First post!
I have been running a Campaign that started as Basic D&D just over 33 years ago that eventually morphed into Rolemaster in about year 4... meaning we have a 29 year old Rolemaster/Spacemaster Campaign that started in 1982 with the original parchment set. Over the years I have amassed thousands of pages of material, some of which I am starting to transfer to computer. Our campaign has seen over five hundred PC's played by over one hundred different players and my world has gone through approximately fifty thousand years of history. Though my world has room for low level characters (always) it is generally a multi layered world suitable for the highest end campaigns. At the highest ends of combat and adventuring in our campaign we have often run into issues that I have addressed through rule modifications that you may or may not find useful. Of course these rules can be modified depending on the power perspective of your campaign. I'll start by sharing our Attunement issues... as some of our most powerful artifacts are exceedingly difficult to attune too I have incorporated class bonuses and ritual magic into the mix.
Here is an example of something I call "attunement aid"
Class Specific Artifact Attunement Bonuses
*note Rings = any jewelry
Ranger: +50 on bows, +25 on Blades
Alchemist: +35 on all magic items
Mage/Illusionist/Sorcerer: +50 on Wands, +25 on Staves, Rods, Rings, and Orbs
Warrior Mage/Bard: +25 on all magic items
Archmage: +75 on Orbs, +25 on Wands, Rods, Rings, and Staves
Paladin: +50 on Two Handed Blades, +25 on Maces, Shields, Armor, and 1 hand blades.
Fighter: +50 on Blades (axes), +25 on all weapons and armor.
Rogue and Thief: +50 on small blades, +25 on leather armor and rings
Nightblade: +50 on ambush weapons, +25 on rings and orbs
Cleric: +50 on Orbs and Rods, +25 on Staves and Maces.
Druid: +75 on Staves, +25 on leather armor
Mentalist/Mystic/Seer/Astrologer: +50 on Rings, +25 on Orbs, Rods, and wands.
Attunement Rituals:
Magical Rituals were incorporated to aid attunement back in the 1990’s but the players quickly abused it and they soon became an afterthought. "Oh I will just have X NPC help me do Y by magical ritual."
I had to clamp down on this by reminding our players that rituals are quite complex, some of them take years and most require expensive components, help from other casters, and can go horribly awry.
The most common rituals are Healing, Divination, and Alchemical rituals... uncommon and even rare rituals can be performed such as "potency" "overcasting" and "attunement"
The direct benefit of each ritual can only be received by the ritual caster himself... the ritual can be aided by others but the maximum bonus effect is quite limited.
For example, in an attunement ritual a +1 bonus is achieved towards attuning for each SKILL RANK in magical ritual that the caster/preparer employs.
Thus a Cleric who has 80 boxes in ritual attunement can perform a ritual that will help her attune to a said item. Attunement rituals generally last 30 hours... thus after the ritual is complete the cleric would add a +80 bonus to their attunement skill. If she seeks help from her friends with the attunement the time is increased by 3 hours for each additional participant but they may only add a total of 10% of their bonus. Thus is the Cleric received aid in her attunement ritual from an Archmage who had say... 50 boxes in attunement ritual her total attunement bonus would be +85 after the ritual was complete. Furthermore each participant that takes place in the ritual must make a oll vs the complexity using their own ritual magic skill. A participant with 10 ranks working on a 100 rank ritual would almost certainly cause a ritual failure with CATASTROPHIC results! Therefore it is exceedingly important that all ritual participants be of similar skill level.
Some items are extremely difficult to attune to at the highest levels... for instance, No one since **** himself has ever wielded the full powers of *****- because it's 3rd tier attunement would require a result of 501+
Likewise other items such as the Orbs or the Bows, or the Book of Eternity require extremely high attunement skills and great care must be taken. Usually assistance from others can only hinder the results rather than help.
