Edit Introduction: Wow, quite a lot has happened since I first posted this. When I originally posted this I did not know how large it would become. I've been sporadically editing it and it is in a state of near-constant flux. As such, the organization is a bit wonky and I realize that. I'm intending to actually publish a book featuring this system in addition to a deal of other material. Great fun. I'm always open to suggestions. Ask anyone here or even just read through some of the posts. I take suggestions to heart and make steps to fix apparent problems. I also just love hearing about it. If you choose to use this in your game (which you can feel free to do) I'd love to hear about how it goes. Now back to the original opening:
I have a Thuerge player who frequently tries to design new magic items and contraptions based upon existing spells, items, effects, etc. This often leads to useful new devices that I would expect someone to have created before.
In my game world, there was a large island inhabited by a group of individuals extremely gifted in the Arcane Ways, and they built many great cities. Well, my player asked "So, are there magic items everywhere or something?".
If you you don't have the Heroes of Battle book, it details an interesting prestige class called the "War Weaver". The general idea is that the War Weaver makes an "Eldritch Tapestry" to connect a group of people (number based on class level, of course) and then when a buff spell is cast by the weaver, it affects all connected. What if the city used a similar form of technology, but instead of connecting people, you connected objects. Then cast "Light" into the Tapestry. And what if you had the tapestry specifically touching orbs in various houses. "Let there be Light!"
And then I kept extrapolating what the city would look like if it were inhabited almost entirely by a population of at least level 1 wizards (Public Education?). I kept on extrapolating existing principles, until I had made something amazing. The major result was a sort of magical wiring, involving a combination of the modified tapestry (now made as a magic item), a modified principle from the Rod of Absorption, and a modified Runestaff.
I decided that the Tapestry would be allowed to carry the effects of certain spells to what it's ends touch, or it could carry general spell energy, with each end having a set direction of power flow. The Rod of Absorption proved that we could reliably store spell energy, and I created the "Battery", a device that simply holds spell energy. Alone it does nothing (except explode if you manage to bust it). Lastly the Runestaff allows us to channel whatever type of magic we please to create the effects listed in the staff (albeit at a max of 3/day). Runestaves are a bit expensive, so I devised the Runestone. A device with identical pricing, but it can only hold up to one third level spell.
Well, by default the systems attached to the tapestry want to go off, drawing energy from the network. To prevent this, triggers are often used. The Basic Trigger is a simple mechanical device that when flipped/pushed/pressed/turned slides a piece of lead in front of the tapestry line, blocking the flow of magic. For Runestaves and controlling more advanced systems, you want an Advanced Trigger system, usually attached to a Display (Really just a Silent Image Runestone.)
Anyways..
Battery ----> Tapestry ---l--> Runestone of Scorching Ray
Sorry, did I just make a Ray Gun?
It's scary, but it makes sense.
The Principles
Equivalence: Two spells of second level have the power of a single fourth level spell. Similarly, a first and a third level spell also equal a fourth level spell. We know this from the Rod of Absorption. It is somewhat contrasted with the Sorcerer's "Versatile Spellcasting" feat, which allows two slots to be used to fuel a spell one slot above them (Two second level slots would allow you to cast Fireball). This is due to the Sorcerer expending some of the combined energy to combine the spells. The amount of energy required for this is proportional to the spells being combined. The result is that the resulting spell is a single level higher than the used slots.
Ambiguity: Spell energy is spell energy. How it affects the world is dependent upon it's conduit. This allows us to channel "Ambiguous" spell energy through Runestaves and Runestones (Described later) to produce an effect that has nothing to do with the powering spell.
Multiplication: A properly formed "Tapestry" can transmit the effect of a spell capable of targeting an object to various objects attached to the Tapestry, multiplying the effect, but not the cost. We know this from the Eldritch Tapestries made by War Weavers (Heroes of War PrC)
Transmission: Tapestries are capable of transmitting spell energy across distances, without the need of a caster to direct it. Again, the Eldritch Tapestries made by the War Weavers.
Imitation: Magic items mimic life. Between "Magic Items always get saves" and the ability to spend a negligible amount to make "Sentient Magic Items", one can certainly see how Magic Items can pretend at life, at least for the purpose of being the target of spells. Most magic items get a few boons from this (See "Always get saves"), but "Tapestry Constructs", entire devices made with this system and laced with Tapestries, get one step closer. They have a circulatory system, a heart, maybe even muscles and a mind! Spells get confused, at least some of them. Later on I describe how certain spells affect Tapestry Constructs as if they were creatures.
Energy Movement: Power seeks to balance itself. Fire disperses its heat. Lightning arcs to a grounding point. The rock falls off the cliff and stops. The power flows from the battery into the Tapestry and then into a Runstone or Staff, if nothing stops it. Unless you have a trigger of some sort, your systems will fire automatically.
Too much of Anything is Bad: Too much matter in one spot? Black hole. Too much icecream? Barf. More than five spells cast in the same round within five feet of each other? Explosion.
These Principles govern this system. Learn them and the rest will be pretty intuitive.
Descriptions
Batteries are generally a sort of green crystal, with an Adamantine Coating, along with glowing green sealing sigils.
Charging Crystals look much like Batteries, but are Red.
Experience Capacitors are similarly Golden.
Tapestries are generally a silver color, that glows when powered. Ephemeral Tapestries always glow a dull blue, becoming brighter when powered.
Databanks are small (usually small) blue crystals, like a battery, minus the coating.
Runestones are grey stones carved with various runes that light up when powered.
World-Building
With the ability to physical fly very fast, one could potentially make all sorts of interesting cosmologies. One such is described below:
Then there would be an Epic-Spell that allows Inter-Astral travel, a sort of "Warp Drive" used for traversing the "Solar Systems". You can see how you can play with this.Originally Posted by Welknair
Moving actual rule stuff up here now...
Feats:
Craft Tapestry [Item Creation]
Prequisite: CL 5
Benefit: This feat allows a spellcaster to create a Tapestry, a weaving of metal and magic allowing the connection of multiple objects such that a single spell may affect all of them. The size, cost, ends, weight, and effective Caster Level are based upon the level of the Tapestry. The default size is small, with the tapestry potentially covering about a medium sized creature or item. Working larger or smaller is a bit more expensive as the work requires precision and each piece must be very exact.
Max Ends CL Cost 2 5 500 2 5 5,000 3 6 6,000 5 7 7,000 10 8 8,000 15 9 9,000 25 10 10,000 50 11 11,000 75 12 12,000 100 13 13,000 150 14 14,000 250 15 15,000 250 16 16,000 Stays 250 +1 +1000
Max Ends: Maximum number of things that can be connected to the tapestry.
CL: The CL required to make it as well as the effective CL for effects powered by the Tapestry
Cost: Market Price. Price is equal to the CL X 1000. However, the price becomes 2000 per caster level at 21 and up. (A CL 30 Tapestry would cost 40,000)
The top tapestry cannot activate devices, has no cost adjustment for Fine to Large, and is called a "Transmission Tapestry"
If for some reason you get a Tapesty which has a CL lower than 5 (As through a couple of class abilities or Negative Level effects) the minimum number of ends is 2.
For sizes:
Size CL Price Mod Weight Fine 11 +6,000 1 Diminutive 9 +4,000 2 Tiny 7 +2,000 3 Small 5 +0 7 Medium 6 +2,000 20 Large 7 +4,000 50 Huge 8 +6,000 150 Gargantuan 9 +8,000 250 Colossal (Infinite size) 21 +20,000 500
A Tapestry covers an object one size category above it (a Tiny Tapestry could power a robotic Halfling (which are awesome at parties))
A Tapestry can be upgraded to a higher level easily (Hey look, one day's work) and the size can be changed. You can quickly change the size towards small for no cost, but re-stretching requires that you pay the cost again.
A Tapestry's level determines the CL of all spells powered by it.
DC= 10+Spell Level+Minimum Modifier (Min modifier would be 1 for a second level spell, four for an eighth, etc.)
A Tapestry may be enchanted with two metamagic feats for a cost of 2000 per spell slot adjustment. The two feats must be able to be used in conjunction with one another (You can't have Empower and Maximize, for example). Epic Level Tapestries can hold more than two, these need not be able to be used together, but each Metamagic beyond the second costs an additional 5k per feat beyond the 2nd. So getting a third feat would cost (Third Feat's Spell Adjustment)X1000+5000.
When you gain this feat you gain an odd "Kind-of-Metamagic" feat specifically for enchanting Tapestries. It isn't really a feat, but is treated as one for this purpose. It is treated as causing a two slot adjustment and brings the DC of all spells of a designated school up to 10+2XSpell Level, which can be quite useful.
Minimum CL for spells applies for tapestries casting runestone/staff spells. So you can't have a CL 5 Tapestry casting Meteor Swarm. Once a power Tap is CL 21+, it has no limit on the level of spell that it can cast.
Some clarification as to the two separate CLs: You need to have the higher of the two. The base cost of the tapestry is equal to the actual CL of the Tap X1000. You cannot make a Tapestry with a CL higher than you have. Then the size is just a price modifier on top of that base cost, and you cannot make certain sizes until your CL is high enough. The CLs of these two factors are unrelated save for you must have a CL equal to or greater than the higher of the two. You do not need to bump the CL of the Tapestry up to meet the CL required of the creator for the given size.
It is worth noting that when a tapestry is made, it is designated as an Arcane Tapestry, Divine Tapestry, or Information Tapestry. Arcane Tapestries only can activate and channel Arcane spell energy, Divine Tapestries channel Divine magic, and Information Tapestries transmit information from various devices to be explained later. This choice cannot be changed.
For the Arcane/Divine tapestries, each ending has a set direction, To or From. This can be changed, though it requires a bit of time.
Tapestries as described above are used for the purpose of transmitting raw spell energy as from batteries, to runestones/staves. They also have the capability to do something described in the first post: Deliver a spell effect to multiple attached objects. If a spell of 3rd level or lower, capable of targeting any object, is cast with the Tapestry as the target, the effect travels to up to 25 objects attached to the ends of the tapestry. This takes into consideration the direction of the ends (the effect will only travel through "Out" ends). If a runestone is hooked up with the correct kind of power tapestry with an "Out" end, as in the power is moving from the stone to the tapestry, it acts as if the stone cast the spell on said tapestry. This spell uses all the information from the tapestry that feeds it (Arcane Tapestry with CL 10--->Runestone of Light---->Arcane Tapestry with 5 ends will result in the objects on the five ends lighting up for 100 minutes). If the tapestry being affected has greater than 25 out ends, it is random which ones are affected. Info Tapestries do not have this capability. When a Tapestry is the target of a spell as to Multiply it, it does not charge attached batteries. The energy in this case is not being directed at the Batteries, which is required for them to be charged. Instead you may end up with glowing Batteries from the Multiplied Light Spell. Similarly, you cannot Multiply a spell more than once by connecting various power Tapestries; you just get glowing tapestries. The Multiplication Effect assumes a full spell targeting the Tap, not a fraction of one.
When power is sent into a Tapestry - Raw, charging power, not activating power - it is evenly dispersed among all available batteries. So if you attach a Charging Crystal, described later, to a tapestry with multiple batteries, the charge would choose one at random, assuming that both had room.
When creating a tapestry, you also have the option to set one of the ends to be an "Easy Swap" end, which allows sections that are easily interchangeable. The base price of making an end interchangeable is 1,000 gp. Components being attached, removed, or swapped onto said end require only a move action to do so, instead of the much longer process described in the Magitech Skill near the bottom.
Craft Ephemeral Tapestry [Item Creation]
Prequisite: CL 12, Craft Tapestry
Benefit: This feat allows you to craft Ephemeral Tapestries, they work exactly like normal tapestries, but cost an additional 2,000 gp per size category (+2,000 for fine, +4,000 for Diminutive, etc.). In return, the tapestry move into the ethereal plane, but remains very close to the material plane, such that the threads can be seen as a dim glowing blue. An Ephemeral Tapestry takes no space and weighs nothing.
Craft Magitech [Item Creation]
Prequisite: CL 7, Craft Tapestry, Magitech 10 Ranks
Benefit: This feat allows you to construct/enchant Runestones, Batteries, Interfaces, and Databanks. It'll get you going on the road to Magitechnological Advancement.
Batteries store spell levels. You can easily cast a spell into a battery and it'll just add to the charge. A battery can only hold one kind of magic. Once depleted, either kind can be put in, but once it has a charge of one kind, the other is incompatible. Batteries are the most costly component in Magitech and as such they are highly prized. The only way to liberate energy from a Battery is to connect it to a tapestry of the correct type and have the tapestry then connect to a runestone or runestaff.
(Colossal under these circumstances is 25X25X25 and 30X30X30 for the last two batteries)
Size Capacity CL Weight Diminutive 1-5 7 5 Tiny 6-15 8 15 Small 16-25 10 25 Medium 26-50 12 50 Large 51-150 14 150 Huge 151-250 16 250 Gargantuan 251-500 18 500 Colossal 500-750 20 750 Colossal 751-1000 21 1000
The cost of a battery is Charge X 1,000.
You can make a battery out of a rare magical catalyst for the cost of Charge X 500 in addition to the normal cost, thus reducing the amount of space the battery takes. Such a battery assumes the the size and weight of the next battery up, and is known as a Catalyst Battery.
A Battery is a bit volatile, as it holds raw spell energy. As such, it's a bit prone to... release upon breach. As in, if you can bypass it's hardness of 20 and deal 30 damage to it, it'll bust. Explosively. An exploding battery will deal 1d6 damage per spell level in a radius of 5 ft. For each additional 5 ft that the burst travels, damage is reduced by three. In this way, an epic level battery containing 1000 spell levels could decimate an area with a radius of a mile. Yes, I made a spell that allows you to detonate a battery on command to use it as a bomb. People within the blast radius may make a Reflex Save at DC 15+2 per size category of the battery (With the Too Much is Bad Principle, it effectively has the size of the smallest battery that can hold all of the charges) to take half damage. The Epic Level Batteries would count as Size 9, while a Diminutive would be Size 1. So an exploding Gargantuan Battery would call for a Reflex Save DC 26. Batteries are always completely destroyed when they detonate. The explosion travels at a relatively slow rate of 2000ft/round. This won't make much of a difference unless you're just at the edge of a monstrous explosion, but hey. It's there. (The explosion will be slowed by passing through corridors and the like if it can't break them).
At-will spells and abilities cannot charge a battery. No Warlock slaves!
If a Battery is the subject of a successful Dispel Magic aimed at it, the battery loses charge. If it was an Area Dispel, the battery only loses a single charge. Otherwise, the amount lost is based on the opposed CL check. For every one that the Dispeller beat the Battery's roll by, the Battery loses one charge.
It's also possible to make a... slightly different kind of battery. One capable of holding XP. It is made the same as a normal Battery, but is golden and always requires CL 21 (and thus the Craft Epic Magitech Feat). An XP Capacitor's stats and cost are calculated the same as if it were a normal Battery, but it holds 1000X the number of spell levels it would be able to hold. This is used in conjunction with Pass On, described in the "New Spells" section. Such a device cannot be used to level up random people, but it can provide the XP for spells and magic item creation. The caster/crafter just needs to be in contact with the Capacitor for the casting process. Yes, you can make this out of the Arcane Catalyst as well.
Runestones store a single spell of up to third level such that it can be activated when the correct amount of the correct type of magic is channeled into it. The cost is equal to Spell level X Spell Level X (400-(100 for each time usable per day below 3)). So a Runestone of Fireball usable twice per day would cost: 3X3X(400-100)=2700 gp.
You can make Runestones and Runestaves where the spells can be used more than 3/day, but it comes at an increased cost. The cost is lvl*lvl*(400+100*(Amount above 2 Factorial)). (Factorial is that number plus all the numbers preceding it, so 3 Factorial is 3+2+1). A Scorching Ray stone usable 5/day would cost 2*2*(400+100*(3+2+1)), or 4*1000, 4000 gp. A steep price for increased max uses, to the point where it may be cheaper to simpler buy more stones/staves for higher level spells, but you can get them.
A runestone needs direction. By default, even a simple spell such as Acid Splash will want to repeatedly cast as long as it is supplied with power. For this reason, a basic trigger is used, comprised of a switch, knob, button, etc. that moves a tiny piece of lead (A Basic Trigger costs 10 gold). More advanced spells that can't simply be pointed at the target require a more complex trigger system. The Advanced Trigger allows an Information Tapestry to control the magic pathway and the specifics of the spell, such that a Display or Sentient Magic Item could control said device. This allows for more exact usage and the like, but is more costly and requires power (An Advanced Trigger costs 500 gp). An Information Tapestry is not needed when using simpler spells that use only a Basic Trigger. For example, you won't find Information Tapestries in most small firearms.
Note: Silent Image, Minor Image and Major Image will all return information to their casting runestone about how they're being interacted with. This allows for "Buttons" to be made using these spells.
"I want to stuff my Battery in my Bag of Holding so it weighs nothing and takes no room!" Have fun with that - the largest BoH holds 250 cubic feet, which works out to about 6.3 feet to a side so you'd only be able to hold a single Medium battery which weighs ten pounds less than the Bag of Holding. Great plan, really.
When a Runestone or Runestaff is placed in a Magitech Device, it's Target is set. Most Evocation spells are set to cast in whatever direction it's pointed. It's also possible to set it to target a nearby Tapestry as to Multiply the effect. You can Configure this setting (Magitech Skill, much later).
If a spell requires concentration then the Tapestry provides said concentration, but while focusing so it cannot channel any other energy. For this reason, many advanced systems will have specialized Tapestries specifically for concentration.
When more than five spells powered by Tapestries are cast in the same round within five feet of one another (All within the same five-foot square), they cause Magic Feedback. Effectively the casting device is subject to an explosion as if a battery containing all of the expended spell levels had just blown. This of course can be useful under certain circumstances, but generally stops Nova builds while still allowing Skyships and Mechs to work pretty well. Note that this property does not interfere with the Multiplication Principle.
Runestaves still require Craft Staff to be made. When used with this system, a separate power line must be used for each spell contained therein.
The primary benefits for using Runestone instead of Runestaves is size, and number. A Runestaff can only use a single spell per round, whereas a group of runestones could cast them in the same round. Keep in mind the Too Much Principle.
Runestones/staves can counterspell and be counterspelled. Devices can (and often do) have a setting that is "Counterspell". While in this mode, the wielder or a Cognition Core attached can ready an action to Counterspell a target. CL check is of course based on the Tapestry. This costs an amount of energy as if the device had just cast the spell. Similarly, a caster can ready an action to counterspell a device. Diagnostics hooked up to a runestone/staff will tell whether or not the spell went off successfully.
Expensive material components must be connected to the stone via a power line, and creatures with levels may be willingly contribute their XP to power spells requiring XP.
Databanks store information of one kind or another. Hook up an Arcane Eye Runestaff with an info line leading to a Databank and it'll record everything that the eye sees. Then hook that same info tapestry up to a Display and you'll be able to retrieve that info at will. You can also use a display to modify info, write things, etc. Accessing Information requires an Access Runestone be connected (It's a new spell, I'll describe all of them later) to the info line. The varying databanks mainly differ in the amount of info they can hold. I didn't know how exactly to state that capacity, so I went with MB.
Size Capacity CL Weight Cost Fine 1 MB 7 - 100 Diminutive 100 MB 7 3 1,000 Tiny 300 MB 9 7 2,000 Small 750 MB 11 10 3,000 Medium 2000 MB 13 30 5,000 Large 5000 MB 15 50 10,000
"How much is a Megabyte?"
Databanks double as a way to store spell specifics. Such as a load of info on how exactly to make that Greater Image look like the owlbear from three corridors back.
Well anything this advanced needs something beyond PC races to moderate systems. Introducing: THE COGNITION CORE. Sentient Items work as normal, but I'm adding a a couple that are even lower than the base. It's not really Intelligent, perse, but it can take in raw data and makes decisions based on that information. It has the sense of a basic sentient magic item. All sentient magic items can be hooked up to an information tapestry and thus control it's various functions.
Greater Cognition Core - Int 10 - 500 gp - Perfect interpretation of inputs, capable of any compatible function.
Lesser Cognition Core - Int 2 - 100 gp - Requires a Magitech Program check to enable a function. DC for each additional function increases by 5. Functions are things like "Listen" or "Open Tapestry Line".
Cognition Cores have no Ego, cannot be given Powers, have the senses of a baseline Sentient Magic Item, and the only upgrades that can be performed on them is from Lesser to Greater.
To further this, I have invented a few useful powers for Sentient Magic Items. Namely ones to be used with my Mech system. Combat Prowess is a 20,000 GP greater power that gives a Sentient Magic Item a BAB of it's level X 2, a Dex of 10+It's level, and it gives the Simple Weapons Proficiency feat. Then there are 10,000 gp minor powers for martial weapon proficiencies, exotics, and weapon focuses.
Charging Crystals are the primary source of energy used. They come in only five sizes, and are designated as Arcane or Divine upon creation. Each yields a single spell level after a given interval.
Size Charge Interval CL Weight Cost Diminutive 1/day 7 5 400 Small 1/6 hours 10 18 1,500 Medium 1/hour 12 75 8,000 Large 1/10 minutes 16 200 45,000 Colossal 1/minute 21 800 400,000
You should find that these numbers are superior to those garnered by less specialized magic items, such as Eternal Wands. The downside is that at the given intervals the item discharges whether or not there's room for it to do so. Eternal Wands, for example, would only fire automatically if there was a less-than-full battery or a magic item it could activate, allowing it to be used as a battery/generator all on it's own. The result of adding these Generator Crystals is that they are primarily used instead of Eternal Wands, though some ships may use Eternal Wands as a source of backup energy.
Also note that a Tapestry cannot utilize power coming from a magic item (Not a battery) in the same round that that power is given. I.e. The standard action to give the power is taken separate from that to use it. This makes using Eternal Wands and other normal magic items directly as batteries somewhat less effective. This limitation is gotten around through batteries which are always ready to give their energy.
Rogues can disarm Magitech devices as they do magic traps. Use the highest level Tapestry/2 as the "Spell Level" for this check. So the DC would be 25+(Highest CL/2)
For your convenience, I have statted basic chassis for handheld and stationary devices.
Size Cost Weight Diminutive 60 2 Tiny 60 2 Small 120 10 Medium 120 20 Large 240 40 Huge 480 100 Gargantuan 960 160 Colossal 1920+ 240+
Note: Magitech Weapons are considered "Martial" if the setting features them prominently, Exotic otherwise.
Craft Epic Magitech [Item Creation][Epic Level Feat]
Prequisite: CL 21, Craft Magitech
Benefit: Allows the creation of Tapestries above 20th level, allows the creation of batteries holding more than 750 spell levels, and any other Magitech Devices requiring a CL of 21 and up.
Tapestries of CL 21+ that you make may be enchanted with up to two metamagic feats, and these may be epic metamagic.
This feat also allows you to create Epic Runestones. These huge devices are all Huge Size, weighing 1,000 with glowing sigils carved all over their surfaces. They contain a single Epic-Level spell. The cost of such a device is 100,000 gp per point of Spellcraft DC. Costly material components must be in contact with the stone. Backlash is dealt to the craft or device housing Stone in addition to the stone itself. These stones can handle long casting times. Multiple Casters take the form of multiple Tapestries all ending in Transit Runestones that spend the required amount of spell energy instead of the cost of Transit. These tapestries must be a high enough CL to expend this level of energy (Must be a CL 18 Tapestry to contribute the equivalent of a 9th level spell). This appears as a beam of light going from the Transit Runestones to the Epic Runestone. Using Transit in this way takes it's usual time, thus causing the actual casting of the spell to wait until Transit has been cast by all participating Tapestries. The actual cost of casting an Epic Level Spell is equal to the Spellcraft DC X 50 Spell Levels of energy.
For the purposes of cost and energy needs, mitigating factors only reduce the DC by 1 for every 2 they would normally, down to a minimum of half the original DC.
Large orbital platform, containing massive batteries, a series of powerful Tapestries feeding Transit Stones, aimed towards a central Epic Runestone containing a modified version of Vengeful Gaze of God, one with a longer casting time, no XP cost, and requiring large numbers of participating casters. Sorry, did I just make a Death Star?
Expand Spell [Metamaigc][Epic Level Feat]
Prequisites: CL 21, Enlarge Spell
Benefit: This feat can only be applied to Divination Spells with an area of a Cone-shaped emanation that does not allow any sort of save. This is almost exclusively Detect spells. Multiply the range of the spell by the number of slots you raise it with this feat. So if you used this feat to prepare Detect Magic as a 3rd level spell, it'd have an area of a 60X3=180 ft cone-shaped emanation. This feat is almost always found soley as part of Skyship Sensor Arrays.
Piercing Spell [Metamagic]
Benefits: You can now apply the Piercing Spell metamagic to your spells that deal energy damage in return for a one slot increase. The damage is not decreased when dealt to inanimate objects.
Magitech Familiar
Prequisites: Ability to gain a new familiar or Level 1 Arcane Engineer
Benefit: You create a bond with a willing Sentient Magic Item which gains the same benefits as if it were a familiar except for the speech thing. This familiar is almost always inside of a small (not always small) Tapestry Construct. In such a form, it may still Deliver Touch Spells. The item gains an Int Bonus based upon level instead of having the Int set. So a Magitech Familiar of a 4th level wizard would get +2 int. The natural armor benefits the item, not the whatever it is inside. If you are an Arcane Engineer taking this, treat your AE levels as Wizard levels for Familiar benefits.
Extra Rotes
Prequisites: Able to cast 1st level spells
Benefit: You instantly gain 10 Higher Rotes which must be either Arcane or Divine, depending upon what kind of caster you are. These are spells which you have memorized but cannot cast. Instead, they just allow you to create magic items requiring them. You cannot choose Rotes which are of a level you would be unable to cast.
Special: This feat may be taken multiple times.
Extra Temporary Craft Points
Prequisites: Temporary Craft Class Feature
Benefit: You increase your daily TCP by your CL, which increases as your CL increases. This is made for the Arcane Engineer found later.
New Spells
(Name-level-duration-description.)
Interface - 5 - 1 min/CL - Allows you to directly hook up to an information tapestry as if you were a sentient magic item
Transit - 1 - Moves power from one battery to another or one tapestry to another (Or from a battery to a Tapestry, or from a Battery to a Runestone). Transit Runestones are used to connect power tapestries. If used to connect Info Taps, the spell has a duration of 10 min/CL. Sorcerers gain additional use of this spell. Using it on a battery, they can replenish one of their spell slot. The actual process expends another remaining slot of theirs and costs the battery an equal number of spell levels. In return, the sorcerer replenishes a slot one level higher. Example: Sorcerer has a Battery with 5 charges, and has just expended a Fireball. The Sorcerer can cast Transit on the Battery and change one of his remaining 2nd level slots to a 3rd level slot. The battery loses two charges. (Someone familiar with Versatile Spellcaster will note this works just like that, but the Battery provides the second spell). This allows Sorcerers to benefit from stored energy without increasing the raw numbers of spells they get per day. Technically this spell helps any spontaneous Arcane Caster, but the spell is only added to the Wizard/Sorcerer spell list.
Diagnostics - 1 - 10 min/CL - Reveals information about magitechnological devices. Usually attached to an information line. When it is, it'll read power ratings, flow of energy, charges left per day, etc. Almost always connected to a Display. Since this connection is an info line and info ends don't have a set direction like power ends do, the diagnostics runestone could technically display the status of the display to the display. If you wanted it to. When this spell is cast, it can either target an Information Tapestry, receiving diagnostic information from everything attached or it can be cast on a single magic item, which only returns information about said item.
Arcane/Divine Transformation - 9 - Instant - This spell is used to change Arcane Energy into Divine, and it's sister spell Divine/Arcane Transformation does the opposite. When attached to two Tapestries, one of each kind, with one leading to and one leading from, these spells can transform the energy passing through them. It can transform a number of spell levels equal to CL*10 at a time.
Animate Mechanics - 4 through 9 - 10 min/CL - Vital to mechanical devices, mech suits, and sky ships, this simple spell will animate a mechanical device. This is actually a collection of spells, of level 4-9 (So they can only be stored in runestaves), each one providing a different effective strength score. In order 1,5,10,15,20,25. These will be more important and make more sense later on.
Create Thrust - 2 - 10 min/CL - Back in the dark ages, before Levitate, Fly, or even Tenser's Floating disk, we had a spell that made raw thrust. Namely it used a neat little, scalable ratio. A casting can move 120 pounds at a rate of 20ft per round. Or it could move 60 lbs 40ft per round. Or 240 10ft. Or you could cast this on two wooden slabs and attach those to a 240 lb chunk of rock and it would try to move 20 ft per round (2 spells=2XThepowah). This multiplying effect stops at and below 5 lb. Below that, this treats it as if it were still 5lb. This means you can't make a .1 lb metal sphere go rocketing at super-sonic speeds. This spell however has a tendency to be a bit unreliable. Namely, this spell cannot have the exact factors controlled. Want to levitate that table? Chances are it'll either be too heavy and stay rooted to the spot, or too light and start floating/flying upwards. This is why it was later replaced with the aforementioned spells. However, it is integral in skyship travel. Thanks to the Principle of Multiplication, we can cast Create Thrust into a Tapestry, thus affecting up to 25 disks with a single spell! YES. We call a tapestry that is at least CL 10 (as to have 25 ends) with one end attached to a Runestone of Create Thrust and the other ends to much smaller, but still pivot-able metal spheres a "Thrust Web". The Tapestry used for this is almost always Ephemeral as to prevent it from getting tangled up when the sphere twists. Anyways, this helps quite a deal for power-effective travel. Technically the Thrust Disks work, they just take up massive amounts of unneeded power. Also note that Create Thrust is now 2nd level, and as such having Extend imbued into the tapestry that feeds the Web would be a very good idea. Create Thrust stacks, up to 12 times on a single object. I've made a custom system for collisions that is very useful when using this spell. You'll find it in the Mech/Skyship area.
Energy Absorption Field - 7 - 1 round/CL - A knock off of the Energy Transformation Field from the Spell Compendium. It creates an connected area comprised of a single 10 ft cube per caster level. Instead of a spell being designated upon casting, a nearby (medium range) battery is targeted and gains the charge.
Flame Blade - 3 - 1 minute/CL - As Flame Dagger (from the Spell compendium), but 1d8+CL (Max +15) and the blade is the size of a Longsword. And if you attach this to a casting device... Sorry did I just make a Lightsaber?
Access - 2 - 1 minute/CL - To be used in conjunction with a Databank. If cast on a databank, the caster can immediately access the information, and modify it if they wish. An Access Runestone is almost always connected via an info line to both a databank and a Display. This would allow the Display to pull up the information once the connection was made by giving the signal to power the Access Stone (we have a trigger built onto the stone, connected to the same display). Given Access's cost, it usually isn't on all the time, but rather is activated when information needs to be retrieved or altered.
Restrict - 2 - Permanent - The companion to Access, this spell allows you to password either all or some of the information in a Databank. Technically, a password isn't the right word. It's more of a magical signature that is difficult to emulate unless you have been told how to do so. In the case of a person casting Access to try to get to Restricted material, they would be prompted to provide the correct signature. In the case of a Runestone, the Display prompts the user to provide said signature. This magical signature doesn't actually require anything more than being 1st level in an arcane or divine spellcasting class (the signature does differentiate). If the signature is not known, you may attempt to effectively hack the system. This is rolled as an opposed CL check against the caster of Restrict. If the Hacker wins, they access the encrypted information. Restrict can be dispelled, though this may have... unwanted side effects on the databank. Restrict can also be used to lock certain functions of a Magitech Device, such as making the super-weapon require a correct signature. You can also restrict a Battery such that it cannot be drawn from without the proper signature - this is most important for Greater Transit. When trying to bypass these features, Access is used.
Relay - 1 to 4 - 1 min/CL - This is another group of spells. Specifically it allows two information lines to be joined accross distances. The only difference between the spells is range (Close, Medium, Long, and 1 mile/cl respectively). In the case of casters, two casters would need to use this spell and be on the same "frequency". As long as this was true, they could hear what one another said. The same goes for a pair of runestones.
Detect Chemical Composition - 1 - Instant - Well... Yeah. It gives you an accurate read out of the chemical composition of a liquid, solid, or gas. Standard 60ft cone. Breathalyzer?
Create Gravity - 7 - 24 hours - A very odd spell. This is designed for those traversing Space in a Skyship such as that described later. To prevent your bones from turning to jelly and general problems due to lack of gravity, Create Gravity was made. It's an odd spell as it uses the Spell/Size scaling system described later, yet it's only usable on Tapestry Constructs. The basic effect is that the targeted Tapestry Construct now has gravity within it. This spell is based upon "Reverse Gravity". The direction of the gravity is chosen upon casting. Don't let the PCs get this. Everything will be on the ceiling.
Amanuensis, Greater - 3 - 10 min/CL - Just as Amanuensis, but this spell can duplicate the markings in spell books (Which are magical, and thus not copy-able by the normal version of the spell). Advanced societies store the spell-book information in Databanks and hook them up to Runestones of Greater Amanuensis that just continuously produce spellbooks. This spell has a costly material component - the costly materials normally needed for scribing books. These must be within Close Range of the the spell's target. This spell also has the property that it can change targets when it finishes with one. The new target must be within close range of the origin of the spell.
Gate, Skyship - 9 - Concentration (up to 1 round/CL) - Another odd one. This spell is only castable by a Tapestry and takes 100 spell levels of energy. It works exactly as Gate except that you cannot use it to call creatures, and it's diamter is between 5 and 200ft (chosen when cast)
Store Magitech Device - 3 - Permanent, until retrieved - This spell allows you to store a magitech device in a pocket dimension. The cost of this spell scales normally with the size of a Tapestry Construct. The spell fails if there is any creature or sentient magic item inside of such a device (Cognition Core are allowed). The device can be either a normal device, or a full Tapestry Construct. Either way, a miniature image of the device appears inside the large Emerald (Which is the costly Arcane Focus of this spell, costing 1,000gp). At any time the caster can call the device out of the dimension, as long as they are in contact with the storing stone. This retrieval fails if there is not enough room for the device to emerge.
Activate - 0 - Instant - This is hardly even a spell. If you hook up the correct kind of power line leading to a magic item (Let's say a Wand of Fireball), the power wants to flow. Assuming no obstruction (Triggers pressed, or there are no triggers), the item will activate at a cost of a half level of energy. In this way you can hook up Tapestries to activate other magic items. This doesn't require a runestone. Only Tapestries can use this ability. Yes, this means you could attach a random magic item (As in you don't know what it does) to a "Tester" and Activate it. Results may vary. "Where'd it go?!?" "Well it may have been Boots of Dimension Door"
Increase - 3 - 10 min/CL - When in dire need, one can Increase the maximum capacity of a Battery such that it can contain more energy. This spell targets a single battery who's maximum capacity increases by CL*3 to a max of twice it's original cap. Doubling the original Cap causes the Battery to become unstable, resulting in a complete loss of all Hardness. Tripling it reduces it's HP to 1. You cannot more than triple the Cap of a battery. This spell does not actually add levels, only room for more. If this spell expires while there are still excess levels in the battery, they start safely dissipating at the rate of 1 level a minute.
Greater Transit - 3 - Instant - As Transit, but Close range and you need not be able to see the target battery or tapestry, only know it's general location.
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Thread: Magitech in DnD 3.5e (PEACH)
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Magitech in DnD 3.5e (PEACH)
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