Topic: upgrading magical weapons & armor?

[naphta23]

Suppose you find a magical weapon and it was enchanted with a Weapon II spell, for example. Fortunately, your favorite alchemist has the capability to cast a Weapon III spell unto your newly found weapon, which, by chance, has the required material to bear this spell.
Can the alchemist upgrade the magical bonus?

And is it possible to enhance the magic on a Dyr Wood item, since the description of that materials suggests that the Dyr Wood grows stronger with the enchantment and its power?

Thanks for the help! 

[yammahoper]

If your GM says yes, I do not see why not.  You might require the item resist the new enchantment at its current level, with failure meaning the new enchantment takes, while success means the item is destroyed.

lynn

[mocking bird]

We don't allow modifying an enchanted item - like adding a daily spell to an enchanted sword - as the enchantment is treated as a singular event, not like building blocks that you can add & subtract from.  However the item could be 'wiped' and be recycled for the necessary materials for a new item.

[Rivstyx]

I would also add that "named" unique items or intelligent items should not be modified in any way.  You do not wipe and recycle Excaliber

[yammahoper]

Well, by Treasure Companion rules, Excaliber would require at least lvl 110 enchantment, so either major ritual work or Gods alone could make it or rework it.  In game, I can imagine the Old Gods declaring a new weapon for the New Age is required, and behold, after a quest to recover the original sword, Excaliber reborn, at which point the Gods present the new Excaliber.

Still, any rework should not add to an item, but overwrite the old.  So a +10 sword becomes a +15 sword, a daily three ring becomes a +15 DB without the daily ability.  The item is reworked, resulting in a brand new item.

lynn

[markc]

No, but you can add a new ability that adds abilities to items. Such as a gem slot that can have different enchanted gems placed in it. In my game you can do this but you have to have all the gems at the time of the ritual. So no finding items an reworking them to change parts but keep others.

If you do rework it IMO you reforge the item will all that entails.

MDC

[Dark Schneider]

Not, but we use another rule for magical items, we don't use the time modifier for additional magical capabilities (x2 second, x3 third...). I think is a very negative rule for magical item creation, is unbalanced on the other side (too restrictive). The time for alchemist players and time/price for buying the item is a waste that noone want, and in game really noone use multi-capabilities by their own, am I wrong?, I am sure that the unique items with multi-capabilities are the treasures items in your game, if I am correct, this demonstrate that I am saying.

So, if we look another games, usually magical items always have various magical capabilities, because is the usual way, a level 6 alchemist usually wants to create an item that have a bonus, one spell or another capability in his power capacity, but multipling the time required surelly throws him backwards to try it, so this is a total waste of alchemy abilities.

In addition to this, we must remember to use the time modifier depending on the magical capability (x0.5 charged, x0.125 1 single spell...) that are applied ONLY to spells involved on that capability, remember that common spells (working material for example) use the greater modifier of all.

And about your question, maybe there is one that is allowed, the single spell imbed, as is 1-use capability I don't see problem about recycling it (some like recharging it with a new one), is not comfortable but is the price for not making it daily or charged item.

[Cernid Win]

this wont help naphta23 but why not remove something from the sword (or any item) which isnt enchanted and replace it
like with a sword its surely the blade which is enchanted and not the wrapping of the hilt so you could replace the wrapping with one enchanted with something like haste

the materia system from Final Fantasy 7 comes to mind here for equipping weapons and armors with materia

[Rivstyx]

this wont help naphta23 but why not remove something from the sword (or any item) which isnt enchanted and replace it
like with a sword its surely the blade which is enchanted and not the wrapping of the hilt so you could replace the wrapping with one enchanted with something like haste

the materia system from Final Fantasy 7 comes to mind here for equipping weapons and armors with materia

That is an interesting idea.  I will give you an idea point.  However, I would rule that all parts of a magical sword are enchanted at the same time and thus even parts that would normally wear out and would be replaced are irreplaceable and never wear out (It may be broken however).  This would mean that removing the hilt, wrapping or any other piece of the sword would be either impossible or unneccesary unless the magic item was specially enchanted to have interchangeable parts.

My ruling would be merely to maintain game balance and cut down on bookeeping.  The crit says your weapon breaks.  Does that mean the pommell, blade or scabbard is broken?  Well my blade is +5 versus orcs and my pommell alerts me when an orc is present. The scabbard is a scabbard of quickdraw. As you see it could get pretty confusing

[mocking bird]

IMO it goes beyond bookkeeping and more on balance.  If you allowed pieces parts enchantment then why not apply the same thing to a suit of armor - having different enchantments on the breastplate, greaves & codpiece?  Taking this to its logical extreme having a different enchantment upon each link in a suit of chain.  Using TC enchantment rules this would also significantly cut down on enchantment time since you are no longer stacking them but each would cound as the first enchantment.

like with a sword its surely the blade which is enchanted and not the wrapping of the hilt so you could replace the wrapping with one enchanted with something like haste

I can look at this a few different ways.  The enchantment process the entire item gets more durable, fungible parts (love that word - thanks Rummy), i.e. consumables/items that wear out like break pads and changing them out doesn't affect the original enchantment, or the wrapping is an enchanted item separate from the sword and you are just using the hilt to hold it.  But again with the latter situation you run into the same problem as above.

RMC apparently did a lot with magical theory with detection spells with spell auras, I wonder if something similar was done with magical items....