Items (brainstorming)

[Shovah32]

Very nice endo, very nice in deed. Were those first 2 items made with ulm in mind?

[Endoperez]

Yes: Ulm, and Earth as the source of good equipment. I mentioned the helmet, at least, when I released my Ulm upgrade mod. Blade of Cold Iron would be more interesting as pure Earth (E3) or Earth/Water instead of Earth/Astral, but I used Elf Bane as a guideline.

I've had lots of time to think these through. Sword of Might is basically Girdle of Might in a weapon, like Faithful/Pendant of Luck.

I also happen to like slings.

These would all be pretty basic items as well. #copyitem or #copyweapon, slot change for the item, and the ability to create/describe/add picture to a new magic item.

[LoloMo]

Amulet of Monumental Martyrdom
Construction 6
E4N2
At beginning of battle, casts the following on the wearer:
Protection +25
MR +3
Standard (15)
Resistance to All +100%
Paralyzed (50)
and in case he survives: Feeblemind, Insanity

Amulet of Horrific Martyrdom
Protection +25
MR +3
Fear (15)
Resistance to All +100%
Paralyzed (50)
and in case he survives: Feeblemind, Insanity

[HoneyBadger]

I don't have any blood/death/astral items, or do you mean gem cost? That'd be easy to fix. Path requirements would be the same as for any other artifact, Construction 8.

If it's just gem cost, then 75 death gems and 75 blood slaves for the Necro Noculous, 75 astral gems and 75 blood slaves for the Morphaeus Codex, 75 nature gems and 75 blood slaves for the Tome Ouroboris, and 300 blood slaves for the Illnomicon.

[Endoperez]

HoneyBadger said:
I don't have any blood/death/astral items, or do you mean gem cost? That'd be easy to fix. Path requirements would be the same as for any other artifact, Construction 8.

If it's just gem cost, then 75 death gems and 75 blood slaves for the Necro Noculous, 75 astral gems and 75 blood slaves for the Morphaeus Codex, 75 nature gems and 75 blood slaves for the Tome Ouroboris, and 300 blood slaves for the Illnomicon.

With path requirements, I meant the paths a mage needs to be able to forge that item. E2 for Earth Boots, W1 for Water Bracelet, etc.
Path requirement is also the way the game calculates gem cost: 1 -> 5 gems, 2 -> 10, 3 -> 15, 4 -> 25, 5 -> 40 etc, the next value being calculated by adding two earlier ones together. Because of this, writing the requirements as, say, Blood 5 Death 5 (40 and 40 gems/slaves) for Necro Noculous, Blood 5 Astral 5 for Morpheus Codex, Blood 5 Nature 5 for Tome Ouroboris and and Blood 8 (170 slaves) for the Illnomicon. Increasing the path requirements by one (to 6 and 6 for the three first, and 9 for the last) would give values closer to the ones you had (75 gems/75 slaves, and 275 slaves), but it'd make the items even harder to use in a real game.

The books are great ideas, but Illnomicon's +3 Blood isn't that good if you need Blood 7, 8 or 9 to make it... Sorcery +1 and Blood +2 would be a bit better. Perhaps all the books should give the wielder the ability to send horrors, as Gift of Kurgi?

[Sandman]

Some of these I've suggested before:

Trickster's Cap: fire-1, air-1. Halves the fatigue cost of all spells with a path requirement of one. Mid level.

The Stone of Destiny: earth-4, astral-4. Grants a 10-gem bonus when casting globals or dispel, but doesn't decrease the initial gem cost. Unique.

Trinket Hammer: fire-2, earth-2. Allows a mage to forge two level-0 items for the price of one. High level.

Scavenger's ring: fire-2. Greatly increases the chances of finding enemy items after a battle. Mid-level.

Loki's Crown: nature-5. The wearer can cast Transformation at no cost and no risk.

[DrPraetorious]

Loki's Crown could probably be done - I'm not sure about the "no risk" part.

The others would require engine rewrites (i.e. they don't exploit an existing game mechanic.)

I believe that penetration bonuses make your spells harder to dispel, so the stone of destiny could just provide a big penetration bonus. I'm not sure about this.

[MaxWilson]

The Black Egg made me laugh. I can't remember enough about Starflight to get the joke with the Flat Device, Rod Device, and Crystal Cone.

-Max

[HoneyBadger]

I didn't have time earlier to comment on the books. I edited them a bit, not sure if they're overpowered or not. I don't think they're underpowered, but I also don't think I'd build a "grand strategy" around most of them. I hope someone likes them enough to put them in whatever mod this is leading up to.

They're meant more to be interesting than to be useful, since you really can't enter combat without losing them and possibly getting yourself killed by whatever horrible creature you've just awoken. It's kind of an "instant horror, just add water" dealie, except ofcourse for the Emerald Tablet. I just threw that one in for fun, to be the exception to the rule-and it has it's own problems.

If anyone seriously wants to use these, I'd be happy to provide detailed descriptions for them-some of them are based-atleast a little bit-on real (or atleast fictional) books, while others I have interesting backstories for.

Thanks for all the input, Endoperez. I very much appreciate it. If there's anything else you think could make them better, please let me know.

[HoneyBadger]

I'd really like a set of boots to forge that absolutely, positively, prevented a unit from fleeing a battle.