Iron Kingdoms - Mechanikal (what's the point?)

[Bagpuss]

I'm about to join a Iron Kingdoms campaign in progress at 8th level so I've been given X amount of gold to spend for gear. I originally suggested a +1 Keen Falchion, Gaunlets of Ogre power and +2 Chain shirt as part of my gear but the DM wants me to convert them to Mechanikal items.

First it sounds cool, flavourful mage-tech like items. Also no need to have the +1 enhancement to have a keen weapon so I can spend it on shocking, and have a shocking keen Falchion.

But then you get into charges, and accumulators, a standard accumulator (such as in a sword) holds 10 charges and takes 10 days to charge up. It burns 1 charge per bonus per day so it would only have the Keen and Shocking features for 5 days before it became a completely mundane masterwork weapon. Well until you put a charged accumulator (500gp) in it.

Now you could hang around for 10 days to get your old accumulator charged for a cost of 200gp. So its either going to cost you 100gp a day to keep the sword running, maybe a bit less if you can get return value on a dead accumulator, or 40gp a day and not adventure with it for 2/3rds of the time.

Then its the same for magic armour, and other items. At the moment it's looking like I'm going to have to be earning something like 500gp a day, just to keep my items working, and spending only one week in three actually adventuring, and the whole thing becomes a massive book-keeping exercise tracking battery usage.

And at one point I was actually looking forward to playing in the Iron Kingdoms setting.

 

[Bagpuss]

Done some costings....

If the cost of a +1 mechanikal Longsword 2515gp compared to a magical +1 Longsword 2315gp (standard) or 3315gp (IK price). I thought that mechanikal items were ment to be cheaper than standard magical ones? I can't see why would anyone ever use one?

It costs 20gp a day to use, and so after 40 days of usage (80 actual days, as half of the time you can't use it while the accumulator is charging) it costs you more than even a IK Magically +1 Longsword thanks to accumulator upkeep.

Is it me or isn't it a false enconomy to use Mechanikal items, even if the initial cost is cheaper since they cost stupid amount of money to keep working? Never mind the book-keeping aspect of tracking accumulator charge for all your mechanikal items and then being tied to returning to civilization every week or so to get your accumulators recharged. Personally even with the 150% increase in price of real magical items it seems much better sense to use them.

Maybe at the low end the economy doesn't pan out, but it seems that even if you save significantly more on starting cost for a higher bonused item, the fact that it will drain the accumulator even quicker means it will still cost more in the end, and you'll have to spend even longer waiting for the thing to charge, than you actually get out of using it.

For example a weapon with +5 worth of bonus will drain the accumulator in just two days but then you have to wait 10 days for it to be useful again.

 

[Banshee16]

I would suggest posting this at the Iron Kingdoms boards and asking....you'll be more liable to find "experts" who might understand if maybe you're missing something.

I want to run Iron Kingdoms myself, but am not quite ready yet. I had some of the same questions about Mechanika.

I think part of the issue is that regular magic items actually result in *permanent* drains of ability scores, more XP than normal, etc. during creation....they don't use the regular D&D enchantment rules. So mechanikal items actually do cost less, and don't result in permanent effects to your character. So they actually do cost less in the end. It's just not quite as obvious.

I think one of the things they're going for is a less magic rich setting.....magic items are expensive and difficult to prepare, more like in 2nd. Ed. and mechanikal items are supposed to be a shortcut, if that makes any sense. Maybe more expensive than a regular campaign's magical items but not as much as a regular item in Iron Kingdoms.

Banshee

 

[TheAuldGrump]

One other thing to bear in mind - if the XP cost of an item is above a certain point then there is a chance of permanently losing Hit Points.

And there are alternatives to hiring an alchemist to recharge your items, from having a character with a good high Craft (Alchemy) in the party to a handy dandy (if somewhat expensive and dangerous) widget called an Arcane Condenser - which allows a spellcaster to exchange spells for charges, or the class Arcane Mechanic, which gains the ability to recharge accumulators without resorting to such contraptions.

An accumulator of a given size can be used on any item that uses that size accumulator, which means that it can be swapped between several items (or even having the conduits of several items leading to the same socket). And of course this also means that they can be found as loot.

Mostly though it is a flavor item.

The Auld Grump

 

[HeapThaumaturgist]

Sounds like you're not supposed to use "magic".

And it sounds like the setting is based around still using "magic" items.

--fje

 

[Bagpuss]

Yeah but if you arn't crafting the items yourself then the XP cost doesn't matter, only the Market Value.

 

[Geron Raveneye]

Yeah, from a purely bookkeeping point of view, the XP cost don't matter to your character, as they are paid by the one creating the items.

But look at it from the point of view of the creator. Not only is the XP cost reduced if I create a mechanikal item instead of a standard item, I can also continue earning gold by recharging the accumulators necessary to make it run. So I combine an easier creation process with lower loss of personal resources and a higher financial gain. I know what I'd put out on the market if I were an artificer in the IK. And yeah, of course your character could tell me that he'll take his gold elsewhere then...but in magical items, the market is mostly determined by what artificers are willing to create, because they will always find somebody buying. So you'll simply find mostly mechanikal items, and less "traditional" magical ones in the IK.