Essentials: Magic Item Rarity Explained, it's actually good!

Rex Blunder · Aug 23, 2010

magic item rarity article

The article on item rarity is up. This is actually one of the Essentials changes I'm most looking forward to.

Common items are the boring stat-boosting items like +2 swords. They're the ones that characters can make and buy. This is a huge fix: I'm sick of giving out magic items, only to find that the PCs have already cherrypicked the best items and don't want my treasure.

Characters get one Rare item PER TIER. That is an exciting - as they say, "character defining" - level of rarity. I like the idea of characters having a signature item power. I wish the article had included an example rare item, so we could see exactly what its level of complexity was.

Aegeri · Aug 23, 2010

Magic Item Rarity is explained today and I must say, I was skeptical at first but I am now interested. Rare items are really hard to find, but have better powers and sell for 100% of their value. Uncommon items can only be found, so you can't just craft them, but they sell for 50% of their value. Common items have basic properties or similar, but don't sell for much and are able to be crafted.

Overall seems like a good system, especially if it makes magic items less boring and give me (as the DM) options for better items without having to worry about the "craft billions of X" to abuse problem at the moment.

Aegeri · Aug 23, 2010

Oh noes. Now we have two threads D:

But yes, I agree with your comments.

I wrote in the other thread that I made:

Magic Item Rarity is explained today and I must say, I was skeptical at first but I am now interested. Rare items are really hard to find, but have better powers and sell for 100% of their value. Uncommon items can only be found, so you can't just craft them, but they sell for 50% of their value. Common items have basic properties or similar, but don't sell for much and are able to be crafted.

Overall seems like a good system, especially if it makes magic items less boring and give me (as the DM) options for better items without having to worry about the "craft billions of X" to abuse problem at the moment.

GMforPowergamers · Aug 23, 2010

Awsome...just perfect.

I hope this will end all of the arguements about these new rules.

One of the consistent pieces of feedback we’ve received about the Dungeons & Dragons game concerns magic items. Many players and DMs have told us that while plenty of the items in the game are treasures worth risking a character’s life and limb for, the most powerful items felt a little flat. On the other hand, we’ve also seen in playtests that magic items can sometimes crowd out a character’s other options. Particularly at high levels, a character’s boots, armor, gloves, belt, weapon, and other gear add quite a few powers and abilities that might overshadow other character aspects.

that tells us why they did this...

and

First, the rules assume that the DM hands out one rare item per character per tier

Common items lack activated powers

The rest of our magic items are now uncommon. They occupy the middle ground between rare and common items. They have powers, but these powers are typically daily abilities.

tells us what they did...

and

As you can see, an items’ rarity has a big effect on how it interacts with the game. Characters can easily stock up on common items, but rare and uncommon items only enter the game at the Dungeon Master’s discretion. This approach seeks a middle ground between empowering characters to buy and sell items while giving the DM a useful tool for keeping the game manageable and exciting.

is how they hope it works out...

they even include a part about changeing rarity to suit your own homebrew worlds...

Rex Blunder · Aug 23, 2010

In before "now they can sell magic item booster packs"

UngeheuerLich · Aug 23, 2010

Rex Blunder said:
In before "now they can sell magic item booster packs"

As long as they don´t start selling foiled magic items, i am ok with it...

Lancelot · Aug 23, 2010

I like it. And I also like the note at the bottom which confirms that "Daily Item Uses" are a thing of the past. You can now use as many Daily Item powers as you desire. Simplicity is good; the DM can always control access to things like elixirs (count as daily items), if required.

Rex Blunder · Aug 23, 2010

You know, it totally makes sense to limit PCs to buying/crafting Common items. Common items (+1 Magic Swords, etc) are not rewards; they're basically game-mandated.

Let's take a 16th-level party. Their +3 weapons, armor and amulets are necessities. But all their other magic item abilities are perks. D&D is a game about earning perks. In a game about earning perks, we don't give out unearned perks.

Oh - I hope they respec the Holy Avenger as a Rare item. In earlier editions, the Holy Avenger is the classic example of a character-defining magic weapon.

mach1.9pants · Aug 23, 2010

Mmmm how is this going to be backdated into the thousands that already exist? Every single MI needs another line in it's stat block! Not a problem with DDi but...

It is good though, I run with the alternate no stat boosting magic rules on the Char Builder... now plus one rare item per tier WIN!

Kzach · Aug 23, 2010

This is the kind of house rule I would've come up with had I been inclined to come up with a house rule about magic items. As it stands, I will definitely include it in future games.