Someone asked about the rules for creating magical items. In the past, we always did it by Game Master fiat–you want a cursed blowgun that never misses when shooting at fairies, the G.M. made it for you, and set whatever limitations on it he wished to set.

In Deluxe T & T we are giving you formulas for making your own spells and magical items. Just to get some feedback on that, I’m giving you the item creation formulas here and now. Try them out. Let me know how you think they work.

Other Items

For a reasonable fee, the Wizards’ Guild is willing to provide virtually any magical items that you desire. The game master has to provide these services. The price depends on the complexity of the object and the amount of magic it would take to produce it.

The list of wizardly tools, enchanted items, and magical potions could be very long indeed. Every spell in the spellbook (section 3.5) may lead to a magic item, potion, or ward of some type. Rather than fill the book with long lists, I’ve provided some short lists and principles of how to make such items for yourself.

Definition: A bespelled item is one that has one spell cast upon it one time.
The magic is not permanent and typically is only good for one use. These are the least expensive magic items, and are sometimes given away for free to attract customers. These are the kinds of things that certain rogues and wizards make during an adventure. Vorpal Blade is typical of such spells.–a low-level combat spell with a temporary effect. In magic shops, such spells can be cast with an activation trigger (such as going into combat) to remain on the weapon until it is needed. These are the least expensive types of magic to buy, and generally sell for about the cost in WIZ points that a wizard would have to expend to cast the spell. Thus, to vorpal a blade would be a very reasonable 5 gold pieces.

Definition: An enchanted item is one that has two spells on it: one to leech kremm from the wearer or user, and the other to produce an effect of some kind using that kremm. These are the typical magic items found in dungeons and sold in shops. They are not single use items and can be used repeatedly. Buying an enchanted “vorpal” sword blade would mean your combat total for the sword is always doubled, but your WIZ attribute would always be reduced by 6 points for each use. The enchantment would fail when the character no longer had a high enough WIZ rating to power it. The leech spell has an average cost of 50 gold pieces. The rest of the spell usually costs the kremm cost of the spell. Thus, a magic key that would open any first level lock would cost perhaps 1 gold for the key, 50 gold for the leech spell, and 3 gold for the Knock Knock spell on it for a total of 54 gold.

A second class of enchanted item has a “kremm battery” embedded right into it. Kremm batteries cost 10 gold pieces per each point of WIZ stored. Thus, a battery powered key like the one above would cost 31 gold pieces if it only had a single charge. 61 for 2 uses, 91 for 3 uses and so forth. The Knock Knock spell requires 3 points of kremm, and a battery that holds 3 points would cost 30 gold. Such items store magical energy and are good for a certain number of uses before losing their magical power. You can always tell these items because they come with a limited number of uses (or “charges”).

A truly magical item comes with at least two enchantments: One that produces each spell or effect for which the item is designed, and the other to absorb the necessary kremm from the planet itself to power its spell(s) or effect(s). Such magical artifacts never lose their power, and do not reduce the WIZ attribute of their wielder. This is the best type, and they are both rare and expensive. The enchantment to tap into the world’s kremm goes for 5000 gold. The cost of the spell is the same as its casting cost in kremm. In order to produce a magical item like a Medusa skull that would turn the viewer into stone would require a total cost of 5066 gold pieces plus a skull to hold the enchantment.

WEAPONS

A bespelled Vorpal weapon does double the basic dice roll in combat and costs 5 gp plus the cost of the weapon. All daggers and swords can be Vorpalled. The spell is triggered on the next use of the weapon. For an additional 10 gp, a trigger command can be added, allowing the spell to be saved until activated by the wielder. Tridents, spears, maces, bows, crossbows, polearms and hafted weapons cannot be vorpalled.

An enchanted Vorpal weapon also does double dice in combat and costs 50 gp plus the cost of the weapon. It uses the WIZ score of the wielder to activate, and drains the appropriate amount of kremm per use.

Magical Vorpal blades do double dice damage and cost 500 gp plus the cost of the weapon. These require no kremm from the wielder, and always remain active.

Similarly, weapons can be Whammied (tripling the dice in combat) for the cost of the weapon plus the cost of the magic (bespelled for 10 gp, enchanted for 100 gp, magical for 1000 gp).
Other combat spells may be placed on or built-into weapons using the same formula.

One more example: A flame sword using Blasting Power would cost 9 gold to bespell, 90 to enchant, and 900 to be permanently magical. Blasting Power has a base cost of 9 gold pieces and would cause the sword to throw bolts of magical fire with damage equal to the user’s level in D6 plus his/her combat adds.

Armor is just another form of weaponry. Here is an example of a magical target shield that always absorbs 12 hits in combat.

Magic Target Shield (1635 gp). A target shield with a Zaparmor bonus, absorbs 12 hits per combat round.

WARDS

With magic so plentiful in Trollworld, it only makes sense to buy protection from it if one can. Such protection comes in the form of wards. Wards are usually small talismans made of silver or carved rock, but may also be flimsy concoctions of paper, string, leaves, or any substance that can be magically charged. Wards come in two versions—those that simply give warning, and those that warn and protect. They may be extremely cheap, or extremely expensive, depending on the materials used and the magic involved.

The most common form of magical ward on Trollworld is one that uses the kremm resistance formula–i.e. the wearer of such a ward cannot be targeted by spellcasters with a lower kremm rating. Such wards are generally made of meteoric iron–yes, there is a brisk trade in meteorites on Trollworld–and cost 2D6 X 10 (DARO) in gold pieces. The workmanship of the less expensive ones is often very crude. It is the iron that protects the wearer, not any magic placed upon it. Non-meteoric iron that comes directly from Trollworld itself is so imbued with kremm that it has no protective or magical absorbent ability at all.

Warnings: These wards simply deliver some kind of warning when something happens or is about to happen. They are often extremely flimsy—perhaps a diagram or incantation on paper. They work by evoking a sound—the ringing of a bell, or howl of an animal. Or, if warn next to the skin, they could cause a tickle or a small shock. If flimsy, their cost is equal to 2D6 (DARO) gold pieces. If made of a sturdier, longer lasting material multiply that cost by 10.

Protectors: These wards actually deflect magic or turn it back on its caster. They are called Shields and Strikers. A Shield simply turns aside a magic attack. A Striker rebounds the attack on the sender. Shields cost 2D6 (DARO) times 10 gold; Strikers cost 2D6 (DARO) times 20 gold.

Wards come in two forms: enchanted and magical. These forms increase the cost of the ward by the same formula used above. Note that wards may either leech kremm from the wearer/user or be powered by a kremm battery or tap into Trollworld’s magical kremm energy.

Wards are generally keyed to the spells in the spellbook. For example, there can be a ward against TTYF spells, or there could be a ward against Befuddle spells. Any named spell can be warded.

Likewise, one could ward against a whole level of spells. A First Level Ward would deflect or rebound any first level spell used against its owner. A Tenth Level Ward would do the same for all spells up through 10th level. Etc. Level spells cost 1000 times their level to purchase/construct.

Wards can be broken or overcome or nullified by higher level magic. A L2 TTYF spell will still strike a person who is only warded against L1 spells.

Wards are magical creations. Any wizard using his/her Detect Magic ability can detect the presence of a ward on a foe, and get an impression of power (what level is the ward), but in order to do so, the player must specifically state that he/she is checking for magical wards. Otherwise, the magical feeling of the ward may be masked by other forms of sorcery at play.

Example: Khenn the wizard wants to buy a ward that will protect him from all first and second level spells. He wants it to be magical and always on, so it has to be powered by the world’s kremm. He asks for it at the Wizards Guild and a master wizard agrees to make one for him. Khenn brings in a silver talisman with an engraving of an owl on it, and rolls 2D6 getting a 3, 1. The shield costs 40 gold pieces. To power it magically costs 1000 gold times the level, which is two. Total cost to Khenn for a ward that always protects the wearer against 2nd level spells and below is 2040 gold. Expensive, but not impossible for a delver to pay for. By studying this section one can figure out how to buy any ward from the Wizards Guild. See the spellbook for rules on casting and making wards for oneself as a player.

JEWELERY

Jewelry and other manufactured items follow the same formula as weapons: Cost of the item plus form of magic x level of spell.

For example, a 200 gp gold ring is turned into a magical ring of invisibility:

Ring of Invisibility (1200 gp). A gold ring set with a star-shaped diamond. Wearing it will cause the wearer to become invisible—exactly as if he were in a Hidey Hole spell.

Remember that the costs of the spells to be placed on the jewelry is based on the amount of kremm needed for the basic spell. Simple one use magic is the spell’s kremm cost in gold pieces. Bespelled to either leech kremm from the wearer or use a kremm battery is 10 times the spell cost in kremm. Permanent magic because it taps the world’s kremm field is 100 times the spell’s cost in kremm. Thus, to buy a silver bracelet that allows the wearer to fly 3 times might cost 50 gold for the bracelet and 70 gold for the Fly Me spell and a battery that would hold 21 points of kremm would add another 210 gold. Total for the Fly Me Bracelet would equal 330 gold.

Any object can be enchanted to do almost anything by using the formulas given above.

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