Augment Crystals - A Terrible Idea?

[MerricB]

Current party has:
Ghost touch dagger, holy long sword, and a goblin-bane long sword has been commissioned. The ghost-touch dagger doesn't come out often, but the swordsage does really well with it (with only one attack you really don't want to miss...)

Funnily enough, the swordsage (and warblade) make the most use of ghost touch, because their own abilities so overwhelm the weapon's abilities.

Cheers!

 

[Nellisir]

Chalk me down for being in favour of " socketed " items having a cost equal to an additional +1 enhancement. Call it " crystalline " or something.

I'd actually been doing "augment crystals" in my campaign for some time, except I called them "weapon rings" (metal bands that slipped over, and tightened onto, a weapon's handle, haft, or hilt, and conferred a magical property). They were presented as "permanent" augmentations, though, so carrying around alot never came up, and I priced them just like a normal augment.

 

[Schmoe]

You are assuming, with no justification, that the core is balanced to start with.

The fighter at high levels, with only the options in the PHB, is weak. There is no other way of putting it. Even compared against other core classes and only using core options, it's weak. In 7 years I've never seen anyone play a fighter to 20th level or even 10th level: generally it's 4 levels to get a bunch of feats and Weapon Spec, and then switch to barb, ranger, PrC, or something else. At least now that PHB2 is out, taking more fighter levels is looking like an attractive option.

Again, my point wasn't specifically about fighters. If the Book of 9 Swords is balanced against the Player's Handbook 2, which provides some more powerful options than those in the PHB, and one player brings a character with a class out of Bo9S to a game, the other players are going to feel left out unless they are also using the PHB2.

If, on the other hand, the Bo9S was balanced against the PHB (which it obviously wasn't), then the other players in the game still feel satisfied with their core options.

Not balancing accessories against the core rules leads to a glut of accessories that become "required" to play, or to at least feel like you have "fair" options.

I do understand the point about fighters. Long before the PHB2, I felt that they could use some extra pizzaz, and I happen to like what they did in that book. But where should we draw a line in the sand? Is it ever possible to say "all is balanced?" I wonder sometimes if we (or rather, the designers) are tilting at windmills.

What next, are you going to complain that Complete Adventurer gave a whole swag of ways to power up the bard?

d00d, bards RULE

 

[hong]

Again, my point wasn't specifically about fighters. If the Book of 9 Swords is balanced against the Player's Handbook 2, which provides some more powerful options than those in the PHB, and one player brings a character with a class out of Bo9S to a game, the other players are going to feel left out unless they are also using the PHB2.

If, on the other hand, the Bo9S was balanced against the PHB (which it obviously wasn't), then the other players in the game still feel satisfied with their core options.

You are again making the assumption that the players would feel satisfied with only core options. PHB2 wouldn't EXIST if there wasn't a perceived need to beef up certain character builds.

It leads to a glut of accessories that become "required" to play, or to at least feel like you have "fair" options.

Aka "acknowledging reality", for those who like "quotes".

I do understand the point about fighters. Long before the PHB2, I felt that they could use some extra pizzaz, and I happen to like what they did in that book.

IOW you would be using PHB2 anyway, so what are you complaining about?

 

[blargney the second]

If, on the other hand, the Bo9S was balanced against the PHB (which it obviously wasn't)

It's pretty obvious to me that Bo9S *was* balanced against the PHB. So there!

 

[theredrobedwizard]

Warblades, Swordsages, and Crusaders are pretty well balanced vs. Druids, Clerics, and Wizards. I don't see the problem.

Also, I'm one of those people who likes the idea of Magic Item shops. It may not have the same sense of "wow, magic stuff" that going on long, arduous quests to find the mythical sword does; but in the end, it's more fun for myself and my players to do it my way.

Then again, I run a high-magic Eberron/Savage Tide game right now. High lethality, high adventure, high action, all that good stuff. None of this low magic, realistic-ish alternate medieval Europe, grim and gritty stuff here. No, we're all about the guilty pleasures of D&D: Kill the monsters, take their treasure, go to town, schmooze with the nobles, get renown, rinse, lather, repeat.

Augment Crystals and the rest of the recosting of the MIC are good in my book; something to entice players buy items besides the core (Weapon, Armor, Ring of Protection, Stat Adjustment) items.

"Augment Crystals - A Terribly Awesome Idea"

-TRRW