Weapon Enchantments in item form?

[CapnZapp]

The game needs them, but does it have them?

That is, is there anywhere (official) any magic runes, or gemstones, or whatever that can contain an enchantment like "+2" or +1 Flaming"?

I know Adventurer's Vault is discussing handing out item upgrades as treasure? But it does not actually describe or list how it's done.

Sometimes, spontaneous levelling-up of your gear is fine. But sometimes you as the DM want to present a menu of choices ("you can get a +1 to either your sword, your armor or your cloak of resistance") and how then to do that while avoiding any metagame out-of-game discussions?

Is there any in-game tangible representations of the enchantments of the game? Things that can be touched, carried, bought, looted, lost etc?

 

[Regicide]

Is there any in-game tangible representations of the enchantments of the game? Things that can be touched, carried, bought, looted, lost etc?

Residuum. And enchant magic item ritual scrolls.

 

[Flipguarder]

The game does not have them. This also means that according to the designers, it does not need them. I tend to agree.

There is the enchant item ritual that covers obtaining magic items when you are not in a town, it seems the right place for such a mechanic anyway.

 

[fba827]

I believe the answer to your question is no, nothing official - just house rules and stuff.

I don't know the details of it, but what were components for warforged (in some dragon magazine article in fall of last year)? -- could something similar be done for magic items (again, i don't even know what they did, just going from memory so it may not even be close, mechanically, to what you're looking for)

Though I was curious on this point that you said ...

Sometimes, spontaneous levelling-up of your gear is fine. But sometimes you as the DM want to present a menu of choices ("you can get a +1 to either your sword, your armor or your cloak of resistance") and how then to do that while avoiding any metagame out-of-game discussions?

That's kind of what the enchant magic ritual is for, so it isn't just spontaneous, you have to do something to it.

Having said that, if you did implement such a house rule to tangible upgrade components, you could make that and the ritual work in tandem (say that part of the ritual includes the cost and time for setting the component upgrade; this might work best if you're saying all items have to work this way) or else say that some magic swords have slots for magical stones in their hilt (this would work if you wanted to allow the 'default book method' via rituals to work in addition to a component type rule), etc...

..anyway, just rambling thoughts off the top of my head.

 

[Larrin]

I think having it work out as "Scrolls of +1 enchantedness" or "Enchant Item lvl13" is a good way to do it. Just have the all costs for the item already be within the scroll, then they just need their ritual caster (or the local priest) to cast it upon the item of their choosing. Boom. Or you can just give them a scroll of enchant item, a pile of gold, and ritual caster NPC. The end result is the same, the fun is up to you.

 

[CapnZapp]

I believe the answer to your question is no, nothing official - just house rules and stuff.

Thank you.

Perhaps I should clarify...:

Residuum is fine - sometimes.

Other times its complete freedom (essentially allowing the party ritualist to create anything his character knows of, which might be everything from every book in some groups...) isn't what you want.

Instead, if you want to be able to offer, say, the selection between either Flaming, Frost or Lightning - but no other enchantments - then the loot pile or merchant or whatever needs something tangible...

This could be a houserule scroll, but then it could as well be that the "merchant" is instead a runesmith offering the choice of three different runes. Simply because a rune might look and feel more exciting...

This way a character could purchase/steal/etc one of the runes and only then apply it to the weapon of his choice.

Reason I'm thinking along these tracks is to be able to provide treasure that is useful to as many members of my party as possible. (I'm not doing wish lists; and I don't want to hand out completely tailored items either - these tend to be useful only for one single party member, thus making the after-combat divvying-up-the-loot discussions less interesting... )

Now, a rune (or magical gemstone to be set into the weapon) needs limits, right?

I mean, you can't just provide any old "Frost Rune" - it must be tied to a specific enchantment bonus? And it must override any previous magic of the item (like per the Transfer Enchantment Ritual)...

 

[fba827]

Perhaps I should clarify...:
(snip)

I like that idea -- I was never a fan of "you craft an item, or , here's a store, pick anything you want out of books X, Y, Z of your level or lower" (which is what it usually eventually boils down to once players get the enchant item ritual in their hands)

I did something similar in AD&D (it was "power jewels" that could be placed on weapons and other items), but I haven't yet done anything similar for 4th edition since my group was still fairly fresh to the edition when we started the current campaign. I would most likely be doing something very similar to what you're asking about (and any other house rules) when the next campaign rolls around.

 

[Jhaelen]

The game needs them, but does it have them?

_Does_ the game need them, though? Maybe yours does, but does mine?

Similar items (weapon/armor crystals) have been a (very) late addition in 3E and I'm still not entirely happy about the way they were balanced. I'm not sure I want them in 4E (yet).

 

[Regicide]

Instead, if you want to be able to offer, say, the selection between either Flaming, Frost or Lightning - but no other enchantments - then the loot pile or merchant or whatever needs something tangible...

It sounds like you're trying to do this without it feeling artificial. Good luck. Your best bet is to hide the hand waving behind an NPC.

Similar items (weapon/armor crystals) have been a (very) late addition in 3E and I'm still not entirely happy about the way they were balanced. I'm not sure I want them in 4E (yet).

They weren't even close to being balanced. They were so cheap and so good people would regularly have a bag of them. If you let them.

 

[Eric Finley]

I dunno... giving them an item whose magical property is something like this:

"Short Rest (Consumable): Select one weapon, armour, or cloak. You spend a while binding this runestone to the target item. The item's enchantment is altered, as though via the Transfer Enchantment ritual, to the appropriate one of the following:
- Flaming Weapon +1
- (Heavy Armour) Whitefire Armour +1 [as per Whiteflame Armour, but swap fire and radiant in its powers, and add cold damage to the possible types it can adopt; lvl5]
- (Light Armour) Flamecut Armour +1 [as per Bloodcut Armour, but the resistance granted is 10 vs all but fire, 15 vs fire; lvl5]
- Flamedrinker Shield
- Cape of the Mountebank, Flame Red"

... would be perfectly reasonable. Come up with a shortlist of items which will be useful to various people in the party, and let them argue it out.

I've also used this kind of construction, limiting it to the people in the actual party:
"Orb of The Grey Eye.
Zazmond the Arcane: This orb serves as a +2 implement for your wizard powers. Minor Action (Encounter) - you throw the orb into the air; make a Strength ability check. The orb goes straight up into the air some number of squares and hovers there until the end of your next turn. While it's in the air, your spells originate from the orb rather than yourself, and all your spell ranges are increased by the same number of squares. The height, and range increase, depend on the Strength check: 0-15, 1 square; 16-20, 2 squares; 21-25, 3 squares; 26+, four squares.
Brunnel the Swordmage: If you affix this to the pommel of a sword, then you can use its enhancement bonus in place of your sword's enhancement bonus, when using the sword as an implement. In addition, you can use the Artificer level 5 daily power "Dancing Weapon" as an item daily power of this orb, affecting the attached sword.
Omar the Bold: If you affix this in the center of your shield, then the shield provides +2 to your defenses against fear, charm, or psychic attacks."

That sort of thing. It's more work, but it's pretty fun too.