Inherent modifier

An inherent modifier is an item upgrade that cannot be changed or salvaged; they are part of the weapon itself. The term is used strictly to indicate a built-in inscription, but can also be used loosely to describe invariable modifiers (e.g. the prefix on a Fiery Gladius) or universal bonuses (e.g. the +10 energy available to any staff with maximum stats).

Weapons in Nightfall and later have removable modifiers rather than inherent ones: inscriptions, focus cores, shield handles, and wand wrappings. The following table illustrates the difference in how modifier slots are distributed in each campaign.

Item source/type	Inherent	Inscription	Suffix
Prophecies / Factions weapon	1	0	1
Prophecies / Factions off-hand	2	0	0
Nightfall / Eye of the North weapon	0	1	1
Nightfall / Eye of the North off-hand	0	1	1

An important functional difference between inherent modifiers and inscription is that inscriptions providing armor are calculated as part of the core armor in the armor calculation, while inherent modifiers are calculated as part of the bonus armor, which is capped.

• For instance, ward against elements (+24 vs elemental damage) with an off-hand with the inscription "Leaf on the Wind" (+10 armor vs cold damage) will provide +34 vs cold damage, however the same ward with an off-hand providing armor +10 vs cold damage inherently will only offer +25 armor vs cold damage (since both the +24 and +10 are counted as bonus armor and bonus armor is capped at 25). See Armor calculation for details.

Exclusively inherent modifiers

See also: Category:Unreplicable non-unique items

• A handful of inherent modifiers do not appear on drops; they are found only on specific promotional weapons, quest rewards, unique items, or items from collectors.
• Other inherent mods from Prophecies and Factions do not have an equivalent removable mod (in Nightfall or Eye of the North):
  • Armor +5...10 vs. an affiliation or creature type (as with of slaying upgrades). Although EotN's Jonathan Blunt has a limited selection of off-hand items with inherent Armor +10 (vs. Charr). In Nightfall, the Aegis of Aaaaarrrrrrggghhh, Aegis of Terror, Stygian Aegis, and Stygian Defender shields have an inherent Armor +10 (vs. Demons).
  • Halves casting time of an unlinked attribute's spells (Chance: 10...20%).
  • Halves skill recharge of an unlinked attribute's spells (Chance: 10...20%).
  • Inherent staff inscriptions with HSR (Chance: 10...20%)
  • Inherent staff inscriptions that reduce duration for a specific condition by 20%
  • Vampiric strength
  • Zealous strength

Notes

	Wooden Buckler Armor: 16 (Requires 13 Tactics) Health +43 (while Enchanted) Illusion Magic +1 (19% chance while using skills) Value: 224 gold

A shield with a chance to boost Illusion Magic.

• Weapons using inherent modifiers are often referred to as old school.
• Inherent modifiers with attribute-specific bonuses can be found in items with a non-matching attribute, e.g. shields with a chance to boost rank in a spellcaster attribute.

Anomaly.An extremely small number of weapons in circulation carry an inherent mod and an inscription slot. Currently, all known exploits or game bugs that produced them have been resolved.

See also

• List of weapon upgrades
• Weapon upgrade

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