Permanent Magical Items

When a spellcaster decides to create a magical ring, wand, or other device, the chore of making magic is no longer a simple task that can be done between adventures. Making permanent magical items requires skill, planning, and a lot of commitment. Given the rewards, who would expect it to be anything but hard?

The first task in making a permanent magical item is to learn what must be done. Unlike potions, which are common enough for mages to write down, the formulae for a magical sword or wand of fire aren't collected in recipe books. Wizards view knowledge as power—not something they like to share with potential rivals.

Researching a magical item requires that the character discover the materials, steps, and spells needed to create the device. Carefully posed commune and contact higher plane spells will bring results, and the services of a sage will speed up the process. The player character may use magic to learn what spells are needed for the item while a sage researches the materials (and where to find them) at the same time. For all this, the DM must have answers.

The first step is to approve the item the character wants to make. Characters cannot make magical devices of artifact strength. Intelligent items have their own drawbacks that rule these out, too (see Intelligent Magical Items, below). It's not that player characters cannot create intelligent items, but the costs are likely to be more than the player is willing to pay. Even so, there is still a wide selection of magical items to choose from. Characters can make items already listed in the rule books, or they can experiment with entirely new devices.

If the item is already described in the game, the DM must decide whether it is standard or nonstandard. If the player character has one already, the device is certainly standard; otherwise it's a matter of how rare the item is and whether the character has seen or used the device before. Trying to make a long sword +2 luck stealer based on hearsay is a lot harder than actually having one on hand to use.

If the item is brand new, the player must provide a complete description of what the item will do. Most players will add notes concerning the materials needed and propose how difficult the task should be. While useful, the DM really needs to know what the effects of the item will be—effects of powers, range, damage done (if any), duration, maximum number of charges, and any other pertinent details that apply once the item is created. The DM can deny or change any of these to suit the campaign; the player does not have the right to dictate the game! Ideally, DM and player should cooperate to create a magical item both think will make an interesting addition to the campaign. Only after the final form of the new item is approved does the DM worry about how it is made.

With the first stage finished, the DM must come up with a list of spells needed to make the device. Permanency is automatically required, as is at least one enchant an item spell. If the item duplicates a spell, that spell is clearly needed. Furthermore, if the spell's power is variable (by level, for example), it must be cast at a level equal to or greater than the final effect of the item. A wand of fear requires the use of the 4th level wizard's fear spell. Although the wand duplicates the effect of a priest's cause fear, that spell does not have the range or area of effect needed to create the item.

Some items combine several different powers in the same device. In this case, one spell is needed for each effect. For example, when making boots of the north, a priest would have to cast pass without trace (to move without leaving a trail), free action (for half movement on ice), and endure cold (to keep the wearer warm).

Not every magical item has a spell counterpart, so in these cases, the DM can either choose a combination of spells to achieve the effect or can insist the player character research a new spell just to make the device. There is no spell that creates extra-dimensional spaces quite like a portable hole. The DM could require two spells to achieve the result—in this case, Leomund's secret chest to make the space and duo-dimension to make the collapsible hole. For a mirror of life trapping, the DM can reasonably insist that the character research a new spell to create the effect.

Finally, there are those rare items that neither wizard nor priest can make alone. Such devices can only be made by the cooperative effort of two player characters or a player character and a devoted henchman. Normal NPC spellcasters simply will not spend their abundant free time to cast spells at the beck and call of a player character.

After totalling the difficulty for spells and the usage (remembering to modify the result if the item is nonstandard), the DM can determine the number of special materials needed, based on the item's difficulty divided by 5. The total cost of the raw materials should range from 1,000- 10,000 gp per point of difficulty. Suggested raw materials are given below, according to the form of the item.

The difficulty rating also determines the steps needed (one step for every 10 points of difficulty). Remember to add 1 point to the difficulty for every step required (which may then require an additional step). Like materials, suggested steps for different types of items are listed below.

Weapons. Although magical weapons are among the most desired items by other classes, wizards and priests have very little cause to actually make them. After all, what is a mage going to do with a two-handed sword +1 ? Not surprisingly, most magical weapons are either daggers and maces, made by fighter/mages and fighter/clerics, or are given as gifts to lords and kings. Generous and far-sighted wizards may also make weapons for their fellow adventurers, both as tokens of friendship and practical business. Fortunately, weapons last for a long time—centuries or more—thus accounting for the preponderance of enchanted blades found in most campaigns.

Making a magical sword (or whatever) starts with the weapon. Of course, no off-the-blacksmith's-rack-plowshare-beaten-into-sword will do. The weapon, whether it's a stone club, rapier, or Vindish punch-dagger, has to be specially crafted. Take, for example, a typical magical sword. Steel garnered from weird sources—fallen stars, ancient battlefields, or the sap of an ironwood tree (it's a fantasy world after all)—is forged in the heat of fires stoked by equally strange fuels (molten lava, concentrated sunlight, or the breath of a captive hellhound) to fashion the rough vessel for the magic to come. Once shaped and tempered in exotic fluids—running spring water, orc wine, or black dragon acid (without dissolving the item, of course)—the blade can be etched and the hilt, made of more expensive materials, can be bound to the tang. Now the sword is ready for enchantment.

The processes used in most weapons include:

forging	tempering
etching	casting
inlay	piercing
sharpening	balancing

Not all weapons are made of iron and steel, though. Arrows, slings, bows, javelins, and spears must be cut, carved, rivetted, planed, fletched, and more. Each of these can require unusual materials—feathers, sinews, woods, leathers, even thread. The wide variety of materials allows the DM to specify virtually any type of treatment for these materials.

Armor. In many ways, the materials and treatments needed for magical weapons can be applied to armor. When making plate mail, forging, tempering, and the like are required, and certainly the materials must be unique in at least one way. However, there are additional steps that may be necessary. These include:

fitting	welding
sewing	chasing
lacing	boiling
engraving	gilding
painting	rivetting
chiselling	embossing
lacquering

A good deal of this depends on the armor being made. Plate armor does not require boiling unless the DM has some arcane purpose in mind, but boiling is necessary to make proper leather armor.

Miscellaneous Magical Items. This category defies any simple listing of materials and procedures. What is needed and works well for a pair of boots of striding and springing is hardly suitable for a gem of seeing! For some items, the materials are obvious. A cloak of protection needs special cloth, thread, and clasps. A lyre of building needs just that, a lyre, although it may have silver strings and a frame made of carved jade. Some items are only a single component—a gem of seeing is a gem. In this case, additional materials can be things needed to empower the device. The gem might need to be bathed in water from a magic font spell, exposed to the gaseous breath of a green dragon, or heated in the flames of a prophetess's campfire. A pearl of power might need to be taken from a patriarch's ring. The choices are as many as the types of items.

Finishing Steps

Once the character knows what materials and processes are needed (and has completed any adventures required to gather these), the actual making of the device can begin. This may require special arrangements, since the creator must stay with the work at all times. Others can be relied upon to provide craft skills the PC does not have (an armorer can hammer out the sword or shape the helm, for example), but the character must supervise every minute of every step. Once the process begins, it cannot be interrupted or set aside, or all work to that point is lost.

The total time needed to create the magical item (i.e., all of the processes necessary) is a number of weeks equal to the item's difficulty rating, plus another 2d6 months. Making vessels for permanent magic is not a speedy process! Once everything is ready, the final step is taken: All other necessary spells are cast in combination with enchant an item.

When all of this is complete, the DM checks for success or failure. The base chance for the item is 60%, minus the item's difficulty. This value is improved by 1 point for every level of the character. If the check is successful, the desired item is created. If the check is failed, all effort has been wasted. Should a result of 96 or greater be rolled, a cursed magical item has been made. In this case, the PC can only assume that the effort was successful until someone actually attempts to use the device.

Rings. The basic component of any ring is the band and the more mundane materials for its making, including gold, silver, brass, elven steel, dwarven iron, metal taken from a fallen hero's armor, hardened magma, or heartwood. Exotic choices include woven ivy, snake skin, or a live worm, all permanently polymorphed to steel. In addition, the metal can have materials added to it. Powdered ram's horn, ground gemstones, feathers, hair, or scales are only a few possibilities. The ring need not be plain and unadorned (contrary to the DUNGEON MASTER"' Guide). It can be set with gems, pearls, carved with runes, pierced and filigreed, or even colored with bright enamels made from the saps of tropical trees and minerals found far beneath the earth.

There are many processes in making a ring. Typical steps include:

making a mold	melting the alloy
casting	welding
tempering	setting stones
polishing

Special materials may be required for these steps. The mold may require a perfect impression of something—a chameleon or a phoenix feather. Cast rings might need forms carved from the wax of giant bees or ice from a frost giant's lair. Rings can be tempered and tested with all manner of substances. A ring of shocking grasp might need to be tempered by the jolt of an electric eel while a ring of fire resistance might actually need tempering in the heat of molten lava. Water from distant oceans, rare wine, or even a diluted potion can also be required. Even polishing a ring might require special materials—a paste of powdered diamonds, oil scented with the juice of Underdark fungi, or the scaly hide of a dangerous monster.

Wands and Rods. Get past the notion that wands are made only of wood and rods of iron, and a host of intriguing materials can be used. Anything that is basically a stick will do—iron, steel, silver, bone, brass, copper, or crystal. Even wood or iron need not be ordinary. The character might need the first maple sapling of spring, the heart of a 500-year-old oak, wood found only on a distant continent, pure iron ore from a fallen star, or the iron scepter of a dwarven king. The device may require a piece of steel so perfectly shaped that it rings a single pure note when tapped. In the most extreme case, the material may be a nearly impossible demand—an icicle for a wand of frost, a piece of lightning for the wand of the same name, or a single diamond crystal for a rod of splendor. In these cases, the character has to learn just how to collect and keep that material!

Other materials may be needed for the steps taken in making the wand. These steps might include:

lathing	carving
steeping	polishing
tooling	enameling
sanding	mounting

If other materials are needed beyond the stick, the most obvious additions are ornamentations fashioned to it. Gems, beads, pearls, and bands of silver or gold are common. More uncommon components are feathers, exotic leather, adamantine wire, skeletal claws, and the like. These may sit in, dangle, rattle, wrap, or point; a wand can have more than just a stick, too.

The carving can be as simple as runes to as elaborate as pierced designs that leave the center of the shaft hollow. To carve the runes and designs, the character could use specially made chisels. The shafts, especially wooden ones, could be steeped in strange fluids to absorb their essence. A wand of illusion could be soaked in water from a mirage, a rod of terror in the cold sweat of a scared man. Like rings, exotic materials could be needed for polishing, such as giant wasp venom for a wand of enemy detection. Rare earths would be useful for glazing the shaft with colorful designs, while it could be scoured in the blast of a sandstorm.

Staves. Unlike wands and rods, these are almost always made of wood, if only because other materials tend to be too heavy. Thus, the selection of the wood has greater importance. A staff is a personalized item, so it is seldom enough just to get the right type of wood. The branch chosen must have character—gnarls, whorls, twists, and knots that match the personality of the spellcaster. Thus, finding the right wood for a staff is a matter of patience and searching.

Once the right piece of wood is found, the materials and procedures that can be used on staves is like that used on wands and rods. There is a feeling among many wizards that proper staves ought to be more flashy, with dangling bits, big gems, crystals, carved faces, and gewgaws, than the average wand or rod. Priests, however, opt for stark austerity or holy symbols topping their staves.