D&D 5E Boots of Striding and Springing.......kinda lame

[The Crimson Binome]

Which while fine on paper is unenforceable in practice. Even within the party are characters not allowed to sell or trade items between themselves?

Within the intended context, without regard for the availability of the outside market, these magic boots are always better than no magic boots.

You could say that it's a fragile premise, and I wouldn't argue the point. If you do introduce an economy of magical items, though, then guaranteeing that all items remain valued would require significant effort on your part. Even in 3E and 4E, which went out of their way to try and make interesting items useful, they still largely fell by the wayside since they were competing for your money against items which did give you +stats.

 

[Lanefan]

If I had the choice between taking these boots and taking nothing, I would take these boots every time, and you can bet that I would find plenty of use for them.

So would I, most likely; but if I had the choice of taking the boots or taking most anything else I'd probably look long and hard at the anything else.

Lanefan

 

[The Crimson Binome]

So would I, most likely; but if I had the choice of taking the boots or taking most anything else I'd probably look long and hard at the anything else.

Which is why the whole "no fixed price" thing is a cornerstone of the magical item economy in 5E.

I can't tell you how many times, during my Pathfinder days, when I would find something like a +1 defending greatclub of dragon-slaying and wonder who would bother creating such an item, given the known cost involved and how many more efficient/effective things could have been done with the same money. Without a fixed price for anything in 5E, and in the absence of any crafting rules, I can just accept whatever I find as better than nothing. There's no trade-off!

 

[Lanefan]

Within the intended context, without regard for the availability of the outside market, these magic boots are always better than no magic boots.

You could say that it's a fragile premise, and I wouldn't argue the point. If you do introduce an economy of magical items, though, then guaranteeing that all items remain valued would require significant effort on your part.

Effort that I've already largely done, having gone through and completely repriced (and considerably augmented) the 1e list. I'd likely just use that, perhaps modified a bit.

The main thing about magic markets, be they formal or informal, is to not have all that much available at any given time and have what is available be very random; as realistically that's how it would work out. Just because someone's specifically looking to buy Boots of Speed doesn't mean there's automatically going to be any out there...and that's where 3e fell down: what you wanted was always available as long as you were in a big enough town.

Even in 3E and 4E, which went out of their way to try and make interesting items useful, they still largely fell by the wayside since they were competing for your money against items which did give you +stats.

True. Some of the most cherished items I've seen, though, are either those with an excellent function (e.g. sword of teleportation or anything that gives clear long-range communication) or those that give a '+' and have other neat stuff to them as well. (I've never run 3e/4e so the only '+' stuff I really have to think about is bonuses to hit/damage and AC)

The other thing that valuing magic items does is allow for a more fair treasury division. I ran a game once where the party decided magic items would be divided by a draft and cash/non-magic would be shared equally. One player (who, in his defense, was playing a character already known for her greed) absolutely cleaned up - in character she drafted for estimated value rather than usefulness, then sold/traded/bartered for what she really needed and pocketed the profits. This system lasted for about three adventures, at which point there was a collective "wa-ait a minute" from the rest of the party when it came to light how rich she had become...

Lan-"and then there's always the option of stealing what you want"-efan

 

[Lanefan]

Which is why the whole "no fixed price" thing is a cornerstone of the magical item economy in 5E.

I can't tell you how many times, during my Pathfinder days, when I would find something like a +1 defending greatclub of dragon-slaying and wonder who would bother creating such an item, given the known cost involved and how many more efficient/effective things could have been done with the same money. Without a fixed price for anything in 5E, and in the absence of any crafting rules, I can just accept whatever I find as better than nothing. There's no trade-off!

Of course.

But what happens when you've found a direct upgrade to something you already have. Say, for example, you've got the Jumping Boots but somehow come into possession of a pair of Winged Boots, which are clearly superior. What do you do with the Jumping Boots?

Or, what happens when there's a magic item in the treasury that nobody in the party can use? For example, an all-Hobbit party finds a flaming greatsword that's far too big for any of them; or a party of Elves finds a suit of magic plate mail that was made for a 6' 200 lb Human?. What are they supposed to do with it? The obvious answer, even in a non-capitalist economy, is to trade or barter or sell it or somehow turn it into something the party (or a party member) can use.

Lan-"I despise economics and make a pretty lousy capitalist but even I see the need for some sort of magic item economy even if very informal"-efan

 

[jaelis]

FWIW, to me Caliban's ruling is the evident one.

You can only apply a magical effect once. But you can always use your class features, except (obviously) when they recreate a magical effect.

Step of the Wind isn't described as having anything to do with the Jump spell, but the boots are. Case closed

The boots actually aren't described as having anything to do with the Jump spell either.

O boy I wished the designers had caught the old-itis in time, and purged the spell from any of these calculations.

Yes I think that would be better.


Regarding the question of what happens if you jump further than your speed, the sage says (on several occasions):

To be clear, things like the jump spell don't increase speed. You can jump crazy far, but your speed caps it.
Every foot jumped costs movement, so you can jump farther than your current speed if you take the Dash action.

So it's not that you fall or hang in midair. Your jump distance is simply capped by your speed.

Regarding the question of the run up:

20 Strength running long jump: up to 20 ft. With jump spell: up to 60 ft. with a speed of 30 ft. and Dash.

If he did his math right, this implies that you can indeed perform the run-up on the previous turn.

 

[CapnZapp]

Regarding the question of what happens if you jump further than your speed, the sage says (on several occasions):

So it's not that you fall or hang in midair. Your jump distance is simply capped by your speed.

But whether you fall or hang in midair is EXACTLY the question.

When I use the phrase "what happens if you jump further than your speed" I don't mean
- my Speed is 30, this round I moved a hundred feet across a chasm, what happens?
because that's obviously illegal

Instead what I mean by this is
- my Strength is 15 so the boots enable me to make 45 ft horizontal jumps. This round I start 30 feet away from the edge of the 40 ft chasm; what happens when I dash towards the chasm and jump?

Will my jump "end" after 30 ft (since that's where I run out of "remaining movement"), presumably turning my horizontal jump into a vertical fall, because what could "ending" a jump otherwise mean?!?

Or will my jump continue "next round", so that I start my next turn finishing the jump by expending the remaining 10 ft necessary to reach the far end of the chasm; after which I can do whatever I want.



So you see; by interpreting "further than your speed" as narrowly as it does, that tweet answers absolutely nothing. Cheers!

 

[mrpopstar]

FWIW, to me Caliban's ruling is the evident one.

You can only apply a magical effect once. But you can always use your class features, except (obviously) when they recreate a magical effect.

Step of the Wind isn't described as having anything to do with the Jump spell, but the boots are. Case closed

The boots don't actually mention the jump spell, though.

 

[CapnZapp]

The boots actually aren't described as having anything to do with the Jump spell either.

The problem is that even if you DO gain nine times your normal jump distance, you can't actually use it.

Unless your Strength was only 5 or so

 

[mrpopstar]

Regarding the question of what happens if you jump further than your speed, the sage says (on several occasions):

So it's not that you fall or hang in midair. Your jump distance is simply capped by your speed.

Regarding the question of the run up:

If he did his math right, this implies that you can indeed perform the run-up on the previous turn.

The Sage has certainly addressed the jumping issue a handful of times.

The scenario where you perform the run-up in a previous round feels awkward in 5th Edition. #MyOpinion