# Upgrading Magic Items



## Thanee (Feb 20, 2009)

I havn't found anything, are there any rules for upgrading magic items?

Say, I have the Ritual Caster feat and the Enchant Magic Item ritual.

I also have a +1 magic item, that I want to upgrade to +2.

a) Can I just pay the difference in cost (in ritual materials) and upgrade it?
b) Or do I have to sell/disenchant the previous item and start from scratch?


If there is no rule to cover this... do you see any problems with a)?

Bye
Thanee


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## Thistonius (Feb 20, 2009)

The rules for upgrading Magic Items are on page 198 of the Adventurers Vault, under the 'Enchanting Items' section.

Appears you need to have the Enchant Item ritual in order to upgrade your item or add a property to one that doesn't have one.

Actually, re-reading it, you deduct the cost of the item from it's previous cost.  For instance, your longsword +1 is 640 gp.  You want to upgrade it to level 2 but the +2 costs 2,000gp.  You deduct the cost of the level 1 item from the cost of the level 2 item and that's how much you need to spend to upgrade it.


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## Thanee (Feb 20, 2009)

Thanks, that's exactly what I was looking for. 

Bye
Thanee


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## Plane Sailing (Feb 20, 2009)

This situation came up in my game and my 'rule of thumb' answer turned out to be the same as the one in AV, which is nice.


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## IanArgent (Feb 20, 2009)

Likewsie - it's pretty obvious (to me anyway), and follows the 3.x magic item upgrade rules IIRC. Wonder if it was cut from the PHB for space?


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## CapnZapp (Feb 21, 2009)

IanArgent said:


> Wonder if it was cut from the PHB for space?



Or perhaps it was cut from the PHB because that is the one book you're going to buy anyway?


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## Bevier (Jan 3, 2010)

Thank you for posting this!  I think this is a very significant rule!


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## bobcat_grad (Jan 3, 2010)

This has made itself very apparent in my game.  Three of the my five players all have come up with a backstory or attachment to their weapon.

Trying to figure a way to keep the game math right, adjust treasure parcels, and allow them a way to upgrade the weapon (houserule for the world - no Enchant Item), has been a challenge.  Getting ready for the group to come across someone who is able to reveal to them that their weapons are more powerful than they previous thought - but for a price (equal to More Powerful Version value - Less Powerful Version value).

Ta da!


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## Snotboy (Jan 3, 2010)

Actually, I think what might be the 'obvious' route would be that cost is equal to the cost of the new item minus the _vendor/disenchantment_ cost of the old one.  Allowing the full cost of the old weapon, instead of 1/5 of the cost, is a good bone to throw to players, but I can see how some DMs might rule the other way.


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## Intrope (Jan 3, 2010)

Snotboy said:


> Actually, I think what might be the 'obvious' route would be that cost is equal to the cost of the new item minus the _vendor/disenchantment_ cost of the old one.  Allowing the full cost of the old weapon, instead of 1/5 of the cost, is a good bone to throw to players, but I can see how some DMs might rule the other way.



It's a pretty minor benefit. If you're upgrading a +N item by one plus, then they are getting to save 80% of the cost of an item at least 5 levels lower than their level. In fact, it turns out that the maximum savings is pretty close to Parcel 9 at that level--it's frequently dead on, and it's always closer to Parcel 9 than Parcel 10 and is never significantly more than Parcel 9.


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## Doctor Proctor (Jan 3, 2010)

bobcat_grad said:


> This has made itself very apparent in my game.  Three of the my five players all have come up with a backstory or attachment to their weapon.
> 
> Trying to figure a way to keep the game math right, adjust treasure parcels, and allow them a way to upgrade the weapon (houserule for the world - no Enchant Item), has been a challenge.  Getting ready for the group to come across someone who is able to reveal to them that their weapons are more powerful than they previous thought - but for a price (equal to More Powerful Version value - Less Powerful Version value).
> 
> Ta da!




Do you by chance have a copy of the DMG 2?  If not, you should try to get a hold of one, as there's an excellent section on alternative rewards.

For example, say you have a Fighter with a Longsword that's been passed down in his family for 7 generations and he wants to use it for the life of the character...that's fine, and the DMG 2 gives some simple rules for upgrading it.  

In a nutshell, rather than granting a standard parcel you might say "As you plunge your sword into the heart of the dragon it glows with an inner light and you can feel drawing energy from the beast." (in game terms, it gained a +1 and got the flaming property...essentially, you granted the player a magic item that's a +N Flaming Longsword).

Another route would be to treat some of the weapons as a sort of artifact/lesser artifact.  Basically, let them keep them throughout the game but periodically (as they accomplish heroic deeds or perform tasks meant to "unlock" dormant abilities) the weapons will increase in power and gain new abilities.


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