Getting Crafty Part 3: It's Magic!

What about magic items?
What about them? Just kidding, they are an integral part of what makes Dungeons and Dragons Dungeons and Dragons t many people. They'd work the same way, more or less.

• "Enchant Magic Item" would be a ritual that would require a skill challenge to complete. The DCs and Complexity would be set with how many enchantments and of which type you are trying to magically imbue into the item.  
• Special reagents, much like special materials in crafting, would work the same way, granting bonuses (or penalties) to checks in the challenge.
• Failures would result in Cursed items. There would be lesser curses and greater curses.
• This brings back the early edition ability to have multiple magic item enhancements on a single item. I have missed that a little bit.
• All complexities and levels would be added to determine the DCs and number of successes, rather than added to any item's base.

I have started putting together a list of potential enchantments for weapons.  I am generating this list by going through the magic weapon list and thinking to myself, "Self, could this be done non-magically in a weapon?"  If the answer is no, I decide it should be magic-based, rather than craft-based.  Yes, you've read almost that exact paragraph before, but with a couple of words swapped.  Get over it.  


Here are three I have created so far:

• Feature: Flaming Type: Weapon (Any Weapon)

Complexity +1 Key Skills: Arcana

Level +5

Benefit: This weapon gains the Flaming magic item power

Flaming (Daily Power)

You can will this weapon to burst into flame.

Free Action Target: The creature hit
Trigger: You hit a creature with this weapon.
Effect: You deal 1d6 fire damage, and the target takes ongoing 5 fire damage (save ends.)

Lesser Curse (1 failure): The DM gains access to the Glowing Brightly curse

Glowing Brightly (Curse)

When it is least convenient, the flames of your weapon draw attention to you.

Free Action  
Trigger: You attempt a stealth check while carrying this weapon.
Effect: You fail the stealth check.

Greater Curse (2 failures): The DM gains access to the Uncontrolled Flame curse

Uncontrolled Flames (Curse)

The fires in your weapon do not distinguish between friend or foe.

Free Action
Trigger: An enemy saves against the ongoing damage dealt by this weapon while adjacent to one of your allies.
Effect: Your ally takes ongoing 5 fire damage (save ends.)  

• Feature: Frost Type: Weapon (Any)

Complexity +1 Key Skills: Arcana

Level +3

Benefit: This weapon gains the Frost magic item power

Frost (Daily Power)

A thin layer of frost coats the business end of this weapon.

Free Action Target: The creature hit
Trigger: You hit a creature with this weapon.
Effect: You deal 1d8 cold damage, and the target is slowed until the end of your turn. Lesser Curse (1 failure): The DM gains access to the Icy Grip curse

Icy Grip (Curse)

The grip of your weapon sometimes frosts over too.

Free Action
Trigger: You roll a 1 on an attack roll with this weapon. 
Effect: You drop your weapon.

Greater Curse (2 failures): The DM gains access to the Cold Feet curse

Cold Feet (Curse)

Wielding this weapon, you sometimes think you will never feel warm again.
Free Action
Trigger: You take cold damage 
Effect: You are slowed and dazed (save ends).

• Feature: Lifedrinker Type: Weapon (Any Melee)

Complexity +1 Key Skills: Heal

Level +3

Benefit: This weapon gains the Lifedrinker magic item power

Life Drinker (Daily Power)

This weapon transfers an enemy's vitality to you.

Free Action

Trigger: You drop an enemy to 0 hit points or fewer with a melee attack made with this weapon.
Effect:  Gain 5 temporary hit points.

Lesser Curse (1 failure): The DM gains access to the Clinging to Life curse

Clinging to Life (Curse)

You never want to let go of the life you've stolen.

Free Action  
Trigger: You gain temporary hit points while you already have temporary hit points.

Effect:  When you take damage, you lose regular hit points before you lose any temporary hit points.

Greater Curse (2 failures): The DM gains access to the Overloaded curse

Overloaded (Curse)

It is hard to concentrate with the life of others coursing through your veins.

Free Action  
Trigger: You gain temporary hit points. 
Effect: You grant combat advantage to all enemies until you no longer have temporary hit points.

Sum-Up:  
So, a magic item imbuer could make a Flaming Weapon and only have to hit level 5 DCs 4 times, A life-drinking cold weapon for level 6 DCs, but it'd be complexity 2 (5 successes), or an amazing level 11 magic item at complexity 3, requiring 6 moderate successes and 2 difficult successes. You can put a lot on a weapon, but it get much harder as you go.

Other Thoughts:
The more I think through this system, the more I am inclined to scratch all powers from Non-magical crafting (minus flaws). I think rewriting my crafting rules to let you incorporate all sorts of cool passive bonuses into more and more advanced weapons (or setting detailed tasks to crafting existing weapons) would make it feel less like magic, and then anything that needs a power to activate would be magical. That would make them seem like two distinct complimentary systems, rather than the same system with an arbitrary magic/non-magic divide thrown down the center. I'm done tinkering with this for now, but I might revisit this concept at a future point.

Getting Crafty Part 2: Extraordinary Items

What if I want my Weapon to Be Awesome?
Sure, we all do.  That's why this system introduces Features that can be worked into the item. 

•  Each feature you add to an item (in this case, weapon, but it should work on armors too) increases the complexity of an item by one or more and increases the weapon's level by one or more.  You may add multiple features to an item, but never so many to reach a complexity higher than 5 for the crafting challenge.
• Once you get to Complexity 3-5, instead of requiring HARD DCs, it simply requires a certain number of DCs of one degree higher (Easy requires 2-4 Moderate, Moderate requires 2-4 Hard, Hard requires 2-4 checks of Hard DC +5) 
• Each feature may also add an additional related skill to the Crafting Challenge.  You must succeed on each related skill of an item at least once to finish the item.  
• Each Feature also has related Flaws.  Whenever you fail, the DM gets to choose the flaws of the weapon (it will never have more than 1 greater flaw or 2 lesser flaws, but could have as few as one lesser flaw). These flaws come from the choices related to the weapon or to the Features that are being added.  

I have started putting together a list of potential features for weapons.  I am generating this list by going through the magic weapon list and thinking to myself, "Self, could this be done non-magically in a weapon?"  If the answer is yes, I decide it should be craft-based, rather than magic-based.  Here are three I have created so far:

• Feature: Wicked Type: Weapon (Any Weapon)

Complexity +1 Key Skills: Intimidate

Level +1

Benefit: This weapon gains the Wicked Item Feature

Wicked (Item Feature)

The designs and structure of your weapon make it look far worse than it is.

Free Action Target: The creature hit
Trigger: You hit a creature who is at maximum hit points with this weapon.
Effect: You deal 1d6 extra damage per tier.

Lesser Flaw (1 failure): The DM gains access to the Silly Looking Item Flaw

Silly Looking (Item Flaw)

Occasionally, an enemy will find the designs of your weapon utterly ridiculous.

Free Action  
Trigger: You attempt an intimidate check while holding this weapon.
Effect: Roll twice and take the lower of the two rolls.

Greater Flaw (2 failures): The DM gains access to the Wildly Impractical Item Flaw

Wildly Impractical (Item Flaw)

Your weapon may look scary, but in actual combat, it is frequently impractical.

Free Action
Trigger: You roll a 1 on an attack while using this weapon.
Effect: You grant combat advantage to all opponents until the end of your next turn.  

• Feature: Distance Type: Weapon (Any Ranged)

Complexity +1 Key Skills: Thievery

Level +1

Benefit: This weapon gains the Distance Item Feature

Distance (Item Feature)

You have a special mechanism that can be activated to improve the range of your weapon.

Free Action  
Effect:  The normal range of your weapon increases by 5 squares, and the long range of your weapon increases by 10 squares until the end of the encounter. Lesser Flaw (1 failure): The DM gains access to the Erratic Mechanism Item Flaw

Erratic Mechanism (Item Flaw)

The mechanism sometimes makes shots fly wild.

Free Action
Trigger: You activate the Distance feature on this weapon 
Effect: Roll your attack roll twice and take the lower of the two rolls.

Greater Flaw (2 failures): The DM gains access to the Jammed Mechanism Flaw

Jammed Mechanism (Item Flaw)

The mechanism keeps locking up whenever you use this weapon.

Free Action  
Special: To activate this power, the Distance Item Benefit must have been used during this encounter.
Effect: This weapon gains the “load minor” property until the end of the encounter.  If it already has the load minor property, it gains the load move property.  If it already has the load move property, it gains the load standard property. (I know these properties don't exist. I'll reword it.) 

• Feature: Acidic Type: Weapon (Heavy Blade, Light Blade, Spear)

Complexity +1 Key Skills: Arcana or Thievery, Dungeoneering

Level +2

Benefit: This weapon gains the Acidic Item Feature

Acidic (Item Feature)

You have used your knowledge of alchemy to rig a well that shoots acid as you strike with your weapon.

Standard Action

Effect:  Make a melee basic attack against an enemy within range.  If this attack hits, it deals normal damage, in addition, the target of the attack, or another target within 5 squares takes 5 ongoing acid damage.

Lesser Flaw (1 failure): The DM gains access to the Clogged Mechanism Item Flaw

Clogged Mechanism (Item Flaw)

The acid doesn’t flow as smoothly as it should, and occasionally it clogs the mechanism.

Free Action  
Trigger: You roll a 1 on an attack roll. 
Effect: Your Acidic Item Feature is expended.

Greater Flaw (2 failures): The DM gains access to the Pitted Metal Flaw

Pitted Metal (Item Flaw)

The metal used in your mechanism can’t stand up to the acid in your blade.

Free Action  
Trigger: You use the Acidic Item Benefit
Effect:  All attacks you make with this weapon are weakened (save ends).

Example Time:  
Remember Hoborne from the last Crafty post?  Well, now that he’s back in town, reunited with his party, he wants a very cool scimitar.  He finds his group-mate, Fergus the Dwarf, and asks him what kind of scimitar he can make.  Fergus mentions he might be able to make a scary-looking scimitar that can shoot alchemical acid from an acid well in the hilt.  To do this, Fergus will need to succeed on a Complexity 3 (Base 1+1 Acidic+1 Wicked), Level 6 (Base 3+1 Wicked+2 Acidic) Crafting Challenge.  Since Scimitars are Military weapons, he will need to succeed on moderate DCs 6 times (DC 15), and hard DCs twice (DC 23) to finish his weapon.

Fergus will have to make at least 1 dungeoneering check, 1 Arcana or Thievery check, and 1 Intimidate check.  He will be able to incorporate lots of special materials in this design to hopefully get some bonuses.  If he fails once, the DM would have 3 different lesser flaws he could choose between, and on a second failure, 3 greater flaws to pick from-or he could assign a second lesser flaw from the two he didn’t pick the first time. Being a Thief and a Dwarf, he will likely be focusing on Thievery and Dungeoneering checks, throwing his Intimidate Check when he has a really good superior quality material he can use for a nice bonus.

Next time, we’ll look at adding magic to items...

Getting Crafty Part 1: Mundane Weapons

Over on my friend Harbinger of Doom's blog,  he's been fiddling with a satisfying 4ed crafting system.  I like many of his ideas, and am currently trying to wed my love of the core skill challenge mechanic to crafting.

My idea: making a plain old every day item is pretty easy.  Making it cool in some way, even in a non-magical way, is harder.  Screwing up while making a weapon doesn't instantly ruin it, but it can make the weapon a bit unreliable.  These rules are rough and incomplete, but I think the idea behind them is pretty solid.  I will certainly be using Harbinger of Doom's ideas for materials of extraordinary (and crappy) quality, and these rules would best be used in a game using the inherent bonus rules from DMG2 (and in a setting where magic items are pretty rare or at least not readily available in a shop).

Crafting Rules (Normal Items): You can derive the base DC of making a weapon by first looking at its Group.  If a weapon falls into more than one Group, use whichever DC set is highest.

• Maces, Slings, and Staffs are all level 1 items (DC 8/12/19)
• Axes, Bows, Hammers, Spears, and Unarmed Weapons are all level 2 items (DC 9/13/20)
• Crossbows, Heavy Blades, Light Blades, and Polearms are all level 3 items (DC 9/13/21)

Then you look at which Category the weapon falls into.

• Simple Weapons use Easy DCs.
• Military Weapons use Moderate DCs.
• Superior Weapons use Hard DCs.

I keep talking about checks and DCs.  What skill am I rolling to make all of these items, you might ask.  That also depends on weapon type.

• Axes, Hammers, Heavy Blades, Light Blades, Maces, Polearms, Spears, and Unarmed Weapons use Dungeoneering (knowledge of metals)
• Bows, Slings, and Staffs use Nature (knowledge of woods and leather)
• Crossbows use Thievery (knowledge of mechanisms)

In order to complete a basic weapon, you must complete a Complexity 1 "crafting challenge" that follows the basic rules of a skill challenge.  The DC is set by the type of item you are making.  Unlike a normal skill challenge, where you creatively figure out what you are doing and which skill best fits your actions, you simply keep rolling the associated skill check (by yourself or with a friend) until you succeed 4 times.  On each check, you  apply a modifier for the quality of item you are using (basic quality is usually a +/- 0).  Each failure introduces a Flaw (more on these later) into your weapon.  Fail 3 times and the weapon comes out so messed up it is unusable.  You lose some portion of the materials and must start over.

Flaws and Features

Flaws and Features are Item Daily powers.  Features are activated by the player.  Flaws are activated, when the appropriate trigger occurs, by the DM.

Flaws

I haven't worked these all out yet, but the idea, similar to Harbinger of Doom's post, is that each weapon group has a lesser and a greater flaw associated with it.  If you fail once, your weapon gets a lesser flaw.  If you fail twice, your weapon either gets a second lesser flaw (if your weapon is of multiple groups or has a feature) or your first lesser flaw becomes a greater flaw.

Example 1: A Quarterstaff.
     Hoborne, the level 1 Shifter Druid (Nature +11) has been beaten up by thieves, robbed, and left for dead.  He wakes up after sleeping off his wounds and decides he needs a quarterstaff for protection.  Luckily he is in the woods.  He doesn't have very good materials on hand, but he can get an oak tree limb, a sharpened rock, some kind of appropriate sap and some basic wood charcoal to make his staff, but all are sub-par materials, resulting in a -2 for each check he'll be making.  A simple staff is a DC 8 project, so even with a -2 penalty, he will never fail.  Hoborne can make his quarterstaff with no problems, not even having to roll a single check.
Example 2: A Scimitar.
     However, if he decided to try and make himself a scimitar, it would be a different matter.  Unfortunately, he is NOT trained in Dungeoneering, so he only has a +4 Dungeoneering check.  Even more unfortunately, he will be working with objects wholly unsuited to scimitar making: Stone blade (-2 check), Stone hammer (-4 check), plain old stream water (+0 check), and a camp fire rather than a forge (-4 check).  To make matters worse, the DC for a Scimitar (Military Heavy Blade) is DC 13.  To make a functional Scimitar, Hobbes would have to roll an 8, a 10, and two 12s before failing 3 times.  Let's say Hoborne fails twice before succeeding.  He'd have a functional Scimitar, but it would have a major DM-controlled Flaw:

Notched Blade Item Flaw

The imperfections in your blade leave it open to being easily notched.

Immediate Reaction

Trigger: You roll a 1 on an attack while using this weapon

Effect: You deal -2 damage with all weapon attacks that use this weapon until you take a short rest.

Part two will explore what the non-magical types can do to make their weapons awesome without having resort to magic.