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This is more a homerule tool for flavor than anything needed or improving game mechanics, but bear with me.
Imagine a mighty Dragon breathing its fire on a rusty sword, turning it into a golden blade as majestic as it is powerful. Or a wicked Gelugon holding the magic spear of the cultist worshipping it, infusing its essence into the weapon and making ice-barbs grow on it while changing its overall structure.
Basically, I'm talking about powerful magical creatures pouring their own life-force and spirit into items to make them magical.
And here's how I thought of ruling this:
Creators: Any creature with at least 11 HD and of the Dragon, Fey, or Outsider type, or other creature types, if the creature holds enough magic power, at GM's discretion (for example Storm Giants, powerful Vampires, Neothelids, or even a "normal" Human Wizard of high enough level) can create a magic item from a mundane one of the same type without having to consume money and resources, nor do they need a laboratory of any kind.
Creation overview: The base item doesn't need to be masterwork, and can be in any condition, even damaged or broken, as long as the majority of it is still placed together. It will be created with full hit points and in perfect conditions. The creature doesn't need to have item creation feats or fulfill a particular magic item's requirements to create it (such as knowing the spells normally required for a Frostbrand), and can even choose the material of the final item. The only limitation is that the created item must be in tune with the creator's theme, personality, or history; for example, a Silver Dragon may create a silver bow with air, sky, or cold-related powers, or it could add the Bane (Dragons) to it to make a weapon against its evil brethren.
Creator's drawbacks: The creator suffers a heavy toll for infusing part of itself into an item, becoming weak for a long time by gaining a number of negative levels (these negative levels are applied even to creatures normally immune to energy drain). These negative levels are removed at the rate of one per year, thus making many creatures choose to hide in secluded hermitages and sleep until full recovery. Negative levels from creating multiple items stack and extend the total years necessary to remove them up to the last one.
To calculate the number of gained negative levels, look at the market price of the desired item, or, if it isn't among the already printed ones, calculate the price by using the table in the "Magic Item Creation" section of the Core Rulebook. Remember to include special material and masterwork items' additional costs, if the item is going to acquire such qualities, as well as the cost of the basic item itself, if it was in bad conditions. Items that are already magical can be empowered by this process as well; just obtain the price of the final item you want to create, and subtract the cost of already existing qualities, exactly as you would do when adding properties to a magic item with the normal rules. The only exception is that if you are going to turn an item's material into a less costly one, you must exclude materials from the calculation altogether. For example, say you have a +1 adamantine full-plate and want to turn it into a +3 mithral full-plate; the starting item's cost is 17,650 gp (1,500 full-plate, +150 masterwork, +15,000 adamantine, +1,000 for +1 enhancement), while the desired item has a price of 19,650 gp (1,500 full-plate, +150 masterwork, +9,000 mithral, +9,000 for +3 enhancement). By excluding the prices of the materials, the starting and final item come to cost respectively 2,650 gp and 10,650 gp. Subtracting the starting item's value from the final one's, you have 10,650 - 2,650 = 8,000 gp.
Once you have the effective difference used in this process, obtain the square root of such price, divide by 20 and round up (for example, a value of 100,000 gp would have a square root of 316.22, reduced to 15.8 by the division, and rounded up to 16); the final result of this is the number of negative levels the creature will have to suffer to make that item.
Regardless of how small an improvement to the item is, the creature always takes a minimum of one negative level. Also, if the creature so wishes, it can create an item that would make it gain negative levels up to its total HD + 3, but gaining as much negative levels as its HD or more will kill it immediately after the item is finished.
Creation time: The time required to create or improve an item with this method depends on the price of the final item (or its difference with the already existing item) and is reported below.
Up to 1,000 gp: 1 full round.
Up to 2,000 gp: 5 full rounds.
Up to 3,000 gp: 10 full rounds (1 minute).
Up to 5,000 gp: 10 minutes.
Up to 10,000 gp: 1 hour.
Up to 20,000 gp: 1 day.
Up to 50,000 gp: 1 week.
Up to 100,000 gp: 1 month.
Up to 150,000 gp: 4 months.
Up to 200,000 gp: 1 year.
For higher values, add 1 more year for every additional 50,000 gp.
The creator must spend the whole time with the item at least within its reach and without the slightest interruction, meaning it cannot rest, sleep or eat (although it can be fed by others during the process). Due to this, only creatures beyond mortality can bring to life the most potent creations.
Artifacts can also be created with this method, although calculating proper prices for them can be difficult.
Special: After an item is created with this method, the creator is immune for one year to each and every harmful effect produced by that item, by anyone carrying it, or anyone who has carried it for at least a week within the year immediately after the creation. Only indirect attacks work against the creator, such as a collapsing building subject to an Earthquake spell, while the spell itself doesn't affect the creator in any way, as if it was surrounded by an antimagic fields. Similarly, physical attacks have no effect, treating the creator as if it had infinite and unbypassable damage reduction.
After that year has expired, other the creator loses this immunity but instead gains the ability to gain back the power from the item it created. Doing so works exactly like creating that item, except that it takes half the time. An item drained in this way reverts to what it was before being enhanced, and the creator loses all the remaining negative levels it had from that specific item. Negative levels gained by creating other items still persist and disappear at the normal rate.
I think I have forgotten some things, but whatever...
Dot for interest.
Many of us feel that flavor is just as important as mechanics to correct an issue, perceived or otherwise.
I find this idea of yours both brilliant and fascinating. It isn't something I would have thought of (indeed, after a couple of decades of gaming, I never considered it).
If you notice you did actually forget anything, I'd love to see that material as well.
We will definitely be using this in some form.
Thanks.
(Also, in the opening message I noticed some typos and erors due to copy/pasting and editing, pardon me. Probably there will be some in this one too.)
Well, here's a few more additions and specifications.
1) The negative levels gained from this process cannot be removed by anything short of divine intervention, the passing of the required time, or taking back the item's power as described.
If a creator dies while having these negative levels, and is later resurrected, it will retain the same number of negative levels, plus any inflicted by the spell used to resurrect it (although such additional negative levels can be removed normally). If the creature died because it created an item that inflicted a number of negative levels equal to or greater than its HD, it won't be able to come back to life before one year has passed (unless a deity intervenes), after which, whenever it resurrects, it will still have negative levels equal to its HD - 1 (the used spell's negative levels will become Constitution drain).
2) The creator can reduce creation time by 1/4 by taking a number of additional negative levels (minimum 1) equal to 1/4 of the total needed to create the item, or by 1/2 by taking 1/2 more negative levels.
3) When taking back an item's power, the creator can reduce the time by 1/4 by retaining 1/4 of the negative levels gained when creating the item (not counting additions due to speeding up creation time), or by 1/2 by retaining 1/2 of that amount. If the creator does this after some years have passed from the creation, and has less negative levels than those it would retain by speeding up this process, the time cannot be reduced. Of course, a situation where the 1/2 reduction can't be applied could still allow for the 1/4 one, depending on the number of negative levels remaining. Leftover negative levels still heal at the normal rate of one per year.
I'm curious, but is it in the realm of possibility to "regain" negative levels (at a reduced rate) by virtue of capturing someone else's infused item, spending the requisite time, and absorbing that soul energy in its place?
Lets take your dragon and gelugon for example. The dragon infused the warriors weapon who later uses it to defeat the cult leader, perhaps even the gelugon. The fighter returns with the cultists weapon, the dragon claims it as payment, and absorbs the soul essence from it.
Hope the example makes sense.
It does, but, in what I had in mind, a creature could regain them only from items created by itself because they have in them its own vitality and spirit, and it has a bond with them. Also, I specifically wanted the creators to stay crippled for a long time, thus having even more reason to entrust a task and the item to someone else (namely, PCs and/or minions), and be able to quickly recover only if the item is returned to them (be it willingly by the nice adventurers who used it, or by theft and violence against unwilling PCs or whoever has the item that the creator doesn't like... or liked before and now no more).
My general idea was to encourage legends' birth in game, such as "Camaris, the legendary sword born in the fire of the last Golden Dragon", or "The treason of Nilwe, the Queen Dryad who gave part of her soul in creating the great bow Hemlal in a pact of protection with a Human general, and was later slain by him with that same weapon when life changed the man's heart", or "Skaier, the spear of annihilation in which the namesake Daemon of Frozen Lies infused his whole essence to eat Creation with its screaming stabs"...
I didn't see it much in the perspective of creating a system where everyone tries to get a hold of other legendary items to eat their powers. Casters in particular, including PCs, may get the idea that they can spam (well, kinda) magic items for free while covering the drawbacks by feeding upon other cretures' items that they don't need.
That said, of course, anyone is free to apply any modification to what I present here. And also, the possibility of gnawing at other creatures' items too could lead to interesting plots. A simple one that comes to mind could be a Vampire lord pouring its blood to forge items and having its minions bring other legendary items that it can suck dry to recover (problem with this, though, would be that items with this kind of origin would have to be relatively common, while instead they should be quite rare). Anyway, if I have to rule it, I'd say to let the creature recover only 1/4 of the negative levels the items would recover to its creator, and with no option to speed up the process.
Thanks for the response.
The reason I asked was due to the idea that between 1-10% of all magic items in my setting might have this system tied to them. With a successful legend lore or bardic check - well, you can guess where it goes from there in terms of stories and so on. Such items discovered can make for fantastic hooks; alternatively, bartering such items back to the creators or others might make for some interesting exchanges as well.