What the names on your gear mean, and what each kind of magic does.
What weak creatures drop is mostly plain: a longsword is a longsword. Tougher creatures drop magic more often. It arrives unnamed ("a magic longsword") until you name it with Item Identification, or pay a mage to; its magic works either way.
There are two kinds of weapon magic, and a weapon can have both: a tier that makes every blow harder, and a property that does something extra when a blow lands.
Weapon tiers
| Tier | Damage on every blow |
|---|---|
| Ruin | +10% |
| Might | +20% |
| Force | +30% |
| Power | +40% |
| Vanquishing | +50% |
The tier multiplies the weapon's damage on every blow, and it shows in the name: "a longsword of Vanquishing". The higher tiers come from tougher creatures, and each tier adds ten points of durability.
Weapon properties
- Flaming
- Every blow that lands also burns for a third again (35% of the blow, at least 2) as fire.
- Venomed
- Every blow that lands on a creature poisons it: 3 to 5 damage every 2 seconds for 10 seconds. A fresh blow restarts the clock.
- Frost
- Every blow that lands on a creature slows it to half pace for two and a half seconds.
- Shocking
- Every blow that lands arcs lightning to the nearest other foe within four tiles, for half the blow.
- Vampiric
- Every blow that lands heals you a quarter of the damage it dealt.
Slayers
| Slayer | Half again against |
|---|---|
| Silver | the undead: zombies, skeletons, liches |
| Orc Slayer | orcs, orc shamans, warchiefs |
| Repond | trolls, ettins, ratmen |
| Exorcism | daemons, gazers, imps |
| Dragon Slaying | dragons |
| Vermin Slayer | rats, ratmen, mongbats |
A property fires on every blow that lands, melee or arrow; once a weapon has one there is no chance roll. A slayer adds half the blow again against its kind and nothing against anything else. Most magic weapons carry no property. Flaming, Venomed and Vermin Slayer turn up from the start; Frost, Silver and Orc Slayer from tougher creatures; Shocking, Repond and Exorcism tougher still; Vampiric and Dragon Slaying only from the hardest. Slayers are the rarer half of the table.
Armour
| Material | Full suit soak |
|---|---|
| Leather | 8% |
| Studded leather | 12% |
| Bone, ringmail, chainmail | 18% |
| Plate | 25% |
The figure is a full suit's soak against physical blows. Each piece carries its share: the tunic 30%, legs 25%, arms 15%, helm 12%, gloves 10% and gorget 8% of it, so a plate tunic alone is worth 7.5%. Heavier sets need more strength to wear.
Armour magic (since v0.4)
| Quality | Off every physical blow, per piece |
|---|---|
| Defense or Fortification | 1% |
| Durability | 2% |
| Guarding | 3% |
| Hardening | 4% |
| Invulnerability | 5% |
Magic armour takes that share off every physical blow, on top of the piece's soak, per piece worn, up to 15% in all. Spells, fire, poison and lightning are not physical and pass it by. The tooltip shows the figure.
How rare magic is
| Creature | Loot tier | What drops |
|---|---|---|
| Weak creatures: rats, zombies, skeletons | tier 1 | about 2 kills in 100 carry magic |
| Orcs, trolls | tier 2 | about 20 in 100 |
| Liches, daemons and the like | tier 3 | about 70 in 100 |
| Mini-bosses | tier 4 | 1 or 2 pieces of gear, at least one magic |
| Bosses | tier 5 | 2 or 3 pieces of gear, mostly magic |
Since v0.7, closer to old UO. The top tiers, Power and Vanquishing, stay rare whatever drops. Gold, reagents and potions drop as before; boss uniques, first kills and the campaign's own rewards roll separately.
A plain piece sells for its base price, as does magic you have not named: the keeper does not know what you are selling either. Named magic fetches more: a weapon of Vanquishing about four times the plain price, five with a property; magic armour half again per tier.
Wear and repair
Weapons lose a point of durability about one blow in 25. Armour wears only where you are struck, one blow in eight on the piece that was hit, so a suit lasts weeks of hunting. A worn piece warns you at half and at a quarter.
At zero a piece keeps working but loses a point of its maximum each time instead, "severely damaged", and breaks only when that is gone. A broken piece is replaced from your pack by the next best you can wear.
A smith repairs it for a gold a missing point, half again per tier of magic. Or mend it yourself at a forge with tongs and an iron ingot, at the cost of a point of maximum.
A worked example
A Warrior at 50 Swordsmanship, 50 Tactics and 50 Strength, against a troll in the open world (about 64 hit points). Damage per blow is the weapon's roll × its tier × your strength (+4% per 10 points over 20) × your skill (+0.15% per Swordsmanship point, +0.1% per Tactics point): here × 1.26 before the tier.
| Weapon | Damage per blow | Blows to kill |
|---|---|---|
| Plain longsword | 10 to 16, about 13 | 5 |
| Longsword of Vanquishing | 15 to 25, about 20 | 4 |
| Flaming longsword of Vanquishing | about 27 (20 + 7 fire) | 3 |
Roughly, counting only blows that land; misses, a lucky roll or a critical change it.
Uniques and caches
Some things are on no loot table at all: named pieces from bosses, and what waits in the hidden caches and the secrets under Minoc. Those you have to go and find.