A real good reason to have spells from items require 75% activity is it prevents fighters equiping bladeturn bracelets and becomeing killing machines. Imagine a mages guard so equiped, with the items keyed to only work for those designated as his private guard?
Now add shield spells, deflect spells, leaping, AT spells, etc; a fighter could over time gain most of the useful defensive/movemnt spells of the essence user while maintaining full OB to boot.
Yup, and if someone is going to go through all of that in order to get those abilities, I say let them. What the players can do, so can NPCs. And if you say, "well, it just becomes a battle of escalation," what the heck is increasing in levels about if it isn't "escalation" of capabilities? It seems as though so many of you just want the 20th level fighter/mage/whatever, to only have a few higher bonus items (like, a +20 sword instead of a +5) and higher skill bonuses (but not
too high) than the 1st level character. Why? What is the point in gaining in power and ability, if you aren't actually doing that?!? In a game that is inherently as deadly as RM, I think it is totally OK for the characters to be able to increase their odds of survival; wouldn't you want to be able to? (And coolness, lets not forget coolness....)
Indeed, further items casting as instant spells will also lead to the funny situation that it is better to hire a staff of firebolt user than an actual magician that can cast the spell naturally.
And if all you are looking for are firebolts on demand, it
is the better option. Now, if you want more than just firebolts, get the spellcaster, they are likely to be able to do more than just toss firebolts. (They can also cast Fire
balls!!!
)