How many spells can you stick on an item?

[cmastah]

I'm not talking about crafting magical weapons here, just curious how many spells you can enchant a weapon with. Can you cast a light spell along with an alarm and a contingency spell (baleful polymorph)?

Also, when crafting magical arms, are the magical components crafted at the time or can magical components be added later?

Can a contingency spell be used to trap an item with? If you cast contingency and make the condition that it merely gets touched by someone who isn't the owner?

[Adamantine Dragon]

So far as I know there is no limit to how many spells you can cast on an item. So long as its a valid target, you can cast the spell.

Now, it may well be that the effects of the multiple spells won't stack, so you may not gain what you want, but you can cast spells until you run out if you want.

[Quatar]

You can add more magic later. For example turn a +1 Longsword into a +2 flaming longsword.
Price for it is the difference between the two

[cmastah]

Quatar wrote:

You can add more magic later. For example turn a +1 Longsword into a +2 flaming longsword.

Price for it is the difference between the two

Thanks, one of my players is going to be happy to hear he won't have to get rid of his wakizashis (still need to figure out how to drop masterwork wakizashis in his hand).

[tonyz]

If he's an oriental class in a non-oriental campaign, just have an old enemy of his family come after him. Either that or a ninja.

[Cheapy]

As many as the GM allows.

[Howie23]

cmastah wrote:

I'm not talking about crafting magical weapons here, just curious how many spells you can enchant a weapon with. Can you cast a light spell along with an alarm and a contingency spell (baleful polymorph)?

Also, when crafting magical arms, are the magical components crafted at the time or can magical components be added later?

Can a contingency spell be used to trap an item with? If you cast contingency and make the condition that it merely gets touched by someone who isn't the owner?

Enchanting a weapon is a term that generally applies to crafting magic weapons.

If you are targeting a weapon with various spells, there effectively is no limit. There is a section in the Magic chapter on the interaction between spells. The key section is, "Spells or magical effects usually work as described, no matter how many other spells or magical effects happen to be operating in the same area or on the same recipient. Except in special cases, a spell does not affect the way another spell operates."

However, the spells being used in this way have to allow an item to be the target of the spell. Light is cast on an object touched, so that's fine. Alarm is an area spell that is centered on a point in space. It cannot be cast on an item. Contingency is a personal spell with a target of you (the caster). It cannot be cast on an item.

[Breakfast]

Contingency has range personal so it is not for rigging items. It sounds like you want to check the rules for crafting magic traps.

[blackbloodtroll]

Related: What happens to the permanent magical effects on an object, once it's animated?

[VRMH]

blackbloodtroll wrote:

Related: What happens to the permanent magical effects on an object, once it's animated?

There's no rule saying magic vanishes or becomes inert when the bearer ceases to be a valid target for the original spell.

But there never was any confirmation the magic stays active either. Consult your GM.

[blackbloodtroll]

I would like to know.
You know, when you die, your body is treated as an object, meaning it can be affected by a slew of spells, that otherwise would not have a valid target.
What happens to said spells when you are raised?

Shrink Item? Hardening?

[pobbes]

Generally speaking, spells which alter the body after death "damage" the body so it could not be resurrected. Therefore, it would take more power magic to restore and such magic would undo those effects. Conversely, those spells could likely be disenchanted or dismissed to restore the body to a form that could be raised. Shrink Item seems like a spell that would not damage the body, but would need to be dismissed before raising. Hardening is a toss up, but I would make it incompatible with being brought back to life one way or another.

If you're willing to just go with some imagination. I would probably humorously let both work. The shrunk PC now is effectively size fine until the spell duration wears off. For Hardening, I would probably have the PC paralyzed until the hardening could be undone.