Enchanting

Powerful magical items that have been buried for centuries are dug up by bold adventurer every now and then. There also exists a large variety of minor enchantments that, provided the right tools and materials, even the novice wizard may implement in everyday objects.

Gemstones

Enchanting an item requires at least one precious stone. The most valuable the stone, the stronger the enchantment may be.

Stones come in a variety of types, qualities and sizes which respectively limit the school of magic which may be employed, the strength of the enchantment that may be performed and the amount of power the item may contain. Such limitations are expressed in the tables below.

Gemstones

Types School Ruby (red) Evocation Opal (teel) Abjuration Diamond (-) Divination Emerald (green) Illusion Saphire (blue) Conjuration Pearl (white) Enchantment Amethyst (purple) Transmutation Amber (yellow) Necromancy

Qualities Rarity Spell level DC modifier Raw Common 0-2 +1 Polished Uncommon 3-4 +2 Symmetrized Rare 5-6 +3 Carved Very Rare 7-8 +4 Mastercrafted Legendary 9 +5

Sizes Charges Effect DC modifier Nugget 1-3 - +1/use Medium 1-10 1 +1/use +2/effect Gigantic 1-20 1-3 +1/use +2/effect

Enchanting Procedure

There are two types of enchantment. Either one imbues multiple copies of a spell in the item which the wielder can subsequently use at will or a passive effect that provides a permanent boon or curse may be enchanted in the item.

In order to sucessfully enchant an item, the necessary gems must be embeded in the item one wishes to enchant.

The enchanter must cast the desired spell with all material components which are consumed by the spell. He or she must then succeed an arcana check vs a DC that depends on the desired enchantment. The base DC is 10 + all relevant modifiers as described in the tables above. One such check must be suceeded in order to enchant the item with all of the uses or the effect from one spell. Subsequent checks may be attempted to enchant the item with effects or uses from another spell although the DC remains affected by whichever enchantment is already present in the item.

If the enchanter fails his arcana check, a wild energy surge occurs and he or she must roll on corresponding table (PHB p.103). On a critical failure (roll of 1 is automatically a fail), not only does a wild energy surge occurs but, additionnally, the crystal shatters. If the enchanter wishes to save the crystal, he may decide to suffer 5d6 force damage for a nugget, 10d6 force damage for a medium gem and 15d6 force damage for a gigantic crystal.

Passive Effects

A passive effect is a permanent boon which affects the wielder of the enchanted item. In order to enchant an item with a passive effect, the enchanter must expend a spell slot of appropriate level determined by the enchantments rarity and have the right components. He or she then must succeed the arcana check by applying the appropriate modifiers. On the following page are tables listing some examples divided by rarity. There are many more possibilities. One should find inspiration from the Magic Item list in the DMG to determine the rarity of a desired passive enchantment and the GM can determine appropriate components.

Charges

Alternatively, an enchanted item may hold multiple instances of a spell which then becomes activatable with a trigger condition chosen by the enchanter. It may be 'at will' in which case it costs an action to use a charge. It may be, 'with a sucessful attack roll', in which case the wielder choses wether he desires to use a charge before making the attack roll and the spell is casted if the roll is sucessful otherwise, the charge is lost. Some other triggering condition may be devised which may require a discussion between player and GM.

In order to enchant an item with uses of a spell, the enchanter must first choose the appropriate type, quality and size of gem depending the number of uses he or she desires and the school of magic and level to which the spell pertains. Then he or she casts said spell and must provide all spell components, including materials which cannot be replaced by a focus. The material components are consumed even though they are not normally. The the enchanter must succeed an arcana DC by considering all appropriate DC modifiers.

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