ZeroGear
2013-05-10, 10:54 PM
Another Idea for my world of Wake, I was wondering if I could get some feedback form this idea (it's just in a rough overview, no real 'crunch' yet):
It is a staple of many games and stories that magical items, most commonly weapons, are imbued with special powers at specific locations due to the magical ambience of said areas. This can be, for example, a sacred spring guarded by a specific church, or a battlefield where the blood of untold armies has seeped into the ground over the centuries. By bringing specially prepared items to these locations, one can use them to change blank templates into specific, powerful tools.
The creation process wold work as follows:
First, a skilled artisan creates a blank template that has a specific storage capacity. Then the individual who commissioned the item takes it (or has someone else take it) to the location where a small ritual is performed to attune the blank item to the ambient aura of the location. If done successfully, the holder now has the magical item he desires. On the other hand, an unsuccessful attuning ritual could result in something of lesser quality or even a cursed item.
Now, as far as cost are concerned, a "template" costs half as much as the item would normally cost (thus, a pre-forged +1 weapon would be 1000 gp while creating one would only be 500 gp). Ingredients for the attuning ritual, make up the other half of the creation cost (thus, paying someone to attune the same +1 weapon is 1000 gp, while doing it oneself is 500).
Similarly, adding effects works the same way: half for augmenting the template, and the rest for adding a second attunement. Thus, it is possible to buy a template that has a capacity for a +3 enchantment for 9000 gp (or forging one for 4500 gp), and add attunements as one goes along for 500 gp, 1500 gp, and 2500 gp.
Of course, some items cannot be templates: Potions, scrolls, and one use items like feather tokens can not be made from templates. Similarly, anything that becomes non-magical after a number of uses, such as the robe of bones, cannot be made from templates. Wands and Staffs, however, can be made from templates, but wands are restricted to holding a single spell of a set level, while staffs must have the capacity to hold the combined level of all the spells contained in it.
This concept can easily replace or augment my Spell Fuel Material (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=280314) concept by only allowing certain materials to attune to specific locations (in which case, 75% of the price for making templates can be replaced by the correct Spell Fuel component).
Similarly, it need not be locations that grant the item special properties:
Specially forged templates could be used to bind Outsiders to the item to fuel the abilities, although this would most likely result in intelligent items. Similarly, binding an outsider to an item could probably only be one once per item, although other forms of augmentation might be possible.
Would this be a viable approach to creating magical items, or am I making the process too complicated for its own good.
(Also, forgive me if this should be in the Homebrew section, as I tend to thing that most things posted there involve hard 'crunch' mechanics rather than brainstorming and Q&A idea approaching. If I am mistaken, please do correct me)
It is a staple of many games and stories that magical items, most commonly weapons, are imbued with special powers at specific locations due to the magical ambience of said areas. This can be, for example, a sacred spring guarded by a specific church, or a battlefield where the blood of untold armies has seeped into the ground over the centuries. By bringing specially prepared items to these locations, one can use them to change blank templates into specific, powerful tools.
The creation process wold work as follows:
First, a skilled artisan creates a blank template that has a specific storage capacity. Then the individual who commissioned the item takes it (or has someone else take it) to the location where a small ritual is performed to attune the blank item to the ambient aura of the location. If done successfully, the holder now has the magical item he desires. On the other hand, an unsuccessful attuning ritual could result in something of lesser quality or even a cursed item.
Now, as far as cost are concerned, a "template" costs half as much as the item would normally cost (thus, a pre-forged +1 weapon would be 1000 gp while creating one would only be 500 gp). Ingredients for the attuning ritual, make up the other half of the creation cost (thus, paying someone to attune the same +1 weapon is 1000 gp, while doing it oneself is 500).
Similarly, adding effects works the same way: half for augmenting the template, and the rest for adding a second attunement. Thus, it is possible to buy a template that has a capacity for a +3 enchantment for 9000 gp (or forging one for 4500 gp), and add attunements as one goes along for 500 gp, 1500 gp, and 2500 gp.
Of course, some items cannot be templates: Potions, scrolls, and one use items like feather tokens can not be made from templates. Similarly, anything that becomes non-magical after a number of uses, such as the robe of bones, cannot be made from templates. Wands and Staffs, however, can be made from templates, but wands are restricted to holding a single spell of a set level, while staffs must have the capacity to hold the combined level of all the spells contained in it.
This concept can easily replace or augment my Spell Fuel Material (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=280314) concept by only allowing certain materials to attune to specific locations (in which case, 75% of the price for making templates can be replaced by the correct Spell Fuel component).
Similarly, it need not be locations that grant the item special properties:
Specially forged templates could be used to bind Outsiders to the item to fuel the abilities, although this would most likely result in intelligent items. Similarly, binding an outsider to an item could probably only be one once per item, although other forms of augmentation might be possible.
Would this be a viable approach to creating magical items, or am I making the process too complicated for its own good.
(Also, forgive me if this should be in the Homebrew section, as I tend to thing that most things posted there involve hard 'crunch' mechanics rather than brainstorming and Q&A idea approaching. If I am mistaken, please do correct me)