A more informative wikipage for the enchantment system?

[Opustus]

I beseech ye, cursed powergamers. For long the enchantment system has baffled me. I've asked some people to explain it to me time and time again, and I understand it for some time, but because I might suffer from some form of early onset dementia, I always forget how it goes. I also don't play a whole lot, so I don't spend almost any time by the enchantment basin.

This keeps repeatedly reminding me what a strange and totally obscure system enchanting gear is on Arelith. The current wikipage doesn't offer much details to the new player. Is that because it's considered FOIG? If so, I've felt it's nearly impossible to find out about the system in-character without talking stats, which always makes the conversation more reasonable OOC.

First, I suggest that there should be a table of percentage values describing how enchantable properties increase the enchantment chance. I don't even know if different gear is enchantable / scalable to a different degree or if it's all the same for all pieces of gear.

Second, I suggest there should be a list of unenchantable properties. These would then be categorised into 1. unenchantable properties that can be further enchanted (along with relevant values as in the first suggestion) and 2. unenchantable properties that cannot be further enchanted.

If anyone wants to help with this, please feel free to comment or talk with me via forum or Discord.

The enchantment wikipage: http://wiki.arelith.com/Enchantment_basin

[Baron Saturday]

Could you clarify what you mean by "unenchantable properties that can be further enchanted"?

[Opustus]

Oh yeah. Basically: enchantable property = a property that can be enchanted onto an item
unenchantable property = a property that cannot be enchanted onto an item, such as feats and +2 ability

I don't actually know if items with these so-called unenchantable properties can be enchanted at all, i.e. if any property not in the enchantment basin options in an item makes said item so it cannot be further enchanted... do you see how difficult it is?

The wording needs polish, of course.

[Baron Saturday]

Oh yeah. Basically: enchantable property = a property that can be enchanted onto an item
unenchantable property = a property that cannot be enchanted onto an item, such as feats and +2 ability

I don't actually know if items with these so-called unenchantable properties can be enchanted at all, i.e. if any property not in the enchantment basin options in an item makes said item so it cannot be further enchanted... do you see how difficult it is?

The wording needs polish, of course.

Ah, I see. The very simple answer: All items can be enchanted, regardless of their current properties. I'm very fond of enchanting Boots of the Ultimate Coward, for instance, with their 1/day Expeditious Retreat.

[Opustus]

Roger dat, but I imagine the chance is sometimes 5%? The question then is, do +2 Strength gloves have a different chance for more enchantments than +1 Strength gloves? This is basically what the table would figure out for the player.

[StrykerMontgomery]

The higher the value of the item, the lower the chance to enchant. The value of said enchantment is included in said equation.

A full comprehensive list of enchantments the basic does not provide would be absurd/silly. Essentially most enchantments are only bottom grade tier. Like plus 1 stats, plus 1 ac, etc. Honestly the pool itself provides a decent list.

*edit*

What you probably want, i would too, is a cookie cutter enchantment list.

[Opustus]

Hum. Like the +1 ability, +1 ability, +2 skill, +2 skill, +2 skill with relevant percentages at each phase?

[StrykerMontgomery]

Yes, I would find said information very valuable myself.

[Aelryn Bloodmoon]

So, to start this off from me, I'm lazy, and I never refer to the table. I know that at Epic Spell Focus: Enchantment, I can fit the following things onto my (non-jewellery, non-weapon) gear with 5% chance or better (able to godsave). +2 to 4 skills, +1 to 2 stats.

I haven't gotten into rune crafting yet beyond runic item drops themselves, not actually adding runes to items. I presume you could rune these items but it would come at great cost.

Alternatively, with a large pile of these items, you could begin pitching them one after the other into the basin for a 5% shot at adding +1 uni saves or +1 to a third stat. <--- Warning- you are entering the territory of burning XP for your failures at this point. And there will be many of them, and they will hurt at this level unless you're maxed at thirty with a ton of overflow.

Where things really get interesting, and I need to do some digging in game about, are exactly how many things I can squeeze onto an item before I'm no longer able to add a rune to it. Because right now I'm salivating at the concept of +1 to four stats and +2 to four skills on all my gear. (This would probably take years, you shouldn't be excited, I'm a masochist like that).

With that said, there IS a table somewhere, based on the cost of the enchanted item, that determines your percentage chance of success. The enchantment foci feats (currently) modify the value of items enchanted in the basin so that an enchanter can maintain a higher than 5% chance for extra properties.

The percentage is some function of a base value of 5% at an item cost of somewhere in the ballpark of 10K gold. I'll see if I can find it to link...

[Baron Saturday]

Generally speaking, you can only rune items with up to 4 properties using a greater rune. Some properties aren't counted for this - there's a few books IG that go into more depth.

[Aelryn Bloodmoon]

Pages of google results later, I've found lots of outsourced material on Arelith but the numbers for the enchantment system don't seem to be anywhere I can find quickly (or at all) anymore.

Serves me right for not saving it when I had a chance!

Good thing my enchanter just contracted himself out. I'll write down some numbers as I go.

[Mithreas]

10k is the magic number.

The game computes the value of the item with the property you are meaning to add. It then uses "how close are you to 10k" to determine the % chance, and if less than 5% or more than 95%, applies a cap.

Example 1:

Code: Select all

So let's say you add +1 to a skill, a value of about 100g. 

100 / 10,000 = 0.01 or 1%.

100%-1% = 99% chance of success.

99% is greater than 95%, so 95% cap applies, and the chance presented is 95%. 

Example 2:

Code: Select all

You have an item worth 7.5k, and want to add +1 to a stat, which will take the item to 9.7k value. 
9,700/10,000 = 97%
100%-97% = 3% chance of success
3% is less than 5%, so the min 5% chance applies.

Example 3:

Code: Select all

You have an item worth 10k.  You want to add another property worth 3k to it, total 13k. 
13k/10k = 130%
100%-130% = -30%
This is an "impossible" item - so you get a 5% chance but no god save for auto success.

Enchantment focused characters essentially discount the item value - 35% for ESF, 20% for GSF and 10% for SF. This is applied before working out the % chance. So let's take each of our three examples, but add a spell focus to each.

Example 1, with spell focus enchantment:

Code: Select all

you add +1 to a skill, a value of about 100g. 

SF: enchantment: 100g x 0.9 = 90g

90 / 10,000 = 0.009 or 0.9%.

100%-0.9% = 99.1% chance of success.

99.1% is greater than 95%, so 95% cap applies, and the chance presented is 95%. 

Example 2, with Greater Spell Focus Enchantment:

Code: Select all

You have an item worth 7.5k, and want to add +1 to a stat, which will take the item to 9.7k value. 
GSF enchantment applies: 9700 x 0.8 = 7760.
7760/10,000 = 77.6%
100%-77.6% = 32.4% chance of success.
(Rounded down to 32%).

Example 3, with Epic Spell Focus Enchantment:

Code: Select all

You have an item worth 10k.  You want to add another property worth 3k to it, total 13k. 
13000x0.65 = 8450
8450/10k = 84.5%
100%-84.5% = 15.5%
15.5% is rounded down to 15% success rate - and god saves apply as usual.

This demonstrates why enchantment spell focuses rock.

There are a couple of other minor tweaks in the system (e.g. to stop people enchanting cheap items using ESF and then selling them to merchants for a profit) but hopefully that explains it.

Feel free to wikify

-Mith

[Aelryn Bloodmoon]

Thanks, Mith!

I'm gonna copy that and chuck it under the Reference section, too.

[Opustus]

Great, thanks! I'll be sure to wikify this along with the calculator. It makes the system very easily understandable to n00bs like me.