Hullo, folks,

I've been re-reading the rules on various stuff in the main DESOLATION book, and have a question for anyone who can answer it.

Reading the Create Magic Item Skill in the book (DES, page 79), I've come to realize that I haven't got a clear idea of how the rules for creating magic items are supposed to work. Can someone in the know (perhaps Matt?) go through the creation of a magic item step-by-step, and illustrate the process?

Thanks in advance.

I think I can take a stab at that...

Step 1: Create the item (Craft skill, difficulty 7)
Step 2: Embue the item (Create Magic Item skill, difficulty = see table on page 79)

In reality, these two steps are occuring at the same time. He doesn't make the item then cast a spell on it. Rather, the magic is embued into the item all through the creation process. If either roll fails, the item does not hold the magic.

Example 1: A ring of repel undead (carved from bone)

Step 1: Create the Item
Deth, the most aptly named necromancer ever, has a Craft/Bone Carving skill of 12. He spends 2 Style points to have a 14, so he takes the average. Yes, you can add style points and take the average on the Craft roll.

Step 2: Embue the item
Deth must also make a Create Magic Item (CMI) skill roll. Repelling undead is a difficulty of 2, so according to the table on page 79 the caster must make a CMI skill roll of 4. Deth has a CMI skill of 10 and cannot take the average or spend style points. He rolls the dice and gets 4 successes and 6 failures. He takes 6 points of Burn, which could be mitigated in the normal manner.

More importantly, Deth succeeded in both steps. So he now has a magic ring of Repel Undead. This ring can either have charges or it can be used once per day. Deth chooses it to be a once per day item.

If you want to add more than spell to the item, the important thing to remember is:

1. Each spell being imbued into an item requires a separate CMI/imbue roll.
2. Each CMI/imbue roll is increased by 1 for every extra spell being imbued.

Example: Eagle Mask w/ eagle eyes(heightened senses) and talons (grow natural weapon)

Eagle Eyes --> spell difficulty 1 --> imbue difficulty 3 (see table on 79) +1 (extra spell) = 4
Talons --> spell difficulty 2 --> imbue difficulty 4 (see table on 79) +1 (extra spell) = 5

So three rolls must succeed for this item to be made:

1. Craft/Carving, difficulty 7
2. Create Magic Item, difficulty 4 (eagle eyes)
3. Create Magic Item, difficulty 5 (talons)

If any of these rolls fail, the item doesn't hold the magic

Hullo, Matt,

This is *exactly* what I was looking for! Thanks, Matt!



Ah, see, I thought that this was implied from the way the piece in the book on Creating Magic Item (like the abbreviation on this, btw) was written, but I wasn't sure about this, and when I tried a couple of sample item creations for myself, it just didn't come out right, time-wise.



I had wondered about this, as to be honest, if I had a high enough rating on the Craft skill, I wouldn't want to roll it and risk the failure!



Three questions about the process... First off, the Skill notes that the extra successes can be used to increase the potency or the charges of the magic item, but can these items be recharged? If so, how?

The second question is one of the Rune element. If the Rune Caster puts a rune of permanency on the item, this effectively means that the magic of the item never needs to be recharged and is permanent, right? Or does this mean that the item remains a magical item, but still needs recharging and all? Furthermore, can a magic item made permanent this way have new spells or effects added to it?

The third question is one of what can be put into items when imbuing them with stuff. For example, can one put an Attribute into an item (such that the wielder of the item would gain +2 Strength under certain conditions), a Skill (where the character gains 2 levels of Melee for a given period of time), a Talent (the character gains the Flurry Talent while wielding the magical weapon), or even a Flaw (the character must protect women)? If so, I assume the process would be similar, but I have no idea what the imbuing costs on such a thing would be. Thoughts?

Hullo, Matt,



Okay, first question of clarification... In the case where any of these rolls fail, does the item itself have to be re-crafted (as in the first step)? What kind of quality would you give the original item in that case?

That said, I assume that additional imbuings to the item of new magic spells or effects are done afterwards and all, or can one not imbue extra effects to the same item later? If not, that would imply that one has to put all the effects one wants into the item in question at the same time...which could be a some difficult task, both time-wise and from the pov of the Difficulty of the imbuing process during the task.

We never specified that, but I think that an item could be recharged by making another CMI/Imbuing roll at 1 difficulty level higher than the original imbuing.




The rune of permanancy would essentially either give the item unlimited charges or have its effect active all the time.

After the original set of spells are imbued into the item (at the time of creation), no additional spells or affects can be added. In fact, the even the permanancy rune should be inscribe immediately after imbuing. And a separate rune is needed for each spell effect.



Any spell can be imbued into an item as long as the caster's tradition can create the effect. Use the tables on pages 132 to 134 to figure out the spell's difficulty and then figure out the CMI difficulty on page 79. To use your examples:
+2 Strength --> Hard Spell (4) (pg 133) --> CMI 6
+2 Melee --> Tough Spell (3) (pg 133) --> CMI 5
Talent --> Tough Spell (3) (pg 132) --> CMI 5
Flaw --> Tough or Hard (see Alter/Enchant Characters pg 132) --> CMI 5 or 6

I was wrong in my previous post...

Roll 1 (craft) fails --> no spells can be imbued, you have a non-magical item of whatever quality was rolled, no need for roll 2 or 3
Roll 2 (cmi) fails --> spell not imbued, you have a non-magical item, no need for roll 3 (no other spells can be imbued)
Roll 3 (cmi) fails --> 1st spell still imbued (from roll 2), 2nd spell not imbued, you have a magical item

But in answer to your actual question, yes, you would need to start from scratch if you did not get the results you wanted.



One cannot imbue extra spells later - it all needs to be done at the time of creation, which as you stated, should be a difficult task.

Hullo, Matt,



I was hoping this would be the case, simply because if the items could not be recharged, then it would be...annoying. I like the idea of doing this with a CMI/Imbuing roll at +1 Difficulty. Keeps it simple and workable.



So the rune of permanency doesn't make the magic item permanently a magical device, per se, but give its the charges or an active effect all the time. Okay, makes sense.



Oooh, so the permanency rune has to be done for each effect? Coupled with the fact that the rune has to be done at the time of the item's creation, that makes the creation of magical items a literally one-shot deal and time consuming as well. Must have made creating some of the heroic type of magical items Before...tough, and interesting.



This is excellent to hear, Matt, and I sort of thought that one could do it, but needed to have it confirmed and some examples of it. Your comfirming it here just reinforced in my mind how this works.

This does raise another question. Is there anything to prevent magic items from having spells and the like from multiple Traditions (other than getting someone who cast do the spells, that is)?

Hullo, Matt,



Thanks for clarifying the correction from the earlier post, and for answering this question. This whole thread has just led me to realize how valuable and truly powerful any magical items from Before would be, and how rare the creation of new magical items After will be.



An understatement, Matt, for sure.

Goddess, but I love the magical system that you guys came up with for DESOLATION! Top notch!

Nope... as long as the casters are present for the creation of the item, they can toss in their spells, regardless of tradition.

In the before, some of the greatest items were made by combining traditions - notably Rune Casting and Sorcery.

Hullo, Matt,



I had wondered about that, particularly in regards to magical items and devices from the Before. It just seemed to me that items created by crafters and spell casters of different Traditions would be a necessity, although I could see this being very difficult to do in the After, primarily because of the lack of craftsmen and spell casters. (Or at least those willing to acknowledge they are such, in the case of spell casters!)

Casters?

Does that mean that the creator of the item does not have to be the caster himself?

Resurrecting a dead thread from 2 years ago...

From the "Journeys" supplement: "A spell caster is not required to be an item's maker but are [sic] typically present. If the caster is the maker of the item, he receives a +1 to their [sic] imbue roll. If the caster is not present at any point during the item's manufacturing, he receives a -1 penalty to his imbue roll." Journeys, pp. 33 (inset).

Granted this is in the Before, and it is noted that this is a "change and clarification" of the Corebook rules on page 79. I gather from the previous posts that item creation in the After requires the caster(s) to be present during item creation, but do not necessarily need to be the items creator.

And another question if you don't mind. On page 79 it says, "Only a Rune Caster can make a magic item without the Craft Magic Item skill", so I am wondering how this works then... I have a Dwarf who wants to make a magic sword (say +1 damage) so assuming he can create the item with a Crafts skill roll, he can then etch a Rune of Sharpness to it. Here is the question: that is a Difficulty 1 effect, but in terms of "crafting a magic item" would said Dwarf roll his Magic Aptitude: Rune skill and aim for the Crafting Magic Item difficulty level of 3 (as per the chart on pp 79), with extra successes applied as noted there for effect, charges, etc.?

If the Dwarf simply wanted to enhance a sword that he happened to find lying about on a battlefield with the "sharpness" Rune, he would simply roll a Magic Aptitude: Rune skill for 1 success to make it sharp for a scene, extra successes notwithstanding.

Is this correct?