Magical Item Creation In many AD&D campaigns, characters are defined by their magical items. Rings, potions, boots, cloaks—all kinds of devices exist that are designed to let a character break the rules of the game in one way or another. Controlling the player character's acquisition of powerful magical items may be one of the most important jobs of the DM, since too little can lead to boredom or stagnation, while too much can create an ever-spiralling elevation of power gaming and wreck a good game even faster.
Just because a character has the ability to make a magical item, the DM shouldn't wave his hand and let the item appear in the campaign. It's important to strictly enforce the details of magical item creation, since this is a character power that can unbalance a game very quickly. The point is for the player to appreciate all the trouble and effort his character goes through in order to create even simple items. Forging a powerful item may take a character out of the campaign for months.
Creating magical items has been described in great detail in the Book of Artifacts, and again in DM™ Option: High Level Campaigns. The rules presented here mirror those systems and sum up the process for ease of reference. In addition, some more ideas for strange materials and components for magical items are included in order to widen the range of bizarre quests and riddles a DM can throw at a character while he's working on his next potion or devising a new ring or wand.
Standard vs. Nonstandard Items: A character isn't limited to duplicating magical items that appear in the DMG . He can choose to devise completely new magical items, tailored to his own needs and tastes. However, the character can attempt to create new items as he sees fit. Some may be simple variants of existing items—for example, there's no reason a ring of displacement wouldn't work as well as a cloak of displacement. Other items can incorporate powers never before seen in a magical item. Generally, variant items suffer a –5% penalty to the final success check, and nonstandard items suffer a –10% penalty.
Specialist Wizards: Some magical items very clearly duplicate the effects of certain spells or specialist schools. For example, a wand of polymorphing is obviously an item with strong ties to the school of alteration, while a wand of force belongs in the school of force. If the DM agrees that the item in question does indeed fall into the character's specialty, the wizard gains a +5% bonus on his success check when creating the item.
Special Ingredients[]
Creating an enchanted item is difficult. Even the simplest devices require extraordinary materials and processes. In many cases, characters find that an item just isn't worth the trouble of gathering the components, treating or refining them, and then weaving the spells that empower the final product. The DM's best means for controlling player character item creation is through the special ingredients required by a particular item.
There are two types of special ingredients: materials and processes. Materials are just what one would think—components that are actually incorporated into the structure of the item. Processes are steps that somehow refine, imbue, or alter the basic item. In either case, the ingredient can range from common to exotic, embracing almost anything imaginable.
Materials: As a general rule of thumb, more powerful items require more unusual materials. Materials may actually represent physical components of the item in question—the metal used to forge a ring or a rod, the wool from which a cloak is woven—or materials might be additives or refinements, such as a handful of pixie dust for a potion of flying, or the scales of a giant snake that are incorporated in a phylactery of proof against poison.
Materials can be completely nonmaterial, metaphorical ingredients as well as tangible substances. The courage of a knight, the spirit of a mountain, or the breath of a butterfly are all examples of this type of ingredient. A player character may have to exercise quite a bit of ingenuity and inventiveness to capture these rare qualities or essences!
Materials are divided into three general categories: common, rare, and exotic.
Common materials can be acquired almost anywhere. Steel, leather, bone, cloth, oak staves, and other such things are all common materials. Note that items suitable for enchantment must be made of the finest materials available, so a wizard might have to commission an ore-smelter to create the very purest steel available. Even the most common magical items require materials worth 100 gp, at a bare minimum! Intangible common materials could include the tears of a maiden, the strength of a smith, or the essence of a rose.
Rare materials are more difficult to find or more expensive. A particular type or grade of silk, diamonds, roc feathers, ebony, a wizard's bones, or iron smelted by a master dwarven smith would be rare. Intangible materials could include the tears of a heartbroken maiden, the strength of a king, or the essence of rose harvested on the first night of a new moon. Common materials produced or gathered under unusual circumstances—such as the rose essence just described—also count as rare.
Exotic materials can only be acquired through an adventure on the part of the character. Silk woven from a phase spider, a faceted diamond never exposed to light, an archmage's bones, a lock of a goddess's hair, or steel smelted from a fallen star are all exotic materials; intangible materials might include the tears of a heartbroken princess, the strength of the greatest king in the world, or the essence of a rose harvested by the light of a comet that returns once every twenty years.
Processes: Almost anything that alters, changes, decorates, or aids in the production of an item without becoming part of the final piece is a process. Naturally, the exact nature of the process varies with the physical form of the item; potions might be mixed or brewed in a special retort, boiled over a fire fueled by an unusual substance, stirred in a special fashion, distilled, evaporated, infused, fermented, separated, or purified. Other processes appropriate for various types of item include the following:
Ink for scrolls can be brewed much like a potion;
The alloy for metallic rings must be mined, smelted, and then cast in some kind of mold, extruded as wire, or cold-worked. Setting stones, polishing, tempering, inscribing, or etching could finish the ring. Rings can also be made from nonmetallic substances; carefully carved stone, wood, or bone would work.
Wands and rods can be made of wood, iron, bone, crystal, stone, or almost anything imaginable. These items might require lathing, steeping, tooling, sanding, carving, polishing, enamelling, etching, or inlaying.
Staves are almost always made of wood, but a staff's heels—metal bands that cap the ends—could be made from any number of substances. Staves can be lathed, carved, steeped, tooled, sanded, inlaid, or set with crystals or stones.
Functional weapons and armor can be made from iron, bronze, steel, or any of a variety of fantastic alloys. Arms of +3 value are usually made from special meteoric steel, +4 weapons or armor are made from mithral-alloyed steel, and +5 arms are of adamantite-alloyed steel. Processes used to make these items include mining, smelting, refining, forging, casting, tempering, cooling, etching, inlaying, sharpening, and enamelling or painting.
Other items could be beaten, boiled, embroidered, engraved, carved, painted, smoked, cured, glazed, decorated, upholstered, tempered, lacquered, cooled, or heated in some way. Take a look at the appropriate proficiency descriptions for an idea of some of the processes involved.
Common processes could include chasing, engraving, marking, or finishing in any of the manners described above. Rare processes would add a hard-to-find material—embroidering with gold thread, boiling in the skull of a wizard, or painting with pigment made from the blood of a cockatrice. Exotic processes could include such things as steeping the item or its components in the energies of the Positive Material Plane, smoking it over a fire fueled by branches of Yggdrasil, the World Oak, or forging the item with a hammer touched by the hand of a god.
Potions[]
Among the easiest of items to make, potions range from simple healing brews to potent mixtures capable of taming dragons or restoring a character to complete health and sanity. Some potions are clerical potions and can only be manufactured by priests. These include: the elixir of health, potion of extra-healing, potion of fire resistance, potion of healing, potion of sweet water, and potion of vitality.
Level Requirements: Both priests and wizards must be at least 9th level to create potions. Specialists in the school of alchemy may brew potions at 6th level, but must use special procedures to do so. They may use the standard procedure after reaching 9th level or continue to use their special process.
Facilities: Wizards require an alchemical laboratory or a forge to brew potions; priests must have a consecrated altar. (See Chapter 5 .) A wizard may need to expand his library in order to obtain the texts and tomes needed for researching the potion's formula.
Research: Before a character can brew a potion, he must discover what processes, materials, and special ingredients are required, and how these must be combined for success. This research requires 1d3+1 weeks at a cost of 100 gp per week, but if the character uses a commune or contact other plane spell to speed his research, he automatically succeeds in the minimum time.
If the character has a full dose of the potion in question to use as a sample, the research takes only one week and costs nothing. However, he still must have access to a laboratory or an altar in order to conduct the research.
Alchemists may use the research rules above once they reach 9th level, but before that they must follow a lengthier and more expensive process if they take advantage of their ability to create potions before other wizards can. An alchemist of less than 9th level must spend two weeks and 500 gp per potion level to research the formula and then pass a learn spells check. (A potion's equivalent spell level is its experience point value divided by 100, rounded up.)
Once a character has researched a potion's formula, he need not research it again; he can create samples of the potion as often as he wishes, as long as he follows the cost and time requirements.
Processes and Materials: Potions that contain only a single-use require one rare material and one common process; potions that provide several doses with one brewing require an exotic material and a rare process. (See Special Ingredients at the end of this chapter.) Potions that normally produce more than one dose include potion of diminution, elixir of health, potion of extra-healing, potion of fire breath, potion of fire resistance, potion of growth, potion of invisibility, oil of impact, and potion of rainbow hues.
One of the advantages of the alchemist is that he need not obtain special ingredients before creating a potion; his knowledge of chemicals and reagents enables him to simulate these rare materials, whether he is using the alchemical process or the magical process.
Cost and Time: Assuming that the character is able to obtain any special or unusual materials required for the potion, it will cost him a number of gold pieces equal to the potion's experience point value to brew the potion. This process takes one day per 100 gp required.
The alchemical process usually requires one full week and 300 to 1,800 gp (3d6x100) to brew a potion. If the potion's experience point value is greater than 700, then the alchemist must spend an extra day per 100 experience points brewing the potion. However, at 9th level, the alchemist may choose to use the normal potion-brewing rules instead.
Success or Failure: The base chance for a successful brewing is 70%, +2% per character level, –1% for every 100 gp the potion costs. For example, a 13th-level wizard brewing a potion of fire breath would have a success chance of 96% (70% + 26% for character level), less 4% (400 gp), for a total of 92%. The DM should make this check in secret, since on a natural roll of 96 or higher the process fails, and the potion is cursed in some way (typically, it becomes a potion of poison or delusion instead of what it should be).
Alchemists may instead use a learn spells check, with a +1% bonus per character level, to see if they are successful in brewing the potion. Or, if the alchemist is 9th level or higher, he may produce the potion by magical means, using the normal success check of 70% + 2% per level. If this is the case, the alchemist gains a +5% to his success chance due to his specialist knowledge of potions.
Talghaz the Enchanter, a 9th-level wizard, decides that he needs to produce a philter of love in order to help a princess fall in love with one of his comrades. Talghaz already possesses a minimal library and arranges to borrow the laboratory of his alchemist friend. As a result, he can begin his research without any additional expense. He uses no special techniques, so the research takes 1d3+1 weeks and costs him 100 gp per week.
After three weeks, Talghaz finishes his research. He discovers that the potion requires the tears of a dryad as a rare material and, with some grumbling, sets out to find a dryad and convince her to shed a few tears for him. One week (and an interesting adventure) later, Talghaz returns to the laboratory with a vial full of dryad tears and sets about brewing his potion. A philter of love is worth 200 XP, so it takes Talghaz two days and 200 gp to brew the potion.
When Talghaz finishes, the DM checks in secret to see if he was successful. The base chance is 70%, plus 18% for Talghaz's level, less 2% for the potion's experience point value. The DM also decides that a philter of love is right up an enchanter's alley and gives Talghaz the +5% bonus for specialization. His total chance of success is 91%; if the DM rolls a 96 or higher, the failure creates a cursed potion. (Wouldn't that be a surprise for Talghaz's friend?)
Scrolls[]
Like potions, scrolls are fairly easy to manufacture and are also accessible to characters of moderate level. Scrolls come in two varieties: spell scrolls and protection scrolls. Spell scrolls are exactly what the name implies—scrolls that store spells that can be cast simply by being read. Protection scrolls are special single-use magical items that provide defense against a number of threats.
While any character may read a protection scroll without the benefit of a read magic spell, wizard spells cannot be cast from a scroll or transcribed into a spell book until a read magic spell or effect has been employed by the reader. This can be done at the time of the scroll's use, or the reader can prepare ahead of time by using read magic in advance; once magically read, a scroll remains intelligible for the character who reads it. Note that only wizards, thieves, and bards may read wizard spells from spell scrolls; thieves and bards can bypass the normal requirement to read magic by using their special class abilities.
Priest spells do not require a read magic spell in order to be used from a scroll. Priests, thieves, and bards may read priest spells from spell scrolls.
Low-level wizards and priests may be able to read spells from scrolls that are normally beyond their abilities; even a 1st-level wizard has a chance to pronounce the incantation for a fireball or lightning bolt correctly. Refer to Scrolls, in Appendix 3 of the Dungeon Master ® Guide.
Level Requirements: Wizards may create scrolls when they reach 9th level. Priests may scribe scrolls when they reach 7th level. Any spell the character knows (or has access to, in the case of a priest) can be placed on a scroll, or the character may attempt to create a protection scroll.
Geometers (specialists in the wizard school of geometry) have a special ability to create spell scrolls beginning at 4th level and protection scrolls at 7th level. When a geometer reaches 9th level, he may instead use the normal scroll creation process if he so desires.
Facilities: Wizards require access to any kind of laboratory (alchemical, forge, or research) in order to blend the ink for the scroll, although this is a fairly simple task given the right ingredients. Priests can blend the ink in any reasonable work area, but then must have access to a consecrated altar in order to actually scribe the scroll.
Research: There is no research required for spell scrolls or for protection scrolls that mirror spells available to the character. For example, if a wizard knows how to cast antimagic shell, he can write a scroll of protection from magic without performing any kind of research. If the scroll has no spell equivalent known to the character, he must research the scroll using the normal spell research rules. To figure out a scrolls's effective spell level, divide the experience point value by 500 and then add 2 (Level = XP/500+2). For example, scrolls worth 1,000 experience points are considered 4th-level spells;
Protection scrolls that have spell equivalents include the following scrolls:
| Scroll | Equivalent |
|---|---|
| Protection from elementals | dismissal |
| Protection from magic | antimagic shell |
| Protection from petrification | stone to flesh |
| Protection from plants | antiplant shell |
| Protection from poison | neutralize poison |
| Protection from possession | dispel evil |
| Protection from undead | control undead |
| Protection from water | airy water |
Processes and Materials: Scrolls require three components: some form of paper, a specially-blended ink, and a unique quill. Common paper, parchment, or papyrus may be used to create the scroll; paper provides a +5% bonus to the success roll, while papyrus inflicts a –5% penalty. All scrolls require a rare quill of some kind.
Ink for spells of 1st to 3rd level requires a rare ingredient; ink for spells of 4th to 6th level requires an exotic ingredient; and ink for spells of 7th to 9th level requires a rare and an exotic ingredient. (Use the spell level equivalents noted above for protection scrolls.)
Geometers have the special advantage of requiring nothing except common paper or parchment and a rare quill (which can only be used once); the ink is not important for the geometer's scrolls.
Cost and Time: Inscribing a spell onto a scroll takes one day per spell level, while creating a protection scroll takes one full week of uninterrupted work. The only cost incurred is that of obtaining the required materials.
Geometers have the same time requirements, but must pay 100 gp per spell level for their materials for spell scrolls, or 300 to 1,800 gp (3d6x100) for protection scrolls.
Success or Failure: The base chance to successfully create a scroll is 80%, +1% per character level, –1% per spell level (or equivalent spell level, in the case of protection scrolls). If the character fails the success check, the spell he is currently inscribing fails, and he may not add any more spells to that scroll, but any spells previously placed on the scroll remain intact and may still be used.
The DM should make the check in secret, since a natural 96 or higher on the success check creates a cursed scroll. The creator of the scroll has no idea that his work is flawed until he tries to use that particular spell.
Geometers use a learn spells check instead of the normal success check if they produce the scroll without any magical ingredients or processes. If a geometer creates a scroll using the usual methods described above, he gains a +5% bonus to his success check due to his familiarity with scrolls.
Milana, an 8th-level priestess, decides to create a scroll of protection from poison, since she and her fellow adventurers intend to go wyvern-hunting. Because Milana is capable of casting the spell neutralize poison, she does not need to do any research. Because the spell equivalent is 4th level, the scroll requires an exotic material for the ink. The DM decides that the ink must include nightshade harvested during the dark of the moon, so Milana spends a week or more locating the deadly mushrooms and waiting for the proper time to collect them. The quill must be a feather steeped in the venom of an adder, and Milana attends to that as well. Fortunately, her temple is near a good-sized town, and she can easily procure paper.
After gathering the necessary materials, Milana blends the ink (no cost or time) and begins scribing scroll of protection from poison. This requires one full week, at no particular cost—although the patriarch of her temple suggests that an offering for the use of the altar would be appreciated. Milana's chance of success is 80%, +8% for her level, –4% for the equivalent level of the scroll. The use of paper gives her a +5% bonus, for a total of 89%. Milana passes the check easily, and finishes her scroll.
Other Items[]
This broad category includes all other types of magical items, including rings, wands, staves, rods, miscellaneous magical items, and weapons and armor. Player characters can manufacture almost any kind of magical item appearing in the DMG , except for magical books, tomes, manuals, librams, grimoires, or artifacts of any kind.
In addition, a player character may be restricted from creating a particular item by his class. Wizards can create any magical item that is not specifically reserved for the use of priest characters (i.e., an item such as a staff of curing) or limited to certain races (such as boots of elvenkind). Racial items are created by priests of that particular race. If the item can be used by other characters as well as priests (for example, helm of teleportation), the wizard can manufacture the item. On the other hand, priests and specialist wizards can only create items that they can use. When creating an item, a specialist wizard gains a +5% bonus to his chance of succeeding.
The most important aspect of an item's enchantment has very little to do with its purpose or form. Magical items are divided into several loose classes that are based on the nature of the enchantment: single-use, limited-use, single-function, and multiple-function.
Single-use items are depleted after a single usage. Most potions and scrolls fall into this category, but these have been discussed already. Other single-use magical items include such things as beads of force, incense of meditation, or any of Quaal's feather tokens.
Limited-use items have a set or variable number of charges that may be used before it is expended. Some
limited-use items can be recharged, but only if they are recharged before their last charge has been expended. Other limited-use items may have multiple-functions (see below). Most wands and staves are limited-use items. Other limited-use items include such devices as a ring of wishes, bag of beans, scarab of protection, or the special properties of armor of fear.
Single-function items have only one power, which functions continuously or on demand. Some single-function items have time limitations, after which they cannot be used until they replenish their magical energy. Some single-function items may feature a limited-use feature, in addition to the persistent powers. Items such as a ring of shocking grasp, amulet of life protection, boots of speed, and wings of flying are good examples of single-function items.
Multiple-function items have more than one power and may also feature additional limited-use powers. Good examples include the rod of alertness, ring of elemental command, cloak of arachnida, or the helm of brilliance.
Level Requirements: Both wizards and priests must be at least 11th level to create any kind of magical item other than a potion or a scroll. Wizards are also limited by the spells required to actually create the item—enchant an item, permanency, and any other appropriate spells. Priests, on the other hand, do not cast spells to create items, but instead use a consecrated altar (see Chapter 5 ).
Facilities: Wizards require a well-equipped forge and may need to expand their personal libraries in order to conduct the necessary research. (Again, refer to Chapter 5 .) Priests must have access to a specially consecrated altar. In addition, both wizards and priests may find it very useful to have some skilled assistants nearby.
Research: Before a character can begin work on a magical item, he must first discover the steps necessary to create it! This requires research time and effort. Generally, a character must spend 1d6+1 weeks and 200 gp per week in order to find out how to build the item, although the DM may rule that exceptionally powerful items (5,000 XP value or greater, or any item such as a girdle of giant strength that imparts drastic and persistent bonuses to a character) requires consultation with a sage or some special effort on the part of the character to research.
Contact other plane and commune spells are particularly useful in this step of item creation, since the successful use of one of these divinations reduces the research time to the minimum required.
Processes and Materials: The exact nature of the processes and materials required varies from item to item depending on its category and type. However, all items require an enchant an item spell (or the equivalent priestly ceremony), and many require a permanency spell to boot.
Rings require one common process, usually some type of carving, engraving, pouring, shaping, or forging. In addition to this process, magical rings have other requirements based on their type:
Single-function rings require one exotic material;
Multiple-function rings require one exotic material and one exotic process per
function;
Limited-use rings require one exotic material and one exotic process per use.
Rings created by wizards must be prepared with an enchant an item spell and finished with a permanency spell, although charged rings such as the ring of the ram do not require the permanency spell, since it can be recharged. Naturally, the character must also cast any spells required for spell-like functions.
Rods, staves, and wands are not completed with a permanency spell and lose their magic if their charges are ever completely exhausted. Again, the type of item determines what processes and materials are required:
Single-function wands and staves require one rare material and one rare process;
Single-use or single-function rods require one exotic material and one rare
process;
Multiple-function rods, staves, or wands require one exotic material, and one
exotic process per function;
Limited-use rods, staves, or wands require one exotic material, and one exotic
process per use.
Materials for these devices could include the actual shaft or handle, a special headpiece or crystal, or special heels or caps for the ends. Processes might include carving, engraving, painting, or tempering.
Miscellaneous magical items require an enchant an item spell (or the appropriate priestly ceremony), but single-use and limited-use items do not require permanency spells.
Single-use and single-function items require one exotic material and one exotic
process;
Limited-use items require one exotic material per function and two exotic
processes per use;
Multiple-function items require one exotic material per function, one exotic
process, and one rare process per function.
Naturally, the materials and processes used will vary widely with the nature of the item in question. Considering that miscellaneous magic includes everything from articles of clothing to boats and decks of cards, the actual construction or creation of the item could include anything imaginable! See Special Ingredients for ideas.
Magical weapons and armor require an enchant an item and a permanency spell or the priestly equivalents (see pages 121–122 in the DMG ). In addition, devices with expendable charges (armor of fear, for example) must be imbued with the appropriate spells. Weapons and armor that have no special properties except for conferring combat bonuses are considered single-function items; items with blending, command, disruption, throwing, hurling, accuracy, speed, distance, venom, homing, lightning, piercing, sharpness, wounding, or vorpal properties are considered multiple-function items. Armors that have special but expendable properties (fear and etherealness) are limited-use items; and expendable items such as magical arrows or javelins are single-use items.
- Single-use weapons require one rare material and one common process;
- Single-function weapons and armors require one exotic material, one common process, and one rare process;
- Multiple-function weapons and armors require one exotic material and process, one rare process, and one common process per function;
- Limited-use armors and weapons require one exotic material and process, one rare process, and one common process per use.
Cost and Time: Again, the cost and time required to manufacture magical items varies depending on the category and the type of item. For example, if a mage wishes to create a single-function ring worth 1,000 XP, then he must not only spend 1,000 gp (see the “Cost in XP” column of Table 38 : Magical Item Cost and Time Requirements), but he must also spend 10 weeks (one week for every 100 gp spent) constructing the item.
The cost of any special processes or materials is not included in the base cost to create the item, so if a wizard discovers that he must crush one hundred pearls to create his dust of disappearance, it's up to him to find the pearls. The time requirements do not include any special quests or processes the character must undertake in order to create the item.
| Item | Cost | Time |
|---|---|---|
| Ring, single-function | XP value | 1 wk per 100 gp |
| Ring, all others | 2 x XP | 1 wk per 100 gp |
| Rod, single-use | 1/5 XP | 1 wk per 1,000 gp |
| Rod, single-function | 1/5 XP | 1 wk per 100 gp |
| Rod, multiple-function | 1/5 XP | 2 wks per 100 gp |
| Rod, limited-use | 1/5 XP | 4 wks per 100 gp |
| Staff/wand, single-function | 1/5 XP | 1 wk per 100 gp |
| Staff/wand, multiple-function | 1/5 XP | 2 wks per 100 gp |
| Staff/wand, limited-use | 1/5 XP | 4 wks per 100 gp |
| Misc. magic, single-use | 2 x XP | 1 wk per 100 gp |
| Misc. magic, single-function | 3 x XP | 1 wk per 100 gp |
| Misc. magic, multiple-function | 4 x XP | 1 wk per 100 gp |
| Misc. magic, limited-use | 2 x XP | 3 wks per 100 gp |
| Weapon, single-use | XP value | 1 wk per 100 gp |
| Weapon/armor, single-function | 2 x XP | 3 wks per 1,000 gp |
| Weapon/armor, multiple-function | 2 x XP | 4 wks per 1,000 gp |
| Weapon/armor, limited-use | 2 x XP | 2 wks per 1,000 gp |
Success or Failure: All magical items that fall into this broad category share the same success roll. Assuming the character follows all the necessary steps, there is a base 60% chance of success, +1% per caster level, –1% per spell or special process required to create the item. (The caster's initial enchant an item or finishing permanency spells do not count against his success chance.) While specialist wizards receive a 5% bonus to their success chance when creating an item using abilities from their school of specialization, artificers gain a special 10% bonus to their success chance due to their superior item-crafting skills.
At the DM's option, characters who display exceptional ingenuity or go to extreme lengths to create an item from the very best, most appropriate materials and processes available may receive an additional bonus of +5% to +15% on their success chance.
If the character rolls a 96 or higher on his success check, the item is cursed in some way. For example, a character attempting to produce a cloak of displacement might create a cloak of poisonousness instead. If for some reason the character was trying to create a cursed item, a roll of 96 or higher is a simple failure—he doesn't create a beneficial device instead!
Thedaric is a 14th-level fire mage who decides to create a wand of fire for those times when he's low on memorized spells. He easily meets the level requirement and spends a little money refurbishing a laboratory (in this case, a forge) that he found in the ruins of an archmage's tower. The forge comes with a library sufficient for researching the wand of fire (it's the first item Thedaric has tried to make). Thedaric uses a contact other plane spell to minimize his research effort, so he only requires two weeks and 400 gp to learn how to create the wand.
As described in the DMG , the wand of fire is a multiple-function item (it has four separate uses), and a limited-use item, since it uses charges. The DM decides that the wand requires one exotic material, and four exotic processes, in addition to the necessary spells, cost, and time. Thedaric discovers that the wand must be forged by a master smith of the azer (a race of fire-dwarves from the Elemental Plane of Fire), from brass smelted in the efreeti City of Brass, tempered by the fiery breath of an adult red dragon, graven while still soft with runes of power, using a fire sapphire (a mythical gemstone the DM just made up on the spot), and finally polished with a mixture containing the ash of a thousand year-old tree destroyed by fire. With a heavy sigh, Thedaric sets out on months of quests, challenges, and adventures, arranging all of the materials and processes.
Several months later, everything's ready. Thedaric journeys to the elemental plane of fire, obtains the efreeti brass, gets the azer smith to work it into a wand, engraves it with the fire sapphire, tricks a dragon into tempering it, and finally polishes and finishes the item in his own workshop with his special mixture of ash. The construction of the item required an amount of gold equal to one-fifth the wand's XP value (900 gp in this case) and 4 weeks per 100 gp, for a total of 36 weeks of forging, tempering, and polishing!
Thedaric is well-satisfied with his work so far, but now he has to make the wand magical. First, he'll need to use enchant an item in order to prepare the wand to receive spells. After four days, the enchant an item is finished, and Thedaric attempts a saving throw vs. spell to see if it succeeded. His elementalist bonuses to saving throws vs. fire apply, and Thedaric passes with a surprisingly close shave. He then casts burning hands, pyrotechnics, fireball, and wall of fire into the wand. Each spell requires 2d4 hours per spell level, so this ends up taking several days in and of itself. Since he must check the success of each enchantment and doesn't know if any one spell will take, Thedaric casts another battery of the same spells into the wand, just to make sure that he gets all the functions desired—at worst, the wand will have a few extra charges on it, so this is a reasonable precaution against the possibility of failing in one of these steps. Since the wand of fire is a limited-use item, it does not require a permanency spell to complete it; after his second round of spells, Thedaric declares that he is finished. (He's not worried about stocking up on charges right now; he just wants to complete the initial enchantment, and recharge the wand to its maximum potential later.)
The DM rolled saving throws vs. spells for each spell Thedaric placed into the wand, and as it turns out, the extra four spells were an unnecessary precaution; Thedaric succeeded the first time around. Now the DM checks to see if the overall process was a success or failure. The base chance of success for a wand is 60%, plus 14% for Thedaric's level, –12% for spells and special processes. The DM decides that Thedaric was particularly resourceful, and gives him a +10% bonus, and since Thedaric is a fire specialist, he gains an additional +5% bonus, for a total success chance of 77%. Thedaric succeeds and now has a wand of fire; the DM decides that the spells he placed into the wand became its first 8 charges (each spell was cast into the wand twice.)
Now, Thedaric will probably seek to recharge the wand. Recharging items requires another enchant an item spell, but this one is automatically successful. He can then begin to place spells into the wand to increase the number of charges, up to its maximum of 50. So, after close to a year of adventuring and construction, Thedaric finishes his wand of fire! Considering the immense time and effort this took a 14th-level character, you can see why magical items should be rare and unusual things!
Qualities[]
When a wizard or priest creates a magical item, he spends a lot of time and effort seeking a way to impart to his creation the particular qualities and properties he desires. While an exhaustive listing of each standard item's usual components would be beyond the scope of this book (and fairly boring, as well!), we'll take a quick look at some good ideas for components, spells, and processes designed to imbue an item with the powers the character desires.
Qualities are divided into twelve loose categories: control or domination, charm or influence, perception, bodily alteration, bodily augmentation, movement, resistance and defense, attack or offense, summoning, object alteration, healing and restoration, and magical manipulation. Most items fall into at least one, and sometimes two, of these categories.
Control or Charm: Magical devices of this sort exert a compulsion of some kind, forcing compliance from the subject. Unlike items that rely on influence or the power of emotion, control devices allow the caster to dictate commands to the subject, which will then be followed to the letter. Good examples of items that fall into this category include potions of giant, dragon, or undead control, or a ring of mammal control or elemental control.
Materials for these items often include specimens or samples from the creature in question—blood, hair, sweat, or more intangible qualities. Rare or exotic requirements might force the PC to seek out a unique individual among the subject race, such as a frost giant jarl, or a vampire mage.
Rings, rods, and staves of this class might require decorating or engraving with a rune signifying the true, secret name of the subjects to be affected. A substance that is linked to the subject in some way could be included; for example, a potion of plant control might require the sap of a treant since treants have the ability to animate other plants, or the potion might have to be prepared in a vessel carved from a treant's heartwood. Similarly, a powdered gem taken from a king's crown might be required for a potion of human control.
In many cases, some form of charm, geas, or quest spell will be required to enchant the item.
Influence or Emotion: Magical devices with these properties enable the wielder to exert unusual influence over the subject or impart an emotional state of some kind without gaining the ability to direct and control his movements. It is a subtler type of enchantment than outright control or domination, with more persistent effects that often highlight a player's role-playing ability. The wielder of the item is not able to actually order the subjects about but instead presents the subject with strong preferences or impulses that the subject is free to pursue as he sees fit. The least subtle of these items simply delivers an overwhelming emotion, such as fear or panic, to send the victims into instant flight. A ring of human influence, wand of fear, or philter of love all fall into this category.
Unlike the control and charm devices, many devices in this category enhance the caster's Charisma or eloquence, without regard to the subject's race. Materials associated with the emotion required are often incorporated into magical items of this type; for example, a wand of fear might require a bone from a lich or the terror of a coward. Items that confer persuasiveness to a character might require something from a creature with natural charm or beguiling powers, such as a snake's tongue or wood from the tree of a dryad.
Processes could include such things as etching the item with the tears of a liar, engraving it with the secret name of a terrifying fiend, or tempering it on the altar of a deity of love or trickery. Rods, rings, and wands of this type are often chased with metals related to the emotions in question— silver or gold for noble emotions, lead or iron for base ones.
Spells that may prove useful in enchanting these items include such things as animal friendship, emotion, enthrall, fear, suggestion, or mass suggestion.
Perception: Magical items of this type extend the wearer or user's perceptions in some way, enabling him to detect things he could not detect before, or extending the range of his senses beyond his immediate surroundings. Devices that expand the senses include such things as a ring of x-ray vision, a medallion of ESP, or a gem of seeing; items that extend the senses include potions of clairaudience or clairvoyance, crystal balls, and similar items.
Materials often include samples or specimens from creatures who naturally possess the sense in question, such as the wit of a thief, the cunning of a fox, or the pick of a dwarf master miner. In addition, gems, glass, or stones of special clarity or color are often incorporated into devices of this nature.
The processes required may involve more specimens of appropriate origin, such as polishing a magical lens with a paste made from the eye of a giant eagle or steeping a robe of eyes in the ichor of an argus. Other processes could include such things as grinding lenses or orbs, sanding items with special mixtures or compounds, magnetizing metal wands, or painting or inscribing an item in a certain design.
All kinds of divination spells—clairaudience, clairvoyance, ESP, detect lie, or true seeing, for example—may be part of the item creation process.
Movement: A great number of magical items impart some supernatural means of travel. Some merely augment the wearer's natural abilities, while others open up entire new avenues of movement for the character. There are a number of movement-enhancing items, including potions of flying and levitation, boots of speed, boots of striding and springing, carpet of flying, cloak of the bat, wings of flying, and many others.
Once again, specimens from creatures possessing the desired abilities are often important materials. Feathers from rare or unusual birds are frequently used for flying magic, while creatures such as grells or beholders provide levitation properties. Other materials could be more fantastic, such as the essence of the north wind.
Depending on the nature of the item, the process usually serves to seal the magical power into the item. Boots might be stained with a special mixture or soled by a particular craftsman or a special tool. Cloaks might be cured or waterproofed in some unusual way.
Useful spells for items conferring movement powers include enchantments such as jump, haste, fly, levitate, teleport, polymorph self, wind walk, or plane shift.
Bodily Alteration: This common category for magical items imparts some ability or power not normally possessed by the wearer. These abilities are not necessarily offensive or defensive, but they can provide the character with unusual resistances or camouflage in certain situations. Magical items that fall into this category include potions of diminution, growth, and gaseous form; items that confer invisibility, blending, or disguise abilities; and items that provide the wearer with water breathing, adaptation, or the ability to change his own shape. Naturally, this category often overlaps with several others since the alteration of one's form can augment the wearer's powers of movement, attack, or defense.
In addition to materials harvested from creatures with the desired abilities, inert objects with the desired properties can be used as materials for these items. For example, a diamond or crystal of perfect clarity might be useful for invisibility, while the smallest grain of sand on a beach (now there's a challenge!) might be required for diminution. Steam from a certain volcano, or wood from a vampire's coffin, could impart gaseous form.
Since many of the items in this category are potions, any process that is reasonable for creating a potion could be used. Other items might be steeped in special solutions designed to imbue them with the desired powers, or polished or painted with the materials required.
Obviously, most of these items have spells that are immediately applicable to the enchantment. Enlarge or its reverse are good for diminution and growth; invisibility, water breathing, polymorph self, and change self may all be useful for items of this type.
Bodily Augmentation: Items of this type increase abilities or skills that the wielder already possesses by making him stronger and more dexterous, increasing his effective level, or augmenting his skills in a specific way. Examples include a potion of giant strength or heroism, a girdle of giant strength, bracers of archery, or gauntlets of dexterity. The chief difference between this category and the previous one is that augmentation changes existing abilities, while alteration provides abilities the character would not otherwise have.
There are three major classes of item that can augment the user's natural abilities: potions, girdles and gauntlets, and books. Potions often feature the hair, blood, or sweat of a creature possessing the desired qualities—a giant of the appropriate type for a potion of giant strength or a great hero for a potion of heroism. Materials for persistent items might include such things as an arrow carved by a master elf fletcher, leather from the belt of a giant chieftain, or steel worked by the strongest ogre in the land.
The processes required for potions have been described at length already. Belts, gauntlets, and other such things require curing, cutting and shaping, etching or inscribing, piercing, applying metal studs or fasteners, and finishing with various rubs or mixtures.
Spells that the character may find useful include enchantments such as strength, bless, prayer, or spider climb.
Resistance or Defense: This large category includes all kinds of devices that provide the user with a resistance, defense, or immunity to some attack form. These can be divided into two subcategories: physical defenses, which protect the user from direct attack, and magical defenses, which negate specific forms of damage. A few items in this class provide some benefits against both physical and magical attack. Examples of items with resistance or defensive powers include all kinds of magical armor, potions of fire resistance or invulnerability, the various sorts of protection scrolls, rings of mind shielding, sustenance, or protection, cloaks of protection or displacement, and many others.
Naturally, favored materials include those that are resistant to the type of damage defended against by the item. These can be minerals or substances that possess the qualities desired—diamonds for hardness, special clay or crystal for acid resistance, various metals and alloys for strength and resilience—or samples from a creature known for a certain defense, such as the hide of a displacer beast or blink dog, the scale of a dragon, or the shell of a giant tortoise. Finally, substances inimical to the creature could be used to make a ward; garlic, holy symbols, or holy water could be incorporated into an amulet versus undead.
Intangible materials such as a knight's courage, a moonbeam, or the morning mists on a sylvan lake may be required instead of physical substances. A scarab versus golems might require the animating spark of a flesh golem, or the pity of an iron golem.
Items of this class take many shapes and forms, but potions, armor, clothing, and jewelry are the most common varieties. The processes involved depend on the exact form of the item. However, processes designed to lend strength— tempering, shellacking or enamelling, or bonding—are frequently used to finish these items. Any number of spells provide defenses or resistances of some kind; these may be useful in the creation process.
Healing and Restoration: Resistances generally prevent injury from taking place, but magic of this category concentrates on the swift repair of damage or adverse conditions. Some types of item instead offer enhanced health or longevity; in general, if an item affects the metabolism of the wearer for the purpose of preserving his health, it falls into this category instead of bodily augmentation. Items in this category include potions of healing and longevity, elixirs of health and vitality, ring of regeneration, staff of curing, and periapts of health or wound closure.
Many of these devices or brews require herbs, which are special medicines and preparations famed for their healing potency. These herbs may require special harvesting or treatment before they can be incorporated into an item. In addition, animal samples from creatures who enjoy the properties in question can be useful; for example, a ring of regeneration may require the heart of a troll, while very long-lived creatures (elves, treants, or dragons) may be useful for magic that prolongs life.
Adventurers are most familiar with potions of this type, and these require the same steps or processes that other potions do—distilling, brewing, aging, purification, and so on. Spells of healing and restoration are often required for creating items of this class, which means that most of these devices are created by priest characters.
Attack or Offense: As the largest single category of magical items, these devices with offensive powers range from simple enchanted weapons to mighty staves with a dazzling array of dreadful powers. Most rods, staves, and wands fall into this category along with almost all weapons and a fair number of rings, potions, and miscellaneous magical items. Just like defensive items, attack devices provide the wielder with either combat bonuses or magical effects, and a few (such as a staff of power) provide both.
Weapons and other items designed to strike blows at an enemy usually rely on materials designed to grant extraordinary strength, sharpness, flexibility, or lightness and ease of use. Special minerals for the weapon's alloy are quite common. In addition, weapons with special qualities (quickness, wounding, hurling, and so on) may include samples from creatures that naturally possess these powers; a sword of life stealing might require the essence of a wraith, while a mace of disruption could incorporate the holy symbol of a patriarch dead 1,000 years.
Devices that project magical attacks at the wielder's enemy often require materials that reflect their nature. A wand of frost could be made from an icicle, the bones of a frost giant shaman, or the fang of a white dragon. A staff of thunder and lightning might require wood taken from a lightning-struck treant; a ring of shocking grasp that is etched with a solution made from the blood of electric eels is also appropriate. Obviously, there is a wonderful variety of ideas to choose from!
The process involved reflects the item in some way. Again, items meant to be employed as weapons will often feature some kind of tempering or strengthening, while other items could be finished in any number of ways. Items of this type that require charges may need certain spells to be cast into them over and over again during the creation process.
Magical Manipulation: Magical items that affect other magical items, provide magical powers to their owners, or somehow augment or enhance the spell capability of their owners belong to this group. These items are among the most potent in the AD&D game system. This category includes rings of spell storing, spell turning, and wizardry; rods of absorption and cancellation; wand of negation; pearl of power; incense of meditation; book of infinite spells; and the beaker of plentiful potions.
Generally, items of this sort require either highly magical or highly antimagical materials since they are designed to manipulate the very stuff of magic itself. Magical materials include special alloys of meteoric or extraplanar minerals, as well as things such as a unicorn's horn, a kirin's hooves, the bones of an archmage, or the holy symbol of a saint. Antimagical materials could consist of specimens from creatures with high magic resistance, iron taken from a nonmagical prime material world, or wood from a tree rooted in a magic-dead area in worlds where such places exist.
Processes suitable for items of this type may involve polishing or etching with a solution of magical or antimagical substances, tempering or engraving it in a place of great magical potential (the extraplanar domain of a god of magic, for example), or bathing it in the raw stuff of magic, such as a wild mage's wildfire spell.
Spells suitable for empowering magic-manipulating items include dweomers such as antimagic shell, dispel magic, Mordenkainen's disjunction, or spell turning. Priests may rely on imbue with spell ability or holy word.
Matter Manipulation: Items of this sort are designed to have their greatest effects on inanimate objects or substances by transforming, destroying, or otherwise altering something without making a direct attack. Matter-manipulating devices include potion of sweetwater, oil of timelessness, wand of flame extinguishing, decanter of endless water, maul of the titans, or the horn of collapsing. While many of these devices have obvious applications as weapons in certain situations, in most cases this is an incidental benefit or hazard of their normal function.
Materials for these items often consist of substances that have the effect desired or animal samples from creatures that can perform the intended action. For example, a wand of flame extinguishing could incorporate ice or water from the heart of the Elemental Plane of Water, while a spade of colossal excavation might require the ground-up claws of a giant badger to be mixed into the alloy for the shovel's blade. In a couple of cases, the item contains some kind of link to one of the elemental planes and produces an endless supply of one substance or another.
The process varies with the type of item; tools may require balancing, sharpening, or tempering of some kind. Spells that may be useful include dig, move earth, temporal stasis, purify food and drink, and other spells designed to affect objects.
Summoning: Items that summon monsters, servants, or champions to aid the wielder fall into the class of summoning devices. In addition to the devices which obviously bring creatures from distant locales, figurines of wondrous power and other objects that transform into living servitors can be considered summoning devices since the overall effect (i.e., the user gains a useful ally of some kind) is much the same. Other summoning items include a ring of djinni summoning, staff of swarming insects, brazier commanding fire elementals, pipes of the sewers, and the horn of Valhalla.
Summoning devices almost always include materials that are pleasing to the creatures to be commanded, or at least signify them in some way. For example, a horn of Valhalla might require the courage of a berserker, iron from the riven shield of a mighty hero, or gold won from a dragon's hoard. Devices built to summon extraplanar monsters often feature material collected on the subject creature's home plane.
The finishing processes of a summoning device usually reinforce the bond with the particular creature by bathing or steeping the item in the creature's blood or by somehow imbuing it with a substance desired by the monster. Several spells may prove useful in creating these items, including gate, exaction, entrapment, conjure elemental, or binding.
Items That No Player Character Should Create[]
The rules for creating magical items allow the DM a great amount of latitude in determining just how difficult the creation of any particular item is going to be. After all, the search for a few exotic materials and processes can keep an ambitious PC busy for years! And the rules have been scaled to make the most powerful and deadly items prohibitively expensive and time-consuming. But, despite these safeguards, there are still a few items that are just too powerful for a player character to create.
The first item is actually an entire category—magical books. Books, tomes, librams, manuals, and other such items provide the character with the ability to build himself an instant level gain or quickly enhance his ability scores. In most campaigns, it's safe to assume that magical books are demi-artifacts endowed with a special purpose and a near-sentient talent for skipping out on their present owners. For whatever reasons, powers beyond mortal ken had a hand in the creation of these devices, and the only characters who can duplicate the feat are those who stand on the verge of divine ascension.
The next two items are simply so inexplicably weird that the reasons why a PC would wish to create one or the other is almost impossible to fathom. These are the deck of many things and the sphere of annihilation. Both have potentially disastrous consequences for a campaign and should be extremely rare in any event. In particular, players seem to have a vindictive streak with regard to spheres of annihilation, using them to do things like drain seas and devour planets. The DM is well advised to prevent PCs from making a few dozen of these to liven up his world. The deck of many things, on the other hand, offers instant level gains and other such game-busting benefits. If a group of PCs finds one after an arduous adventure and chooses to experiment with it, they've earned the privilege. But preparing a new deck on demand is a privilege too dangerous for most players.
The last category is the least spectacular: special racial magic, such as cloaks or boots of elvenkind. Unless the character is a member of the race in question, he shouldn't be able to create these items. However, if the character is an elf (for example), and he's a priest that has risen high enough in level to contemplate the manufacture of these devices, there's no reason the DM couldn't allow him to do so as long as he follows the normal rules for item creation.
Recharging Magical Items[]
Items that possess charges, such as most wands or rods, can be recharged. Some item descriptions name the particular class and level of character that can recharge the item; for example, a rod of security can only be recharged by the combined efforts of a wizard and priest of 18th level or higher. If the item description does not specify the level required to recharge it, then it can be recharged by any character who can create an item (i.e., an 11th-level priest, or a wizard with the ability to cast enchant an item), as long as the character can also cast the highest-level spell simulated or cast by the item. For example, the highest-level spell incorporated in a wand of fire is wall of fire, a 4th-level wizard spell, which can be cast by a wizard of 7th level or higher; therefore, if the wizard knows wall of fire, it's the requirement to enchant an item that is the pressing issue in this case.
If the character can use the appropriate spells, an item can be recharged by simply casting enchant an item and then making a saving throw vs. spell to see if the spell takes. (Priests spend a week praying at their consecrated altar to recharge their items.) If the enchant an item succeeds, the character may then cast the appropriate spells into the item, taking 1d4 hours per spell. If the preparatory spell fails, then the caster must make another saving throw vs. spell with a –1 penalty this time; failing this save results in the item's ruin. It will never be usable again.
Assuming the character doesn't spoil the item by attempting to recharge it, he may then begin to place spells of the appropriate type into the item. As long as he begins the next spell within 24 hours of finishing the last one, he can pour charges into the item without stopping to use enchant an item again. Success is automatic, and the character can place as many (or as few) additional charges into the item as he likes. However, he may never overcharge the item by placing more charges into it than it could have at its maximum. For example, a ring of the ram can hold as many as 10 charges at one time, so it can't be recharged past that limit.
| |||||||||||||||||||