Making an item LOOK powerful

[Taran]

How would you make a completely mundane item humm with magical power?

I have a wizard that carries a variety of enchanted items - all of them are very low potency.  He also carries a walking stick pretty much everywhere he goes.  It's mostly a style thing and has no magical properties.  Then I got to thinking that it would be useful for enemies to think it's a potent item as this might have them overlook the smaller items.  Any ideas?  Ideally I wouldn't want this to take up an enchanted item slot.  The only thing I can think of is thaumaturgy.

I just kind of got the idea from the D&D spell "magic aura" which lets you either mask a magical aura or place a false aura.  It has its uses.

[ways and means]

An Aspect would probably do maybe with a spirit maneuver or a thaumaturgical one. 

[blackstaff67]

Failing that, you can always take a page from Terry Pratchett's Going Postal and just paint them in fancy stars ans moons.     But yeah, maybe just a quick Thamauturgy roll (say, 1-3 shifts plus a shift or two for duration) should do it to place an Aspect on something ("Not your everyday walking stick".

[Taran]

So I have a Lore of 5.  With that in mind, this would be a fairly straight-forward Ritual.  Something I could whip up pretty easily?  Looking at the rules for detecting items, each Focus gives a person +1 to their Lore to detect.  So I'm just trying to model something where they'd get a +2 or +4. 

As far as fancy stars go, the character is fairly wealthy, so it will be a pretty showy walking stick.

[InFerrumVeritas]

So I have a Lore of 5.  With that in mind, this would be a fairly straight-forward Ritual.  Something I could whip up pretty easily?  Looking at the rules for detecting items, each Focus gives a person +1 to their Lore to detect.  So I'm just trying to model something where they'd get a +2 or +4. 

As far as fancy stars go, the character is fairly wealthy, so it will be a pretty showy walking stick.

I would probably charge 2 shifts for every +1 you wanted to give.  Treat it like a Ward (so you can assume something equal to your Lore is active every session).  So if your focus item is 1 slot (+1 bonus to detect), and your Lore 5, I'd let it appear to be a 3 slot item (+3 bonus to detect).

[bobjob]

How would you make a completely mundane item humm with magical power?

I have a wizard that carries a variety of enchanted items - all of them are very low potency.  He also carries a walking stick pretty much everywhere he goes.  It's mostly a style thing and has no magical properties.  Then I got to thinking that it would be useful for enemies to think it's a potent item as this might have them overlook the smaller items.  Any ideas?  Ideally I wouldn't want this to take up an enchanted item slot.  The only thing I can think of is thaumaturgy.

I just kind of got the idea from the D&D spell "magic aura" which lets you either mask a magical aura or place a false aura.  It has its uses.

Aaah, Nystul's Magic Aura. I know the guy who created that spell back in the day (Mike Nystul) and he's a tricksy, tricksy GM. He also ran an interesting D&D themed improv show called EPIC!

[Taran]

Aaah, Nystul's Magic Aura. I know the guy who created that spell back in the day (Mike Nystul) and he's a tricksy, tricksy GM. He also ran an interesting D&D themed improv show called EPIC!

Very cool.

Actually on that note, could you use a similar spell to disguise the magic on enchanted items.  Or even transfer the aura from one item on to another?

[Mr. Death]

I'd say this kind of depends on the effect you're going for with it--if it's to goad opposition into doing something, I'd say it's a maneuver on them. If it's to block them from paying attention to your legit magic items, then, well, it's a straight up block against perception.

Honestly, I'd say that's the easiest way to do it--make it a one-slot enchanted item with either a block or a maneuver to that effect built into it, if it's always going to be centered around this one staff.

[Hick Jr]

You know, it's a shame they removed the permanent enchanted item rules. they'd be great for this sort of thing.

[Taran]

I'd say this kind of depends on the effect you're going for with it--if it's to goad opposition into doing something, I'd say it's a maneuver on them. If it's to block them from paying attention to your legit magic items, then, well, it's a straight up block against perception.

Honestly, I'd say that's the easiest way to do it--make it a one-slot enchanted item with either a block or a maneuver to that effect built into it, if it's always going to be centered around this one staff.

Yeah, well that's kind of the point.  It's NOT supposed to be magical, it's just supposed to look magical.  By making it an enchanted item, it kind of defeats the purpose.

You're right, though.  I mean, it could be an Intimidate skill replacer to convince people that they shouldn't mess with him.

[Mr. Death]

Yeah, well that's kind of the point.  It's NOT supposed to be magical, it's just supposed to look magical.  By making it an enchanted item, it kind of defeats the purpose.

I get that, but I don't see how something could fool a wizard or practitioner's magical senses without having some kind of magic on it. Just like you couldn't make a decoy gun without it at least looking something like a gun.

That said, it wouldn't defeat the purpose. The purpose isn't simply to fool people into thinking a completely-non-magical stick is magical, it's to get them to think that the stick is a much bigger threat than it really is, and to keep the focus on that stick instead of your actually-useful items.

That said, it could just be a spell you repeatedly cast on the staff, but if it's always the staff, and always the same effect you're going for, might as well save yourself the effort of the spell and possible backlash each time you want to use it.

[Radijs]

Sounds like you'd want to put an illusion on it, of course The Sight is not going to be fooled. But another kind of divination would be an opposed roll.
So put a complexity 5 illusion on it to make it thrum with power and the divined will need to beat that illusion with whatever skill he uses to investigate.