Rules for enchanting help

[Captain Zark]

I typically run high-magic campaigns and I want to allow my players to enchant their equipment, but I don't want them to be overpowered. So, I wanted to homebrew some rules for this sort of thing, but I'm not entirely sure on how to go about that. Any advice?

[Specter]

Like, casting spells on equipment? That's risky. Very very risky.

What I'd recommend is requiring some sort of knowledge for each kind of enchantment (like The Blessing of Fire for fire spells, whatever) and having the players needing to find each bit before they can use each kind of enchantment on weapons. Kinda like Megaman, to keep you in control and players invested in discovering them.

[RickAllison]

I typically run high-magic campaigns and I want to allow my players to enchant their equipment, but I don't want them to be overpowered. So, I wanted to homebrew some rules for this sort of thing, but I'm not entirely sure on how to go about that. Any advice?

Consider how the enchantment is weaved in. Any hedge mage can shove some Firebolts into a piece of wood, but how do you get the enchantment to stay? My advice is to have particularly hard-to-get and rare items as these materials. Some examples (blatantly ripped from Harry Potter):

Dragon heartstring. Extremely difficult to harvest and impossible to do so without killing the owner of the heart, this material has immense power at the cost of a fidgety nature that, like the dragon it was born from, holds no particular allegiance to its host while still bonding strongly. This can start being collected from young dragons, but the magical strength of these heartstrings is directly proportional to the age of its dragon. While capable of creating mighty weapons, magical items of this material are most prone to becoming cursed due to its temperamental nature.

Unicorn Hair is the most common source of enchantment, being the easiest to gather, the most dependable, and the most resistant to cursing. It is also the weakest. These form the base for Jars of Alchemy and such low-powered items that can lie in wait for millennia and never be tainted by evil around it.

Phoenix Feathers are the rarest of all, though not as generally desired as other fluxes. These feathers can create powerful enchantments and also are fiercely loyal, but also far pickier about who may wield them. The only way to guarantee a phoenix's feather shall bond with a given user is for the person to convince the phoenix to give the feather of its own volition. Else, the item will lie in wait until it chooses the perfect wielder.

[Captain Zark]

I like the idea of sending them on quests just to create their magic items, but that leads me to my other issue of what kind of enchantment should I let them have? Should it be just a "You can now cast that specific spell from this item X times per day/short rest/long rest or with X charges"?

[Joe the Rat]

single shot / limited shot enchantments are a safe place to start, and can be made fairly cheap. Emulating scrolls and potions in item form.

Between the Mad Scientist with Alchemy and the sniper rogue who wants to be Hawkeye/Golden Archer/ Green Arrow*/ Batman, always be Batman, Making stuff has been on their minds. The line between "making magic item" and "enchanting an item" is fairly blurry, so this might get you started. This is what I've got going.

1) What do you want to do? Temporary items, or permanent enchantments? easy access, or restricted use? Is it smarter than you? Temporary effects (potions, scrolls, limited duration effects or limitied (NOT regenerating) slots are the cheapest and easiest ideas. Anything permanent, particularly permanently active is going to run up a bill.

2) Relevant skills: I do not require an item maker to be a caster, but you have to know what you are doing. Alchemy is necessary for any potions. Caster class is necessary for scroll transcription. Everything else requires appropriate tool proficiency (say,a blacksmith for weapons) and Arcana. You can team up to cover the proficiencies. If you want to restrict creation, limiting to casters is an option, but I would seriously recommend adding Feat access for non-casters (akin to the Ritual Caster Feat).

3) Do your homework: Inventing new things takes research and experimentation. I treat this a bit like spell research. 2 hours to find and refine existing models (per level of effect), or two days per level for new creations. Things that are not easily translated from "spell in a bottle" defaults to magic item by rarity costs, unless I have something better to base it on. After this, you add your formula to your "lab notes" or "formulary". There's also the 50gp/level, but that is in "experimentation materials costs" rather than fancy ink. Scrolls only require research if you need to learn the spell first.

4) If you build it... Scrolls (and by extension spell list specific single use enchantments) reverse the spell transcription cost - 2 hrs / 50gp per level, half that for the appropriate wizard. Double cost, and you can make a Spell Tile - a scroll that can be used by anyone. This is my basis for spell-based ammunition.

Everything else I base on the DMGs crude item creation metric: 25gp per man/day, working together speeds the process. This means that if you can get the formulas, common potions can be made in a few days, while the Very Rare will take a full moon cycle to brew, possibly with required exotic components (which do come out of overall costs) and creation stipulations (Must be started on the new moon). Wondrous items can follow this as well. If your party is teaming up for proficiency coverage, count that as two people working. It encourages teamwork.
Right now I have Hill Giant Strength clocking in at a full sennight (7 days), and actually requiring a toenail fragment to create (of which they have plenty). They are then turning around and selling them for profit... and equipping potential enemies with delicious petard-hoisting enhancements.

We are still fairly new into the make n' bake process for anything besides potions, so this will likely get tweaked as we go. If you want to make it cheap and easy, lower costs and time. Casters may have to burn spell slots in the enchantment process. Whatever limits and requirements fit your goals.

* - We came to the mutual conclusion that Bigby's hand is the effect to emulate for "Boxing Glove Arrow."

[Sigreid]

I personally like for enchanting to require making an item from scratch using rare and expensive materials that the group may have to quest for and daily expenditure of magical resources as you have to impregnate the magic into the very essence of the item.

[Captain Zark]

I like the idea of using enchanting/alchemy reagents/formulas for quest hooks and requiring a bit of effort to make said object afterwords. I assume what an enchantment does is up to my discretion, though.

[Malifice]

I typically run high-magic campaigns and I want to allow my players to enchant their equipment, but I don't want them to be overpowered. So, I wanted to homebrew some rules for this sort of thing, but I'm not entirely sure on how to go about that. Any advice?

There are rules for it in the DMG. I strongly suggest including a rare component or requiring formula for magic item creation, so the PCs have to quest to get the ingredients/ recipie first.

[Lollerabe]

In our campaign there's a currency/craft mat called soul shards (mana) and you get them by draining casters, much like bioshock. Every full caster can also produce a small amount of mana per week through a trance like meditation, however the easiest way to gain them is through trading or good ol' killing and draining.

Full casters gives the most, then 1/2 casters and EKs ATs the least.

Every form of caster gives a different sort of shard which is used for different forms of enchantment.

Fx clerics/palas gives golden shards used for defensive/protective items.

Druids/Rangers gives green shards for utility items (think boots of spider climb)

Sorcs wizards warlock gives purple shards for offensive enchantments such as elemental weapons.

The shard system is a major campaign factor as it rules the worlds economy and makes casters walking piñatas in the eyes of some.
Besides the shards I suspect my dm will use other mats as well, maybe I have to slay a lightning themed beast and harvest it's heart to get that sweet Lightning warhammer I dream about :)

Overall it's a great crafting system IMO and it makes for a dark and paranoid campaign since 5/6 in our party are casters in some way.

[Sirithhyando]

There are rules for it in the DMG. I strongly suggest including a rare component or requiring formula for magic item creation, so the PCs have to quest to get the ingredients/ recipie first.

Plus it's more rewarding that way.
In one game we were fighting a manticore. Through the heroic way we've defeated it, and the fact my dumb character decided to take the skin off the beast, i decided to have a leather armor made of it. But the heroicism was the base for the enchantment and i ended up with a leather armor of poison resistance. I mean, i'm the tank but dex-base and they all want the stupid half-orc (8 in intel and 5 in wisdom... ouf) to be in a metal can (plate) so of course he didnt want it. He's attached to the item that got an history.

So yeah, a kind of quest is the way to go. Requiring to get some material, and the way it's done is all important.
Maybe say that the harder the ingredient is to get, the higher in rarity it can get.

My first thought before reading the others reply was something along the line of multiple casting of a single spell. Some spell say that the duration becomes permanent if you cast it everyday for 30 days (something along those line). If the player want something in particular, you could have him cast or have someone else cast (and pay for it) a spell of your choosing to make an item existing in the DMG. I think that's how I'd go about it. Let's say Firetongue(?), you could say that to have the full effect a caster should cast investiture of flame for the full item while doing the same with firebolt would get the same item but with a weaker enchantment.

There's lot of possibilities, maybe talk about it with your players would also help?