Magical Item

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The Items Screen allows the player to organize Magical Items.

A Magical Item is a special type of asset in Master of Magic. It has two distinctive uses: it can either be equipped on a Hero unit, or destroyed to gain  Mana equal to half of its value. Each Wizard's Fortress Vault can store up to 4 Magical Items (extended to 8 in the Unofficial Patch 1.50), which serves as a "bank" for items that the Wizard does not want to (or cannot) use immediately.

Magical Items come in 10 different types: Swords, Maces, Axes, Bows, Staves, Wands, Miscellaneous Items (a.k.a. Accessories or Jewelry), Shields, Chainmails, and Platemails. The item's type sets out the magical properties that it may have, and also determines which Heroes are capable of equipping it. Each item may bear up to 4 different enchantments, known as Item Powers, which either enhance a specific statistic, or grant some kind of special ability or spell effect.

Magical Items can be obtained through several means, the most common of which are Item Crafting and Treasures found in Encounter Zones. In addition, wandering Merchants will occasionally offer an item for sale and, if random Events are enabled, Magical Items may also be received as a Gift from the Gods.

In v1.31, the latest official version of the game, Magical Items are more or less exclusive to the human player. The AI opponents will neither create, nor find any of these assets as Treasure, and merchants will never approach them with items for sale either. While computer Wizards are valid targets for the Gift Event, and the event message will even say that they received a Magical Item, this is not the case and, behind the scenes, they never actually do. However, should an AI opponent defeat a Hero possessing a Magical Item and have, at the time, a Hero of their own who can equip it, then they can and will do so. On the other hand, any items that can't be immediately used will automatically be broken down for  Mana instead.

The unofficial Insecticide (v1.40) patch enables AI Wizards to both create and obtain items as Treasure, as well as be offered them by merchants. In addition, the Unofficial Patch 1.50 provides further bugfixes and improvements to this system.

Description

In almost every fantasy setting that features magic, it is possible to imbue some of this magic onto a mundane item. Commonly referred to as "enchanting", the creation of Magical Items is often a long and arduous process, meant to signify the power that these items represent. Indeed, whether they simply enhance an attribute of the wearer, or invoke a wondrous power, being able to accomplish this without having to cast actual spells makes these objects highly desireable in any world or plane of existence. Even if their bearer is a spellcaster, being able to reserve magical power for other purposes can be a great boon by itself.

Effect

Magical Items are a cornerstone of most fantasy-themed RPGs, and the aspect of developing Heroes in Master of Magic is no different. In addition, Magical Items in this game also function as a form of additional (or emergency)  Mana storage: during the player's turn, any number of these items may be sacrificed to instantly gain an (often substantial) amount of magical energy.

Equipping Heroes

Magical Items may be freely equipped to Heroes that are at the same location as the item, provided that they have an equipment slot matching the type of the item (see below). Which Heroes are on the same map square is indicated under the name of each Hero on the Items Screen when picking up an item with the mouse. For Heroes that are at a different location, the text "Item Teleport", in red, will be displayed instead. Trying to move an item to such a Hero brings up a confirmation dialogue, as teleporting the item to a different location has a fixed cost of  20.

At the same time, moving an item to one of the four slots at the Fortress Vault is always free, regardless of distance. Any Heroes that are in the Fortress Town can thus also be given these items for no additional cost. Because moving items to the Vault is free, it doesn't prompt for confirmation either, which means that care should be taken not to accidentally do this with items at a different location, as this can no longer be freely undone afterwards (i.e. the Vault can not be used as a "buffer" for organizing items outside of the capital).

Magical Items received as Treasure from an Encounter Zone may be distributed at no charge among the Heroes who participated in the (final) battle for clearing the site. Items purchased from Merchants or Gifted by the gods are always spawned at the Fortress. Contrary to what the spell animation suggests, created items also appear at the capital, and not at the location of the Summoning Circle.

Equipment Slots

The table below lists the various equipment slots in the game, along with the types of items that may be equipped into these slots.

Slot type	Slot graphic	Matching items
Melee Weapon		Swords, Maces, and Axes
Melee & Ranged		Bows, Swords, Maces, and Axes
Spellcaster Weapon		Staves and Wands
Melee & Caster	*	Swords, Maces, Axes, Staves, and Wands
Armor		Platemails, Chainmails, and Shields
Miscellaneous		Miscellaneous Items (Jewelry, Cloaks, Helms, Gauntlets, and Orbs)
*: The game manual erroneously states that all weapons may be equipped into this slot, but that is not actually the case.

Hero Types

Each Hero can equip at most 3 Magical Items at any one time. What items they can wield depends on their equipment slots. These are pre-determined for each individual hero, and loosely correspond to their combat roles. This is similar to how "classes" or "archetypes" work in other RPGs. MoM features four different Hero types, with each one having a slightly different equipment slot setup:

Hero Type	Slots			Hero List
Warrior				Brax, Bahgtru, Gunther, Rakir, Serena*, Theria, Valana
				Aureus*, Fang, Shalla, Shin Bo, Spyder, Taki, Tumu
				Deth Stryke, Mortu, Roland, Sir Harold, Torin
Archer				B'Shan, Shuri, Marcus, Alorra
Spellcaster				Greyfairer, Jaer, Malleus, Morgana, Yramrag, Zaldron
				Aerie, Elana, Ravashack
Warrior / Caster				Mystic X, Reywind, Warrax
*: Whether as a result of developer oversight or an intentional handicap to offset their lower Fame requirements, the two Heroes marked with an asterisk seem to have their type set wrong. They both possess  Magical Ranged Attacks, yet are unable to equip the weapons required to enhance these attacks.

Breaking Items

Base Item Costs

Item Type	Base Value
Sword	100
Mace	100
Axe	100
Bow	100
Wand	200
Staff	300
Shield	100
Chainmail	100
Platemail	300
Misc. Item	50

Magical Items that are not useful to Heroes (any more) are still of some value to a Wizard, as they can be broken down to release the magical energy they hold, some of which can be captured and re-used. This is accomplished by picking up the item on the Items Screen and dropping it on the anvil at the lower left corner. This brings up a confirmation window highlighting the amount of  Mana that may be gained by destroying the item. This amount is always half of the item's "cost", or "value".

The value of an item is made up of two components: the base cost is determined by the item's type, which is then increased by the cost of the various enchantments on it. The base costs are illustrated by the table on the right. Typically however, these are only a fraction of the item's total value, as the enchantments themselves tend to be significantly more expensive, and the cost of every enchantment on the item is added individually to the total. A full list of enchantment costs, along with the item types they may be added to is available below in the Reference List of Item Powers section, and also in the article on Item Crafting.

Item Types

As mentioned above, there are a total of 10 different types of Magical Items featured in the game. In addition to determining what slots it may be equipped into, the type of an item also defines what enchantments it can hold and, in the case of weapons, what type of combat its effects will apply in. While defensive and utility attributes (e.g.  Defense,  Spell Skill) are universal, bonuses to Attack Strength and  To Hit are not, and neither are the added effects granted by certain Item Powers.

Swords

Attribute	Bonus
Attack	up to  +3
Accuracy	up to  +3
Applies to	Melee only
Defense	up to  +3
Spell Skill	up to  +10
Spell Save	None

Swords are the most defensive out of all of the  Melee weapons. Although Bows and Staves can provide a similar  Defense bonus, they are generally not available to warrior type Heroes. In return, Swords are more limited in terms of Attack Strength, and only apply their  +Attack,  +To Hit, and special abilities during actual Melee Attacks. Swords are an excellent choice for Melee Heroes that need to maximize their staying power, and synergize well with the Lucky ability, although the lower Attack Strength means that warriors without the Might ability may not pack quite as much of a punch while using them.

Maces

Attribute	Bonus
Attack	up to  +4
Accuracy	up to  +3
Applies to	Melee only
Defense	up to  +1
Spell Skill	up to  +10
Spell Save	None

Maces are a bit of an all-rounder among the melee weapons. Compared to Swords, their potential Attack Strength bonus is one higher, but in turn they are limited to a single point of  Defense. Unfortunately that may not be a great design choice, as the extra Attack Strength is generally not worth the trade-off. Pre-fab items aside, it is usually not a great idea to enchant this type of item, as a Sword or Axe is almost always a better choice depending on whether the focus is on defense or offense. Just like Swords, Maces only apply their  +Attack,  +To Hit, and Special Attacks on actual Melee Attacks.

Axes

Attribute	Bonus
Attack	up to  +6
Accuracy	up to  +2
Applies to	Melee &  Thrown
Defense	None
Spell Skill	up to  +10
Spell Save	None

Axes are the weapon of choice for all Heroes with the Thrown ability, as well as any Hero intent on maximising offensive potential. Axes are the only weapons capable of enhancing more than one type of attack, and will also apply their offensive powers to  Thrown Attacks (although in v1.31,  To Hit modifiers from items do not actually work in this case). The extra Attack Strength is significant enough to offset the lack of  Defense and, when combined with an Accessory, the potential  +2 is still sufficient to cap the accuracy of maximum level Heroes without the Blademaster ability.

Bows

Attribute	Bonus
Attack	up to  +6
Accuracy	up to  +3
Applies to	Ranged only
Defense	up to  +3
Spell Skill	up to  +10
Spell Save	None

Bows are a weapon type exclusive to Heroes possessing a  Ranged Missile attack. Due to the game's lack of an appropriate Hero Ability to enhance this type of attack, Bows are also the primary means of achieving this. Since Bows are also capable of enhancing  Defense by the same amount as Swords, they are generally a better choice for archer type Heroes than a melee weapon, if available. While it is true that their offensive enchantments only apply to  Ranged Missile attacks, which limits them to a mere 8 attacks per battle, being able to take out opponents at a range typically makes up for this shortcoming. Unfortunately, the game doesn't allow swapping weapons in combat, which means that a powerful melee weapon may, occasionally, still be a better choice for certain fights.

Wands

Attribute	Bonus
Attack	up to  +2
Accuracy	up to  +1
Applies to	Ranged only
Defense	None
Spell Skill	up to  +10
Spell Save	up to -2

Wands are more commonly used to store spells, rather than as actual weapons. They may only be equipped by spellcaster Heroes, and are significantly more limited in available enchantments than Staves. Wands may not improve their wielder's  Defense at all, and can only enhance their attacks by a meager amount which, like Staves, applies exclusively to  Ranged Magical Attacks. Wands do however allow up to a -2 Spell Save penalty to be enchanted onto them, making them a good choice for storing  Resistable spells, which the Hero may then use instead of regular attacks.

Staves

Attribute	Bonus
Attack	up to  +6
Accuracy	up to  +3
Applies to	Ranged only
Defense	up to  +3
Spell Skill	up to  +20
Spell Save	up to -4

Staves are the ultimate weapons for any spellcaster. Not only can they provide a  Defense bonus matching that of any other weapon, they can also extend the wielder's  Mana pool by a substantial amount; all while they still carry the potential for the strongest offensive enchantments in the game! Indeed, the greatest problem with a Staff is probably MoM's built-in limitation of 4 powers per item. Staves only provide their offensive benefits when their bearer uses a  Magical Ranged Attack, which will not apply at all during melee combat. Thankfully, they can only be equipped by Heroes who possess this type of attack, for which Staves can also extend the  Spell Skill used as "ammunition".

Shields

Attribute	Bonus
Defense	up to  +6
Movement	up to +4
Resist	up to  +6

Unlike a classic RPG, Master of Magic allows Shields to be equipped even if a Hero is otherwise using a two-handed weapon (provided they have a matching equipment slot). Shields grant their bearer the Large Shield ability which, in turn, provides an extra  +2 Defense against all types of Ranged Attacks (including spells). This means that against ranged opponents, Shields can be on par with Plate Armor; especially in the case of pre-fab items, for which the original game does not apply the heavier armor's native  Defense bonus.

Chainmail

Attribute	Bonus
Defense	up to  +6
Movement	up to +4
Resist	up to  +6

Crafted Chainmail armor provides an innate  +1 Defense on top of whatever enchantments it may bear. Unfortunately, this is not included in the pre-fab items supplied with the game, which makes this item type somewhat less useful when found as Treasure or bought from a Merchant. Chainmail otherwise provides a middle ground between a Shield and a Platemail, granting a lower native  Defense bonus than Plate, but applying that against all attack types for the same base item cost as a Shield.

Platemail

Attribute	Bonus
Defense	up to  +6
Movement	up to +4
Resist	up to  +6

For an extra 200 base item cost, a Platemail should add an extra  +2 Defense to whatever attributes are otherwise enchanted onto it. Unfortunately in v1.31, this bonus is not applied to pre-fab items, which means that in this version, there is no practical difference between Plate and Chain armor pieces that come out of the pre-fab item generator; and a Shield with the same defensive attributes will always be better than either. This is not the case for Crafted armor however, where Platemail is clearly superior to both of the other armor types, and is a welcome sight for any Hero capable of wearing armor.

Miscellaneous Items

Attribute	Bonus
Attack	up to +4
Accuracy	up to  +2
Applies to	all attacks
Defense	up to  +4
Movement	up to +3
Resistance	up to  +6
Spell Skill	up to  +15
Spell Save	up to -4

Miscellaneous Items, also known as Accessories or Jewelry, are the most diverse out of all of the item types. The game even separates them into 6 different groups in terms of graphics and names, although it needs to be noted that these variations are purely cosmetic. Miscellaneous Items face an even bigger problem than Staves with regards to the 4 powers per item limitation, as they are capable of not only enhancing any statistic that a Magical Item can improve, but they can also hold a multitude of other defensive and utility enchantments. Indeed, many of the Item Powers in the game are exclusive to Jewelry, and may not be imbued onto any other type of item.

On the other hand, Miscellaneous Items created with Enchant Item or Create Artifact have a major drawback as compared to other item types: attribute enhancements imbued onto these items cost twice as much to enchant than they do for weapons and armor. This is likely to offset the facts that every Hero can equip at least one of these items, and their offensive benefits are generally universal. That is, the Attack Strength and/or  To Hit bonus granted by Jewelry applies to every Attack Type that the Hero can make (although  Thrown- and  Breath Attacks do not receive the  To Hit adjustment in v1.31 due to an oversight, which is corrected in Insecticide).

The doubled attribute costs are (likely unintentionally) omitted for the pre-fabricated Miscellaneous Items that come with the game, making these significantly cheaper than they would be if crafted by the player. This reduces the  Gold requirement of these items showing up for sale by Merchants, making them available earlier in the game, but has no discernable effect on Treasure found in Encounter Zones, at least in the latest official version of the game (see below). While the lower cost technically does make it more likely for Jewelry to show up as replacements for "Failed Special" Treasure, this generally does not make much difference by the time these start showing up in the game.

Despite the fact that Accessories are clearly the item type in the highest demand, their proportion in the pre-fab item database is quite low: the amount of weapons and armor far outweigh the amount of Jewelry. This typically places a higher priority on crafting these items for players relying on Heroes in combat; or otherwise requires the editing of the pre-generated items to rebalance their type distribution.

Acquisition

Magical Items can be acquired during the game through a number of means. Most commonly, they can be found as Treasures at Encounter Zones, or created using the spells Enchant Item and Create Artifact. If picked at the start of the game, the Artificer Retort even grants access to these spells as soon as the game begins (without having to research them first). In addition to the above two methods of obtaining them, Magical Items are also occasionally offered up for purchase by wandering Merchants, and may be acquired through a random Event.

Before further exploring these sources however, it's probably worth taking a look at how the game comes up with random items, as the internal routine used to pick them is actually the same, regardless of how they are ultimately awarded to the player. This also makes it easier to highlight any issues with the generation of Magical Items, without having to repeat them separately for each source they can be acquired from.

Pre-fabricated Items

Whenever the game has to award a random Magical Item to a player, it invokes the same code to decide what this item will be. The computer will always attempt to choose a pre-fabricated item before resorting to creating one from scratch. These are pre-generated items that are stored in one of the game's data files (ITEMDATA.LBX). A full list of the default items, including statistics, Item Powers, and Spellbook requirements (see below), is included below as a Reference List of Prefab Items. However, players using the official v1.31 version of the game are encouraged to browse the Magical Items section of the article on Treasure instead, as the tables there group these items based on their availability in the official game (i.e. available to anyone, restricted by spellbooks, Merchant only, or unobtainable).

ITEMMAKE

Master of Magic comes supplied with a separate program that allows the player to manually edit the items stored in the game's data file. This can be done before, or even during a campaign, using the ITEMMAKE.EXE application. However, any changes made will not affect the items already in a campaign, and items awarded later will also be limited by their internal item index (displayed below the item's name in the program). Conceptually, each of these items is unique in every campaign, and replacing one in the data file that has already made an appearance in a game will prohibit the changed item from being awarded until a new game commences.

Unfortunately, the official version of this program (which was likely used to create the game's original default items), suffers from a major bug. When saving the items to the data file, ITEMMAKE is supposed to make note of the Spellbook requirements for creating each item using the Arcane spells found in the game. However, instead of writing out the correct requirements, the program simply puts out the required amount of books for each enchanted power in the order of their appearance on the item (completely ignoring the color of these required books). Essentially, the amount of books required for the first power is treated as a Nature book requirement, the second as Sorcery, the third as Chaos, and the fourth as Life.

Attribute enhancements have no Spellbook requirements, and always precede any special Item Powers. Considering that most items have at least 2 or 3 of these, it is easy to see why the tables in the Treasure article list so many items as requiring Life and/or Chaos Spellbooks; while no item will ever require any from the Death Realm.

The files of the unofficial Insecticide patch also include a revised version of the ITEMMAKE.EXE application, which may be used (even as a stand-alone) to fix this specific issue (in fact, a single run of this program corrects the entire data file). The Spellbook limitation of randomly awarded items can also be worked around by removing all Item Powers that normally require Spellbooks of any color to enchant, although this arguably makes item rewards rather bland in general (items capable of holding Spell Charges can still provide some variety). It may also be worth noting here that the Flaming (Item Power), which normally requires 2 books to enchant, does not actually require any in the original program (but does so in the Insecticide version).

There are always 250 pre-defined items, regardless of whether their powers have been edited or not. The game keeps track of the status of each of these during a campaign. This is actually the first selection criteria for prefab items when MoM tries to award a random item: items that have already made an appearance are invalid for selection. The other three criteria have to do with the item's value, and the Spellbooks required to make it.

The game passes 3 parameters to the subroutine that picks the item rewards: an item "grade" (regular item, artifact, or any), a maximum value (where 0 stands for "unlimited"), and a "bookshelf" representing the amount of Spellbooks (of each color) possessed by the item's recipient. This last parameter, combined with the flawed application described above, is responsible for the original game's rather lopsided item reward generation. The only source of Magical Items that does not use the recipient's bookshelf is the wandering Merchant. In this case, a shelf containing 12 of each book is passed to the function instead, meaning that Merchants can actually offer items for sale that the player would otherwise have zero chance of finding in Treasure.

This system of limiting the items that a player can find to the ones that they are supposed to be able to make, is largely considered to be either a bug or misconceived design/implementation, and is removed entirely in the unofficial patches. Starting in Insecticide, Magical Items generated with an unspecified "grade" perform no book matching at all. This affects every item acquired through Merchants or Treasure and, as a side effect, allows the acquisition of otherwise unobtainable items from these sources. Namely, items with the Merging ability, which does not actually function prior to the Unofficial Patch 1.50, and has been withdrawn from the official game before release, by raising its requirement to 22.

The final parameter, the item's value, is designed to function both as a minimum and a maximum factor for choosing the item. When implemented correctly, the randomly generated item should have a value that is at least 50% of what is set as the maximum. Unfortunately, the original 1.31 version suffers from yet another bug in this regard, although this one may also work in the player's favor. For Magical Items found directly in Treasure (but not from other sources, including "Failed Specials"), the parameters are passed to the item generator in the wrong order. Items from Treasure are supposed to be of any "grade" (represented by a parameter of 0), but instead they can actually be of any value (also represented by a parameter of 0).

In any case, when a random item needs to be chosen, the game will make 50 attempts to find a matching prefab item. This is a simple process that picks a random one out of these 250 items, and then matches them against the 4 criteria outlined above. The first qualifying item is immediately selected, ending the procedure. To recap the criteria that need to be satisfied:

• The item has not yet appeared in the campaign.
• The recipient's bookshelf matches the required values stored by the game (12 of each for Merchants).
• The item's value must not exceed the pre-defined maximum value (ignored if "unlimited").
• The item's value must be at least half of the pre-defined maximum (ignored if "unlimited").

Random Items

Only when the game fails to come up with a suitable prefab item, will it generate a completely randomized Magical Item. Should the routine picking from the pre-generated items fail after its 50 tries, it will pass the item's "grade" and value to another function, to create a whole new item instead. Spellbooks are no longer relevant here, as these items can only carry attribute enhancements, not special powers.

If the value passed for the item is 0, the game will select a random multiple of 100 between 800 and 1,700 to use as the maximum value instead (Random(10) × 100 + 700). This is always the case for items offered by Merchants, received as a Gift and, in v1.31, found directly in Treasure (this is a carried-over result of the incorrect parameter passing from above). In practically all of these situations, this is a significant downgrade from what the items otherwise could be.

The item's "grade" has relevance only in that if it should be a regular item (i.e. not an artifact), then the maximum cost of each individual power it may have is limited to  200. However, this only matters in the unofficial patches where AI players are capable of casting Enchant Item, as that is the single only circumstance where this function can be invoked with such a parameter. For artifact "grade" items (including items created without specifying a grade), the maximum cost of a single power is  20,000 instead, which is more than enough to select any applicable power.

In terms of the amount of powers on an item, non-artifacts are limited to 2, while artifacts are typically limited to 3. The game code does contain a branch to support the creation of items with 4 random powers, however, the conditions for this are based on a variable that is not yet initialized at the time. This means that roughly half of the time this branch will not be taken (and will never be reliably taken), and the artifact defaults to 3 maximum powers. Not that this actually matters much considering that all artifact "grade" items generated here will also have a maximum value of 1,700 or less as a result of them supposedly having "unlimited" value.

The item's type (which is the uninitialized variable checked against above, it would be Swords, Maces, Staves, and Wands that would be allowed 4 enhancements), is determined with a single random roll, meaning that there's an equal chance for the created item to be of any of the 10 available types. For Miscellaneous Items, their subtype is determined by the graphic they are assigned (which is picked after the item's type).

To select a power to add to the item, the game chooses one at random from the attribute enhancements. It checks if the type of the enhancement is allowed on the item (e.g. a Spell Save modifier is invalid for a Sword), after which it compares the cost of the power with the value determined earlier to see if it is in range for the item grade being created. Finally, it checks whether the same attribute is already being enhanced by the item. If the selected power fails on any of these checks, it is rerolled instead.

Once the item has at least one power added to it, MoM introduces another set of checks, this time to finish the item creation. Any one of the following criteria will end the process with whatever state the item is in after the last attempt at adding a power:

• The amount of powers on the item has reached the value set out above.
• The item's total cost matches or exceeds the specified maximum value.
• Item powers have been rerolled at least 50 times.

Item Sources

With the exception of player-crafted Magical Items, all sources generate their randomized items through the functions described above. As such, in v1.31 at least, all of these are dependant on the Spellbook requirements set out in the ITEMDATA.LBX file, and the books of the receiving player's bookshelf. Unofficial changes are noted in the individual sections.

Treasure

Main article: Treasure

Magical Items found as Treasure can be categorized into two distinctive groups: directly awarded items, and resuls of "Failed Specials". This section deals with the former. These are the most commonly encountered random items, and are set out to be item rewards at the time a new game is created.

During the initial map generation, each Encounter Zone on the Planes of Arcanus and Myrror is assigned a random assortment of Treasure based on the strength of their guardians. It is during this process, that Magical Items may be added to a site's hoard. The actual items are not selected at this time, but their maximum value does get defined. Each Encounter Zone can contain up to 3 Magical Items, ranging in value from  400 to  3,000, with increments of  100 inbetween. However, if the site's treasure budget is less than this (it only takes 300 points to qualify for a Magical Item), then the value is reduced to fit the budget instead (to the nearest multiple of  10).

The items are then randomized only when a (human only in v1.31) player clears the zone and claims its rewards. Originally meant to be items of any "grade" with maximum values pre-set at game creation; as mentioned above, these items may actually be of any value in the last official game version. The Insecticide patch removes this error, and places these items back into the value ranges they were supposed to be in, along with removing all Spellbook requirements from them, allowing players to not only find any items in the matching cost range, but also to obtain Magical Items with the (not yet working) Merging enchantment. It also grants the AI players access to this source of Magical Items.

The Unofficial Patch 1.50 takes things a step further by increasing the quality of items found in Treasure, although this is offset by a reduction in their quantity. Instead of the previous versions' 5-in-15 chance of a Treasure type being a Magical Item, this chance is now only 3-in-15. However, the treasure budget assigned to each one is increased to 200 - 5100 (Random(50) × 100 + 100), and the item's value is modified to be 120% of the treasure points spent (instead of the original 100%). This yields item values in the  240 -  6,120 range, which enables the game to award high-powered items created through ITEMMAKE.EXE that would otherwise be unobtainable as Treasure (although items with higher values will still not be accessible through this source).

Failed Specials

Encounter Zones can also feature another type of Treasure, called a "Special Treasure", or simply a "Special", or "pick". When awarded upon clearing the site, this Treasure type turns into either a Spellbook, or a Retort. However, both of these assets have limited maximum amounts that a Wizard can possess, leading to a situation where one would be awarded but can no longer be. This is commonly referred to as a "Failed Special". In all versions of the game, this results in the "Special" Treasure type being replaced with a Magical Item instead.

In the official v1.31 version, "Failed Specials" result in an item generated with an unspecified grade, and a maximum value of  1,200. Since the incorrect parameter passing of direct item rewards does not apply here, these items are actually confined to a cost range of  600 -  1,200 (in the case of a prefab item). This is hardly an ample replacement of the original Treasure type though, especially since in this version, Special Treasure precludes the appearance of any other Treasure type in the same hoard.

Insecticide enables the acquisition of Merging items from this source as well; while the Unofficial Patch 1.50 increases the maximum value of the items resulting from "Failed Specials" to  2,000 if they replace a single pick, and  4,000 if they replace a double. It also reduces the chance for the Special Treasure type to appear in general, but at the same time makes these cheaper in terms of treasure budget spent.

The latter patch also changes Special Treasure such that it no longer prevents other types of Treasure from being awarded at the same time. This makes it possible to now occasionally encounter Failed "Failed Specials". Normally, the game would use one of the three Magical Item slots of the Encounter Zone to award the "Failed Special" item. However, if the zone also features 3 direct Magical Item rewards, this is no longer possible, and the "Failed Special" will itself also fail. Should this happen, the replacement reward will be a lump sum of  1,000 instead.

Merchants

Main article: Merchant

At the beginning of the player's turn, there's a chance that they will be approached by a wandering Merchant trying to sell a Magical Item. The probability of this happening depends entirely on the player's Fame (and related Retorts). The base chance is 2%, which is increased by 1% for every 25 that the player has accumulated. This is then doubled if the player is Famous, and finally reduced to 10% if it is above that. 10% is the maximum chance for a Merchant to appear on any given turn, and requires either 75 or 200 to reach, depending on the presence or absence of the Famous Retort respectively.

Once the game decides that a Merchant will approach a player, it generates a random item using the procedures outlined above. Merchants, unlike every other source of Magical Items in v1.31, do not check the recipient's bookshelf before determining their items. Instead, they are treated as having 12 of every Spellbook. This is enough to qualify for any item (except those containing the withdrawn Merging power). Items sold by Merchants can furthermore be of any grade, and any value (although this latter choice does limit their maximum cost should they end up being randomized from scratch).

Only once the item is selected does the game check whether the player has enough  Gold Coins to purchase it. While Magical Items only cost the same amount of  Gold as their  Mana value (or half as much for players with the Charismatic Retort), in the original version of the game, the player actually needs to have 3 times the full value of the item in  Gold (ignoring Charismatic), or the Merchant will ultimately not show up at all.

In addition to allowing the acquisition of Merging items, the Insecticide patch enables the computer players to also be approached by Merchants, who may then buy the offered item at half price. It also changes the  Gold check to match the cost of the item (counting in Charismatic), instead of requiring 3 times the item's value; however, in doing so also introduces a new bug as a result of using an incorrect addressing mode. This bug causes the item's cost to be also halved during the check if the player possesses the Artificer retort (without Charismatic), which will not halve the actual price, potentially resulting negative  Gold if the item is bought. The Unofficial Patch 1.50 fixes this issue.

The Gift

If Random Events are enabled in the game's Settings, Magical Items also have a (rather low) chance of appearing as the result of one of these Events: The Gift. Essentially, the chosen player receives the item as a benefit from the Gods themselves. This item is always generated to be of artifact "grade", and can have an unlimited value, although in v1.31 and 1.40, Spellbook requirements will still apply to it. The Unofficial Patch 1.50 removes these, while v1.51 will also enable AI wizards to actually obtain the items they are gifted.

Item Crafting

Main article: Item Crafting

The final source of Magical Items is creating them. This can be accomplished using the Arcane spells Enchant Item and Create Artifact. While the first spell is much easier to research (and is typically available sooner), it is limited to imbuing powers that individually cost no more than  200. Selecting the Artificer Retort at the start of the game will automatically add both of these spells to the player's Spellbook, which will then be available for casting as soon as the game begins.

Item Crafting is usually a very time-consuming process, as the item's cost needs to be invested into the spell that creates the item. This is generally limited not only by the player's  Mana reserves, but also by their Spell Casting Skill, which defines the amount of  Mana that can be channeled each turn into the casting of an overland spell. The situation is made worse by the fact that item crafting can not be resumed if cancelled, which effectively prohibits the casting of any other spells on the overland map during the creation process, making this an important strategic decision for the player.

The Artificer Retort is designed to alleviate this somewhat, and it cuts the  Mana required to create items to half of their actual cost. Since both crafting spells are from the Arcane Realm, the Runemaster Retort also applies to them, reducing their casting cost by 25%. Even better yet, these two Retorts stack additively, enabling a Wizard possessing both to create Magical Items for a mere 25% of their total value. Since items can be broken down for half of their cost, combining these two Retorts also allows the player to gain  Mana by creating and then breaking down Magical Items, although this process is still limited by their overland Spell Casting Skill.

Designing the item to craft is fairly straightforward. Both spells bring up the same item creation screen (this interface is also used by ITEMMAKE.EXE), which contains individual buttons for selecting the item type, along with an icon selector and an input field for the item name. The list of available powers automatically updates to reflect the item type selected, taking into consideration the player's Spellbooks for their requirements. Crafting can be cancelled by deselecting all powers and pressing "Ok", which then displays a confirmation to abort the enchantment since the item has no powers.

Selecting the Spell Charges ability (for Wands and Staves) opens up an additional panel with the list of combat spells known by the player. Only one Spell Charge power can be imbued per item, but this can contain up to 4 charges of the same spell. This will be the amount of times that the wielder of the item can cast the spell in each battle. There is both a bug and en exploit regarding Spell Charges in v1.31. Heroes with  Thrown- and  Breath Attacks will temporarily (until the end of combat) lose these Special Attacks when they open their spellbook to cast the stored spell. Furthermore, deselecting the Spell Charge power does not actually remove it from the created item, which makes it possible to not only enchant 5 powers onto an item, but also to add Spell Charges to other item types. It may be worth noting though that this power is only ever checked by the game on weapons, and other item types will not register the spell as being available through an item.

As mentioned previously, Item Crafting is a feature exclusive to the human player in the official version of the game, although computer Wizards will still research and trade for the related spells, as well as possibly take the Artificer Retort. Insecticide enables Magical Item creation by AI players, and the Unofficial Patch 1.50 makes many refinements to this system.

Reference List of Item Powers

#	Item Power	Available on								Cost	Req	Notes
00	+1 Attack									50	-
01	+2 Attack									100	-
02	+3 Attack									200	-
03	+4 Attack									350	-
04	+5 Attack									550	-
05	+6 Attack									800	-
06	+1 Defense									50	-
07	+2 Defense									100	-
08	+3 Defense									200	-
09	+4 Defense									350	-
0A	+5 Defense									550	-
0B	+6 Defense									800	-
0C	+1 To Hit									400	-
0D	+2 To Hit									800	-
0E	+3 To Hit									1,200	-
0F	+1 Movement									100	-
10	+2 Movement									200	-
11	+3 Movement									400	-
12	+4 Movement									800	-
13	+1 Resistance									50	-
14	+2 Resistance									100	-
15	+3 Resistance									200	-
16	+4 Resistance									350	-
17	+5 Resistance									550	-
18	+6 Resistance									800	-
19	+5 Spell Skill									200	-
1A	+10 Spell Skill									400	-
1B	+15 Spell Skill									800	-
1C	+20 Spell Skill									1,600	-
1D	-1 Spell Save									100	-
1E	-2 Spell Save									200	-
1F	-3 Spell Save									400	-
20	-4 Spell Save									800	-
21	Flaming									300	2
22	Lightning									800	5
23	Chaos									2,000	6
24	Destruction									1,000	5
25	Vampiric									800	5
26	Death									400	3
27	Power Drain									500	4
28	Holy Avenger									500	3
29	True Sight									500	6
2A	Resist Elements									100	2
2B	Elemental Armor									500	4
2C	Giant Strength									300	3
2D	Stoning									150	2
2E	Phantasmal									1,500	6
2F	Guardian Wind									400	3
30	Haste									2,000	7
31	Resist Magic									200	2
32	Magic Immunity									700	5
33	Wraithform									1,200	4
34	Cloak of Fear									200	2
35	Bless									200	2
36	Righteousness									500	4
37	Invulnerability									1,200	5
38	Endurance									200	2
39	Planar Travel									500	5
3A	Lion Heart									1,000	6
3B	Water Walking									100	2
3C	Regeneration									1,500	6
3D	Pathfinding									200	3
3E	Merging									300	22
3F	Flight									200	3
40	Invisibility									1,000	5
41	Spell Charges									varies	-