Upgrade your account to a Community Supporter account and remove most of the site ads.

Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="Keenath" data-source="post: 4752507" data-attributes="member: 59792">They still probably look unusual.  This still depends on the DM.  Some DMs are going to say that magic boots, dirty though they may be, are still embroidered with silver thread or made out of dragon-hide and thus clearly special.  Again, it's a decision to make the boots unremarkable as much as it is to make them obvious.Does not follow, I'm afraid.  A DM would be perfectly justified in saying you can't just transfer enchantments into any old item; that it has to be a high-quality item to begin with.  Equally, a DM would be justified in saying that the act of putting magic into an item causes it to become distinctive, shedding sparkles or turning jet-black or growing claws out of the toes or what-have-you.  This is the way I handled it in my game -- the player found a lifedrinker longsword with a leering vampire face on the hilt;  he wanted to transfer the magic to his mundane greataxe, so when he did, the leering face appears in the middle of the blade.  He didn't get a magic greataxe that looked mundane; his mundane axe transformed to look magic.Why would that be mistaken?Can you tell the difference between cheap vinyl shoes and expensive calfskin?  Can you tell a nylon jacket from goretex by handling it?  Can you distinguish between wool and angora?  Of course you can!Magic items are high quality, worth thousands of times more than normal stuff.  Even if they don't glow, they should be drawing attention simply by being well-made items, just like a leather jacket is obviously superior to nylon.  Bilbo didn't need to see Sting glow to tell that it's a magic blade, nor did Ron Weasley need to be told that Harry's gift was an Invisibility Cloak.  He recognized it instantly.  (I believe his response was an instant "Cor blimey!", which is a bowdlerized "God damn me!")Why would a fighter in a world full of magic items be unable to tell when a pair of boots are something special?Sure, you can decide that items are not remarkable in your world unless specifically made so, but that's far from the default assumption, and far from "every reason to believe".</blockquote>

Verification