Artificer Intelligence

I built an entire class for Old-School Essentials around the concept of the infusion mechanism detailed in my previous post. Since I cribbed the name "infusion" from the 5e Artificer anyway, I call it the Artificer here, though I also considered Enchanter or Mage-Wright.

The Artificer class for Old-School Essentials

I started with the Magic-User "chassis." It uses the same hit dice, level progression, saving throws, and base attack bonus.

The biggest drawbacks compared to the M-U: the Artificer's reliance on finding spell scrolls and then successfully crafting once they do. They have to jump through far more hoops to even have their first spell effect.

Because of those drawbacks, I give them a bit more up front:

• The ability to wear leather armor and use shields. Since they don't have to perform an incantation like the Magic-User, they don't have the same limitations.
• Access to a few extra weapons: the crossbow and the warhammer. For a class concept built around using tools to craft, proficiency with a big hammer felt right. Crossbows, being more like contraptions than other ranged weapons, are also at home here. If your campaign uses the new Black Powder Firearms rules from Carcass Crawler # 1, consider giving the Artificer access to the semi-martial firearms as well.
• Since they depend on understanding spell scrolls to even gain access to magical effects, I give them the ability to spend a turn to decipher magical scripts. Essentially, they can Read Magic without casting the spell. Otherwise, they'd rely on a casting class to even get started tinkering.

Additionally, the mechanism itself has the same benefits that I outlined in my previous post: the potential to get more uses out of a spell scroll and opening up access to spell effects to other classes through your infusions.

For those of you familiar with Numenera, this class essentially creates cyphers: limited use arcane contraptions. You could even consider stealing that game's rule that restricts the number of contraptions any character can carry: carry too many, and they start malfunctioning and blowing up in your face.

A few more insights into my design choices:

• The Level 11 class feature states that your apprentices arrive with spell scrolls of their own. This could insinuate that Artificers start with a spell scroll. If you choose to do this, I suggest randomly determining the scroll as if it had been acquired by chance.
• Artificers can use spell scrolls normally, like other arcane casters, but they always have the Thief's 10% chance of error. They aren't quite the experts at casting that Magic-Users are.
• The section on infusions does not explicitly prohibit infusing the same item multiple times. For instance, an Artificer 3 could infuse the same armor with Shield three times, thus giving it three charges. I find this to be an entirely viable interpretation!
• Note that when the Artificer attempts to recharge an infusion, the original spell scroll is not required.

There you are: an Artificer for OSE. Steal it, mine it for ideas, use it for inspiration ...  it's yours to do with as you please!

Magical Arts and Crafts

Crafting rules for pen-and-paper RPGs usually miss the mark. They're often overwrought or too complicated. Sometimes they're too specific to a certain setting and difficult to apply outside of it.

Magical crafting rules will usually list a set of components or reagents necessary, plus a Very Special element that requires a Very Special quest to retrieve. This approach forces a campaign to revolve around crafting, at least for a little bit. That's fine and could be fun, but what if you want to play a magical craftsman or enchanter type in a more traditional dungeon crawl campaign?

I designed a game mechanism (class feature, character ability, however you want to use it) to address that question.

What is art? Are we art? Is art art?

Magical Infusions

It all starts with a spell scroll. To craft a magical item at low levels, you must transfer the magic from a spell scroll into that item.

Why spell scrolls? Mostly because spell scrolls fit right into the basic dungeon-crawling feedback loop. They're found as treasure in most adventures.

Then, with enough time, the right tools, a place to work, and some training, a character can infuse an otherwise mundane object with the spell from that scroll. This allows someone to cast that spell from the item instead of the scroll.

Why would anyone want to go through this trouble?

• It could increase the number of consumable spells at your party's disposal, as it doesn't necessarily consume the original spell scroll.
• Anyone can cast the spell from the infused item, whereas not everyone can use spell scrolls.

Ok, so what are the limitations?

• A character can only maintain a number of infusions equal to their class level.
• Every attempt to infuse an item carries a 10% chance of error: the spell disappears from the scroll, and maybe something else goes awry.

Creating an Infusion

To infuse an item with magic, the character requires:

• A spell scroll that they can read
• A set of tools: tinker's, alchemist's, smith's ... something
• A workbench in a safe place

Then, the character can spend an uninterrupted day at work to make an infusion attempt using their Intelligence score. This could be a standard INT check based on your system of choice. Alternatively, you could use the Spell Books and Learning Spells table from OSE: Advanced Fantasy that I referenced in my previous post on copying spells.

Whichever method you use to adjudicate the Intelligence check, remember to include a 10% chance that the scroll gets erased entirely.

Higher Level Spells

One potential way to abuse this ability: finding a high level spell scroll and using it to repeatedly churn out powerful infusions, even at a low class level.

To avoid this, you could simply rule that there is a maximum spell level that a character can infuse at any given class level. I would probably align this to the maximum spell level that a magic-user of a similar class level could cast.

Or, you could allow higher level infusions, but apply some penalty to the infusion attempt.

Infusions on Adventures

Once created, any character can carry this infused item and cast the spell contained within in the same way a magic-user would cast a spell from memory. Once used, the magic fades and the spell cannot be cast again.

However, if returned to the character who created it in the first place, there is a chance that they can recharge the infusion by spending another day at work and making another attempt using their Intelligence score. Note that they do not need the original scroll on hand to do this.

They only get one shot: if the attempt to recharge the infusion fails, the magic fades for good.

An Example

You're a Level 2 Fighter. Last week during your downtime, a fairy smith in town taught you how to enchant items using the process described above.

During your adventure, your party finds a Scroll of Invisibility. You pocket it and return to town.

You acquire some tools from the local blacksmith and rent out a room with a large table where you can work. You spend the next full day tinkering with a mundane silver ring and the scroll.

You have an Intelligence score of 13. Since Invisibility is a Level 2 spell (and above what an equivalent M-U could cast at this level), the referee applies a -2 penalty to your INT score for this check. That brings your adjusted score to 11: a 50% chance of success.

You make a roll: 67. A failure. However, not within the 10% range of a catastrophic failure, so the scroll is still intact. You sleep and make another attempt the next day.

This time you roll a 14: success! You have infused the spell Invisibility into the ring. You grab another ring and try again the next day, since at Level 2 you can maintain two infusions.

You make your check: 96. Uh oh, you're in the danger zone. The attempt fails. The spell disappears from the scroll! The mishap makes your eyes turn a milky gray.

After a few more days of rest, you slip on your magical ring with its single charge and set off for your next adventure, looking for more spell scrolls.

Bringing a Base Town to Life

A few months ago, I shared my Between Adventures procedures from my ongoing Old-School Essentials campaign. It has worked well for my table. Like all good turn procedures, the time between adventures has a "ticking clock" that I called Scheming Factions.

These schemes take the place of random encounters or wandering monsters. Unlike wandering monsters, a scheme doesn't usually lead to an immediate encounter. Instead, schemes model the plots and machinations of various NPCs in the region, as well as random happenstance. Here are the current schemes from my town notes:

For every stay in town of a week or less, I roll a d6 for each ongoing scheme. Some schemes have multiple stages (like The Blood King in my example). If I roll a 1, the scheme advances sometime during the course of that stay. Schemes that have been on the list for a while might have a higher chance to advance (most of them do in my example above).

You don't need more than one ongoing scheme. In my example, I added every entry except for The Blood King to the list as a reaction to actions previously taken by the players. I like to use this to show the players that the world around them will react to their escapades, without arbitrarily dropping "plot" in front of them.

The best example of schemes in action in my current campaign comes from another multistage scheme no longer on the list, inspired by the adventure The Waking of Willowby Hall.

First, the rival party from that adventure made their way through town, boasting about the goose who lays golden eggs. Then, when it advanced again, they had stolen the goose and run back into town chased by Bonebreaker Tom.

The second bit happened as my party approached town. They heard the battle in the distance and then hurried into town to see that Tom had smashed up the inn and stolen the tower bell. He then chased the goose thieves to a manor house (Willowby Hall) outside of town.

Two town NPCs offered a combined 4,000 gp for the return of the bell, which enticed my party to go check things out. Unfortunately, they tried to talk to Tom instead of sneaking past him. The conversation did not go well and Tom smashed a PC with a boulder. My party ultimately retreated and decided not to engage with the adventure.

The rest played out "off-screen" while my party did other things. The next week, Helmut Halfsword of the rival party returned with the bell and collected the 4,000 gp for himself. I thought my players would be ticked off that someone else got their gold, but they didn't really seem to mind.

So far, this small table of schemes has been a low maintenance way to make my base town feel alive without overwhelming my players with quests and quest-givers. Show the world in motion around them and leave it up to them whether or not they decide to engage with it.