Some notable exceptions to the above:
Books:
This is how players can obtain magical spells, sometimes a player can learn the spell, other times they cannot. The chance depends on the type of spell, either INT (incantations) or WIS (prayers) is used to help determine the percentage chance that the spell might be learned (see section learning a spell for details).
There are many, many different types of books out there, as well as being spell books (grimores and prayerbooks), the following information can appear in books generated in shops and/or monster treasure hoards:
Scrolls and Potions:
Most of these items provide a one-shot use of a spell without making the user expend either mana or grace. Scroll use depends on the user's literacy skill and may fail. Potions always work, but are more expensive to buy. Several kinds of items are classed as "potions": balms, figurines, and dusts. Some potions don't cast spells, but instead raise the drinker's stats. Beware cursed potions. They can lower your stats instead!
Wands(Staves)/Rods/Horns:
These items provide use of spells. Wands have a limited number of charges, while horns and rods will recharge (but don't fire as much damage in a small amount of time). Horns are used at the overall level of ability of the user, while rods and wands cast spells at the item level.
Rings:
Many different types, rings can be worn to add/remove different immunities, gain/lose spell Paths and alter all types of stats.
Food/Flesh:
These items provide sustenance. Food is generally more healthy to eat, while some flesh items can be sold for good cash. Both types may temporarily alter your stats, and/or be poisonous. Many flesh items inherit the properties of the monster they came from. For example, a ``poisonous'' monster will leave behind poisonous flesh. Don't eat it if you know what's good for you!!
Weapons/Armour:
Tons of items, it is up to you as the player to figure out which work better then others. Take a look at weapon/armour weight in the spoiler to get an idea of how enchanted unidentified items are.
Artifacts:
These are the real treasures of the game. There are more than 20 artifacts out there, but they are very hard to come by.
The reasoning is that the bulkiness of objects, not their weight exactly, is what causes failures. So the basic idea of encumbrance is that items get in the way more than they weigh down. Unfortunately, our only measure of 'getting in the way' was the weight.
There's an allowance of encumbrance points which all players get before they start losing incantations, this was about 35-45, not too much.
The formula works like this: You make a roll of 1-200. You compare it to a failure threshold. This threshold is: encumbrance + incantation level - caster level - 35
For example, lets say a 4th level wizard is casting a 5th level incantation . The wizard is wearing plate mail (100 kg), a 20 kg shield and wielding a 15 kg weapon. His encumbrance is 100 + 10 + 45 = 155. Thus, his threshold for failure is 155 + 5 - 4 = 156 or just about 3/4 failure rate.
There is no special bonuses for using magical equipment, although, it is clear that magical armour and weapons make things better through their weight.
You may only add up to 1 + (overall level/10) (rounded down like an integer) in pluses to any one piece of armour. How much armour value you add to the item is also dependent on your overall level. You may never enchant a piece of armour to have an armour rating greater than their overall level or 99.
Prepare weapon
Diamonds are required for the sacrifice. The item can be enchanted the square root of the number of diamonds sacrificed. Thus, if 100 diamonds are sacrificed, the weapon can have 10 other enchant scrolls read.
Improve damage
There is no sacrifice. Each scroll read will increase the damage by 5 points, and the weight by 5 kilograms.
Lower (Improve) Weight
There is no sacrifice. Each scroll read will reduce the weight by 20%. The minimum weight a weapon can have is 1 gram.
Enchant weapon
This does not require any sacrifices, and increases the magic by 1.
Improve Stat (ie, Strength, Dexterity, etc)
The sacrifice is the potion
of the same type
as the ability to be increased (ie, Improve Strength requires strength
potions). The number of potions needed is the sum of all the abilities
the weapon presently gives multiplied by 2. The ability will then be
increased by 1 point. Thus, if a sword is Int +2 and Str +2, then 8
potions would be needed to raise any stat by one point. But if the
sword was Int +2, Str +2, and Wis -2, then only 4 potions. A minimum of
2 potions will be needed.
WARNING: something to keep in mind before you start enchanting like crazy - you can only use a weapon that has 5 + 1 enchantments for every 5 levels of physique experience you possess. So, a character with 10th level in the physique experience category may only be able to use a weapon with a maximum of 7 enchantments!