ND/Enchantment Through Deeds

## Enchantment Through Deeds

Each PC has several pools of Deed Points that normally start at 0. Deed Points stay with a PC and can be applied as CP to buy Advantages, Perks, and Skills for specific pieces of equipment. After Deed Points have been applied to a specific piece of equipment, they stay with that equipment but are still available (subject to some restrictions) for applying to other pieces of equipment.

Certain NPCs may start with Deed Points and Deeded Equipment, most noticeably the Luminals.

### Deed Pools

Normally, a character has three Deed Pools: Weapons, Armor, and Miscellaneous. Weapon Deed Points can only be applied to weapons, including the character's unarmed attacks and shields. Armor Deed Points can only be applied to armor, including shields or the character's body (though in a limited fashion). Miscellaneous Deed Points can be applied to jewelry, clothing other than armor, and any other type of equipment, including the character's body.

### Earning Deed Points

There are lots of ways to earn Deed Points. The general rule is to do stuff, and then to do awesome stuff on top of that:

* A PC earns 3 Deed Points (1 Weapon, 1 Armor, and one that can be applied to any pool) for every significant fight they're in.
* A PC earns Deed Points for doing significant non-combat activities (sneaking into a fortress to open the gates, negotiating an alliance with the minotaurs, finding the Lost Orb of Phantasma). The GM will specify the amount and which pools the Deed Points apply to.
* A PC earns a Weapon Deed Point for defeating a foe in a memorable manner (massive damage, an arrow to the eye, a really impressive critical hit, picking up the foe and throwing them out a window).
* A PC earns a Deed Point for surviving an impressive set of attacks (Actively Defending against 4 or more skilled foes in a single turn, dodging multitple lows from a giant that can disable the PC in a single hit)
* In Mass Combat, a PC earns a Deed point for each round of the battle, and another for any Significant Actions by the PC. If the Significant Actions don't break into a Detailed Action, the PC earns another 3 Deed Points.

### Spending Deed Points

Deed Points can be spent to enhance equipment, including the PC's body, by
buying Advantages, Perks, and Skills. Once spent, Deed Points cannot be changed.

* Weapon Deed Points can be spent freely between the PC's equipment and the PC's body.
* No more half the Deed Points in each of the Armor and Miscellaneous pools can be spent on the PC's body.

No Advantage, Perk, or Skill comes into effect until the PC has spent at least 10 Deed Points on that piece of equipment. Weapon, Armor, and Miscellaneous Deed Points applied to the body count separately for activation purposes.

Each Deed Point buys 1 CP worth of Advantages, Perks, or Skills.

* Deeded items may not take Gadget limitations.
* Extra skill for equipment costs a flat 4 points per level of bonus and only applies when using that piece of equipment.
* Imbuement skills can be bought for the item, and in addition to the Imbuement advantage, the individual Imbuement skills cost 4 points for level 12 and 4 points for each additional level. Item Imbuement's are always independent of the user's abilities, though the user has to pay the Fatigue costs unless the item has an Energy Reserve.
* The weight of an item can be reduced by 4 lbs for every point spent. This is Payload 2 (Exposed -50%) [1] with a default ST of 10 and a BL of 20. For simplicity, an item's ST cannot be increased to change the Payload.
* Thrown weapons can return to the thrower's hand for 5 points. The weapon returns instantly after being thrown, cannot be caught, and is instantly ready to used in the next attack. This does nothing if the weapon is dropped or stolen.
* Loyal items cost 5 points. If the item is dropped or disarmed and lands within 2 yards of the owner, it returns to the owner's hand at the start of his next turn and is immediately ready if handheld. If it is farther away, it will travel back to its owner at Move 6, and the owner must make a Ready maneuver to catch it when it returns. Foes can take a Wait/Ready maneuver and roll DX-4 to catch it as it moves past them. The item will attempt to break free every second with ST 10, and anyone other than the owner trying to use it has a -4 penalty to any skill to use the item. The owner can willingly transfer the loyalty at any time, and ownership ends with the death of the owner. Another deed point increases flight move to 10 and each additional deed point past that doubles flight move.
	+ For 5 more points, the weapon teleports from up to 20 yards away instead of flying. The owner can use a Ready maneuver at any time to have a handheld or small item within range instantly appear in his hand or on his body. Larger items, such as armor, instantly teleport back but the owner must spend the normal amount of Long Actions to ready the armor or other long item. If the item is farther away, it teleports at 20 yards per second until it reaches the owner. If someone else is holding the item, they must win a Quick Contest of weapon skill or ST to hold onto the item but the owner can continue attempting to resummon it. Each additional Deed Point doubles the teleport range.
	+ For 5 more points, the item cannot be picked up or wielded by anyone other than the owner. Anyone else who tries finds it weighs 101x their basic lift. The owner cannot use this effect to imprison people: it only has effective weight for those trying to use it.
* Agile weapons cost 5 points. Agile weapons lose any U in their parry characteristic and ignore † and ‡ readying requirements.
* Follow-up attacks using a melee weapon's inherent damage as a carrier use the +0% value as though the melee weapon were a natural weapon, instead of taking Melee limitations. Follow-ups using a ranged weapon need to include the Increased Range or Reduced Range to get a Range 10/100 attack to meet the ranged weapon's range, as well as any other applicable modifier for Area Effect, Cone, Extra Recoil, Guided, Homing, Jet, Rapid Fire, or Reduced Recoil. Modifiers for Emergencies Only, Limited Use, Preparation Required, Takes Extra Time, Takes Recharge, Unconscious Only, Uncontrollable, or Unreliable are not applied to the Follow-Up enhancement cost, though the attack modified by Follow-Up may have any of those as normal.
* Instant armor costs 5 points. Anyone holding the armor (or other large item) may put it on with a single Ready maneuver. If the item is Loyal, the same Ready action may be used to catch it or summon it.

### Changing Equipment

The first time a piece of Deeded Equipment is passed on to someone else (voluntarily or involuntarily), it immediately loses 10 Deed Points worth of enhancements. If that leaves it with less than 10 Deed Points, it no longer has any active Enhancements. Killing the owned of a Deeded item does not strip the item of existing Deed Points, beyond losing the usual 10. If the original owner of a Deeded Item recovers it, it immediately recovers the lost 10 Deed Points and the owner may spend any additional earned Deed Points on it.

If a PC picks up a new piece of equipment, they may immediately use any active Deed enhancements. After earning another 5 Deed Points with that piece of equipment, the PC may spend their full Deed pool on the new equipment. The new equipment is not required to have the same enhancements as any previous equipment and the full Deed pool (less any allocated to the PC's body) can spent as the PC wishes.

*Example*: John has 20 Deed Points in his sword. He fights the Sanguine Count, who has 45 Deed Points in its spear. John claims the spear as his new weapon and can use its 35 Deed Points, and gives his sword to his squire, who can use its 10 Deed Points. After John earns 5 more Deed Points with the spear, he can spend all 25 of his Weapon Deed points on it. If after earning another 10 Deed Points with the spear, he loses it to a rust monster and has to start again with an ax, he'll have to earn 5 more Deed Points before enhancing the ax with his 40 Weapon Deed points. If his squire dies and he gets his original sword back, the sword goes back to having 20 Deed Points and John can spend another 20 Deed Points on it (he has earned 20 Weapon Deed Points since giving up the Sword).
The enchantments on an existing item can be 'reset' at any time: the item's enchantments all stop working, and the user must earn another five deed points with that piece of equipment, just as if they'd given the item away. Once they've earned the necessary deed points, they can spend their entire deed pool again as if it were an entirely new item. This is useful for keeping Weapon Bonded or Signature Gear items around if poor choices were made early in the wielder's career.

### Upgrading Equipment

Upgrading equipment (by making it Balanced, Fine, or whatever) does not change the amount of Deed Points in the equipment. Armor with Deed Points can be upgraded piecemeal, as long as at least 55% of the armor coverage stays the same and 5 Armor Deed Points are earned and applied between upgrades.

*Example*: John's career starts with him wearing a mail shirt, leather pants, and a pot helm. After earning 10 Armor Deed Points, his armor is magical. John replaces the leather pants with plate greaves. The enhancement stays. After earning 5 more Armor Deed Points, John replaces the pot helm with an Orichalcum helm and the enchantment stays. He then also replaces the mail shirt with plate harness, but since that changes more than 45% of the coverage, the enchantment moves with the shirt and his new plate harness is not enhanced (and the mail shirt loses 10 Deed Points and also becomes unenhanced). If John then earns another 10 Armor Deed Points, he can spend all 20 Armor Deed Points on his plate harness and chose the same or a different set of enhancements than he had on his mail shirt.