Easily missed rule about Enchanted items - Reuse with mental stress cost

[EdgeOfDreams]

I've been working on an Artificer/Alchemist build, one that would take full advantage of the Enchanted Items rules, including leaving slots open to declare potions on the fly.

I was debating with myself over how much strength versus frequency I should give various items when I stumbled onto this gem...

Your Story, in the Thaumaturgy section, Crafting, Enchanted Items:

"The user, if a practitioner, may use an enchanted item again for one mental stress per use."

I think that's a really big deal rule that doesn't get mentioned much, especially in those threads where people complain about the lack of "always-on" enchanted items.

Now I want to build an Enchanted trenchcoat (like Harry's duster) with block/armor on it, 3 free uses, etc. knowing that even after those three uses, I can get another two or three uses out of it in any given combat essentially for free.  That is, on a character without Evocation or Channeling, those mental stress slots can still be put to good use, but they clear out after the fight as usual!

What do you guys think?

[Belial666]

Well, crafting power can be maxed out fairly easily. Frequency is not as essential but assuming you are a focused practicioner with "crafting" as your focus, and you got a Lore of superb at submerged, you could get 12 enchanted items/potions of 6 uses each at power 10 by filling the rest of your refresh with refinements for item slots and +5 power/frequency crafting foci. That's a total of 72 uses of magic without going into mental stress. You could get 14 different item slots with 5 frequency (70 total uses) or 16 item slots of 4 uses (64 total uses). Further reduction for more item slots is not that cost-effective.

Do note that an item of power giving magical recipes like your own Book of Shadows, in essence giving you either crafting itself or extra refinement, (any fans of "Charmed" around here?) would increse the numer of slots by up to 8. That is 120 total uses for 20 different effects, 110 uses for 22 different effects and 96 uses for 24 different effects.


As you can see, a focused practitioner at submerged does not really need extra uses from mental stress - they get more "spells per day" than a 20th level DnD wizard. Lower-power practitioners or people that expect to enter major battles that need lots and lots of ammo might still need the mental stress thing.

[EdgeOfDreams]

As you can see, a focused practitioner at submerged does not really need extra uses from mental stress - they get more "spells per day" than a 20th level DnD wizard. Lower-power practitioners or people that expect to enter major battles that need lots and lots of ammo might still need the mental stress thing.

That's true, and thanks for pointing out just how "out there" the numbers can get.  On the other hand, I think there's a lot of players who are not looking to abuse the Enchanted Item rules and just want their one or two 4-shift, 1-use-per-session items to get a bit more use.

The build I'm looking at is actually a Focused Practioner for a Feet In The Water (6 refresh) game, so I'm pretty much looking at Ritual: Crafting and one or two Refinements.  I want to have at least 2 refresh left over since I may need to spend Fate Points to declare potions on-the-fly and may not get compelled as often as I'd like.

Most likely, I'll end up with a +1 Strength focus, two or three broadly useful pre-defined items (an armored jacket, a force ring, that kind of stuff), and leave the rest of my slots open for a few Potions and/or crafting something during the game to deal with a particular plot point.

Also, besides any question of whether or not the mental stress option is needed, I've gotten the impression it's something most people just aren't aware of to begin with.  I'd like to see if this rule affects people's perceptions of the usefulness and flavor of enchanted items.

[Belial666]

Yep, in my experience people do need to be reminded of that rule. It is one of two important things about enchanted items that's easy to miss  -  the other being that you don't actually need a Fate point to declare a potion, only a successful Lore roll. 

That said, with Lore 4, Ritual: Crafting and 2 refinements, you could get a +2 power focus, 4 enchanted item slots and 4 potion slots. Each potion/item has a power of 6 and is usable once so paying mental stress is going to be your major source of uses. Reducing enchanted items to 3 and potion slots to 3 allows you to get a +1 frequency focus, giving your items and potions 2 uses each instead of paying mental stress.
If you are willing to take 1 more refinement (i.e. leave only 1 refresh free), you could get a +2 frequency focus and keeping 4 enchanted items and 4 potion slots. Then your items will have power 6 and 3 uses each, meaning you'll be able to effectively do a total of 24 "spells per day" without mental stress and still get uses out of your mental slots.


Do note that weapon 4 effects are roughly equivalent to heavy combat rifles or military-grade machineguns. Weapon 6 effects are roughly equivalent to grenade launchers.

[EdgeOfDreams]

Do note that weapon 4 effects are roughly equivalent to heavy combat rifles or military-grade machineguns. Weapon 6 effects are roughly equivalent to grenade launchers.

Yeah, even a limited-use weapons 4 - 6 effect is pretty shiny in a low-power game.  Speaking of which, I'm really not clear on what skills are valid for targeting such a thing (e.g. what does Harry roll to aim his force rings?).  The book is quite vague on that point.

[Tedronai]

Discipline, generally, as you would with a Rote that needed targeting.

[mostlyawake]

Yeah, even a limited-use weapons 4 - 6 effect is pretty shiny in a low-power game.  Speaking of which, I'm really not clear on what skills are valid for targeting such a thing (e.g. what does Harry roll to aim his force rings?).  The book is quite vague on that point.

Depends on how craftily you create the spell description... several different skills could apply.

the most common I've seen are discipline (because most casters are good at it anyways, and it pretty much always works), guns (I made magic bullets!) or weapons (i throw magic grenades!).