Gear - Quality & Alterations

Gear is an essential part of your adventure, protecting you, giving you strength, unleashing powerful spells, or providing you the arrow to pierce your enemy's skull. This covers how to wear your gear and the different aspects of maintaining and improving your gear.

Armor and gear

In the article on Inventory slots & Bulk , we specify that some items are larger, heavier, or simply put created for an ogre or a pixie. To scale armor with creature-size ratings, use these alternate Inventory slots & Bulk ratings instead.

Creature Sizing If you are unsure of the size of your character, and what that character can carry in terms of bulk, check out the Inventory slots & Bulk article

A creature can't use an object that's inappropriate for their size
A creature can't use or wear armor that's not of their size category

Armor Alterations

Increase/Reduce gear size A skilled armorer may (with appropriate tools) permanently change the size of a piece of armor by one step (smaller or larger) from its natural size—for a negotiable fee

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Repairing gear Items can be repaired by an appropriate craftsman, costing 10% of the item price per notch. Depending on the item, this may require rare or expensive components. Characters can also perform basic repairs on their gear with relevant tools—a whetstone to smooth out a notch, a sewing kit to patch up a robe, a hammer to tap out a dent, etc. To repair one notch, you must spend one hour using a set of tools and make an Intelligence (Tool) ability check. Success: You repair one notch of damage. Critical fail: You create a new notch. Repair DC: The GM will decide the DC of your repair based on the relative ability of your tools and the overall state (or rarity) of your item: very easy (5), easy (10), medium (15), hard (20), very hard (25), or impossible (30). The Mending cantrip repairs broken items—a broken key, a punctured waterskin, a split bow, a torn page, etc. Notches, however, represent only minor or superficial damage to an item—not a complete break—and can't be removed with Mending. You can, however, use Mending to restore an item that has shattered from too many notches. A restored item is usable again, but has the minimum number of notches— without repairs, it will break again with one more notch. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Tempering Gear With the right skills and the right materials, you can make your gear more resistant to wear and tear. This is called tempering and it reduces the number of notches your equipment takes from critical failures. When you temper an item, you strengthen the material so that it can withstand more punishment and remain effective for longer—a tempered sword becomes harder to chip, and tempered armor harder to crack. The better the temper, the stronger your equipment. There are three grades of temper, each more exclusive and expensive than the last: pure, royal, and astral.

Applying a Temper To temper a piece of equipment, you need four things: time, facilities, materials, and skill. You won't usually be able to temper gear yourself—such work requires special training—so keep an eye out for trained craftsmen.

It's relatively straightforward to find someone who can apply a pure temper—for a price, of course. However, royal and astral tempering is extremely rare—you'll need to search far and wide for such legendary craftsmen. Especially rare and unique equipment may require special materials for tempering—ore from ancient mines, red dragon scales, a gem from a slaad's brain, etc. Recovering these components may be an adventure in itself.

Item Quality

The quality of an item affects how people treat it. Lower-quality items are more likely to have visual defects—such as dents and scratches—that mark how it's been used. This doesn't affect the item's effectiveness, but it may change how NPCs react—for example, a merchant will offer much less for damaged goods and a noble may be offended to receive anything that appears second-hand. There may be times, however, when you want your gear to have a few good scratches—a fighter who wears pristine armor may look like they've never been in battle, drawing scorn and derision. There are four grades of item quality:

Pristine: Never been notched. This item looks, feels, and smells brand new.
Worn: Has had only one notch at a time. This item has one main defect that indicates use.
Well-Worn: Has had two or three notches at one time. This item shows heavy signs of use.
Scarred: Has had four or more notches at one time. This item looks shabby and in poor condition