Fabrication of Magic Items

It is an obvious premise of the game that magic items are made somewhere by someone or something. A properly run campaign will be relatively stringent with respect to the number of available magic items, so your players will sooner or later express a desire to manufacture their own. Do not tell them how this is to be accomplished! In order to find out, they must consult with a sage (q.v.) or a high level character of the proper profession, the latter being detailed a bit hereafter.

Magic items are made by high level magic-users, except those items which are restricted to clerics and special racial items and books, artifacts and relics. Books (including tomes, librams and manuals), artifacts, and relics are of ancient manufacture, possibly from superior human or demi-human technology, perhaps of divine origin, thus books, artifacts, and relics cannot be mode by players and come only from the Dungeon Master.

Dwarven and elven manufactured items—the +3 dwarven war hammer, certain other magic axes and hammers, cloaks and boots of elvenkind, magic arrows, magic bows in some cases, and even some magic daggers and swords - are likewise beyond the ken of player characters of these races. Only very old, very intelligent and wise dwarves and elves who have attained maximum level advancement are able to properly forge, fashion, and/or make these items and have the appropriate magicks and spells to change them into special items - i.e., these items are likewise the precinct of the DM exclusively.

This still leaves an incredible range of magic items which player characters can aspire to manufacture. It is a sad fact, however, that these aspirations must be unsatisfied until the player character achieves a level of ability which is one greater than nominal highest level - high priest, druid, wizard, illusionist.

That is, a player character must be at least an 11th level high priest, an archdruid, a 12th level wizard or an 11th level illusionist in order to manufacture magic items (except with respect to potions and scrolls, as will be discussed hereafter).

Furthermore, a player character may manufacture only those items particular to his or her profession or items which are usable by professions not able to so make magic items only. Thus, a cleric is unable to fashion a wand usable by magic-users or illusionists, a magic-user cannot manufacture a clerical magic item, etc.

There is a further prohibition upon clerics regarding the making of items which are prohibited to their profession or which are of opposite alignments; this restraint does not extend into the sphere of magic-users as a class. Thus, clerics cannot manufacture magic swords, though magic-users can.

Manufacture of Potions

Potions may be made by any magic-user of 7th level or above, if he or she enlists the aid of an alchemist (q.v.). At levels above the 11th, such assistance is no longer mandatory, although it will reduce the amount of money and time the player character must spend making the potion by 50% of the compounding/infusing time normally required, as the alchemist will be so employed instead.

In order to begin manufacture of a potion (and they may be made only one at a time), the magic-user must have a proper laboratory with fireplace, workbench, brazier, and several dozen alembics, flasks, dishes, mortar and pestle, basins, jugs, retorts, measuring devices, scales, and so forth! Such implements are not easily obtained, being found only at alchemical shops or produced upon special orders by stone masons, potters, glass blowers, etc. Initial outlay for the creation of a workshop, assuming that the place already has a fireplace, would cost between 200 and 1,000 g.p. This cost is based on the relative availability of the tradesmen and goods necessary to complete the work room and stock it properly. The DM may certainly require a greater expenditure if the campaign has inflation and/or shortages. In addition, upkeep of the laboratory requires a further monthly outlay of 10% of the total cost of the place, exclusive of any special provisions or protections, in order to stock basic fuel and supplies, replace broken equipment, and so on when the laboratory is in use. (Note: The place is always in use if the player character has an alchemist in his or her employ, for the alchemist will continually putter and experiment, always to no particular end, when not engaged in specific work for the magic-user.)

In order to avoid the length and complication of separate formulae for each type of potion, the following simple system is given. Both the cost in gold pieces and the days of compounding and infusing are determined by use of the experience points award (as shown on the list of magic items) amounts. If no experience points are shown, then the potion has a 200 g.p. base for cost and time determination. The point award for a given potion is also the amount of gold pieces the magic-user must pay in order to concoct the basic formula - with rare herbs and spices and even more exotic ingredients. The number of days required to brew the potion is the same figure, each hundred or fraction thereof indicating one full day of compounding time to manufacture the liquid, i.e., 250 x.p. = 250 g.p. basic costs and 3 full days of time.

Most important to the manufacture of a potion is the substance of its power, the special ingredient. The list of potions and special ingredients possible is given for your convenience only. You may opt for any reasonable special ingredient you deem suitable for a potion, keeping in mind difficulty of obtaining the material (hopefully high or greater) and its sympathetic equivalency or relationship to the end result of quaffing the potion.

Poison. Only assassins of 9th or higher level may concoct “potions” of poison - or any other sort of poison, for that matter. Refer to the section on assassins for details of special forms of poison. No laboratory or alchemist is needed, but cost and time are found as if a normal potion was being prepared.

Manufacture of Scrolls

Scrolls are exceptional in that they are simply storage space for spells of one sort or another. Clerics, druids, magic-users, and illusionists inscribe scrolls with spells applicable to their particular professions. Protection spells are scribed by either magic-users or clerics, the determination being as follows:

Clerical Protection Spells

Devils
Possession
Undead

Magic-user Protection Spells

Demons
Elementals
Lycanthropes
Magic
Petrification

Curse scrolls can be made by any sort of spell user noted above.

Scrolls may be inscribed only by characters of 7th or higher level, and the spells placed upon the scroll must be of a level which the inscribing character is able to employ, i.e. a 9th level magic-user could not place a 7th level spell on a scroll. (Note that the write spell enables the magic-user to inscribe his or her own reference works so as to be able to read and remember higher level spells than he or she is currently able to use; it does not enable casting or scroll inscription.) A scroll of spells may be inscribed only upon pure and unblemished papyrus, parchment, or vellum -the latter being the most desirable. Any mistake will doom the effort to failure. A fresh, virgin quill must be used for each spell transcribed. The quill must be from a creature of strange or magical nature, i.e. a griffon, harpy, hippogriff, pegasus, roc, sphinx of any sort, and similar monsters you elect to include (demons, devils, lammasu, etc.).

The material upon which the scroll of spells is to be written can be purchased at the following cost guidelines:

The type of material used will affect the likelihood of successful transcription, as listed above. Special quills cannot normally be purchased, for only common goose or similar feather instruments are available in shops. The would-be inscriber must arrange for the special writing tools as he or she can.

Ink is a very special requirement. Scroll spell ink, just as the ink for detailing spells in spell books, is compounded only by the inscriber from secret and strange ingredients. The basic medium should be sepia from a giant squid or ink from a giant octopus. To this liquid must be added blood, powdered gems, herbal and spice infusions, draughts concocted from parts of monsters, and so on. An example of a formula for the ink required to scribe a protection from petrification spell is shown below:

1 oz. giant squid sepia
1 basilisk eye
3 cockatrice feathers
1 scruple of venom from a medusa‘s snakes
1 large peridot, powdered
1 medium topaz, powdered
2 drams holy water
6 pumpkin seeds

“Harvest the pumpkin in the dark of the moon and dry the seeds over a slow fire of sandalwood and horse dung. Select three perfect ones and grind them into a coarse meal, husks and all. Boil the basilisk eye and cockatrice feathers for exactly 5 minutes in a saline solution, drain, and place in a jar. Add the medusa’s snake venom and gem powders. Allow to stand for 24 hours, stirring occasionally. Pour off liquid into bottle, add sepia and holy water, mixing contents with a silver rod, stirring widdershins. Makes ink sufficient for one scroll.”

Other ink formulas will be devised similarly according to the dictates of the DM. Ingredients should suit the overall purpose of the ink. It is recommended that each different spell to be transcribed require a different ink compound - clerical spells requiring more venerated and holy materials, druid spells being basically rare roots and herbs in infusions, and so on.

Garments, wrappings, dust, sweat, tears, teeth, fangs, organs, blood, and so forth are all ideal components.

Once material, quill, and ink are ready, the spell scriber must actually write the magical runes, glyphs, symbols, characters, pictograms, and words upon the surface of the scroll. Transcription must be from his or her scroll books or upon an altar (for clerics and druids). Special candles and incense must be burning while the inscription is in progress. Clerics must have prayed and specially sacrificed to their deity, while magic-users must have drawn a magic circle and remain uninterrupted.

PREPARATION REQUIRES ONE FULL DAY FOR EACH LEVEL OF THE SPELL BEING SCRIBED ON THE SCROLL.

A 1st level spell takes one day, a 2nd level spell two, etc. Time so spent must be continuous with interruptions only for rest, food, sleep, and the like. If the inscriber leaves the scroll to do anything else, the magic is broken, and the whole effort is for naught.

Failure. There is a basic 20% chance that a mistake, smudge, or flow in the scroll will make the spell useless. To this base chance is added 1% per level of the spell being inscribed, so that total failure chance is from 21% to 29%, minus the level of the character attempting to write the spell. Thus, if a 14th level cleric is attempting to write a 7th level spell on a parchment scroll, the failure chance is 20% + 7% - 14% = a 13% chance. After the requisite materials and preparations have been taken care of, the player character must then spend the full time necessary to inscribe the scroll spell. Thereafter, a percentile dice roll greater than the percentage chance of failure equals success. If multiple spells are being scribed, a failure of one means that no further spells may be placed upon the scroll. In any event, a maximum of seven spells may be written on a single scroll.

As a spell is read from the scroll, its letters and figures writhe and glow, the magic is effected, and then the lines fade and are gone forever. (In order for a magic-user or illusionist to transcribe a heretofore unknown spell from a scroll to his or her books, a read magic and then a period of time equal to that necessary to place the spell on the scroll are required; this likewise causes the spell to disappear from the scroll.)

The scriber of the spell does not need a read magic spell to use his or her own scroll spells, just as clerics and druids never need the aid of magic to read appropriate scroll spells.

Fabrication of Other Magic Items

All of the various other magic items will require the use of the magic spell, enchant an item, save clerical items.

With respect to the former, you must determine which spells and ingredients are necessary to the manufacture of each specific magic item.

For example, a player character wizard of 15th level desires to make a ring of spell storing. He or she commissions a platinumsmith to fashion a ring of the finest quality, and pays 5,000 g.p. for materials and labor. He or she then casts the enchant an item spell according to the [spell’s] instructions. As DM, you now inform him or her that in order to contain and accept the spells he or she desires to store in the device, a scroll bearing the desired spells must be scribed, then a permanency spell cast upon the scroll, then the scroll must be merged with the ring by some means (typically a wish spell). As all of that could not be done in time, the ring would have to be prepared with the enchant an item spell again. Of course, you could tell the player before, if you are soft-hearted or he or she is intelligent enough to ask before starting the ball rolling. The above-mentioned ring of spell storing could be made without the benefit of a permanency spell, and spells could be stored within, but they could only be called forth once, and then the ring would be useless.

Wands and other chargeable items do not require permanency, and, of course, they are used up when all the charges are gone. Items with a permanent dweomer (such as weapons, armor, most rings and miscellaneous magic items) do require a permanency spell to be made continuously operational.

Clerics and druids making an item which is applicable to their profession must spend a fortnight in retreat, meditating in complete isolation. Thereafter, he or she must spend a sennight [i.e. a week] fasting. Finally, he or she must pray over and purify the item to become magical (this process takes but a day).

Of course, the item must be of the finest quality just as detailed in the enchant an item spell description. Thereafter, the cleric or druid must place the item upon his or her altar and invoke the direct favor of his or her deity to instill a special power into the item. There is a 1% per day cumulative chance that the item will then be empowered as desired, providing the cleric or druid has been absolutely exemplary in his or her faith and alignment requirements. Furthermore, if the item is one with charges, the cleric or druid must then take it into seclusion and cast the requisite spells upon it, doing so within 24 hours of its being favored by the deity. In other cases, the item need only be sanctified to the appropriate deity in order to complete its manufacture.

In all cases, the manufacture of any magic item other than a potion or scroll will be so debilitating as to necessitate the maker to rest for one day for each 100 g.p. of the item’s experience point value, i.e. one with a 2,000 experience point value means 20 days of complete rest. During this period, the character can do nothing except eat, rest, undertake mild exercise, and sleep - all in relative isolation. No adventuring or spell use is possible during this period!

Fabrication of Magic Items By Illusionists

Though different spells are employed, the process of fabrication of magic items which illusionists use is not really very different from that used by magic-users. It is almost exactly similar as regards costs in both time and money. Some processes are also nearly identical, such as the making of scrolls, which may be done at the 7th level and up.

At the 11th level, illusionists may be able to create one-shot or charged magic items, things without a permanent dweomer, such as potions or a wand of illusion, for example. Such items are really merely storehouses of magical energy which can be released in various ways. Like any other spell-caster, the illusionist must fashion the item out of rare and expensive materials, but instead of using enchant an item to prepare the item to receive its enchantment, the illusionist uses major creation to subtly alter its structure in a magical direction so that it can receive and retain the necessary spells. During the next 16 hours after casting the major creation, the illusionist instills the primary initial dweomers into the item, and if his concentration is interrupted even once during this period, the item instantly fades and forever disappears, like an illusion that has been dispelled.

Beginning at 14th level, an illusionist may attempt to make items with a truly permanent dweomer, such as a +1 dagger or a ring of protection, for example. This entails a similar process to the one described above. The crucial difference is that after a major creation spell has been used to adjust the material object, an alter reality must be cast to fix it permanently in place and make it able to contain a permanent magic. Thus, with a great expense in time, money and preparation, major creation, alter reality and true sight spells, and an unflawed gem worth not less than 10,000 g.p., an illusionist might be able to create a gem of seeing.

The basic thing to remember if details are in question is that illusionists are a sub-class of magic-users, and except for what has been outlined above, what applies to magic-users applies to illusionists as well.

Fabrication of Magic Items by Charmed or Enslaved Magic-users

It is absolutely necessary that you take note that any sort of charmed, magically persuaded, or otherwise enslaved magic-user will be totally unable to function in such a manner as to allow the fabrication of any sort of magic item -scroll, potion, or otherwise. The discipline and concentration demanded by such activity absolutely precludes individuals of this sort from manufacturing magic items. If a player character should attempt to have such a character fabricate items, allow the usual amounts of time and money to be expended, and then inform him or her that the results are negative. If the player character opts to have the enslaved individual continue, soy nothing, but the attempts will continue to be fruitless.

Creation of Holy/Unholy Water

Only clerics, excluding druids, are able to prepare holy water - or unholy water in the case of evil clerics. As a third level spell is involved, it requires a cleric of not less than 5th level of experience to manage to create such fluid. The process is as follows:

A specially blessed/cursed basin of fine workmanship and precious metal (copper, silver, electrum, gold, or platinum) must be fashioned for the cleric. This vessel must be engraved with the holy/unholy symbols of the cleric’s deity or deities, and it must be within a special repository of finely crafted and carefully worked rare wood, with a base, pedestal, chest-like holder and lid - the whole being known as a font. The basin is placed within the font, and the cleric then casts the following spells in succession, while robed in formal vestments appropriate to his or her religious persuasion:

Create water
Purify food & drink (the water) or its reverse
Bless or its reverse
Chant (1 full turn)
Prayer

The amount of water created depends upon the metal of the receptacle, and this is shown hereafter, along with suggested costs for the various parts of the font. Once created, the holy/unholy water cannot leave the font for more than a turn without losing its efficacy unless it is placed within specially blessed/cursed vials of crystal—either rock or special leaded glass. Each empty vial is worth 2-5 gold pieces.

You may allow combination metal vessels with capacity according to the composition, found by interpolation of the above capacity figures, i.e., a copper basin chased with silver and set with silver rim and handles would hold 8 vials and cost 50% of the copper vessel plus 50% of the silver vessel price. Fonts and basins must be designed and constructed on special order, the process taking 4-10 (2d4+2) weeks.

Capacities are designed far game purposes so as to limit supplies of holy/unholy water. They can be justified by the rationale that the deities find more precious metals more pleasing than those of less worth, so they are prone to grant more favor upon such offering vessels.

Limit of Creation. Holy water or unholy water may be made but once per week. The ritual takes a full day of prayers and meditation, followed by the actual ritual, followed by a need for not less than 8 hours of rest and repose. Only one holy/unholy water font per religious edifice is possible, as deities look upon anything other as unworthy and excessive.

Defilement of Fonts. If any non-believer blesses/curses an unholy/holy font, or uses less refined means such as excreting wastes into a font or basin, the whole is absolutely desecrated, defiled, and unfit. It must be smelted down and remade in toto. The cost will be 20% to 50% of the normal figures shown above, and the process will take from 4 to 6 weeks. Note that either method of defilement requires actual contact with the font and its vessel. Any blessing or cursing from a distance will be absolutely ineffectual and wasted. Relics might either defile by touch or prevent defilement by being encased within the font or receptacle, at your option.

Note Regarding the Drinking of Holy Water

Ingesting or bathing with holy water will have the beneficial effect of slowing the onset of lycanthropy or of becoming undead. For each vial so used, the process is slowed by from 1-4 turns. This time delay is to be secretly determined and noted.