Magic Items

[Oedipussy Rex]

Elixir of Thaumaturgic Revivication
This mythical potion is rumored to alleviate 1 point of Magical Fatigue.

(As a reminder, Magical Fatigue happens when a spellcasting attempt is failed and incurs a cumulative 1-point penalty to all subsequent spell attempts. This penalty is semi-permanent in that it takes a week of complete rest and meditation, at minimum, to lose 1 point of penalty.)

(Hmmmmm...)

[Oedipussy Rex]

Create Magical Staff
Magical Staves are personal items, attuned to its creator due to the use of Character Points in its creation.

As a reminder:

A Staff will be one of eleven Ranks. When casting a spell with a Staff, add the result of the Staff's die roll minus 1 to the result of the Sorcerer roll (a 1 st Rank Staff has a range of 0 and 1 while a 6 th Rank Staff has a range of 0 through 9). If the Sorcerer roll is a 1, the spell fails regardless of the Staff roll. Spells can be cast without moving or speaking, but the usual restrictions and penalties still apply. A character cannot use a Staff of higher Rank than his Sorcerer Rank.

Character Point Cost: Rank of Staff
Spell Number: Equal to the cumulative CP required to achieve Rank:
1 - 1
2 - 2
3 - 3
4 - 5
5 - 7
6 - 10
7 - 13
8 - 17
9 - 22
10 - 29
11 - 39

In addition to its primary use, Staves of sufficient Rank can be imbued with a secondary function at an additional Character Point and Spell Number cost. The Rank of the staff determines which spells are available. Staves of higher Ranks can have a spell of a lower Ranking.

dS - The Staff's die: 1 less than the result of the roll, explosion applies.

5th Rank (2 CP)
Heal (3) Once a Travel Turn restore dS Health to a character
Light (1) Create a sphere of light, 20' in radius, for dS Adventure Turns
Strike (5) Once per combat (Adventure Turn), deliver an additional dS Damage with the Staff

8th Rank (3 CP)
Darkness (2) Once a Travel Turn, Create a 10' radius sphere of Darkness centered up to 30' away lasting dS Combat Turns
Luck (4) Once an Adventure Turn, add dS to another character's Aspect Roll
Silence (6) Once a Travel Turn, create a 10' radius sphere of Silence up to 30' away

11th Rank (5 CP)
Elemental Blast (16) Deal dS Damage to all creatures in a 10' radius sphere up to 50' away. The type of element is determined at the time of the Staff's creation
Fly (8) The character is able to Fly for dS Adventure Turns
Lightning Bolt (12) Once an Adventure Turn, do d2 per dS Damage to a creature up to 50' away

Special Note: When casting a spell boosted by a Staff with the same spell, roll the Staff's die twice and use the better result.

Heidrick (6th Rank) wants to cast Heal, but not use his 5th Rank Staff's Heal power (Heidrick has yet to upgrade). He rolls d10 for the character, and d8 twice for the Staff.
1d10 rolled for a total of: 8 (8)
1d8 rolled for a total of: 8 (8), explosion: 1d8 rolled for a total of: 2 (2), total: 9
1d8 rolled for a total of: 6 (6)
The total result for the casting is 17

Mêlée with a Magical Staff
Don't. Roll a Resist against the Staff's Rank every time a mêlée attack rolls a 1 when using a Magical Staff. On a failed Resist, the Staff explodes doing dS Damage to everyone in a 10'-per-Staff-Rank radius for each Point of Failure. This does not apply to the Strike Staff, which can be used as normal mêlée weapon.

[Oedipussy Rex]

Note on Chain-casting to create a Magical Staff: The focus of the chain is the Staff's owner. While casters in the chain can contribute to the Character Point cost of the Staff, the focus must contribute at least half. The rules of Chain-Casting state that the focus must be 7th Rank or higher. This means that characters of 3rd to 6th Rank must create their Staves by themselves, but it doesn't mean they cannot use a lower-Ranked Staff or have someone else cast Luck on them before rolling the creation spell.

[Oedipussy Rex]

Pulling in stuff from the blog. (yay copy/paste)

Bandana of Surreptitious Stealth
This kerchief, when worn to cover the lower portion of the face, confers the Surprise ability at a +3 bonus to Adventure for initiative. (See Surprise, pg 32) To receive any benefit, the victim must be unaware of an imminent attack and the character cannot be wearing any armor greater than Leather.

Bag of Luck
This small, leather bag contains a between 5 and 22 pea-sized stones, all indistinguishable from each other. Each stone represents a Rank of Luck, randomly determined at the time of discovery: 1st Rank has a range of 0 to 1 while 11th Rank's is 0 to 29 (roll a die of the appropriate Rank and subtract 1 from the result). When a stone is swallowed, it confers a bonus to every Aspect roll for the character until the stone passes, let's say the next morning regardless of when it was consumed. Swallowing multiple stones combines the Ranks of the stones, so swallowing third and fifth Rank stones is equivalent to an eighth Rank stone.

(Here's where it gets fun.) As stated, the stones are indistinguishable from each other, so the character never knows which stone is which, and luck comes in two flavors: good and bad. A 1st Rank good luck stone combined with a 6th Rank bad luck stone means the character will have 0 to 7 points subtracted from every Aspect roll until the following morning.

Stones can be reused, but only after being placed back in the Bag. (And, presumably, cleaned.) Or the character could decide not to replace a stone, possibly because he determined the stone was bad luck. If the Bag goes an entire day without any bad luck stones, or any stones at all, in it, it disappears.


Gauze of Awareness
This gauze when wrapped around the head, covering the eyes, (i.e. blind beggar) provides a complete awareness of everything around the wearer within a combat turn's distance. The Gauze does not confer sight, just awareness, so one would know that there is a book on the table but not be able to read the book.

The effects of the Gauze are quite disconcerting to sighted people. All actions that require an Aspect roll are made at a -2 penalty. Blind people using the Gauze are able to do so without penalty and get a +2 bonus to non-mental Resists (e.g. Sleep and Charm spells are mental).


Hammer of Justice
A Hammer +1

What? Hey, they can't all be high-powered and mystical. Sometimes low-powered items are needed. Like a friend used to say, "Not all barkeeps are retired adventurers, and not all swords are Vorpal."


Bell of Freedom
When this bell is rung, all binds within range of its peal that restrict an unwilling bindee are undone. The magic will unlock doors, untie knots, release manacles, etc. The magic only recognizes whether the detainment was voluntary or not, not whether it was warranted or necessary.


Song About Love Between My Brothers and My Sisters
First off, you should have seen this one coming with the previous two items. If you didn't see this coming, slap your mother because she obviously never loved you and completely neglected to give you a good social and moral philosophy. Second, when this chant is accompanied with the Hammer of Justice striking the Bell of Freedom all aggression within a radius of one mile for every Point of Success of a roll of the Sorcerer die over 1. If multiple people are chanting, treat the chant as a chain-cast spell. Third, go listen to some Peter, Paul, and Mary, you unloved misanthrope.

[Oedipussy Rex]

Note on Chain-casting to create a Magical Staff: The focus of the chain is the Staff's owner. While casters in the chain can contribute to the Character Point cost of the Staff, the focus must contribute at least half. The rules of Chain-Casting state that the focus must be 7th Rank or higher. This means that characters of 3rd to 6th Rank must create their Staves by themselves, but it doesn't mean they cannot use a lower-Ranked Staff or have someone else cast Luck on them before rolling the creation spell.

This post should be self-explanatory.

[Oedipussy Rex]

Gauntlets of Return
Anything thrown by a character wearing these gauntlets will return to hand the following Combat Turn, even if stuck or held. If the character grabs something else after throwing, the returning item displaces the new. Note: This isn't a cursed item. Dropping or setting something down will not cause it to return.

[Oedipussy Rex]

Years ago I was skimming through a friend's 3.x books when I saw that characters lost experience points when creating magic items. (‽) Now, apparently I've misremembered that MUs gained XP for this in TSR's D&D collection (I could have sworn there were rules about earning XP but a quick perusal turns up nothing) (Also: Yeah, yeah. Not getting into the whole TSR/WotC/Hasbro thing), but I really do not like the idea of losing XP.

"But Oedipussy Rex, what about familiars and magic staves?" you ask. Fair point. Characters do indeed expend Character Points for these, and I'm happy with that. Familiars can be seen as an extension to the character, as are staves, in a sense. A character cannot hand these over to another. But scrolls, which do not have a CP cost, can be cast by anyone. So upcoming rules about magic item creation, if/when I get around to it, will not have CP costs. For the most part.

What about earning CP? Which is what this rambling, oft-edited stream-of-consciousness (before the edits) attempt to solidify my thoughts is about. I like the idea but I don't want to go with if-you-build-it-CP-will-come. I'd rather go with if-you-build-it-well-CP-will-come, which fits with the system. This is fairly easy with weapons: You don't set out to make a Long Sword +3, the Degree of Success determines what the bonus (and thus the CP earned) is. But what about scrolls -- no not scrolls. I'm not going to award CP for scrolls. Potions. What about potions? Or Flying Carpets? Or Portable Doors? (Thought to come back to: does a Staff's roll explode? It's not an Aspect roll, but acts as an Aspect explosion.) How would awarding CP for creating these work? It can't be as a multiple of the Spell Number: Need to beat a 4, roll a 12, result: 8 Points of Success => 8/4 = 2 => 1 CP (the first multiple awards no CP). Nope. Won't work. It makes the easy stuff more rewarding than the difficult.

(CPs are used in the creation of a Staff. Is the Staff a physical manifestation of the Sorcerer Aspect?) (Also: When using the optional Rolling for Health from Onanistic Hoodoo, the rolls do not explode. Health isn't an Aspect.)

I'm leaning toward awarding CP based on the caster where the Degree of Success is compared to the Sorcerer Rank, or rather Caster Rank. This way low-Ranked characters, who are in more need and have a more difficult casting, can more easily earn CP while higher Ranked casters have an easier casting but a more difficult earning. It still favors items with low Spell Numbers, but much less so and it's mitigated with a rule that Spell Numbers less than the Caster Rank do not award any CP.

In addition: failed item creation is how we get the bulk of cursed items.

[Oedipussy Rex]

Create Magic Melee Weapon (Ritual)
 Spell Base: Variable
 Min. Rank: d20
 Resist: No

With the Create Magic Melee Weapon ritual one can create magical melee weapons. The main use for the spell grants bonuses to the damage die based on the Degree of Success of the casting. The material of the weapon limits the bonus the weapon can receive.
                                                                                   

Bonus	Material
Temp.	Leather, Sedimentary Stone
+1	Metamorphic Stone, Wood
+2	Igneous Stone, Magicy Wood, Copper
+3	Bronze, Iron
+4	Steel
+5	Magicy Metal (Mithril, Meteoric, etc.)

In addition to the damage bonus, a weapon can have a single power:
Weapon of Initiative (+2) - Roll combat initiative twice and take the better result
Weapon of Speed (+3) - 50% increase in number of attacks/Turn. Half attacks occur every other Turn
Weapon of Flame (+1) - Acts as torch
Weapon of Power (+5) - Increase Damage die 3 Ranks for single Power Attack
Weapon of Sharpness/
 Bluntness/
 Pointyness (+5) - Attack die explodes on a roll of the two highest numbers of the die
Weapon of Defense (+3) - For each decrease in Rank of the Damage die, Defense is increased by 1
Weapon of Independance (+4) - The weapon will "Dance" independently for a number of Turns equal to its bonus

The Spell Base (n) for casting is 8 plus the Power cost. The table at the bottom shows range of results to achieve each bonus.

If making a basic magic Long Sword, n is 8 and a roll of 57 (49 Points of Success) is just enough to create a Long Sword +3 (d6/d16), provided the sword is made of bronze or iron or better. Had the attempt been made for a Long Sword of Pointyness, the Spell Number (n) would be 13 (8+5) and the roll of 57 (44 PoS) would result in a +2 bonus. (4*13+1 ≤ 57 ≤ 7*13)

If the roll is between n+1 and 2n (Degree of Success between 1 and n), the spell worked but the magic isn't permanent. The weapon is effective for a number of Turns in combat equal to the Degree of Success after which the magic fades.

And yes. You need to chain-cast if you want to bring out the big guns. Everyone involved in the casting earns one fewer CP than the bonus of the new weapon.

Weapon of Stabbing/Crunching/Chopping: When weilding one of these weapons, the character attacks as if X Ranks higher in Warrior, including the possibility of additional attacks, where X is the weapon's bonus. The bonus does not affect the damage die.


Weapon of [Monster] Smiting: These +1 weapons mean Instant Death to [MONSTER] when the Degree of Success of an attack is double the Defense + Warrior Rank of [MONSTER].


Weapon of [MONSTER] Imperilment: These weapons target one specific type of monster: Dragons, goblins, cows, etc., and glow faintly when in the presence of [MONSTER]. They have a bonus of +1 against all other monsters except when the [MONSTER] bonus is +1, e.g. a Dagger of Harpy Imperilment +3 has a +1 bonus against non-harpies while a Battle Axe of Ogre Imperilment +1 has no additional bonus. The Spell Number is 8 and the following table shows the ranges for bonuses. Weapons of [MONSTER] Imperilment do not generate CP.

Messy master table for bonuses because I'm too lazy to not use a html generator and the forum software really doesn't like attempts to use CSS: 
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                   

Bonus						Roll
				Imperilment		Smiting		Warrior+	Warrior+ material
+1 for PoS Turns		n+1 - 2n		9-16		10-20		13-26	leather, sedimentary stone
+1		2n+1 - 4n		17-24		20+		27-65	copper, metamorphic or igneous stone, wood, copper
+2		4n+1 - 7n		25-32		--		66-143	bronze, iron, steel
+3		7n+1 - 11n		33-40		--		144+	magicy metal
+4		11n+1 - 16n		41-48		--		--
+5		>16n+1		49+		--		--

Results of Failure:
Failed by 1-2 points: Spell failed, weapon worthless
Failed by 3+ points: weapon becomes a Cursed weapon of -1 to -5 (regardless of material) owned by the caster (or focus)
Caster/Focus rolls 1: GM funtime!

[Oedipussy Rex]

A quick internet search has left me amazed that no one has come up with this and put it online. Without further ado, here are two ill-conceived, hastily put together versions of a bad pun (which, if you think about it, is what makes fantasy rpgs worth the while).

Snail Mail (1)
This enchanted Mail armor (d8) prevents all physical damage to the wearer, regardless of the attacker's roll, except when the armor die rolls a 1, whereupon damage is assessed as usual (attack roll vs Defense). This enchantment comes at a cost, however, in that all initiative rolls result in a 1 while wearing the armor. (See, "Snail" Mail, because you're really slow. Like a snail.)

Snail Mail (2)
This enchanted Mail armor (d8) acts as normal Mail. However, the character wearing the armor can "retreat" into the armor. This entails magically withdrawing into the armor with everything the character is carrying, leaving behind a "shell" of great durability: All attacks against the shell at rolled against the character's Defense +7 (the Armor Die always rolls maximum). Do not include any bonuses due to Shields and the like, as they are inside the shell, but do include bonuses due to magic. It takes a Combat Turn to retreat into or emerge from the armor.

Code:

Man with sword and shield:

\__0__|
  |  |
  |
 / \
/   |

Same man withdrawn into Snail Mail (2):
 ____
/ ___ \
/ /   \ \
\ \_/ / /
\___/ /

(Again, it looks good in preview mode but like crap when posted. Is it my browser or the forum software?)
Note: The aforementioned internet search did come up with Snailplate, which is armor made from the shell of a Flail Snail, which is an incredibly stupid monster in that I'm pissed I didn't come up with it. But it really is kinda stupid. Unlike the Stalac-Mite, which is really cool and I stand firmly behind the concept.

[Oedipussy Rex]

And to continue the silliness:

Male Mail

and

Fe-Mail

I leave to the reader to work out the details.