Making Your Own Magical Items

Here are some rules that my husband and I use when allowing players and the GM to make new magic items.

1) Make sure it isn't covered by some other item that isn't just a different shape.  As an example is there a ring of polymorphing and your player just wants to make bracers of polymorphing?  If that is the case, just charge the same price and components and let the game go on.

2) Look for similar types of items to get a feel of how powerful or how much an items will cost.  If your player is looking for polymorphing and their is an item that does the spell shapechange instead, see how expensive it is to buy/make and what components it might need.  This will give you a good idea of how to start.

3) Don't let it overpower the game.  Do not allow your players to make a sword of +20 of killing dragons.  I mean, seriously?  Some GMs like to have lots of magic and please their players, but magic that is ubber powerful takes the fun out of the game. Don't get me wrong, everybody likes to be super powerful, but after awhile it gets boring when you  have to take on three full grown dragons for a challenge.

4)  Be reasonable.  If the player wants it more as a roleplaying item then for a game changer consider it.  I had a ranger who was a drow, (okay, who didn't), but she couldn't levitate.  So my GM and I talked about it and we found in one of our adventures an ioun stone of levitation to help with character development.  Making a magic item could be used the same way.  Even though I didn't  use the levitation that often it gave me a little roleplaying aid, which is really what you want.  So if that mage really wants to make a staff of his own with a little out there magical enchantment, you still might consider it.  If he/she says it's simply for that little added character development it might be worth it.  My husband had a mage who's hands would start flaming when he was scared or upset.  So we added a flame enchant to his staff that would only work when he was upset or scared.  It was powerful at first level, but there were stipulations as to when it would work.

Happy Gaming!