Magic Item Feats

Making Your Magic Items More Magical

Magic item--the very words conjure up vivid images of glowing swords, jeweled amulets, and rune-crusted staffs. But despite the variety of exciting items contained in the Dungeon Master's Guide and other tomes, sometimes even the most magical of items can lose its luster. That's where the new options presented here come in. Each one provides a way to make magic items in your campaign a little more special. Use any or all of them--they exist perfectly well together or apart. They're particularly well-suited to campaigns where magic items can't easily be purchased or improved.

At a certain point in a spellcaster's career, wands and staffs simply offer no real attractiveness except as a means to carry around low-powered healing and other minor spells. As cool as wands and staffs are, they simply don't pack enough punch to scare a tough monster.

That's where the Channel Spell Power feat comes in. It allows a spellcaster to treat spells he casts from a wand or staff as cast by himself, increasing the spell's caster level (meaning more damage from a wand of fireball, and longer duration for a wand of summon monster, not to mention better resistance against dispelling and more success against spell resistance) and the save DCs (since he uses his own ability score modifier rather than the default modifier for spell trigger items), among other effects. He can even apply the effects of any (non-metamagic) feats he has that modify the spell's effect, such as Spell Focus or Spell Penetration.

Channel Spell Power

You can channel your own magical power into a wand or staff.

Prerequisites: Caster level 9, Craft Wand or Craft Staff, Spellcraft 9 ranks.

Benefit: When you use a spell trigger item (such as a wand or staff) to cast a spell on your class spell list, you can spend twice the normal number of charges required to treat all aspects of the spell as if you had cast it yourself (including caster level, save DC, and checks to overcome spell resistance).

You can't use the effect of this feat on any spell cast from a wand or staff that isn't on your class spell list. For instance, a bard couldn't use this feat with a wand of fireball, even if he successfully triggered the wand with a Use Magic Device skill check, since fireball isn't on the bard spell list.

You can't apply the effects of your metamagic feats to spells cast from spell trigger items.

Every veteran fighter eventually encounters the dilemma between keeping a favorite weapon or "trading up" for a better model. This topic has been explored in a variety of places--including the new Game Mechanics product Swords of Our Fathers--but the Supernatural Weaponbond feat provides a simple method that can keep your fighter happy with the same blade for years to come.

Supernatural Weaponbond

Your link to a weapon grants it supernatural power.

Prerequisites: Character level 6, Weapon Focus with the type of weapon to be chosen, Knowledge (arcana) 1 rank.

Benefit: When you select this feat, choose a weapon that you have owned for at least one month. That weapon's enhancement bonus increases by +1. If the weapon already has an enhancement bonus, you can instead choose a weapon special ability with a market price modifier equivalent to a +1 bonus (such as defending, frost, or keen). Once you choose the effect of the bond, it cannot be changed unless you select the feat again (see Special).

The increased enhancement bonus or special ability only functions when you wield the weapon. No other character can gain the benefit of any increased enhancement bonus or special abilities granted to the weapon by means of this feat.

No more than one character can have an active bond to the same weapon (if you attempt to apply this feat to a weapon that already has another bond, the attempt fails and you must select a different feat). If you die, the bond is inactive until you are returned to life. If another bond has been established with the weapon in the mean time, your bond is inactive until the current owner of the weapon is slain.

Special: You can't select this feat again for a different weapon. You can select this feat multiple times for the same weapon, but the prerequisites increase with each successive selection.

The second time you select this feat, you must be character level 12 and have 3 ranks of Knowledge (arcana). At that time, you can either increase the weapon's enhancement bonus by +1, add another weapon special ability with a market price modifier equivalent to a +1 bonus, or you can replace the effect chosen with the first selection of this feat with a weapon special ability with a market price modifier equivalent to a +2 bonus (such as disruption or holy).

The third time you select this feat, you must be character level 18 and have 6 ranks of Knowledge (arcana). At that time, you can either increase the weapon's enhancement bonus by +1, add another weapon special ability with a market price modifier equivalent to a +1 bonus, or you can replace the effects chosen with the first two selections of this feat with a weapon special ability with a market price modifier equivalent to a +3 bonus. You can't select this feat more than three times.

Like fighters, many characters come to identify themselves with a specific magic item they carry or wear. The Signature Item feat provides a generic method for a character to enhance the power of his favorite magic item.

Signature Item

Choose a magic item you own. That item becomes more powerful when in your possession.

Prerequisites: Character level 6, Knowledge (arcana) 1 rank.

Benefit: When you use the chosen item, its caster level is increased by +2, as are any save DCs required by its powers. All durations of magic effects created by the item (other than instantaneous or permanent durations) are increased by 100%, as if by the Extend Spell feat. If the item has a limit of daily uses or rounds of active use (such as a figurine of wondrous power or boots of speed), the limit increases by 100%.

The increased power only functions when you use or wear the item. No other character can gain the benefit of any improvements granted to the item by means of this feat.

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