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Archives of Nethys

Archives of Nethys

Pathfinder RPG (1st Edition) Pathfinder RPG (2nd Edition) Starfinder RPG

Rules Index | GM Screen | Player's Guide
GM Core / Chapter 5: Treasure Trove

Investing Magic Items

Source GM Core pg. 219 2.0
Certain magic items convey their magical benefits only when worn and invested using the Invest an Item activity, tying them to the PC's inner potential. These items have the invested trait. Many invested items have constant abilities that function all the time or that always trigger when someone uses the item—but only when they're invested. If a PC doesn't have an item invested, these abilities won't work. If an invested item can be activated, they must have invested the item to activate it.

A PC can benefit from no more than 10 invested magic items each day. Because this limit is fairly high, and because it matters only for worn items, you probably won't need to worry about reaching the limit until the player characters reach higher levels, when they've acquired many useful magic items to wear.

A PC can still gain the mundane benefits of an item if they don't invest it. A suit of +1 resilient armor still gives its item bonus to AC when not invested, but it doesn't give its magical bonus to saving throws, and winged sandals still protect feet even though they need to be activated to use them to fly. Entirely non-magical items don't need to be invested.