Character concept calls for a Wizard/Enchanter who would spend his down time writing scrolls, brewing potions, crafting tools, and enchanting items to not only make his resource maintenance cycle, (pay the rent) but also in preparation for his next adventure.
Beyond the time and material costs (which, along with the rules in MaBu, already limit enchantments) what kind of limits should an Enchanter have regarding carrying and using his items in the field?
Limited Number of Items (?)
Increased Draw-Time/Prep-Time of Items (?)
DoF check for Items if person carrying it gets hit (?)
Complications/Problems I haven’t thought of (?)
Note that like most good storylines, this one would start small and build.
I do not want to build a monster here, nor is this an attempt at power gaming.
It’s just what a Wizard/Enchanter would do, use sorcery and enchanting to accomplish his goals.
Some systems have imposed limits on such things and through the forum it seems that the game isn’t supposed to be magic item rich. Personally, I think the idea of competing items is obvious (a ring thst grants a +1D inconspicuous can’t be used with an amulet that grants a +1D conspicuous), and using body “slots” just makes sense.
I could even see the old Rune Quest limit known as the rule of five as being relevant (no more than five enchantments per item, maximum of five items in use / worn / active, at a time). I didn’t see anything like that in the rules, and it seems like common sense would be enough of a deterrent. I was just wondering if I had missed something.
You can play any game you want. If you can legally build a character with the character burner, and the other players at the table and the GM are cool with it, you can play him. I quoth the Magic Burner you’ve been delving so deeply:
But also note that, by default, stats and skills are limited to 6 or less in character burning. Note that Fight! is scary and deadly and even a flesh wound should make life difficult. In Burning Wheel, life is supposed to be a gritty and challenging for your characters. All we’re trying to do in the forums is make sure you understand that building a character who will mostly always “win” or get what she wants is against the intent of the system (play the game more and you’ll get it on your own), but if that’s how you and your group want to play, there’s nothing to stop you.
No, those two rings can be used at the same time. Obviously one can’t be Conspicuous and Inconspicuous at the same time, but remember skills aren’t always-on kind of things.
You must unlearn what you have learned. What other games do has no bearing on what Burning Wheel does. If you, as a GM, feel that someone is carrying too much stuff, throw higher Obs at them. Done. If they’re already carrying too much and they try to carry more, call for a test. Done. There’s no “item slots” or any ridiculousness like that.
From my perspective your enchanter is going to spend all his adventuring time gathering enchanting components just so he can spend his down time enchanting things so he can go back out to gather more enchanting components. There will be many cycles of this before you get to the point where I would worry about the enchanter being super over powered.
If you want to run an entire game about a guy gathering enchanting components for the sake of enchanting, great sounds like an interesting situation. How do you challenge his beliefs. Well you start making it so he has to commit genocide and kill the last immortal hummingbeard of the great forest to be able to make his feather amulet and so on.
If you aren’t running a game about a guy gathering enchanting components then honestly if he’s engaging in the real story he’s never going to become super over powered with enchantments.
And darn it now I want to pitch a situation to my group about them being hired swords for an enchanter who wants them to go commit genocide just so he can make a feather amulet.
Thor plays an immensely capable enchanter in our Burning THAC0 campaign. He’s made the most wondrous of items, from a war banner that makes a unit bearing it Fearless to swords that track invisible spirits to rings that add +3 to any attempt to cast a spell at the bearer. There’s literally nothing he cannot create if he puts his mind to it.
And yet, it’s never been a thing to worry about. His items add to the story. And each has a really fun limiter. For instance, those rings? If you have sex, their power is lost forever.
I don’t see any reason to add limitations as you’ve suggested.
The Draw & Prep times are already pretty standard for other types of equipment (swords and bows) and some items already add time to spell casting (dust of displacement). I was mainly concerned as reactions to some of my other threads regarding implements like wands and such made it seem like I should error on the side of caution.
Personally, I fail to see the difference between a bladesman or an archer seeking out the best equipment for their professions, and a mage doing the same for his. But then “I am but a Burner, and know little of such things”.
Magic items that are cool and thematic and do awesome things should be as abundant as you can make them, in game. Magic items that are +X to rolls are simply power boosts. As a personal preference i like my magic to be more strange, more interesting, and more dangerous than that. I want choosing to make an item to be an expression of what’s important (winning battles, hunting spirits, protecting from magic), not just “I want to be better at stuff than I was before.”
This is more an explanation of my anti-magic stance in other threads than anything that makes sense here. But that’s my position. A +1 longsword is fine; in fact, I’d just call it superior quality. A +5 flaming longsword is just a boatload of damage. Yawn! No reason not to have it and use it all the time. A longsword that can kill with a scratch (white shade damage), but only after it has killed someone the bearer loves? Much better, now there are choices. A longsword that is gray shade when attacking priests of the Reaving God? Sure, you’d always use it against followers of the Reaving God, but just making it is an interesting statement about the game and the maker’s priorities.
Actually your comments make s lot of sense here. The biggest limitation on enchanting should be to make it interesting with hooks and complications or at least a reason for being beyond the “I’m a mage and I get a bonus die when I use this”. Give it a real plot or story reason for being created in the first place (Lady MacCalister commissioned this statue to sing her to sleep each evening, lets see how it works on those guards).