I want to implement a balanced set of rules that start charged items (such as wands and some wondrous items) at 100 charges instead of 50.
(I speculate that item charges used to have 100 as the normal limit, but this was deemed too powerful and reduced by half, and the value of 50 was subsequently cemented into tradition since then.)
I've set out a few measures in mind that are meant to counteract the increased 'shelf-life' of charged items due to doubling the item charge limit, and solve the problem of inflating the inherent cost this would cause.
So I'd like some feedback about their probable effectiveness and the appeal of their design (elegance/simplicity).
(A) Failure chance for items 'running low' on charges.
Only charged items with less than 50 charges are susceptible to activation failure. When more than 50% of total charges are drawn out of a charged item, this begins to degrade the internal mystical circuitry and leads to intermittent failure to activate. A character must make a Use Magic Device check as part of the activation action to "coerce" a item into functioning despite the power depletion. If a magic item with charges has an option to expend multiple charges at once (such as with a Ring of the Ram or a Staff of Dvination), only Use Magic Device check is made regardless of the number of charges consumed at once. An item that fails to activate also does not consume any charge(s) applied to its activation (because having a low-charged, unreliable item "fizzle out" at a critical point in an encounter is enough of a nuisance by itself without also stealing additional charges from the PCs.) (Item failure also makes it worthwhile for any character to pick up Use Magic Device so they can keep using their charged items past 50 charges.)
Failure DC for charged items depends on the number of charges in the item prior to activation. (A side effect having a failure chance for charged items will be that it's very difficult to deliberately drain a charged magic item--it's analogous to trying to squeeze the last bit of toothpaste out of a tube or shooting a water gun till it runs dry; the less there is left, the harder it is to empty it out.)
(B) Very rarely will player characters encounter a charged item in mint condition (i.e. with the full 100 charges) unless they make it themselves or pick it up at a quality magic shop.
As with any treasure item in some random hidden/guarded treasure hoard, charged magic items can be found in various states of disrepair. The following table can be used by a DM to generate a random number of charges for a charged item in a condition appropriate to the hoard or collection of items it belongs to.
If we wished, we could retcon any 50-charge items in the game world as being in Good or Average condition or as magic items that were defectively created with half-standard charges.
(C) Adding ability score requirements to Item Creation Feats
For any Item Creation Feat, there is a minimum Int and Wis score requirement equal to 10 + the minimum caster level. Example: Craft Wand (CL 5) would require an Int and Wis of 15.
* Sure, anyone can make a cursed item by accident, and can probably make a specific cursed item by trying to make its "good twin" and being sloppy in their work. I like the idea of a feat that gives a magic-crafter the ability to customize his cursed item any way he wants. I wrote up a complete description of the feat at the end of this article for anyone who's interested.
** I know there's no such feat but intelligent items are so interesting and unusual compared to "ordinary" magic items that it seems odd to not have something like a separate feat to represent learning the secret to creating artificial sentience using magic. Compare this to the purpose and design behind Craft Construct.
I set the scores so high and established both Int and Wis as prerequisites because just about any PC full-caster class (Clr, Drd, Sor, Wiz, etc.) will likely have one or the other of these as their high stat to start (though probably not both unless they rolled really well or spent all their points on both stats). Additionally we can expect these scores to be pumped up with level bonuses and magic enhancements in preference to other stats, so even for these scores are not unattainable
CONCLUSION
To balance out giving 50 extra charges to a charged magic item, we have these restrictions:
(a) The first 50 charges are trouble-free, but you need to make UMD checks as part of the activation action to get the second 50 charges to work.
(b) Doing treasure hoards having charged magic items under the 100-charge limit and even under the 50 charge limit. Of course, DMs can do this anyway; this just removes the guarantee or assumption by the players that just because items /can/ have up to 100 charges, that doesn't mean they'll always be found with more than 50.
(c) Make it somewhat harder for PCs (and NPCs) to get into the magic-item creation business.
I still feel like one more thing is missing here that will balance out these 100-charge items I want for my campaign. Any ideas? What do you think of the rest?
ADDENDA
[sblock]
* * * * * * * * * *
House Rule for Spontaneous Intelligent Items
For any permanent magic item created by an item crafter of at least 13 Intelligence, there is a very rare chance (crafter's Int modifier over 1,000) for the magic item to spontaneously develop sentience. To emulate a thousand-sided die, use a percentile dice pair plus a d20 to represent the hundreds die (where a natural 20 represents a 0). Thus, a permanent magic item crafted by a spellcaster of 20 Intelligence (modifier +5) will become intelligent on a roll of 001-005. "Natural" intelligent magic items have the following features:
+ a random neutral alignment
+ empathic communication
+ 1d6 "class" skills, with a number of ranks for each equal to half the caster's total number of ranks (minimum 1 rank)
+ 1d3 spell-like abilities; these are always drawn from spells known to/prepared by its creator
+ Natural intelligent items will never develop special purposes or dedicated powers.
* * * * * * * * * *
I also created these feats for my own campaign.
* * * * * * * * * *
Craft Cursed Item (Item Creation)
You can fashion customizable cursed items and cannot fall prey to the cursed items you yourself create.
Prerequisites: Caster level 3rd, the Item Creation feat appropriate to the normal version of the item plus any two other Item Creation feats; [Int 13], [Wis 13].
Benefit: You can create a wide variety of cursed items, including specific cursed items. During the process of creating the normal version of the cursed item you want, you are able to decide what curses are imbued in that item. Further, you can imbue a curse in an existing normal magic item as though you were adding a new ability to it.
Finally, you are immune to any curses imbued in a cursed magic item created by you, whether purposefully or otherwise (but not to curses added by others to items you previously created as normal magical items).
Imbuing curses in an item requires additional time invested in crafting the cursed item. Intermittent-function curses (whether unreliable, dependent, or uncontrolled), restriction curses, and drawback curses require one day's labor for each curse imbued. Delusional and opposite-effect curses each require three days' work. All other rules for cursed-item creation are identical to those governing the creation of normal versions of the cursed item's type. More powerful curses may also require certain raw materials appropriate to the nature of the detrimental effect to be imposed on the victim (DM's discretion). For example, a cursed Helm of Telepathy that only allows mental interactions with outsiders of an evil alignment might have been crafted with drops of fiendish blood as part of the raw materials.
Normal: Casters have little or no control over what drawbacks, delusions, or other negative effects that may appear in a cursed magic item.
* * * * * * * * * *
Craft Intelligent Item (Item Creation)
You are able to create magic items with intelligence, and you gain resistance to ego domination by any powerful intelligent items created by you.
Prerequisites: Caster level 7th, Craft Construct feat, the Item Creation feat appropriate to the intelligent item plus any two other Item Creation feats; [Int 17], [Wis 17].
Benefit: You are able to weave a tiny bit of your own essence into the magical energies you imbue into a crafted magic items, granting it sentience.
It takes additional time and labor to create an intelligent version of a magic item. Crafting an intelligent magic item requires a week's worth of labor in addition to the work already invested, plus an additional amount of labor for a number of days equal to the intelligent item's Ego score.
Further, you gain a +4 competence bonus to Will saving throws against domination attempts by any intelligent magic item created by you.
Special: Very rarely, some permanent magic item will develop sentience on their own.
* * * * * * * * * *
[/sblock]
(I speculate that item charges used to have 100 as the normal limit, but this was deemed too powerful and reduced by half, and the value of 50 was subsequently cemented into tradition since then.)
I've set out a few measures in mind that are meant to counteract the increased 'shelf-life' of charged items due to doubling the item charge limit, and solve the problem of inflating the inherent cost this would cause.
So I'd like some feedback about their probable effectiveness and the appeal of their design (elegance/simplicity).
(A) Failure chance for items 'running low' on charges.
Only charged items with less than 50 charges are susceptible to activation failure. When more than 50% of total charges are drawn out of a charged item, this begins to degrade the internal mystical circuitry and leads to intermittent failure to activate. A character must make a Use Magic Device check as part of the activation action to "coerce" a item into functioning despite the power depletion. If a magic item with charges has an option to expend multiple charges at once (such as with a Ring of the Ram or a Staff of Dvination), only Use Magic Device check is made regardless of the number of charges consumed at once. An item that fails to activate also does not consume any charge(s) applied to its activation (because having a low-charged, unreliable item "fizzle out" at a critical point in an encounter is enough of a nuisance by itself without also stealing additional charges from the PCs.) (Item failure also makes it worthwhile for any character to pick up Use Magic Device so they can keep using their charged items past 50 charges.)
Failure DC for charged items depends on the number of charges in the item prior to activation. (A side effect having a failure chance for charged items will be that it's very difficult to deliberately drain a charged magic item--it's analogous to trying to squeeze the last bit of toothpaste out of a tube or shooting a water gun till it runs dry; the less there is left, the harder it is to empty it out.)
Code:
[font=courier]
Number U.M.D.
of Check
Charges ..... DC
50 or more (no check necessary)
45-49 ..... 1
40-44 ..... 3
35-39 ..... 5
30-34 ..... 7
25-29 ..... 10
20-24 ..... 15
15-19 ..... 20
10-14 ..... 25
5-9 ..... 30
4 ..... 35
3 ..... 40
2 ..... 45
1 ..... 50
[/font](B) Very rarely will player characters encounter a charged item in mint condition (i.e. with the full 100 charges) unless they make it themselves or pick it up at a quality magic shop.
As with any treasure item in some random hidden/guarded treasure hoard, charged magic items can be found in various states of disrepair. The following table can be used by a DM to generate a random number of charges for a charged item in a condition appropriate to the hoard or collection of items it belongs to.
Code:
[font=courier]
METHOD I METHOD II
No. of No. of
Condition ..... Charges (avg.) ..... Charges (avg.)
New ..... 100 ..... 100
Good ..... 10d10 (55-56) ..... 30d4 (75) (alt. 15d4 x 2)
Average ..... 9d10 (49-50) ..... 20d4 (50) (alt. 10d4 x 2)
Used ..... 7d10 (38-39) ..... 16d4 (40)
Shoddy ..... 5d10 (27-28) ..... 12d4 (30)
Junk ..... 3d10 (16-17) ..... 8d4 (20)
Burnt Out ..... 1d10 (5-6) ..... 4d4 (10)
[/font]If we wished, we could retcon any 50-charge items in the game world as being in Good or Average condition or as magic items that were defectively created with half-standard charges.
(C) Adding ability score requirements to Item Creation Feats
For any Item Creation Feat, there is a minimum Int and Wis score requirement equal to 10 + the minimum caster level. Example: Craft Wand (CL 5) would require an Int and Wis of 15.
Code:
[font=courier]
Caster Ability Score
Item Creation feat ..... Level ..... Prerequisites
Scribe Scroll ..... 1st ..... Int 11, Wis 11
Brew Potion ..... 3rd ..... Int 13, Wis 13
Craft Wondrous Item ..... 3rd ..... Int 13, Wis 13
Craft Magic Arms & Armor ..... 5th ..... Int 15, Wis 15
Craft Wand ..... 5th ..... Int 15, Wis 15
Forge Ring ..... 7th ..... Int 17, Wis 17
Craft Rod ..... 9th ..... Int 19, Wis 19
Craft Staff ..... 11th ..... Int 21, Wis 21
Craft Construct ..... 5th ..... Int 15, Wis 15
Craft Cursed Item* ..... 3rd ..... Int 13, Wis 13
Craft Intelligent Item** ..... 7th ..... Int 17, Wis 17
[/font]* Sure, anyone can make a cursed item by accident, and can probably make a specific cursed item by trying to make its "good twin" and being sloppy in their work. I like the idea of a feat that gives a magic-crafter the ability to customize his cursed item any way he wants. I wrote up a complete description of the feat at the end of this article for anyone who's interested.
** I know there's no such feat but intelligent items are so interesting and unusual compared to "ordinary" magic items that it seems odd to not have something like a separate feat to represent learning the secret to creating artificial sentience using magic. Compare this to the purpose and design behind Craft Construct.
I set the scores so high and established both Int and Wis as prerequisites because just about any PC full-caster class (Clr, Drd, Sor, Wiz, etc.) will likely have one or the other of these as their high stat to start (though probably not both unless they rolled really well or spent all their points on both stats). Additionally we can expect these scores to be pumped up with level bonuses and magic enhancements in preference to other stats, so even for these scores are not unattainable
CONCLUSION
To balance out giving 50 extra charges to a charged magic item, we have these restrictions:
(a) The first 50 charges are trouble-free, but you need to make UMD checks as part of the activation action to get the second 50 charges to work.
(b) Doing treasure hoards having charged magic items under the 100-charge limit and even under the 50 charge limit. Of course, DMs can do this anyway; this just removes the guarantee or assumption by the players that just because items /can/ have up to 100 charges, that doesn't mean they'll always be found with more than 50.
(c) Make it somewhat harder for PCs (and NPCs) to get into the magic-item creation business.
I still feel like one more thing is missing here that will balance out these 100-charge items I want for my campaign. Any ideas? What do you think of the rest?
ADDENDA
[sblock]
* * * * * * * * * *
House Rule for Spontaneous Intelligent Items
For any permanent magic item created by an item crafter of at least 13 Intelligence, there is a very rare chance (crafter's Int modifier over 1,000) for the magic item to spontaneously develop sentience. To emulate a thousand-sided die, use a percentile dice pair plus a d20 to represent the hundreds die (where a natural 20 represents a 0). Thus, a permanent magic item crafted by a spellcaster of 20 Intelligence (modifier +5) will become intelligent on a roll of 001-005. "Natural" intelligent magic items have the following features:
+ a random neutral alignment
+ empathic communication
+ 1d6 "class" skills, with a number of ranks for each equal to half the caster's total number of ranks (minimum 1 rank)
+ 1d3 spell-like abilities; these are always drawn from spells known to/prepared by its creator
+ Natural intelligent items will never develop special purposes or dedicated powers.
* * * * * * * * * *
I also created these feats for my own campaign.
* * * * * * * * * *
Craft Cursed Item (Item Creation)
You can fashion customizable cursed items and cannot fall prey to the cursed items you yourself create.
Prerequisites: Caster level 3rd, the Item Creation feat appropriate to the normal version of the item plus any two other Item Creation feats; [Int 13], [Wis 13].
Benefit: You can create a wide variety of cursed items, including specific cursed items. During the process of creating the normal version of the cursed item you want, you are able to decide what curses are imbued in that item. Further, you can imbue a curse in an existing normal magic item as though you were adding a new ability to it.
Finally, you are immune to any curses imbued in a cursed magic item created by you, whether purposefully or otherwise (but not to curses added by others to items you previously created as normal magical items).
Imbuing curses in an item requires additional time invested in crafting the cursed item. Intermittent-function curses (whether unreliable, dependent, or uncontrolled), restriction curses, and drawback curses require one day's labor for each curse imbued. Delusional and opposite-effect curses each require three days' work. All other rules for cursed-item creation are identical to those governing the creation of normal versions of the cursed item's type. More powerful curses may also require certain raw materials appropriate to the nature of the detrimental effect to be imposed on the victim (DM's discretion). For example, a cursed Helm of Telepathy that only allows mental interactions with outsiders of an evil alignment might have been crafted with drops of fiendish blood as part of the raw materials.
Normal: Casters have little or no control over what drawbacks, delusions, or other negative effects that may appear in a cursed magic item.
* * * * * * * * * *
Craft Intelligent Item (Item Creation)
You are able to create magic items with intelligence, and you gain resistance to ego domination by any powerful intelligent items created by you.
Prerequisites: Caster level 7th, Craft Construct feat, the Item Creation feat appropriate to the intelligent item plus any two other Item Creation feats; [Int 17], [Wis 17].
Benefit: You are able to weave a tiny bit of your own essence into the magical energies you imbue into a crafted magic items, granting it sentience.
It takes additional time and labor to create an intelligent version of a magic item. Crafting an intelligent magic item requires a week's worth of labor in addition to the work already invested, plus an additional amount of labor for a number of days equal to the intelligent item's Ego score.
Further, you gain a +4 competence bonus to Will saving throws against domination attempts by any intelligent magic item created by you.
Special: Very rarely, some permanent magic item will develop sentience on their own.
* * * * * * * * * *
[/sblock]
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