| #1blacksheepcannibalNov 05, 2009 23:36:33 | This is an idea that struck me quite some time back, and I feel that I have refined upon it and given it a decent amount of playtesting. My players seem rather happy with it, anyhow.
BACKGROUND
I'll preface by saying that yes, I wasn't happy with the 4 magic item parcel wish list system in default 4e. I don't think that it's broken, wrong, bad, or horrible, I just don't personally like it. I also don't like watermelon - nothing against melons. It's a matter of taste. I think it seems awkward for everything the party finds to be exactly what they were looking for. That giant just -happened- to have a +3 crusaders craghammer, which is an exotic weapon in it's own right. On the flip side of this, I don't like giving out random magic items that they players are simply going to turn around and sell at the drop of a hat. On top of that, my players sort of miss rolling for their own treasure (back in 3.5, using the random treasure rolls, I'd have the players do the dice chucking while I consulted the tables. I have no idea why this inspired such wonderful glee in them, but they always enjoyed doing it.).
The system I designed thus must have a randomness to it; it must be a plausible, organic way of distrubuting treasure that is believable within the game world, and it must be flexible enough that it's not going to be things that the players will simply sell at the drop of a hat.
SYSTEM
The world is full of magic trinkets, odds and ends magic items that most people (and almost any intelligent race, really) are drawn to because it is believed they bring you luck or prosperity, or maybe just doom to your enemies. While these do not give any real mechanical bonuses, they are quite flavorful. And on top of that, they -are- actually imbibed with a certain degree of magical power, especially because these items are so often made of special materials or are even extraplanar in origin. Oddly enough, some semi-intelligent creatures are drawn to this special magic, making it not uncommon for them to be found about their lairs.
There are 20 (or so) types of these trinkets, of 6 varying levels of power. The types are: Arcane, Creation, Darkness, Death, Destruction, Earth, Fate, Fire, Freedom, Knowledge, Life, Luck, Protection, Strength, Skill, Sun, Trickery, Undeath, War, and Wilderness. For each of those types, there are Least, Lesser, Minor, Major, Greater, and Epic levels of power. For example, a moderately powerful heroic tier humanoid might be carrying around 1 or 2 of these trinkets - say, a Fire and Strength trinket, to help them be strong and protect them from the fire that the local salamanders use.
These charms are more than just raw discription, as well. A minor Fire charm could be a small ruby from the elemental plane of fire; a minor Earth charm could be a basilisk claw. Lesser Fate charm? A strand of Spellthread. A minor luck charm could be a jackelope foot.
As the players progress and conquer monsters, or find hidden treasure, they will amass these trinkets and charms. They will find that certain combinations of these charms can be used in rituals to enchant their magic items. It takes 3 trinkets, all of the same level of power, to make any particular enchantment. The specific trinkets it takes for an enchantment varies wildly. For example, Black Iron Armor +1 would take a the magic of a Least Protection Charm, a Least Fire Charm, and a Least Death charm to create.
MECHANICS
Each level of power corrosponds to a tier of enhancement. "Least" charms are always used to make magic items levels 1-5; "Lesser" are 6-10, "Minor" for 11-15, "Major" for 16-20, "Greater" for 21-25, and "Epic" for 26-30th level items. It always takes 3 charms to make any magic item. The specific required charms for any particular item vary, and are entirely up to the DM, but they should be sensible. Obviously a protection, death, and fire charm wouldn't be used to make a +2 Symbol of Life.
To distribute the charms, simply add in 3 charms of the appropriate tier in lieu of magic item packets. Thus, for (Packet 1, Level 1) you would give 3x level 5 (Least) Charms. There are 20 types of charms; a 1d20 roll works wonderfully to randomly determine the charms given at any particular level. I let my players do this, but you can pre-generate the results beforehand easily enough. You can even insert in something particular if you know a player is shooting towards a specific goal.
I also would recommend finding something to use as a "wildcard". I run Eberron, so Dragon Shards fell easily enough. Players know that a Lesser Dragonshard can act as if it were any one particular Lesser charm of any type. I tend to give out 5-6 dragonshards each level. For example, for level 8 my treasure list might look something like 1: minor Fire, minor Death, minor Dragonshard 2: minor Wilderness, minor Dragonshard, minor Skill 3: minor Dragonshard x2, minor Undeath, etc.
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| #2sfurtwanglerNov 06, 2009 9:12:13 | I do like this idea, given the needs you are addressing. I also like that it will allow you amke sure your players get items they want to use, without requiring you to ask them what they want and then "coincidentally" give them exactly that.
One idea I might add would be using the Domains from Divine Power as a source for a larger list of enchantments: Arcana, Change, Civilization, Creation, Darkness, Death, Destruction, Earth, Fate, Freedom, Hope, Justice, Knowledge, Life, Love, Luck, Madness, Moon, Poison, Protection, Sea, Skill, Storm, Strength, Strife, Sun, Torment, Trickery, Tyrany, Undeath, Vengence, War, Wilderness, Winter.
You could also look up a list of 3.5 domains, which would be even larger, and give you even more random tables to roll off on. Most of those dont' necessarily strike me as a type of magic (or item), but all of them seem reasonable for somethign that someone would enchant a minor trinket to help them in that aspect of their life.
For example, I can't think of a very solid example of a "Civilization" magic item, or "Civilization magic", but I can absolutely imagine some king's crown or scepter having some minor enchantment on it since it is a symbol of his rulership - or some other item intended to protect a small village using both "Civilization" and "Protection". |
| #4sfurtwanglerNov 08, 2009 10:21:36 | That does make a lot of sense. I sort of thought, based on how some of my old groups behaved around magic item tables, that it might be cool to have some charms be rarer than others, and certain numbers causing you to reroll on another table. It does seem like some wouldn't be useful in very many enchantments, though.
Another idea I had was how disenchanting could work. You could use the usual rules to disenchant, and perhaps even allow people to disenchant charms - or you might come up with a way to get back charms (although I'm not sure that makes sense, physically) which would require that your players use the charms they found, to some extent, rather than converting them all to residuum.
Since you normally sell or disenchant for 1/5 of the price, which always works out to the value of a magic item 5 levels lower, you could make a new disenchantment ritual that returns the charms to you that were used in the creation of a given item - but have each one degrade by one "tier" (so, a major would become a minor, etc). This would allow them to change their minds about gear, with the same loss of value that the original system allows for.
I dunno. I think its cool that the math works out for it, but it might not make any sense to get a bunch of friendship bracelets from your +1 sword. |
| #5blacksheepcannibalNov 08, 2009 12:17:10 | I stick with ordinary disenchanting rules, mostly. The charms are supposed to represent something flavored and interesting in the world - a fernia ruby, a basilisk horn, the eye of a beholder, something tactile. It wouldn't make any sense to disenchant into charms, I think, and it would add a layer of complication that wouldn't really contribute anything (because you can always disenchant an item for the value of an item 5 levels - one tier - below it anyways).
That being said, you can actually use more than 3 charms in a ritual in order to use lesser charms. 5 charms can be substituted for a single charm one tier higher. So if you had 5 lesser charms, you could use 5 lesser charms (to simulate a minor charm) and 2 minor charms in order to enchant an item. This has actually come up once or twice, especially when I'm handing out treasure around that level where I'm giving out lots of higher-teir charms and just a few lower tier ones still. You simply pick one charm out of the 5 to be the primary charm, with the other 4 simply adding their own magical power (but not flavor).
At least, that's how I govern the system. |