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FASA Games, Inc. • Magic Item Questions
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Magic Item Questions

Posted: Sun Feb 12, 2012 3:27 pm
by Meat Puzzle
Hey everyone I just had some random questions in the field of magic and figured this would be a great thread to start so we can go to one place for all our magic item questions.

1. Can a Magician still cast if his grimoire has been taken away and if so what are the negative effects of this happening if any?

2. I know they have "One-Size (fits all) Hats but do any other magic items normally change size to fit the user or wearer? Mostly this applies to Windlings and Trolls but also maybe Dwarves too in some cases. Thinking mostly about common magic items like even a firestarter seems like it would be the size of a pole arm for a winding if it was made for a normal size person or even blood charms might be too big as well. Then we get into threaded magic items, I notice I haven't seen any named magic items for windings anywhere, what if a winding wove a thread to Nioku's Bow would it resize for said winding or is he/she out of luck?

3. Do Blood Charms need anything special to put them on or can anyone just attach it when they find one? Also do blood charms fall off a dead person allowing characters to grab them as loot or treasure?

4. I noticed in the Kratas book that Garlthik One-Eye has Forest Robes which seems to grant him Spellcasting and the ability to use Earth Blend. Does this mean he actually has the spellcasting talent and can use it like any other magician? Could he get other spell matrix objects and have other 0 thread spells put in them so he could cast them?

5. Lastly I have wondered for some time now if a person with blood pebble armor could wear regular armor on top of it? It seems like there is no physical reason why he couldn't but this also seems way too powerful.

Re: Magic Item Questions

Posted: Sun Feb 12, 2012 3:51 pm
by arma
In short:

1) Yes
Negative side effects include someone else having a potential pattern item of yours, not being able to cast from a grimoire, and not being able to learn new spells.

2) Nothing changes size unless it specifically says so. Anything not specifically mentioning size can be any size (Espagra boots could be based off of any size of boots, for example). Weapon thread items usually come with a specific size because they base their damage off of it, they're often the only items where size matters (hence, it comes as one of their stats).
See p. 50 GM; Companion, upper right, for some rules details.
For examples of windling thread weapons, see the Rapier of Wit in the GM Guide, or the Ice Blade of Omifan and the bow Thornsling in the GM Companion. In addition, you can apply any weapon template to a windling weapon, or re-calculate other items to windling weapon stats (item history adjustments may also be required).

3) There's no requirement to use them.
There's no rules whether or not they fall off, but it's common to assume someone isn't really "dead" magically speaking until the time to use a Last Chance Salve runs out. You can play around with this depending on how you want to portray blood magic in your game. It may be just an item, or it may be something that was like a body part to someone, and now you're attaching a dead body part to yourself, eww... ;)

4) a "Rank Bonus" means you actually get the Rank, e.g. you get the talent. You can't increase it, though, except through more magic items granting a Rank Bonus.

5) No.

Re: Magic Item Questions

Posted: Sun Feb 12, 2012 6:57 pm
by Meat Puzzle
Cool Thanks again :)

Re: Magic Item Questions

Posted: Mon Feb 13, 2012 8:27 am
by Telarus_KSC
Because I've just posted in the Spells thread and have magic on the brain, I'll add to arma's answer on point 1).

A magician's Grimoire is an extension of their personal Pattern (but not to the extent that a pattern item is..... still, this close connection or "mirrored relationship" often leads to them developing as Pattern Items). Scribing a spell into a personal Grimoire mirrors the spell becoming a part of the magician's Pattern. Most living magicians would go to great lengths to retrieve a stolen Grimoire, exactly because this denies them the opportunity to learn new spells.

Once incorporated into their Pattern, the magician can Raw Cast any spell they know at pretty much any time. Yes, this is extremely dangerous in any but Safe astral regions, but still possible. This is exactly because the spell's Pattern is right there in your own, and it's why you take Raw Magic Damage for filtering the pollution through your own pattern when Raw Casting. Now, notice how a large number of spells have crazy-easy somatic components, like "widen your eyes then blink suddenly" for Blinding Glare, as the only gestures involved. A conscious magician is a dangerous magician.

For the stolen Griomoire situation, I would go as far as to allow a magician to recreate a new Grimoire by scribing every spell they know by memory, and then adding to the new collection. But I'd stress that doesn't mean the old one still might not end up a Pattern Item, as it's still their Grimoire. Not a risk many spellcaster would take, so they'd be sorely upset at the thief.

Now, moving past Grimoires, to general spell books, etc. The use of "traveling spellbooks" in my games serve as space for mages to take notes on magical phenomena, and copy spells to bring back home to "learn", or to have copies of spells which wouldn't fit in a matrix due to Circle/Rank requirement in order to Grimoire Cast them (you can "grimoire cast" through any written/physical depiction of a Spell Pattern, not just your master Grimoire).

In order to leverage the Wizard's Book Mage ability, I've been considering making Scrolls(/scroll-like items) which would act as intermediary tech between Grimoire Casting and Spell Matrices. Scrolls (or scroll-like items) would store 1 spell up to 5th Circle. Scrolls prepared with extremely rare or costly ingredients (diamond dust, orichalcum based inks, etc) may even serve as Enhanced Matrices :twisted: . This is because Scrolls are one-use items.

Casting process would be similar Grimoire Casting (Attune, Weave, Cast, Raw Magic Effects), except the Scrolls are designed to mute the Astral Flare which attracts Horrors and then destroy themselves. Scrolls accomplish this by turning that excess mana into physical light and strange effects related to the spell's Discipline which manifest around the caster. This draws attention to the caster on the physical plane, and any observer looking for magical activity gets a bonus to their PER tests equal to the Circle of the spell being cast. Illusion spells would bleed extra mana as strobing light, multicolored sparks, "faerie fire" or other sensory effects appropriate to the spell which wouldn't tip off the illusion. Elementalist spells would stir up and impart mystic energy into pebbles, leaves, smoke, etc, swirling or levitating them. Wizard magic would manifest as strange glowing geometries, triangles, and runes around the area or suspended in the air. The scroll then eats itself in a blaze of the appropriately flavored magic as the spell Effect manifests. Once cast, the Raw Magic Effects of a scroll are as follows. Roll the appropriate Warping Test against the caster's Spell Defense. If successful, roll Raw Magic Damage per the local Astral Region (Mystic Armor defends). Do not roll from random Horrors.

Pretty simple, and fills a niche in the magic system that I find missing with the existence of high-circle Multi-Disciplined Magicians and Human Journeymen Mages running around the setting. I'm also running a D&D inspired Dungeon Crawl, and wanted a manageable way to hand out "out of Discipline spell scrolls" as loot (the rare Enhanced Scroll holds 1 thread, which was built in at time of casting!) to mirror the classic loot tables and expose my players to more of the magic system.

Re: Magic Item Questions

Posted: Mon Feb 13, 2012 9:07 pm
by Meat Puzzle
Since their is so much talk of pattern items in this thread let me ask this, how does some one verify that an item is a pattern item? Can this be determined by using thread sight or item history or both? As an example if a character finds some random mundane object like a hat on the side of the road could he use either of the before mentioned talents to learn that this is a pattern item of some one he doesn't even know and would he then know them or anything about them?

Re: Magic Item Questions

Posted: Mon Feb 13, 2012 10:55 pm
by Mataxes
Yes, using Item History (or a similar talent/ability) would let a character know that an item is a pattern item. The target number for the test would be the Spell Defense of the associated True pattern. A pattern item has one key knowledge, and I would be inclined to let the character know whether it is a minor/major/core pattern item.

Doesn't make it any easier to use (you still have the normal problems of learning what the key knowledge actually is), but it can be done.

Re: Magic Item Questions

Posted: Tue Feb 14, 2012 2:44 am
by arma
I'd also allow simple Astral Sight.
They do have higher Spell Defenses, and you'd roll anything against Spell Defense anyway.

Re: Magic Item Questions

Posted: Tue Feb 14, 2012 12:59 pm
by Flagg

Re: Magic Item Questions

Posted: Mon Feb 20, 2012 12:14 am
by thezombiekat

Re: Magic Item Questions

Posted: Fri Feb 24, 2012 1:43 pm
by Runemaster
Hi there,

I am not sure wether my question fits to the game mastering section, in any case the question fits to the topic of the post. I have read the section about Named Spells (Players Companion p. 132) and it is mentioned that "the typical number of Key Knowledges for a Named spell is based on the spell's Circle, as shown on the Named Spell Key Knowledge Table" .... where can I find this Table?

Sorry if the question was asked before, but i have not find an answer via the search-tool...

2nd question:
Does "the spell becomes an independent astral entity outside of his (the magician who has cast the Named spell) control" (Players Companion p. 132 - last section) also means, that the Named spell's effect still go on, even if the magician who has cast the Named spell dies?

Greetings