Item Properties

Item Properties are the magical and mechanical descriptors that define what an item does beyond its base form. A "Katana" is a weapon; a "Vanquishing Katana of Defense" is a Katana with two item properties added on. Properties drop on items found as loot, are crafted onto items via Runic Tools, or are deliberately bound onto items via the Imbuing skill. Together they form the language of equipment in Britannia: every weapon, suit, jewelry piece, and shield in the realm is described by the properties it carries.

Most properties were defined or expanded during the Age of Shadows expansion (2003), which restructured the magic-item system into the modern intensity-based format. Subsequent expansions — Stygian Abyss, High Seas, Time of Legends — added new properties; named event items such as the Epiphany Armor Set introduced still more.

How Properties Work

Each property has three governing attributes:

• Intensity Range — the allowable values on standard equipment. Damage Increase ranges 1–50, Hit Lower Defense ranges 2–50, Lower Mana Cost ranges 1–8 (capped at 8 because the cap on a worn suit is 40% across five slots — the per-piece cap is 8). Artifacts and special event items may exceed these ranges.
• Type — when the property activates:
• Hit — triggers on a successful melee or ranged attack against a creature or player.
• Permanent — affects the item itself regardless of equipped state (Durability, Strength Requirement, Self Repair).
• Persistent — active whenever the item is equipped.
• Found On — which equipment slots can carry the property. The five slot families used here are Armor (helms, gorgets, tunics, sleeves, leggings, gloves), Jewelry (rings and bracelets), Shields, Spellbooks, and Weapons (melee, ranged, throwing).

Many properties carry across multiple slot types — Cold Resist appears on Armor, Jewelry, Shields, and Weapons, but not Spellbooks. A few are tightly slot-bound: Damage Increase only on Jewelry and Weapons; Mage Armor only on Armor; Self Repair only on Armor, Shields, and Weapons.

The Properties

The table below lists every standard item property with its intensity range, activation type, and the slots it can appear on. A = Armor, J = Jewelry, S = Shield, B = Spellbook, W = Weapon.

Resists and Defense

Combat

Casting

Stat Bonuses

Regeneration

Hit Effects (Weapon-only)

Hit Spells (Weapon-only)

Hit Areas (Weapon-only)

Each tick of a Hit Area effect strikes every valid target within a small radius of the wielder's victim with a burst of the named damage type.

Slayers and Slayer Books

The Slayer property attaches a damage multiplier against a specified family of creatures. It appears on weapons (where it doubles damage against the named family) and on Spellbooks (where it likewise multiplies spell damage).

The full slayer taxonomy includes seven Super Slayers (Undead, Reptile, Repond, Elemental, Demon, Arachnid, Fey) plus a wider catalogue of single-creature slayers (Dragon, Orc, Troll, Spider, Ogre, Lizardman, Daemon, Lich, Ophidian, etc.). Super Slayers are roughly 2× damage against the family; standard Slayers are 3× against their single creature type but only 2× against the broader family.

Item Maintenance and Requirements

Utility

Property Caps

The capped maximum value across an entire equipped suit is one of the most-discussed numbers in any build planner. The most relevant suit-cap totals are:

The 100% LRC and 40% LMC caps are the primary mage-suit goals; the 4 FC / 6 FCR combination eliminates most casting friction; the 45/45 HCI/DCI standard defines a competitive PvP suit.

How Properties Land on Items

Three pathways place properties on equipment:

• Loot drops — random properties roll on items dropped by creatures, with intensity scaled to the creature's difficulty. Higher-tier monsters and dungeon depths produce stronger random properties.
• Runic Tool crafting — Runic Hammers (Blacksmithy), Runic Sewing Kits (Tailoring), and Runic Saws (Carpentry) impart random magic properties on craft. Tool tier (Spined / Horned / Barbed for Tailoring; Dull Copper through Valorite for Blacksmithy) governs the strength and quantity of properties.
• Imbuing — the deliberate alternative. An artificer chooses each property and intensity, subject to the 5-property and 500-weight caps. The Codex covers Imbuing in detail in its own folio.

Damage Types

A weapon's damage is classified into one or more of five Damage Types: Physical, Fire, Cold, Poison, Energy. Resists subtract the corresponding damage type. Most weapons deal 100% Physical damage by default; specialty weapons (Daemon Bone, Dragon's Tooth, etc.) and certain elven weapons split damage across multiple types.

Hit Spells on weapons (Hit Lightning, Hit Fireball, Hit Harm, etc.) deal damage of the named element regardless of the weapon's base damage type.

Enhanced and Reforged Items

The Enhance Item action — available through Carpentry, Blacksmithy, and Tailoring — applies a specialty material (an exotic wood, ingot, or hide) to a finished item, boosting one or more of its properties at the risk of destruction. Reforging, a separate system, allows a runic tool to be invested into rerolling an existing item's properties at higher intensity, with sliders that bias the outcome toward chosen property categories.

Related

• Imbuing — the artificer's discipline of deliberate property placement.
• Runic Tools — the random-property crafting alternative.
• Damage Types — the five-element damage model.
• Mage Armor, Spell Channeling, Mage Weapon — three of the most-discussed special properties; each has its own folio.
• Imbuing Calculator — the Codex's tool for property-suit planning.

History

The modern Item Property system replaced the earlier "magic items" model with the Age of Shadows expansion in 2003. Stygian Abyss (2009) added Imbuing, the Casting Focus property, and the gargish item pool. High Seas (2010) added many ranged-weapon properties and the Velocity attribute. Time of Legends and subsequent additions expanded slayer types, the per-skill slayer book lineup, and the more exotic hit effects (Hit Curse, Hit Fatigue, Hit Mana Drain).

Authoritative Property Reference

The following reference distills the official property catalogue maintained by Broadsword. Each entry lists the property's intensity range, Imbue Weight (the cost a property contributes against the 500-point Imbuing cap), the slots and sources it appears on, the cumulative cap a worn suit can reach, and a brief functional description. The source markers indicate where the property can originate:

• (I) — Imbuing
• (R) — Runic Reforging
• (L) — Random Loot
• N/A — property exists but cannot be imbued

Defensive Properties

• Casting Focus — 1 – 3 (R)(L), no imbue, Armor, cap 12%. A chance to resist interruptions while casting spells.
• Damage Eater — 3 – 15 (R)(L), no imbue, Shields and Armor, cap 30 (18 for "all" type). Converts a portion of incoming damage of the matching type back to health. Kinetic Eater accepts all weapon damage regardless of type. Stores up to 20 healing charges, converting every three seconds.
• Defense Chance Increase — 1 – 15 (I) / 1 – 20 (R)(L), imbue weight 1.1, Melee Weapons, Shields, Jewelry, cap 45. Increases dodge chance multiplicatively over base. Ranged Weapons can roll 1 – 25 (I) / 1 – 35 (R)(L); Armor up to 1 – 5 (R)(L).
• Mage Armor — N/A, no imbue, Armor only. Negates the meditation block on heavy armor; also allows Stealth without penalty. Since Publish 81 it can be added or removed by an NPC Mage Guildmaster for 250,000 gp (not available on blessed or already-4-property artifact items).
• Reflect Physical Damage — 1 – 15 (I) / 1 – 20 (R)(L), imbue weight 1.0, Armor, Shields, Ranged & two-handed Weapons, cap 250. Reflects a percentage of kinetic physical damage back at the attacker.
• Resists (Physical / Fire / Cold / Poison / Energy) — 1 – 15 (I) / 1 – 20 (R)(L), imbue weight 1.0, Weapons, Jewelry, Shields; Armor up to 1 – 15 (I) / 1 – 30 (R)(L); suit cap 70 (elven Energy cap 75). Base armor resists, runic bonus, and exceptional bonus stack atop the imbue cap.
• Resonance — 1 – 20 (L), no imbue, Shields and Weapons. Chance to resist spell-casting interruption when the incoming damage matches the resonance element.
• Self Repair — 1 – 7 (R), no imbue, Armor, Shields, Weapons. Restores durability points on hit equal to the value.
• Soul Charge — 5 – 30 (R)(L), no imbue, Shields, cap 50. A chance to convert a percentage of incoming damage to mana.

Offensive Properties

• Balanced — N/A, imbue weight 1.5, two-handed Weapons (I) and Bows (R)(L). Allows the wielder to drink potions while wielding a two-handed weapon, at the cost of parry/evade.
• Bane — N/A, no imbue, Weapons (L). Triggers only when the target's health is below 50%; chance and damage scale as the target's health falls. Inflicts 30% of the target's max HP as physical damage.
• Battle Lust — N/A, no imbue, Weapons (R)(L), cap 45% in PvP / 90% in PvM. Significant incoming damage builds Lust, which boosts outgoing damage against all aggressed enemies. +15% per opponent. Gains every 2 seconds, decays one point every 6 seconds.
• Berserk — N/A, no imbue, Bestial Suit only. Triggers when health drops below 50%: damage taken is reduced, but healing effects are greatly reduced for the duration and 8 seconds after. 60-second cooldown.
• Blood Drinker — N/A, no imbue, Weapons (L). The wielder gains life equal to the damage inflicted by a bleed attack.
• Bone Breaker — N/A, no imbue, Weapons (L). 20% chance to inflict a 4-second stamina drain that blocks refreshment potions. With ≥30 mana, victims also take additional physical damage (the bonus consumes 30 mana, LMC-modified). 60-second per-target immunity after activation.
• Damage Increase — 1 – 50 (I) / 1 – 70 (R)(L), imbue weight 1.0, Weapons, cap 100. Increases base damage dealt. Jewelry rolls 1 – 25 (I) / 1 – 35 (L); Shields 5 – 35 (R)(L). Can be removed from exceptional-crafted items with a Whetstone of Enervation.
• Focus (weapon property) — N/A, no imbue, Weapons (L). Starts each new target at −50% damage modifier; each successive hit on the same target shifts the modifier toward +20%. Changing target resets to −50%.
• Hit Area Damage — 2 – 50 (I) / 2 – 70 (R)(L), imbue weight 1.0, Melee Weapons + Ranged (I only). Splash damage of the named element to all legal targets within a 5-tile radius of the primary target, equal to half the primary damage.
• Hit Chance Increase — 1 – 15 (I) / 1 – 20 (R)(L), imbue weight 1.3, Melee Weapons and Jewelry, cap 45. Multiplicative increase over base hit chance. Ranged 1 – 25 (I) / 1 – 35 (R)(L); Armor and Shields up to 1 – 5 (R)(L).
• Hit Curse — 2 – 50 (L), no imbue, Weapons. Functions like the Magery curse spell with a 30-second cooldown; does not lower the target's max resists.
• Hit Dispel — 2 – 50 (I) / 2 – 70 (R)(L), imbue weight 1.0, Weapons. Tactics-skill-scaled chance to cast Dispel on any summoned creature struck.
• Hit Fatigue — 2 – 70 (R)(L), no imbue, Weapons. Reduces target stamina by a percentage of damage dealt.
• Hit Fireball / Hit Lightning / Hit Harm / Hit Magic Arrow — 2 – 50 (I) / 2 – 70 (R)(L), imbue weights 1.4 / 1.4 / 1.1 / 1.2 respectively, Melee Weapons and Ranged (I). Chance to cast the named Magery spell on the target. The intensity is reshaped by weapon speed — see Leech Properties below; same modifier applies.
• Hit Life Leech / Hit Mana Leech / Hit Stamina Leech — 2 – 93 (I) / 2 – 100 (R)(L), imbue weight 1.1 / 1.1 / 1.0, Weapons. Each successful hit converts a percentage of damage dealt into the named pool for the wielder. The advertised cap is modified down by weapon speed (see footnote).
• Hit Lower Attack — 2 – 50 (I) / 2 – 70 (R)(L), imbue weight 1.1, Weapons. Chance to debuff target's HCI by 25 for 5 – 10 seconds. Multiple HLA sources stack multiplicatively (50% × 30% = 65% combined, not 80%).
• Hit Lower Defense — 2 – 50 (I) / 2 – 70 (R)(L), imbue weight 1.3, Weapons. Chance to debuff target's DCI by 25 for 5 – 10 seconds. In PvP, reduces 35% of the target's maximum DCI. Stacks multiplicatively like Hit Lower Attack.
• Hit Mana Drain — 2 – 70 (R)(L), no imbue, Weapons. Reduces target mana by a percentage of damage dealt.
• Mage Weapon — −29 to −20 (I) / −29 to −15 (R)(L), imbue weight 1.0, Weapons. Allows Magery skill to substitute for the weapon's normal combat skill. Reduces Magery while equipped; special moves cannot be triggered through the substitution.
• Resist (offensive — provides resistance to incoming type) — see Defensive Properties.
• Searing — 1 – 7 (L), no imbue, Weapons. Context-toggled. 20% chance (10% on ranged) of bonus fire damage and 4 self-damage; applies −20 HP regen to player victims, −60 to monsters/NPCs for 4 seconds. 1 mana per swing.
• Slayer — N/A, imbue weights 1.1 (specific) / 1.3 (super), Weapons, Spellbooks, Instruments, Talismans. Multiplies damage against creatures of the named group. Instruments with Slayer increase bard-skill success against those creatures. (See Slayer property item lists.)
• Sparks — N/A, no imbue, Weapons (L). Chance for energy damage-over-time on hit. Will not activate with special moves, Lightning Strike, Death Strike, or Onslaught. Post-resist damage is returned to the attacker as mana. Effect is doubled on monsters.
• Spell Channeling — N/A, imbue weight 1.0, Weapons and Shields. Increases the damage of most spells cast while equipped. PvP cap is 20% (25% for focused templates — see Spell Damage Increase below).
• Splintering Weapon — 5 – 30 (L), no imbue, Weapons. Triggers a forced-walk bleed effect. Substantially damages weapon durability per trigger. Player victims gain a 15-second immunity after a successful trigger. Does not proc with Disarm, Infectious Strike, or Injected Strike.
• Swarm — N/A, no imbue, Weapons (L). Activates an insect swarm DoT on the target until they take fire damage or equip a torch. Does not activate with special moves.
• Swing Speed Increase — 5 – 30 (I) / 5 – 40 (R)(L), imbue weight 1.1, Weapons, cap 60. Increases base swing rate; speed is capped at 1.25 seconds per swing. Modifies the cap on leech properties (see footnote). Jewelry 5 – 10 (L); Shields 5 – 10 (R)(L).
• Toxic Weapon — N/A, no imbue, Weapons (L). Context-toggled. Adds poison damage and an HP-regen debuff.
• Use Best Weapon Skill — N/A, imbue weight 1.4, melee Weapons. Substitutes the character's highest combat skill for the weapon's required skill.
• Velocity — 2 – 50, imbue weight 1.3 (bows only), Ranged Weapons. Adds physical damage scaled to distance (3 per tile up to a max of 30) when triggered.

Pool, Stat, and Caster Properties

• Dexterity Bonus / Strength Bonus / Intelligence Bonus — 1 – 8 (I) / 1 – 10 (L), imbue weight 1.1, Jewelry, cap 150. Adds points to the named stat. Spellbooks can carry 1 – 6 INT; Armor, Weapons, Shields can carry 1 – 5 (R)(L) of any stat.
• Enhance Potions — 5 – 25 (I) / 5 – 35 (L), imbue weight 1.0, Jewelry, cap 50. Boosts most potion effects (excludes Poison and Nightsight). Armor 1 – 3 (R)(L); one-handed Weapons 5 – 15 (R)(L).
• Faster Cast Recovery (FCR) — 1 – 3 (I) / 1 – 4 (R)(L), imbue weight 1.2, Jewelry, cap 6. Shortens cast-to-cast wait time. Spellbooks 1 – 2.
• Faster Casting (FC) — 1, imbue weight 1.4, Weapons, Shields, Jewelry, Spellbooks, Wands, cap 2 (4 for Chivalry below 70 Magery, or Spellweaving). Each point shaves 0.25 s from cast time.
• Hit Point Increase (HPI) — 1 – 5 (I) / 1 – 7 (R)(L), imbue weight 1.1, Armor, Weapons (R)(L), Shields (R)(L), cap 25. Adds to max HP.
• Hit Point Regeneration (HPR) — 1 – 2 (I) / 1 – 4 (R)(L), imbue weight 1.0, Armor, Shields (R)(L), cap 18. +0.1 HP/sec per point. Weapons 1 – 9 (R)(L).
• Lower Mana Cost (LMC) — 1 – 8 (I) / 1 – 10 (R)(L), imbue weight 1.1, Armor, Jewelry, cap 40. Reduces spell and special-move mana cost. Spellbooks 1 – 6; Shields/Weapons 1 – 5.
• Lower Reagent Cost (LRC) — 1 – 20 (I) / 1 – 25 (R)(L), imbue weight 1.0, Armor, Jewelry, cap 100. 100% LRC removes all reagent consumption (tithing points still required for Chivalry). Spellbooks 1 – 16.
• Lower Requirements (LR) — 10 – 100, imbue weight 1.0, Weapons, Armor, Shields (I). 100% LR eliminates the item's stat requirement entirely.
• Luck — 1 – 100 (I) / 1 – 150 (R)(L), imbue weight 1.0, Weapons, Armor, Shields, Jewelry. Increases the count, property quantity, and intensity of monster loot. Ranged caps slightly higher (120 / 170).
• Mana Increase (MI) — 1 – 8 (I) / 1 – 10 (R)(L), imbue weight 1.1, Armor. Adds to max mana. Spellbooks 1 – 6; Weapons/Shields 1 – 5 (R)(L); Jewelry 1 – 5 (L).
• Mana Regeneration (MR) — 1 – 2 (I) / 1 – 4 (R)(L), imbue weight 1.0, Armor, Shields (R)(L). Increases mana regen rate, subject to diminishing returns. Spellbooks max 1; Weapons 1 – 9 (R)(L); Jewelry 1 – 4 (L).
• Mana Phase — N/A, no imbue, Talismans (L). The next two mana checks are free.
• Night Sight — N/A, imbue weight 1.0, Armor and Jewelry. Negates dark nights.
• Skill Bonus — 1 – 15 (I) / 1 – 20 (L), imbue weight 1.4, Jewelry. Adds skill points up to the character's skill cap. Exists for all skills affected by champ-spawn powerscrolls except Spellweaving. Spellbooks 1 – 12.
• Spell Damage Increase (SDI) — 1 – 12 (I) / 1 – 18 (L), imbue weight 1.0, Jewelry, PvP cap 20% (25% for focused templates), PvM cap 250%. A focused template has no more than 30 modified skill points in a second primary or in the associated secondary skill. Most commonly carried on accessories and spellbooks. Spellbooks 1 – 9 (crafted).
• Spell Focusing — N/A, no imbue, Sash. Context-toggled. The first spell at −30% damage; each subsequent spell on the same target scales the modifier up (PvP capped at +20%, PvM at +30%). Switching targets resets to −30%. Excludes field spells, poison, and summons.
• Stamina Increase (SI) — 1 – 8 (I) / 1 – 10 (R)(L), imbue weight 1.0, Armor. Adds to max stamina. Shields, Weapons, Jewelry up to 1 – 5.
• Stamina Regeneration (SR) — 1 – 3 (I) / 1 – 4 (R)(L), imbue weight 1.0, Armor, Shields (R)(L), cap 24. +0.1 stam/sec per point. Weapons 1 – 9 (R)(L).

Quivers, Talismans, and Specialized Items

• Craft Bonus — 1 – 30 (L), no imbue, Talismans. Percentage chance to succeed on any craft the wearer has the required skill for. Does not add skill points.
• Craft Exceptional Bonus — 1 – 30 (L), no imbue, Talismans. Chance to upgrade a craft to Exceptional.
• Curse Removal — N/A, no imbue, Talismans (L). Removes a curse, on cooldown; may have a finite charge count.
• Damage Modifier (Quiver) — N/A, imbue weight 1.0, Quivers (L). Increases the final damage of bow attacks using the quiver.
• Lower Ammo Cost — 20 – 30 (L), no imbue, Quivers, cap 30. Reduces arrow/bolt consumption (also 15% on the runed driftwood bow).
• Random Killer / Random Protection — 1 – 100 / 1 – 60, no imbue, Talismans (L). Increased damage to / reduced damage from a named random creature.
• Random Summoner — N/A, no imbue, Talismans (L). Summons a random creature.
• Replenish Charges — N/A, no imbue, Instruments (L). Recharges instrument uses at 1 per 5 in-game minutes. Currently only the Flute of Renewal and Dreadhorn's Flute.
• Ward Removal — N/A, no imbue, Talismans (L). Removes protective spells in effect on a target.
• Weight Reduction (Quiver) — 30 – 50 (L), no imbue, Quivers. Reduces ammunition weight by the named percentage.
• Wildfire Removal — N/A, no imbue, Talismans (L). Believed to quench Wildfire.

Negative or Restrictive Properties

These reduce an item's usefulness and appear primarily on random loot. None can be imbued.

• Antique — Armor, Jewelry, Weapons, Shields. Increased durability loss; can be powdered three times (jewelry: not at all). Each powder reduces max durability to 250, 200, 150. Can be repaired.
• Assassin Honed — Weapons (Dungeon Wrong treasure room). A successful hit while facing the same direction as the target adds bonus damage scaled to the weapon's base swing speed (SSI ignored). Ranged weapons have a 50% activation chance.
• Brittle — Armor, Weapons, Shields. Cannot accept Powder of Fortification. Can be repaired.
• Cursed — Armor, Jewelry, Weapons, Shields. Cannot be insured or blessed.
• Last Parry Chance — Shields, Weapons. Display-only: shows the last parry-chance percentage on the item.
• Massive — Armor, Weapons, Shields. Sets strength requirement to 125; the word "massive" never appears in the description. Cannot be overridden by Lower Requirements.
• Prized — Armor, Jewelry, Weapons, Shields. Item insurance cost increased; cannot be blessed.
• Reactive Paralyze — Shields, two-handed Weapons (R)(L). Chance to paralyze an attacker on parry.
• Unwieldy — Armor, Weapons, Shields. Sets item weight to 50 stones; the word "unwieldy" never appears in the description.

Specialty Properties

• Berserk — appears only on the Bestial Suit (see Defensive Properties).
• Chaos Damage — 10 – 100, no imbue, Weapons (R)(L), Quivers (L). Each hit deals a random one of the five elemental types.

Mechanics Notes

These mechanical footnotes apply globally to several of the properties above. They are not always intuitive from the table:

Leech-property scaling

The advertised intensity range for Hit Life / Hit Mana / Hit Stamina Leech is 2 – 50%. The effective cap on a worn weapon is modified by the weapon's final swing speed (after factoring in SSI). For the fastest weapons under SSI, the maximum item-property intensity (50%) is reshaped to 37%. For the slowest weapons, the modified cap of 100% can be reached well before the item rolls to 50%. The intensity displayed on the item is what is used for imbue-cost calculations; the on-hit math uses the speed-modified value.

The same speed-modification applies to the on-hit-spell properties (Hit Fireball, Hit Lightning, Hit Harm, Hit Magic Arrow).

On-hit spell damage

The Evaluate Intelligence value used when calculating on-hit-spell damage is 80 (regardless of the wielder's actual skill). The base damage is the spell's circle — so on-hit Magic Arrow has a base of 1 – 4 + 10. These on-hit casts are also subject to Spell Damage Increase modifiers.

Resists on loot items

The native armor type provides a baseline resist profile; the "imbue cap" for any single resist is base + 15. When looted armor rolls a resist above its imbue cap, that resist is counted as one of the item's five property slots — even though it looks like a base-armor stat.

Imbuing intensity vs. roll cap

Properties marked with an Imbue Weight column above are imbueable up to the (I) range. Properties marked No under imbue weight are loot-only or runic-only — they can appear on items but cannot be added with the Imbuing skill. The 500-point Imbuing total budget is calculated by multiplying each property's percent-of-maximum-intensity by its Imbue Weight; that explains why high-weight properties like Skill Bonus (1.4), Spell Channeling (1.0), and Mage Weapon (1.0) can monopolize a suit's available budget.