The Quick Guide to Using Items

Magical and Miraculous items are items that allow the user to use magic or miracles without having to learn the spells or miracles. They can be everything from potions of healing, and scrolls to Raise the Dead to life, to flaming swords, wands of Ice Dart, and amulets of toughness.

In game terms, they allow the user to cast spells or miracles with some advantages, listed below.

Advantages

• Speed – using the activation phrase ‘item do thy work’ you can activate an item to cast a spell or miracle that would usually take up to 30 words, or more with adepts.
• You can use items when you can’t normally cast spells/miracles – for example when your arm or leg isn’t working you can use a magical item to heal yourself.
• Since items are self powered they do not damage your life total when used unlike spells and miracles.
• All items other than scrolls do not use any of the users standing/mana to cast the spell. So magic items can be easily used by non mages and miraculous items by non priests.
• Items can be used to cast magical spells while wearing metal armour without the penalties that you usually get (increased mana use and additional damage to your current life total, however scrolls still require additional mana).

Disadvantages

• In most cases you need to have the item in your possession for 24 hours to ‘attune’ to it and allow you to use it (scrolls and potions are the main exceptions). There is a spell and miracle that will let you use an item instantly though..
• Acquiring items can be expensive or, if picked up during missions, downright dangerous.

Different types of Item

There are 5 different types of magical item:

Potions

A magical liquid that casts the effect embedded within it on the drinker, even if it’s an offensive effect. You can also store more than one effect in a single potion, and more than one dose in a bottle.

Scrolls

A scroll is the knowledge of how to cast a specific spell/miracle: if you can read it, and have access to the correct magical school/miraculous path, then you can use the scroll to cast the spell/miracle immediately.

For example: a scroll of the miracle Raise Dead would allow someone who is Life Aligned and who could read the scroll to raise a dead person back to life, even if they do not know how to cast the Raise Dead miracle normally. A scroll is only single use and the user needs to have the mana or standing to power it themselves, however it absorbs any casting damage when used.

One-shot items

An item created with a single use of a spell/miracle, they are cheap to buy, but they can only be used once. Using the spell/miracle within the item doesn’t destroy it like scrolls or potions, so you can have it repowered, at a price.

Charged items

An item that is created with a number of charges of a particular spell/miracle. The advantage of these items is that you can hold quite a lot of charges in a single item, however you can only recharge them if you are an item creator. As a result, if you are not an item creator nor do you have friends who are item creators, this is a more expensive solution than potions or one-shot items.

Daily Items

Items that can cast a given spell/miracle once per day, and can be used again following the next dawn, effectively recharging themselves. This is the most economical way of buying an item of a spell/miracle that you want to cast regularly, as they cost more upfront but don’t need to be paid for again.

Permanent items

Permanent items can be really powerful items such as permanently flaming swords, shields that are extremely difficult to break and bracelets that make the user tougher or stronger. Any spell or miracle that lasts for 15 minutes can be made into a permanent item (which is basically all the buffing spells/miracles). Should it get dispelled, it will only turn off for 15 minutes and then turn back on afterwards! (something no other type of item or spell/miracle will do).

The downside of permanent items is that they are the most expensive items. Permanently magical swords, shields and armour need to be of at least masterwork quality, which is inhibitively expensive for most patrolees, and even bracelets and rings can cost a lot depending on how powerful the item you’re trying to get is.

Identifying Items

• Items can be spotted by their magical or miraculous aura from Magic Sight or Power Sight, or Recognise Magic or Miracle at extremely close range, depending on which type of item they are. They can then have their school/path/sect identified, either by the magic divination spell or the discern path miracles.
• They are usually better than normal quality so could be spotted with the Evaluate skill, although Evaluate can’t tell you if the masterwork sword you picked up is magical/miraculous, or if it will make you stronger or even weaker in 24 hours time!
• If it is a scroll and you can read the runes on it, you can determine what spell/miracle the scroll contains.
• Potions can be identified by small sips, if you know how to cast the spell/miracle within it.
• No matter the item, if you have any level of enchant item or consecrate item, you can identify the level to which the item has been enchanted/consecrated to for the school/path/sect of the skill you have.
• If you can identify the school/path/sect of the item, you can identify the contained spell/miracle if you know how to cast it in any way. This does not tell you what sort of item it is: there is no way to tell if the amulet of sleep is a daily item you can use, or a permanent item to put the wearer to sleep!
• The easiest way to identify the item is to let someone attune to it for 24 hours, however that could backfire if it’s cursed, or contains a dangerous effect (like the disease miracle for example).

Written by Peter
Updated by Charlotte