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The file TXT.BSA found in the GAMEDATA directory contains a ton of useful information. This page contains any useful information or formats gleaned from it. Feel free to contribute any new information or correct any errors found.

Magical Items List - 1 May 1998

Description of the magical item list found at the very beginning of the file.

Magical Items List - 1 May 1998

The start of the TXT.BSA file starts of with a long list of close to 300 magical items along with the spells and effects of each. The general format of each item is as follows:

		Name[0x09](string)[0x0D][0x0A]
		ID#[0x09](#)[0x0D][0x0A]
		Item[0x09](#)[0x0D][0x0A]
		Spell[0x09](#),(#),(#),(#),(#)[0x0D][0x0A]
		App[0x09](#),(#),...,(100)[0x0D][0x0A]
		Adv[0x09](#),....(100)[0x0D][0x0A]
		Uses[0x09](#)[0x0D][0x0A]
		Level[0x09](#)[0x0D][0x0A]
		[0x0D][0x0A](junk characters...ignore)[0x0D][0x0A]

Name Field
Well, this obvious contains the name of the item. There doesn't appear to be the same notation as in Daggerfall with the '%it' string (for those familiar with it) but the string contained is merely attached to the end of item name. So typical item names are 'of the Something', 'of Something Else'. There are a few items with complete names such as 'Battlespire Cape of Arcane Sight' which may possibly be identfied with their ID#. Not sure how long the names can become before causing problems in the game.

ID#
This number is unique for each item (I think) and is most likely used by the program for identifying it.

Item
This field usually takes on a value of 0-4 and I am unsure what exactly it does.

Spell
This field specifies which spell the item is enchanted with and is divided into five sections:

	[cast when equipped], [cast when used], [cast when strikes], [strength], [type]

The strength of the spell is a number ranging from 1 to 8, with 1-3 being a minor effect, 4-5 being moderate, 6-7 being major, and 8 being very potent (and rare). There are a number of discrepancies in the spell strength and strength listed in the various books, but one can assume that this is a typographical error (Major and Minor effects are often reversed). The strength has some different effect on different spells. For example, for summon monster the higher the strength the more powerful/smart the monster summoned is. For damage based the more damage it does, for healing the more damage it heals etc...

The type of spell relates to which element it belongs to.

Depending on the spell the type section has slightly different effects. For damage spells the type is never 0 while for resistance spells a type of 0 means resistance to all elements. Of course fpr some spells (like, Cure Health, etc...) this section has no meaning.

App Field
This field relates to what skills are effected and by how much. This is a variable length field which is of the form.

		App ([skill], [modifier]), 100
	Examples:
		App 100
		App 10, 20, 100
		App 10, 20, 11, 15, 12, 30, 100

Adv Field
This is another variable length field of the form.

		Adv ([Ability])
	Examples:
		Adv -1
		Adv 10
		Adv 20, 12, 13

There are many more abilities which are unknown (numbers up to 50 have been observed) and these are all things like resistances, immunities, weaknesses etc... (as found in the character creation process).

Uses
Well, this contains the number of times a magical item can be used. For items without spells it would hold how durable the object is. Typical values here are 10 or 20 uses although a few items have values of 30 or even 50. Several 'special' quest related items have a value of -1 indicating that they cannot be used or destroyed (most likely).

Level Field
Most items have a level value of 0 although a few have a value of 1 or 2. Perhaps this relates to how powerful the item is, I'm not sure. Perhaps its not even used at all.

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