Re: New Magic Items --> Edward's Talismans.

I wrote this up after staying up all night, lets definitely replace the Iron Talisman's with Bronze ones.

One of the weakness of the Talisman's is that it does not matter how much of their ST you access whether 1 point or 16 they can only be used once per time frame.

I would consider that these are the only types of Talismans available, there are no double ST versions.

In regards to the rule of five, really this needs to be playtested, howerver my intent was that so long as no other spells were placed on the Talisman the rule of five need not apply.

Still having five Talismans of the same type count as one item would work. So four bronze Talismans would be one item, two silver would be another and a gold would be another magic item. Another note; six gold Talismans would be counted as two magic items. Each group of one to five Talismans of the same type would be the equivalent of a single magic item. This weakens them further. Note that placing a even a single additional spell on a Talisman makes it fully count as a single magic item. Any other idea's?

Thinking about it, let's make the Iron and Bronze Talisman's the same except for the DX penalty for wizards.

I'm a bit worried that the Spellbook bound Gold Talisman's are overpowered, again playtesting needed.

I've not worked up the Talisman creation requirements, I expect they are somewhat difficult though not immensely so, else the cost would be greater. Perhaps one of the ingredients is rare requiring a quest to find.

On Tue, Nov 22, 2016 at 11:23 AM, Rick Smith <rick_ww@lightspeed.ca> wrote:

Hi Edward,
There are a number of things that concern me about these.

-- Steve Jackson made the rule of 5 to prevent the rich from having
huge advantages over the poor. (Or at least they have to spend a
LOT for the privilege since the cost of multiply enchanted items,
double and redouble.) I do not see a good reason why Talismans
don't follow this rule.

-- I would presume iron talismans would give wizards –6 DX for
having iron on them. Surely a copper, or brass talisman would
serve wizards better?

-- Iron talismans allow wizards to power spells that are IQ 10 lower
than the wizard. How many IQ 18 wizards have IQ 8 spells? It
seems to me that an IQ 18 wizard could afford the better talisman.
So the iron ones far from being the most common ones, would be
non-existant.

-- Is the number of points of fatigue ST (fST) can a talisman limited?
Or can you get double powered talismans which can give more at
once? If so, is it an A, or B type of enchantment on the item creation
table? (Or both?)

-- You have not given the formula needed for a wizard to create
one of these in a lab.

-- If I were a wizard who had a Greater Magic Item Enchantment
Spell I would be very tempted to make the more useful ST batteries,
rather than spending a memory IQ (mIQ) to learn a new spell, which
I must have in ADDITION to the Greater Magic Item Enchantment
spell.

-- If you can have any number of these (no rule of 5), and you can
not have them tripled in power, you might see wizards with many
dozen of these in a cord around his or her neck. (Like how people
could carry the ancient Chinese coins.) Is this what is intended?
When I hear the word 'talisman', I think of a single item of great
power, not scores of jangly mass produced items weighing down
wizards.

-- I wonder if these are different enough to make it worth while to
add to the item list. Yes, they (very slowly) recharge on their own,
but surely a large ST Battery which I can recharge in a few days with
my own effort (and maybe an apprentice), is more useful than an
item that I can only get a few fST out of, and it takes a couple
months before I can use it again. If a ST Battery is many times more
useful, would not how to make these quietly vanish thru the ages.
(Especially since it requires an extra mIQ to learn its unique spell
in addition to Greater Magic Item Enchantment spell?)

Warm regards, Rick.

On 2016-11-22, at 7:22 AM, Edward Villarreal wrote:
> Talismans
>
> There are three grades of Talismans. Iron, Silver, and Gold. Create Talisman is an IQ 18 spell that also requires Greater Magic Item Creation.
>
> Talismans look to be small highly engraved coins and all have a hole in the center.
>
> All Talismans require the Goldsmith talent to engrave, the Create Talisman Spell and Greater Magic Item Creation to enchant. But the creators can be two separate persons, a Goldsmith and a wizard.
>
> Talismans can be used to cast spells the wizard knows and provide some ST, the wizard can add to this ST with his own ST. There are no DX penalties for using a Talisman, but the wizard must still make any DX rolls required. Normally only wizards can use a Talisman, however at 100 times the normal cost a Talisman can be created that anyone can use. Non-wizards are at a DX - 4 however.
>
> Talismans do not count against the rule of five if there are no other enchantments cast on them. If for example a Talisman also has blur cast on it, it will count against the rule of five. This means any number of Talisman's can be carried, within weight limitations.
>
> Iron Talismans provide up to 4 ST points and can allow the wizard to cast any spell the wizard knows that is at least 10 points lower than the wizards IQ. The Talisman can be used once every 30 days. Costs 1000 Silver.
>
> Silver Talismans provide up to 8 ST points and can allow the wizard to cast any spell the wizard knows that is at least 4 points lower than the wizards IQ. The Talisman can be used once every 60 days. Costs 5000 Silver.
>
> Gold Talismans provide up to 16 ST points and can allow the wizard to cast any spell the wizard knows. The Talisman can be used once every 90 days. Costs 20,000 Silver.
>
> Gold Talismans can be bound into a Spellbook, it costs 40,000 Silver, plus double the normal cost of each spell, however it takes only 5 turns to cast instead of 60. The book can be used normally requiring the same time and procedures as normal but once every 90 days any one spell in the book can be cast with no other requirements in 5 turns with the Spellbook providing up to 16 points of ST.

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