Chapter 16 · Core Rules
Enchanting Magic Items
Enchanting binds a spell into an object. A blade can carry lightning, armor can protect its wearer, and a ring can hold a teleportation spell. Any known spell can become an enchantment; the player and GM define how the object uses it.
Gold keeps red and divine magic from escaping the object. Psychic enchantments instead remain active through reserved spell slots. Dwarven runes draw power from their surroundings through engravings, as described below.
The Fundamental Bonus
An enchantment adds damage to a weapon or magical DR to armor, according to its level. It grants no Reflex bonus.
| Enchantment Level | Fundamental Bonus |
|---|---|
| 1–2 | +4 |
| 3–4 | +8 |
| 5–6 | +16 |
| 7–8 | +32 |
| 9 | +64 |
| 10 | +128 |
Apply a weapon's bonus under the normal damage and critical rules. Add armor's magical DR after its physical DR. An item receives the fundamental bonus once, even if it holds several enchanted powers.
A shield's level determines what it can parry; it gains neither DR nor Reflex from this bonus. Other objects use the effects of their bound spells.
Recording an Item
Record these values when the enchantment is created:
| Value | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Item Level | Normally the highest spell level bound into the item, up to 10. The GM assigns a level to a custom effect. Nonmagical items are Level 0. |
| Item CL | The caster level used in the ritual. It measures the magic bound into the item and its resistance to abjuration. |
| Effect DC | Required when a power calls for a Save or another roll. Record the DC and the roll used to resist it. |
Item Level sets the fundamental bonus, the strength of the item's powers, and its parrying limits. Item CL must be recorded for every enchantment.
The description gives the power's action cost, range, targets, duration, trigger, uses, and recovery as needed to use it in play.
Material and Craftsmanship
Material, M1–M5 craftsmanship, and enchantment combine under Equipment, Crafting, and Materials. Enchanted mithril armor keeps its physical DR, Reflex bonus, and poison-cleansing properties, then adds magical DR. Dispelling the enchantment leaves the material and workmanship intact.
Craftsmanship quality does not set a fixed limit on the number of enchanted powers.
Designing the Item
Describe the desired effect, then choose the known spells that can produce it. Agree with the GM on how the item works before starting the ritual.
A lightning blade might strike with lightning on every blow, release it on command, or discharge only on a critical hit. A teleportation weapon might transport its wielder, its target, or itself. Define the action, range, frequency, and conditions for the chosen power.
A continuous effect or one triggered by every attack generally demands more gold, time, materials, and skill than a power with limited charges or a narrow trigger. The GM judges the project as a whole. Several powers can share an item, with each additional effect making the ritual more demanding.
Enchant provides a temporary infusion of raw magic. A permanent custom item instead requires the spells that produce its desired effects; knowing Enchant is not a prerequisite.
The Enchantment Ritual
The enchanter needs the required spells, a suitable object, and a long ritual. An unusual power may also require research, plans, or rare materials. The extended ritual allows more power for the spell slots spent.
Casters of comparable power can work together under Cooperative Casting. Helpers increase the ritual's CL within those rules, including the +50% ceiling.
Gold. The GM sets the amount: higher CL requires more gold. Red and divine enchantments bound with gold remain independent of their creators. Level 9 and 10 items can demand more wealth than a kingdom's treasury. Cerberus obtains much of this gold through trade with dwarves, who buy enchantments and potions in return.
Psychic maintenance. Gold has no effect on blue mana. A Psychic maintains each object by reserving the required spell slot under Enchant. Reserves and Recovery explains how reserved slots affect the available reserve.
Finish the ritual with a prescribed chance roll. The GM considers the enchanter's Intelligence, Charisma, experience, and CL; spells and helpers; the object's quality and materials; tools, location, time, and the desired power.
Before rolling, the GM announces what failure risks: gold, materials, time, reduced power, an unstable enchantment, or a magical complication. Failure may cost part of the project rather than destroying it entirely.
Dispelling an Enchantment
An abjurer opposes the item's magic with a caster level check:
1d20 + abjuration CL against 1d20 + Item CL.
| Abjuration Result | Effect |
|---|---|
| Exceeds the item's result by 25% | Disables its magic for 1d3 rounds |
| Exceeds the item's result by 50% | Permanently destroys its enchantments |
The abjuration spell must support the intended effect. Dispel Magic gives the spell levels needed to disrupt or destroy an item and the rules for area dispels.
The check affects all enchantments on the item together. Disruption silences every magical power; destruction removes them permanently. Material, craftsmanship, and ordinary functions remain intact.
Breaking the object itself is a GM ruling. An abjuration unmakes the magic; the steel, the stone, and the wood are another matter. Whether a blade snaps, a shield melts, or the vessel carrying a rune is shattered depends on what it is made of, what is brought against it, and how much time and force the attempt is given. Use a prescribed chance roll when the outcome is genuinely uncertain (1).
Some tables will want to play these attempts out rather than narrate them. Two benchmarks make that easier.
An ordinary object answers to its material and to what strikes it. A rope parts under a blade and shrugs off a mace, ice shatters where oak splinters, and adamantine turns nearly everything aside (13). A GM rarely needs a number here.
A magic item should be very hard to break. For scale, treat a level 7 enchanted weapon as enduring twice the hit points of a level 9 Barrier behind the damage reduction of a level 9 Mage Armor: 320 HP per point of its Item CL, behind DR 64. Move up or down with the item's level. Reaching those numbers should take a siege engine, a dragon, or a working built for the purpose—never a lucky blow.
Dwarven Runes
A rune is an engraved form that draws power from its surroundings. Its lines channel that power into an effect for as long as the vessel endures. Dwarves make these objects through careful design and engraving.
A runic item has a level from 1 to 10. That level measures the complexity of the rune, and sets the Item CL it opposes to abjuration: the minimum caster level of the matching spell level, plus 5.
| Rune level | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Item CL | 6 | 8 | 10 | 12 | 14 | 16 | 19 | 22 | 25 | 35 |
A rune's listed level is the least its form requires. A more accomplished engraver can cut the same form at a higher level: the effect does not change, only the Item CL that defends it. A common battle rune from a master's hand does exactly what a journeyman's does, and no abjurer of ordinary power will silence it.
A rune requires no gold and no maintenance, and no abjuration ends one for good. An abjurer who beats its Item CL by 25% silences the rune for 1d3 rounds; by 50%, for 1d6 days. The form stays cut in the metal either way, and the power returns. To end a rune permanently, destroy the rune or its vessel.
A rune of power grants the fundamental bonus for its level from the table above. Other runes give the effects described on their sheets.
Runes and Enchantments
Runes and enchantments cannot coexist on the same item. Choose the path before work begins; it remains the item's path for its entire existence. Dwarven smiths sometimes sell uninscribed weapons so their buyers can enchant them.
Designing and Engraving
Two castes work together to create a rune. The rune caste designs its form and calculates the relationships between its lines. The forge caste prepares the vessel and carves the design into it. The item must be M2 quality or better.
The art is secret, mastered by few dwarves. Admission to the tradition requires more than studying a finished object or copying a symbol from a book. An outsider learning it would need exceptional access earned through play.
Player and GM design a new rune together. Once the character has the required knowledge, the inscription ends with a prescribed chance roll based on experience, Intelligence, tools, invested time, the vessel's quality and material, and rune level.
One rune is normal. Two require an M4 or better vessel, with both forms designed together. Three-rune objects are legendary works; finding one or uncovering its manufacture can be an adventure in itself.
Conditional Runes
Some runes awaken through a state in their bearer: fury, hatred, fear, flowing blood, or approaching death. They remain inert until that condition supplies their power.
A few are called demonic, said to come from a smith's corrupted dreams. Their power greatly exceeds what their level normally permits. Dwarves who know these forms distrust them and what they might consume.
Finding Magic Items
Magic items are found, earned, or commissioned. There are no magic-item shops. Commissioning a Level 3 or higher item means finding a named enchanter and meeting their personal demands. A gold-bound item also needs a patron wealthy enough to fund it. Give each item an origin that can be told in one sentence.