For me, there is something unsatisfying in the way that players can enchant and disenchant magical items in 4th edition. I want my players to craft magical items but I want it to represent a process and require effort and preparation on the part of the characters. 4e conveniently supplies a perfect mechanic for making a process feel more in depth; the skill challenge. I realized that I can apply a skill challenge to the item creation ritual and have the DCs be based off of the items level. The level of the skill challenge is based on the tier and the rarity of the item. The process was seamless, everything fit together so perfectly that I wonder if I did not stumble across a mechanic that was originally designed by WOTC.
I was also pleasantly surprised that the process of making the enchantment ritual into a skill challenge also presented a wealth of new treasure options. There is suddenly a variety of new types of treasure that aid characters in creating magical items (Reagents, Catalysts, Ingredients, and Grimoires). Many of the items are reusable; like the Cold Iron Cauldron that gives bonuses to enchanting potions. I have hardly come up with an exhaustive source of new items, but I have included a few to illustrate my ideas.
Below is the PDF of the new Item Creation Skill Challenge. As always, I hope you enjoy it and please comment away, share your ideas and whether you like this idea or not.
Just so you know, I started a thread about this article on the official D&D forums. I’m hoping to use it in my campaign but I want some more input before I do. You can find my post here:
http://community.wizards.com/go/thread/view/75882/27544725/Interesting_homebrew_for_enchanting_magic_items
Thanks,
The discussion on the WOTC board is interesting to say the least.
I think that the two points made are vary valid, their is not much of a “game” in this… which leads me back to why skill challenges exist in the first place…
Second is the time frame, this makes sense in my campaign because I build in a lot of downtime and “town” role playing. I can see how this would not be a great fit for most.
I think I will fiddle with the idea… make it more of a game. How do you like the idea of having the skill challenge allow for an extra power to be added to the item and that a failure just means that the item is created as expected. That might be a bit more fun.
I’m very interested in using this in my game. I’ve always felt the item creation rules in 4e were weak, too easy, and lacked flavor. I’ll run them by my players for feedback before I implement them and let you know what they said.