Mystical Items

Items with supernatural or equivalent abilities are one of the hardest things to balance within a campaign, not because they cannot be precisely quantified and valued, but because doing so defeats much if the point. When it comes down to it, the difference between Features and Mystical Items is that the latter is something the players often feel they have earned or tricked out of the world.
In most cases, this attitude is blatantly flawed, since the Game Master still has to make such items available to the players. However, the fact that Mystical Items are independent from the normal leveling system gives them a certain wonder in the eyes of players whose characters are usually completely subject to said system.
While we advise making Mystical Items a form of easter egg treat for players, that they can gain satisfaction from discovering, Game Masters can incorporate them into the level system if they feel it necessary. An easy way to do this is to require players using the item to invest FP in the item equivalent to the cost of the item’s effect if it was a Feature. If the creature does not have enough FP, or refuses to loose that FP when picking up the item, the item will not work for whatever in game reason the Game Master gives. Likewise, if the player’s character ever looses the item, they regain the invested FP as if it was a lost Feature.
We recommend doing this in the event that a player wants to either start the game with a Mystical Item or gain a Mystical Item out of game play. This situation is more akin to choosing a Feature and should be treated as if it is. If this is not the case, we recommend not incorporating Mystical Items into the level system.
The Mystical Items shown in the following section aren’t given direct costs in any currency, since such a currency is best quantified by the Game Master for the individual campaign. However, they are sorted by general value: Low, Medium, High and Overpowered.
Naturally, the details of what each category means is up to the Game Master, but it is assumed that Low value items will be the minimum of what Mystical Items can do, having a functional FP cost of one or less.
At the opposite extreme, Overpowered items are assumed to be outside the grasp of any ordinary person. Having such an item is either the product of great fortune or the equivalent of having purchased a personal jet with in built swimming pool. These items would have an FP cost of four or greater.
Serving as the middle ground, medium and high items are achievable for a well off person, but not trivial. Medium items have an FP cost of 2, while High items have an FP cost of 3.
Of course, the degree of rarity and value should vary by campaign, being at Game Master discretion. Some campaigns may be the magical equivalent of a first world country, Mystical Items filling the roll of electronics and common amenities. In such a campaign, anyone with average or above income would likely own items up to the High value, such magic being seen how technology is in the current world.
Conversely, some campaigns might have magic of any form be extremely rare and ill understood. In such a campaign, even Low items would be a wonder sowing awe and caution in the common people.
It is also an option for a player’s character with Magic or a similar Feature to create Mystical Items. Game Masters may simply choose not to allow this, but it is an interesting aspect of the Magic Feature that many players will enjoy. This can be kept in check by the simple fact that the DC for creating Mystical Items is still set by the Game Master.
Simply setting the DC as high as feels appropriate for the availability of Mystical Items will easily keep the character from making an over abundance of them. Another method is to require the character to discover in game how to create specific items or requiring special resources, making their creation only partially based on Magic.
The DC for any specific item should be set by the Game Master as appropriate, but a general rule of thumb is that a Low value item should be under DC 20 if the character is taking a week or more to make it. If made in a week or less, a Medium item should be over DC 30, a High item should be over DC 40 and a Overpowered item should be over DC 60. As normal, taking longer to create the item will require a lower Casting Check. These numbers should be changed where appropriate, especially for Low and Overpowered items, which vary in actual value.