DESIGNING RARE ITEMS

Over the course of the game, you will often need to come up with a rare item—perhaps it’s part of a reward, a lost treasure, an arcane weapon extracted from the soul of a demon or monster, or even a peculiar object sold by a merchant. In such instances, you may:

• Choose an existing Rare Item. This is the simplest solution! Pick one of the sample items presented in this section. Make sure to choose something appropriate to the situation, such as a mjolnir hammer for a storm demon.
• Create a new Rare Item. Follow the guidelines presented in this section to create a new rare item. Sometimes you can take an existing item and simply change the type of damage it deals, or have it grant a different bonus, but it's encouraged that you try to come up with items that resonate with how and where they were found.

Rare items can and should tell their own story!

BE CAREFUL WITH BONUSES

Items that grant a bonus to a specific type of Check, as well as items that grant an increase to Defense or Magic Defense, are especially powerful: that is because Fabula Ultima features a relatively "flat" math progression when it comes to Checks. Even an innocuous-looking +1 bonus can make a huge difference; because of this, avoid granting characters too many rare items whose special abilities enhance Accuracy Checks, Magic Checks, Defense or Magic Defense.

In general, a character should not be given the opportunity to equip more than two such items at any given time. Feel free to give out more, but make sure these are mutually exclusive options: should you equip the Crested Helm that gives a +1 bonus to Accuracy Checks, or the Pointy Yellow Hat that gives a +1 bonus to Magic Checks?

AVOID COPYING EXISTING SPELLS OR SKILLS

When you create a Quality for a rare item, try to avoid copying the effects of a Skill or spell that is unique to a specific Class. Instead, look at which Skills the Player Characters have acquired and give them items that synergize well with those, or that provide useful (if pricey) alternatives when those same Skills would otherwise be ineffective.

Philip Forlenza (Order #)