@dwarf Well that was depressing, i had hoped over time maybe 5e would have had enough power creep to become interesting. Similar to 3.0E in the day, after a few years some of their later products started producing some interesting ideas.

With that said, the 3.5E metamagic rods i never really found interesting or thematically liked. Just seemed lame, and Kargin did investigate what he called meta crystals that you could embed in wands, rods, and staffs. However shortly after that @dwarf brought up the concepts of lens’s and amp’s … and we just ran with that. Kargin also flirted with psicrystals, i do believe he has some prototypes specific for melee types, and some specific for caster types. There was a lot of interest but it typically fades fairly quickly because in order for them to work they need to be implanted into their spine or at the base of their skulls to hide the crystal, while others implant the crystal shard in their forehead, forming a mythical “third eye.” Some warriors tend to have them implanted into the hand or chest, often sporting custom-made armor to show off the crystal to their enemies. To implant and integrate the crystals into the various systems of the body (i.e. nervous, immune, etc…) requires the skills of an alchemist… and that is where Kargin loses them.

Back to the drawing board.