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Re: Rick's Magic items for Horses (and other riding animals).

Lots of nice ideas, Rick.

Here's what I would do if I were going to add these to the available enchantments in my TFT campaign.

I'm comparing and referring to the list prices in Advanced Wizard, but note that I think of those prices as very minimal prices in ideal market conditions for the buyer, because the listed book price of an enchantment tends to be quite close to twice the price it would take to pay someone to enchant them item IF THEY MADE 100% OF THEIR SKILL ROLLS and had no other problems. Unless all enchanters are also DX 15+ and/or use Charms, magic item list prices are worse than even twice the price to make them, which makes them fairly poor uses of powerful wizards' time economically. Given how powerful/useful many enchantments are and how few wizards there are, I'd think there would be a very strong seller's market effect, where you'd be lucky to find anything for sale because the wealthiest and most powerful people would want to get the few items being made, and so the few items available for sale would tend to demand rather more money.



Bridle of Calmness$ 700

A horse wearing this bridle becomes calm and tractable. This has two major uses, unbroken and barely broken horses can be ridden, and the animal is much less likely to spook if something frightening is happening around it. Wild animals are much easier to break (teach them how to be ridden) with this item.

I would quantify how good this effect is for trained horses in combat. I'd probably think it's worth $1000-2000 to a mounted warrior, if Weapon/Armor Enchantment is $1000 for a +1 weapon. And it's very useful for trainers, horse thieves, etc.


Bridle of Speech$ 20,000

This is a complicated item that Shapeshifts the horse slightly (so that it has vocal cords) AND increases the animal's IQ by 2 with much of that IQ increase going into understanding language. Thus the animal gains the rudiments of the rider's language. It counts as two of the 5 items the animal can wear under the rule of 5. The animal is now able to speak with its rider, but it will take over a year to become a proficient in the tongue.

I'd study the costs for unusually high-IQ animals to compare, and then add a bunch for the language thing.

I think I wouldn't have this be an item enchantment, because as written it seems to be a machine which goes around giving vocal chords to an many animals as it is put on for no ST cost? Seems like it would work better as some enchantment you can do to an animal. And even then, it's a bit fantastic and I can see it transforming human/animal relations, being used for pets and other interesting applications, players asking if they can be an X animal which has had this done to it, etc.

I wouldn't use this unless I WANTED a fantastic animal communication / politics game world.


Bridle of Training$ 1,200

This does not actually increase the animal's intelligence, but rather it is a limited form of control spell which makes the animal WANT to learn. You won't be able to teach an IQ 5 animal anything that only an IQ 6 animal can figure out, but what it can learn, it will learn four times faster.

Again, I would want this to cost more than mundane animal training, and/or the savings you can convert to money by using it, whatever that works out to. $1200 seems probably cheap. A Control item is $10,000, and Persuasiveness is $12,000 (and much more useful, but should this be 1/10 as hard to make?).


Feed Bag of Purity$ 1,800

This feedback is a limited form of Cleansing spell. It will up to 5 times a day (with at least 5 hours between use), cast a Cleansing on feed placed in it. This will kill off viruses, bacteria, parasites, and other biological dangers. It will not make the food taste better, or make unnourishing food wholesome.

Seems far too cheap, as a Cleansing enchantment is $50,000.
For $1,800 I might just offer a version than handles one or two specific typical issues with horse feed.
I would specify that this item has a fatigue cost to use, similar to casting Cleansing . . .


Grooming Kit of Health$ 2,000

This is a complete grooming kit, of very high quality. When a half hour or more is spent grooming the animal, a spell will be cast on it which will remove parasites, and helps to heal wounds. (Healing rate is doubled for two days. Multiple uses replace the old spell effect, but reset the duration.) The low cost is balanced by the need to spend a significant amount of time and effort in the use of the item.

Vastly too cheap. Doubling healing rate is a powerful ability.
In a cavalry unit, one such item can be used 48 times in one 24-hour day, and only needs to be used every two days per horse, so one item doubles the healing rate on up to 96 horses.
The part about giving it a low cost due to balancing by needing to spend half an hour seems like a logical fallacy because the item has no competition to balance it against. It also seems ridiculous given that half an hour is trivial for a situation where there is a horse that has time to rest anyway, and also responsible horse owners groom their horses daily anyway.


Saddle Blanket of Warmth$ 500

This blanket generates warmth allowing the animal to be comfortable in temperatures 15 degrees colder than normal. (There are tales of a 'Blanket of Cooling', but how to make such an item is lost.)

Seems ok.


Saddle Bags of Lightness$ 1,000

While no wizard has (yet) created a saddle bag that is larger on the inside than on the outside, it is possible to make saddle bags which reduce the mass of items placed inside. This is a limited form of telekinesis; magic is used to lift up some of the weight. This is an A type magic item, with each doubling of price reducing the weight more. The base price lowers the weight of items placed inside the saddle bag by 15%. Each doubling in price of the item causes a 15% greater reduction in weight. (e.g. An item that cuts the weight by 60% would cost x8 as much, or $8,000.) This item only works when the bags are firmly lashed closed, with the items completely inside the saddle bags.

Probably too cheap by half.


Saddle of Lightness$ 3,000

Exactly like the item above, but it reduces the weight of the rider, and the rider's armor & equipment. For purposes of the rule of 5, this counts as an item the rider is wearing. Many flying beasts can only carry human riders if they have a powerful Saddle of Lightness.

Also probably too cheap. Encumbrance is one of the main balancing factors for mounted figures, and this can overcome it in ways otherwise not possible... well except Speed Movement, which is its own story of abuse, though at least it costs 1 ST/turn.


Riding Crop of Speed.$ 300

This casts a low powered Speed Movement spell on the animal. It is controlled by the rider and it triggered by whacking the crop against the flank of the horse. Note the cost of the spell is paid for by the rider, and the cost is multiplied by the number of hexes of the steed + rider. (e.g. So a 1 hex figure riding a 14 hex dragon, would need to pay 1 + 14 = 15 times the base fatigue cost to use it.)

The base speed gain is +1 MA. Each doubling in price adds an extra MA to a maximum of +5 MA. The spell lasts for two turns.

Well, I might make Speed Movement NOT available and prefer this version, though the cost is really cheap. Speed Movement is severely underpriced at $1,500 given all the usually-unconsidered (until a smart PC gets one) potential (ab)uses of Speed Movement, especially on an already-fast figure.


Shoes of Lighting As per w/a e but see below.

A variation of a magic item that does extra damage when the horse kicks, this one causes each time the enchanted shoe touches the ground, (or when it kicks someone), it gives of bursts of sparks. No game effect other than looking cool, especially at night.

Identical to the weapon / armor enchantment, but add 5% onto the price.

You must mean LightNing.
"... causes [missing word?] each time ..."?
"gives of[F]"?
Otherwise ok, especially if they wear out like normal horseshoes do.
There is an issue though with the fact that horseshoes come in fours, and players wanting to just use one at a time per warhorse and still get the kick bonus, etc. I'd say you enchant one shoe at a time and don't get 4 items for the cost of one magic sword.


Shoe of Long Legs.$ 800

This magic item was created by a mad wizard, but surprisingly, other wizards were able to learn how to replicate the item. The horse when walking, will have its legs grow until they are a bit over twice as long as normal. (Thus the rider will be higher off the ground.) The legs will stretch, reaching further ahead, and stretch further behind the animal before the foot detaches from the ground. The animal's gait is uncannily smooth.

The result of all this, is that the animal travels 3 times as fast when it is moving at a walk. (Triple its distance per day when traveling on the campaign map.) The spell does not know how to handle faster movement, and if the horse breaks into a canter, trot or gallop, the legs will shrink back to their normal length. Thus its running movement is not affected by this strange item.

This is an uncommon item, many magic schools have no idea how to make this item.

This seems like a fairy tale item more than something I'd want the Wizards' Guild cranking out.
$800 is too cheap for something that triples land speed and would end up defining the speed of horse messengers etc, given the costs for the various type of normal horse.
Also it's a pretty spectacular effect both in practical terms and as what it does... it should not be a cheapie. I'm thinking more like $8,000 (and I wouldn't have it available except maybe as a weird artifact, so worth more then).


Shoe of Permanence.$ 200 / shoe.

This is the item for people who don't like having to bother with horse shoes coming loose. Each shoe so enchanted magically glues itself to the horse's foot. (As the hoof grows, bits will flake off and be ejected, so the item only needs to be put on once.) The enchantment is very inexpensive, but fails when the horse dies. (Each such shoe counts as one of the 5 items the horse can use, but additional enchantments such as +1 kicking damage can be added as other enchantments on the shoe.) Additionally the shoes protect the frog of the foot, so the horse is immune to sharp stones and caltrops.

Ok.


Shoe of Walking on Water$ 500

This item comes in 5 versions, each twice as expensive as the previous. The base version allows the horse (and rider it the rider's size is paid for), to talk on water. The hoof will depress the water a a little bit, but won't break through and won't get wet. However, waves make very unstable footing and it should only be used on glass smooth lakes.

Each turn the horse must make a 2/DX, 3/DX or 4/DX or fall, if the water has ripples, moderate chop, or large waves respectively. The second version of this item allows the horse to ignore all but the largest waves (this second version is the one most commonly sold). The third version allows the horse to move at a canter, (less than 1/3 of its MA), the fourth version allows it to move at a trot (less than 2/3 of its MA) and the fifth version of this item allows it to gallop over water at its full MA.

So is the actual cost 4 x, one per shoe, and the benefit is that of the least powerful W.o.W enchantment on the shoe?
This one seems a bit like faerie magic and underpriced, considering how spectacular/surreal its effect is (which is always a major part of my consideration of how hard an enchantment should be to make, not just how common/useful it may be for PC adventurers).


Spurs of â??somethingâ??Varies.

A number of magic items are called spurs of this-or-that. So spurs of Reverse Missiles would cast Reverse Missiles on the horse. They are items where an enchantment is cast on a horse for typically a single turn, or for a very few turns. The spurs are self powering, but typically have restrictions on use, (e.g. self powering, but only can be used once per day). The standard spurs are designed to handle any sized horse (so therefore up to 3 hexes).

Spur items are controlled by and worn by the rider, so they take up one the rider's magic items slots. Not every time the rider uses the spurs trigger them, it takes an act of will to use them. Usually 'spur' items only enspell the horse, but not the rider. If they effect both animal and rider, the difference is advertised as an unusual advantage worthy of a higher price.

Often these items buff the horse just as it is charging into battle, to allow it to survive the moment of maximum danger.

Some sample items:

--- Spurs of Stone Flesh.

--- Spurs of Control Animal.

--- Spurs of Blur

--- Spurs of Hammer Touch (Anything the horse bumps into except the rider.), etc.

Typical Modifiers, to make these items cheaper:

--- Self Powering but once per day. 10% self powering price.

--- Self Powering but twice per day. 20% self powering price. (Can use on consecutive turns.)

--- Self Powering, but three times per day, etc.

(Therefore at 10 times per day, it is the same cost as a general self powering.)

--- Self powering but 12 hour recharge. (Use the twice per day cost, but halve price, so 10%.)

--- Self powering but 8 hour recharge. (Three time per day cost, but halve price, so 15%.)

--- Self powering, but 3 hour recharge. (Eight times per day cost, but half price, so 40%.)


--- Powered for one turn. Normal cost.

--- Powered for two turns. Double cost, etc.

Interesting. Brain getting tired, but seems maybe ok. I like that it limits the ability to use things all the time, which we ended up doing to all magic items to cut the magic item cheese.


Trappings of Tangles$ 800

These trappings, (light cloth barding that shows the rider's colors), must reach down so that more than half of the horse's legs are covered. The trappings will gives the horses' legs a limited insubstantiality so they won't be tangled by branches, vines, brambles, trip wires, and the like. Heavy undergrowth, which normally would lower a horses speed by up to 90%, may be ignored.

This one too strikes me as fairy magic and/or should be more expensive because of how surreal the effect is.
Also I like terrain, much more than I like convenience magic that makes interesting aspects of a situation go away.



Notes on magic items for riding beasts.

Normal magic items can be made for horses. A stone flesh horseshoe could be created. Some points to consider...

Many magic items are B types, which multiply their cost by the number of hexes of the subject. So a 3 hex warhorse will require a magic item that costs three times as much.

On the tables in my books, very few enchantments are B types, and the B usually refers to something other than the size of the subject of a spell effect.