So I'm currently writing a story that is similar to D&D and my main character is a Wizard. The world has all kinds of races, Elves, Dragonborns, Halflings, Warforge, Dwarves, Changelings, and many others, but very little magic.
Because there isn't much magic in the world my main character is creating Spell Scrolls from the spells he does know and is selling them to make a living. However, a new character in the story, also a Wizard, is making slightly better and different Spell Scrolls than my main character.
Because of this, my main character is slowly losing business, so he has decided to try and make Magical Items in hopes he can regenerate business and not have to worry about competing with his new rival.
The question I have is, how would my main character find/create a blueprint/schema of a magic item in a world that doesn't have alot of magic in it?
I know on the DMG, pages 128 and 129 it talks about making a Wand of Magic Missiles as a example: you need a wand, you need to have proficiency in Arcana, you need to be able to cast the spell Magic Missile, and you have to work 8 hours and spend 25gp each day till you pay the total cost for the item, and then it's created.
And on the WGtE, page 47, it says that you need a Schema to create a magic item, that it is basically a recipe or blueprint needed to create such items.
So once again, how would my character find/create a blueprint/schema in a world with very little magic in it? Also how would you describe it in the story?
It would depend on how you imagine magic works in your world. What makes the magic missiles hone in on a target? How do magic items retain or regain their magic when spells are typically temporary? The reason why these books don't outwardly state "this is how you do it" is partly because this is incredibly complicated and will confuse most readers who are not going to care and partly because it's going to be very different since everyone understands D&D magic differently. It's not a very set and specific thing - relying heavily on a DM to decide how stuff really works. It gives you only a little bit of basis "the weave of reality" but this is vague and fanciful and open to interpretation (by design).
I will say, for story instead of an actual game, forget the books about "costs" - it's there for a gaming balance mechanic but outside of that it is logically stupid because "cost" and gold value changes and is purely subjective. Think of real world gold: it used to be common, used in everything and was worth less than silver. Now it's worth a lot because it's gotten a lot more rare and subsequently more coveted while silver has grown more common (our ability to find, mine and even make it has grown). Value changes, over time and in complicated economies such values change instantly and constantly. Stock market values change every hour, for example. So, something that has no sentience about value like Magic, will not give a tiniest bit of a shit if something is worth X amount of Y metal to Z people. For magic, something will be "what it is" forever. A special herb component will be exactly the same whether it is common or rare. A diamond is still a diamond and will still have the exact same properties whether they're rare and pricey or common and cheap.
Components in D&D are a dodgy area to rely on in general. Some make sense as a sort of idea of intent or sympathetic magic but others have no real "in-world" logic like Detect Thoughts is a copper coin - there's nothing about copper or coinage that related to telepathy. The reason for this component isn't in-world logical magic but rather a joke referencing the old phrase "a penny for your thoughts" - this phrase was stemmed by a passage in a book (specifically "Four Last Things" by Sir Thomas More in 1522 - thank you Google). The author was just being fanciful but it stuck and became common as is want to happen.
So if you want to get a real answer that is going to be from you and not somebody solving it for you (which can be easily read by anyone reading your work) I'd suggest thinking long and hard about how you want magic to work if you want to genuinely go into detail about this. Otherwise, just keep it vague and focus less on the specifics and more on the character's thoughts and desires.
If you do want detail and would like us to help let's start with just a few questions to get this going:
What is Magic?
Where does it come from?
How does spellcasting work?
Are there material components, what do they do, why do they work and why are they needed?
What are wands? If just wood, why makes that wood work when a stick out in the woods doesn't? Is there a process to make it a wand, if so, what is that process as if turning wood into magical catalyst is a process could that process be relevant to magical items?
Why are spells temporary and limited but magical items permanent?
If magic is limited how was it discovered to such a point where people could be wizards?
How are spells created in the first place?
This might be enough to start to get at least a basic idea of how to begin to provide details. There's a reason why any decent fantasy novel with a story heavily reliant on magic details takes years to write.
Wow... I was looking for a simple answer, but damn dude, you gave me the best answer in the world, holy shit.
Now you got me rethinking my entire story now. Don't get me wrong, I am truly grateful for your answer and it makes absolutely perfect sense the way you put things, but wow.
I dunno, this just sounds like a quest to me. An old tome contains the secret location of a plan for this. How does your wiz find the tome? And what’s involved in finding the blueprint. And then the components?
The rarer magic is the more insane the prices will get. In a terminally low magic campaign a magical sword with no abilities other than 'its magic' could be considered an artifact. In such a story even owning a blueprint for a magic item is doomed to get you killed unless you have a monolithic organisation behind you. Its simply beyond valuable and its possession might define a kingdom or a empire, and its loss to that regime would be beyond measure. Eventually ownership will be ceded to an organisation and from there Internal politics and external pressure will drive the story into following the original owners wishes or using it to facilitate anothers quest for power.
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So I'm currently writing a story that is similar to D&D and my main character is a Wizard. The world has all kinds of races, Elves, Dragonborns, Halflings, Warforge, Dwarves, Changelings, and many others, but very little magic.
Because there isn't much magic in the world my main character is creating Spell Scrolls from the spells he does know and is selling them to make a living. However, a new character in the story, also a Wizard, is making slightly better and different Spell Scrolls than my main character.
Because of this, my main character is slowly losing business, so he has decided to try and make Magical Items in hopes he can regenerate business and not have to worry about competing with his new rival.
The question I have is, how would my main character find/create a blueprint/schema of a magic item in a world that doesn't have alot of magic in it?
I know on the DMG, pages 128 and 129 it talks about making a Wand of Magic Missiles as a example: you need a wand, you need to have proficiency in Arcana, you need to be able to cast the spell Magic Missile, and you have to work 8 hours and spend 25gp each day till you pay the total cost for the item, and then it's created.
And on the WGtE, page 47, it says that you need a Schema to create a magic item, that it is basically a recipe or blueprint needed to create such items.
So once again, how would my character find/create a blueprint/schema in a world with very little magic in it? Also how would you describe it in the story?
It would depend on how you imagine magic works in your world. What makes the magic missiles hone in on a target? How do magic items retain or regain their magic when spells are typically temporary? The reason why these books don't outwardly state "this is how you do it" is partly because this is incredibly complicated and will confuse most readers who are not going to care and partly because it's going to be very different since everyone understands D&D magic differently. It's not a very set and specific thing - relying heavily on a DM to decide how stuff really works. It gives you only a little bit of basis "the weave of reality" but this is vague and fanciful and open to interpretation (by design).
I will say, for story instead of an actual game, forget the books about "costs" - it's there for a gaming balance mechanic but outside of that it is logically stupid because "cost" and gold value changes and is purely subjective. Think of real world gold: it used to be common, used in everything and was worth less than silver. Now it's worth a lot because it's gotten a lot more rare and subsequently more coveted while silver has grown more common (our ability to find, mine and even make it has grown). Value changes, over time and in complicated economies such values change instantly and constantly. Stock market values change every hour, for example. So, something that has no sentience about value like Magic, will not give a tiniest bit of a shit if something is worth X amount of Y metal to Z people. For magic, something will be "what it is" forever. A special herb component will be exactly the same whether it is common or rare. A diamond is still a diamond and will still have the exact same properties whether they're rare and pricey or common and cheap.
Components in D&D are a dodgy area to rely on in general. Some make sense as a sort of idea of intent or sympathetic magic but others have no real "in-world" logic like Detect Thoughts is a copper coin - there's nothing about copper or coinage that related to telepathy. The reason for this component isn't in-world logical magic but rather a joke referencing the old phrase "a penny for your thoughts" - this phrase was stemmed by a passage in a book (specifically "Four Last Things" by Sir Thomas More in 1522 - thank you Google). The author was just being fanciful but it stuck and became common as is want to happen.
So if you want to get a real answer that is going to be from you and not somebody solving it for you (which can be easily read by anyone reading your work) I'd suggest thinking long and hard about how you want magic to work if you want to genuinely go into detail about this. Otherwise, just keep it vague and focus less on the specifics and more on the character's thoughts and desires.
If you do want detail and would like us to help let's start with just a few questions to get this going:
This might be enough to start to get at least a basic idea of how to begin to provide details. There's a reason why any decent fantasy novel with a story heavily reliant on magic details takes years to write.
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Wow... I was looking for a simple answer, but damn dude, you gave me the best answer in the world, holy shit.
Now you got me rethinking my entire story now. Don't get me wrong, I am truly grateful for your answer and it makes absolutely perfect sense the way you put things, but wow.
I have an idea.
To make a magic item, it must consume something which physical or emotional effort has been put in. The more effort, the more magic is in them.
It might be a ring of a true love, or a painting that took 20 years to make. The more effort put in the item, the more powerful spells are created.
This could be one of the incentive for your wizard to go on a journey in the first place.
Hope I helped somewhat! xD
I dunno, this just sounds like a quest to me. An old tome contains the secret location of a plan for this. How does your wiz find the tome? And what’s involved in finding the blueprint. And then the components?
The rarer magic is the more insane the prices will get. In a terminally low magic campaign a magical sword with no abilities other than 'its magic' could be considered an artifact. In such a story even owning a blueprint for a magic item is doomed to get you killed unless you have a monolithic organisation behind you. Its simply beyond valuable and its possession might define a kingdom or a empire, and its loss to that regime would be beyond measure. Eventually ownership will be ceded to an organisation and from there Internal politics and external pressure will drive the story into following the original owners wishes or using it to facilitate anothers quest for power.