Help me make a kit?

[Taloth]

Hey, awhile back I asked EN Worlders about the possibility of an Elf Ranger/mage (thanks to all for the support, btw!). My group hasn't started playing yet, but will be soon, and I realized that I wasn't very interested in spells, so much as I was in magical item creation and usage. I thought of making a simple kit that would allow a Ranger to use and create magic items as a mage of the same level or perhaps lower, but, because we haven't actually PLAYED ad&d yet, I'm not sure what checks should be instated to balance out my character. Can anyone help me out here?

Thanks so much!

 

[Nellisir]

The snarky part of me wants to say "Balance? You clearly aren't familiar with 2nd Edition kits!"

Your main problem, from what I recall, is that 2e relies on spells to create magical items. If you can't cast spells, you can't make magic items. There are ways around it, but they require some additional creativity.

Offhand, I don't think I'd penalize the character very much. Loss of spellcasting abilities? (I think 2e rangers could cast spells...)

 

[Nellisir]

I did create a runesmith class that created magic items without spells; if I can dig up the 2e version I'll post it here.

 

[Taloth]

yea, ranger's can get a few priest spells at level 8 or so.

and darn, i haven't hardly read the DM's guide, so i didn't realize thaIt you needed magic to create magical items (although it makes sense )
I'll just go with Ranger/Mage

that Runesmith sounds really interesting though

 

[Nellisir]

and darn, i haven't hardly read the DM's guide, so i didn't realize thaIt you needed magic to create magical items (although it makes sense )

Yeah, that was one of the big "surprises" about 3e - all of a sudden you didn't need the enchant item spell anymore (or whatever it was called - it was about 6th level, which meant you couldn't make anything interesting until you were...11th level?), and a 3rd level character could make useful items! Game-breaking!!

that Runesmith sounds really interesting though

I'll look for it after I eat lunch.