This help topic is Open Game Content, and is licensed for public use under the terms of the Open Gaming License v1.0a .
The main window's Items Frame and the Campaign Manager's Adventure Items give you a summary of each item in a creature or adventure's list. The Items Editor (Shift+F5) allows you to edit every aspect of an item. This is also where you can edit the Standard Items (items that are saved with the campaign and you can easily add to any creature or adventure).
The list box at the top left (Items Taken From:) allows you to choose the source of the items in the list – either from the Standard Items, the current creature or the current adventure.
Below, the Show Items of Type: list box allows you to limit the items shown. When you select a type, only items that match it will be displayed in the list box underneath it. You can select “All Items” or “All Magical Items” if you are unsure of the exact type.
Select an item by clicking it in the list. Create New will make a new item in the selected source, whereas Remove will delete the item. Note that if you delete an item from the Standard Items, you will not be able to restore it unless you import it, type it back in, or reinstall DM Genie.
Item's Type: You can select from the list or create a new type of item – which will require confirmation.
Check the Magical and Psionic boxes depending on the item's type. Check the Identified box if it is an item the PCs have magically identified (thus they know their effect and factor them in their rolls, so you don't have to). This applies only to items from a creature's inventory. See also the Unidentified Name/Price boxes, that are in the Magical Items tab.
Check the “Equipped or worn” box to activate that item's permanent magical effect.
The Price and Weight can be decimals. The Auto-generated box is checked if the standard item was auto-generated when DM Genie loaded. Any changes will be reset the next time you load DM Genie. This does not apply to a creature's and an adventure's items list.
The Count box is the number of identical items owned. This applies to a creature's or an adventure's items only. Check the Disposable box if you want the count to be reduced by one every time a creature uses it (for example, arrows).
The Random Treasure Chance boxes give the chance (usually in %) that this item will be rolled by the Random Treasure Generator . There are 3 boxes, for Minor, Medium and Major magical items. The value can be a fraction, and does not need to total up to 100 for any given type – the chance is relative.
The Description box can be edited with rich text using the Word Processor Commands . It can also contain Adventure Hyperlinks .
Here, extra information can be written for magical or psionic objects. The Unidentified Name and Unidentified Price boxes are there to allow you to hide magical items' names from your players if they have not been identified. To use these, turn on the option (File->Options menu of the Main Window). Character sheets printed when this option is on will show no sign that the item is magical (except for equipped weapons/armor). Note that the default names are very simple, and the default price is often rather arbitrarily chosen. You can customize this displayed name/price to give more flavor to your game.
The Charges text boxes hold the maximum number of charges and the number left. This applies to wands, staffs, and some wondrous items. When creating a magical item, the Cost to Create is the price of materials in gp, and the XP Cost is the number of XP that must be expended. The Caster Level is the level at which the item was created, and is the level used when evaluating spell effects or save DCs.
For intelligent items, check the Item is intelligent box. You can then enter the item's ability and ego scores, it's alignment, languages spoken, and its special abilities or powers. Use the "Random Intelligence" button to roll the intelligence stats as described in the DMG. Intelligence usually adds to the price – but for this button the change is not automatic, allowing you to click several times to get the intelligence you want. Adjust the price once you have chosen.
Some magical items, like rings, give bonuses to the wearer whenever they are equipped. You can record these bonuses in this tab. The magical effect of the item will be applied whenever it is equipped (bold). The text boxes are the same as in the Conditions Editor and will have the same effect when the item is equipped. See also About Conditions to learn more about conditions. The "Item Has a Condition" box must be checked in order for the effect to be applied.
Many items simply reproduce a spell effect, for example, wands or potions. For these, check the "Using this item reproduces a spell" box. Then, enter the name of the spell, the abbreviation of the class that casts it as well as the caster level. The Metamagic Feats box holds a list of the feats applied when casting. You can add a number after a feat to indicate it is applied more than once, for example "Empower 2" will apply Empowered twice.
Every item can have one or more conditions associated with it. For example, a ring of invisibility would have the invisible condition. Whenever a character wears the ring, his invisible condition is active. Underneath “Condition Name” you will find a list of the conditions for that spell. If the first condition is (None), then no conditions are set. Click the (None) box and select a condition to add it to a list. If you wish to remove a condition, click it's box and select (None) – this will remove it and shift the list upwards. Click the “Edit” button to change the selected condition. Click the “Create New Condition” to add open the Conditions Editor and create a new one. When creating a condition specifically for an item, set that condition as being an “Item Cond”. From the Options Dialog you can choose to hide all item conditions from the main window if they are numerous and clutter up the display.
You can set each condition's expiration – the time in rounds that the condition will be active starting when the item is activated (in this version of DM Genie, this is not automatically set when using an item, but it acts as a reminder and future versions will set it automatically). Set it to –1 or check the “Always On” box to signify that the condition is active as long as the item is equipped (worn, in hand, or otherwise activated). Check the “Equipped or worn” box in the General tab to equip an item. It will appear in bold in the creature's list. In most cases, you should use the "Magical Effect" tab instead of creating a new condition that is always on.
To copy the list of conditions from a spell or a psionic power, click one of the “Copy from a...” buttons. You will then be prompted to select a spell or power from which to copy, then click Ok. For example, if you create a 'Staff of Barkskin', you may want to copy the conditions from the Barkskin spell.
Because of the very large number of magical items that come with DM Genie, not all of them have conditions associated with them – only those that directly reproduce a spell effect (scrolls, wands) do. In future versions we may add more conditions.
To set an item to be a suit of armor or a shield, check the “Is Armor” or the “Is Shield” box. Select the type of armor (light, medium, heavy) in the proficiency list. You can then set the armor's characteristics – normal bonus to AC, magical bonus, maximum dexterity bonus to AC (set to 99 for no maximum), arcane spell failure incurred, whether or not the armor/shield has spikes, and the check penalty for certain skills. You can also record as a reminder what the character's speed is when wearing this armor (depending on his base speed of either 20, 30 or 40 feet per round).
The editable boxes in this frame are:
- Check Penalty: This is the modifier that applies to certain skill rolls while wearing this armor.
- Normal Bonus: This is the non-magical bonus to AC that the armor provides.
- Magic Bonus: This is the bonus to AC that comes from magical enhancement. The standard armors in the list have no magical enhancement.
- Max Dex: This is the maximum Dexterity bonus to AC that can be applied while wearing this armor. This does not apply to shields (set to 99).
- Spell Fail: This is the percent chance of arcane spell failure when casting with this armor.
Some items can have attack data associated with them. For instance, specific magical weapons might have their attack data entered here. Check the upper-left checkbox to edit the attack data for a particular weapon. The interface to change the attack data is the same as in the Standard Weapons Editor .
Four buttons are available to help in data entry:
Copy from current attack uses the currently selected attack of the current creature as the source for the attack data. You may have to remove bonuses due to the character's strength, for example, if applicable.
Copy from a standard weapon will prompt you to choose one of the standard weapons, whose data will be copied directly.
Add as a Standard Weapon will take the weapon data you entered and make it into a standard weapon, which can later be used in the Magical Weapon Maker.
Give Attack to Current Character gives the corresponding attack to the currently selected creature. The item itself is not automatically given.
Containers: A checkbox allows you to specify if this item can contain other objects. Another checkbox allows you to ignore the weight of any items inside the container – effectively keeping the weight at a fixed value. For example, a Bag of Holding 1 weighs 15 pounds no matter what is in it.
Physical Characteristics: You can specify the item's hardness, hit points, break DC, AC, etc.
Attacking an Object: Some buttons ease attacking objects and use the AC/Hardness specified for the calculations.
In this tab you can edit the item's script code. The code section being edited is selected in the listbox at left. The text box at right gives some quick information on how to enter the script for each section. The Test Script button tries to execute the script displayed with a blank creature, and will show any syntax errors present. Refer to Scripting – Item Scripting for more information on how to script each code section.
You can take an item from the Standard Items, a creature's list or from the adventure's list and put a copy of it in either the current creature or the current adventure. The Buy button will both add the item and subtract the correct amount of gold from the PC's cash. Finally, you can copy the item as another standard item; presumably for further modifications.
If you modify a standard item after having copied it to your adventure or creature, the changes will not be reflected in them – they have the copy of the old item.
To import or export items, see the Importing Other Files and the Exporting Other Files help topics.