Magic 101

Magic Items and the ItemMaker.

Once you start gaining levels you should start finding the odd magic item in your treasure and being given it as rewards for completed quests. Once you gain rank 3 in the mages guild you can buy magic items there (which incidentally can also be the easiest and cheapest way of buying good quality metal weapons at low levels!) Items that you find or buy will only ever contain a single enchantment so for that special something you need to gain your fifth rank in the guild and get to that item maker! Items can sometimes be more useful than spells as you can use them when your spellpoints are low and even when you're paralysed it seems! There are also some enchantments that are only available to put on items and not in spells. For these reasons there are some items that are always worth carrying for emergencies, such as heals and cures and the all essential recall, levitate and water spells.

Once you are able to buy magic items in the guild you will find that items of healing are quite easy to find. Items that enhance skills are also quite common as are levitation and the water spells. In my experience it is always worth carrying items of both healing and levitation for emergencies.

When you get access to the item maker one of the first priorities for the serious magic item collector is an item that repairs things. If you plan on using magic items a lot and want to keep them in good condition you should have at least two of these! Other useful things are items that strengthen armour, particularly for the magic user types that are limited to use of chain armour or less. And if you're a fan of dungeon crawling an item of extra weight allowance will help you carry more goodies out with you. This is also the place where you can arrange to increase your store of spell points by creating an item for the purpose.

These are some of the effects that are not available for spells and I have never seen them used on items found in treasure:

repairs items - repairs all worn items, including magic ones if using the magicrepair cheat
strengthens armor - increases the armour class of worn armour
regenerate health - regenerates your hit points without resting
featherweight - enchanted items have minimum weight, good on cuirass or heavy weapons
extra weight allowance - can double the amount you can carry
extra spell points - increases your available spell points by season

Be aware that some of the enchantments have two types, one passive and one active (for example, spell absorption). Wherever possible choose to use the passive version as this will cause less wear on the item. Generally the effects chosen from the top level of the effects menu are passive effects, rather than those selected from the 'when worn' or 'when used' lists. Also be careful about putting two 'when used' enchantments on the same item as they will both go off together without any further control from you when you use them. And remember that the more an item is used the more it will wear and break so be careful which enchantments you combine in one item.

For multiple enchantments my preference is to use a main passive effect along with an emergency 'when used' spell to make up the enchantment points. This gives less wear on the item and putting mulitple enchantments on a single item means less items to carry taking up less weight.

Any enchantable item has a limited number of enchantment points but these can be effectively increased by adding disadvantages to the item. You can also soul bind an item to increase enchantment points but this usually comes with an additional set of disadvantages. Good quality gems and metals make the best vessels for enchantment but naturally these come more expensive!

These are some of the items that I have found useful:

Mark of Mending - repairs objects when resting
Blacksmith's Helm - as above, gives extra repairing in dungeons when wear is high and sleep is limited
Ring of Fortification - repairs objects, strengthens armour and has a stamina spell for emergencies
Torc of Mana - increases spell points in all four seasons
Unrestrainable Bracelet - essential for non High Elves to avoid frequent death from paralyzation!

Full details of these items can be found here.

Once an item has been enchanted in the item maker you cannot add any further enchantments to it even if it has points still available so be sure you've finished before hitting the 'enchant' button.

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