Upgrading Armour and Weapons

Upgrading Basics

The process of upgrading a piece of equipment always has a number of basic requirements regardless of its type. The following general rules apply:

Upgrades take the form of tags. Tags add new properties to equipment.
Each tag is unique and can only be applied to a piece of equipment once.
Upgrading a piece of equipment with a new tag can only be performed by a dedicated nonplayer craftsperson of the appropriate discipline in a workshop environment.
Upgrading a piece of equipment with a new tag is a skilled endeavor, taking anywhere from an hour to more than a week depending on the task.
On your adventures, you may come across equipment already possessing tags; either for sale, offered as rewards, or available through other means.

Due to their extraordinary artisanship and magical reinforcement, magic items can’t be modified using normal artisinal methods. As such, the upgrades presented here can’t be applied to magic items. Furthermore, none of the upgrades presented in this supplement confer “magic item” status to a piece of equipment, though certain upgrades may result in a piece of equipment being considered magical under certain circumstances.

Upgrading Armour

There are a number of options available to a character to upgrade their armour, from high-cost armour proofing, to useful additions like insulation suitable for cold weather environments. A complete list of these options, as well as cost and any additional requirements, are shown in the Armour Upgrades table below. In addition to the basic rules for upgrading, the following rules apply when upgrading a suit of armour or a shield with a new tag:

Any prerequisite conditions must be satisfied to apply a new tag, as shown in the Armour Upgrades table.
Typically, it takes an artisan a full day of work (minimum 8 hours) to upgrade a suit of armour or a shield with a new tag.
The armour proofing process normally requires a full workweek (5 days) and can only be undertaken by a master artisan. Once added, armour proofing tags can’t be removed from a suit of armour.

Armour Proofing

The primary method of upgrading armour, proofing is the process of testing and improving a suit of armour’s ability to withstand blows of various types below a certain threshold, being certified as proof against swords, arrows, and warhammers. While all types of armour can be proofed against slashing damage, only medium and heavy armours can be proofed against piercing damage, and only heavy armour can be proofed against bludgeoning attacks.

Other Upgrades

In addition to proofing, various other upgrades are available to armours meeting the prerequisites for each, as shown in the Armour Upgrades table. Certain upgrades are incompatible, such as the breathable and insulated tags, while others have specific requirements. Certain types of armour upgrade tags may be removable or temporary; when in doubt, consult with your referee.

Armour Upgrades

Tag	Cost (d.)	Prerequisite	Properties
Armour proofing: 1st tier	1000d.	Light, medium, or heavy armour	While wearing this armour, if you would take 3 or less nonmagical slashing damage before resistance is applied, you take none of that damage instead.
Armour proofing: 2nd tier	2000d.	Medium or heavy armour with the 1st tier armour proofing tag	While wearing this armour, if you would take 4 or less nonmagical slashing or piercing damage before resistance is applied, you take none of that damage instead.
Armour proofing: 3rd tier	3000d.	Heavy armour with the 2nd tier armour proofing tag	While wearing this armour, if you would take 5 or less non- magical slashing, piercing, or bludgeoning damage before resistance is applied, you take none of that damage instead.
Breathable	100d.	Light or medium armour. Incompatible with insulated.	While wearing this armour, you have a +2 bonus on saving throws against fatigue due to extreme heat.
Climbing harness	100d.	Light, medium, or heavy armour	This armour has been modified with a climbing harness around the midriff, comprising leather straps and quick- draws. While wearing it, you gain a +2 bonus to checks to scale vertical surfaces when using a rope or similar aid.
Decorated	5d.	Medium or heavy armour and shields	This armour or shield is adorned with a holy symbol and allows its bearer to cast Turn Undead without holding a holy symbol.
Insulated	100d.	Incompatible with breathable.	This armour counts as cold weather gear in conditions of extreme cold.
Quick-release clasps	200d.	Light, medium, or heavy armour	You can doff this light armour as an action, medium armour in 1 minute, and heavy armour in 5 minutes.
Spiked	250d.	Medium or heavy armour	This armour has been modified with spikes, barbs, or another similar feature, and deals 1d4 piercing damage to creatures who hit its wearer with unarmed strikes or natural weapons that aren’t magical.

Upgrading Weapons

Upgrading weapons follows a branching path system, with available options split into multiple tiers. At first, a weapon can only be upgraded with a limited selection of 1st tier tags depending on its type, each of which “unlocks” one or more options from the next tier. The following additional rules apply when upgrading a weapon with a new tag:

All prerequisite conditions must be satisfied to apply a new tag, as shown in the Weapon Upgrades table.
2nd tier upgrades can only be applied by a trained craftsman, with 3rd tier upgrades requiring the skills of a master artisan.
Typically, it takes an artisan a full day of work (minimum 8 hours) to upgrade a weapon with a new tag.
Once added, a tag can’t be removed from a weapon.

Weapon Upgrade Cost Structure

Upgrading a weapon has a base cost associated with each tier, with subsequent upgrades of that tier costing twice the previous amount for that tier. For example, Erik decides to pay a visit to a local blacksmith in order to have a customized pommel attached to his dagger—adding the balanced tag—for the tier 1 base cost of 100d.. Later, he returns to have the blade honed—adding the sharpened tag—this time costing 200d., with the next 1st tier upgrade costing 400d., and so on.

Upgrades are grouped by tier for the purposes of this cost scaling: continuing with the above example, if Erik then wishes to have the blade of his dagger partially serrated in order to improve its effectiveness when slicing and cutting—adding the superior tag—it would cost 1,000d. (the 2nd tier base cost) provided that the dagger doesn’t already possess any other 2nd tier tags.

Tag	Prerequisite	Properties
1st Tier (base cost: 100d.)
Balanced	-	You gain a +1 bonus to attack rolls made with this weapon.
Critical: Sharpened	Melee weapons that deal piercing or slashing damage only	Attacks with this weapon score a critical hit on a roll of one lower than normal.
Critical: Sight pin	Bows and crossbows only	Attacks with this weapon score a critical hit on a roll of one lower than normal.
Critical: Spiked	Melee weapons that deal bludgeoning damage only	Attacks with this weapon score a critical hit on a roll of one lower than normal.
Silvered	-	Attacks with this weapon count as silvered for the purposes of overcoming resistance and immunity to nonmagical attacks and damage
Wounding: Keen	Melee weapons only	You gain a +1 bonus to damage rolls made with this weapon.
Wounding: Oiled string	Bows and crossbows only	You gain a +1 bonus to damage rolls made with this weapon.
2nd Tier (base cost: 1,000d.)
Brutal	Sharpened or Spiked tag	When you attack with this weapon and roll the maximum result for the weapon’s damage dice, you can roll those dice again and add the new roll to the damage of the attack. If you roll the maximum amount again, you can repeat this process until you don’t.
Enchanted	Silvered tag. Can only be applied by a mage of 11th level or higher.	Attacks with this weapon count as magical for the purposes of overcoming resistance and immunity to nonmagical attacks and damage, and features such as the black pudding’s corrosive form.
Superior	Balanced and keen or oiled string tag.	The damage die of this weapon is increased by one size (for example, 1d4 becomes 1d6, 1d6 becomes 1d8, and 1d8 becomes 1d10).
3rd Tier (base cost: 10,000d.)
Masterwork	Brutal or superior tag	You gain an additional +1 bonus to attack and damage rolls made with this weapon.