Photo Credit: FreeImages.com / Jaycy Castañeda
Additional effects added by Mike

This is the second part of a very intermittent series that will examine alternatives and possible implications to the standard spell storage solutions built into D&D, Pathfinder, and, in fact, most fantasy games.

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
It’s very unusual to identify an entire class of magic item that the benchmark games like D&D and Pathfinder appear not to have even noticed, but that’s exactly what I have for you all today: Rechargable One-Use Magic Items, such as gems and precious stones.

Key Characteristics

So, what are the specifications that define this overlooked type of magic item?

• Persistence
• Mutable State
• Limited Power/Complexity (with possible exceptions)
• Rechargeable
• Open or Closed
• Restarting, Pausible, or Triggered
• Reluctant or Eager

Persistence

Although the magic in the item is consumed when the effect it contains is released, the item itself survives.

Mutable State

Although it is not strictly necessary, I like for there to be some visual indication that the item has been charged, or the charge dissipated. This helps to give this type of magic item a unique flavor all its own.

One-use Rechargeable

These are one-shot items that deliver their effect on a single occasion but (unlike potions and the other one-shot item types considered in Part 1), because this class of magic item persists beyond the release of the magic, one can be recharged to deliver the effect again on a subsequent occasion. In effect, these are spellcasters or deities putting a particular effect “in the bank” for later use or for distribution.

Limited Power/Complexity

The constraints on power level of this type of item tend to be the same as those of one-shot non-reusable items. But there can be exceptions if you use them to solve a logical inconsistency that was identified in Part 1:

The Illuminating Scroll Variations

In part one, I pointed out that Scrolls broke the ‘rules’ for potions. In a nutshell, you can only put limited power levels of spell into a potion, but you can put any power level of spell into a scroll, and this undermines the general in-game logic used to explain that power-level restriction.

One solution to this problem that was not explored in that article is the notion of restricting scrolls in utility. Perhaps “ordinary” magic scrolls can only hold spells of level 1-3; that with additional (expensive) special treatments, a scroll can hold spells of levels 4-6; but that to store spells of level 7-9, something more permanent is needed.

This violates the “low power level” principle suggested earlier, but that’s all right – since this is a completely new class of magic item that has no analogue within the major rules systems, we can add any rules or restrictions we want, so long as we can provide an appropriate in-game logic and metagame rules structure.

Things get even more interesting if spells embodied in this type of magic item cannot be simply cast from the item, but need to be ‘released’ in some manner. That means that such spells can’t be triggered at will, but can be activated eventually. All that remains is some mechanism by which a spellcaster can ‘read’ the magic within (consuming it in the process) to add the spell to their spell-book.

Combinations

Nor do they have to be one or the other. To avoid confusion, I would suggest that the encapsulating medium be different for the different interpretations, but even that doesn’t have to be the case.

Open, Schooled, or Closed, with Specific or Broad definition

To close out this list of characteristics, I have a trio of parameters that could be one thing or the other, but that will usually be consistent throughout a campaign. But it’s always possible that consistency might be item-to-item (costing different amounts, of course) or even that there is no consistency and it’s all down to how an item is prepped. You’ll see what I mean as I proceed.

The first of these either/or parameters is “Open,” “Schooled,” or “Closed”.

• Open means that once any spell/effect stored in the item is expended, it can be recharged to contain any other spell/effect of appropriate power level (see “Specific” and “Broad” below).
• Schooled permits an expended spell/effect to be replaced by any other spell/effect of appropriate power level that is of the same school or otherwise matches the common theme ‘defined’ as a parameter of the object, eg “Fire”.
• Closed mandates that an expended spell/effect can only be replaced with a spell/effect of exactly the same description; the initial enchantment has created an inflexible arcane ‘matrix’ within the object.

Two of these three require the GM to think about what happens when one attempts to shoehorn a spell or effect that doesn’t “fit” into such objects.

Attached to some of these choices is a sub-parameter, “Specific” or “Broad”. Specific means that spell and caster levels must match exactly the capacities of the object (defined by the first casting); unused caster levels may provide a bonus to successful enchantment, or may be consumed loading the effect with metamagics (the GM should pick one and stay with it throughout a campaign, at least for a given class of object – there’s nothing that says that opaque gemstones like pearls can’t be different to translucent ones like rubies).

Now that you have the context, the earlier suggestion regarding flexibility within this parameter be a function of the cost of the item should make more sense. That, once again, depends on how the GM wants to use these items within his campaign.

Restarting, Pausible, or Triggered

The same “flexibility for a greater price” line of thinking may or may not be applied to this parameter, which describes the triggering of the spell or effect contained within the magic item. This choice can have serious game-balance issues, but I’ve built in a protection to mitigate the worst of these effects.

• Restarting items mean that once the effect is triggered but not yet activated, the count-down to activation can be stopped and will restart at the original beginning mark (whatever it might be) the next time it is activated. With this option, a specific fixed countdown (3, 4, 5, or 6 rounds) should be pre-determined by the GM and applied to all magic items of the type, purely for simplicity.
• Pausible permits the countdown to activation to be suspended prior to activation of the effect, but will resume where it left off the next time the item is triggered. To stop clever players from using this to create a set of ‘instant spells’, bypassing the casting time constraints completely by pausing the countdown at ‘1’, the GM should assign a die size for the determination of how long a countdown will be on any specific example and roll secretly for how long the countdown will last. d8 rounds is probably a fair number for higher levels of spell or effect.
• Triggered Once these items are triggered, nothing can stop the effect from activating and running for its full duration, whatever that might be.

Reluctant or Eager

The final parameter describes what happens when the item is broken. “Reluctant” means that the magic is simply dissipated, and nothing happens. “Eager” means that the spell or effect is activated. To avoid “Eager” overriding the game-balance safeguards specified under the previous parameter, the target of the spell or effect should be chosen randomly from amongst those within a given range of the object, NOT the person who has actually broken the magic item.

Mordenkainen’s Disjunction

I have a great personal dislike for this spell. I have never seen it used in a manner that did not damage a campaign, even completely shortcut an adventure. I have once even had a campaign permanently disrupted by it (or it would have been save that the players and I decided to backtrack).

In all my campaigns, following that experience, the Disjunction produces a temporary interruption to the effects of a magic item. Artifacts are disrupted for d6 rounds, Major Wondrous Items, Armor, and Weapons for d8 hours; Minor Wondrous items, Wands, and Staves for d12 half-days; Ammunition, Scrolls and Potions for d20 weeks.

The Lord Of The Rings is no fun if the One Ring can be beaten by simply casting Disjunctions until one ‘takes’. In my campaigns, the permanent destruction of a magic item is difficult, and that of an artifact requires a quest of Fellowship proportions.

Because we can define and describe these magic items in any way that we want, an interesting possibility suggested itself: What if the spell/effect were already ‘activated’ within the magic item, and the ‘trigger’ is actually something holding that spell/effect back from activation? That means that the one sure way of getting these magic items to function immediately is to hit them with a Disjunction.

Any impediment to something that can wreck a campaign is worth considering as a ‘good thing’. If you think of these magic items as video-game ‘power-ups’, the prospect of triggering all of an enemies stored power-ups at once should have the effect of deterring characters from casting ‘Disjunction’ in battle; it might cut out the usual protections of the target but it risks making the problem faced by the PCs worse.

Some very interesting (and nasty) trap designs become possible – contemplate a ring of these with Fireballs (or whatever) in them and another of these with a Disjunction to trigger all those fireballs at once. (Even without the Disjunction trigger, some fun can be had: a lich’s false phylactery could be one of these with a Sphere Of Annihilation waiting to be released by the act of destroying the ‘phylactery’).

Effect Contents

So, what sort of effects could be contained in these magic devices?

Spells

The most obvious and dull answer. There are lots of magic items out there that already do this. But that doesn’t rule this out as a viable answer; in fact, as noted earlier, it can provide a neat solution to some existing problems within the most common game systems.

Skill Bonuses

+2n to a specific skill is equivalent to a spell of N level. Duration is one round. This can be increased to one minute by halving the bonus, and then to one hour by halving it again. The effect is halved if the character does not already have at least one rank in the skill, and halved again if the skill is considered a cross-class skill for the character.

EG: +16 to Lock-picking for 1 round = 8th level spell = +8 for 1 minute, or +4 for 1 hour. These are halved if the character has no existing skill in Lock-picking, (+8, +4, and +2, respectively). These values are then halved if the skill is a cross-class skill – +8, +4, +2 if the character has ranks in the skill, or +4, +2, +1 if the character does not.

When you’re in a tight spot, having an extra skill bonus ‘on tap’, however temporary, can be exactly what you need to get you past the hump.

Can’t be applied retroactively to a failed check.

Temporary Stat Boosts

+n to a stat bonus is equivalent to a spell of N+1 level. Duration is one round. This can be increased to one minute by halving the bonus and adding one to the spell level, and then to one hour by halving it again and adding an addition +1 to the spell level. Each additional +1 to the ‘spell level’ equivalence adds +1 to the number of time units.

EG: +4 CON bonus for one round = 5th level spell, for two rounds = 6th level spell, for three rounds = 7th level spell. +2 CON bonus for 1 minute = 6th level spell, for 2 minutes = 7th level spell, and for 3 minutes = 8th level spell. +1 CON bonus for 1 hour = 7th level spell, for 2 hours = 8th level spell, and for 3 hours = 9th level spell.

Feats

Granting temporary access to a Feat that the character does not have, and indeed might not be normally able to qualify for, is another great magical item, vastly increasing the tactical options open to characters if used correctly. It is recommended that these should be relatively rare, or the game system may come unstuck.

1 feat with all requirements met by the character for 4 minutes = 5th level spell; for 4 hours = 6th level spell; for 1 day = 7th level spell; for 4 days = 8th level spell; for 2 weeks = 9th level spell. Each prerequisite that the character does not meet halves the duration.
If the character meets all the prerequisites and has a feat slot open, he may make the effect permanent, learning in the duration what may otherwise take weeks, months, or years.

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