ANy easy, good way to un-nerf magic items in 4th ed?

[Silverblade The Ench]

IMHO, magic items have been excessively over nerfed.
Much as I loathed how 3rd ed had eventually become "Ye golf cart of items game" , 4th ed seems t ohave gone way too far the other way.

I understand there's balance questions, but, when a player gets "Gauntlets of Ogre Power" they should be OOMPH! kick ass! Not just +5 hp damage 1/day!
Doesn't fit, does it?
They should be called "Gauntlets of Somebody Strong After He's Had His Porridge", not "Gauntlets of 10' tall behemoth That Throws Folk Through Walls!"


Rather such Gauntlets gave you 20 Strength (regardless of what you actually are) for a short time 1/day or the like, this also fits in with a point missing from 3rd and 4th, the traditional "Whimp who gets magic item and can kick butt!...for a while..."
that's a staple of fantasy.
Now it's not really possible because he only gets a small bonus to his original strength.

maybe too late to tweak this, but you get what I mean?

Least Artifacts are DECENT now, 3rd ed ones were pathetic, same with "Legacy" items, jeesh. House ruled them to take out the silly penalties from Legacy items, and Artifacts were crazy dangerous in my 3.5 games:
"Inc 40d6 Fireball with 40' radius centred, someplace random! Hey, created by a chaotic god, what did you expect? It will survive the blast, it doesn't care if you don't..."

Way I always looked at it, Artifacts should scare the beejezuz out of the owner as WELL as everyone else!

 

[Nail]

"Gauntlets of Ogre Power" are level 5 items. If you want to tweak them to make them more powerful, keep in mind you'll need to change their level. It sounds to me like you want them to be a level 10+ item.

 

[Stalker0]

My beef with some items is that while I'm cool with dailies, the magic item should do something except being a useless lump of rock 99% of the day.

Every time I've picked items for a character (using phb and AV) I always find myself drawn to the ones with good properties. The items that have only dailies are just not that good...the daily is nice....but its not THAT nice.

If you want a general tool, you might try making daily powers encounters, and some encounter powers at will for magic items. I wouldn't do that on a blanket scale, but it might help get your magic items more in gear with what you want.

 

[keterys]

The easy trick is to just give them higher level items.

 

[Silverblade The Ench]

Nail,
yup! I'd rather they were level 10, and GOOD, than get them at lower levels and...puke! No way I want to give those to my players

Stalker0,
Daily powers, encounter powers, that was a nice change, but again yeah, so many suuuuuuuuuuuck! You'd wonder why you'd want ot use that, rather than anything else.

Examples from the PHB are Bracers of Mighty Striking lv 2 item, +2 to basic melee damage, nice (but why only BASIC melee? that doesn't make sense), versus the Gauntlets of Ogre Power lvl 5 item (crap!)

 

[Aristotle]

I have to say they made it significantly easier to pull magic items out almost completely (something I'm sort of toying with for a campaign of my own). A static bonus to hit, damage and all defenses and you're pretty much there. But putting back in the reliance on magic items requires a little more effort.

There was an article (or was that in a book?) about making standard items intelligent ones. The books indicates that artifacts exist for all tiers... I think there are already methods of giving characters cool items that do more than simple daily trick. Not all of their items have to be limitless fonts of kick-buttery though. Let a few of them remain aces up the characters' sleaves that they can use, but they can't build a career on.

On the other hand, if you like to tinker... Turn those dailies into encounter powers. If that proves too much power for your campaign, use the built in rules for uses per day based on tier and milestones but allow those uses to work on the same item multiple times per day (but still just once per encounter). That makes a character a little more flexible in that they can continually use the item that best fits the situation... but that might also be more believable and shouldn't bust the game too badly since the character is still limited in how many times per day they can use item powers.

 

[Starfox]

Te Iron Armbands of Power do pretty much what you want (+2 on all melee damage), and they are a level 4 item.

(Now, isn't THAT seriously overpowered?)

 

[Falling Icicle]

My beef with some items is that while I'm cool with dailies, the magic item should do something except being a useless lump of rock 99% of the day.

Every time I've picked items for a character (using phb and AV) I always find myself drawn to the ones with good properties. The items that have only dailies are just not that good...the daily is nice....but its not THAT nice.

This is exactly how I feel. I avoid any magic item that doesn't have a property, unless the daily power is extremely useful (like the mnemonic staff or everlasting provisions).

They wanted to make it so that not every melee character needs to have gauntlets of ogre power, but now it's the opposite extreme. They're so pathetic now, I'd never waste the money to buy them. I agree that the importance of magic items needed to be toned down from 3rd edition, but IMO they went too far to the opposite extreme. You can now dispense with magic items entirely, and since they're so weak, most people probably wouldn't even miss them.

It also annoys me how almost every item it seems has a power (daily or otherwise) rather than a property. It so much more annoying to keep track of than a permenent bonus you can write down and include in your stats, and not have to look up again. I've noticed that most of my fellow players forget to use the daily powers on their items. Between all the powers people have, all the little modifiers and conditions to keep track of round by round, etc, it's very easy to forget about the powers of your magic items.

Maybe if those powers were actually impressive, rather than such insignificant little boons, players would be compelled to remember them? A magic sword that can put a major can of whoopass on an enemy once per day - THAT I will remember to use. A sword that inflicts a -2 penalty on an enemy for ONE round ONCE per day, not so much.

 

[CapnZapp]

Let me invoke the forum gods using a tried and true invocation:

"I don't want to be a forum nazi or anything, but doesn't this belong in the house rules section?"

 

[cjais]

As a DM, I handpick or design the magic items my players will end up with. If it only has a Daily power, it's usually right out. I like items with encounter powers, as I like to give my players options they aren't afraid of using.

Examples of items I like to see them have:

-The belt that grants a bonus to bullrush (encourages them to use that tactic more often)

-Same with some gloves I designed that improves their ability to grab, and as an encounter power, they can try to trip a grabbed enemy (Str vs. Fort or Dex vs. Ref).

-An armor that can negate a set amount of damage once per encounter, but the wearer gets pushed back from the attack and knocked prone in return. This ensures more mobility in combat and looks cool to boot.

-A shield that lets the wearer take a hit for an adjacent ally, per encounter (like the Paladin power).

-A shield that lets them try to push a target for a minor action, per encounter.

-A sword that as a property enables the wearer to shift instead of attack when an enemy provokes an opportunity attack, and has an additional encounter as well.

Basically, I'd rather overwhelm my players with choices and interesting combat options that are a tad weaker than Daily powers, but ensures they'll get used. I like how 4th edition keeps a tight rein on static bonuses, and I hated the little statistic mini-game that 3rd edition outfitting could turn into. I like how you can customise your character with more encounter powers, and diversify the party members while giving them more toys to play with. Static bonuses, while handy and easy to use, just sit there and makes you forget you're even using a magic item.