Magic item
- This article is about items that can be activated to cast magic spells. For items that can be worn for persistent magic effects, see enhancive item.
Magic items are objects that can be activated to cast spells. Common types of magic items include wands, potions, scrolls, crystals, and trinkets. The primary skill required for these items is Magic Item Use, which generally determines how easily they can be activated and how effective each activation will be. Scrolls instead use the skill Arcane Symbols.
Types of Magic Items
Magic items can come in several states: already imbedded with a spell, blank and ready to be imbedded, or blank and requiring additional preparation.
Most common types of magic items found in the treasure system or purchased from town alchemists are imbedded with known spells: for example, an iron wand found on a creature will always contain the spell Minor Shock. If an item is not one of the known common types, it may still be revealed to be magical through bardic loresinging or the spell Elemental Detection (405). The Abandoned Inn crystal near Wehnimer's Landing may also help in identifying the item.
"Blank" items can have spells imbedded into them with the Magic Item Creation (420) spell. Certain items may need to be prepared with a grot t'kel potion before imbedding. Rangers can create blank magic items with the Imbue (614) ability.
Magic items can also be created by Holy Receptacle (325) or through the alchemy system.
Scrolls are a special type of item which contains multiple spells. The user can choose to INVOKE any of the spells on a scroll.
Activation
Magic items may respond to one of the following verbs: TAP, RUB, WAVE, RAISE, EAT, DRINK, and INVOKE.
The TAP, RUB, WAVE, and RAISE commands all require the Magic Item Use (MIU) skill in order to activate the magic item. TAP requires the fewest ranks, followed by RUB and WAVE, and finally RAISE requires the most ranks.
The EAT and DRINK commands do not require Magic Item Use in order to activate a magic item.
The INVOKE command is used for scrolls and requires the Arcane Symbols skill instead of MIU.
Charges
Magic items have a limited number of times they can be activated, or charges, before the magic is exhausted. Some items will crumble into dust and be permanently destroyed when they are out of charges.
Each item may or may not be rechargeable by wizards using the Charge Item (517) ability (colloquially referred to as "mage rechargeable" or "MR" items), or by special NPC merchants. Among the various merchant services, this is somewhat uncommon and particularly sought after. A GM will be able to charge any item, whether or not it is typically rechargeable by Charge Item. If it is not mage rechargeable, the cost will be significantly higher and the recharged item will hold fewer charges at the end of the process.
There is a location at Melgorehn's Reach which allows one to charge most common magical items (with some risk of destroying the item in the process).
Scrolls have their own special recharging system, available to sorcerers with Scroll Infusion (714).
Common Magic Items
- See the Magical Item Guide for more information on the most common types of magic items.