Where are DIY Magic Items?

By thkaal, in Genesys

Well, in my first play, I couldn't find any enchanter, as in making magic items. Then I saw Inventor talent. So, talking to the gm, we came up with, Inventor in our setting is Enchanter and we use Arcane to add qualities/spell effects to items. Of course, this makes it difficult to use Augment if you're an Arcana user since the gm is only allowing one magic skill per person. So how do you make diadems of memory, or girdles of strength?

If you're playing a "scientific" spellcaster (such as a Sorcerer from the Atlantean trilogy), you can never ever make a magical item using the current Genesys rules. Primal would be unlearnable, and and Divine would be laughed at. Yet, you can use "scientific" magic to make magical items that do the same things. So, why is Augment not allowed for Arcana? As it stands, a Primal can add fire to a sword, but couldn't throw a fireball, but an Arcanist can throw a fireball but couldn't imbue the power into a sword?

And what of magic implements? How are those made? What skill is used? What if you want those enchanted? So an Arcanist can use a staff but cannot make one? Or what about a wand? An arcanist can use a wand to give a fire effect to a spell but can't make the fire effect himself but can fire a fireball without the wand......what?!?!?!

The soon to be released Terrinoth campaign setting may provide a set of answers for many of those questions.

Honestly to me forget augment. Any caster can leave magic behind. Here's how I would run it.

Any enchanting requires special items (aka gmplot hook). A fire started by an everlasting flame, a holy site with a priest meditating and fasting for a week ect.

Second is an item of worthy quality. Not just your pa's old notchedsword. A sword built to last and hold magic.

Next part is when rolling starts. If you want a flaming sword, then figure out what magic you have that can make fire. The attack action, divine special utility divine light, ect. Something thematically apporite for the magic item you want to create. Make your roll for that spell with all it's options, and upgrade once. So just making a extra sharp and dangerous sword is just 1 red 1 purple, being enchanted with just base magic attack. Spend time, extra advantages speed up the process.

I would add setback and boost according to things like item quality, where you are working from, having plenty of time and not rushing, ect. End effects power based off what was uncancelled from your roll.

In most magic settings, there is a fat man in a red suit with a bunch of gnomes in a massive factory in the distant north cranking out prodigious amounts of magic items and has been doing so for hundreds or thousands of years. :P

While this hasn't come up in my game, I would probably approach the making of permanent and temporary magic items as follows:

Creating magic items usually takes time (days or weeks) and resources (ie materials and a workshop) which are not normally available to the adventuring wizard. This is why wizards aren't creating magic items at the snap of a finger. The other issue you have to keep in mind is how magic items in DnD have an effect compared to similar effects in Genesys. In DND, a "+1 to Characteristic" magic item improves the ability by 5-10% ( @Terefang could probably give a more accurate mathematical break down of this :P ) where the same +1 in Genesys is equivalent to a Tier 5 talent (IMO maybe equivalent to +4-5 in DND). Non-characteristic enhancements (ie damage) can be less over powering, depending on whats affected. This is one of the reasons the book suggests limiting the quantity of augments. I would treat magic similar to characters in that their magic abilities are, essentially, talents.

Temporary augments: As far as enchanting items in the field, you could give the Enchanter access the Augment spell with the modification that only it can only be used on objects and then, perhaps, restrict the Primal casters to only being able to augment PC's, NPC's, and creatures. I would generally treat augments as indicated below under Creating Magic Items.

Allow the enchanter to spend AD to extend the duration of the enchantment at 1 AD per turn or TR to last the scene or AD to increase level. Concentration should be used as normal with a Talent to increase the amount of objects so enchanted simultaneously. Alternately, the need to concentrate can be removed by increasing the casting difficulty by 1-2. Use strain rules as normal.

Creating Magic Items: If your Enchanter really wants to create permanent magic items, I would use the Conjure spell and treat each magical effect as a talent. Weapon qualities of rank 1 should be considered a Tier 1 or Tier 2 talent. Additional ranks should increase the effective Tier by 1.

This can then be done in one of two different ways.

Increasing difficulty (option) Each Tier of the talent would add 1 difficulty to the casting check. Therefore one Tier 2 talent or two Tier 1 talents add the same difficulty. I would also allow spell difficulties over 5 to upgrade difficulty dice, therefore a casting difficulty of 7 would be RRPPP. A +1 Brawn item would have the Dedication talent which adds 5 difficulty to the spell which means you will probably have to get it from the fat man.

Spending Advantage (option): Each Tier of talent in the magic item requires the caster spend that number of AD to successfully create the item. A Tier 1 item requires 1 AD and a Tier 3 requires three AD. I would consider requiring AD to be spent in order from lowest to highest talents in the item. If the item created is supposed to have a Tier 1 talent and a Tier 3 talent, it would require 4 AD to be successfully created. If only 3 AD are generated, then only the Tier 1 talent was imbued in the item but Tier 3 talent was not. The extra two AD can either be applied to creation time or in another way. Alternatively, the Tier 3 talent could have additional limitations put on it to make it a Tier 2 talent.

Either option should have a component, money and time requirement. The time should be also be based on the total number of Tiers with AD being able to be spent to reduce time. The wizard should be able to acquire Talents to reduce difficulty or other aspects of making magic items.

On 2/3/2018 at 9:54 PM, Forgottenlore said:

The soon to be released Terrinoth campaign setting may provide a set of answers for many of those questions.

Indeed and I'm super excited for this- my campaign setting may (too early to know) allow for different types of magic- runecasting, spellcasting and 'recipe based' (potion brewing from different plants and the like) being probably the three main types that first come to mind, there are other options such as enhancing an item (ordinary sword made magical etc), using magical artifacts...., rules should be flexible enough to design in any types of magic- you'd just need information so players know the specifics of your setting.

The Terrinoth sourcebook should help add to the options a lot:

"Another new addition to the Genesys system found in Realms of Terrinoth is rules for crafting and alchemy. Assuming you have the proper tools and equipment, your character can make a mechanics check to craft a new item. Surrounding circumstances—like suprior [sic] materials or crafting under pressure—may add boost and setback dice, and a chart within the Realms of Terrinoth book details the various effects of Triumphs and Failure symbols. Alchemy can be used in a similar manner to prepare elixirs, poisons, salves, unguents, and other concoctions detailed in the Realms of Terrinoth book."
From: https://www.fantasyflightgames.com/en/news/2018/1/9/realms-of-terrinoth/

Of course crafting also covers other things you may wish to do such as crafting tools/weapons (magical or not), or in settings where there's medicine not magic making medicines or cures etc...

I don't have the Genesys yet, but I'd try a few things:

  • At least in Star Wars, equipments have the Hard Points. I would this as slots to upgrade the equipment. Spells stored in the equipment would use these slots, I'm ok with 1 spell per slot, even to strong spells.
  • Who have the equipment need to spend (2) strain to active the spell if he want to. Instead of cast like a caster, he just do the attack check and use this result to "cast" and check how powerfull was the spell, and it happens instead of the regular attack.
  • Spells to increase stats, I would avoid the brute stat upgrade. I'd run to a booster dice in checks using the stat. Augment working as well as any upgrade using the equipment hard points.