Board Thread:Suggestions forum/@comment-26172435-20151221114104/@comment-50.53.100.142-20170927132136

Madman198237 wrote: Certainly an interesting idea. Perhaps instead of magical application of energy to a weapon, we use XP to unlock skills relating to the creation of better armors and weapons in general.* This means that you will be able to make a new item with a specific set of traits and abilities, or improve an old one.


 * --As opposed to the ability to use XP to enchant an object.

All because magic in Middle-Earth is...sketchy. It is never specifically said how Gandalf burns Weathertop to a crisp. Magical items like Anduril are never given any specific traits. Other than Orcs hate the sight of such weapons.

Reforging an item, or forging a new, but improved, item, would require more materials than making a basic sword or armor piece or what-have-you. Some of these possible enhancements could perhaps USE magical items (Quendite, etc.), in order to give a magical effect. However, only Elves can truly work what might be referred to as magic, as far as I know.

All of this might even open the way to giving each material specific properties: Bronze may be good for shields or armor, but slows your character. Iron is good for hammers, but steel is better for edged weapons, etc. I'm late to this thread, but, I would like to point out that gandalf states there are spells specific to not only elves, but dwarves, men, and orcs. not to mention the daggers of westernesse if you want a very specific example.

Rather then having magic be exclusive to elves, i'd suggest having "spell weaving" be a largely lost art, with only a few scraps remaining, finding spells would have to be done either through exploration, or through looting bosses. But instead of using the typical "scrolls" or "books" having the enchantments found through artifacts, like some old elvish blades, or really whatever you can think of, and then attempting to replicate it using various resources to essentially recraft the spell (think how lapiz lazuli is used in vanilla, but with different resources for each enchantment) and binding it onto a new item.

I'd argue this fits the description of spells being "weaved into objects" but also explains why they wouldn't have just bound the spell into everything, the time and resources required to do so would be great, and not accessible to normal people. And lastly, the spells effectiveness would rely not only on the spell itself, but the magical power of the player, i'd argue this stat would have to be "will", since that seems to be what nearly everyone refers to as the driving force behind magic.