Augment System

Introduction

The augment system gives Game Masters (GMs) a simple-to-understand framework to create over 6.4 million unique and balanced magical weapons with 5 layers of customisability that your players will love. If you’re facing one of these problems, the augment system can help you out:

• Characters have too much gold and not enough to spend it on.
• You want to create unique homebrew magic weapons for characters but are worried about balance.
• Your players are veterans who have seen every magic weapon and want something new.
• You like to randomly generate loot and want to randomly generate some weird stuff.

Additionally, the augment system can be used to provide tailor-made starting equipment for high-starting-level campaigns, to create signature weapons for boss enemies, or to add an extra layer of character development and specialisation alongside character levels. Finally, the augment system can be used as a custom magic-weapon crafting system for a very high-magic setting (however, be aware that its primary purpose is as a GM tool and using it as a player-facing resource causes issues of balance).

The augment system aims to be as noninvasive as possible and as such makes no changes to the core mechanics found in the game. Furthermore, it aims to let you create magic weapons that feel native to the game, rather than feeling like homebrew. It is primarily a GM tool and players don’t even need to be made aware that it’s being used because the only way it affects them is they get cool new gear.

Enchantments Through Augments

The augment system uses the word ‘augment’ to describe an enhancement to a weapon. This differentiates it from the ‘enchantment’ school of magic and makes it clear that augments do not have to be magical and can be physical properties of a weapon instead.

Types of Augment

There are four types of augment:

Quality. Quality augments define the base quality of a weapon. They govern its augment capacity and give flat bonuses to hit chance and damage.

Feature. Feature augments cover a massive variety of effects that add unique abilities to a weapon at the cost of augment capacity.

Flavour. Flavour augments give small aesthetic bonuses or quirks to a weapon that confer only minor mechanical benefits; costing no augment capacity.

Cursed. Cursed augments add partially or wholly undesirable effects to a weapon.

Augment Terminology

The augment system is built around two important terms:

Augment Capacity

Augment capacity is a new property that all weapons have. It determines how many augment points the weapon can hold and thus how many, and how powerful the effects are which it can possess. despite this, it does not need to be written anywhere and is simply a helpful guideline for GMs using this system.

The augment capacity of a weapon is determined by its Quality – with better Quality weapons having a greater capacity. More information is given in Chapter 1.

Augment Points

Augment points are a property of feature augments. They denote that feature augment’s rarity, strength, and augment capacity cost.

More powerful augments cost more augment points and thus fewer of them can be put on a weapon.

Ensuring Balance

Augment points and augment capacity work in tandem to keep the augment system balanced. They prevent you from creating a weapon with too many powerful effects and naturally lock the more powerful effects to later tiers of play.

If you want to break the balance intentionally (perhaps to make low-level characters feel more heroic and powerful), the augment system can facilitate this. But this should only be done if you are fully aware of the consequences of what you’re doing.

Chapter 1: Catalogue of Augments

This chapter details all of the available augments offered by the augment system and explains any related mechanics.

In total there are 4 Quality augments, 71 Feature augments, 21 Flavour augments, and 27 Cursed augments. This chapter will go through each type of augment in order.

Quality Augments

The Quality of a weapon is determined at its manufacture by the skill of its creator and the materials used. It is broken down into four tiers.

Mundane. Weapons of this Quality are the sort created by a village blacksmith or character proficient in smith’s tools. They are made of simple materials and are usually found in the hands of commoners, guards, and bandits. They confer no mechanical benefit and have an augment capacity of 3.

Refined. Weapons of this Quality are created by smiths who are widely regarded as experts in their field. They’re made of simple materials taken to their limits and are typically found in the hands of minor military leaders, very wealthy merchants or notorious outlaws. They confer a +1 bonus to attack and damage rolls and have an augment capacity of 5.

Masterwork. Weapons of this Quality are created by the best mortal smiths in the realm. They may utilise exotic materials and crafting techniques and are typically found in the hands of powerful individuals such as national rulers, cult leaders or high priests. They confer a +2 bonus to attack and damage rolls and have an augment capacity of 7.

Zenith. Weapons of this Quality are created by powerful otherworldly beings. They’re made from exotic materials and forged using practices that bend reality into the desired form. They are typically found in the hands of demon lords, arch-devils, and demi-gods. They confer a +3 bonus to attack and damage rolls and have an augment capacity of 9.

Distribution

The 4 tiers of Quality roughly correlate to the 4 tiers of play. Mundane weapons should be attainable starting at level 1. Refined weapons should be attainable starting at level 6. Masterwork weapons should be attainable starting at level 11. And Zenith weapons should be attainable starting at level 16. More information on when to distribute weapons of certain Quality and power can be found in Chapter 2.

Giving out higher Quality weapons before the intended level can make your players more powerful than they should be at that point in the game. But since few games reach the higher levels, you may want to distribute higher Quality weapons before they ‘should’ be given out for the sake of fun.

You can achieve this by shifting when each tier of quality can be attained down by 1 tier. This way instead of weapons of a certain tier beginning to appear at a certain level, weapons of that tier should have been acquired at that level. For example, characters should have Mundane weapons by level 1, Refined weapons by level 6, Masterwork weapons by level 11, and Zenith weapons by level 16.

List of Quality Augments

Name	Bonus	Augment Capacity	Value Modifier	Intended Distribution
Mundane	+0	3	+0 gp	Levels 1-5
Refined	+1	5	+1,000 gp	Levels 6-10
Masterwork	+2	7	+4,000 gp	Levels 11-15
Zenith	+3	9	+16,000 gp	Levels 16-20

Feature Augments

Feature augments provide a variety of combat or powerful utility benefits to the wielder. Some Feature augments are stronger than others, but they have an augment cost to reflect that.

Only one instance of a feature augment can be installed on a weapon and the weapon’s augment capacity (determined by the weapon’s Quality) cannot be exceeded.

Some Feature augments have a DC listed as DC[X]. The DC equals 8 + the number of augment slots consumed by the weapon’s augments. So a weapon with Blindness (3 augment points) and Clarity (3 augment points) would have a DC of 8 + 3 + 3 = 14.

*Yes I am aware all the values in the d100 column are wrong. I will finalise this when I am happy with the number of augments available because recalculating the roll values is a pain in the butt. For now, roll a d100 and if you get higher than 72, roll again.*

Flavour Augments

Flavour augments provide a variety of non-combat or aesthetic benefits to the wielder.

Flavour augments do not cost any augment points, however, they do modify the value of a weapon. There is no mechanical limit to how many flavour augments there can be on a weapon, but it’s recommended to limit it to one or two to avoid the weapon becoming too complex.

Cursed Augments

Cursed augments add partially or wholly undesirable effects to the weapon.

Curses can come from many sources as noted in the ’cause’ section on the augment’s page. Most typically, a curse is caused by an arcane miscalculation, the inherent magic of the location the item is made in, or quirks of the creator leaking into the weapon, but they can also be placed there maliciously.

Just because a cause is listed does not mean that every weapon which meets that cause will have that curse. Likewise, weapons can gain curses where the cause is not met. For example, not every item made in the Shadowfell gains the Sunlight Sensitivity curse and an item made outside of the Shadowfell can have the Sunlight Sensitivity curse. It is up to you to decide if the item is cursed or not and the causes are just there for flavour.

A cursed weapon always requires attunement and cannot be unattuned to by normal means. A remove curse spell is required to break attunement to a cursed weapon; however this may not prevent the curse from continuing to affect a creature that has attuned to the weapon.

*Yes I am aware all the values in the d100 column are wrong. I will finalise this when I am happy with the number of augments available because recalculating the roll values is a pain in the butt. For now, roll a d100 and if you get higher than 27, roll again.*

Chapter 2: Designing Augmented Weapons

This chapter covers the actual process of designing a magic weapon using the augment system.

Before you dive in, let me tell you about the problem of power creep and how to avoid falling into some of the traps which lead to it occurring in your game.

Avoiding Power Creep

Power creep is a common flaw in game design where new content is made more powerful than existing content of similar power. This leads to old content becoming irrelevant and forces future content to be even more powerful to compete.

The way power creep can occur in your game is that if you distribute loot above the power level of the players, any new loot (from this system or not) must be better or as strong as what you’ve already given out or it will be ignored.

It’s therefore strongly recommended that you adhere closely to the guidelines set out in this section. They give you and your players a clear progression of power and keep things in line with the balance which already exists.

Whilst it’s tempting to give out something from a higher tier reward pool, following the consistent progression is much more satisfying for players than arbitrary spikes in power and helps you keep a sensible difficulty curve.

Augmented Weapon Distribution

The tables below show the average strength of weapons players should receive based on their level and how prevalent magic is in your setting.

For example, for a level 8 party in a low-magic setting, the average weapon you should hand out is of Refined quality (+1 to attack and damage rolls) and that contains 3 points of feature augments.

Low-Magic Setting

Standard Setting

High-Magic Setting

Creating a Random Augmented Weapon

If you plan to make bespoke weapons, you can choose your augments from the tables in Chapter 1, then jump straight to the section on determining a weapon’s rarity.

But if you’re here to make a completely random weapon to add to a treasure hoard, let’s get onto the fun stuff. And by fun stuff, I of course mean half a dozen rollable tables.

There are 8 steps you need to complete to make a random weapon. None of them are hard.

Step 1: Determine Weapon Type

Roll a d100 on the weapon type table below. Hand Wraps are a piece of equipment that alters a creature’s unarmed strikes; useful for Monks.

Step 2: Determine Quality and Fullness

Roll a d6 on the table below and correlate the result to the ‘Quality’ column of the relevant table in the augmented weapon distribution section above based on whether your setting is low-magic, standard, or high-magic.

If you roll for a result which has a max. augment points of 0, skip step 3 and go straight to step 4.

d6	Capacity Filled
1	Character level – 1
2-5	Equal to character level
6	Character level + 1

Step 3: Determine Feature Augments

At this point you can either choose the augments needed to fill that capacity (boring but efficient) or do so randomly by rolling a d100 on the feature augments table in Chapter 1 (fun but slow). *I am aware this table has an unfinished dice column. For now, roll a d100 and reroll if you get higher than 72.*

If you roll for an augment that is a repeat, is incompatible with your weapon, or exceeds the number of filled slots determined earlier, roll again.

If you roll for an augment that has no effect on the weapon such as Finesse on a finesse weapon or Aquatic Affinity on a trident, I recommend that you reroll. You may find that redundant augments make for a funny item, in which case you can keep it but be aware its overall power will be diminished.

Step 4: Determine Flavour Augments

Roll 3d6. If two of the d6s show the same value, the weapon has 1 flavour augment, if all three of them show the same value, the weapon has 2 flavour augments.

Either choose the flavour augments yourself or do so randomly by rolling a d20 on the flavour augments table in Chapter 1, rerolling if you get a repeat or an incompatible augment. *I am aware this table has an unfinished dice column. For now, roll a d100 and reroll if you get higher than 21.*

Step 5: Determine Cursed Augments

Roll 2d6. If both d6s are a 1, the weapon is cursed.

Either choose the cursed augment yourself or do so randomly by rolling a d100 on the cursed augments table in Chapter 1, re-rolling if you get an incompatible augment. *I am aware this table has an unfinished dice column. For now, roll a d100 and reroll if you get higher than 27.*

Step 6: Calculate the Weapon’s DC

Some Feature augments have a DC listed as DC[X]. The DC equals 8 + the number of augment slots consumed by the weapon’s augments. So a weapon with Blindness (3 augment points) and Clarity (3 augment points) would have a DC of 8 + 3 + 3 = 14.

Step 7: Calculate the Weapon’s Rarity

The rarity of a weapon is determined by the number of augment slots consumed by the weapon’s augments. Each quality of weapon starts at a different rarity and works its way upwards as shown in the tables below.

A Mundane weapon with 0 Augment Slots filled is only Common if it has Flavour or Cursed augments, otherwise, it is a non-magical item.

Mundane Quality

Augment Slots Filled	Rarity
0	Common
1	Common
2	Common
3	Uncommon

Refined Quality

Augment Slots Filled	Rarity
0	Uncommon
1	Uncommon
2	Uncommon
3	Rare
4	Rare
5	Rare

Masterwork Quality

Augment Slots Filled	Rarity
0	Rare
1	Rare
2	Rare
3	Very Rare
4	Very Rare
5	Very Rare
6	Legendary
7	Legendary

Zenith Quality

Augment Slots Filled	Rarity
0	Very Rare
1	Very Rare
2	Very Rare
3	Legendary
4	Legendary
5	Legendary
6	Legendary
7	Legendary
8	Legendary
9	Legendary

Step 8: Determine If The Weapon Needs Attunement

An augmented weapon will require attunement if any of the following criteria are fulfilled:

• The weapon has more than 3 augment capacity filled.
• The weapon has a Cursed augment.
• The weapon has a Feature augment that provides an additional way to use your action, bonus action, or reaction.

An augmented weapon will only ever need one attunement slot.

Chapter 3: Distributing Augmented Weapons

This chapter covers the ways you can distribute the magic weapons you’ve created using the augment system in your game.

Acquiring Augmented Weaponry

There are many ways you can distribute your augmented weapons to your players. The best way to do it is the way which gets your players to interact with your game world in the way you want them to. Loot is a major incentive for your players and so establishing the activities that give them loot helps establish the core gameplay loop of your campaign.

Quest Rewards

The basic gameplay loop of go place, kill stuff, get reward works with the augment system. Either have the NPC questgiver grant them the augmented weapon upon completion of their quest, or have the augmented weapon be in the treasure room of the dungeon they are exploring.

Rolling on Treasure Tables in the Dungeon Master’s Guide

The augment system can replicate many existing magic weapons and so rolling on the magic item tables found in the Dungeon Master’s Guide is still viable.

If you roll for a weapon on one of these tables, instead of giving them that weapon, you can grant an augmented weapon with enough augments to gain the same rarity as the rolled weapon (get your players to participate in the creation process by getting them to roll some of the dice).

Magic Item Shops

If your setting features magic item shops or closed invite magic invite auctions, price information is provided to allow you to calculate an augmented weapon’s price. Add together the value modifiers for the weapon’s quality, feature, flavour, and curse augments, add it to the base weapon’s price and that is the expected price for the augmented weapon.

Likewise, should a character wish to sell their augmented weapon, this value is an appropriate selling price – provided they can find a buyer.

Giving Augmented Weapons to Boss Enemies

Providing boss enemies with augmented weaponry allows you to distribute them to players easily whilst adding some extra challenge, notability, and flair to these encounters.

For creatures which can’t wield weaponry, you can reverse engineer an augmented weapon that fits the theme of the creature and then place the augmented weapon in their hoard.

If you’ve created an augmented weapon and want an appropriately challenging guardian, below are some guidelines on how powerful the guardians or wielders of augmented weapons should be.

Augments By CR

Sum of Augment Points	Guardian CR
0	0-2
1	3-5
2	6-7
3	8-10
4	11-12
5	13-15
6	16-17
7	18-20
8	21-22
9	23+

Chapter 4: Magic Weapon Crafting

This chapter describes how you can use the augment system as a magic weapon crafting system which players can access. This is an optional rule and is not recommended for typical games.

Games where this would be appropriate are high-fantasy, high-power games where players are intended to be very strong from the very start.

In most settings, letting players craft their own magical weapons can cheapen magic items and the idea of magic in general, over-power characters, and destabilise the balance of the game. Only use this if you know what you’re doing.

Crafting Augmented Weaponry

Adventurers can create their own magic weapons using the money, contacts, and knowledge they have gained during their adventures.

Below are some suggestions for how GMs can facilitate these adventurers without making them too powerful too quickly.

Standalone Augments As Loot

Ideally, players should not receive a way to permanently augment weapons until level 3. This lets players get used to their character’s normal abilities and gets them thinking about the sorts of augments which would synergise with their character.

NPC’s Hold the Keys

For an adventurer to create their own magical weaponry, they will need the assistance of NPCs. These NPCs won’t miss the chance to use an adventurer’s unique skillset to achieve their own goals.

NPCs will often ask for favours in exchange for their services either in addition to or instead of money. Inversely, adventurers may find their actions have helped an NPC and they offer a favour as thanks.

There are three main types of NPCs which adventurers will need to familiarise themselves with to create their own augmented weapons.

Arcanists. This role includes hags, shamans, artificers (the job, not the class) and other people with arcane knowledge. They can install augments they know the formula for.

Artisans. This role includes blacksmiths, bowyers and other types of appropriate artisan. They forge weapons of varying quality depending on available materials and skill.

Chroniclers. This role includes librarians, priests, scholars or anyone with knowledge of lore. They know where augment formulae can be found or the actual contents of those formulae, and they know where to find other important NPCs.

Going Beyond Mundane People

When creating these NPCs, don’t feel limited to typical races.

Maybe the nearest arcanist for a particular augment is a wizard who has been transformed into green slaad, the chronicler for a specific augment is an arcanoloth, and perhaps only azer are capable of forging Zenith quality weapons.

This adds variety to the sort of ‘people’ the adventurers interact with and makes creating an augmented weapon feel more fantastical. Finding a particular arcanist can be a whole quest in and of itself.

Forging a Better Quality Weapon

To create a weapon with better quality than Mundane, adventurers will need to seek a skilled artisan and commision a weapon from them. The cost of a higher quality weapon equals the weapon’s base cost plus the value modifier of the desired quality. Additionally, it takes time to create the weapon. Multiple artisans can work on the same weapon to have it be completed faster.

The GM may also decide that rare metals like mithril or exotic materials like powdered dragon bone are required to attain higher qualities of weapon. If this is the case, adventurers will need to acquire those materials before the artisan can create the weapon.

Adventurers with proficiency in and access to an appropriate Artisan’s tool are able to craft Mundane quality weapons. Adventurers with expertise in and access to those tools can make Refined quality weapons.

Upgrading a Weapon’s Quality

The augment system does not natively support upgrading a weapon’s Quality. This is because:

• It encourages sticking with a single weapon rather than experimenting with the new options which are given to players throughout the campaign.
• It introduces balancing concerns regarding characters having a higher hit bonus than their level intends.
• It allows rapid access to +1 weapons for low-level characters (1,000 gp is easy to come by).

You as a GM may disagree with these reasons and want to include upgrading a weapon’s Quality in your game. In which case, the characters will need to find an artisan NPC who is capable of performing the upgrade, pay said NPC a sum of gold equal to the value modifier of the Quality they are upgrading to, minus the value modifier of the weapon’s current Quality (for example, upgrading a Refined weapon to Masterwork would require 4,000 – 1,000 = 3,000 gp), and provide sufficient materials to perform the upgrade

Applying a Feature Augment

To install a feature augment, adventurers must seek an arcanist who has access to the augment’s formula.

Not every arcanist knows how to make every augment and if no arcanist knows how to make an augment, adventurers must seek a chronicler who does first.

Once adventurers have an arcanist who knows how to infuse weapons with the augment they want, they will need to pay them. It’s up to the GM whether this will be done with favours, gold or both. Some arcanists may only accept strange payments such as blood, memories or the signature of a magical contract.

Once the arcanist has been paid, they will need the material components of the augment. Most established arcanists already have the material components of the augments they know, so this step may not be necessary.

Once everything is ready, the arcanist will need to spend 1 day per augment cost installing the augment.

Do It Yourself Augmentation

The augment system does not natively support PCs installing augments into weapons. This is because:

• It cheapens magic items by removing their mystique and makes questing for legendary weapons a less essential endeavour.
• It breaks the economy because players can sell these items for large sums of gold.
• It makes players overpowered because they can beeline the exact feature augments they want.
• It’s not realistic for most settings.

You as a GM may disagree with these reasons and want to allow PCs to install augments into a weapon themselves. In which case, the PC wanting to augment their own equipment must have access to the augment’s formula, be in possession of the material cost detailed in the augment’s formula, be proficient in the Arcana skill, spend 1 day per augment cost installing the augment, and spend half the augment’s value in arcane supplies which are consumed in the augment’s infusion. If the GM wishes, they can have the player roll 2d6. If both d6s are a 1, the weapon gains a Cursed augment chosen by the GM in addition to the Feature or Flavour augment the PC was trying to apply.

Material Components

Each feature and flavour augment has its own material cost detailed in the augment formula (a formula exists in the game world and is not documented here. It is up to the GM to choose the materials the formula requires). Most arcanists keep a stock of the material components of the augments they know so this won’t typically be important.

If you’re bringing a new formula to an arcanist or the GM is allowing players to augment their own weapons, collecting material components may be necessary.

The material component can be anything from a creature part to a rare plant to a strange material from an exotic location. Whatever it is, it shouldn’t be buyable from a shop and should require adventure to acquire.

In general, whatever protects or possesses the material component of an augment should have a relevant CR based on the augment’s Augment Cost.

Augment Material Guardians

Examples

Collecting the material component for an augment should not feel like a fetch-quest. Ideally it should be its own mini-adventure and it can even tie into whatever plotlines or encounters you have prepared.

For example, if the material component for the Steadfastness augment is the feather from a Celestial’s wing, willingly given – you suddenly have a plot hook tied in with an intrinsic reward tied in with a new quest-giver.

Alternatively, the material component could be a monopolised material and the only way to get some of is to break into the vault where it’s kept or smooth talk and bribe your way into acquiring some.

Or if you recently got a cool new [creature] miniature but the players have no reason to fight such a thing, you can make the material cost be the heart of a [creature] and suddenly they’ll be actively searching for one to kill – how fortunate that you have a cool mini for the occasion.

Chapter 5: FAQ

This chapter answers some frequently asked questions about the augment system and explains the design philosophy behind certain decisions. If you’re thinking of changing a mechanic, it’s recommended you read this section as it may explain why making that change is a bad idea.

If you have a question and you can’t find the answer here or anywhere else in the book, please let me know so I can add it to this section.

Are Augmented Weapons With 0 Charges Still Magical?

Yes. If a weapon only has the Pounding Feature augment and those charges are used, it is still a magic weapon – meaning it can overcome resistances and immunities to non-magical damage and be detected by detect magic.

Can Artificers Infuse Augmented Weapons?

No. An Artificer’s infusions cannot be applied to magic weapons and augmented weapons are magic weapons.

Can I Sell Material Components?

Players might look at the value modifiers of augments and deduce that selling the material components listed in an augment’s formula to arcanists is a good way to earn money.

Whilst this is true, the raw materials are worth less than the finished product and so the materials listed in the formula will typically sell for about 1/20 the value of the relevant augment.

For example, the material component for Fish Command (a +2,000 gp augment) would be worth 100 gp.

Can you Augment Siege Equipment?

In addition to hand-held weapons, it’s also possible to use the augment system to create augmented siege weapons. Whether it’s wise to give magic siege weaponry to your players is up to the GM.

Not all augments will work or translate across correctly and you should use their best judgement when determining how an augment might function when applied to a siege weapon or if it can be applied at all.

Example Augmented Siege Weapons

Ellywick’s Reusable Ballista

Ballista of Returning (Common)

When you make a ranged attack with this weapon, the ammunition fired from it magically returns to the slider after the attack hits or misses.

Fast-Load Trebuchet

Trebuchet of Speed (Uncommon)

Before this weapon can be fired, it must be aimed and loaded. It takes 2 actions to load the trebuchet, 2 actions to aim it, and 1 action to fire it.

You can substitute these actions for bonus actions and may use both your action and bonus action to operate this weapon in a single turn.

Geirmund’s Revenge

Masterwork Cannon of +Damage I, Accuracy, and Giant Slaying (Rare)

You have a +2 bonus to attack and damage rolls made with this magic weapon. Additionally, attacks made with this weapon deal an additional 1d4 thunder damage on a hit.

Ranged attacks made with this weapon ignore half cover and three-quarters cover.

When you hit a creature with this weapon which has the type of Giant, you deal an additional 3d6 bludgeoning damage.

Before this weapon can be fired, it must be aimed and loaded. It takes 1 action to load the cannon, 1 action to aim it, and 1 action to fire it.

Does The Weightlessness Augment Prevent Using Great Weapon Master?

No. The Great Weapon Master feat (and potentially other mechanics) require a weapon to have the heavy property to function. Since the weightlessness augment removes the effects of the heavy property, Great Weapon Master could be interpreted to no longer work, however that is not the case, nor the intention.

Since only the effects of the heavy property are lost, the weapon retains the property and thus can be used in conjunction with Great Weapon Master or similar effects.

The intended function of weightlessness is to allow small races to use heavy weapons. There is no easy way to more clearly explain this interaction in the augment’s description without adding messy and confusing language, so refer to this ruling when this or a similar interaction comes up.

Is a Creature With Natural Armour Considered ‘Unarmoured’?

No. The Flaying augment will therefore not do bonus damage to creatures with natural armour. However, the Armour-Piercing augment does affect creatures with natural armour.

Is there a Naming Convention for Augmented Weapons?

The technical names of augmented weapons follow a formula. Of course, magical weapons are often given unique names by their owner or creator and it’s unlikely that characters in-world would refer to augmented weapons by their technical names (unless a guild has created a standardised system for identifying and categorising magic weapons).

For players and GMs, technical names are useful for quickly conveying the effects of a weapon. However, the logical naming scheme may take away some of the ‘magic’ of magic weapons. If you’re using this system in your game but the players don’t have access to this document, you may want to never mention a weapon’s technical name and only use the mythical names you give to augmented weaponry.

The formula for an augmented weapon’s technical name is thus: [Weapon Quality] [Weapon Type] of [Alphabetical Augment List].

If a weapon’s quality is Mundane, it is not mentioned in the technical name.

For example, “Refined Dagger of Brittleness, Collapsing, and Deafness”, “Hand Crossbow of + Damage IV and Death”.

What Happens If A Weapon’s Value Becomes Negative?

A weapon’s value can become negative because of cursed augments. Treat such a weapon like radioactive waste. If a weapon’s value is reduced below 0, adventurers will need to pay someone to take it off their hands and dispose of it correctly.

In the case that players choose to throw a cursed weapon into a lake or deep pit, rather than pay the disposal fee, the GM can set in motion appropriate consequences for their reckless behaviour.

Why Does The Perfection Augment Cost 7 Augment Points?

The main way an augmented weapon should be getting a bonus to hit is through quality augments. The high cost of the augment indicates that this isn’t the normal way of getting the bonus to hit and restricts +4 and early +3 weapons to the higher tiers of play where they belong.

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