Other Items

This broad category includes all other types of magical items, including rings, wands, staves, rods, miscellaneous magical items, and weapons and armor. Player characters can manufacture almost any kind of magical item appearing in the DMG , except for magical books, tomes, manuals, librams, grimoires, or artifacts of any kind.

In addition, a player character may be restricted from creating a particular item by his class. Wizards can create any magical item that is not specifically reserved for the use of priest characters (i.e., an item such as a staff of curing) or limited to certain races (such as boots of elvenkind). Racial items are created by priests of that particular race. If the item can be used by other characters as well as priests (for example, helm of teleportation), the wizard can manufacture the item. On the other hand, priests and specialist wizards can only create items that they can use. When creating an item, a specialist wizard gains a +5% bonus to his chance of succeeding.

The most important aspect of an item’s enchantment has very little to do with its purpose or form. Magical items are divided into several loose classes that are based on the nature of the enchantment: single-use, limited-use, single-function, and multiple-function.

Single-use items are depleted after a single usage. Most potions and scrolls fall into this category, but these have been discussed already. Other single-use magical items include such things as beads of force, incense of meditation, or any of Quaal’s feather tokens.

Limited-use items have a set or variable number of charges that may be used before it is expended. Some

limited-use items can be recharged, but only if they are recharged before their last charge has been expended. Other limited-use items may have multiple-functions (see below). Most wands and staves are limited-use items. Other limited-use items include such devices as a ring of wishes, bag of beans, scarab of protection, or the special properties of armor of fear.

Single-function items have only one power, which functions continuously or on demand. Some single-function items have time limitations, after which they cannot be used until they replenish their magical energy. Some single-function items may feature a limited-use feature, in addition to the persistent powers. Items such as a ring of shocking grasp, amulet of life protection, boots of speed, and wings of flying are good examples of single-function items.

Multiple-function items have more than one power and may also feature additional limited-use powers. Good examples include the rod of alertness, ring of elemental command, cloak of arachnida, or the helm of brilliance.

Level Requirements: Both wizards and priests must be at least 11th level to create any kind of magical item other than a potion or a scroll. Wizards are also limited by the spells required to actually create the item—enchant an item, permanency, and any other appropriate spells. Priests, on the other hand, do not cast spells to create items, but instead use a consecrated altar (see Chapter 5 ).

Facilities: Wizards require a well-equipped forge and may need to expand their personal libraries in order to conduct the necessary research. (Again, refer to Chapter 5 .) Priests must have access to a specially consecrated altar. In addition, both wizards and priests may find it very useful to have some skilled assistants nearby.

Research: Before a character can begin work on a magical item, he must first discover the steps necessary to create it! This requires research time and effort. Generally, a character must spend 1d6+1 weeks and 200 gp per week in order to find out how to build the item, although the DM may rule that exceptionally powerful items (5,000 XP value or greater, or any item such as a girdle of giant strength that imparts drastic and persistent bonuses to a character) requires consultation with a sage or some special effort on the part of the character to research.

Contact other plane and commune spells are particularly useful in this step of item creation, since the successful use of one of these divinations reduces the research time to the minimum required.

Processes and Materials: The exact nature of the processes and materials required varies from item to item depending on its category and type. However, all items require an enchant an item spell (or the equivalent priestly ceremony), and many require a permanency spell to boot.

Rings require one common process, usually some type of carving, engraving, pouring, shaping, or forging. In addition to this process, magical rings have other requirements based on their type:

Single-function rings require one exotic material;

Multiple-function rings require one exotic material and one exotic process per

function;

Limited-use rings require one exotic material and one exotic process per use.

Rings created by wizards must be prepared with an enchant an item spell and finished with a permanency spell, although charged rings such as the ring of the ram do not require the permanency spell, since it can be recharged. Naturally, the character must also cast any spells required for spell-like functions.

Rods, staves, and wands are not completed with a permanency spell and lose their magic if their charges are ever completely exhausted. Again, the type of item determines what processes and materials are required:

Single-function wands and staves require one rare material and one rare process;

Single-use or single-function rods require one exotic material and one rare

process;

Multiple-function rods, staves, or wands require one exotic material, and one

exotic process per function;

Limited-use rods, staves, or wands require one exotic material, and one exotic

process per use.

Materials for these devices could include the actual shaft or handle, a special headpiece or crystal, or special heels or caps for the ends. Processes might include carving, engraving, painting, or tempering.

Miscellaneous magical items require an enchant an item spell (or the appropriate priestly ceremony), but single-use and limited-use items do not require permanency spells.

Single-use and single-function items require one exotic material and one exotic

process;

Limited-use items require one exotic material per function and two exotic

processes per use;

Multiple-function items require one exotic material per function, one exotic

process, and one rare process per function.

Naturally, the materials and processes used will vary widely with the nature of the item in question. Considering that miscellaneous magic includes everything from articles of clothing to boats and decks of cards, the actual construction or creation of the item could include anything imaginable! See Special Ingredients for ideas.

Magical weapons and armor require an enchant an item and a permanency spell or the priestly equivalents (see pages 121–122 in the DMG ). In addition, devices with expendable charges (armor of fear, for example) must be imbued with the appropriate spells. Weapons and armor that have no special properties except for conferring combat bonuses are considered single-function items; items with blending, command, disruption, throwing, hurling, accuracy, speed, distance, venom, homing, lightning, piercing, sharpness, wounding, or vorpal properties are considered multiple-function items. Armors that have special but expendable properties (fear and etherealness) are limited-use items; and expendable items such as magical arrows or javelins are single-use items.

Single-use weapons require one rare material and one common process;

Single-function weapons and armors require one exotic material, one common

process, and one rare process;

Multiple-function weapons and armors require one exotic material and process,

one rare process, and one common process per function;

Limited-use armors and weapons require one exotic material and process, one

rare process, and one common process per use.

Cost and Time: Again, the cost and time required to manufacture magical items varies depending on the category and the type of item. For example, if a mage wishes to create a single-function ring worth 1,000 XP, then he must not only spend 1,000 gp (see the “Cost in XP” column of Table 38 : Magical Item Cost and Time Requirements), but he must also spend 10 weeks (one week for every 100 gp spent) constructing the item.

The cost of any special processes or materials is not included in the base cost to create the item, so if a wizard discovers that he must crush one hundred pearls to create his dust of disappearance, it’s up to him to find the pearls. The time requirements do not include any special quests or processes the character must undertake in order to create the item.

Success or Failure: All magical items that fall into this broad category share the same success roll. Assuming the character follows all the necessary steps, there is a base 60% chance of success, +1% per caster level, –1% per spell or special process required to create the item. (The caster’s initial enchant an item or finishing permanency spells do not count against his success chance.) While specialist wizards receive a 5% bonus to their success chance when creating an item using abilities from their school of specialization, artificers gain a special 10% bonus to their success chance due to their superior item-crafting skills.

At the DM’s option, characters who display exceptional ingenuity or go to extreme lengths to create an item from the very best, most appropriate materials and processes available may receive an additional bonus of +5% to +15% on their success chance.

If the character rolls a 96 or higher on his success check, the item is cursed in some way. For example, a character attempting to produce a cloak of displacement might create a cloak of poisonousness instead. If for some reason the character was trying to create a cursed item, a roll of 96 or higher is a simple failure—he doesn’t create a beneficial device instead!

Thedaric is a 14th-level fire mage who decides to create a wand of fire for those times when he’s low on memorized spells. He easily meets the level requirement and spends a little money refurbishing a laboratory (in this case, a forge) that he found in the ruins of an archmage’s tower. The forge comes with a library sufficient for researching the wand of fire (it’s the first item Thedaric has tried to make). Thedaric uses a contact other plane spell to minimize his research effort, so he only requires two weeks and 400 gp to learn how to create the wand.

As described in the DMG , the wand of fire is a multiple-function item (it has four separate uses), and a limited-use item, since it uses charges. The DM decides that the wand requires one exotic material, and four exotic processes, in addition to the necessary spells, cost, and time. Thedaric discovers that the wand must be forged by a master smith of the azer (a race of fire-dwarves from the Elemental Plane of Fire), from brass smelted in the efreeti City of Brass, tempered by the fiery breath of an adult red dragon, graven while still soft with runes of power, using a fire sapphire (a mythical gemstone the DM just made up on the spot), and finally polished with a mixture containing the ash of a thousand year-old tree destroyed by fire. With a heavy sigh, Thedaric sets out on months of quests, challenges, and adventures, arranging all of the materials and processes.

Several months later, everything’s ready. Thedaric journeys to the elemental plane of fire, obtains the efreeti brass, gets the azer smith to work it into a wand, engraves it with the fire sapphire, tricks a dragon into tempering it, and finally polishes and finishes the item in his own workshop with his special mixture of ash. The construction of the item required an amount of gold equal to one-fifth the wand’s XP value (900 gp in this case) and 4 weeks per 100 gp, for a total of 36 weeks of forging, tempering, and polishing!

Thedaric is well-satisfied with his work so far, but now he has to make the wand magical. First, he’ll need to use enchant an item in order to prepare the wand to receive spells. After four days, the enchant an item is finished, and Thedaric attempts a saving throw vs. spell to see if it succeeded. His elementalist bonuses to saving throws vs. fire apply, and Thedaric passes with a surprisingly close shave. He then casts burning hands, pyrotechnics, fireball, and wall of fire into the wand. Each spell requires 2d4 hours per spell level, so this ends up taking several days in and of itself. Since he must check the success of each enchantment and doesn’t know if any one spell will take, Thedaric casts another battery of the same spells into the wand, just to make sure that he gets all the functions desired—at worst, the wand will have a few extra charges on it, so this is a reasonable precaution against the possibility of failing in one of these steps. Since the wand of fire is a limited-use item, it does not require a permanency spell to complete it; after his second round of spells, Thedaric declares that he is finished. (He’s not worried about stocking up on charges right now; he just wants to complete the initial enchantment, and recharge the wand to its maximum potential later.)

The DM rolled saving throws vs. spells for each spell Thedaric placed into the wand, and as it turns out, the extra four spells were an unnecessary precaution; Thedaric succeeded the first time around. Now the DM checks to see if the overall process was a success or failure. The base chance of success for a wand is 60%, plus 14% for Thedaric’s level, –12% for spells and special processes. The DM decides that Thedaric was particularly resourceful, and gives him a +10% bonus, and since Thedaric is a fire specialist, he gains an additional +5% bonus, for a total success chance of 77%. Thedaric succeeds and now has a wand of fire; the DM decides that the spells he placed into the wand became its first 8 charges (each spell was cast into the wand twice.)

Now, Thedaric will probably seek to recharge the wand. Recharging items requires another enchant an item spell, but this one is automatically successful. He can then begin to place spells into the wand to increase the number of charges, up to its maximum of 50. So, after close to a year of adventuring and construction, Thedaric finishes his wand of fire! Considering the immense time and effort this took a 14th-level character, you can see why magical items should be rare and unusual things!

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