Enchanting

Enchanting is the process of imbuing an item with magical spell-like properties. There are many enchanted items in the Astral Reach, and many creatures with the knowledge of how to create different kinds. Enchanting knowledge in the modern era is more limited than it once was, but artificers throughout the Reach are working to re-discover the techniques that the dwarves and gnomes and elves of old used, now lost to time.

## Enchanting Items as a Player

***Prerequisites:** Proficiency with Arcana, the ability to cast 2nd-level spells, and at least 1 level of Wizard or Artificer*

To enchant items, you must have a sufficient background in working with and creating magical items. Usually this means you are an Artificer or a Wizard, though other classes can have experience with this sort of crafting. You must meet the prerequisites listed above, and you must also have access to the facilities, materials, and spells necessary to create the item you have in mind.

Enchanting is a downtime skill, as described in the downtime rules. You may use this skill to craft certain enchanted objects, as per the features described below. You can also use this downtime skill to craft items found in the Dungeon Master’s Guide. Refer to the descriptions below for instructions on using this skill.

### Facilities

Your enchanting workspace must include a worktable, an enchanter’s kit, tinker’s tools, and a runic circle. Additionally, you cannot work within a magically Consecrated or Desecrated space. Certain enchantments may have more specific requirements for workspace.

Inscribe Runic Circle

*Enchantment cantrip*

***Casting Time:*** 10 min (or 1 hour\*)

***Range:*** 10 ft

***Components:*** S,M (100 gp of chalk, gemstone dust, and residuum)

***Duration:*** Special

You inscribe a runic circle for use in your enchantments on a horizontal surface. This spell can create a circle up to 10 feet in diameter; for larger circles, an additional 50 gp of materials must be used for every 5 feet of additional diameter.

The circle created by this spell can be either permanent or temporary. If you choose to make a temporary circle, you may recast this spell on your circle to retrieve all the materials used. If you choose to make a permanent circle, the casting time increases to 1 hour, the materials cannot be retrieved, and the resulting circle cannot be destroyed or dispelled unless the physical object it is inscribed upon is broken or shattered.

A temporary circle can be disrupted as an action, or by any casting of Dispel Magic*3rd-level Abjuration*
**Casting Time:** 1 a
**Range:** 120 ft
**Components:** V,S
**Duration:** Instantaneous
Dispel any magical effect on crea or object; make DC 10+SL spellcasting ability check if above SL used. When a circle is disrupted or destroyed, any creature within 10 feet of the circle takes 2d6 force damage, and the materials used to create the circle are consumed.

***Runic Circles.*** The runic circle is the primary tool of an enchanter, though it has a few other uses. To be used for an enchantment, a runic circle must be at least as large in diameter as the longest dimension of the object you are enchanting. You gain *Inscribe Runic Circle* as a cantrip:

Runic circles can store magical power within them. Usually this is slowly released throughout the enchanting process, but the release can also be triggered on other conditions. You gain the following feature:

***Spell-Storing Circle.***  You may cast a spell which does not require an attack roll, targeting a runic circle you created. The spell is stored within the circle. You may choose any trigger for the circle; if the trigger condition occurs within 24 hours, the spell is cast depending on its range:

* + If the spell has an area of effect centered on a point in space, it is cast centered on the center of the runic circle.
	+ Otherwise, the spell targets creatures or objects within the circle’s area, prioritizing targets closest to the center of the circle.
* If the trigger does not occur within 24 hours, the spell fizzles with no effect. If the circle is disrupted, destroyed, or dispelled, the spell within is cast immediately.

??
--

All enchanted items require some amount of Residuum to channel the magic they use. This substance is mined as greenish crystals that shimmer with a silvery glow, and is refined into a sparkling white-green dust to be used in enchantments.

The residuum cost of an item can be estimated as about 50% of its retail price. Utilizing magical focuses or other creative ingredients can lower this cost further, at the DM's discretion, to as little as 25% of its retail price.

### Magical Focuses

Utilizing materials for your magical item that already have a magical essence within them will greatly increase the item's compatibility with the magic of the enchantment, and make it easier and cheaper to create. Some examples for these types of materials include mithril or moonsilver, elemental fire, dragon scales, manticore quills, phoenix feathers, vampire blood, pixie dust, or a unicorn hair.

### Residuum

The true fuel of any enchantment is residuum dust, discovered ages ago by forgotten alchemists. This substance is quite literally magic dust; the essence of magic distilled and crystallized into a physical form. It is most often traded as a lightweight, sparkling, silvery powder. The dust has about the same density as water, and a gram of dust is worth around 10,000 gp. Residuum can be found naturally as large, delicate crystalline formations in some locations of the Astral Sea, or it can be recycled from disenchanting (destroying) existing magical items.

Due to its rarity and the fact that practically every sort of enchantment requires it, residuum is itself a currency throughout the Astral Reach. Its high cost-to-weight ratio and universal demand make it tradeable in any society that has some knowledge of enchantments. Its value in the major continents of the Reach is very consistent, so amounts of residuum are most often described in terms of their gold cost.

When a magical item has an associated crafting cost in gold, that cost represents the cost of the residuum needed to complete the enchantment (and does NOT include the cost of any raw or exotic materials). When disenchanting a magical item, the item produces 20% of its crafting cost in residuum. Note that the process of disenchanting an item may require specific tools (such as a magical furnace) or a special ritual to complete.

## Disenchanting

Magical items can also be destroyed permanently to gain access to the residuum used in their creation. This is not a lossless process: disenchanting an item tends to produce an amount of residuum valued at about 1/5 of the item's cost. The technique to disenchanting a magical item can be learned by any mage:

*3rd-level transmutation (ritual)*
* Casting Time: 1 to 8 hours
* Range: Touch
* Components: V, S
* Duration: Instantaneous

Casting this ritual allows you to turn a magic item into residuum. When you touch an item after casting this ritual, you destroy it. The magic item ignites in a brief flash of brilliant light, then dissolves to silvery-greenish dust, turning it into a quantity of residuum valued at 1/5 of the item’s price.
A magic item can only be disenchanted by magic users with a spell casting level that matches the rarity of the magic item according to the table below.

 Rare
 Very Rare
 Legendary

 Rules
 Equipment
 Downtime | Researching  •  Sparring  •  Carousing  •  Alchemy  •  Foraging  •  Managing a Business  •  Performing  •  Recovering  •  Training  •  Aiko's Mushroom Lore  •