Magic Weapon Fluff

[Nagalipton]

I've had a steady group meeting roughly every 2 weeks since the Monster Manual has come out. My players are now level 3 going on 4. I have a lovely little home-brewed world I've been using as a campaign setting, which I have made up exclusively for this game. One of the tenants of the design is I wanted to keep the game itself as vanilla as I can since most of my players have never played DnD before and wanted a...shall we say standard game? In other words they didn't want their experiences to differ too terribly much from what the average player will experience give or take the story.

Lore wise I have been hesitating on one particular aspect, because I'm not yet sure how I wish to go about this yet. Magic weapons and armor. Clearly they exist; it wouldn't be the same DnD without them. Where I am hesitating is in the creation process of said items. Lore wise I need to decide whether magical items like this are ancient things made by a lost civilization or if currently living smiths/magi can make them. I'm sure the DMG will cover SOME of what I need, but I doubt it will cover ALL of what I need, so I turn to my fellow playgrounders for help.

On the one hand, they are truly magical. An archmage, or artificer of some kind is required to imbue magical energies into otherwise mundane materials (masterwork or not). I know this was basically how it was handled in 3rd edition, and thanks to the permanence spell it was also handled this way in 2nd to my knowledge.

On the other hand, I am considering having weapons made from more rare materials having innate magical properties (usually just a +1, +2, or +3 depending on the material). It would clearly take a master craftsman to work the materials properly, but the end result is a magic sword made from non magical hands. I reference Valerian Steel (Game of Thrones) and the Viking Ulfberht swords as examples of what I'm talking about. Both examples are "just swords" when it comes down to brass tacks, but are clearly much better than their ordinary counterparts.

My question is this: Is there a good reason I shouldn't use the 2nd option? Without a permanency spell, crafting magical items is impossible RAW. Its arguably not as needed here mind you, but I do like keeping the option open. RAW would leave one to believe that ALL magic weapons/armor are ancient items made via processes long forgotten and impossible to replicate. Sure that's cool and all, but if a player really pushes themselves I think they should be able to "find a way" to either replicate older techniques, or find something just as good if not better.

[Shadow]

There's a third option that would work for your game as well. It's less obvious and more flavorful.

Magic items aren't crafted. There is no mage enchanting an item to make it a permanent magical item except in extremely rare circumstances, like an archmage that designs a lance to specifically slay a particular dragon. There is no smith using special techniques to make a +1 sword, with the same rare exception. These are NPC only and basically just plot devices.
Instead, items become magical through deeds. That regular sword that the paladin used to slay a wight? It becomes magical. The armor you were wearing when the winter wolf breathed on you? It gets cold resistance.
Epic loot for epic moments, and the loot is tailored to the moment.

[Eslin]

I've had a steady group meeting roughly every 2 weeks since the Monster Manual has come out. My players are now level 3 going on 4. I have a lovely little home-brewed world I've been using as a campaign setting, which I have made up exclusively for this game. One of the tenants of the design is I wanted to keep the game itself as vanilla as I can since most of my players have never played DnD before and wanted a...shall we say standard game? In other words they didn't want their experiences to differ too terribly much from what the average player will experience give or take the story.

Lore wise I have been hesitating on one particular aspect, because I'm not yet sure how I wish to go about this yet. Magic weapons and armor. Clearly they exist; it wouldn't be the same DnD without them. Where I am hesitating is in the creation process of said items. Lore wise I need to decide whether magical items like this are ancient things made by a lost civilization or if currently living smiths/magi can make them. I'm sure the DMG will cover SOME of what I need, but I doubt it will cover ALL of what I need, so I turn to my fellow playgrounders for help.

On the one hand, they are truly magical. An archmage, or artificer of some kind is required to imbue magical energies into otherwise mundane materials (masterwork or not). I know this was basically how it was handled in 3rd edition, and thanks to the permanence spell it was also handled this way in 2nd to my knowledge.

On the other hand, I am considering having weapons made from more rare materials having innate magical properties (usually just a +1, +2, or +3 depending on the material). It would clearly take a master craftsman to work the materials properly, but the end result is a magic sword made from non magical hands. I reference Valerian Steel (Game of Thrones) and the Viking Ulfberht swords as examples of what I'm talking about. Both examples are "just swords" when it comes down to brass tacks, but are clearly much better than their ordinary counterparts.

My question is this: Is there a good reason I shouldn't use the 2nd option? Without a permanency spell, crafting magical items is impossible RAW. Its arguably not as needed here mind you, but I do like keeping the option open. RAW would leave one to believe that ALL magic weapons/armor are ancient items made via processes long forgotten and impossible to replicate. Sure that's cool and all, but if a player really pushes themselves I think they should be able to "find a way" to either replicate older techniques, or find something just as good if not better.

Second option works fine, possibly combine it with shadow's or with an archmage making them as well, why not have multiple ways of creating items? Makes martials and casters able to.

As a side note, decide what you're going to do about true polymorph making magic items before it comes up if you game gets to that level.

[Nagalipton]

Magic items aren't crafted. There is no mage enchanting an item to make it a permanent magical item except in extremely rare circumstances, like an archmage that designs a lance to specifically slay a particular dragon. There is no smith using special techniques to make a +1 sword, with the same rare exception. These are NPC only and basically just plot devices.
Instead, items become magical through deeds. That regular sword that the paladin used to slay a wight? It becomes magical. The armor you were wearing when the winter wolf breathed on you? It gets cold resistance.
Epic loot for epic moments, and the loot is tailored to the moment.

That's....that's beautiful! Shadow that's one of the best ideas I've heard in a long time. Plus it will allow some of my favorite character moments to be lived out naturally. "Hey Uthor, the smiths made a spare gem encrusted silver blade. Want it?" "No thanks. This sword of mine has seen me through countless battles. It'll be a cold day in hell when I surrender my partner." Truly thank you Shadow, that is exactly what I was looking for.


Second option works fine, possibly combine it with shadow's or with an archmage making them as well, why not have multiple ways of creating items? Makes martials and casters able to.

As a side note, decide what you're going to do about true polymorph making magic items before it comes up if you game gets to that level.

A good point Eslin. I had thought of something like that but hadn't really worked out the details yet. I may wind up doing something akin to that as well.

[Shadow]

that is exactly what I was looking for.

Just a heads up, it's trickier than it sounds. Weapons and armor are easy. Other items take some creativity. You'll find yourself trying to figure out what to give the rogue and decide that they need to fight a displacer beast so that he can have a cloak that casts blur twice a day. Stuff like that.
It's fun, but it can also be exhausting later on.

[silveralen]

Back when Dwarves had no or few spellcasters (1st/2nd) they were still considered to be some of the best creators of magical weapons and armor. So your second option seems perfectly reasonable, with a skilled smith using the proper ingredients able to create what is functionally a magic item. Tailor the ingredients to the effect, with standard weapon abilities coming from magicalish material, and more exotic effects coming from other components.