replacing the standard three on the Imbedding spell lists.
| Revised Charge Spells Table | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| The Charge spells replace the spells, Charge Wand, Charge Rod, and Charge Staff on the "Own Realm Imbedding", "Other Realm Imbedding", & "Divine Imbedding" Alchemist Base Spell Lists. Likewise the Make Charged Item spells replace the spells, Make Wand, Make Rod, and Make Staff on the "Organic Skills", "Holy Works", & "External Concentration" Alchemist Base Spell Lists. If two spells exist on a spell list at the same level it is fine. When used to recharge an existing charged item, Maximum Power and Maximum # of Charges limit how many charges are replenished in the object up to the maximum the object can hold (determined at item creation). The level of the spell being recharged must be equal or less than the Maximum Spell Level of the Charge Spell. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Below I provide an item size table (with a focus on wands, rods, and staffs) to give the relative sizes of many objects used for the placement of charges. For any spell that requires targeting (except where enchanted that target is self [the user or the object itself] and if affects additional targets they must be in direct contact with the user), the object must be aimable at the target.
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Spell Law specifies that recharging the item take the appropriate Charge spell cast for a number of weeks equal to its level. Treasure Companion applies a x.5 time cost modifier for charged items. The recharging alchemist need not know how to cast the spell he is recharging.
I propose the following formulae for charging chargeable items:
Experienced crafters can construct their items to make it easier to incorporate magic into them, particularly if they have knowledge of the Alchemist magic item creation process used.
Receptability is expressed as a percentage where 100% indicates normal receptability and is applied as a divisor to the Magic Item Creation Time Calculation. This requires a special crafting roll (using the appropriate craft skill(s)) with the following difficulties per targeted receptability & other modifiers with the results as given on the Crafting Magical Receptability Static Manuever Table.
| Crafting Magical Receptability Difficulty Table
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Crafting Magical Receptability Modifier Table
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Crafting Magical Receptability Static Manuever Table
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Spell Mastery on a charge spell can decrease the minimum size (volume) of an object required for the given Make Charged Item spells.
Spell Mastery on an alchemist enchanting spell can increase its potency letting one day equal multiple days. The same potency modifier should be applied to all alchemist spells cast.
Spell Mastery on an alchemist bonus enchanting spell (Armor n, General n, Weapon n) can alter the bonus slightly. Note that most alchemists will charge a lot for the improving the bonus as they had to sacrifice other spell mastery possibilities to achieve it.
Spell Mastery on a spell can be used to reduce the apparent level (down to half of the original level) of the spell, making it easier for other spells to interact with it. In the context of magic item creation, this means needing a lesser Imbed and related spells may be required to imbed certain spells.
| Additional Spell Mastery Modifiers | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Reduce Minimum Enchanted Volume This is modifying the enchanting spell (Charge n) to allow it to work on an object smaller than normal required by the spell. % Reduction & Spell Mastery Modifier
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Increase Alchemical Potency This is modifying alchemist spells to increase the potency of them to speed up the construction of magic items. The spells still have a 24 hour duration, but the total time is reduced based on the potency selected. When recharging rechargable items the spell mastery modifier is halved. Increased Potency Factor & Spell Mastery Modifier
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| Vary Enchanted Bonus This is modifying the enchanted bonus of the item from the enchanting spell (Armor n, General n, Weapon n) to produce slightly weaker or stronger effects.
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Reduce Effective Spell Level This is modifying the spell to make it respond like an lesser level spell. Maximum reduction is 50% of the original level. # Levels & Spell Mastery Modifier
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Given knowledge of the spell list, casters should be able to cast intermediate spells between lists to better balance magic item creation cost and time.
I have added three spells, Weekly X, Monthly X, and Yearly X, similiar to Daily X, but provide limited uses over longer time periods. They are enchanted like daily abilities per the Treasure Companion except for Weekly items use .625x time cost, for monthly items use .5x time cost, and for yearly items use .375 time cost.
If two spells (or more) exist on a spell list at the same level it is fine.
Expanded Alchemist Spells Table
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The General n spell on the General Enchantments, Holy Office, Understanding Mastery, & Divine Enchantments Alchemist list can be used to give bonus to various magic items.
In this section I address other uses for the General n spells. These uses I refer to as properties. See the Additional Uses of General Item Spell Table for additional requirements, such as some form of intelligence in the item, restrictions and the associated general spells.
Properties with Descriptions:
Additional Uses of General Item Spells Table
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This builds upon the creation of magical items as defined in the Rolemaster Standard System [RMSS] and Rolemaster Fantasy Role Playing [RMFRP]. Copyright 1995-2000 © Iron Crown Enterprises, Inc., Charlottesville, Virginia USA. Rolemaster is a trademark properties of Iron Crown Enterprises, Inc. (ICE). All rights reserved.
© 2003-2004 Thomas A. Stobie, SFO - Permission to use and copy for personal use is granted.
The majority of the contents were published in the July 2004 issue of the online magazine, the Guild Companion.
Last revised 2 Jul 2004.