Special Items: Introduction and FaQ's

How to design a special item, how to apply for one, etc

Moderators: Twerlinger, lyllamarie

Special Items: Introduction and FaQ's

Postby lyllamarie on Mon Aug 04, 2008 9:10 pm

Special Items

Special Items (SIs) are various items, ranging from Weapons, Armor and Artifacts, that are possessed of powerful capabilities, usually magical in nature. Due to these abilities they are able to perform effects and such that might not be achievable through any other means.

SIs are generally divided into 5 categories, in increasing level of power - Named Items(NIs), mini Item of Power (mIoP), Items of Power (IoPs), Relics and Legendary Items(LIs).

mIoP’s, IoPs, Relics and LIs are created by the Relics Staff and assigned out through the Ownership Request Procedure. This includes meeting a level requirement, participating in a Quest that rewards such items, and on occasion is rewarded at the discretion of the game Administrators.

NIs are a different group of SIs, as they generally arise when players have an enchanted item which has grown along with them in significance within their RP. Once they are past level 10, they can then apply to make their enchanted item a Named Item, to be recognized as part of the lore of Belariath.

SIs have some special properties, which will be covered below.

Properties of Special Items

Non-Transferability
SIs may not be handed around, passed around, given to someone else, or sold. They are distributed and can only be redistributed by going through the Relics Staff. They may not be handed ICly within the game for another character to use or employ in any sort of battles or situation, though other characters may hold them for a time, such as when attempting to steal them.

This also includes NIs - once they have been accepted as an NI, they may not be sold or passed around to other characters, without approval of the Relics Staff.

Non-Alterable
The attributes of all and any SIs may not be changed, be it through adding new enchantments, increasing the slots / power of the enchantment, or changing the functionality of the ability. If issues come up, suggestions for changes can go to the Relics Staff, or the Relics Staff may rebalance items along the way to keep in line with game balances.

SI Special Abilities
SI special abilities can only be used when the SI is equipped or in hand, since they are required to actually bring forth the energy for such a special ability. The only exceptions are in cases when the Ability on the SI does not require such an effect.

When applied to SIs which are Weapons, the SI must be be the one used in the attack when one is performing an attack through the SI's special ability, even if the character has other weapons in hand.

eg. If Zeph had a Crystal Sword +5 in one hand, and his Relic, Whirlwind Axe in the other hand, he STILL has to use the Whirlwind Axe to perform the Whirlwind attack SI ability. He may not use the modifier of his Crystal Sword +5 to perform such a move.

SI Creation System

Each special item will hold a fixed number of slots:
- one for MIoP - issued ad hoc by Ops and quest organisers
- three for IoP - issued to a character after a significant enough quest has been run, determined by quest team
- seven for relic - issued to a character at level 40
- twelve for LI - issued to a character at level 60


General

- All effects are integral to the special item. They do not remain with the character if the item is withdrawn
- Items issued as rewards in quests or events do not count towards the level entitlement but are additional
- All existing items will be reworked to fit this system or the holder may have them scrapped and a new item created
- A slot is a slot is a slot. They don't have variable power based on the item, higher level items have more slots instead.
- Stronger effects take more slots.
- Penalties are optional but do not gain extra 'positive' slots to offset them. If someone wants a curse on their item, it takes one of the available slots. There is no increase in overall slot numbers to account for penalties.



Combat Effects

- A combat effect will always take two slots
- There will only ever be one combat effect on any special item. The other slots will be used for r/p effects
- It is not *required* that an item has any combat effects at all. It can be purely roleplay based
- A combat effect can be based upon an existing spell or an existing skill
- A combat effect will not directly affect attack or defense on a blanket basis (ie they do not affect direct attack or defense against *all* opponents).
- A combat effect may be used for a non- ATK/DEF blanket ability such as using DD to escape combat, access to the fly spell, etc
- A combat effect may have the ability to target a specific type of opponent for ATK/DEF (ie a single class or race, for example gaining a higher DEF (plus mod to dice rolls) when fighting a Moriel but not other races)

Combat Effect Spells

- A combat effect based on an existing spell should be out of sphere, not one that can be acquired normally by the character
- Since the combat spell is OOS the character cannot hold the spell normally and stack them
- Combat spells do not stack with enchants. If both are held then the more powerful of the two is the one used for dice modifiers.
- A combat effect defined as a spell could go beyond the spell from which it evolves by a *reasonable* amount. This could include the ability to hold the effect without loss of STA, the ability to DD out of an enclosed area, etc
- A combat effect spell can be unique to the special item but if so it should equate in power to existing spells

Combat Effect Skills

- A combat effect skill will not stack with the same skill acquired via skill points, so no overall increase in power
- Combat effect skills may be OOC (out of class)
- A combat effect defined as a skill may go beyond the skill from which it evolves by a *reasonable* amount.
- Combat effect skills have the same limitations on ATK/DEF as combat spells
- A combat effect skill can be unique to the special item but if so it should equate in power to existing skills


Role-Play Effects

- Minor roleplay effects will take one slot
- More advanced roleplay effects will take two or more slots
- The focus of roleplay effects will be upon abilities not normally available from existing spells or skills. Use your imagination to make your character unique!
- Roleplay effects which can also be used in combat are always counted as combat effects
- A maximum of four special effects can be held on a relic or LI (four roleplay effects or three r/p effects plus one combat effect).
- Items can hold less than the total allowed by having fewer, stronger effects



Integrated Special Items (Artifacts)

- There will be an ability to evolve a lower special item into the next higher when the character becomes due to own one. So an IoP can evolve into a combined IoP/Relic, etc
- MIoP's cannot be used in combined items
- Only one of each class of special item can be combined. If a character holds two IoP's and a relic, only the level-issued IoP can add to the relic for a combined item
- Combined items will hold the total slots of the items which comprise them. So a combined IoP/Relic will hold ten slots
- Such combined items can hold a number of combat effects equal to the number of items combined. But no combat effect will require more than two slots. IE If it is wanted to combine a Relic and a LI then there can be two combat effects, each taking two slots - not one more powerful effect taking four slots
- No artifact is required to take any combat effects at all
- Up to three items (one each of IoP, relic and LI) can be combined into an Artifact
- An artifact comprising two combined items can carry up to a total of five effects. An artifact comprising three combined special items can carry a total of seven.
- A player can roll up existing special items into an artifact to create a new item not based on the existing ones
- Such combined items (artifacts) will always require approval


Super-Items

- A new layer of more powerful special items will be added later for issue at the HC discretion to characters above level 80
- Current LI's may be suspended by their owners to await this new level if requested. However the super-items will still be based upon this system and any suspended LI's may not be used until they are revised.
The player of
LyllaMarie{SB} || Sutara || Ebilese || Hellian Cros || Kuma || Imogene
User avatar
lyllamarie
High Council
High Council
 
Posts: 3874
Joined: Fri Jul 06, 2007 10:48 pm
Location: lurking on the message board.

Return to Relics and LI's

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 2 guests


cron