ToME: the Tales of Maj'Eyal

I just collected an arcane-disrupting staff. This seems against the narrative.

Also, I'd hate to roll that for a staff from from merchant.

I think its funny. Its like the enchantment went wrong and you ended up with a faulty staff.

I'd like to see some arcane mindstars pop up too.

The merchant won't add rare items' powers to his artifacts, so you're safe in that regard. I think he's also supposed to avoid giving antimagic items to arcanists and arcane items to Ziguranth as well.

Anyway, the rare items (salmon-pink text, drop from randelites) tend to be really bizarre. Some of them can be quite powerful, but a lot of them just make you stare and ask yourself how the heck that happened. Of course, the rare enemies that carry the rare items tend to be just as strange, so it fits. It's all very weird, but we have canonical rat liches running around Maj'Eyal, so it works out in the end.