Crafting Forged Magic Items

[Anthingy]

So, in my campaign (as a player) I'm trying to craft a copy of the important magic item.

The McGuffin is a magic trident (Legendary) requiring attunement.

I want to craft a magic trident (Uncommon) requiring attunement, but pour much more magic into it than necessary to make it seem like the legendary item (with some glue and macaroni to make it look right)

How could this work in the Xanthar's mode of crafting?

[JackPhoenix]

It wouldn't, not really.

You'd need to find the recipe first, then craft the uncommon trident (whatever it would be, but Trident of Fish Command is about what you need... uncommon item that requires attunement, and it's even a trident) as normal. There's no option to "pour much more magic into it". You either make legendary item, or you make common item.

Nystul's Magic Aura will help you decieve anyone using Detect Magic, but beyond that, it's pretty much "ask your GM" territory.

[Anthingy]

Yeah, I'm having that conversation also. I'm just trying to figure out what I think should go in the recipe.

In your opinion, if I just craft a weapon to look like a particular magic item, is it just permanently putting Nystul's on the crafted item? Would it need to be a Legendary level Nystul's Forged Magic Weapon in order to look like a Legendary item, or can you have a lower level item look like a higher item?

What seems reasonable?

[Danielqueue1]

I would say Nistul's should cover you to make it seem like what you want it to seem like, but be wary, the identify spell still tells the caster spells affecting the object including magic aura.

Other options may be available through your DM after all this is asituation outside the normal rules.

[Unoriginal]

So if I understand correctly, you want one of those cursed magic items that seems to be another magic item, right? Except you want one that seems to be an artifact?

[JackPhoenix]

If it was my game, I would make the player research means to craft the desired item (such knowledge isn't commonplace, so they have to develop the recipe from nothing), and the result would be uncommon (honestly, common would propably be fine, but I wouldn't want to make that too cheap and easy) magic item which looks like the legendary item to most means of examinations (akin to some cursed items), but doesn't have any powers beyond that. Using the normal crafting rules from XGtE.

Another alternative would be casting Nystul's Magic Aura on a trident made to look identical to the original for a month, but that would only fool the most casual detection methods... it would look like the legendary to Detect Magic, but Identify would recognize it's fake right away.

[Sigreid]

So if I understand correctly, you want one of those cursed magic items that seems to be another magic item, right? Except you want one that seems to be an artifact?

I think it's more of he wants something to put 8n the trident's place so he can either not bother to retrieve it or keep it.

[Contrast]

I would say Nistul's should cover you to make it seem like what you want it to seem like, but be wary, the identify spell still tells the caster spells affecting the object including magic aura.

Other options may be available through your DM after all this is asituation outside the normal rules.

If I was DMing I would personally have an upcast version of Nystuls trump Identify (unless that was also upcast of course...). Something along the lines of 'You can't seem to determine much about the item but it gives off a powerful aura of <whatever>'. That would admittedly be somewhat suspicious in itself of course.

If you're looking to try and justify pouring more magic in to the GM, 30 days worth of upcast Nystuls would be compelling to me.

[Wildarm]

What level are the players? Nystuls has been mentioned and yes, it will hold up to a casual inspection but a true identification of the item will show it to be false. What you need is a much higher level version of Nystuls.

So, I would have the players research a new spell. I haven't seen any official spell creation rules in 5E but I'd probably require a magic lab, 100 days and 1000gp per spell level. Limit that sort of "basic" magical research to 5th level or less spells. Higher level stuff requires epic level effort.

Now, armed with the new spell the player can create a +1 Trident of Legendary Deception. Standard crafting rules would apply. Cost would be 2 levels lower than the rarity you're looking to fake. So Legendary -> Rare.

If that would all take too much time/cost, and you actually want your player to succeed at this, the other option would be to make a cursed item: +1 Trident of Deceiving. Make it rare and not reveal it's true nature even to an identify spell. Instead it appears as the item type the holder believes or wishes it to be. To discover it's fake properties, a user must attune to the weapon and attempt to use it's power. They then fall under the effect of a Phantasmal Force spell(No save) with the illusion in the wielders mind that they are actually using the abilities they want the trident to have. They can break the effect as per the normal investigation route for Phantasmal Force but would need some direct proof that the effects of the weapon are an illusion. You can optionally have the weapon do damage to the wielder as per the Phantasmal Force spell but I don't think that's necessary.

[Imbalance]

You may be overthinking it. The quality of the forgery need only be proportional to the gullibility of the dupe. Try an INT check before going through all that trouble.

[Unoriginal]

You don't need spells to create magic items. You don't even need to be able to cast spells.

Again, the "pretends to be a different magic item" is a common feature for cursed items. It shouldn't be that hard to make one that is a very good fake of the McGuffin. Well, not that hard compared to getting the McGuffin. Finding out what's the formula for the Fake Trident 2000 is would be an adventure on it's own.