Enchanting

The Base Item

All enchanted items start from a base item. The base item serves as the 'container' into which the magical enchantments are placed. Base items are finely crafted items created with the bonuses unassigned in order that those bonuses may then be used to contain enchantments.

Glyphs

Glyphs are the simplest forms of enchantments. Glyphs simply take the unnassigned bonuses forged into a finely crafted base item and assign them to magical bonuses by use of the Enchanting skill and the investment of concentration.

Spell Inscriptions

Spell inscriptions are enchantments permanently etched into a base item - effectively turning the item into a sort of 'permanent' scroll that is not consumed when the inscribed spell is cast.

Focus Crystals

Focus Crystal are separate items, finely crafted, then enchanted separately, then permanently bound to an enchanted item in order to provide magical 'power' (concentration) to the item. These can reduce the cost to cast spells the item is enchanted with, or can make the magical effects of the item permanent.

Inscribing Glyphs

With the necessary skills and an adequate base item in hand, the enchanter can spend the time necessary to inscribe the glyphs. The time it takes is equal to one quarter of the time it took to craft the base item, multiplied by the bonus being assigned. For example, if the finely crafted shoes +2 took 10 hours and 40 minutes to craft, then inscribing the glyphs to turn them into Enchanted Shoes of Sneaking +2 would take 10.66 hours / 4 x 2, or 5 hours 20 minutes.

After the time is spent, the enchanter must spend concentration equivalent to casting a spell of power equal to the bonus (from 1 Concentration for a +1 bonus to 34 Concentration for a +8 bonus) and then roll a 21C using their Enchanting skill.

If this roll fails, the Concentration is wasted, the enchanting fails, and the once finely crafted item is now just an ordinary, non-finely crafted item that can no longer be enchanted. On any catastrophe, the item is destroyed.

If the roll succeeds, the item is successfully enchanted and the unassigned bonuses from the finely crafted item are now assigned and the item is magical. On a minor critical 1/4 (minimum 1) of the amount of the total bonus is added to the item and can be allocated as the enchanter wishes. On a major critical, 1/2 (minimum 1) of the amount of the total bonus is added to the item and can be allocated as the enchanter wishes.

Step One: Determine the Time Required

To determine the time it will take to inscribe a spell into an item you must first take the List Price for the spell, as you would for a scroll. However, unlike a scroll which is consumable, a spell inscribed on an enchanted item is permanent, and can be cast repeatedly. Therefore, when enchanting an item with a spell we use the List Price for the spell multiplied by the Power of the spell. From this, you can use the Rule of Quarters to determine how long the inscribing process will take.

Example: Dagger of Wounding
• In order to enchant a dagger to cast the Wound spell, first find the List Cost for a Scroll of Wound, then multiply that cost by the Power of the Wound spell (Power 2)
• List Price for a Power 2 Destruction spell scroll (Wound): $300
• Multiply by the Power level of the spell (2) = $600
• Inscribing Time: $600 x 0.25 / $7.5/hr = 20 hours

Step Two: Cast the Spell

Once the time has been invested to inscribe the spell, the enchanter is ready to cast the spell into the item. To do this, the enchanter rolls a 21C to cast the spell. This cannot be done using a scroll or using another enchanted item to cast the spell, nor can someone else cast it - the enchanter must cast the spell themselves. Unlike when creating a scroll, where the caster/illuminator does not spend the casting cost, in the case of enchanting the caster/enchanter must pay the casting cost for the spell at this time.

Unlike with scrolls, instant spells can be enchanted into items, but they must be powered by Focus Crystals. Any item enchanted with an instant spell that does not have an adequately powerful Focus Crystal to entirely power it does not allow the user to cast the spell at all.

On a failure to cast the spell the inscription is ruined and the item may never be enchanted further. On any catastrophe, the item is destroyed and the caster/enchanter pays the concentration cost and the spell and its catastrophic effects are triggered immediately.

If the caster/enchanter succeeds in casting their spell, all that remains is to finish the enchantment (and potentially to add a Focus Crystal). On a minor critical, the spell inscribed into the item is cast with a default effectiveness of 23 instead of 21, and on a major critical, the a default effectiveness goes up to 25.

Barring a critical success, the default effectiveness of a spell cast from an enchanted item is always equal to 21, regardless of the roll made by the caster/enchanter when creating the item. This effectiveness can be increased by inscribing glyphs that grant bonuses to the spell, as defined in the previous section.

Step Three: Finish the Enchantment

Once the spell has been successfully enchanted into the item, all that is required is for the enchanter to complete the process. This means rolling a 21C using their Enchanting skill. On a failure the enchantment fails, the inscription is ruined and the item may never be enchanted further. On a minor catastrophe, the item is destroyed in a magical explosion that does 1d6+1 damage per Power level of the spell. On a major catastrophe, the damage is increased to 1d12+2 per Power level.

On a minor critical, the spell can be cast as though it is of one Power level lower, and on any major critical, the spell can be cast as though it is of two Power levels lower.

Enchanting a Focus Crystal

Once a Focus Crystal has been acquired, it can be enchanted using the Enchanting skill. This is simply a matter of spending a number of hours equal to the bonus level of the Focus Crystal, and then rolling a 21C using the Enchanting skill and investing Concentration equivalent to casting a spell whose Power level equals the bonus level of the Focus Crystal.

For example, to enchant a Focus Crystal with a bonus of +5, you must spend 5 hours, then roll a 21C using the Enchanting skill and spend 8 Concentration.

If successful, you will have a Focus Crystal that can then be integrated into an enchanted item to provide 5 Concentration toward the casting cost of a spell enchanted into that item. On a minor critical, the enchanter needs only invest 1/2 the concentration to enchant the Focus Crystal, and on a major critical no concentration is expended at all in the enchanting of the Focus Crystal.

On a failure, the Focus Crystal will become a normal fine gem, and can never be enchanted as a Focus Crystal. On a minor catastrophe, the Focus Crystal explodes that does 1d3 damage per point of Concentration being invested. On a major catastrophe, the damage per is increased to 1d6 per per point of Concentration. At high levels of concentration, these explosions can easily be lethal.

Binding Focus Crystals to Enchanted Items

Once a Focus Crystal is created, it must be incorporated into an enchanted item in order to gain its benefits (a Focus Crystal cannot be simply used as a magical 'battery' without being bound to an enchanted item). This final step requires both additional crafting using the relevant crafting skill (to set the gem properly) as well as a final enchanting roll to finalize the entire process. Neither of these processes take significant time or bring any additional expense.

First, roll a 21C using the relevant crafting skill, and then roll a 21C using the Enchanting skill. If both of these rolls succeed (including criticals), the enchanted item is considered completed and the Focus Crystal is forever bound to that item (it can never be removed and used to power another enchanted item). If either roll fails, the process can simply be attempted again until it is successful or until a catastrophe is rolled. On any catastrophe, the Focus Crystal explodes, destroying the item and doing damage as defined in the previous section.

Reducing Casting Cost

The maximum amount of concentration that a single Focus Crystal can provide to power a spell in an enchanted item is 8, as this is the most powerful Focus Crystal possible. This is enough to power an enchanted item that can cast a Power 5 spell, or to reduce the casting cost of higher powered spells by 8. To fully power spells of Power 6, 7 or 8, more Focus Crystals can be added to the same item.

For example, an item that can cast the Stormcall spell (Power 7) could be fully powered if two Focus Crystals with a bonus of 8 and one Focus Crystal with a bonus of 5 were bound to the item, providing 8 + 8 + 5 = 21 points of Concentration. When adding multiple Focus Crystals to an item, you must always use the minimum number of Focus Crystals - two Focus Crystals +8 and one Focus Crystal +5 are needed to fully power a Power 7 spell, but you cannot instead use ten Focus Crystals +2 and one Focus Crystal +1.

If Focus Crystals provide enough power that a spell enchanted into an item has its casting cost reduced to zero, then the spell can be cast for free and for no Action cost. Alternately, if the enchanter chooses and if it is applicable, the spell can be made permanent - ie: it is always on whenever the item is worn, used or carried. For example, Boots of Speed with a Focus Crystal with a bonus of 3 could either allow the wearer to cast the Speed spell for free at will, or could cause the wearer to be permanently effected by the Speed spell as long as the boots are worn. This decision must be made by the enchanter at the time the item is created.

Reducing Action Cost

Additionally, Focus Crystals also effectively reduce the number of Actions required to cast the spell enchanted into an item. An enchanted War Hammer that allows the user to cast the Power 5 Fireball spell for 8 Concentration and 2 Actions could have a Focus Crystal +5 bound to it. This would reduce the casting cost of the Fireball spell to 3 Concentration, and - by extension - reduce the number of Actions required to cast that spell down to the number of Actions required to cast other spells with a 3 Concentration cost - which is 1.

Unlike scrolls, enchanted items can potentially be crafted to cast instant spells. To make this possible, Focus Crystals must be used to reduce the casting cost of the spell in question to zero, at which point it can be cast instantly for no Action cost. For example, a magic shield enchanted with the Retarget spell would require a Focus Crystal with a +5 bonus bound to it in order to allow the user to instantly cast Retarget. If a Focus Crystal with a +4 bonus we used, the shield would not be able to cast Retarget at all. The spell and the Focus Crystal would be wasted, and while the shield would still technically be enchanted, it would offer no benefits aside from being considered magical.