Magic Items Suggestions

[Twan]

some ideas :

gem purses...

Gem Purse (greater misc item, around astral 3-4) : this magical bottomless purse stores gem in an astral space connected to all other gem purses of the same nation in the vicinity. A mage using one of these bags may take gems during combat in the inventory of any other character carrying a gem purse in the same province (the gem inventories of all characters carrying gem purses in a battle are merged for the battle engine).

Gem Summoning Purse (astral 3-4 very powerful misc) : this magical purse is connected via the astral plane to your laboratory. A mage carrying this purse may exchange gems with your lab, even if he's not in a province with one. Summoning gems with this kind of purses needs concentration and is not possible during combat.

The Purse of the Infatiguable (astral 5-6 misc artefact) : The Shadow Seer Terzahn of the Nexus, creator of this purse, is supposed to have won a 13 days long fight against the endless hordes of Hades, and was then called Terzahn the Infatiguable. Anyway, this battle was the last the forces of the Grey Tower of Nexus have won. The war was lost, probably a result of the gem bankrupt following this victory. The character carrying this purse, if he needs gems during combat, will summon and instantaneously use gems taken in your laboratory to stay conscious as long as you have gems in your stock.

Some powerful hand items for mages...

(school x) Specialization Staff (two handed magical staff, very powerful items or artefacts, level 7-8 in a school, 1 version for each school) : the specialization staves are only usefull to a mage proficient in several schools of magic. When wielding a Specialization Staff he looses his powers in all schools but the one of the staff, but his proficiency in this one is greatly increased. (magic bonus : 1 point for the first point he had in other schools, + 1 for two more total levels in other schools, +1 for 4 more levels, +1 for 8 more, etc... - ie : a fire 3 water 3 astral 2 earth 2 mage carrying a fire specialization staff will become a fire 6 mage ; a fire 3 astral 10 earth 5 with the same staff will become a fire 7 mage)

Wand of Chaotic Evocation (one handed, very powerful item, 6 blood) : this wand infused with blood and chaotic essence will reveal its powers only in battle, making its wielder able to cast random evocation level 4-5 spells when the order ‘cast item spell’ is used. The effects of these random spells will be proportionnal to the skill of the wielder in blood magic (for dammage, etc... each spell will be considered casted by a mage having a level in each school needed equal to the level in blood of the caster) but the activation of these chaotic powers is very tiring : the user will get 100% of the fatigue cost of each spell casted with this item (the fatigue a mage having just the minimum skill would get if his skill in the spell school is 0).

Staves giving a school bonus –Staff of Conjuration, of Evocation, etc....- (two handed, very powerful, level 4-5 in one path, for example nature for conjuration, fire for evocation, astral for enchantment, death for thaumaturgy, air for alteration) +10 bonus for rituals and 20% fatigue reduction when casting spells of this school in battle.

Wand of Magic Detection (minor item or trinket astral 2-3 or astral 1 nature 1 one handed) : this wand adds one to the level of its wielder in each practiced schools, only when searching magic sites.

Greater Wand of Magic Detection (greater astral 3-4 or astral 2/nature 2 one handed) : this wands adds one to the level of its wielder in all schools only when searching magical sites (even schools the wielder doesn’t practice).

Ultimate Wand of Magic Detection (very powerful or artefact astral 5 or astral 4/nature 3 one handed) : allow its wielder to find all the magic sites in his province when searching.

More items for smiths :

Intelligent Hammer (two handed hammer, greater or very powerfull item, earth 2 astral 2) : this intelligent forge hammer gives to its wielder a minimum knowledge of one in all schools of magic, only usable to forge items (all items needing a level one in any school become craftable, but his level in schools already practiced is not improved, also, as the intelligent hammer is two handed and has no forge bonus, the items created with its help will be quite expensive).

Dwarven anvil (misc, earth 3 fire 3 greater item) : this anvil, creation of the dwarven smiths, increase the efficiency of a good hammer (forge bonus x 1,20).

Trinket factory anvil (misc, greater earth 4 item) : this anvil, another creation of the dwarven smiths, allow its wielder to forge two trinkets quality items of the same kind in a month, and for the price of one.

The Intelligent Anvil (misc, very powerful earth 3 astral 3) : this anvil, like the intelligent hammer gives its wielder a minimum knowledge of one in all schools, only usable to forge items, the only difference is the slot, allowing this item to be used with hammers giving a forge bonus.

The hammer of duplication (two handed hammer, very powerful or artefact, earth 4 fire 4) : used by the ancients titans to equip their armies this hammer, when forgeing items of the “greater” level or inferior will produce two items of the same kind in a month, and for the price of one. Its power is anyway not sufficient to duplicate very powerful items (or artefacts of course), and this hammer has no forge bonus out of its duplication power.

[Fate]

Twan said:
(school x) Specialization Staff (two handed magical staff, very powerful items or artefacts, level 7-8 in a school, 1 version for each school) : the specialization staves are only usefull to a mage proficient in several schools of magic. When wielding a Specialization Staff he looses his powers in all schools but the one of the staff, but his proficiency in this one is greatly increased. (magic bonus : 1 point for the first point he had in other schools, + 1 for two more total levels in other schools, +1 for 4 more levels, +1 for 8 more, etc... - ie : a fire 3 water 3 astral 2 earth 2 mage carrying a fire specialization staff will become a fire 6 mage ; a fire 3 astral 10 earth 5 with the same staff will become a fire 7 mage)

Shouldn't a level be added at levels 1, 3(+2), 6(+3), and 10(+4) in other schools? Then it fits evenly into 10, otherwise it maxes out at 7, after granting 3 more levels. An alternative is making it use 1, 4(+3), and 10(+6).

I like your ideas, very interesting!

[Twan]

Fate said:

Shouldn't a level be added at levels 1, 3(+2), 6(+3), and 10(+4) in other schools? Then it fits evenly into 10, otherwise it maxes out at 7, after granting 3 more levels. An alternative is making it use 1, 4(+3), and 10(+6).

Yes perhaps I've too much prevently nerfed this item. My goal was to make hard to gain more than 5 levels with it, even with a powerful rainbow pretender.

But it may be better to hardcode the maximum and make it gives for example 1 level for 1-2, 2 for 3-5, 3 for 6-9, 4 for 10-14 and 5 for 15+.

[Twan]

Some other ideas :

forgers becoming the item... (probably too much work to code this kind of things but a fun idea)

My Own Demilich Skull (very powerful death 6 item) : to forge this item the death mage must kill himself, as his own skull will become the demilich one. The demilich skull can then be carried by another character and will randomly cast spells in battle its forger was able to cast (but will be of no use to cast ritual spells). Like Carcator demiliches generally tend to be grumpy and often cast curses even on their own troops. A pretender god becoming an item can't be called back as long as the item is in game.

Controling Soul (astral 5-6 vp misc) : to create this item the astral mage must definitivly quit his physical body, becoming this globe of astral energy. The controling soul can then be carried by another character and will take control of one of his ennemies in every battle (MR negates but the controling soul has a penetration bonus equal to the astral level of the item creator ; this enslave mind spell is casted every round untill an ennemy fails, but the soul can only take control of one per fight). But this power is not the most exceptionnal of a controling soul : this indestructible globe will always be found if his wielder dies in battle, and has such a powerful spirit that it may control even its finder. An ennemy commander finding the controling soul will be seduced like by a succubus if he fails his MR check (pretenders gods are of course immune).

Living Demonic Sword (very powerful blood 4 two handed sword) : to forge this item the blood mage must infuse a sword with his own blood, killing himself in the process, but transfering his soul and some of his powers into it. The dammage done by a demonic sword are based on the skills of its creator in elemental magic. The physical dammages this sword may done are increased by 3 by level he had in earth magic, and the sword gets one more attack by other elemental path practiced by its forger, doing 3 points of appropriate dammage by level he had (ie if he was a fire 3 air 2 blood 4 the sword will have a fire 9 dmg and an electrical 6 dmg attack in addition). The wielder of this sword will also gain 1 to his blood magic skill by 3 points the sword creator had in blood, and 1 to each statistic by 8 points its forger had in it. A pretender god becoming an item can't be called back as long as the item is in game.

Living Diabolic Sword (very powerful blood 4 two handed sword) : to forge this item the blood mage must infuse a sword with his own blood, killing himself in the process, but transfering his soul and some of his powers into it. The dammage done by a diabolic sword are based on the skills of its creator in arcane magic. The attack of the diabolic sword will be armor negating if he had 3 or more in astral magic, have a drain strength power if he had 3 or more in death magic, and will be poisonous in proportion to his nature skill (from weak poison for 1 to death poison for 6+), and the sword will give its user a berserking hability with a bonus equal to the skill of the creator in blood. The wielder of this sword will also gain 1 to his blood magic skill by 3 points the sword creator had in blood, and 1 to each statistic by 8 points its forger had in it. A pretender god becoming an item can't be called back as long as the item is in game.

(the same may be done for armors, demonic living armor giving resists or auras based on the elemental paths of the creator, diabolic living armor giving powers like etheral form if created by an astral mage, regeneration for nature, cursing attackers for death, + the general stat/blood bonuses)


more items having control powers on magical creatures (with a powerful but very situationnal power, good counters against some strategies) :

Crown of Elemental Control (1 by elemental path, greater or vp item needing about 3-4 levels in the school) : This crown will try to take control of all ennemy elementals each round. (a MR check will be done for each elemental creature of the item school in the ennemy army each round, the elemental is controlled for the round if it fails).

Crown of the Seasons (nature 4-5 greater or vp item) : this crown will try to take control of all seasonnal spirits in the ennemy army each round.

Crown of the Ingenior (earth item, same effect on mechanical men and clockwork horrors)

etc...

or even non magical creatures, but less efficiently :

Ring of Human influence : this ring will try to control the human ennemy soldiers close to you (MR check for all ennemy humans in a 5 or 10 range or control for the round).

Rings/Crowns of Troll/Lizardmen/Tritons influence, (etc...)

[Fate]

Twan said:

Yes perhaps I've too much prevently nerfed this item. My goal was to make hard to gain more than 5 levels with it, even with a powerful rainbow pretender.

But it may be better to hardcode the maximum and make it gives for example 1 level for 1-2, 2 for 3-5, 3 for 6-9, 4 for 10-14 and 5 for 15+.

Yeah, that would work. Whatever happens, it is a good idea! (though the question arises, can the staff be used to go over level 10?)

Also, I like the idea of the forgers becoming the magic item. Maybe the champion's head (already present) can be made free, but require the forger's life? The possibilities are monumental...

[Tortanick]

About the magic items debate, I do agree that for technical reasons they should be identicle, but random stats for troops commanders and items would be nice.

However magic drain scale was mentioned, why not have that affect magic items but on a current province level, not a home province level