Empowering

 The character must keep the scrolls for the staff to reference when using this skill.

The Empowering skill allows a character to imbue weapons or armor with elemental damage or protection.

Description
There is one ritual aspect for each of the various effects that can be generated and there is another for each of the durations. An Empowerer of the appropriate level can learn these rituals from magical scrolls. Once a scroll is used it disintegrates but the character has the ritual memorized forever.

Only items made of Silver, Gold, Mithril or Adamite can be Empowered and each empowerment takes up one of the metal's enhancement limits.

Each of the effect rituals will have a list of the mineral components that must be used to create the product. The rituals for durations augment the effect rituals by a designated modifier.

For example: The ritual to Empower a weapon with Light Damage calls for 2 Diamonds.

The ritual for making it last one event requires x1 the original ritual so it would take 2 Diamonds to allow a weapon to call the Light tagline for the remainder of the event in which the ritual is cast. It would also require the empowerer to have memorized both the One Event Scroll and the Elemental Bonus Scroll.

The ritual for making it last four events requires +5 the original ritual so it would take 7 Diamonds to allow a weapon to call the Light tagline for four events. It would also require the empowerer to have memorized both the Four Event Scroll and the Elemental Bonus Scroll.

Certain empowerments can only be effective in specific kinds of vessels. See all the details HERE.

No one may blindly activate an empowerment in any vessel. Any character with the Empowerment skill can determine whether an item carries the magic of their given skill by examining an item for ten seconds. The character must be holding the item and cannot move, speak, activate a feat with a type other than "Negate" or sustain any hit point damage during the examination or he/she must begin again. The character cannot determine the specific empowerment within an item except through the appropriate identification ritual.

One Event
This ritual aspect can be combined with any empowerment effect ritual to create an empowerment that will last for the rest of the current event. Regardless of whether an event is a day event or full event and regardless of when the ritual is cast during the event, when the event ends, the empowerment is dispelled.

Elemental Bonus
This empowerment can be used to add an elemental tagline to a vessel. This ritual allows the vessel to be empowered with the Light, Magic, Darkness, Acid, Lighting, Ice, or Fire taglines. The tagline type desired, determines the component needed to complete the ritual. If the vessel empowered is a melee weapon, the wielder can choose to activate the empowerment to call the specific element tagline with every melee attack. If the vessel empowered is a holder for ranged missiles or a ranged weapon (bandolier, bow or launcher), the wielder can choose to activate the empowerment to call the specific element tagline with every ranged missile that is drawn from the holder or shot from the ranged weapon. If the vessel is a ring, the wielder can choose to activate the empowerment to call the specific element tagline with every unarmed attack. If the vessel is any piece of jewelry other than a ring, the wielder can choose to activate the specific element tagline with every spell aptitude attack, instead of his/her typical elemental tagline.

A single vessel may contain the Elemental Bonus for multiple different elements but each element takes up one of the vessel’s magic slots. No two Elemental Bonuses can be active during the same attack. For instance, a character may activate an Acid Elemental Bonus that is contained in his axe when he makes a melee attack and then activate a Light Elemental Bonus in his axe for the next attack or he could activate his necklace as he throws a spell aptitude attack to change his normal “Magic” tagline to “Darkness.” However, he could not activate both elemental bonuses in his axe to call “Acid, Light” damage with one attack. If the empowered vessel is shattered, the elemental bonus cannot be used until the item is repaired.

Elemental Shield
This empowerment can be used to allow a vessel to generate a magical shield that will protect the wearer from one attack of a specific element. This ritual allows the vessel to be empowered against the Light, Magic, Darkness, Acid, Lighting, Ice, or Fire taglines. The tagline type desired, determines the component needed to complete the ritual. The only acceptable vessels for this empowerment are shields, any piece of armor and any piece of jewelry other than a ring. An Elemental Shield empowerment may be activated or deactivated as part of a Recuperation. When active, this Shield does not count against a character’s three shield limit.

A single vessel may contain the Elemental Shield for multiple different elements but each element takes up one of the vessel’s magic slots. Also, no two Elemental Shields can be active simultaneously from any sources. For instance, a character may activate an Acid Elemental Shield that is contained in his shield and after using it to Shield against one Acid attack he can recuperate and reactivate the same empowerment. Alternatively if he discovers that he is fighting light creatures, then the next time he recuperates he can deactivate the unneeded Acid Elemental Shield and instead activate a Light Elemental Shield in his necklace. At no point could he ever activate both Elemental Shields. If the empowered vessel is shattered, the Elemental Shield cannot be used until the item is repaired. If the vessel is a piece of armor, the Elemental Shield would still be active if all the character’s armor points have been lost through general damage but a Shatter Armor would end the Elemental Shield effect until the character recuperates or receives a Mend Armor effect.

Identify Empowerment
An Identify Empowerment ritual can be cast on a item if the empowerer knows or believes there may be an empowerment present in a vessel. The empowerer must touch the vessel within five seconds of the completion of the ritual. Generally, this ritual will allow the caster to discern the nature and duration of each empowerment contained in a single vessel but alterations to the ritual may cause the caster to learn more or less than that. No one may blindly activate an empowerment in any vessel.

Four Events
This ritual aspect can be combined with any empowerment effect ritual to create an empowerment that will last for the rest of the current event and for the subsequent three events. Regardless of whether an event is a day event or full event and regardless of when the ritual is cast during the event, when the fourth event ends, the empowerment is dispelled. The number of events is also not subject to the vessel’s presence at an event.

Enhancement Bonus
This empowerment can be used to add two additional damage to specific attacks depending on the type of vessel. If the vessel empowered is a melee weapon, the wielder can choose to activate the empowerment to call the two additional damage with every melee attack made with that weapon. If the vessel empowered is a holder for ranged missiles or a ranged weapon (bandolier, bow or launcher), the wielder can choose to activate the empowerment to call two additional damage with every ranged missile that is drawn from the holder or shot from the ranged weapon. If the vessel is a ring, the wielder can choose to activate the empowerment to call two additional damage with every unarmed attack. If the vessel is any piece of jewelry other than a ring, the wielder can choose to do two additional damage with every spell aptitude attack.

A single vessel may only contain the weapon bonus once and it takes up one of the vessel’s magic slots. No two empowered weapon bonuses can be active during the same attack. For instance, a character may activate an enhancement bonus that is contained in his axe when he makes a melee attack and then activate his necklace as he throws a spell aptitude attack. However, he could not activate an empowered enhancement bonus in a bracelet and a necklace to do four additional damage with one spell aptitude attack. Empowered enhancement bonuses do stack with weapon, strength, damage and tagline bonuses gained from feats or items but not other enhancement bonuses. If the empowered vessel is shattered, the enhancement bonus cannot be used until the item is repaired.

Elemental Endurance
This empowerment will protect the wearer from half of all inflicted damage from a specific element. This ritual allows the vessel to be empowered against the Light, Magic, Darkness, Acid, Lightning, Ice, or Fire taglines. The tagline type desired, determines the component needed to complete the ritual. The only acceptable vessels for this empowerment are shields, any piece of armor and any piece of jewelry other than a ring. An Elemental Endurance empowerment may be activated or deactivated as part of a Recuperation.

A single vessel may contain the Elemental Endurance for multiple different elements but each element takes up one of the vessel’s magic slots. Also, no two Elemental Endurance empowerments can be active simultaneously from any sources. For instance, a character may activate an Acid Elemental Endurance empowerment that is contained in his shield but if he discovers that he is fighting light creatures, then the next time he recuperates he can deactivate the unneeded Acid Elemental Endurance and instead activate a Light Elemental Endurance in his necklace. At no point could he ever activate both Elemental Endurance empowerments. If a character has an Elemental Shield of the same element as his active Elemental Endurance empowerment, the Shield still activates to completely block the first successful attack of the given element. If the empowered vessel is shattered, the Elemental Endurance cannot be used until the item is repaired. If the vessel is a piece of armor, the Elemental Endurance would still be active if all the character’s armor points have been lost through general damage but a Shatter Armor would end the Elemental Endurance effect until the character recuperates or receives a Mend Armor effect.

Empowering Scroll Making
A Governor of Empowering has thoroughly learned the craft to the point where he/she can scribe the magic scrolls that are imbued with rituals other empowerers need to memorize to create empowered magical items. Scribing scrolls requires a great deal of concentration from the empowerer, the willpower to imbue the scroll with magic and a certain combination of components capable of holding the magic. A Governor can create a scroll for any ritual he/she knows from levels one or two but may not create scrolls for unique rituals he/she may have developed. For information on component requirements, see the Scroll Scribing page.

Empowering Research
A Governor has moved beyond what he/she can learn from others but can now begin to create rare or even potentially unique empowerments. Generating these proprietary empowerments takes a period of research and experimentation. If the empowerments a character is attempting is fairly common and easy to generate, it may not take very long to perfect the ritual. However if he/she is trying to generate a high level effect or something beyond the range of typical magical practices, it may take a lot of time to create something stable and effective. It should also be noted that some things simply cannot be created do to lack of a component that generates the necessary magic or because it is simply beyond the boundaries of magical law. You can learn more about the specifics of the process on the Research page.