How are magic items powered?

[larsdangly]

The question (in this context, obviously) is whether we should think of them as self powered or user powered. I assume the former, but nothing is said, and the general rule is that the user pays unless it says otherwise. So, it is ambiguous.

[Steve Plambeck]

Back in the day, never ever ever allowed a PC to buy a magic item out of the book or make their own. The few we had were made up by one of our GMs, and introduced as something to find or win within the context of an adventure. They were all one-of-a-kind items with no given price, and subject to their own rules. Nothing was just taken from the rule book.

That aside, they were all self-powered. Never saw any point in enchanted items that needed an external power source.

[Bill_in_IN]

Originally Posted by Steve Plambeck

Back in the day, never ever ever allowed a PC to buy a magic item out of the book or make their own. The few we had were made up by one of our GMs, and introduced as something to find or win within the context of an adventure. They were all one-of-a-kind items with no given price, and subject to their own rules. Nothing was just taken from the rule book.

That aside, they were all self-powered. Never saw any point in enchanted items that needed an external power source.

That's one way to keep magic items rare and it also makes the few that exist easy to incorporate with respect to ST cost on the part of the user.

[Bill_in_IN]

Originally Posted by larsdangly

The question (in this context, obviously) is whether we should think of them as self powered or user powered. I assume the former, but nothing is said, and the general rule is that the user pays unless it says otherwise. So, it is ambiguous.

We used to consider unique items or artifacts to be self-powered provided that the they weren't damage per ST related spells. But these things were NOT purchased. They were usually found on a fallen foe and were very rare.