Once your wizard has learned either the arcane spell enchant item or create artifact, you can start making unique magical items for your heroes to wear and wield. Note that the difference between these two spells is the strength of the enchantments that can be embedded in the artifact; items made by casting create artifact are potentially far more powerful than those created by enchant item. (Only enchantments costing 200 mana each (or less) can be placed in an artifact using enchant item. Create artifactallows enchantments of any cost to be embedded in an item.)
To make an item, cast the spell enchant itemor create artifact(click on the spell name in either spellbook). You then enter the artifact creation screen.
You may now choose what kind of item to make. Note that not all items can hold all enchantments (see Tables L: Non Spell-Specific Artifact Enchantments and M: Spell-Specific Artifact Enchantments in the Appendix for details). Appropriate items include weapons (bow, axe, mace, sword, staff or wand), armor (chain mail, plate mail or shield) and miscellaneous items (cloak, gauntlet, helm, orb, pendant or ring).
See the special note about the Itemmake utility included with Master of Magic on page 150 for information about creating the random artifacts that
To choose an item, click on the button with the name of the item type and then scroll through the pictures, using the arrows in the upper left corner of the artifact creation screen (by clicking) until you are satisfied with the appearance and the type of item. Notice that the item itself (without any enchantments) has a base price in mana, shown in the lower right corner of the screen. If you change the item after you have started choosing enchantments to place into a new artifact, any inappropriate enchantments just disappear.
The kinds of enchantments which you can add to your artifact are shown. Select the enchantments you want to place in the item. You may place up to four enchantments in an item. You can remove previously selected enchantments (which appear highlighted) by clicking on them again. Notice that the cost in mana to “cast” or create the item, shown in the bottom right corner of the screen, rises as you add enchantments. Be aware that offensive and defensive bonuses (increases in attack strength or accuracy and increases in defense ratings) cost twice as much as usual when placed into miscellaneous items as when they are placed into weapons or armor!
All enchantments embedded in the artifacts are permanent, cannot be dispelled and require no maintenance!
The enchantments that can be placed in an item are of five basic types: non-magical offensive, non-magical defensive, movement, general magic and spell-specific:
• Non-magical offensive enchantments include bonuses to hit (at 10% per point) or bonuses to attack strength (swords). These bonuses apply to the hero wielding the artifact.
• Non-magical defensive enchantments include bonuses to defense (shields) and bonuses to resistance (crosses). These bonuses add to the hero’s defense and resistance values.
• Movement enchantments increase the combat and overland speed of the hero wearing the item.
Spell- specific Cost so far Selected enchantments are highlighted
• General magic enchantments include:
a) Spell Skill which can raise the hero’s spell casting skill by the specified amount.
b) Spell Charges which embed the stated number of combat spells (that can be thrown once per combat turn by the hero wielding the item) into the artifact. Your wizard must already know a combat spell before he or she can embed it into the artifact. The cost of embedding a particular spell is related to the casting cost of the spell.
c) Spell Saves which decrease the target’s ability to resist (i.e., their number of crosses decreases by the specified amount) subsequent spells thrown by the wielder of the artifact.
• Spell-specific enchantments are those similar or equivalent to spells of the same name.
Table L: Non Spell-Specific Artifact Enchantments in the Appendix shows the enchantments (other than spell-specific ones) that can be placed into different items. The maximum level of the particular enchantment is indicated. All lesser levels of the shown enchantments may also be embedded in the item. For example, if, under the Attack column, you see +6, that means that the item can be enchanted with a +1, +2, +3, +4, +5 or +6 bonus to attack strength (swords). The item then allows its wielder to attack with the chosen attack strength bonus; the increased number in swords also appears on the hero’s unit statistics window.
Table M: Spell-Specific Artifact Enchantments in the Appendix shows the list of spells that can be embedded into various items. To place a spell in an item, you need to have sufficient knowledge (enough spell books) of the indicated magic realm. The table is divided into the known magic realms so that, for example, all enchantments requiring life magic ranks are placed together. Not all items can hold the listed spells, so the table includes appropriate information to that effect.
The rule for the spell-specific artifact enchantments is that those spells with defensive properties or that enhance certain attributes endow the wearer of the item with those same properties. Spells that are offensive in nature (i.e., weapons) exert their effects when the wielder attacks opponents. Unless otherwise indicated, an enchantment exerts effects just as a spell of the same name does. Only those spells specifically cited in the table can be placed in the noted artifacts.
After choosing the enchantments you wish to place into your artifact, you may click on OK to start casting the artifact you just designed. The length of time it takes to create (“cast”) the artifact depends on how much the artifact costs in mana, the spell casting skill of your wizard and how much mana you are earning per turn. Note that creating very powerful items can get extremely expensive and can take a very long time! Create artifact and enchant item may be stopped as all normal spells are, by clicking on the spell in the wizard’s spell book (to access spell book, click on the spells button on the main movement