Design & Development: Magic Item Levels

[WhatGravitas]

Plus there is little room to argue that the flaming sword does not produce light. Since light is more valuable now, with missing darkvision and nerfed low light vision, that helps add value to fire too. With dungeon encounters being larger, there will be fewer 'rooms' per dungeon level. That can easily lead to deeper dungeons, were such a rope will be very usefull.

But then, a torch would be a what-level-item? I rather hope that the fire sword can set people on fire!.

It's a joking reference to how 3.X PC's need to be adorned with a large number of magical items in order to be effective in combat at their level, right? That they look like a christmas tree because nearly ever magic item slot on their body is filled with some sort of glowing item?

Well... it isn't really joking. A 3E character, who wants to be powerful enough to combat monsters of the appropriate CR (at least on higher levels) will need to carry a bunch of stat-boosters, magic swords, armour, and stuff.

And when you look at him using detect magic, then he'll look like a christmas tree!

Cheers, LT.

 

[Corinth]

So long as PCs can make magic items, the Christmas Tree Effect shall persist because the ability to make and upgrade gear will be in the hands of the people that will want to do it early, often and repeatedly. Expect the final version to be de facto, if not de jure, universal rules expected to be in force in every game for exactly that reason.

 

[Hella_Tellah]

So long as PCs can make magic items, the Christmas Tree Effect shall persist because the ability to make and upgrade gear will be in the hands of the people that will want to do it early, often and repeatedly. Expect the final version to be de facto, if not de jure, universal rules expected to be in force in every game for exactly that reason.

Maybe, but I can conceive of a number of ways the Christmas Tree Effect might be avoided:
-Hard upper limit on items active at once (say, 5)
-Greatly decreased WBL expectations
-Ye Olde Magick Wal-Marte may be explicitly absent in 4e
-Crafting an item consumes an existing item
-Magic items could require a feat to use (i.e. Magic Attunement: Rods or Magic Attunement: Boots)
-All magic items could come with a drawback.

Now, I'm not suggesting any of these, except maybe the first one, but they're options, and they wouldn't contradict anything in the preview article. Wizards probably has a system in mind.

 

[Xethreau]

So when you say "I have a magical weapon", the first question should be "Oh yeah? What does it do?"

Prise six lbs baby Jesus, THANK YOU!!!

 

[JoelF]

I like the idea of explicit levels for items, but hate that all items of the same level are the same price. Especially at low levels, this makes it very hard to have the existance of minor magic items. The biggest problem would be for minor nifty items that fell between the range of level 1 and 2. If level 1 items are all minor potions or scrolls, and level 2 items start to have more permanent items, then there's no room for minor permanent items, such as a magically always clean set of clothes or something along those lines.

I also can't figure out at all why lightning would be cheaper than fire - unless they're suggesting that the damages from one to another aren't the same.

I'd be much happier if the levels were tied to a range of prices. So level 1 items could be 1-150 gp, level 2 151-500, etc.

The rope being the same cost as the +2 flaming sword also make no sense to me price wise. I can't imagine who would buy it unless they knew they'd be constantly climbing mountains.

 

[Voss]

Mmm. I think there is plenty of room for trivial magical items without real game effects. Or even neat little things like self-repairing armor and eversharp weapons. On the other hand, I'd like to see consumables go. Seriously broken potential in that area, and its fairly unnecessary with per encounter and at will abilities.

 

[BryonD]

I've already predicted that Christmas trees will come back fairly fast one way or another. But it seems they are going to get a bit more of a start than I thought.

And it will also be interesting to see how the anti-magic item crowd reacts when item levels result in a notable portion of players feeling entitled to certain items because their PC's level matches the item's.

And 30 fixed levels for everything, eh? Maybe they will call this "Basic" edition and I can start watching for "Advanced D&D".

 

[Imban]

31 prices for all magic items? That seems a little unnecessary, but maybe it'll make sense when I see the entire thing. It seems to be kinda against the point of actually tracking PC wealth to the last coin, though, as opposed to an abstract system like White Wolf's Resources or d20 Modern's Wealth bonus.

EDIT: Pretty much nothing else here is news, other than that items have been repriced, which I don't want to draw any conclusions from - it'll probably take the actual game being out to be sure.

 

[zoroaster100]

I though most of what the article talked about sounded o.k., but then the list of items seems to totally contradict the promises of ending the christmas tree of magic items. Why would they leave the +X weapons if they were supposed to be fixing the math so that magic items are no longer required for a balanced game? It doesn't make sense. It certainly seems like they've abandoned the goal of fixing the magic item christmas tree character.

 

[Mad Mac]

It certainly seems like they've abandoned the goal of fixing the magic item christmas tree character.

I wouldn't go that far. (Note, they did say before that they've downgraded to "magic item shrub" as opposed to completely eliminating magic) The core, boring items that contributed to most of the magic christmas tree effect were magic weapons, magic armor, ring of protection, cloak of resistance, amulet of natural armor, and the various stat boosters. Only one of these items were mentioned in this preview, and honestly, it's the one with the biggest cool factor. I don't see any edition of D&D doing away with the magic sword of coolasity+3. I don't see them ditching magic armor either.

Still, imagine them ditching all of the above except magic weapons, magic armor, and items with cool little beanies like levitation. If the only item a hero seriously had to worry about keeping upgraded is his weapon, it would still be a big improvement from 3rd edition magic dependancy.