Introduction
1/1 2/2/2/2/1
1/1 2/2/2
6,6,6,2,6,6,6,1,2,2
Do those numbers mean anything to you or am I trying some ASCII version of a matrix meme?
This short guide will explain, with pictures, creating magic items from scratch: namely the iconic mash of numbers above.
I'm not going over Runes. There's a great guide already on Runes posted by Edens_Fall, written by an unknown author, and that's found here: viewtopic.php?f=14&t=34783.
Lately I've been making items for people but this nebulous mechanic leaves me very often getting tells like, 'Sure, yeah, do that thing you're showing me in the trade window because I have no idea what can be made or how to make it.'
Nothing here is a big secret, it isn't FOIG, and nobody is hiding it. Just like many of Arelith's older systems it's simply buried under years of updates, awesome new mechanics, fancy EE polish, and people like me who do this as second nature muscle memory without realizing that it's incredibly obscure and maybe should be explained to a rapidly growing playerbase.
Dweomercrafting has been around for… actually I don't know. Longer than me and probably many others. Over 7 years at least. I just spent five years doing Wizard Stuff, have been mashing these buttons thousands of times, and I still readily admit I plain don't know how some of it works even now.
What we're going to talk about now, however, has been around forever. I know at least this one thing well; despite the litany of changes surrounding Dweomercrafting, the traditional 1/1 2/2/2/2/1 and 1/1 2/2/2 has never lost its style, so it's time that someone just writes it down to benefit new and old alike.
So let's do it.
Context
What are the numbers above?
1/1 2/2/2/2/1 translates to Ability/Ability Skill/Skill/Skill/Skill/Minor Skill.
1/1 2/2/2 translates the same, but for rings because rings are more difficult to make.
6,6,6,2,6,6,6,1,2,2 is how you add +2 Spellcraft to an item.
Further Examples wrote:There is a small list of exceptions to this recipe. Weapons, some armors (full plate in particular), some shields (use wood or untyped shields for best results in the basin), boots (mostly because +1 AC on boots throws the recipe off), and a few other things I'm probably forgetting.
Examples below.
Doing It
Quick Summary wrote:One of the most important aspects of Dweomercraft, quite simply, is that the value of the item determines the chance of success. This is why it gets more difficult as more powers are added, why full plate is more difficult for example (higher base value), and why we always put the cheap skill bonuses on the item first.
Before we get into this you must have Tier 3 Dweomercrafting. You can read the variety of ways to get this tier here. Got it? Good.
Today we're going to make a 1/1 2/2/2/2/1 glove, also known as a 'Soft 5% item.'
Skills are the easiest/cheapest to add to an item so always begin there.
Once you've got your skills added then throw on your first primary ability score. It should look like this:
Now unless you're willing to dump your entire bank account into this trivial item then STOP. It's time to talk about God saves and Hard/Soft 5%.
God Saves
Our new glove is barely holding together with all that magic on it, and there's only a 5% chance we could ever succeed in adding that final ability score.
Oh, but what's this?
There is only one way that I know of to tell whether an item is a Hard or Soft 5%, and it isn't my epic photoshop skills in the picture, but it is in whether or not you will lose experience on failure. Yes - that's it. That's the only way.
This is what a hard 5% looks like for contrast.
Our glove won't lose us experience if we fail the next ability score.
So what does this all mean?
It means that we can 'God Save' the final attempt. This makes this item cost us closer to twenty/thirty thousand gold versus maybe ten times that amount if we're unaware of how this system actually works.
Put plainly: It's called a 'Soft' 5% because if you factor in the God Save mechanic it is not really 5%.
We don't know the actual chance of a God Save, but after years of doing this it feels close to 50/50 or 60/40 if you make the attempt at 99-100% piety.
Recent updates made it so the percentile chance of your God Save is equal to your current piety score; IE 100% Piety is 100% God Save chance.
Keep in mind there is a cool down on the save so you can't just churn out items. I don't know how long it is but it never has seemed to be a problem by just doing it now and then between much more important things like RP or adventuring.
So go pray to Asmodeus or Tyr (or both) and come back when you're good and Divinity'd up.
Done? Okay. Put the glove in the basin, carefully navigate to your final ability store, and press OK. Schwing!
Pictured: Jubilation.
Here is our finished glove. I think it cost me a little under twenty thousand gold to make for this guide (and for someone IG), but I got a tad lucky this time around.
That's all there is to it. If you're patient and know what you're doing - you can have a full inventory of equipment in a few days for much less gold than you think.
I mentioned rings earlier, but they have the same exact concept only with three skills instead of five. Here's a ring:
Hard 5% Items
'Hard 5% Item' is an item similar to what we just made. Most commonly it is one of these items plus an additional Universal Save +1. These are made slightly different from the start - instead of start with ability scores after your skills (which you can do all +2s instead of a single +1) you plug in the Uni Save first, and then the two abilities after.
These are very difficult, expensive, and take a lot of time. Here's an example of a 5% belt. Note that the positive resistance is a defensive essence added after the item was finished and doesn't factor into the making of any item if you use them once it is done.
Final Words
Thanks to the Rune system, lootables, and many new craftable items this isn't the ultimate must-have gold standard of magic items and it's much less 'mandatory' than it was five years ago.
I wouldn't say this is the only way to have a strong character, or make a good item, and I'm sure people are whipping up some pretty clever trinkets, but I've been using stuff like this recipe for ages and getting along just fine and I'm sure you can too.
Enjoy!
I see the explanation now - appreciated.