Healing Belt in MIC = broken?

blacktie347 · Apr 13, 2009

Two words:

what ever

blacktie347 · Apr 13, 2009

whatever

Runestar · Apr 13, 2009

But there are some items that are just out of whack with the current pricing of magic items compared to the DMG. THAT is my point.

Which we have never denied.

My point is that this disparity is intentional. The guidelines in the DMG are just that - guidelines, and as with any 1-size-fits-all template, it cannot possibly price every magic item accurately. Otherwise, you end up with stuff like items of persistent mage armour being cheaper than bracers of armour+4, or a wand of CLW-at-will at just 2000gp.

The biggest offender was the npc cr guidelines. The item pricing rules comes a close second. The best solution was always to just look at each item and price it based on its own merit (using viable alternatives as yardsticks). Just look at the ring of regeneration. You should never have a reason to have to regrow limbs, and at 1 hp/hour, the 24 hp healed each day is actually inferior to that from the healing belt. This means that the ring of regen should actually cost less than a healing belt, definitely a far cry from its exhorbitant 90000gp price tag!

I really couldn't care less what the OP allows or bans in his games (since I am not a member), but I think to conclude that an item is overpowered simply because it deviates from the DMG pricing guidelines...

blacktie347 · Apr 13, 2009

whatever

EroGaki · Apr 13, 2009

glasseye said:
i explain it by referring you to the official errata for the mic where they correct the size. It is supposed to be a large scorpion, not huge.

As for the belt of healing, i like being able to afford a decent magic item by third level. If mic had a failing, it was that it didn't go far enough and reprice the items in the dmg.

qft.

blacktie347 · Apr 13, 2009

whatever

aboyd · Apr 13, 2009

Wow. I was also about to post in the Monopoly forum that I don't do the "landing on Free Parking = cash money" thing. What have I been thinking?

blacktie347 · Apr 13, 2009

whatever

Runestar · Apr 13, 2009

blacktie347 said:
Everyone loves a good Monty Haul game where you can acquire powerful magic items at low character levels, right? The MIC certainly helps in this regard.

________________
Power gamers of the world, unite!

Keep up the strawman.

The items are balanced for their cost. So it certainly won't break any sort of balance even if players are allowed to acquire them at lower levels, so long as the DM does not give them to the party any sooner than they are supposed to (using the level guidelines in the MIC).

Allowing a belt of healing at 3rd lv is no more overpowering than letting the fighter access to masterwork fullplate at 4th lv. If anything, it at least gives them something to look forward to other than masterwork eq and low lv consumables.

The DMG had a dearth of useful low-lv magic items.

Jhaelen · Apr 13, 2009

Imho, the Healing Belt from MIC actually _helps_ to _restore_ game balance. It's an excellent item that should be pretty useful in pretty much every campaign. I definitely encourage my players to get one of these for their characters.

I didn't read the whole thread, but I'd like to point out another item from the MIC that changed my game in a good way: The artificer's monocle.
Yay, no more stupid hunting for black pearls!

blacktie347 said:
But there are some items that are just out of whack with the current pricing of magic items compared to the DMG. THAT is my point. Now one could reshape game balance to make magic more plentiful and cheap in one's world, sure, that's also fine.

Well, arguing that the DMG item creation rules are balanced seems a bit wacky to me. They may work for about 80% of the items, but for the rest they lead to grossly miscosted items (in both directions: cheap items that are overpowered and expensive items that don't do much of anything).

blacktie347 said:
My point is that without reshaping the magic item economy, some items are broken.

Any my point is that sticking to the DMG item creation rules will result in a lot more broken items than allowing the MIC items.
After reading the MIC I immediately banned custom item creation. That did wonders for the balance of my game!

blacktie347 said:
So I'm saying, therefore, that the OP is right for disallowing some items from the MIC or other books in order to maintain game balance as described in the DMG.

Of course the OP is free to ban some of the items in the MIC. I just don't think it's necessary. I'd strongly recommend to give them a try first.

blacktie347 said:
I'm also saying that allowing all items and having a different pricing system for magic is also fine, but not balanced with the DMG's pricing.

Yup, replacing a system that didn't work well (DMG pricing) with one that does (MIC) may have an effect on your game's balance - in a good way!