In Taranche, most magic items are both difficult and expensive to create, requiring a considerable amount of time, effort, and expense to craft.  Crafting a magical sword, or an enchanted suit of armor, or even something as small as a magical ring can take a wizard years of effort and require rare and hard-to-acquire spells and ingredients.

As such, relatively few enchanted items exist, and those that do exist are cherished by their owners.  They are never put up for sale except in extremely unusual circumstances, and will never be found on the shelf in a shop.  (This rule holds even for potions, the only generic type of magical item; potions must be made fresh specifically for each purchaser, so an alchemist or apothecary who sells a potion or two never has them lying around waiting to be sold.)

Other than potions, generic magical items (such as the archetypical "+1 sword") do not exist; each item is unique, and has a name and a history all of its own.  Rather than finding a "+1 sword" in a monster's treasure horde, the character could find "Lindenuil, The Never Sleeping Blade" that was forged four hundred years ago by the Garth of Bor Tyressul and used by that wizard in the Goblin Wars.  It still gives only a minimal bonus, but its a much more interesting item.

Players who wish their characters to begin play in possession of a magical item must pay for that item with character points as if it were a spell or spell-like ability.  Characters who acquire enchanted items during game play will have a point deducted from all future experience point awards per magic item they acquire until those items are paid off.  That way, they can continue to use the item while still fulfill the rule regarding enchanted items being paid for with points.

When paying character points for an enchanted version of an item that the character can normally acquire simply by paying for it with money (a magic sword that does an extra die of damage per successful strike, for example), the character must pay the cost of both the base item and the enchantment.

Required Limitations

All enchanted items must be built with at least the following limitations:

• Focus: The value varies according to the nature of the enchanted item:
  • Armor: Obvious Inaccessible Foci (-½)
  • Rings: Obvious Inaccessible Foci (-½)
  • Staffs: Obvious Accessible Foci (-1)
  • Wands: Obvious Accessible Foci (-1)
  • Weapons: Obvious Accessible Foci (-1)
  • Miscellaneous Items: Determined on a Case by Case Basis
• Independent (-2)

Recognizing Magical Items for What They Are

Some enchanted items clearly have magical properties (the glow, levitate, more under their own power, reduce those who touch them without saying the command word to ash, etc.).  Most, however, don't.  As a wise man said, "Not every rune-covered sword is magical, and not every magical sword is rune-covered."  The most common way of determining whether a particular item is enchanted or not is Detection magics.

Crafting Magical Items

With the exception of potions and spell scrolls, the crafting of an enchanted object has a great and sometimes terrible cost, and even when everything goes right, is never a guaranteed success.  The first cost is time.  The rituals and procedures needed to turn an ordinary object into a magical one can take days, weeks, months, or even years depending on the power of the item and the complexity of the magic.  Most items take 1 week per 10 active points in the item.  The second cost is effort: enchanting an item is taxing, detailed work that cannot be interrupted.  The crafter must focus his whole attention upon the item; in some cases even sleeping and eating disrupt the process.  Third, the process is materially expensive, requiring equipment and ingredients and a proper workspace.  The GM will determine the necessary time, effort, and ingredients to craft an individual item.

Knowledge Skill: Artificing must be known before a wizard can even begin to contemplate creating a magical item.  Other skills may be necessary as well.

Potions

As mentioned above, potions (and related items like magical salves, elixers, and so on) differ from the other enchanted items in that they are generic magical substances created for a specific temporary effect.  They are built as Useable By Others spell-like powers with the Obvious Accessible Focus (Fragile, Expendable) and Charges Limitations.  Each dose of the potion consumed uses up a Charge and expends part of the Focus.  When all charges are gone, the Focus is totally expended and the character must acquire more before the powers may be used again.  This is a Recovers Under Limited Circumstances (-¼) limitation.

Potions do not take the Independent (-2) Limitation, because even if they are lost or destroyed, the character can always brew another one.

Scrolls

In game terms, a scroll that has been scribed with an arcane spell is simply a power that has the Independent, Obvious Accessible Focus, Requires Light to Use, Incantations, and Charges That Never Recover limitations.  Most scrolls can be read only by those possessing the Gift talent.  If the spells inscribed on a scroll can be read by anyone, that is a +1 advantage to the power.