fissionessence
First Post
Would upgrading magic items be okay? As opposed to just selling them or disenchanting them and making a replacement? If a character has an ancestral weapon or family heirloom or a sword he smithed himself or something, it's kind of disappointing to find that new +4 somethingorother and have to replace his favorite weapon. The upgrading concept wouldn't really work with loot equipment, but it could work with the enchant magic item ritual.
So . . . a Magic Weapon +1 costs 360gp, and a +2 costs 1,800gp. Using 'upgrading' rules, one could use the enchant magic item ritual to upgrade from +1 to +2 for 1,440gp. Using current rules, one would have to disenchant the current weapon, getting 72gp worth of residuum back, then spend 1,800gp to make a new +2 weapon, for a total difference of 1,728gp (212gp more than upgrading).
Upgrading from a +5 to a +6 would cost 900,000gp, whereas disenchanting a +5 and creating a new +6 would have an overall cost of 1,080,000gp, which is 180,000gp more than upgrading the same weapon.
Clearly there are some economy issues with this, and a character shouldn't be able to upgrade from a flaming weapon to a vorpal weapon, for example, since they're not the same category (then again you could try even this by just comparing the relative levels and costs and doing the same thing).
Alternatively, you could just use the disenchanting and enchanting rules as normal, and just say that instead of the disenchanting destroying the weapon, and the enchanting ritual creating a new one, the rituals keep the same weapon intact to be reused.
Do the rules support enchanting an existing item in the first place, though? Doesn't the ritual just create a new weapon from nowhere? If so, isn't creating a +3 flaming greatsword inherently better than creating a +3 flaming club, since the greatsword would have a marginal 29gp value higher than that of the club?
Now I'm just rambling.
~
So . . . a Magic Weapon +1 costs 360gp, and a +2 costs 1,800gp. Using 'upgrading' rules, one could use the enchant magic item ritual to upgrade from +1 to +2 for 1,440gp. Using current rules, one would have to disenchant the current weapon, getting 72gp worth of residuum back, then spend 1,800gp to make a new +2 weapon, for a total difference of 1,728gp (212gp more than upgrading).
Upgrading from a +5 to a +6 would cost 900,000gp, whereas disenchanting a +5 and creating a new +6 would have an overall cost of 1,080,000gp, which is 180,000gp more than upgrading the same weapon.
Clearly there are some economy issues with this, and a character shouldn't be able to upgrade from a flaming weapon to a vorpal weapon, for example, since they're not the same category (then again you could try even this by just comparing the relative levels and costs and doing the same thing).
Alternatively, you could just use the disenchanting and enchanting rules as normal, and just say that instead of the disenchanting destroying the weapon, and the enchanting ritual creating a new one, the rituals keep the same weapon intact to be reused.
Do the rules support enchanting an existing item in the first place, though? Doesn't the ritual just create a new weapon from nowhere? If so, isn't creating a +3 flaming greatsword inherently better than creating a +3 flaming club, since the greatsword would have a marginal 29gp value higher than that of the club?
Now I'm just rambling.
~
