The Art of Enchanting Weapons

In my opinion, magick was the weaker of the two opposing schools of thought in Arcanum. For that reason, I would really like to see an enchantment skill included in Arcanum 2 that would allow those of magickal persuation to add graduated damage and/or other bonuses depending upon the level of the caster.

For example: an aprentice of the force colledge of magick might be able to add a knockback bonus to his/her weapon while a master of the same college could enchant his staff with a paralysis feature. Troika would probably have to limit the number of buffs/enhancments to a certain kind of material. For example: iron has the potential to hold one enhancement while steel can contain two and mithril, the rarest metal, three.

I'm thinking that the enchantment skill might have to be separate from the other colleges for reasons of game balance. Anyway, just my two cents worth.

 

You mean as a completely new skill? Like Haggle, or Melee etc.

You would have to be able to add enchantments from scrolls though, because otherwise, you would have to learn the required magick first, and that would alter the game balance to people who get spells just for their enchantment use, rather than the spell itself.

You could do it from spells, but by using a scroll (destroying the scroll in the process) you could place it on the weapon or armour to enchant. Each spell level would require a certain magick aptitude.

Also, spells might be placed directly, so fireflash might place a +5 fire damage on a weapon, and desintegrate a +10 lightning damage - just like the magick equivalent of the pyroaxe or electrified sword.

 

What are you smoking? Magic was ridiculously overpowered. You could get through the entire game just using Harm, a FIRST LEVEL spell.

 

It would be an interesting twist if you had to enchant items in order to use a spell. It would take more forethought and planning than simply selecting a different spell - and maybe even balance it out better with tech.

 

I never thought of it in the light before, but I believe that you're right. It would certainly be more balanced, not to mention ingenius, than if one used spell scrolls, gems, or some other item.

I've also been thinking about the material side of things. It seems to me that not every iron, steel, or mithril weapon could be enchanted, only those that have been consecrated by a mage or priest and these metals would be more expensive and rare. In this way the player character wouldn't be able to unbalance the game both in terms of money and combat.

 

OK, but every time you want to make something using your tech skills, you have to have 20 diodes, 15 transistors, a broken fork, a fish called Gerald, and then you have buy a drink for the first purple Gnome that walks into the bar of the place you want to make the object in.

Seriously, there is no point in making any system so complicated, and besides, it would seriously unbalance magick (yes, really) because it would be like having to make each device, or weapon over, everytime you wanted to use it. How would you like it, if each pyroaxe only lasted for one hit, before you had to remake it? :???:

 

What I mean is that you would cast, say, Harm on an amulet, then equip the amulet, in order to use the spell. It would limit how many spells you can use without rearranging your equipment.

As for tech, it IS ridiculous. They should arrange the items into larger groups, any of which is usable.

For example, any kind of hat should be usable for the Tesla Hat. Even helmets. And you should be able to use Steel to make a Dwarven Axe, as well as Sheet Metal.

 

But not all metals are of the same value, the dwarven metal you have to use is probably a lot better than most any other metal.

 

That is true. Most of the technologies in the Smithy area are dwarven based, and, therefore, are made of things that are easy for dwarves to find. However, maybe there could be a way to change metals, alloys, and ores from one to the other... Maybe alchemy. It would take a little magickal aptitude to do it right (that way, it would have a bit of a negative), but you could change any metal to any other metal with just a few herbs.

Mithril is supposed to be very easily turned magickal, because of it's ability to hold magick so well. It is also very strong and light (read LoTR), so it is great for armor as well. So, mithril armor could easily have a spell cast on it that would make it even stronger and lighter, say a spell called "strengthen".

 

Now that's a good idea for another possible magick school, Alchemy, the ability to transmute certain metals into amalgams which have some of the strengths and weaknesses of each component metal or, in this case, spell slots.

Anyway, just my two cents...

 

Magick Weapons

It would be nice to have generally better magick weapons, stuff like a useful staff, something with a nice spell built in to make it somewhere near as good as a real weapon

 

Spell slots would work just fine; the more expensive or rare the metal, the fewer spells you can enchant it with.

As for the tech issue, worse metals and items could lead to penalties on the advantages the technology gives (guns made from sheet metal could get a negative modifier to damage, for example).

 

Or would break while in use. If you made a gun of sheet metal, the barrel would probably melt all over your hands, breaking the gun, and giving you some sever burns.

 

There is no way the heat generated from a gunpowder blast could melt the sheetmetal. However, the explosion certainly could peel the barrel like a banana, causing some nasty shrapnel damage to the user.

 

I don't know much about guns or metal, so I only suggested it, not enforced it.

 

If they do decide (which is a really big if) to implement enchantmet, I'm all for it. I hope they pay attention to balance. Enchanting in Morrowind was very satisfying but unbalanced.