Examples of Magical Item Creation

Rozmare wants to duplicate a potion of speed she has found. Because she has a dose of the potion to analyze, she can determine its formula in one week of study and doesn’t need to spend any money except for normal maintenance on her laboratory. She determines that the potion’s main ingredient is the essence of speed. After some deliberation, Rozmare decides that the heart of a swift animal should suffice (it could easily be sweat from a fast horse or a shoe worn by a fleet-footed elf). Rozmare also decides it would be best to get a fresh heart, so she hires a huntsman and goes searching for deer.

The DM smiles inwardly at this plan, remembering several stories about Robin Hood and how touchy some people can get when it comes to deer hunting. Fortunately, Rozmare pays her respects to the local baron and agrees to deal with some brigands before going hunting.

Once she has the heart, Rozmare begins working. Additional materials cost 200 gp (equal to the potion’s experience point value) and brewing takes two weeks. At the end of that time, the DM secretly rolls the dice and gets a 71. Rozmare is 13th level, so her success chance is 94% (70% +26% for her level and –2% for the potion’s cost of 200 gp). Rozmare has successfully created a potion of speed.

Some time later, Rozmare gets hints from the baron that a magical gift would be appreciated. Since the baron has been having some problems with trolls lately, Rozmare agrees to provide him with a long sword +1, +3 vs. regenerating creatures.

To create the sword, Rozmare needs the enchant an item spell (which she knows), a permanency spell (which she cannot cast herself), and a list of the required materials and processes. The baron reluctantly agrees to provide a ring with one wish, which Rozmare can use to duplicate the permanency spell. Rozmare is in no hurry, so she begins researching the required steps without magical aid. After three weeks (and an expenditure of 600 gp), she discovers that the sword must be forged of metal taken from a blazing fallen star and nails from a slumbering vampire’s coffin (two exotic materials). The sword must be heated in coals strewn with a troll’s ashes (rare process), quenched in acid (common process), set with a gem wrested from an ogre magi’s hand (exotic process), and polished with a tooth from a living lernaean hydra (exotic process). Rozmare has quite a series of adventures ahead of her.

Rozmare thought she would have to find a meteorite that just struck the ground; she got a break when she found a meteorite with the rays of the setting sun playing across it like firelight. The coffin nails were fairly simple to get—her group forced a vampire into gaseous form and pried loose the nails from its coffin while the monster was recovering. Acquiring a gem wrested from an ogre magi’s hand proved frustrating, as the creature’s invariably turned gaseous and escaped before Rozmare could get the gem. Eventually, a successful confusion spell allowed the task to be accomplished. Getting a tooth from a lernaean hydra wasn’t difficult—the tooth didn’t have to be alive, just the monster—but making sure the hydra was still alive when it came time to polish the sword required her to keep the creature caged. Troll ashes proved fairly easy to get, and the smith Rozmare hired to actually make the blade suggested that cooling that sword in a vat of vinegar would qualify as quenching the sword in acid without endangering the blade.

Additional materials for the task cost 1,600 gp (double the sword’s 800 experience point value) and preparations took eight weeks (four weeks per 1,000 gp of cost, rounded up to the nearest 1,000).

With the sword made, all that remained was to enchant the weapon. The arduous task of enchanting the blade required the enchant an item, enchanted weapon (for the sword’s basic bonus—the DM decides the extra steps required for the sword’s multiple functions make additional enchant an item spells unnecessary) and permanency spells. Since Rozmare does not have access to the permanency spell, she uses the wish from the baron’s ring as a replacement.

Rozmare has a 65% chance to succeed (base 60% +13% for her level –8% for processes and spells). The DM secretly rolls the dice and gets a 54, a success.

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