Alternatives to Magic Item Creation Experience Point Cost

Most fantasy games make magic item creation difficult because the designers believe that some players might abuse the system by creating many (or particularly powerful) magic items. Therefore, some fantasy game systems require characters who create magic items to expend some of their experience points when creating magic items.

The key problem with this solution is that characters who create magic items will be penalized because these experience points are used to make the characters themselves more powerful. At some point the character creating magic items will have significantly fewer experience points and that character will be less powerful than the others, even if the character only does a moderate amount of magic item creation.

There are at least a few ways to fix this:

• Give extra experience points to characters who create magic items.
• Allow experience points to be drained from willing volunteers in addition to the magic item creator.
• Require a very limited substance to create magic items in you game world.
• Temporarily drain another aspect of a character’s energy when creating a magic item.

The first idea changes the game in only a minor way. The game master knows that certain characters will likely make some items used to benefit the entire party, so he gives those characters extra experience points through story awards or good ideas or proper spell use awards. The problem with that approach is the players may feel they’ve earned the extra points and that they deserve to be more experienced. If the approach isn’t explained to the players they may still feel their characters are giving up experience points while other characters are not. Another way to give make-up experience points is after the fact: when an item comes in particularly handy, the creator gets a portion of the experience points back. This makes sense, but it may be hard to track.

The second approach in the list above (pulling experience points from willing volunteers) is the most minor change to the game. It simply spreads the cost around. It is up to the players to keep things even. One way would be to pull the experience points from the character(s) who will most benefit from the item. If the magic item creator is making a sword for the party’s fighter, allow the experience points to be drawn from the fighter. If the item is useful for the entire group (for example a chime of healing) allow a portion of the experience point cost to be paid by each character.

Requiring a very limited substance that is required to create magic items is another viable option. As an extra benefit, it puts the GM in control of what can be created. If the GM is worried more magic items will make the campaign too Monty Haul-ish, simply don’t make the needed substance(s) available. This approach is already used to a degree for pseudo-magic items made of Mithril, Adamantium, etc. Furthermore this can help emphasize the “fantasy” aspect of your game. If you and your players enjoy fantasy elements, don’t make magic item creation just a formula to complete. Require some mystical/fantastical substances (the breath of a griffin, the heart of a nightmare, etc.) to be obtained to create magic items. This requirement can also be a major story/adventure idea hook.

Finally, a fourth alternative to requiring spellcasters to pay experience points to create magic items is to drain something else temporarily. It wouldn’t make sense to drain experience points temporarily because they are only referred to periodically but at a critical game phase (increasing in level/overall power.) But it certainly is viable to drain one of a character’s ability scores temporarily. Depending on the specific game system, it makes the most sense to drain a character’s health or constitution ability. This represents the energy being transferred from the magic item creator to the item just like using experience points. The magic item creator can then recover the lost energy overnight or over a longer period of time, depending on how rare magic item creation should be in the game world. The amount of energy drained should be proportional to the amount of magical energy used. Also keep in mind that most magic items (except one-time use items like scrolls or potions) will take several or sometimes many days to create. At least some of the draining effect should occur each day the magic item creator works on the item.

For example if using the most basic rule changes, if an item requires a 4th level spell, a 6th level spell and a 1st level spell, that magic item creator may lose 11 points (1 point per spell level) of constitution each day that he spends on the item if each spell level costs one point. Smart players can make this easier by using scrolls. If he uses a scroll for one of the spells, he doesn’t suffer that spell’s penalty that day because it was already paid. (Note that to keep these alternate rules balanced the magic item creator will need a new copy of the scroll for each day he wants to use it.)

In an alternative approach to this idea, the spells used to create a magic item are not all needed on each day. However, the spells needed each day should be proportional to their power. If the example above with an item that needs a 4th level spell, a 6th level spell and a 1st level spell takes 18 days to create, the first level spell might be needed on one or two days, the 4th level spell might be needed for six or 7 other days and the 6th level spell might be needed for nine or ten other days. Therefore the creator’s constitution would go down by a maximum of six points.

Overall, there are at least a few ways to fix the issue of one character expending his experience points to create magic items. The easiest approaches are to give bonus experience points or to allow other characters to spend their experience points in the process. If you want another way to limit magic item creation that emphasizes that your game world is a fantasy setting, require a rare/unique substance to create magic items. But another option to temporarily drain for one day an ability score at a rate of one point per spell level used each day during the creation process. Change this ability score draining (make it last a week per point, or only require a portion of the drain each day for complex magic items) to fit your game world.