Dedicated DM and certs

Was responding in another thread when I noted that a change in the way item rarity is handled in DDAL makes it significant for someone claiming certain items from DDEX adventures to also claim the cert for those items as part of their quest reward.

Specifically, these rules:

"Items are of like rarity to items found in the DMG unless they possess additional abilities outside of those found in the Special Features tables on pages 142 and 143 of the DMG. This includes, but it not limited to saving throw bonuses, intelligence, additional benefits against specific foes, etc. Items like this are considered unique items." (DDAL FAQ 6.1, p.9)

Since (as far as I can tell) no iteration of the Dedicated DM quest allows a DM to select an item with Unique rarity, this means that for treasures in certain adventures, the cert for the item must also be claimed along with the item, or the item is not of a legal rarity to be selected as a quest reward. For seasons 1 and 2, the adventures affected by this rule are as follows:

DDEX 1-13: The 'wearers ears tingle' effect is not listed either in the item's description, nor on the tables on pp.142-143 of the DMG, thus the item's rarity is Unique without a cert
DDEX 1-14: The 'glows faintly within 100 feet of a source of strong elemental power' effect is not listed either in the item's description nor on the tables on pp.142-143 of the DMG
DDEX 2-5: The 'mad cackling' effect is not listed in the item's description nor on the tables on pp.142-143 of the DMG
DDEX 2-7: The 'soaks through any gloves worn over it' trait is not listed in the item's description nor on the tables on pp.142-143 of the DMG
DDEX 2-8: The 'covered in slime' trait is not listed in the item's description nor on the tables on pp.142-143 of the DMG

items from later DDAL seasons may also have this quirk (I have all the Season 4 DDAL adventures, but not a full set of DDAL adventures from seasons 3, 5, or 6) -- if you as a DM plan to select one of these items for your Dedicated DM quest reward, make certain that you also print out a copy of the item cert and assign it to the character who receives the quest reward. Without the cert, the item is not of a legal rarity to be selected as a DM quest reward.

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Pauper

It isn't really an issue with any of these items since the rarity is established in the adventure. The issue only arises if the item isn't in the DMG or is adjusted from the DMG version and the rarity is not given in the adventure.

For example, Staff of Defense is an issue because the rarity isn't in the adventure, only on the cert.

Hmm... but those mods you listed do show a rarity (in the mod text) and the special quirks of the magic item.

Anthraxus said:

Hmm... but those mods you listed do show a rarity (in the mod text) and the special quirks of the magic item.

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They do have a listed rarity, but the rule seems to suggest that it overrides the listed rarity (edit: in the adventure, not on the cert, if you have one) for items that have additional abilities. (Which only makes sense -- an item that has a certain ability plus some other ability is not necessarily of the same 'rarity' as a similar item with the same certain ability but not the other ability.) The caveat is that the DMG lists what might be considered 'common' additional quirks, abilities, drawbacks, etc., for magical items that are typical enough to not affect the item's overall rarity. (So while not every pair of magical boots allows the wearer to also speak and understand Gnomish, enough items in general do this so that that the additional ability to speak and understand Gnomish in and of itself does not make such an item any more 'rare' in game terms.)

(Edit: An example seems called for -- if you have the item from DDEX 1-3 and you do not hae the cert that tells you the item's rarity, look in the DMG. The ability described in the adventure is actually listed on pp.142-143 of the DMG -- it's the ability listed under a roll of 16 on the 'Who Created It or Was Intended To Use It" table -- so the rarity of the item is identical to that listed in the DMG. If you do have the cert, then the rarity on the cert holds unless it is different from that in the DMG, in which case either use the DMG's rarity as noted under 'What If I Think My Cert Has an Error?', or the rarity in errata if errata has been issued.

However, if you have the item from DDEX 1-14 and you do not have the cert for it, you will find that the 'glows faintly within 100 feet of a source of strong elemental power' ability is not listed in the charts on pp.142-143 of the DMG, thus this item's rarity is Unique without the cert. If you do have the cert, then the item is of the rarity listed on the cert, again taking into account the caveats in the previous example.

Because of the wording of Dedicated DM, the item from DDEX 1-3 is a valid selection regardless of whether or not the character also has the cert for the item, but the item from DDEX 1-14 is not a valid selection unless the cert is included that indicates the item is not of Unique rarity.)

Even if you take the heading of the rule I quoted in the original post as rules-significant and explicitly referring to items that don't have a listed rarity in the adventure ("I don't know what my item's rarity is" is pretty vague, though, and can easily apply to a player who doesn't have access to the adventure text), there is an additional rule ("What if the Certificate Lists a Rarity?") that further explains that any item without a complete description (and most items in DDAL/DDXP adventures do not have a complete description in the module, relying on the text in the DMG to describe the abilities of an item) are Unique unless you have a cert that establishes the rarity of the item. In that case, you must include the cert as part of any trade (so you can't take such an item in trade unless you can also get the physical cert, either from an in-person trade, or perhaps through the use of USPS physical mail, etc.).

If an admin wants to clarify the situation, I'd be happy to hear about it.

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Pauper

rczarnec said:

The issue only arises if the item isn't in the DMG or is adjusted from the DMG version and the rarity is not given in the adventure.

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I bolded the key point -- the rule on p.9 of the FAQ does not explicitly only apply to items that don't have a listed rarity in the adventure. (If you have a cert, then you have a cert, and the item is of the rarity listed on the cert, barring errata.)

What the rule is saying is, if you don't have a cert that tells you the rarity, look in the DMG -- if the item is 'as written' there, or only has additional abilities contained on pp.142-143 of the DMG, then the rarity is the same as the rarity in the DMG. Otherwise, the rarity is Unique.

While this can be an issue for trading, the point of this thread is that it's also an issue for folks claiming the item via Dedicated DM -- and folks claiming such an item without also adding the cert to their character's log are not doing so legally.

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Pauper