Magical Affinity

“Eye of newt, and toe of frog,
Wool of bat, and tongue of dog,
Adder’s fork, and blind-worm’s sting,
Lizard’s leg, and howlet’s wing,–
For a charm of powerful trouble,
Like a hell-broth boil and bubble.”
–From Macbeth (IV, i, 14-15)

Some materials have an affinity for certain types of magic. When used to craft magic items that have that type of magic as the primary enchantment, the experience point costs for the enchantment are reduced by half.

‘Primary enchantment’, for this purpose, means that at least half the magic in the item comes from the type of magic of the affinity. This can be measured using the base cost of the enchantment. A staff containing fireball and magic missile, and nothing else, would have ‘fire’ as its primary enchantment. This gets a little trickier with weapons and armor because the order of enchantment affects the cost because weapon and armor qualities get more expensive as you go. Instead, examine the total quality bonus and use that. A +1 keen flaming burst longsword has +2 worth of ‘fire’ and +2 worth of ‘other’; it counts as having ‘fire’ as the primary enchantment.

Some known affinities:

• Items made of wood harvested from the Burning Wood are treated as Darkwood (half-weight) and have an affinity for fire magics.
• Items made of storm metal (found in Storm Mountain) are treated as Mithral and have an affinity for magics involving lightning, wind, or storms.
• Items retrieved from the Ghost Hills have been exposed to necrotic magic for almost one thousand years and have an affinity for necromantic magics and for magics that fight necromantic effects and undead (Undead Bane, Ghost Touch, etc.). Masterwork weapons and armor may be enchanted as magic arms and armor, nonmasterwork items can still be enchanted as single-use items (treat much as potions; using the magic bound to the item consumes the item).