Vladar's Blog

Mystara: revising weapons and armor enchantment rules

The rules for enchanting weapons and armor presented in the GAZ3 The Principalities of Glantri1 and Rules Cyclopedia2 do their job fine for the most part. Once you get into some more costly and exotic items, however, the math begins to break down really fast.

The issue with the default weapons and armor enchantment rules

For example, if someone desires to enchant a tusked shield weapon, it will calculate its Initial Enchantment Cost as follows: the formula Price [gp] * Encumbrance [cn] * 5 becomes 200 * 275 * 5 = 275,000 — more than a quarter of a million gold pieces for a single +1 bonus! Compare this with a run-of-the-mill normal sword +1: 10 * 60 * 5 = 3,000 gold pieces.

A similar problem becomes pertinent with the introduction of exotic classes. In Creature Crucible - PC1 - Tall Tales of the Wee Folk,3 we see the centaur bardings with the following stats:

Type AC Cost Encumbrance
Leather centaur barding 6 650 600
Chain centaur barding 4 1,300 1,200
Plate centaur barding 2 2,600 1,500

1,300,000 gp for a plate centaur barding +1, which merely provides AC 1, is definitely unreasonable. More than that, considering the Enchantment Time rule — one week plus one day for each 1,000 gp (rounded up) — this +1 bonus would be done in 1,307 days — almost 4 mystaran years! For comparison, plate mail +2, which provides the same AC 1, would cost 20,000 gp and would be completed in a month with a day to spare.

So, what could be done with this problem while:

  1. Keeping the rest of the system intact;
  2. Not making the formulas exceptionally complicated;
  3. Preserving the linear (per +1) bonus scaling;
  4. Maintaining the prices for the most common weapons and armor in the same ballpark;
  5. (Optionally) Reflecting the actual usefulness of the item being enchanted in the price of said enchantment?

After some thinking and calculations, I think I have found a reasonable solution.

The revised weapons and armor enchantment formulas

Besides the Cost and Encumbrance values, the weapon enchantment formula will take into account its Min. and Max. Damage (without magical bonus), along with the Maximum Range for the missile weapons. For armor, the Base AC of a nonmagical item will also influence the enchantment cost per +1 bonus (for shields, Base AC = 0).

By summing the parameters rather than multiplying them, we obtain a less steep curve, which is perfect for our goals. Below you can see a comparative table of the old and the new system for selected items.

📝 NOTE: This also takes into account rules for minimal price (100 gp for weapon, and 3,000 gp for armor), rounding up to the next 10th, and treating daggers as short swords from GAZ 3.1

Old System +1 +2 +3 +4 +5
Short sword* 1,050 2,100 3,150 4,200 5,250
Normal Sword 3,000 6,000 9,000 12,000 15,000
Bastard sword 6,000 12,000 18,000 24,000 30,000
Lance 9,000 18,000 27,000 36,000 45,000
Tusked shield 275,000 550,000 825,000 1,100,000 1,375,000
Short bow 2,500 5,000 7,500 10,000 12,500
Longbow 6,000 12,000 18,000 24,000 30,000
Light crossbow 7,500 15,000 22,500 30,000 37,500
Heavy crossbow 20,000 40,000 60,000 80,000 100,000
Shield 3,000 6,000 9,000 12,000 15,000
Leather 3,000 6,000 9,000 12,000 15,000
Chain 5,330 10,660 15,990 21,320 26,650
Plate 10,000 20,000 30,000 40,000 50,000
Suit 62,500 125,000 187,500 250,000 312,500
Centaur Leather 130,000 260,000 390,000 520,000 650,000
Centaur Chain 520,000 1,040,000 1,560,000 2,080,000 2,600,000
Centaur Plate 1,300,000 2,600,000 3,900,000 5,200,000 6,500,000
New System +1 +2 +3 +4 +5
Short sword* 1,760 3,520 5,280 7,040 8,800
Normal Sword 3,160 6,320 9,480 12,640 15,800
Bastard sword 4,240 8,480 12,720 16,960 21,200
Lance 8,040 16,080 24,120 32,160 40,200
Tusked shield 19,280 38,560 57,840 77,120 96,400
Short bow 4,040 8,080 12,120 16,160 20,200
Longbow 5,740 11,480 17,220 22,960 28,700
Light crossbow 5,340 10,680 16,020 21,360 26,700
Heavy crossbow 7,600 15,200 22,800 30,400 38,000
Shield 3,000 6,000 9,000 12,000 15,000
Leather 3,000 6,000 9,000 12,000 15,000
Chain 5,280 10,560 15,840 21,120 26,400
Plate 10,080 20,160 30,240 40,320 50,400
Suit 27,000 54,000 81,000 108,000 135,000
Centaur Leather 11,250 22,500 33,750 45,000 56,250
Centaur Chain 37,500 75,000 112,500 150,000 187,500
Centaur Plate 86,100 172,200 258,300 344,400 430,500

* and Dagger, as per GAZ 3.

When we examine the percentage difference per +1 bonus, we can see that the "mid-range" weapons maintain comparatively similar enchantment prices, cheap/light weapons' prices rise about 60–70%, and costly/heavy exotic weapons and armor drop to 7–9% of the former price — still quite a lot to reflect the in-game rarity, but far more reasonable than before!

Item Difference per +1 bonus
Short sword* 168%
Normal Sword 105%
Bastard sword 71%
Lance 89%
Tusked shield 7%
Short bow 162%
Longbow 96%
Light crossbow 71%
Heavy crossbow 38%
Shield 100%
Leather 100%
Chain 99%
Plate 101%
Suit 43%
Centaur Leather 9%
Centaur Chain 7%
Centaur Plate 7%

Enchantment comparison chart

Discuss this post on Reddit

  1. pp. 65–66 https://www.dmsguild.com/en/product/16975/gaz3-the-principalities-of-glantri-basic?affiliate_id=850783↩

  2. pp. 251–252 https://www.dmsguild.com/product/17171/DD-Rules-Cyclopedia-Basic?affiliate_id=850783↩

  3. p. 49 https://www.dmsguild.com/en/product/16990/pc1-creature-crucible-tall-tales-of-the-wee-folk-basic?affiliate_id=850783↩

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