D&D 4E 4E Transfer Enchantment to Pathfinder?

[thundershot]

Okay, in Pathfinder, it's a 2nd level ritual... what would be a simple spell to transfer the magical properties of one item onto another?

I don't want to penalize the players because the magic items they find aren't things that they normally use, and more importantly, to prevent characters from making the choice of tossing the weapon their family passed on from generations in favor of the new shiny +2 longsword. I just want them to be able to upgrade their items using the new items they find.



Thanks
Chris

 

[Dingo333]

I do not know of anyway to give an item magical properties it did not have before except by the item creation feats and spells like magic weapon in Pathfinder

I can offer an alternative. My DM found some information of items that "level up" with the character. I forget exact details, but I remember that they can gain properties like flaming or keen, and can be used to cast spells

If you want, you could substitute family heirlooms for items like these
First start out, it is a masterwork sword, when you reach level 5, its magical powers seem to awaken in the players hand when it didn't seem to have any before (+1 magic enhancement) At level 10 its magic increases (gains flaming and enhancement bonus +2) By level 15 it is a sword of legend (+3 and flaming burst) And once you are level 20 it is a sword that can change the world (casts meteor swarm 2pd, Gain keen, Fire immunity, Cast scorching ray 5pd, enhancement bonus +5)

You could pick any properties and spells you think are appropriate at what ever levels seem fair to you, above would be one focused on fire

 

[Mojo_Rat]

the ritual you are discussing deliberately does not exist I'n pathfinder. essentially the rate at which pcs gain treasure assumes a percentage of the treasure is sold for half.

that said charging them half the price of an item to transfer it and the time it would take to enchant it works out the same for wbl. if you charge less than this then you will likely need to give less treasure elsewhere. so a +3 sword would need lvl 9 to transfer 9000 gp and 18 days. this is incidentally the same cost to make the sword and to repair it. so I don't know if this solves anything for you.

 

[IronWolf]

I am not aware of an already published rule to transfer the enchantment as you explained in Pathfinder.

However, in the campaign I GM a character has an heirloom weapon and their is some interest in "reforging" it to cold iron. The weapon has been passed down in the character's family so it has some meaning to him. I am fine with that, so there exists a gnome in the campaign who for the right price can accomplish what the character wants through a variety of "magical" and "alchemical" processes. Of course now this gnome that is rumored to be able to do this has seemingly vanished, but he is supposedly out there somewhere!

I don't mind in one-off cases for such transfers to happen, but I don't want them to be easy to accomplish or something that happens regularly. Sometimes the treasure you find, just isn't useful to you and I am good with that. Sometimes though in the case of this heirloom weapon I don't mind accommodating the player a bit to allow them to keep the weapon without out-leveling the weapon.

We'll see how it plays out if they ever find the gnome in question!

 

[vladthebad]

If I might offer a shameless plug, you might make an npc with the ardwright class from the pathfinder database. Said NPC might still charge pretty penny though,

 

[Set]

In earlier editions we allowed either Limited Wish to swap an enchantment from one item to another, or Polymorph Any Object to change a magical weapon or armor item into another weapon or armor item, so long as none of it's enchantments were dependent on a particular type of weapon (turning a +3 sword of sharpness into a mace just ended up with a +3 mace, with the extra power lost forever).

Polymorph any object explicitly doesn't affect magic items, but I'd still be willing to handwave that for a ritual casting of it that takes a day and doesn't affect intelligent items. Pay the normal spellcasting cost and go with it.

As GM, I control the WBL, and if the party managed to come out ahead because they didn't sell for half price the +3 gnomish hooked hammer I sadistically threw into the treasure horde, and turned it into a +3 longsword instead, I can shorten the next haul appropriately to make up for them finding a clever way to spoil my attempt to give them worthless crap.

 

[Volaran]

I've been thinking about this one.

In Eberron, the Artificer class had a Craft Reserve; a 'buffer' of experience at every level which could be used for crafting. They also gained the ability to drain magic items over time in order to recharge this ability.

Since experience is no longer used for crafting, if I were to port the Artificer over to Pathfinder, I would probably just let them have similar buffer for gp value, allowing them to drain items and use that towards creation of additional items.

If you're not porting the Artificer, or a similar class over, I would still not recommend using a simple spell. Rather, I would recommend the following.

Allow the item's exact magical properties to be transferred over with the full item creation process, offsetting only the gp value, and even then, I might suggest only in part.

For example, a PC has a family heirloom bastard sword. They're very fond of it, and even have the heirloom weapon trait, gaining a +1 trait bonus to attack and damage. As such, they might be resistant to using another weapon in its place, even if there are advantageous bonuses.

Later, the party finds a +2 Fey Bane longsword. There have been a fair amount of fey attacking the party, so the PC would like to gain the benefits of this for his heirloom weapon

The party wizard, using the Craft Arms and Armor feat, both weapons, and the appropriate facilities, is able to transfer the properties from the longsword to the heirloom weapon. This saves on the gold cost of giving the heirloom weapon the enhancements from scratch, but still takes 18 days and a Spellcraft check of 13 (or 18 if the wizard doesn't have Summon Monster I). I might actually consider a higher DC for transferring an item's powers than crafting from scratch. I'm not sure.

Depending on the campaign, you might rule that this still carries some cost (25%-50% of crafting from scratch, for example), but given that it still takes the full allotment of time, and the PC has access to neither weapon during the process, there are definite drawbacks to make the PC carefully consider his options.

You might also wish to consider having the original weapon crumble to dust when the process is complete. This means that when the PC finds yet another weapons whose powers they want for their heirloom, that can't simply swap them back and forth. The old powers can't be transferred out again without permanently destroying the heirloom, and the new powers being transferred in would override the old.

 

[thundershot]

I've decided to take the simple route.

If they sell the magic +1 flaming longsword, they'll get half value.

If they decide to transfer the powers to an existing weapon, they'll get full value.

Make the appropriate Spellcraft check and time and done.