I think we all know the current craft rules suck. And we know the Book of Gears makes a start on revising them. I had a couple of hours between classes today, so I wrote down some ideas about skill feats and modifications. So, in light of that.
Craft skill
Note that I use it in the singular. That's right, Craft works like Speak Language in this manual. Each new rank gives you proficiency with a different material/area of making things. I'll probably add new divisions as I think of them and as you suggest them.
I think your bases would be well-covered with the following:
Blacksmithing (metal weapons and armor, utilitarian metal objects)
Woodworking (wooden weapons and armor, bows, carpentry, whittling)
Glassmaking (just because I like glass. Has applications with the Alchemy skill)
Alchemy (metallurgy, making obscure liquids, making materials into other materials, enhancing properties)
Weaving/tailor (general garments, clothes, robes and possibly cloth/leather armor)
Stonework (Sculpture, traps, building structures)
Jewelrymaking (wondrous items, rings, gemcutting, working with softer metals and ornamental objects)
Ceramics (utilitarian/artistic, as well as possible arms/armor and alchemical opportunities. Could contain general glass stuff, I guess).
Papermaking & Bookbinding (It's nice to be able to make your own spellbook.)
I suppose you could further specialize in an area (like weaponmaking, armorsmithing, bowmaking, and junk) as a field of craft to get a +3 bonus to check involving that kind of stuff.
Using Craft
I'm profoundly unaware of how realistic creation times for various items would be, but I know that linking creation time to the item cost is just plain dumb. Therefore, I'm just going to pare this down to a basic DC for making stuff you'd care about at low levels, and build that up as you make more and more complex crap, and then I'll add creation times for various things as I find out more about how long it takes to make bows or steel plate.
The basic DC is 10. Add modifiers based on the increasing complexity as you try to combine more and more areas of craft in your project.
So, for example, Masterwork adds 5 to the DC and takes additional time. Taking a piece of iron and turning it into a masterwork thinaun dagger by using the Alchemy skill in combination with your Blacksmithing can change the iron into a different substance, but it adds +5 in addition to whatever else you do (including Masterwork). Doing something like making glass an unbreakable substance would add +10.
Magic Items
The Book of Gears divvies up magic item properties into minor, moderate, and major, and says that making a magic item only take time--and the ability to do so. I can't remember it suggesting a time length, so, here's some arbitrary times it takes to make a magic item:
Times on a per-property basis, I guess.
Minor Magic--1 day
Moderate Magic--5 days
Major Magic--50 days.
Crafting Skill Feats
There's several things you can do with Craft, so it makes a certain amount of sense that there are several Craft skill feats. Some of them are multiple-dependency feats.
Craft Magic [Skill: Craft, Spellcraft])
Benefit: You can craft magic items with a caster level equal to your character level. You Get Scribe Scroll and Brew Potion. Spellcraft is a class skill for you.
4: Craft wand, Craft Wondrous item
9: Craft magic arms and armor, and craft rod
14: Craft Staff and Ring
19: You can craft artifacts, which can do anything you can persuade the DM to let you get away with.
Swift Crafting [Skill: Craft]
Benefit: You may take 10 on a craft check without increasing the amount of time you spend working.
4: Creation time is decreased to 80%
9: Creation time is decreased to 60%
14: Creation time is decreased to 40%
19: Creation time is decreased to 20%
Alchemy [Skill: Craft (including the Alchemy subskill)]
Rank: Benefit: +3 to Craft checks involving Alchemy.
4: You can make alchemical items such as antitoxin, acid flasks, and so on. You do not have to be a wizard to make any of these items. You also get Brew Potion.
9: Your understanding of matter lends itself to alchemical combinations of base materials. So one could imbue glass with the strength of adamantine, or adamantine with the lightness of mithril. Anything goes, so have fun and be creative.
14: Your skill with alchemy lets you make one material wholly into another, as long as they are vaguely similar--so you can turn steel into adamantine or wood into darkwood (or whatever). Yea, ye may turn heavy lead into bright gold, even. However, you're level 11 and have hit the Wish economy, so that's basically good for scamming the people lower down the economic latter.
19: You can make absolute materials--completely unbreakable, or cuts anything, or weightless, or what-have you. Have fun with that.
More to come when I think of it.
The Manual of Making Things
Moderator: Moderators
The Manual of Making Things
Last edited by Maxus on Thu Jun 11, 2009 6:14 pm, edited 5 times in total.
He jumps like a damned dragoon, and charges into battle fighting rather insane monsters with little more than his bare hands and rather nasty spell effects conjured up solely through knowledge and the local plantlife. He unerringly knows where his goal lies, he breathes underwater and is untroubled by space travel, seems to have no limits to his actual endurance and favors killing his enemies by driving both boots square into their skull. His agility is unmatched, and his strength legendary, able to fling about a turtle shell big enough to contain a man with enough force to barrel down a near endless path of unfortunates.
--The horror of Mario
Zak S, Zak Smith, Dndwithpornstars, Zak Sabbath. He is a terrible person and a hack at writing and art. His cultural contributions are less than Justin Bieber's, and he's a shitmuffin. Go go gadget Googlebomb!
--The horror of Mario
Zak S, Zak Smith, Dndwithpornstars, Zak Sabbath. He is a terrible person and a hack at writing and art. His cultural contributions are less than Justin Bieber's, and he's a shitmuffin. Go go gadget Googlebomb!
-
Avoraciopoctules
- Overlord
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I like what I see so far, with the exception of Swift Crafting. It could use some added versatility. Perhaps the ability to jury-rig a minor magical item that falls apart after a few uses or a set amount of time. Maybe something that lets you work overtime on some days for extra progress or get benefits from crafting assistants.
Also, if I recall correctly, normal crafters are limited in the number of level-appropriate items they can create each level. Would the Craft Magic feat bypass this restriction?
Also, if I recall correctly, normal crafters are limited in the number of level-appropriate items they can create each level. Would the Craft Magic feat bypass this restriction?
I was thinking of a craftsman-on-the-go type deal which would let you MacGuyver up the tools you needed, but I couldn't think of five abilities/bonuses for it. If you'll notice, my creativity with Craft Magic was strained at last ability.Avoraciopoctules wrote:I like what I see so far, with the exception of Swift Crafting. It could use some added versatility. Perhaps the ability to jury-rig a minor magical item that falls apart after a few uses or a set amount of time. Maybe something that lets you work overtime on some days for extra progress or get benefits from crafting assistants.
Yes. Magic items don't take XP or money to create--they just take time--and potentially lots of it. Team Evil could easily be creeping around the good guys in the 100 days a Swift Craftsman would be putting the Ruin property onto the Fighter's warhammer.Also, if I recall correctly, normal crafters are limited in the number of level-appropriate items they can create each level. Would the Craft Magic feat bypass this restriction?
He jumps like a damned dragoon, and charges into battle fighting rather insane monsters with little more than his bare hands and rather nasty spell effects conjured up solely through knowledge and the local plantlife. He unerringly knows where his goal lies, he breathes underwater and is untroubled by space travel, seems to have no limits to his actual endurance and favors killing his enemies by driving both boots square into their skull. His agility is unmatched, and his strength legendary, able to fling about a turtle shell big enough to contain a man with enough force to barrel down a near endless path of unfortunates.
--The horror of Mario
Zak S, Zak Smith, Dndwithpornstars, Zak Sabbath. He is a terrible person and a hack at writing and art. His cultural contributions are less than Justin Bieber's, and he's a shitmuffin. Go go gadget Googlebomb!
--The horror of Mario
Zak S, Zak Smith, Dndwithpornstars, Zak Sabbath. He is a terrible person and a hack at writing and art. His cultural contributions are less than Justin Bieber's, and he's a shitmuffin. Go go gadget Googlebomb!
-
JonSetanta
- King
- Posts: 5525
- Joined: Fri Mar 07, 2008 7:54 pm
- Location: interbutts
I thought of that while I was toying with the idea of a Masterwork feat. I realized that if you can spend multiple Masterwork points on a set of tools to get a bonus with checks, you could use those tools to make even better tools, which you would use to make even better tools...And so on, until the local god of the forge was coming round to ask if you could see your way to loaning him your second-best smithing hammer.sigma999 wrote:Useful concept, Maxus. I'm personally all for it although as always with more player option comes the risk of abuse.
He jumps like a damned dragoon, and charges into battle fighting rather insane monsters with little more than his bare hands and rather nasty spell effects conjured up solely through knowledge and the local plantlife. He unerringly knows where his goal lies, he breathes underwater and is untroubled by space travel, seems to have no limits to his actual endurance and favors killing his enemies by driving both boots square into their skull. His agility is unmatched, and his strength legendary, able to fling about a turtle shell big enough to contain a man with enough force to barrel down a near endless path of unfortunates.
--The horror of Mario
Zak S, Zak Smith, Dndwithpornstars, Zak Sabbath. He is a terrible person and a hack at writing and art. His cultural contributions are less than Justin Bieber's, and he's a shitmuffin. Go go gadget Googlebomb!
--The horror of Mario
Zak S, Zak Smith, Dndwithpornstars, Zak Sabbath. He is a terrible person and a hack at writing and art. His cultural contributions are less than Justin Bieber's, and he's a shitmuffin. Go go gadget Googlebomb!
Mastercraft
Okay, so there are people who are really good at making high-quality goods. Let's talk about that a little bit, shall we?
You can enhance and enchant non-masterwork items. I've never seen any particularly compelling reason why an item has to be well-made for it to hold magic.
Making a Masterwork item adds 5 to the Craft DC.
But, there are people who can make *really* good items. They've taken this feat:
Mastercraft [Skill: Craft]
A feat that almost all serious craftsmen aspire to.
Benefit: You get a +3 to Craft checks
1: You can put that point of Masterwork bonus to anything weapon, armor property you want.
Melee Weapon Properties:
Attack (Supposedly, its balance)
Damage
Critical threat range (+1. Added *after* any doubling is done)
Hardness/HP (2 points of Hardness and 5 HP per Masterwork point)
Ranged Weapon Properties:
Attack
Damage
Critical multiplier (+1)
Range Increment (+50% range increment. Adds up with the Sniper feat, so someone with a long-range bow and Sniper has double the range)
Armor Properties:
AC
ACP (-1 per point of bonus)
ASP (ditto)
Weight (-10% per point).
Tools/Items:
+2 bonus to relevant activities per masterwork point. The point cap of Craft Ranks/4 is still in effect.
6: You can add multiple masterwork bonuses to a piece of equipment, at the extra effort of +5 for each point of masterwork bonus. Masterwork bonuses stack with magical enhancement bonuses, but there are a couple of rules concerning their use:
-Weapon/armor properties, once enhanced, cannot be improved until all the other properties have been improved. So, no, you can't make a weapon with an attack bonus of (Craft check - 10)/5 or add a ton of AC to a set of armor.
-The highest masterwork bonus you can produce is equal to your ranks in Craft/4. There's nothing to stop you from making *every* item property have that bonus, though.
-Masterwork bonuses also take skill to use. The best set of tools isn't much help to a rank amateur, after all. So the highest masterwork bonus you can use is 1/3 your character level; this only applies to weapons and tools (and, even then, it doesn't apply to weapon durability). If you get a weapon or item you don't know how to fully use at the moment, you will gain more bonuses as you gain more skill (i.e., gain levels).
11: When you make something, you can add Masterwork points equal to your Intelligence modifier, without increasing the check DC. You're just that good. You can also still take the time to add normal Masterwork points (with the same DC increase).
16: Masterwork points are equal to 3/2 your Intelligence modifier (round down).
Craft Bonuses
In some figuring I did today, I worked out that a level 16 character who whores Intelligence can get a +63 bonus to Craft. That actually seems about right. I used a couple of rules for figuring bonus:
-You can only get bonuses from one set of tools involved in the crafting (use the highest)
-You can only get two bonuses from a feat or specialization involved (these are all +3 bonuses, so it's a total of +6).
So for a level 16 craftsman of the right race who's serious about getting his work:
19 ranks
+3 (Mastercraft)
+3 (some feat bonus or specialization)
+10 (Masterwork tools from someone who was at least level 17)
+16 (Enhancement bonus on tools)
+12 Intelligence bonus (18 + 2 (Racial) + 4 Ability Boost + 5 (Wish) + 6 (Enhancement))
So I suggest you follow the same guidelines.
Okay, so there are people who are really good at making high-quality goods. Let's talk about that a little bit, shall we?
You can enhance and enchant non-masterwork items. I've never seen any particularly compelling reason why an item has to be well-made for it to hold magic.
Making a Masterwork item adds 5 to the Craft DC.
But, there are people who can make *really* good items. They've taken this feat:
Mastercraft [Skill: Craft]
A feat that almost all serious craftsmen aspire to.
Benefit: You get a +3 to Craft checks
1: You can put that point of Masterwork bonus to anything weapon, armor property you want.
Melee Weapon Properties:
Attack (Supposedly, its balance)
Damage
Critical threat range (+1. Added *after* any doubling is done)
Hardness/HP (2 points of Hardness and 5 HP per Masterwork point)
Ranged Weapon Properties:
Attack
Damage
Critical multiplier (+1)
Range Increment (+50% range increment. Adds up with the Sniper feat, so someone with a long-range bow and Sniper has double the range)
Armor Properties:
AC
ACP (-1 per point of bonus)
ASP (ditto)
Weight (-10% per point).
Tools/Items:
+2 bonus to relevant activities per masterwork point. The point cap of Craft Ranks/4 is still in effect.
6: You can add multiple masterwork bonuses to a piece of equipment, at the extra effort of +5 for each point of masterwork bonus. Masterwork bonuses stack with magical enhancement bonuses, but there are a couple of rules concerning their use:
-Weapon/armor properties, once enhanced, cannot be improved until all the other properties have been improved. So, no, you can't make a weapon with an attack bonus of (Craft check - 10)/5 or add a ton of AC to a set of armor.
-The highest masterwork bonus you can produce is equal to your ranks in Craft/4. There's nothing to stop you from making *every* item property have that bonus, though.
-Masterwork bonuses also take skill to use. The best set of tools isn't much help to a rank amateur, after all. So the highest masterwork bonus you can use is 1/3 your character level; this only applies to weapons and tools (and, even then, it doesn't apply to weapon durability). If you get a weapon or item you don't know how to fully use at the moment, you will gain more bonuses as you gain more skill (i.e., gain levels).
11: When you make something, you can add Masterwork points equal to your Intelligence modifier, without increasing the check DC. You're just that good. You can also still take the time to add normal Masterwork points (with the same DC increase).
16: Masterwork points are equal to 3/2 your Intelligence modifier (round down).
Craft Bonuses
In some figuring I did today, I worked out that a level 16 character who whores Intelligence can get a +63 bonus to Craft. That actually seems about right. I used a couple of rules for figuring bonus:
-You can only get bonuses from one set of tools involved in the crafting (use the highest)
-You can only get two bonuses from a feat or specialization involved (these are all +3 bonuses, so it's a total of +6).
So for a level 16 craftsman of the right race who's serious about getting his work:
19 ranks
+3 (Mastercraft)
+3 (some feat bonus or specialization)
+10 (Masterwork tools from someone who was at least level 17)
+16 (Enhancement bonus on tools)
+12 Intelligence bonus (18 + 2 (Racial) + 4 Ability Boost + 5 (Wish) + 6 (Enhancement))
So I suggest you follow the same guidelines.
Last edited by Maxus on Fri Jan 23, 2009 8:04 pm, edited 2 times in total.
He jumps like a damned dragoon, and charges into battle fighting rather insane monsters with little more than his bare hands and rather nasty spell effects conjured up solely through knowledge and the local plantlife. He unerringly knows where his goal lies, he breathes underwater and is untroubled by space travel, seems to have no limits to his actual endurance and favors killing his enemies by driving both boots square into their skull. His agility is unmatched, and his strength legendary, able to fling about a turtle shell big enough to contain a man with enough force to barrel down a near endless path of unfortunates.
--The horror of Mario
Zak S, Zak Smith, Dndwithpornstars, Zak Sabbath. He is a terrible person and a hack at writing and art. His cultural contributions are less than Justin Bieber's, and he's a shitmuffin. Go go gadget Googlebomb!
--The horror of Mario
Zak S, Zak Smith, Dndwithpornstars, Zak Sabbath. He is a terrible person and a hack at writing and art. His cultural contributions are less than Justin Bieber's, and he's a shitmuffin. Go go gadget Googlebomb!
-
JonSetanta
- King
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- Joined: Fri Mar 07, 2008 7:54 pm
- Location: interbutts
That's fine IMO.Maxus wrote: I thought of that while I was toying with the idea of a Masterwork feat. I realized that if you can spend multiple Masterwork points on a set of tools to get a bonus with checks, you could use those tools to make even better tools, which you would use to make even better tools...And so on, until the local god of the forge was coming round to ask if you could see your way to loaning him your second-best smithing hammer.
Just put a cap on it, like Basic, Advanced, and Master items with, I dunno, a range of +2 to +5 within each category, max +6 or +15 (I don't know what scale you're thinking of). Can't go higher than Master so there's no benefit of reworking it more.
Upgrading something bumps up the category but you'd have to be Godlike (Divine Rank 0+) to make Godlike items, because That's How Things Always Were And They Always Will Be So Sayeth The Gods.
I wouldn't cap the Masterwork bonus on tools. You can only push the masterwork bonus to a certain level. Also, the local god of the forge should be way ahead of you on this, or else he doesn't really deserve to be a god. On Godlike items, I'd say that one of the things that makes you Godlike is being able to make Godlike items.
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JonSetanta
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- Location: interbutts
In a setting where mortals can ascend, there is a real distinction. I would say that in one of those settings, one possible requirement or path to ascension is the creation of godlike items. If making godlike items is restricted to non-deity individuals, then nobody can ever attempt to challenge any god at their own game.
Hopefully, this will be thread resurrection rather than necromancy.
Anyway, I was on the bus to work yesterday and had several ideas drop into my head at once, about crafting magic items.
I'm trying to expand Book of Gears rules, of course.
Anyway, if you're abstracting the craft rules so they only take time and effort, I see three ways to help crafting along.
Materials:
Having the necessary materials is essential, of course. But you can also use materials to speed the process along. Gemstones, oils, minerals, metals, the body parts of weird creatures...These should be used to speed up crafting or just because they sound cool.
Magic:
Whether you're casting Burning Hands into a sword until it understands what's expected of it, or etching the runes for Burning Blade onto it, magic helps things along. This is the standard Craft Magic Arms and Armor, but I *will* expand on runes.
Drama:
This is not worked nearly enough in the SRD crafting rules. Remember when you read The Crystal Shard for the first time and Bruenor was crafting the hammer? He'd found what he believed to be a magic place, and he worked during the full moon, around the high point of summer, and was able to make a kickass magic weapon in three night's work. Although he did have runes. So, you know what? Without anything else, someone should be able to make a magic weapon by making the creation awesome enough. For example, if someone crafts a sword and then prays hard enough over it, or writes prayers to Pelor or whatever on the blade as he sings, he should be able to get Pelor's attention and get a blessing on the item. Seriously, the gods are actually there and you ought to be able to get a hand from them if it's dramatically appropriate. There's other ways, too. If you slew the Sun Emperor or the Pale King of the Shades with your rapier, it's pretty awesome if your rapier was was changed in the process and burned undead or sucked the life out of people.
Edit: Other methods of getting some Drama going--
Timing: Working by a full, half, or new moon, or during a special set of holidays or around the time of an eclipses, or making a weapon specifically for a purpose or something...that's totally cool.
Events: Sometimes an item is cursed or blessed based on the events it was involved in.
Runes: I'm having a forming idea about a system of runic magic coming into two versions: Lite, and Hardcore.
Lite would just posit the existence of runes which you can put onto things to make them magic; again, this is much like that bit in Salvatore when Aegis-Fang was forged. If you can put them in correctly, and pronounce them right, you can use them.
Hardcore would be a system of runic magic by which people who don't normally know magic, can be taught, or learn, a means to do some useful effects. Pretty much a ripoff of them in Eternal Darkness.
In either case, I think the following basis would work best:
Any alphabet or lexicon of symbols with funky names only has magical power for one reason: They're the result of a pact with powerfully magic creatures (outsiders, deities, Elder Gods, what have you), the specifics of which involve the creature(s) involved agreeing to have their power on tap when these symbols are drawn and/or their names said. That's a big sacrifice for the creatures who are supplying the power, but it can still happen every now and then. It means there's many sets out there, of varying complexities and uses (one might be a general-purpose set which was born during a war, while there might be a set powered by the Dwarven pantheon which is very oriented towards making magic weapons).
Also, real languages aren't directly used for this sort of thing; you don't want to be having a conversation and then have some spell effect go off. This means the runes are arbitrarily agreed upon. The magic side of the negotiating table could totally say, "I don't like how the rune for fire looks, draw another one for me and we have a deal."
Anyway, the runic magic would have some effects on the world...
-Hardcore would let you learn to do some magic, whether by learning the runes, or by having someone drill you on the pronunciation.
-Both of them would mean you can craft stuff without actually knowing magic yourself. You could totally get someone who knows what they're doing to draw out the runes and a pronunciation guide and copy that to make a magic weapon or produce another effect.
More later...
Anyway, I was on the bus to work yesterday and had several ideas drop into my head at once, about crafting magic items.
I'm trying to expand Book of Gears rules, of course.
Anyway, if you're abstracting the craft rules so they only take time and effort, I see three ways to help crafting along.
Materials:
Having the necessary materials is essential, of course. But you can also use materials to speed the process along. Gemstones, oils, minerals, metals, the body parts of weird creatures...These should be used to speed up crafting or just because they sound cool.
Magic:
Whether you're casting Burning Hands into a sword until it understands what's expected of it, or etching the runes for Burning Blade onto it, magic helps things along. This is the standard Craft Magic Arms and Armor, but I *will* expand on runes.
Drama:
This is not worked nearly enough in the SRD crafting rules. Remember when you read The Crystal Shard for the first time and Bruenor was crafting the hammer? He'd found what he believed to be a magic place, and he worked during the full moon, around the high point of summer, and was able to make a kickass magic weapon in three night's work. Although he did have runes. So, you know what? Without anything else, someone should be able to make a magic weapon by making the creation awesome enough. For example, if someone crafts a sword and then prays hard enough over it, or writes prayers to Pelor or whatever on the blade as he sings, he should be able to get Pelor's attention and get a blessing on the item. Seriously, the gods are actually there and you ought to be able to get a hand from them if it's dramatically appropriate. There's other ways, too. If you slew the Sun Emperor or the Pale King of the Shades with your rapier, it's pretty awesome if your rapier was was changed in the process and burned undead or sucked the life out of people.
Edit: Other methods of getting some Drama going--
Timing: Working by a full, half, or new moon, or during a special set of holidays or around the time of an eclipses, or making a weapon specifically for a purpose or something...that's totally cool.
Events: Sometimes an item is cursed or blessed based on the events it was involved in.
Runes: I'm having a forming idea about a system of runic magic coming into two versions: Lite, and Hardcore.
Lite would just posit the existence of runes which you can put onto things to make them magic; again, this is much like that bit in Salvatore when Aegis-Fang was forged. If you can put them in correctly, and pronounce them right, you can use them.
Hardcore would be a system of runic magic by which people who don't normally know magic, can be taught, or learn, a means to do some useful effects. Pretty much a ripoff of them in Eternal Darkness.
In either case, I think the following basis would work best:
Any alphabet or lexicon of symbols with funky names only has magical power for one reason: They're the result of a pact with powerfully magic creatures (outsiders, deities, Elder Gods, what have you), the specifics of which involve the creature(s) involved agreeing to have their power on tap when these symbols are drawn and/or their names said. That's a big sacrifice for the creatures who are supplying the power, but it can still happen every now and then. It means there's many sets out there, of varying complexities and uses (one might be a general-purpose set which was born during a war, while there might be a set powered by the Dwarven pantheon which is very oriented towards making magic weapons).
Also, real languages aren't directly used for this sort of thing; you don't want to be having a conversation and then have some spell effect go off. This means the runes are arbitrarily agreed upon. The magic side of the negotiating table could totally say, "I don't like how the rune for fire looks, draw another one for me and we have a deal."
Anyway, the runic magic would have some effects on the world...
-Hardcore would let you learn to do some magic, whether by learning the runes, or by having someone drill you on the pronunciation.
-Both of them would mean you can craft stuff without actually knowing magic yourself. You could totally get someone who knows what they're doing to draw out the runes and a pronunciation guide and copy that to make a magic weapon or produce another effect.
More later...
Last edited by Maxus on Thu Jun 11, 2009 6:47 pm, edited 2 times in total.
He jumps like a damned dragoon, and charges into battle fighting rather insane monsters with little more than his bare hands and rather nasty spell effects conjured up solely through knowledge and the local plantlife. He unerringly knows where his goal lies, he breathes underwater and is untroubled by space travel, seems to have no limits to his actual endurance and favors killing his enemies by driving both boots square into their skull. His agility is unmatched, and his strength legendary, able to fling about a turtle shell big enough to contain a man with enough force to barrel down a near endless path of unfortunates.
--The horror of Mario
Zak S, Zak Smith, Dndwithpornstars, Zak Sabbath. He is a terrible person and a hack at writing and art. His cultural contributions are less than Justin Bieber's, and he's a shitmuffin. Go go gadget Googlebomb!
--The horror of Mario
Zak S, Zak Smith, Dndwithpornstars, Zak Sabbath. He is a terrible person and a hack at writing and art. His cultural contributions are less than Justin Bieber's, and he's a shitmuffin. Go go gadget Googlebomb!
Special Properties:
Sometimes a special property scales. If you took Throwing as a minor property on a weapon, it'd work out to Close range (and, yes, it'd scale). Moderate would be Medium Range, and Long would be a major property.
Besides throwing, here's a couple off the top of my head:
Returning: The weapon rematerializes into your possession if you're in range. Short, Medium, Long.
Impact: It does more damage when it hits. How much, I'm not sure. It'll scale, of course.
Sometimes a special property scales. If you took Throwing as a minor property on a weapon, it'd work out to Close range (and, yes, it'd scale). Moderate would be Medium Range, and Long would be a major property.
Besides throwing, here's a couple off the top of my head:
Returning: The weapon rematerializes into your possession if you're in range. Short, Medium, Long.
Impact: It does more damage when it hits. How much, I'm not sure. It'll scale, of course.
He jumps like a damned dragoon, and charges into battle fighting rather insane monsters with little more than his bare hands and rather nasty spell effects conjured up solely through knowledge and the local plantlife. He unerringly knows where his goal lies, he breathes underwater and is untroubled by space travel, seems to have no limits to his actual endurance and favors killing his enemies by driving both boots square into their skull. His agility is unmatched, and his strength legendary, able to fling about a turtle shell big enough to contain a man with enough force to barrel down a near endless path of unfortunates.
--The horror of Mario
Zak S, Zak Smith, Dndwithpornstars, Zak Sabbath. He is a terrible person and a hack at writing and art. His cultural contributions are less than Justin Bieber's, and he's a shitmuffin. Go go gadget Googlebomb!
--The horror of Mario
Zak S, Zak Smith, Dndwithpornstars, Zak Sabbath. He is a terrible person and a hack at writing and art. His cultural contributions are less than Justin Bieber's, and he's a shitmuffin. Go go gadget Googlebomb!
-
CatharzGodfoot
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- Joined: Fri Mar 07, 2008 7:54 pm
- Location: North Carolina
If the runes represent pacts with powerful creatures, they would probably be jealously guarded by those who know them. After all, the more who draw upon the creature, the less it has available for any one. Furthermore, it might be possible for someone with a rune to break the pact, making it worthless for everyone. The stronger the pact, the harder this would be.
In addition, there's likely to be some sort of requirement on the use of the runes. After all, few powerful entities are just going to hand out all of their power willy-nilly. Dwarven runes might normally work only for dwarves. Demonic runes might need to be bathed in blood (not too difficult for a weapon). In effect, runes become the center of religion.
A classical bias is that the best-known runes tend to be incredibly old, and made with exceptionally powerful creatures. This makes sense, as these runes are least likely to lose their powers, and people have had a long time to learn them. The runes usually aren't crazy powerful as the negotiations in forming them are incredibly asymmetric. On the flip side, more contemporary runes tend to be with less powerful creatures but, because the negotiations are less weighted, they often do stranger and more powerful things. They also tend to have more strings attached. These runes make good treasure.
In a system like this, pretty much any sort of conjuring or banishing magic will be rune-based rather than spell-based. Planar binding, for example, might be a sort of generic 'let's make a deal' rune, and is how people usually negotiate for new runes. It would be possible to scrap the entire existing magic system (protection from X was forced upon the X at the end of the great war of YYYY), but that doesn't seem to be what you want.
Anyway, cool idea.
IMO a neat minor weapon might be a hammer that you can throw twice as far as a normal hammer and which always returns to your hand. A neat medium weapon might do the same, plus have the 'piercing' quality (chance to harm all in its path). A neat major weapon might do all that, plus creating an area sonic attack whenever it hits something, and allowing the wielder to fly.
Could just be my bias towards overpowered trash, but I have trouble getting excited over 'returns from slightly longer range'.
In addition, there's likely to be some sort of requirement on the use of the runes. After all, few powerful entities are just going to hand out all of their power willy-nilly. Dwarven runes might normally work only for dwarves. Demonic runes might need to be bathed in blood (not too difficult for a weapon). In effect, runes become the center of religion.
A classical bias is that the best-known runes tend to be incredibly old, and made with exceptionally powerful creatures. This makes sense, as these runes are least likely to lose their powers, and people have had a long time to learn them. The runes usually aren't crazy powerful as the negotiations in forming them are incredibly asymmetric. On the flip side, more contemporary runes tend to be with less powerful creatures but, because the negotiations are less weighted, they often do stranger and more powerful things. They also tend to have more strings attached. These runes make good treasure.
In a system like this, pretty much any sort of conjuring or banishing magic will be rune-based rather than spell-based. Planar binding, for example, might be a sort of generic 'let's make a deal' rune, and is how people usually negotiate for new runes. It would be possible to scrap the entire existing magic system (protection from X was forced upon the X at the end of the great war of YYYY), but that doesn't seem to be what you want.
Anyway, cool idea.
This is a bit of a trap. Having a weapon return from medium range isn't that big of a change from short range, and the difference between medium and long is even less significant under normal circumstances.Maxus wrote:Special Properties:
Sometimes a special property scales. If you took Throwing as a minor property on a weapon, it'd work out to Close range (and, yes, it'd scale). Moderate would be Medium Range, and Long would be a major property.
Besides throwing, here's a couple off the top of my head:
Returning: The weapon rematerializes into your possession if you're in range. Short, Medium, Long.
Impact: It does more damage when it hits. How much, I'm not sure. It'll scale, of course.
IMO a neat minor weapon might be a hammer that you can throw twice as far as a normal hammer and which always returns to your hand. A neat medium weapon might do the same, plus have the 'piercing' quality (chance to harm all in its path). A neat major weapon might do all that, plus creating an area sonic attack whenever it hits something, and allowing the wielder to fly.
Could just be my bias towards overpowered trash, but I have trouble getting excited over 'returns from slightly longer range'.
Last edited by CatharzGodfoot on Thu Jun 11, 2009 5:38 pm, edited 1 time in total.
The law in its majestic equality forbids the rich as well as the poor from stealing bread, begging and sleeping under bridges.
-Anatole France
Mount Flamethrower on rear
Drive in reverse
Win Game.
-Josh Kablack
-Anatole France
Mount Flamethrower on rear
Drive in reverse
Win Game.
-Josh Kablack
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Judging__Eagle
- Prince
- Posts: 4671
- Joined: Fri Mar 07, 2008 7:54 pm
- Location: Lake Ontario is in my backyard; Canada
You know, I never got around to reading this in detail the last time, but it's really good. Keep working on it, you're doing a fine job Maxus.
The only things I'm noticing that need work are seriously, typos, and those don't really count when it comes to the business of game mechanics.
Catharz, it's not overpowered, it's more "changing the game with each new tier or power"; and that's what D&D is usually about.
At 1st level, a character with the Whirwind feat can attack everyone around themselves.
At 16th level, a full BaB character can charge and attack everyone in their reach.
The only things I'm noticing that need work are seriously, typos, and those don't really count when it comes to the business of game mechanics.
Catharz, it's not overpowered, it's more "changing the game with each new tier or power"; and that's what D&D is usually about.
At 1st level, a character with the Whirwind feat can attack everyone around themselves.
At 16th level, a full BaB character can charge and attack everyone in their reach.
Last edited by Judging__Eagle on Thu Jun 11, 2009 5:47 pm, edited 1 time in total.
The Gaming Den; where Mathematics are rigorously applied to Mythology.
While everyone's Philosophy is not in accord, that doesn't mean we're not on board.
While everyone's Philosophy is not in accord, that doesn't mean we're not on board.
I've had some of the same thoughts about the runes, with a few differences:
I figured that, yes, runes are guarded, but there might be a couple of sets which are more or less common knowledge. After, all the players have to start somewhere.
Also, I was thinking about the limits on who can use them. I'd prefer runes to be able to be deciphered and useable. So you have a reason to be safeguarding them--if someone's sufficiently clever, he can work out what does what.
Also, the powerful creatures can seriously just recharge, because the people who know the runes won't normally be using them all the time; and some sets are seriously less powerful than others. The Dwarven Pantheon's crafting set wouldn't be much of a drain on their resources, but you might have some sets which could have some impressive effects.
Also, I was thinking about the conditions of a pact. They could seriously be anything, from, "Worship me with praise and sacrifices for all the days of thy people" or "Give me your soul, as well as that of a thousand more."
But that's getting into Hardcore territory, which would have to be a system which is profoundly linked in the setting, and it's more work than I want to do right now.
But a random bit I thought of is that the form of the runes relates to its power. If you want to have an immediate effect, you could seriously just say the name of the runes involved. But for more powerful or more permanent effects, or if you want it to have more stopping power, you could draw a diagram on the floor with chalk. Or etch it into the floor and fill it with powdered gemstomes. And get the geometry of the diagram very close to perfect.
So, yeah, you could totally have a basic healing spell which you could perform in a few seconds (just like normal!) But if you wanted to make someone's eye grow back using runes, that might require some more drastic measures.
Anyway, that idea's bringing the Materials and Drama elements into it.
Edit: Oh, yeah, I suppose the creatures who power the runes could veto someone. But for a lot of them they seriously might not care enough to block you. Or, for example, the dwarven crafting runes (looks like they'll be the most developed of my samples because) might require you to pay respect to the dwarven pantheon, either with an authentic dwarven prayer of thanksgiving or with a sacrifice or in some other way. The basis being that as long as you're using their power to do this, you're subject to them.
Anyway, I'll work on the idea some more. I have enough of a basis to get started, but I'm still stuck on how to handle *using* runes. I suppose you could use Decipher Script, or Craft, or even Forgery, or all three.
I figured that, yes, runes are guarded, but there might be a couple of sets which are more or less common knowledge. After, all the players have to start somewhere.
Also, I was thinking about the limits on who can use them. I'd prefer runes to be able to be deciphered and useable. So you have a reason to be safeguarding them--if someone's sufficiently clever, he can work out what does what.
Also, the powerful creatures can seriously just recharge, because the people who know the runes won't normally be using them all the time; and some sets are seriously less powerful than others. The Dwarven Pantheon's crafting set wouldn't be much of a drain on their resources, but you might have some sets which could have some impressive effects.
Also, I was thinking about the conditions of a pact. They could seriously be anything, from, "Worship me with praise and sacrifices for all the days of thy people" or "Give me your soul, as well as that of a thousand more."
But that's getting into Hardcore territory, which would have to be a system which is profoundly linked in the setting, and it's more work than I want to do right now.
But a random bit I thought of is that the form of the runes relates to its power. If you want to have an immediate effect, you could seriously just say the name of the runes involved. But for more powerful or more permanent effects, or if you want it to have more stopping power, you could draw a diagram on the floor with chalk. Or etch it into the floor and fill it with powdered gemstomes. And get the geometry of the diagram very close to perfect.
So, yeah, you could totally have a basic healing spell which you could perform in a few seconds (just like normal!) But if you wanted to make someone's eye grow back using runes, that might require some more drastic measures.
Anyway, that idea's bringing the Materials and Drama elements into it.
Edit: Oh, yeah, I suppose the creatures who power the runes could veto someone. But for a lot of them they seriously might not care enough to block you. Or, for example, the dwarven crafting runes (looks like they'll be the most developed of my samples because) might require you to pay respect to the dwarven pantheon, either with an authentic dwarven prayer of thanksgiving or with a sacrifice or in some other way. The basis being that as long as you're using their power to do this, you're subject to them.
Anyway, I'll work on the idea some more. I have enough of a basis to get started, but I'm still stuck on how to handle *using* runes. I suppose you could use Decipher Script, or Craft, or even Forgery, or all three.
Last edited by Maxus on Thu Jun 11, 2009 7:02 pm, edited 4 times in total.
He jumps like a damned dragoon, and charges into battle fighting rather insane monsters with little more than his bare hands and rather nasty spell effects conjured up solely through knowledge and the local plantlife. He unerringly knows where his goal lies, he breathes underwater and is untroubled by space travel, seems to have no limits to his actual endurance and favors killing his enemies by driving both boots square into their skull. His agility is unmatched, and his strength legendary, able to fling about a turtle shell big enough to contain a man with enough force to barrel down a near endless path of unfortunates.
--The horror of Mario
Zak S, Zak Smith, Dndwithpornstars, Zak Sabbath. He is a terrible person and a hack at writing and art. His cultural contributions are less than Justin Bieber's, and he's a shitmuffin. Go go gadget Googlebomb!
--The horror of Mario
Zak S, Zak Smith, Dndwithpornstars, Zak Sabbath. He is a terrible person and a hack at writing and art. His cultural contributions are less than Justin Bieber's, and he's a shitmuffin. Go go gadget Googlebomb!
Reserved for more skill stuff, particularly runic skills.
He jumps like a damned dragoon, and charges into battle fighting rather insane monsters with little more than his bare hands and rather nasty spell effects conjured up solely through knowledge and the local plantlife. He unerringly knows where his goal lies, he breathes underwater and is untroubled by space travel, seems to have no limits to his actual endurance and favors killing his enemies by driving both boots square into their skull. His agility is unmatched, and his strength legendary, able to fling about a turtle shell big enough to contain a man with enough force to barrel down a near endless path of unfortunates.
--The horror of Mario
Zak S, Zak Smith, Dndwithpornstars, Zak Sabbath. He is a terrible person and a hack at writing and art. His cultural contributions are less than Justin Bieber's, and he's a shitmuffin. Go go gadget Googlebomb!
--The horror of Mario
Zak S, Zak Smith, Dndwithpornstars, Zak Sabbath. He is a terrible person and a hack at writing and art. His cultural contributions are less than Justin Bieber's, and he's a shitmuffin. Go go gadget Googlebomb!
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RandomCasualty2
- Prince
- Posts: 3295
- Joined: Sun May 25, 2008 4:22 pm
Re: The Manual of Making Things
I'd get rid of the concept of "unbreakable" objects. Increasing hardness and HP is fine, but I wouldn't have anything be completely unbreakable.Maxus wrote: Doing something like making glass an unbreakable substance would add +10.
Re: The Manual of Making Things
I'll probably go back and rewrite at least some of the earlier stuff. The Materials/Magic/Drama idea kinda throws parts of the crafting feats out the window.RandomCasualty2 wrote:I'd get rid of the concept of "unbreakable" objects. Increasing hardness and HP is fine, but I wouldn't have anything be completely unbreakable.Maxus wrote: Doing something like making glass an unbreakable substance would add +10.
He jumps like a damned dragoon, and charges into battle fighting rather insane monsters with little more than his bare hands and rather nasty spell effects conjured up solely through knowledge and the local plantlife. He unerringly knows where his goal lies, he breathes underwater and is untroubled by space travel, seems to have no limits to his actual endurance and favors killing his enemies by driving both boots square into their skull. His agility is unmatched, and his strength legendary, able to fling about a turtle shell big enough to contain a man with enough force to barrel down a near endless path of unfortunates.
--The horror of Mario
Zak S, Zak Smith, Dndwithpornstars, Zak Sabbath. He is a terrible person and a hack at writing and art. His cultural contributions are less than Justin Bieber's, and he's a shitmuffin. Go go gadget Googlebomb!
--The horror of Mario
Zak S, Zak Smith, Dndwithpornstars, Zak Sabbath. He is a terrible person and a hack at writing and art. His cultural contributions are less than Justin Bieber's, and he's a shitmuffin. Go go gadget Googlebomb!
Timing is probably a bad plan for creating drama unless the setting is set in stone, including all the major religious holidays and other important dates and times of the year, and there is a real disadvantage to waiting until the stars are right. In a well-run game with a substantial story and significant player choice, this should work fine, but it will either be free or be impossible in a hack & slash or plot wagon campaign.
Yeah, there is some trouble with it being used casually. But an equinox or solstice, or maybe it's your character's birthday or the anniversary of something important to your character. Whatever the DM will let slide.zeruslord wrote:Timing is probably a bad plan for creating drama unless the setting is set in stone, including all the major religious holidays and other important dates and times of the year, and there is a real disadvantage to waiting until the stars are right. In a well-run game with a substantial story and significant player choice, this should work fine, but it will either be free or be impossible in a hack & slash or plot wagon campaign.
He jumps like a damned dragoon, and charges into battle fighting rather insane monsters with little more than his bare hands and rather nasty spell effects conjured up solely through knowledge and the local plantlife. He unerringly knows where his goal lies, he breathes underwater and is untroubled by space travel, seems to have no limits to his actual endurance and favors killing his enemies by driving both boots square into their skull. His agility is unmatched, and his strength legendary, able to fling about a turtle shell big enough to contain a man with enough force to barrel down a near endless path of unfortunates.
--The horror of Mario
Zak S, Zak Smith, Dndwithpornstars, Zak Sabbath. He is a terrible person and a hack at writing and art. His cultural contributions are less than Justin Bieber's, and he's a shitmuffin. Go go gadget Googlebomb!
--The horror of Mario
Zak S, Zak Smith, Dndwithpornstars, Zak Sabbath. He is a terrible person and a hack at writing and art. His cultural contributions are less than Justin Bieber's, and he's a shitmuffin. Go go gadget Googlebomb!
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Draco_Argentum
- Duke
- Posts: 2434
- Joined: Fri Mar 07, 2008 7:54 pm
I think thats fine. Putting in soft requirements that are easy to change/remove makes the system portable without making it bland and crap like 3.x's item creation. Magic items should have a cool story attached, exactly what that story is has zero mechanical impact. Therefore the story shouldn't be attached to mechanical costs.zeruslord wrote:Timing is probably a bad plan for creating drama unless the setting is set in stone, including all the major religious holidays and other important dates and times of the year, and there is a real disadvantage to waiting until the stars are right. In a well-run game with a substantial story and significant player choice, this should work fine, but it will either be free or be impossible in a hack & slash or plot wagon campaign.
Really, I thought about making up a complex table of percentages that various contributing factors knock off. Then I decided that, you know what? There's no way I'm doing that. You can just plead your case to the DM, who, if he's already agreed to using my suggestions and ideas, should be willing to let you reduce the creation time and power up the item enough to have it happen without slowing down the game. And this puts in its own control: A DM can say, "Nah, you can't drop what you're doing for two months to make a WWE championship belt which enhances your physical ability scores and gives deflection and natural armor, and makes people kneel before you or be blinded by your awesomeness. Even if you DID win that wrestling tournament in the dwarf city."
It's cooperative storytelling, so should cooperate and explain what you want and it should work both ways. If you really wanted to, you could work out the details at the end of session and spend the time until the next session writing a story about the creation of the item, and just pass it out so everyone will know where your fighter got the blinged-out sword.
It's cooperative storytelling, so should cooperate and explain what you want and it should work both ways. If you really wanted to, you could work out the details at the end of session and spend the time until the next session writing a story about the creation of the item, and just pass it out so everyone will know where your fighter got the blinged-out sword.
Last edited by Maxus on Sat Jun 13, 2009 3:19 am, edited 1 time in total.
He jumps like a damned dragoon, and charges into battle fighting rather insane monsters with little more than his bare hands and rather nasty spell effects conjured up solely through knowledge and the local plantlife. He unerringly knows where his goal lies, he breathes underwater and is untroubled by space travel, seems to have no limits to his actual endurance and favors killing his enemies by driving both boots square into their skull. His agility is unmatched, and his strength legendary, able to fling about a turtle shell big enough to contain a man with enough force to barrel down a near endless path of unfortunates.
--The horror of Mario
Zak S, Zak Smith, Dndwithpornstars, Zak Sabbath. He is a terrible person and a hack at writing and art. His cultural contributions are less than Justin Bieber's, and he's a shitmuffin. Go go gadget Googlebomb!
--The horror of Mario
Zak S, Zak Smith, Dndwithpornstars, Zak Sabbath. He is a terrible person and a hack at writing and art. His cultural contributions are less than Justin Bieber's, and he's a shitmuffin. Go go gadget Googlebomb!
Here's some materials I think are cool. I'll add more to this as I think of them.
Mineral
Gemstones: Diamond Sapphire, Ruby...you know all of the awesome ones. Diamond for defense, Ruby for anything fire-related, sapphire for water or ice.
Minerals: Malachite and Azurite are copper-rich (and gorgeous. Google them), so I'd assume they'd be good for electrical-related items.
Quartz is pretty compelling, too. Probably good for illusion or vision-related stuff.
Flint (more commonly called Chert in geology) is a really awesome material, too, despite it being just quartz with no consistent crystalline structure. Flint knives are cool, too.
Some metals would be awesome to use on a burning weapon. How'd you like to have a sword whose entire blade burned like a Fourth of July sparkler? Magnesium's good for this, but there's a few more.
And copper itself is an awesome metal. It isn't used nearly enough in fantasy, and we really need to see swords with a copper inlay which generates lightning. Or something.
Spotlight: Chalk would likely be teh awesome. Why? Chalk is made of the cemented skeletons of various tiny sea critters. So it was once alive. But it's bone, so it's also dead. So it'd probably have a lot of bang for your buck (or, rather, your copper piece). And you can use it to draw or write things. I like chalk.
Organic
Messy:
The flesh, blood, and bone of creatures, or even normal people, carry powerful dramatic significance, so they'll have a lot of power for lots of things, especially evil or tragedy.
Spotlight: There's an old fairy tale in which a girl, whom we'll call Sweet Young Thang, is so beautiful she gets the attention of a local ruler. This infuriates the ruler's wife, who has her killed and her body hidden in the woods.
Along comes Dan Dashing, a bard who discovers the body and realizes what's happened and makes a musical instrument from the girl's body--some versions have him string his harp or lute with her hair, and some have him make the instrument like a flute from her actual bones. And the instrument sings so sweetly that the bard becomes famous, and he's invited to play for the ruler. The bard plays his very best in his life, and in the high point of his performance, the music begins to speak with Sweet Young Thang's voice, and she reveals her murderer.
So SYT's dead, the queen's executed, and the king's heartbroken. But the bard has a completely kickass musical instrument.
Non-messy
Skin, leather, hair, fur, and scales are also useful--armor and clothing and all that.
Also, wood is cool. Oak, pine, and holly are nice, but I honestly don't know much about the folkloric properties of trees/wood; I'll have to look it up to get any ideas.
Magic Materials
This is for things like liquid Pain and Concentration and other pieces of raw power.
So, the obvious:
Elemental
Elemental fire is useful, obviously, for forging and fire-related.
Elemental water is for quenching weapons and making things.
Elemental earth could be, I don't know, great for going plants? Elemental rock could be cool building material.
And I don't know for elemental air. Woo, you have an air supply!
Semi-elemental and energy
Lightning--used to zap and power stuff.
Ice--could carve into weapons, I guess.
Liquid light--I like the idea of forging or queching things by dipping them in liquid light, to make items or weapons which have a light-related property in some way. And you could use a piece of it to make a permanent light.
Solid darkness--No idea beyond the obvious of stealth and so on.
Mineral
Gemstones: Diamond Sapphire, Ruby...you know all of the awesome ones. Diamond for defense, Ruby for anything fire-related, sapphire for water or ice.
Minerals: Malachite and Azurite are copper-rich (and gorgeous. Google them), so I'd assume they'd be good for electrical-related items.
Quartz is pretty compelling, too. Probably good for illusion or vision-related stuff.
Flint (more commonly called Chert in geology) is a really awesome material, too, despite it being just quartz with no consistent crystalline structure. Flint knives are cool, too.
Some metals would be awesome to use on a burning weapon. How'd you like to have a sword whose entire blade burned like a Fourth of July sparkler? Magnesium's good for this, but there's a few more.
And copper itself is an awesome metal. It isn't used nearly enough in fantasy, and we really need to see swords with a copper inlay which generates lightning. Or something.
Spotlight: Chalk would likely be teh awesome. Why? Chalk is made of the cemented skeletons of various tiny sea critters. So it was once alive. But it's bone, so it's also dead. So it'd probably have a lot of bang for your buck (or, rather, your copper piece). And you can use it to draw or write things. I like chalk.
Organic
Messy:
The flesh, blood, and bone of creatures, or even normal people, carry powerful dramatic significance, so they'll have a lot of power for lots of things, especially evil or tragedy.
Spotlight: There's an old fairy tale in which a girl, whom we'll call Sweet Young Thang, is so beautiful she gets the attention of a local ruler. This infuriates the ruler's wife, who has her killed and her body hidden in the woods.
Along comes Dan Dashing, a bard who discovers the body and realizes what's happened and makes a musical instrument from the girl's body--some versions have him string his harp or lute with her hair, and some have him make the instrument like a flute from her actual bones. And the instrument sings so sweetly that the bard becomes famous, and he's invited to play for the ruler. The bard plays his very best in his life, and in the high point of his performance, the music begins to speak with Sweet Young Thang's voice, and she reveals her murderer.
So SYT's dead, the queen's executed, and the king's heartbroken. But the bard has a completely kickass musical instrument.
Non-messy
Skin, leather, hair, fur, and scales are also useful--armor and clothing and all that.
Also, wood is cool. Oak, pine, and holly are nice, but I honestly don't know much about the folkloric properties of trees/wood; I'll have to look it up to get any ideas.
Magic Materials
This is for things like liquid Pain and Concentration and other pieces of raw power.
So, the obvious:
Elemental
Elemental fire is useful, obviously, for forging and fire-related.
Elemental water is for quenching weapons and making things.
Elemental earth could be, I don't know, great for going plants? Elemental rock could be cool building material.
And I don't know for elemental air. Woo, you have an air supply!
Semi-elemental and energy
Lightning--used to zap and power stuff.
Ice--could carve into weapons, I guess.
Liquid light--I like the idea of forging or queching things by dipping them in liquid light, to make items or weapons which have a light-related property in some way. And you could use a piece of it to make a permanent light.
Solid darkness--No idea beyond the obvious of stealth and so on.
Last edited by Maxus on Mon Jun 15, 2009 5:58 pm, edited 6 times in total.
He jumps like a damned dragoon, and charges into battle fighting rather insane monsters with little more than his bare hands and rather nasty spell effects conjured up solely through knowledge and the local plantlife. He unerringly knows where his goal lies, he breathes underwater and is untroubled by space travel, seems to have no limits to his actual endurance and favors killing his enemies by driving both boots square into their skull. His agility is unmatched, and his strength legendary, able to fling about a turtle shell big enough to contain a man with enough force to barrel down a near endless path of unfortunates.
--The horror of Mario
Zak S, Zak Smith, Dndwithpornstars, Zak Sabbath. He is a terrible person and a hack at writing and art. His cultural contributions are less than Justin Bieber's, and he's a shitmuffin. Go go gadget Googlebomb!
--The horror of Mario
Zak S, Zak Smith, Dndwithpornstars, Zak Sabbath. He is a terrible person and a hack at writing and art. His cultural contributions are less than Justin Bieber's, and he's a shitmuffin. Go go gadget Googlebomb!
I added some onto the materials, but I'm also at impasse...
What is the spark of 'magic' that allows things to be enchanted? I mean, how do you make an axe into a Magic Axe that from there on scales and allows it to absorb properties or spells? What could the Denominator (or Denominators) which allows magic to stick?
What is the spark of 'magic' that allows things to be enchanted? I mean, how do you make an axe into a Magic Axe that from there on scales and allows it to absorb properties or spells? What could the Denominator (or Denominators) which allows magic to stick?
He jumps like a damned dragoon, and charges into battle fighting rather insane monsters with little more than his bare hands and rather nasty spell effects conjured up solely through knowledge and the local plantlife. He unerringly knows where his goal lies, he breathes underwater and is untroubled by space travel, seems to have no limits to his actual endurance and favors killing his enemies by driving both boots square into their skull. His agility is unmatched, and his strength legendary, able to fling about a turtle shell big enough to contain a man with enough force to barrel down a near endless path of unfortunates.
--The horror of Mario
Zak S, Zak Smith, Dndwithpornstars, Zak Sabbath. He is a terrible person and a hack at writing and art. His cultural contributions are less than Justin Bieber's, and he's a shitmuffin. Go go gadget Googlebomb!
--The horror of Mario
Zak S, Zak Smith, Dndwithpornstars, Zak Sabbath. He is a terrible person and a hack at writing and art. His cultural contributions are less than Justin Bieber's, and he's a shitmuffin. Go go gadget Googlebomb!