I must create a system, or be enslaved by another man's. I will not reason and compare: my business is to create.

- William Blake

Sunday, November 05, 2023

AD&D DMG cover to cover - part IX, pages 114-169 (MAGIC RESEARCH/ITEMS and TREASURE)

We´ve been reading the original DMG - the ultimate DM book! - but from a B/X and OSR point-of-view.

Check the other parts of this series here

Today we discuss MAGICAL RESEARCH, USE OF MAGIC ITEMS and TREASURE.


MAGICAL RESEARCH 114
— CREATION OF HOLY/UNHOLY WATER 114
— SPELL RESEARCH 115
— FABRICATION OF MAGIC ITEMS, INCLUDING POTIONS AND SCROLLS 116
— NON-STANDARD MAGIC ITEMS 118
USE OF MAGIC ITEMS 118
— COMMAND WORDS 118
— CRYSTAL BALLS & SCRYING 119
— DRINKING POTIONS 119
— APPLYING OILS 119
— POTION MISCIBILITY 119
— ENERGY DRAINING BY UNDEAD OR DEVICE 119
TREASURE 120
— RANDOM TREASURE DETERMINATION120
— EXPLANATIONS AND DESCRIPTIONS OF MAGIC ITEMS 125
— Potions 125
— Scrolls 127
— Rings 129
— Rods, et al (Including Staves and Wands) 132
— Miscellaneous Magic 136
Artifacts and Relics 155
Armor and Shields 164
Swords 165
— Miscellaneous Weapons 168

MAGICAL RESEARCH

This section contains detailed rules explaining how the PCs can create potions, spells, scrolls and magic items in general.

It mixes "hard" rules (e.g., costs and durations for the various tasks) with common sense advice (e.g., do not allow spells that are too powerful, compare new spells to existing ones, and so on). 

Holy water is treated first, apart from other potions/items, for no apparent reason. Nothing particularly interesting here.

Spell research is next. The rules are simple enough: "The basic cost for spell research is only 200 gold pieces per spell level per week", research takes a couple of week per spell level (and total dedication from the researcher).

There is an easy formula to calculate chances of success. Since the process requires repeated rolls, the chances of success look very slim.

Fabrication of magic items, potions and scrolls begins by saying "A properly run campaign will be relatively stringent with respect to the number of available magic items, so your players will sooner or later express a desire to manufacture their own".

Keep this in mind.

Beginning at 14th level an illusionist may attempt to make items with a truly permanent dweomer, such as a +1 dagger or a ring of protection, for example.

I find this example interesting for two reasons: it would seem that a +1 dagger is very weak for a 14th level illusionist; and there is no +1 dagger on the rest of the chapter (see below). But this is just a curiosity, it doesn't affect the example.

Potion creation is also described with relatively simple rules. They may require special ingredients, such as powdered kobold horn or a mind flayer brain. Neat!

Scrolls follow the same pattern: some clear and somewhat arbitrary rules, some interesting details (about the fabrication of ink), etc.

Magic item creation is described in a vague manner; apparently, the rules must be completed with the PHB.  

One example mentions using a "wish" spell to create a ring of spell storing. I am almost tempted to check to see if the PHB explains why you can't just with for such a ring, but I'll focus on the DMG for now.

"In all cases, the manufacture of any magic item other than a potion or scroll will be so debilitating as to necessitate the maker to rest for one day for each 100 g.p. of the item’s experience point value, i.e. one with a 2,000 experience point value means 20 days of complete rest.". 

Okay.

USE OF MAGIC ITEMS

This section describes miscellaneous questions: command words, crystal balls, drinking potions (it takes 1d4+1 "segments" for them to work), oils, and energy draining by undead and devices - which apparently has almost NOTHING TO DO WITH MAGIC ITEMS, except for the fact that one or two magic items (out of hundreds) can drain levels (like undead).

Sigh.

Well, we do get a very cool table about what happens when you mix potions - they might cancel each other, improve, turn into poison or even EXPLODE - sometimes after you have imbibed two portions! 

Fun stuff!

TREASURE

This section does not talk much about all kinds treasure, but mostly about magic items (plus MAPS). There is no mention of other possible treasures, such as art, fine clothing or luxurious items.

"PLACEMENT OF MONETARY TREASURE" is back in page 91.

A hoard may contain a map to another treasure. Nice. Keeps PCs adventuring.

This map will lead to more magic treasure about 30% of the time.

Magic treasure contains 2-3 items on average.

Remember that "a properly run campaign will be relatively stringent with respect to the number of available magic items"? I'm not sure the author followed this advice, but this is an error already admitted back in the treasure section. I mean, the campaign section.

Here, the author also advises to "Keep potent magic items rare. (Increase scarcity by destroying or stealing what is found!)". 

To me, it would be easier just to give away fewer items.

Pages 121-169 is just a long list of tables and magic items.

And, I must say, this one is incredibly creative and comprehensive.

The author really knocked the ball out of the park with this one.

There are hundreds of items, with sub-tables to give them unique traits, resulting in literally millions of possibilities.

Lots of things have values in gold and XP. 

Some items are almost self-explanatory (sword +2), other require detailed explanations. 

There are a few ridiculously tautological descriptions such as:

"Leather armor +1 is usable by those characters permitted to wear this form of armor."

Several items have unique effects. Some also have unique stories. 

There is not much about their appearances, unfortunately, except to notice magic items often look ordinary (the word "normal" is also mentioned many times).

Sometimes, items look like other magic items, that look ordinary... which doesn't make much sense. For example, the Horn of Bubbles "appears as a normal horn, or possibly any one of the many magical  ones". 

In other words: some magic items look ordinary. But the PCs will know some of them are magic anyway - and end up using cursed items because of that.

---

Allow me a brief detour. 

This is from Supplement I - Greyhawk:
Horn of Bubbles: This device exactly resembles a Horn of Valhalla, but when it is sounded it will bring forth a cloud of bubbles which surround its holder, completely obscuring his vision for 4-12 turns.
Greyhawk doesn't explain if there is anything special about the looks of the Horn of Valhalla (except the metal from which it is made).

In short, the author seemed to assume initially that the players would know a Horn of Valhalla, and then the Horn of Bubbles was created as a trap. But now both look ordinary, and the "trap" only works if you detect magic on it and hope for a positive effect. And the Horn of Valhalla is, by itself, a trap now (unlike the original version, you have to be a certain class or get attacked).

Anyway, I find these "trap items" curious, but for my players I'd give some items a distinct appearance and let them try it at their peril, without the need for confusing a magic item for another.

---

Scrolls are described here too. The author obsessively assigns different reading times, in segment, for each scroll. I cannot see myself powering through to this level of detail.

Rods, staves and wands are implement to create various magical effects. Each has its own limited number of charges. The obsession with segments often appears here too.

"At your option 1% of all wands are trapped to backfire." 

Yes, please!

MISCELLANEOUS MAGIC is a catch-all category of magic items. It includes swords (separated from other weapons - and "scimitar" is under other weapons...), armors and shields, in addition to powerful artifacts and relics.

This organization feels completely arbitrary, like many other DMG sections.

But the contents are awesome- the book includes most D&D classic items you can think of: Bag of Holding, Book of Vile Darkness, Deck of Many Things, Figurines of Wondrous Power, Gauntlets of Ogre Power, Ioun Stones, Portable Hole... in short, more items than you could ever use, and this is before we get to artifacts and relics!

So, let's get to them!

"Each artifact or relic is a singular thing of potent powers and possibly strange side effects as well. Regardless of how any of these items come into your campaign, only 1 of each may exist." 

These things are truly legendary - the book gives you a description, but you must assign powers and effects by yourself from other tables:


Because of the unique nature of each artifact and relic, their powers are only partially described. You, the Dungeon Master, must at least decide what the major powers of each item are to be. This prevents players from gaining any knowledge of these items, even if they happen to own or read a copy of this
volume, and it also makes each artifact and relic distinct from campaign to campaign.

As you can see, the fear that players might know the items beforehand was constant - but not a real problem in my games.

While this is a nice idea to provide great variety and mystery to magic items, it looks like a time-consuming process (the powers are not organized in a "random table" fashion; you choose them instead of rolling) and weakens the "mythic" significance of the items somehow (e.g., legends about the Axe of Dwarvish Lords should tell you about its properties - but since the Axe appears randomly, you're unlikely to assign effects before the PCs find it).

I can understand the reasoning - some effects would not mix well with certain items. But maybe you could list most effects and add some notes on replacing them as necessary.

These artifacts, as you can see, are very busy; the axe has lots of special powers even before you add your own.

There is not much more to say about swords, armor, etc., except that, again, all the classics are here: intelligent swords, Vorpal swords, Mace of Disruption, etc. Some are inspired by classic fantasy, of course, but overall this is a comprehensive list.

Most swords (and daggers) shed light when drawn, which is a good idea because it allows fighters to take advantage of them without detect magic. This doesn't seem to apply to maces, axes, etc.

A table of random weapons and another table of random weapon effects would be nice. But this is not hard to extrapolate from existing weapons and tables (e.g., the table in page 125, that lacks a simple "dagger +1", and the one for swords on page 124). 

Overall, these items are all very flavorful and varied. They resemble myth, fantasy, sci-fi, weird science, and even cartoons. The author suggested some restraint when allowing different races. Here, the reasoning seems to be that "everything goes". 

And I think this makes the game more fun. You could use this list to any weird setting.

Some final notes:

Armor of +3 bonus is of special meteorite iron steel, +4 is mithral alloyed steel, +5 is adamantite alloyed steel.

Makes me think a +1 weapon could simply be made of "Valyrian" or Damascus steel, for example, something I considered here.

Axes (hand, not battle) can be thrown up to 3” with the hit probability bonus, but no damage bonus.

Note to self: write a post about how old school D&D was right to limit the damage caused by ranged attacks.

And... that is it. We finished the main part of the DMG! 

The rest in appendices - which contain some great stuff too.

What have we learned today?

This is one of the best sections to use with your B/X games (or any OSR game). Having clear rules to create/buy potions and magic items is handy. Having more magic items to choose from is useful. Powerful weapons are a cool addition for fighters.

Despite any criticisms about the organization and verbosity (and I know I have been too harsh at some points), these items are classics, and will certainly add fun and variety to your table.

It is very interesting to look at the 5e DMG and see that, compared to the original, the "improvements" were really limited - and I don't remember many games with better magic items either (IIRC correctly, Numenera is largely based around discovering magic items, but I haven't played it).

BTW, check Dark Fantasy Magic Items if you want something leaner, with more random tables, or 100 Magic Weapons for finished examples.

Coming next... the APPENDICES begin! 

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10 comments:

  1. Long time no see! Here's my notes on this section so far:

    Creation of Holy Water - this section is a bit of a two-for-one - how does one make holy water and what should a cleric player spend money on. Good flavorful stuff, expressed in classic AD&D baroque fashion.

    Spell research - I'm not sure I understand how spell research interacts with % chance to know, but I like the advice on researching new spells - having a player write the spell out and determining the level are both good. The cost of spell research being 2000 GP/spell level/week is actually *higher* than B/X, provided the character doesn't have a library. The bit about the library provides a good little nudge towards establishing a base early on.

    The procedure here is actually subtly different from B/X (I think). You prepare for a number of weeks equal to the spell level + 1, and then after that, roll *each week* to see if you succeed at your research. This is a really nice sunk-cost type gotcha where you can really drain a M-U’s funds.

    Manufacture of magic items - I like that scrolls and potions can be created at lower level compared to 9th level required for such in B/X. I'd consider extrapolating this concept even further and maybe allow the scribing of scrolls at say 5th level, as a house rule for B/X. Also, I like that the cost and time to create a potion is determined by the XP value of the potion - a nice use of the more detailed AD&D system - these costs can be used for B/X. I like the note about an alchemist halving the cost and time for creating a potion. One thing to note - the “special ingredients” required for each potion are quite significant - you're unlikely to get a potion of dragon control until you can get a dragon brain, ie you can slay the dragon without the potion. Seems like some smart balancing

    Scrolls - at a glance, these rules are a bit over the top. I really could not care less whether a scroll is written on parchment or vellum or papyrus. The bit on ink is super flavorful, but might be easier to use if it were simpler, perhaps by dictating a basic cost + some bonus for using a flavorful component (ie, your scroll of petrification has a much lower chance of failure if written with a cockatrice feather quill, or similar). Also hidden in this section is the rule for transcribing a scroll to a spellbook - the same time requirement as placing the spell on a scroll, which is nice and simple, though no cost is listed (no cost in the DMG, though UA lists 100 gp / spell level, which I'd consider lifting into my B/X game. Like the general magic item creation rules, the rule for preparation time followed by rolling until you succeed at scribing the scroll is very nice.

    Fabrication of other magic items - some discussion on using the Enchant and Permanency - spells AD&D includes specifically for this kind of long-campaign type play. The many reminders about any interruption spoiling magic item creation (and magical research, if I recall) reinforces Gygax’s earlier statements about NPC M-U’s not wanting to be bothered by meddlesome adventurers. Magic item creation prices aren't laid out with a general formula like spell research, potions and scrolls, but the requirement for enchanting “objects of the finest quality” per the examples suggests significant expenditure.

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  2. Non standard magic items - despite the extensive magic item collection in the dmg, Gygax expects each DM to create magic items specific to their campaigns, which is great. Gary's warning about disallowing these non-standard magic items is actually pretty interesting, as it suggests a few things: first, that cross-campaign character migration was frequent enough to be worth addressing, two that magic items are expected to have downsides and three that players likely will not know about these downsides. This really reinforces an idea I've seen espoused in the OSR - that players need to toy around with their magic items to find out what they do, rather than using a spell to identify them.

    Command words - I’m surprised to see command words associated only with rods, staffs and wands - I figured they were the default method for activating any activatable magic item. Also, despise Gary omitting this option, I'm somewhat inclined to simply write the command word on the item for most activatable items - the players still get the fun of testing it to find out what it does.

    Drinking potions - potions not requiring a full round to consume makes sense for AD&D minute long rounds, and I think is nice from an “action economy” standpoint. Chugging a healing potion instead of attacking and then getting hit the next round for all the HP you just healed feels bad in every edition of D&D. If I understand AD&D combat sequence correctly, you're not losing out on attacks in most circumstances by consuming a potion, which is nice.

    Potion Miscibility - fun! A lovely little sub-system for creating unpredictable effects when potions are mixed. Great as a game-balance mechanism and also for expressing that “dangerous substances bubbling away in an alchemical laboratory” flavor that potions should have. B/X simplifies this into “mixing potions makes you sick for 3 turns and neither potion works” which is simpler, but much less flavorful.

    Energy draining by undead or device - In AD&D, a drained character only drops in XP to the mid-point of the new (lower) level, rather than the lowest XP possible for the new level, as in B/X. I think softening energy drain in this way is a good change to help keep a character slightly more viable after draining. Also, there's an interesting rule here not found in Basic D&D - when a level 1 character loses a level, they become a level 0 character (unlike in B/X, where they become dead, and then turn into the monster that killed them). While the rule says these level 0 persons are “never capable of gaining experience again” I think the intent here is really to provide a little more buffer to keep characters alive when subjected to truly nasty amounts of level drain. I'd assume characters drained to level 0 can still be the target of Restoration spells to regain their lost levels.

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  3. On the subject of characters drained until death, Gygax lays out a neat little system for creating flavorful undead adversaries with character levels, vampires in particular. I like the flavor of slaying the original master vampire allowing for their thralls (including drained-to-death characters turned into undead) to then become masters themselves.

    Treasure

    Map or magic determination - 10% of the time you get a map is nice and high, which is great because treasure maps are awesome. This is actually pretty similar to the percentage of maps expected to show up when rolling a magic item in B/X (which is about 7.5% of magic items)

    Map table - solid advice on determining a location for the hidden treasure, how it might be concealed and what value of treasure it might lead to. The maps tend to lead to big hordes of treasure including some nice caches of magic items - some of the combined hoards even have more maps in them. Great stuff. Also, I love the classic Gygaxian screwjob of including a chance of a false map.

    Magic items - similar overall categories to B/X with some different probabilities. AD&D gives out more miscellaneous weapons, and less scrolls (which account for almost ¼ of all B/X magic item rolls)

    Potions - similar to B/X but adds extra-healing, super-heroism, oil of etherealness, oil of slipperiness, philter of love, philter of persuasiveness, sweet water and water breathing. Also, there's a couple interesting notes - first, the DM is instructed to convince players that a potion of poison isn't harmful, which is very funny to me. Second, there are potions only fighters can use (another little hidden boon to fighters - there are a lot of these in AD&D)

    Scrolls - compared to B/X, we've got a more detailed system for determining the level of each spell on a scroll (seems overkill) and the addition of protection from demons, protection from devils, protection from petrification and protection from possession. The curse scroll recommendations are absolutely brutal - “reader turns to liquid and drains away” - not only do you die, but probably can't be resurrected. Do curse scroll readers get saving throws? Lastly, XP values for protection scrolls are quite high.

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  4. Rings - quite a few additional rings compared to B/X - contrariness, elemental command, feather falling, fire resistance, free action, human influence, mammal control, shooting stars, swimming, warmth, and ring of wizardry - the list of rings has almost been doubled! The ring of animal control isn't here - instead there's a version limited only to mammals

    Rods, staves & wands - another much larger list compared to B/X, with the additions of the Rod of Absorption,Rod of Beguiling, Rod of Resurrection, Rod of Rulership, Rod of Smiting, Staff of the Magi (an expanded Staff of Wizardry), Wand of Conjuration, Wand of Frost, Wanna of Illumination, Wand of Magic Missiles, and the Wand of Wonder.

    Comparing the AD&D magic items vs the B/X items is sort of a nonsensical task - I suspect it's mostly a roundabout way of looking at what items were added to OD&D (which B/X follows pretty closely) in the Greyhawk supplement (which forms much of the basis for AD&D).

    Miscellaneous magic - lots of “new” stuff compared to B/X - too many for me to want to enumerate individually. In B/X we've got about 30 misc magic items, in AD&D we've got almost 200, including the “special” table stocked with Artifacts and Relics. OSE Advanced adds 100 of these items - curious what was left out.

    More to come soon!

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    1. Hi Sleeper! Long time indeed! Nice to have you back! Great observations. You addressed some fine points that I've missed, and I'm in complete agreement (e.g., level drain).

      Now, on to the appendices... I hope I can tackle then soon!

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  5. I finished off reading the rest of the magic items and took somewhat detailed notes but they're not really worth posting. In general, I noticed a couple trends when reading through the magic items:

    - Additions / Expansion in Scope: AD&D includes a bunch of new stuff compared to the OD&D magic item lists (which B/X hews very close to). A large portion of the "new" stuff is very powerful, seemingly to go along with things like the higher level limits and the more exotic adventuring locations (planar travel, etc). Artifacts are the big obvious one, but also weapons and armor up to +5, and lots of new, powerful stuff throughout the various item categories
    - Interconnected Design - items tend to point towards other parts of the game - there are scrolls for Druids and Illusionists, there are magic swords with alignments from the nine point system, there are potions and protection scrolls and arrows of slaying the affect specific types of monsters. Magic armor *size* is different for humans, elves, dwarves and gnomes + halflings. There are potions of longevity that counteract all of the magical aging from Haste and other spells. AD&D seems to a bit more of a "closed" game than B/X - still hackable should you want, but likely requires more work than B/X.
    - Commitment to the "Gygaxian Screwjob": lots of the magic items have a cursed version of themselves, or some kind of potential downside, including many of the new ones. This was present in OD&D and continued strongly in AD&D.
    - "Balance" tweaks - scrolls with spells above the casters level include a chance to fail, certain intelligent sword powers now include shorter ranges or a max number of users per day, many of the potion durations have been reduced from multiple turns to 5-20 rounds. There's a lot of little stuff like this that probably was the result of many years of OD&D playtesting. It's not super common, but shows up here and there.

    One other thing I realized, reading through all these items, is that I'm not quite sure how (or if) the experimental methods for figuring out what a magic item does works for all items. For items with multiple activatable powers (like a Staff of the Magi), does one command word "unlock" them all? What about items with powers that activate in specific circumstances like a Rod of Smiting, which does double damage vs *Golems* specifically. It seems like at some point the chargers *must* use Sages or certain spells to identify items.

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  7. *characters (in my comment above)

    Anyway - highlights of this section for me have to be the magical research system - I really like the roll-until-you-succeed method here which both nicely models the way researching something can take a variable amount of time and you may never know if you're on the right track and serves as a potential cost-sink for your M-U's, the treasure maps section - which isn't that different from Basic/OD&D, the Potion Miscibility table, which has such excellent flavor and the general commitment to keeping an element of danger in the magic items - almost everything you find *might* be dangerous.

    Lowlights are the scroll creation which is both too vague (on cost and/or special ink ingredient requirements) and too fiddly (parchment vs papyrus vs vellum), magic item fabrication not having some better numerical cost guidelines and a more thorough discussion of intentional magic item placement. I think the idea of randomly generated treasure is great but if you look at all the published low level AD&D modules - what items do they actually contain?

    In your post you mentioned two things I wanted to touch on - magic item availability and "trap items"

    On magic item availability - I suspect that the item saving throw system on pg80 does a lot to reduce (over time) by attrition the accumulated magic items a character posseses. It's not laid out very clearly, but I think items are subject to saving throws much more frequently in AD&D - at least whenever the character fails a save and the item is exposed, if not more often

    On trap items - I haven't run enough old d&d to really know, but I suspect that a Horn of Blasting isn't really something you'd ever want to put in a campaign randomly. Likely it would best be used as a "gotcha" for players who go "oh this treasure hoard contains a horn? Surely that's a Horn of Valhalla - I've read the book and that's the only magical horn in there!" (which was probably more common in 1979) Or as a false reward located somewhere that's clearly meant to trick the players, perhaps in a false treasury while the real treasury contains the (previously foreshadowed) Horn of Valhalla. Either way, the "trap items" don't seem to make sense outside of the context of the items they imitate - rolling them randomly and placing them doesn't seem to make sense (at least for the specific ones)

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  8. One other thing while I'm spamming this post - when you get to Appendix A: random dungeon generation, definitely give it a test run on some graph paper. I'm curious what you think about it.

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    1. Thanks!

      Your comments are very welcome here, spam as you wish ;) !

      I have to get to the appendixes soon; and I've been thinking about random dungeon generation, although I have my reservations:

      https://methodsetmadness.blogspot.com/2024/02/vanilla-overdose-random-insanity-and.html

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