darthkilmor said:
Awesome, this should make it much easier than flipping through all those pages before in your original pdf.
Has anything changed, or should the worksheet from the back of the original still be accurate?
Yes, and yes. The text is greatly condensed, and some aspects were simplified. Some of the more esoteric rules were removed.
Like, I removed the concept of putting feats into a magic item. Mostly, because I think it's a colossally bad idea. Rings of evasion gave us fits when writing the original rules. The item should never have been allowed to exist. And covering rules to allow it's creation was a huge headache. My advice - don't do it. I also greatly cleaned up the rules for creating items that grant permanent effects - tomes of leadership for example. These items are truly an enigma, and I question why anyone would ever create such a thing. In practice, they shouldn't even exist because it costs more to create one than it does to just cast a
wish spell. They really are a Gygaxian oddity.
The original rules were also really muddy in parts. One that comes to mind is the concept of creating 50 +1 arrows using the 50 charge wand rules. You can do it, but it ends up being more expensive. It actually makes some sense to do it that way. Unlike a +1 sword, 50 +1 arrows are not permanent. When fired, they lose their enchantment - sound like anything else you know? Yes, in the original book (and clarified in the errata) I had rules for creating ammunition using the charge-per rules. But ultimately, I decided the costs didn't really allow it very easily.
I removed a bunch of useless feats. I also think the PrCs are stupidly broken. My recommendation - don't use them. Don't even think about using them. This pdf doesn't include them. I included the feats I liked the best.
I also included a greatly simplified item instability chart. I LOVE the concept. The implementation is tricky. The problem is is that instability should increase with power, but it shouldn't increase exponentially so long as the creator is able to contain that power. This chart doesn't reflect that quite as well as the original, but I think the original intention is there. The original was a bit awkward though. I also had to sacrifice a lot of the random effects to condense it, but it could be expanded easily enough.
The book also has some things I really, really love - the item history generator, the potion flavor chart, item piecemeal rules, socketed items, gestalt items mainly. But those really are secondary things and aren't necessary if you're just trying to price out your basic run-of-the -mill stuff.
In short, these rules more or less replicate most DMG costs/time pretty accurately. When you get into the higher level, higher priced stuff, some of the times and costs are greatly reduced from the DMG costs/times. But to me, that's an OK tradeoff given how formulaic the approach is. YMMV
