How do the Major Rings work?

Discussion in 'The Temple of Elemental Evil' started by Barles, May 3, 2019.

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  1. Barles

    Barles Member

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    I remember some time ago that, at least some of the Major rings from Simon's shop in Verbobonc would stop working after awhile. I didn't (and still don't) understand the limits in the number of spells the rings were able to cast. Now, reading the description of the rings, it says you should be able to cast 10 spell levels worth of spells from the school of magic the ring belongs to (i.e. Ring of Illusing allows you to cast 10 levels of illusion spells). What is supposed to happen once the 10 levels are up? Is it ten levels per day, or ten levels and then the ring doesn't function anymore?

    Also, if there is supposed to be a limit to the rings (they stop working altogether after the right conditions are met for this to happen) I'm having a hard time reaching it using the ring of Illusion. I cast Phantasmal killer 10 times (killed someone with it 2 of those 10 times), mirror image once, displacement 6 times, and was still able to cast using the ring.
     
  2. Pygmy

    Pygmy Established Member Supporter

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    According to the protos.tab file each major ring is a 3 or 4 function (spell) usable item with 50 charges. There is no indication that any spell is charged differently from any other. Generally items follow the protos.tab file although I would caution that there are very funny things going on under the hood with the Hero's Shield so that doesn't always apply.
     
  3. Shiningted

    Shiningted I want my goat back Administrator

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    Hi Barles. As Pygmy said, the main thing is the rings have 50 charges. I don't remember why I made them like that, it seems stupid in hindsight (a 'use per day' limit makes far more sense to me atm) but I probably had my reasons at the time. To try to recreate my mental state, just keep in mind that, much like the Ring of Resonance, the Major Rings were a replacement for the Rings of Spell Storing and Wizardry that spell-casting types would have had in a PnP game but which the ToEE engine could not do justice to. So, when we look at the 'Ring of Major Spell Storing' description in the SRD, it says, "As the minor ring of spell storing, except it holds up to ten levels of spells" and the cost is identical, so there you go - these are essentially meant to be fully charged Rings of Spell Storing, divided up by school. Again, a 'use per day' limit would make sense to replicate the fact you need to relearn your spells each day to recharge the ring. Maybe I tried that and it didn't work and I thought 'to tartarus with it, I'll just give it 50 charges". Or maybe I thought it was too restrictive since you don't get to choose what spells to recharge into it - you just drop 200k for the same 4 spells over and over. I don't remember.

    There's an internal arg on the rings of '4' - no idea what that means. They seem to work, I tried your illusion one and the spells worked and didn't seem to go off the wearer's level, so that's something.

    Don't trust Simon, he was a communist in college.
     
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