This section details rules, costs, and benefits of enhancing weapons, armor, and implements.

Base Enhancing Rules

Items such as weapons, armor, and implements are enhanced in one of two ways; directly or gem and seal enhancement. The primary form being Gem and Seal Enhancement.

Gem and Seal Enhancement

When using gem and seal enhancements and special abilities are not tied to the item itself and rather are within Gems and Seals. Each weapon or armor has a single Gem slot and a Seal slot on them. Enhancement gems and seals are typed to Weapons, Armor, and Implements only able to be attached to the type of equipment they were designed for. This means a Gem designed for armor would have no benefit when applied to a weapon.

Enhancement Gems and seals may be broken to enchant 50 pieces of ammunition. Once done this way the ammunition receives the enchantments/special abilities as normal; but this consumes the gem and seal in the process and the enchantments may no longer be transferred.

If a weapon or armor already provides an enhancement bonus or has special abilities, applying a gem or seal overwrites any enhancement bonus or special abilities the weapon already possesses until they are removed.

Armor that is destroyed also destroys any enhancement gem or seals it may possess until the armor is restored; at which point they may be removed from the armor again.

Unless otherwise specified a piece of equipment may only have a single enhancement gem and seal applied to it at once; additional enhancement gems and seals applied to it have no effect.

Enhancement Gems

Enhancement Gems range from +1 to +5, and when applied to a weapon or armor grant the equipment an enhancement bonus. This may be attached as a 3 AP action, and may be removed as a 1 AP action. Unless otherwise specified you can only apply and remove enhancement gems on your own equipment, or equipment of willing creatures.

Enhancement Seals

Enhancement Seals work like gems with a range of +t to +5 but rather than conferring an enhancement bonus this is instead in relation to the cost of weapon special abilities. Once applied all special abilities such as flaming, fortification, etc… are applied to the weapon or armor. Similar to gems it requires a 3 AP action to apply and a 1 AP action to remove. Unless otherwise specified you can only apply and remove enhancement seals on your own equipment, or equipment of willing creatures.

Direct Enhancement

Enhancing a weapon directly applies both the enhancement bonuses and special abilities directly to a piece of equipment disallowing the enhancements from being moved to other items like gems and seals.

Enhancements and Ammunition

If a weapon applies a special effect (such as dealing fire damage) it may apply these effects to the ammunition it shoots. If the ammunition has its own enhancements, firstly the Enhancement bonus to-hit of the higher applies. Special abilities (such as bane) only apply from a single weapon and use the special abilities of the ammunition before the weapon; thus if a creature would wish to use the weapon’s enhancements instead of the enhancements of the ammunition they would need to utilize mundane ammunition with the weapon.

Weapon Enhancement

Weapons are enhanced to become more accurate and deliver more damage, having an enhancement bonus from their equipped gem ranging +1 to +5. These bonuses are applied to both the attack and damage rolls of the weapon when used in combat.

The cost of enhancing an enhancement gem and an enhancement seal is the same following the below chart. Each scaling from +1 to +5. The cost formula is Bonus ^ 4 x 200 making the chart as follows:

Because the special abilities are separate a weapon could be made as follows:

• Example: A +1 Flaming Longsword would have the final cost of 415 gp. 15gp for the longsword, 200gp for the +1 and 200gp for the flaming.
• Example2: A +1 Vorpal Longsword would have a final cost of 125215gp; 15gp for the longsword, 200gp for the +1 and 125000gp for the Vorpal which has a +5 special ability cost.

Enhancing Shields

Shields are primarily treated as weapons first for the purposes of crafting, enhancement, and masterwork abilities, though enhancements and modifications may exist that can only affect shields. In addition the weapon enhancement bonus is applied to its shield granting shields a +1 enhancement bonus to attack rolls, damage rolls, and to the shield’s shield bonus.

Enhancing Double & Combination Weapons

Enhancing a double or combination weapon requires both ends to be enhanced separately, each requiring their own gem and seal to be applied to each end of the weapon; or in the case of direct enhancement simply enhancing each end as a separate weapon. This allows for each end to not only have its own separate enhancement bonuses but also different special abilities.

Armor Enhancement

Armor is enhanced to become more effective at protecting its wearer, having an enhancement bonus from their equipped gem ranging +1 to +5. These bonuses are applied to both the armor bonus of the armor.

The cost of enhancing an enhancement gem and an enhancement seal is the same following the below chart. Each scaling from +1 to +5. Armor enchantments will work similarly to armor but the cost is adjusted to Bonus ^ 4 x 100

Clothing may be enhanced like armor, allowing characters who cannot wear armor to still benefit from armor enhancement bonuses and special abilities.

Enchanting Clothing

Characters who are prohibited from wearing armor may choose to enhance their clothing. Clothing is enhanced like armor without counting as armor; as such weapon special abilities that can only be added to light or heavy armor cannot be applied to clothing.

Implement Enhancement

Implements are enhanced to boost the accuracy and potency of spells, having an enhancement bonus from their equipped gem ranging +1 to +5. These bonuses are applied to both the attack and damage rolls of spells cast while wielding it that require an attack roll and/or deal damage, while also granting this bonus to any save attack rolls of spells.

You do not gain the benefits of implement special abilities for wielding two implements at once; in addition once you use a implement with a seal of implement special abilities (such as extra spell and extra talent), you cannot benefit from a different seal’s implement special abilities for 8 hours.

The cost of enhancing an enhancement gem and an enhancement seal is the same following the below chart. Each scaling from +1 to +5. The cost formula is Bonus ^ 4 x 200 making the chart as follows:

Weapons As Implements

Some classes allow implements to be a weapon they attune to. Weapons or other enhanced equipment used as an implement apply their weapon enhancement bonus to their spells as an enhanced implement at no additional cost. Weapon implements may take both weapon special abilities as well as implement special abilities (though each still shares the same capacity of +5 of special abilities).

This is generally a powerful and cost effective solution which is why only certain classes have the ability to allow their weapon to also be used as an implement.

Crafting Enhancements

A character may attempt to enhance their own equipment or create a magic gem/seal themselves rather than paying another to do it for them, similar to crafting any other item. By default a character must have a BCB to craft an item, but some feats and abilities may allow a creature to substitute their skill ranks in place of BCB.

First to enhance an item you must have at least 75% of the cost of the item in materials to perform the enhancement; this cost includes the seal or gem being utilized if not enhancing an item directly. Next you must have a BCB equal to 3x the pluses of the enchantment being placed; for example a character must be at least 3rd BCB to craft their own +1, while a character would need to be 15th BCB to craft a +5.

Finally creating the item works similarly to crafting using a profession check, but using your BCB and your CAM instead of the skill. The DC to craft the item is DC 15 + the BCB requirement to craft the item (as such a +1 item would require a DC 18 BCB check to craft). For each degree of success you exceed the DC you improve the progress you make for the day by double (one degree being double, two degrees being triple, and three degrees being quadruple and so-on). If you successfully exceed the cost of the item by 5 degrees of success you gain the usual progress increase, but also reduce the cost of crafting the item by 5% (to a minimum of 50% of the cost of the item). Enhancements are crafted at 1,000 gp of progress each day.  

Progress in excess of what is needed for the item may be applied to the next enhancement even if it’s not exactly the same type of enhancement (such as armor vs weapon enhancement, or different special abilities), though cannot be applied to other forms of crafting.

A failed check results in no progress, but a failure by one degree or greater causes a waste of raw materials equal to the base progress of the item that day, to a maximum of the initial cost (the 75% of cost in raw materials).

To complete an item you have gained enough progress for, the crafter must make a final check against the craft DC of the item. If successful the item is finished; some items gain additional benefits based on the degrees of success of this final check. If this check fails by less than one degree the final cost of the item is increased by 50%, but the item is still finished. A failure by one degree or more fails to craft the item.

Special Abilities Lists

Different equipment such as weapons, shields, armor, and implements have their own specific special abilities they can be applied to them, ranging in cost from +1 to +5 similar to the weapon enhancement bonus. While the pluses by themselves do not provide a specific benefit they are used to limit the quantity and individual power of special abilities that can be placed onto a single piece of equipment.

Unless otherwise specified you may not add a single special ability more than once.