Steve Jackson Games Forums - View Single Post - [9] "Requires relevant spellcasting talent to use!" (Magic Items)

Plane · 06-01-2020, 02:57 PM

Yeah it's sort of a struggle to understand with items where normally the caster controls the energy/dice if it would be the item-designer or the item-user who would be designating that. That would be a factor for not just missile but also AE stuff.

Also with normal spellcasters you pretty much assume they know the energy costs of a spell (like if it could send them below 1/3 FP and have penalties, or need to burn HP, etc) but when muggles pick up enchanted items, do they necessarily know the FP costs they're committing to putting into the item when they choose to activate it?

If we assume the baseline is that the user can freely designate the strength of effect (AE or damage or amount healed) then what sort of alterations might we make to items where the enchanter fixes the effect at a certain amount, for whatever reason?

Like for example, a wand of Minor Healing which ONLY heals 3d for 3 FP. There might be some enchantment spell I'm overlooking (limiting?) but that would probably make the item COSTLIER to design, even though it limits the utility so maybe there should be an option for making it cheaper similar to Bane?

06-01-2020, 02:57 PM	#3
Plane Join Date: Aug 2018	Re: [9] "Requires relevant spellcasting talent to use!" (Magic Items) Yeah it's sort of a struggle to understand with items where normally the caster controls the energy/dice if it would be the item-designer or the item-user who would be designating that. That would be a factor for not just missile but also AE stuff. Also with normal spellcasters you pretty much assume they know the energy costs of a spell (like if it could send them below 1/3 FP and have penalties, or need to burn HP, etc) but when muggles pick up enchanted items, do they necessarily know the FP costs they're committing to putting into the item when they choose to activate it? If we assume the baseline is that the user can freely designate the strength of effect (AE or damage or amount healed) then what sort of alterations might we make to items where the enchanter fixes the effect at a certain amount, for whatever reason? Like for example, a wand of Minor Healing which ONLY heals 3d for 3 FP. There might be some enchantment spell I'm overlooking (limiting?) but that would probably make the item COSTLIER to design, even though it limits the utility so maybe there should be an option for making it cheaper similar to Bane?