Brainstorming Magical Crafting System (Part 5)
Created: 18 January 2016 Modified:One common limitation of magical crafting is time. Often taking days, months and years for the creation of a single magical item. This is counter to the fast pace narrative a game needs. Magic is the expression of a beings will manipulating the fundamental principals of the universe. In the case of creating a magical item the only time needed is to build the mental construction necessary to alter an items properties to produce magical effects.
Magical crafting is a ritual and takes the standard ten minutes. This is not to mean that the whole process is a short period of time. A crafter who stays home and rarely ventures forth may take years to gather the items necessary for an enchantment. Saving money, buying gems and locating items constructed of rare materials all can take a significant amount of time. Not to mention finding fresh corpses to withdraw essence from can present social and logistical difficulties when you are a stay-at-home crafter.
Life Essence
Withdrawing essence from a corpse is a ritual and takes 10 minutes as well as a DC 15 arcana check.
Life essence can be removed from defeated foes within 1 hour for each level of the creature. A monster of CR 17 once killed could be drained of essence up to 17 hours after its death. Life essence can only be stored in items of beauty and artistic value. The greater the beauty and/or artistry the greater the capacity for storage. Each point of essence requires a storage object of 10 GP. So 2 points of essence would requre a storage object of 20 GP value or greater. If you have a 30 GP Painting you can store the spirit essence from 6 different rats with a creature rating of 1/2.
Spirit storage can happen over time. The essence once stored does not dissipate and multiple spirits can be stored in one item. For example if you have a 100 GP gem you can store a 5 CR Bugbear essence on Tuesday the 12th. On Friday the 28th you could store a 2 CR Dire Wolf essence in the morning and in the afternoon store a 3 CR Troll essence in the afternoon. The essence points equals to the creature’s rating.
If a storage item is destroyed all essences stored in the item are released and lost to the character.
Moral Implications
You are not stealing a creatures “soul”. You are merely retrieving residual life essence. Essence which would dissipate over time naturally. However the majority of the population may not understand the distinction and might react badly the a ghoulish hanger on at the local Funeral Parlour.
tags: rpg - crafting - brainstorming