Artifacts of Power

[Aaron]

The one ring... If that doesn't mean anything to you go read Lord of the Rings real quick. This post will still be here next week. If you already understand, then read on.

What is a fantasy world without magic, without magical weapons, armor, rings and wands? Not much of one! Magic is one of the great dividing lines between fiction and fantasy. It's a line Worlds of Magic is far across the fantasy side of.

We want players to be able to create everything from rings of protection +1 to a (non-copyright infringing) Sword of Kas. In order to do this we're going to include a complete magical item creation system heavily influenced by the D20 system. (Yes, I know I keep saying D20 and I'm going to keep on saying throughout my posts.)

In MoM item creation was handled by one of two spells. We want to avoid this in WoM for a few reasons. One of them being the fact that we want players to be able to begin item creation as soon as they start the game. (Not that you couldn't do that in MoM, we're just making it easier.) Another reason is that we want more magical items in game. Even more types of item. For instance, we're considering adding potions that could be created in an alchemists shop and used by any unit. We want this to be a system that is simple enough for the casual artificer, but in depth enough to satisfy players who want to base their entire strategy on magical equipment.

What we would like here, as almost everywhere in these forums, is feedback. What would you like to see included? Would you like your sorcerer to be able to invest time and Mana into tools that would make item creation faster or cheaper? Mithril, Adamantine, Balonium, what magical materials would you like to see? How should you go about getting them in game? Should each plane have it's own unique magical material?

The more feedback we get the better we can make WoM. So, don't be shy, post away.

[Tiavals]

What about crafting wondrous things like golems and the like? Or is that included in the units of the races or the spells? A flying ship that can carry an army?

Magical materials are nice. The more, the merrier. Seems to me they should be found in the map like in MOM, in veins of ore in the mountains or hills. Rather than each plane having their own unique material(would fit only some planes perhaps?), it could be that each plane has certain materials that may occur there. (Like on the elemental plane of Fire, you might find Iron, Orihalcum or Magmanite. At the same time, you could find Magmanite in the Earth plane as well, but not Orihalcum, and so on.) Once you have a vein of ore within your domain, you could create magic items that use it(for an increased price(increase in percentages to base price)). The old joke in d20 is that why isn't every magical item made of mithril or adamantium when the base cost to make an item of it is miniscule compared to the price of enchanting it to a +1 property. If you add it as a percentage modifier, this means that you wouldn't make all items from Mithril, especially the more expensive items since it'd make them too expensive. If a +1 item costs 2000 mana to make, and a +2 costs 8000, mithril might have a base price modifier of 50%, making a +1 item cost 3000 and a +2 cost 12000. Clearly this means you'd be much more likely to make a +1 mithril armor than a +2 mithril armor. You could explain it by saying that the already magical metals are much harder to enchant.

[Aaron]

Yes, we have talked about making items like Golem and Shield Guardians (non-copyright infringing shield guardians of course, lol.) And I like the idea of crafting up a magical flying ship. The fact is we're going to have to wait until we get a little further in development before we know if they are going to make the current cut. However, if if they don't make it into the base game they should be easy to add in as DLC.
(I have drawn a blank on the name of the low CR golem made of magical armor. It's a something guard I think...)

I like the idea of spreading several magical materials over each plane. I think we'll need to make it where you have to have a city with a mine within range of the vein to get it out. Then, as you say, it becomes an option on the crafting screen. We are going to have to tweak the base cost numbers, lol. That's one place where you can't necessarily stick with what's jotted in the book.

[Kestrel]

Dwarfs should really get bonuses to artifact creation, IMO.

[Aaron]

I'm still considering just what kind of non-combat bonuses the races will get. It will all be D20 inspired obviously. Some sort of advanced smithy available to dwarves to equip regular units with masterwork equipment could be cool. I'll have to think about it. (We can't let a fondness for dwarves create inequality though, lol.)

[Asmodai]

Dwarves get a +2 to Appraise and Craft on checks related to stone or metal in the D20 system. +2 on D20 = 10%. I don't know what buildings/structures are in cities but if there are say quarries, masonries, smithies, etc. then Dwarves could get a 10% reduction in cost/time to build them. Likewise if these structures produce things dwarves can get a 10% reduction in cost/time for their production. I don't think they necessarily need a race specific structure. I would hope that the architecture for the different races is different anyway so a Dwarven smithy looks different on screen than an Elven smithy or a human smithy anyway.

[Aaron]

Now that is a good idea!

And yes, they're going to look different, lol.

[Asmodai]

Now that is a good idea!

I'm sorry, it was purely by accident I assure you. I will try to do better in the future.

[Captain_Brian]

We'll be able to enslave cities/populations correct?

IE, Dwarven sweatshops to crank out weapons and armor?

[Aaron]

You are certainly going to be able to capture other races cities. I don't know about the sweatshops, what with inter-fantasy labor laws and what not, but I'm sure you'll be able to strike a deal with the captured populace and get what you want out of them. Lol