Ability Boost Items: A Crutch or a Tool?

[ConnorSB]

Really, what are ability boost items beyond being a crutch?

Well, items that boost your physical stats I can understand, but isn't artificially increasing your own inteligence a crutch of sorts? Many people in RL take drugs to "expand thier minds." Writers all over the world have used drugs as a tool to aid thier writing, but what would they have been like without them? Would they have been better? Was it morally correct of them to destroy thier own bodies? What about absinthe?

Now put it in DND terms:

Is a king less of a ruler because his crown magically boosts his inteligence?

Are archmages any less grand because they use Ion Stones to boost thier inteligence and spells?

Is your fighter a pansy because his belt boosts his strength?

Is your cleric unfaithful to thier god because they boost thier wisdom with "heretical" items?

 

[Numion]

Is your fighter a pansy because his belt boosts his strength?

My fighter with enhanced strength will beat up your normal strength fighter and force him to say "I'm pansy" a hundred times. Then your fighters pants will drop.

 

[Umbran]

Now put it in DND terms:

Is a king less of a ruler because his crown magically boosts his inteligence?

Consider two nation-rulers. They are completely identical in all respects save one. One of them hires good advisors. He has people to research problems and possible solutions, people to help write his speeches, help him choose clothing, and so forth. The other ruler either hires no advisors, or poor advisors.

All else being equal, the ruler who has good help will do a better job then the one who has poor help, right? Isn't it the ruler's job to do the best he can? Isn't it then his job to hire good help, if possible? Thus, it is a mark of a good ruler that they hire good advisors. Those advisors effectively increase the ruler's intelligence and charisma. Ergo, it is the hallmark of a good ruler to use things that have such functions if they are available...

Is your fighter a wimp because he has a strength-boosting item? Well, is he a wimp because he uses a magic sword, which has much the same effect? How about a masterwork blade? How about a blade at all? Is your fighter a wimp because he chooses to use weapons and armor rather than go into battle naked and bare-handed?

Part of being good at any job is having the ability to choose and use good tools. Magic items are just that - tools.

 

[Zappo]

The question IMO is much wider. In D&D, there are magical items that can ease or enhance any activity or capacity. How would someone who makes use of them be considered?

In our world, it is fairly easy for people who use any kind of enhancer to be considered less capable... but how much of this comes from the fact that lots of those "enhancers" actually have dangerous drawbacks, or at the very least prevent you from learning to do the job without them? Magic has no side effects whatsoever, it doesn't cause addiction, and if you spend your life under the influence of a belt of giant strength, you still won't be any weaker than the norm when you finally take it off. Even a rich fighter who learnt combat with +3 weapons will be as good as anyone else with normal arms.

With these conditions, I think that the use of boosting items probably isn't frowned upon in the magical world. I could see a more pragmatic approach in which they are viewed as just another tool to get the job done as good as possible. If the king wears an int-boosting crown, good!, he can rule better. In fact, I think that every crown should be a mental-booster of some sort... the cost isn't that much for a kingdom's treasury, and the benefits would be great.

 

[Hypersmurf]

I remember a similar discussion a while back where someone was arguing that a magic bow was a tool, but Bracers of Archery were a crutch, and that no true archer would wear them (but there was no dishonour in using the +5 bow).

I couldn't get my head around his reasoning.

-Hyp.

 

[Nightfall]

ALL magic items are a crutch. Why else are their forsakers?! Seriously it's a very circular arguement to say one magic item is a crutch where another isn't. In the end they are tools. Just how you use them makes them what they are.

 

[Impeesa]

The famous unfinished poem Kubla Khan is the product of an opium-induced haze. It is unfinished because Coleridge got up to answer the door and forgot the rest. Do we remember him for his reliance on drugs? His inability to finish writing once the vision left him? Or the quality of the words he did commit to paper? I imagine the same would be said for any fantasy hero - remembered later for his legendary deeds, with the tools he used to accomplish them likely being little more than footnotes.

--Impeesa--

 

[Nightfall]

Course what I remember of Coleridge was that Rime of the Ancient Mariner was a damn long poem.


But yes we remember the PERSON more than the item itself. Usually.

 

[JoeGKushner]

One of the reasons D&D needs such items is that unlike many other games, there is no way to increase your ability scores, outside of the humble +1 for every four levels, which in and of itself is new to the 3rd edition.

Hero, GURPS, Rolemaster, HARP and other systems allow you to build up your strength. Heck, Palladium allows your ability scores to fly high during character creation.

Stats are pretty much set in stone and can only be increased through magical items hence magical items are not a crutch, merely a tool.

 

[Hypersmurf]

Heck, Palladium allows your ability scores to fly high during character creation.

Wonder how you'd adapt that to d20?

5 ranks in Climb gives +1 Str, +1 Con, and +1d6 hit points.
5 ranks in Tumble gives +2 Str, +1d4 Dex, +1 Con, and +3d6 hit points.
5 ranks in Profession (Boxing) gives one extra attack in a Full Attack Action, +1d4 Str, and +3d6 hit points.

... yeah, I don't think a direct translation works too well

-Hyp.