Magic Items

Magic is a versatile thing and can be applied in many different ways that mutations normally cannot do. One such example is binding magic to an object. Whether it's because you can never remember the correct Latin phrase for your spells, you're worried about offending people with your hand gestures, or you just really wanna see your gaming miniatures get up and dance, there are many different ways items can be used to facilitate a person's magical experience.

Magic items come in three official categories. Characters may call any of them what they want, but for clarity’s sake, our official mechanics are divided as follows: Focus items, Enchanted items, Charmed/Hexed items.

## Focus Items

These are items that are ritually created as conduits for magic for the purpose of empowering magic, enabling additional control over a spell, or bypassing the typical cost or activation requirement of a spell.

Focus items do not contain an inherent spell or effect, but are used to focus or refine specific spells or types of magic being used through them. As a result, only a Mystic can make use of them, for they contain no inherent magical charge.

### Examples

* A wizard who typically uses verbal incantations may use a carved staff with silver runes to cast lightning magic without needing to speak spells aloud.
* A summoner may use a jeweled crown to establish reliable control over the squad of golems they created, so they can focus all their power on just maintaining their forms.

## Enchanted/Blessed/Cursed Items

An enchantment is when an object is imbued with a spell that can then affect other things. A carrier, they magically convey an effect to other things. Negative enchantments are generally considered curses. Rarely, a positive enchantment might be called a blessing. Whether an enchantment is a blessing or a curse is typically subjective.

No enchantment lasts forever and will eventually fade over time or have all of its power used up, in which case the mystic needs to recast the spell on it.

### Examples

* A potion grants a person the full knowledge of a specific book they’ve never read. It may start losing efficacy after six hours if it’s not consumed and completely vanish if not drunk that day.
* A mirror causes anyone who looks at it to see themselves exactly as they imagine themselves to look. The mirror might stop working after ten times it’s used.

## Charmed/Hexed Items

When a magical effect is applied directly to an item, changing or altering it in some way, it is considered charmed (if the effect is considered positive) or hexed (if the effect is considered negative).

While Metation is perhaps the most obvious school of magic for charming or hexing items, it is not the only school that can. Charms and hexes also wear off over time and use and will then have to be reapplied or re-powered by the mystic.

### Examples

* A sword blade burns hot enough to slice through other metals (charmed) or melts under the intense heat (hexed).
* A toy dragon looks and sounds like it’s talking and interacting with you (charmed) or the toy dragon looks like it's decaying and sounds like it’s screaming in agony (hexed).

## Game-play Mechanics

**Inactive magical items do not radiate any kind of magical residue.** Barring an Asceision spell, a Mystic can only detect magic if the enchantment, charm, or hex has been triggered and the Mystic is actively trying to sense the flows of magic.

**Enchanted/Charmed/Hexed items can generate or carry a single effect up to Advanced in level, or up to three effects for a combined total of three tiers of magic (one Intermediate and one Beginner effect, or three Beginner effects).** Attempting to enchant, charm, or hex an item that someone else has already done something to without linking with that person will cause magical backlash to the person trying the second spell and can cause the item to melt, explode, or burst into Wild Magic effects. However, if you want an item more powerful than that, for maybe a specific thread or a plot idea, run your idea by the mods and we’ll see how we can balance things or sign off on one-off exceptions, such as adding a negative magical effect or approving it as long as it’s no longer usable at the end of a plot.

**Non-mystics are able to use enchanted/charmed/hexed items as long as no magic is required to activate the effects.** However, any non-mystic character wanting to use a specific Intermediate or Advanced-level magic item in more than one thread needs to run it by a moderator first. Sporadic or one-off magical items are fine, but frequent, reliable use of a high level spell or item is not. Your mutant should not be picking up a different lightsaber or Cloak of Awesome in every thread.

When a magical item runs out of uses or the spell on it ends, the spell can be recast on the item.