billd91
Not your screen monkey (he/him) 🇺🇦🇵🇸🏳️⚧️
Even back then, we were "roll and assign." So, yes, if someone put a decent score into strength, then got a pair of gauntlets, they felt kind of dumb.
It's not a huge deal in and of itself, although getting a magical item as a reward and feeling dumb because of it certainly isn't optimal.
But, in the process of feeling dumb, they realize that the magical item has more mechanical impact than the choices that defined their character. Maybe that excites some people, but it's certainly not what we were looking for in a game, even back then.
I don't think the process of deciding who should get the item makes it cause any less of a problem.
Especially with the amulet of health; it really should go to the person with the lowest Con. I know for my players, it wouldn't take long for them to realize that the person with the lowest Con just got bumped up to near the top because they had the lowest Con.
It's not going to warp how they build their characters, but I have it admit it feels totally backwards.
For me, it feels perfectly normal and a much better alternative than the fairly feeble stat boosters of 3e that don't tend to go to the PCs who need it most but instead concentrate the increasing modifiers. We never felt dumb if we rolled a high strength but managed find gauntlets of ogre power - mostly because we gave the gauntlets to someone who didn't roll so well and spread the physical punch of the group around. I ended up with a druid with gauntlets of ogre power (he starting strength was a 16 so she got a substantial boost) and she became a much more effective melee force because of it.
As far as who should get the amulet of health, that depends. We might have given it to a fighter with a decent Con but who had been rolling terrible with his hit points.
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