Weapon Enchantment

Weapon Enchantment refers to weapons enchanted with one of the Five Archmagicks; enchantments can be either permanently imbued on a weapon, or temporarily bestowed using an enchantment spell.

Overview

See also: List of Enchanted Weapons

In Dragon's Dogma, a weapon may be enchanted with one of the Five Archmagicks, either permanently or temporarily using an enchantment spell. Melee weapons with magickal enchantments perform additional magickal damage with each attack, and magick weapons like staffs have their Core Skills imbued with the archmagick element.

An enchanted weapon will also be able to inflict the Archmagick specific Elemental Debilitation; for example, Fire enchantment gives the ability to inflict Burning.

A temporary enchantment increases the magick power of melee, ranged, and staff and archistaff Core Skills (e.g. Magick Bolt), based primarily on the enchanter's magick power. Archmagick based spells are not boosted or altered by temporary enchants.

Permanent weapon enchantments are shown by the archmagick symbol in menus, and temporary enchantments are also indicated on the recipient's health bar by an icon.

Magick spells imbued with a specific element (e.g., Comestion, Levin) are unaffected by weapon enchantment, and do not gain damage boosts from enchantment spells.

Enchantment spells

Casting Ice Affinity, followed by multiple ice enchanted Magick Bolts.

For lists, see Category:Enchantment skills.

Any weapon may be temporarily enchanted with an Archmagick, giving the benefits of an enchanted weapon for a short period of time.

An elemental spell will temporarily overwrite any prior elemental enchantment. Such spells do not stack, and only one element can be present on a weapon at a time.

Mage, Sorcerer, and Mystic Knight all have enchantment spells of varying power and effect; spells are available in variants matching all five Archmagicks.

Boons, Trances and higher level spells

The range of Mystic Knights enchantment spells are a few meters. Here Ser Rickart's weapon is enchanted, but his colleague at the gate is just out of range

Mage and Sorcerer Boon, Affinity and Pact spells enchant an individual target's primary and secondary weapons with an elemental Archmagick.

Mystic Knight has Enchanter, Trance and Invocation spells which are shorter in duration, more powerful, and benefit all allies within range of when the spell is cast.

Both enchanter and boon type spells enchant primary and secondary weapons, excluding Magick Shields which are generally unaffected by either, with some minor exceptions (eg see Demonswrath).

The magick boost from one rank of spell to another (e.g., Boon to Affinity) is generally small.  The increase in power is more noticeable in terms of secondary effects; see § Debilitating Power

Additionally the duration of the spells increases.

Spell	Caster	Cast Time	Duration	Notes
Boon	Mage or Sorcerers	5 sec	40 sec	Enchants all of a single target's equipped weapons; Magick Shields remain unaffected. Low debilitation power
Affinity		8 sec	2 min	More powerful in terms of debilitation, only slightly greater magick boost than a Boon.
Pact		11 sec	3 min	Third tier enchantment, Dark Arisen only. Further increases in debilitating power, with limited or no increases of offensive power.
Enchanter	Mystic Knight	3 sec	30 sec	Enchants all of the party's equipped weapons (aside from Magick Shields). Offensive boost and elemental debilitation power is the same as the corresponding Affinity. Only affects those nearby.
Trance		7 sec	45 sec	Longer lasting version of the Enchanter spells.
Invocation		11 sec	80 sec	Third tier enchantment, Dark Arisen only.

Pawn behavior

Pawns will attempt to enchant themselves and allies when faced with enemies.  The choice of spell depends on Bestiary knowledge and the spells available to them.

• Medicant pawns will enchant the party before battle starts, upon spotting any foe
• Pawns will use poor choices for enchantment if their spell choice is limited, even with good bestiary knowledge.
• Enchantment can be requested using "Help".  Pawns will cast two spells in response, either healing and/or enchantment. To enchant a full party "Help" may need to be requested twice.
• Using the "Come" command can be useful before casting an Enchanter type spell to ensure the party are in range.
• Pawns only enchant the weapons of the Arisen and other hired pawns, not escortees or other allies.

It has been noticed that Pawn behavior is altered depending on the element they receive; for example against Poisoned Undead the element of Fire causes melee Pawns to greatly favor the use of multistrike skills, whereas Holy makes them slightly favor Core Skills; without either enchant they will tend to use Climbing attacks.

Self enchantment

The Boons, Affinities, and Pact spells can be cast on the caster, and the Trance-based spells always enchant the invoker's weapon. Certain Mystic Knight enchantments can only be cast on the caster's own weapon.

To cast Boons, Affinities, and Pacts on the Arisen, whilst casting the spell press :

• , ,  : [L3]
• , ,  : [LS]
• ,  : [Left Shift]

Staff and Archistaff Elemental Enchantments

Main articles: Magick Bolt and Focused Bolt.

Staffs enchanted with a spell produce Magick Bolts and Focused Bolts different from those generated from a permanently enchanted staff.

Permanently enchanted magick staffs have Magick and Focused Bolts similar in behavior to those from an unenchanted staff, save the elemental effect, and of course the appearance.

• Spell Holy enchantment greatly increases the effectiveness of magick and focused magick bolts
• Spell Dark enchantment generally greatly decreases the effectiveness of magick bolts due to the reduced speed of motion of the bolts.
• Magick Agent is unchanged.

Damage

See also: Damage Calculation

Enchanted melee weapons do both physical and magickal damage. Each quantity is separate, and weapon enchantment, whether innate or temporary, does not affect the physical damage performed in any way.

It is thought that a melee weapon wielder's character magick has no effect on the damage done by a magickally enchanted physical weapon. This does not apply for magick weapons (staff and magick bows). Conversely, a few Mystic Knight shield spells incorporate character strength into the damage done from the initial magickal perfect block.

In general if a skill can be Silenced it will incorporate the user's magick, otherwise it will not.

Augments such as Acuity and Attunement boost damage from both permanently and temporarily enchanted weapons.

Spell Enchantments

Maximum spell power
Spell	Magick increase
Boon	336
Affinity	361
Pact	388
Enchanter	361
Trance	517
Invocation	672

The boost from an enchantment generally increases damage. The only exception is when a permanently enchanted weapon is overwritten with a much worse choice of element, such as giving a holy weapon a dark enchant when fighting undead.

The lowest level spells (such as Holy Boon) give a large initial increase in spell power. The higher tier spells (i.e., Holy Affinity or Holy Pact) only slightly further increase power.

It is thought that the innate magick power and level of the enchantment caster increases the power of the enchantment up to a certain level; however, once the caster has 300 character Magick, and has reached Character Level 50, there are no further increases in power.

• Magick boosts are limited to two fifths if the weapon has a permanent elemental enchant.
  • Boosts to magick weapons such as staffs are also limited in the same way.
• All other things being equal, it makes no difference to damage whether an enchantment is self-cast, or cast by an ally.
• Whilst the spell enchantment is active, a permanently enchanted weapon's initial element has no effect.
• Like boosts from worn equipment, in terms of Damage Calculation the magick boost is added to weapon magick, not character magick

Debilitating Power

For full details, see Elemental Debilitation.

All enchanted weapons can debilitate with the effect corresponding to their respective element

• Debilitating power increases with the spell at each casting tier.
• Upgrading permanently-enchanted weapons do not increase debilitation frequency, unlike aneled, rusted, or golden weapons.
• Debilitating power of permanently-enchanted weapons over enchanted with a spell does not stack, and may even be reduced when using a weak spell.

Extending and enhancing enchantments

• The augment Perpetuation extends the duration of temporary enchantments by approximately 30% when this augment is equipped by the caster.
  • Exceptions include some Mystic Knight shield spells, Dark Anguish, Abyssal Anguish
• Dark Arisen armor with the Bonus Enhancement of "Extends duration of attribute boosts applied to you." extends the duration of all applied elemental enchantments.
  • Stacks with the augment Perpetuation. For example, a Pact cast by a spellcaster with Perpetuation on an ally with this bonus enhancement lasts for nearly six minutes.
• Mystic Knight's shield spells are empowered by the bonus enhancement "Boosts the power of normal and magick shields." found on arm armor. Spell power is roughly doubled.

Magick Shield enchantments

Some Mystic Knight spells enchant via the Magick Shield adding an additional effect on blocking or perfect blocking, or other effects.

Spell Class	Duration	Notes
Anguishes	45/90 sec	Dark Anguish attaches a Dark magick spell enchantment to the Arisen's primary weapon; the higher level spell Abyssal Anguish adds shockwaves and lasts longer. These spells do not overwrite a weapon's enchantment and take their power from the Magick Shield's innate qualities.  The damage from this spell is calculated separately from the physical and magickal properties of the weapon it is attached to.
Counters	1 min	Main article: Mystic Knight Shield Counters. Counters enchant the Mystic Knight's magick shield with one of the five elements, allowing magickal damage to be summoned by blocking or Perfect Blocking. Ripostes are advanced versions that last longer and generate more powerful return spells. Feints (Dark Arisen only) further increase power and duration.
Ripostes	2 min
Feints	3 min
Holy Wall / Holy Fortress	1/2 min	Enchants the Arisen's magick shield with Holy magick, greatly improving blocking, but does not add any other holy elemental effects.
Holy Aid / Holy Grace	1/1.5 min	Enchants the shield with Holy archmagic, allowing health regeneration on blocking. Holy Grace can heal past 'white damage' with a Perfect Block

Pawn Chatter

On granting various elemental boons:

• Fire
  • "I grant you Fire's Blaze!"
  • "Take my fire!"
• Ice
  • "I grant you Ice's Bite!"
• Lightning
  • "I grant you Lightning's Fangs!"
  • "Take my lightning!"
  • "The Boon of lightning...!"
• Holy
  • "I grant you Sacred Radiance!"
  • "I'll imbue your weapon with Holy light!"
• Dark
  • "I grant you Shadow's Cloak!"

Notes

A Mystic Knight lightning trance spell only enchants the mace and not the shield

• Weapon enchantments are particularly effective on low level characters.
• Unlike Fighter shields with permanent enchantment (e.g., Scorched Pelta), the Mystic Knight shields with permanent enchantments (such as the Thunder Kite Shield) do not generally transfer that element to attacks or spells.
  • Exceptions include the casting shockwave and perfect blocks from Demonswrath.
• When Magick Boosting Equipment is worn with an unenchanted weapon it still adds a magick component to a melee attack. Unarmed Combat also receives some magick power too. This effect is usually insignificant.
• Enchantment does not affect Unarmed Combat, and pawns will not attempt to enchant an unarmed ally.
  • Nevertheless, an unarmed ally can be given an enchantment; if they are subsequently equipped with a weapon, the newly equipped weapon will bear that enchantment.
  • The Sorcerer spell Magick Billow, is an unarmed skill and is not affected by weapon enchantment.
  • Also not affected are a Strider's kick, or the follow up a sword wielder's Takedown.

During Griffin's Bane the soldiers can have their weapons enchanted, but the Arisen's, pawns', and other allies' weapons do not enchant at the same time.

• Pawns, the Arisen, escorts and other potential allies in the outside world, generally Soldiers, can all have their weapons enchanted by the Arisen.
  • Soldiers within Gran Soren, Cassardis and the Encampment cannot have their weapons enchanted, nor can Rest Camp captains, though rest camp guards can receive enchantments.
  • Wandering Pawns can have their weapons enchanted by Mystic Knight's enchantments.
  • During the quest Off With Its Head, Mercedes, Ser Georg and Ser Cyrus' weapons can be enchanted.
  • During the quest Griffin's Bane the soldiers may have their weapons enchanted - however when using Mystic Knight spells though all can receive the boon, the Arisen, pawns, and escortees do not receive them at the same time.
• If a weaker enchantment is cast over a stronger one (or the other way round), the newer enchant will 'overwrite' the older, whether or not it is a weaker or stronger spell.
• Generally only one element can be used at a time.
  • The spell Abyssal Anguish appears similar to a weapon enchantment, but is a separate spell, and can co-exist with underlying enchantments. By use of these spells with an enchanted weapon the Mystic Knight can use two of the Five Archmagicks at once with a single attack.
  • Mage can also occasionally strike with two elements at once.  The spell High Grapnel uses dark magick and can cause Dark Critical Hits, but if cast with a staff with a different element the critical will take on that element instead.
• (BUG) Transitioning between areas whilst the equipped weapon is enchanted seems to disable the ability to debilitate adversaries with the Five Archmagicks, though the icons for enchantment are still present. Similarly reloading from a save in which the Arisen had a weapon temporarily enchanted will restore the visual effect of the enchantment on the weapon, but the damage and debilitation of the enchantment is lost.

See also

• List of Enchanted Weapons