What about this:

Instead of monsters dropping weapons/armour/etc, they drop a new ingredient called: "crystals"(just an idea of a name).

This ingredient would have two different varieties:
1) Magical
2) Elemental

"Crystals" would become the basic building block of magical weapons.

The Magical variety would affect the + factor.

Ruin (+1): Would need 2 Magical "crystals"
Might (+3): Would need 5 Magical "crystals"
Force (+5): Would need 10 Magical "crystals"
Power (+7): Would need 20 Magical "crystals"
Vanq (+9): Would need 50 Magical "crystals"

The Elemental variety would affect the elemental ability of the weapon. It could come in say 10 different elemental types. Fire, Lightning, Poison, etc.

So in order to create a lightning weapon you would need say 15 Elemental "crystals" that are of the lightning type.

Smiths wouldn't be able to add the elemental ability afterwards - they would have to craft the whole weapon at once.
So for example, if you wanted to make a Vanq +9 lightning bow. You would need:
a) 50 Magical Crystals (for the +9)
b) Logs (for the bow)
c) 15 Elemental Crystals (for the lightning)

Just a theory

Exactly what I was thinking!

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I think that makes players too dependent to one another. I dont like it. It removes all purpose to item id and stuff.

I like the idea Echo, but then people would be required to make blacksmiths, no?

I like the idea but then the smith should have GM Bowcraft to create the bow as well...and I think weapon drops should still be in though just less frequent or unique armor sets so loot won't be so redundant or replace it with better gold drops...

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Scathach of Skye - Pure Ranger

I love the idea of having crystal drops for smiths.. Maybe if people with bowcraft and no smithing skill can use them for bows?

I will be a happy little clam to see armor drops reduced and one type of special random weapon drop still happen. The elemental factors would be gone, it would just be a plus rated weapon. Something random like a +5 Long sword of Obsidian

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Agreed with Rippa, There needs to be something to award some people right away. Not everyone will want to wait for there loot, some will want it as soon as theres a drop.

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soooo adding on to what echo said how about u have to have a GM smith to add the magical property to the weapon via the crystals... so u would still need smiths to actually make the weapon...
or someone with bowcraft.....

and to make it that much more rare.. the smith would have to have like 50 swords to add a element to a force wep and 70 to add it to a power wep and 90 to 100 to add a element to a +9 sword same goes with maces or bowcrafters with archery...
and adding the +1-3-5-7-9 number to would work the same way but with the blacksmithing skill (50 bs to make force 70 to make power 90-100 to make vanq)
same goes with bows and bow craft....

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king of the run on sentence.

na you don't need swords...A smith does not need to be a swordsman to know how to create swords. They should already know how to create weapons because that's what blacksmiths are known for..Bowcraft for bows and smithing for weapons.

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Scathach of Skye - Pure Ranger

very true.... but its just a suggestion...

even though your not creating a weapon just modifing one with 'crystals'

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king of the run on sentence.

what happens to Item id skill?

that skill had 1 purpose people actually used.. very few people actually trained it .. but maybe instead of BS being the skill needed maybe item ID should be on what i said b4...

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king of the run on sentence.

that I agree with and I think that skill should be arms lore since that involves studying of weapons armors etc...

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Scathach of Skye - Pure Ranger

What echo said I agree with. Just leave the drops on monsters as well and everyone is happy. That way, if you wanna wait to get your +9 vanq lightning bow after a lot of gathering you can do that orrr you can try your luck getting it in one shot off some shadow monster boss lord or whatever. People can still keep their item ID and not have it be useless by doing the same old and ID weapons directly off monsters

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Nightmare [Deamons]: PvM Mage
Xero: GM Blacksmith/Fishing/Bowcraft
Primus: Warrior

I do like a lot of the ideas here; I think it would be a big shame if we lost the drop element to make them craftable though.

I also like Echo's idea of monsters dropping crystals or other items which can be combined to make greater items. However, it's important that we scale the drop with the monster... For instance, if all monsters dropped the same crystals it would eventually be possible to save up enough crystals for a +9 weapon by farming lesser monsters.

My suggestion is to combine all the ideas so far, as follows:

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Monsters, instead of dropping a magical weapon, would actually drop a magical essence. For example, an Essence of Force +5 or an Essence of Power +7.

In addition, monsters can also drop an Elemental Shard. For example, an Elemental Shard of Lightning.

These would all scale with the strength of the monster. For instance, a Wyrm could drop an Essence of Power +9 or an Elemental Shard of Greater Fire.

These items could then be fused with a standard weapon to unlock their power. For instance:

Regular Bow plus Essence of Force +5 plus Elemental Shard of Greater Fire =

Bow of Force of Greater Fire (for example)

That way, players can use these rare drops to make a truly custom weapon to their tastes.

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Where smiths would perhaps come in, is not to craft replacements for magical weapons but to create 'husks' that would improve the capabilities of Essences / Elemental Shards that are used.

For instance:

Rose Weapon
Improves Essence Level +1 (eg makes a Power +7 weapon Vanquishing +9)

Black Rock
Improves Elemental Level +1 (eg makes a Fire weapon essence Greater Fire)

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So, if you used a Blackrock Longsword plus an Essence of Power +9 plus an Elemental Essence of Lightning

you would make

Blackrock Longsword of Vanquishing of Greater Lightning

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Thassius
"Blessed are the noobs, for they shall inherit Obsidian" - Thassius