Cuchulainshound seemed to think that building arcane connections into items to increase penetration was a valid thing to do and i certainly like the mythic feel of it. A wand made to slay a rival magus is so much cooler if it uses his severed finger as the head piece.
But here the questions goes, does anyone else think this is valid or not. And if so, how would it work?
The rules manifestly don't account for this and there are no rules. Should it then perhaps be a breakthrough?
Or should we just come up with some funky rules? I'm open to suggestions.
As another thought, arcane connections could allow an item to affect a magus at great range. This would be easy to build into the rules. Its mainly the penetration boosting effect i am interested in.
Oh, I'd say it must "already" exist as a mystery virtue somewhere out there. Probably a minor one.
This would also allow the fashionning of "legendary" items designed to kill a specific beast. Thus, we wouldn't have generic dragonkiller arrows, but "the doom of smaug" which, IMO, is cooler and more mythic.
However, I'd use this with reduced rules on item penetration, probably +1 lvl = +1 penetration, or divide by 2 the penetration multiplier given by the AC.
I also believe that a spell should be able to be designed for added penetration along the lines of items - +1 level dedicated to penetration yielding +2 penetration. If that's the sole function of the item/spell as designed, more power to ya - literally.
But, to be perfectly clear, that's purely a houserule - absolutely no support for such spells in the books. (For items, yes.)
But an item that is dedicated to a specific creature is most likely facing a hella big critter, and an equally monstrous MR! Don't think many magi would spend the time to dedicate an item to hassling anything less than truly intimidating.
I also believe that a spell should be able to be designed for added penetration along the lines of items - +1 level dedicated to penetration yielding +2 penetration. If that's the sole function of the item/spell as designed, more power to ya - literally.
But, to be perfectly clear, that's purely a houserule - absolutely no support for such spells in the books. (For items, yes.)