Healing Belt in MIC = broken?

[Jeff Wilder]

I've not found belts of healing to be a problem in our games, though a couple of PCs own one.

I personally have much more issue with the teleportation items, like dimension stride boots and anklets of translocation. Those -- and quite a few other items from the MIC -- won't be in my next game (or will be modified).

 

[Starbuck_II]

LOL. Justify it to yourself however you want, complain about DMG pricing all you want. Compared to the Core rulebooks, this is seriously overpowered. If you're so used to overpowered adventures that using "weak" stuff seems lame, fine. But compared to the DMG, these MIC items are Monty Haul stuff.

And no, I'm not an economics major. In fact, a Macroeconomics major does not exist; that is but one class of a typical Economics department in college. You'll find that out, perhaps, if you go to college oneday.

Compare Ring of Regeneration to Core items: 6 Wands of ClW. It would take 15 levels before the Ring comes even with the six wands. By then you are level 33 or something: where the ring is chicken feed.

Even in Core the Ring sucks.

 

[billd91]

The MIC does provide more power per level than the DMG indicates. Heck, a 750 gp Belt of Healing provides more renewable HP healing per day on average than a 90,000 gp Ring of Regeneration!

More, on average, than a ring of regeneration? What level character are we talking about here? A 1st level character? Because that ring of regeneration restores 1 hit point per level every hour. A 10th level character may be getting back up to 240 hit points from that ring (assuming he takes that much damage while wearing the ring).
Worth the 90,000? I'm not sure, but better than a belt of healing? Far and away.

Perhaps you haven't taken Macroeconomics yet. When stuff is cheap, there will be more of it on the market, because more people will buy it. So when a Belt of Healing provides more HP healing than a 90k gp Ring of Regeneration, just about everyone and their mother will buy one if they can and need regular healing. So that's where magic becomes more plentiful.

This is an extra logical step that I guess I should have not expected everyone to realize on their own. Have you taken Macroeconomics yet? I didn't mean to talk down to you there.

That would be microeconomics you're talking about there. The small scale decisions that determine supply and demand and price...

 

[Sparafucile]

The healing belt is pretty cool. . . it does little harm to the game balance. It's a question of utility, and how much the presence of the item can change the overall outcome of the game session. Frankly, getting a single heal one a day for free does little.

On the other hand, a once a day Freedom of Movement, Fire Shield, or Improved Invisibility, is absolutely broken at that price. They can have a much greater effect on the outcomes of the game.

Also, why is anyone on this thread using modern free market principals to describe the economic situation of characters who live in a mideval fantasy world? The inclusion of a "Bob's Bargain Basement - We Buy/Sell/Trade/Make Anything!" in every city, town, and hamlet of your campaign world is, as far as I can tell, optional.

 

[frankthedm]

The way it looks to me is that the cleric got extra character power because it was assumed that his resources would be used for combat healing and that the cleric had to carry the rogue's weight in combat against the undead. If the clerics actions in combat don't have to be burned away healing, that makes the cleric much stronger than the class is meant to be. Also if the rogue is all of a sudden sneaking attacking the undead, then the cleric is no longer needed to pick up the rogue's slack.

To allow either of those without also nerfing the cleric is a mistake IMHO.

 

[blacktie347]

whatever

 

[Piratecat]

blacktie347, I've just edited your post #60 in this thread. Please double-check our rules, ratchet back your instincts towards rudeness and condescension, and email me if you have any questions. Thanks.

 

[blacktie347]

whatever

 

[Runestar]

1. The items in the MIC are overpowered compared to the DMG. I and others have mentioned examples of this. The rationale is irrelevant; the comparison is evident.

Which I have been repeatedly explaining as expected and a necessary step towards correcting the obvious item pricing errors/discrepancies in the DMG. You keep harping on that one point as though it were supposed to mean something, but my point now, as always is that it doesn't count for anything.

Yes, it deviates from the DMG norms. SO WHAT??? If something is erroneous, it should be corrected. Just that wotc prefers to released its so-called errata in the form of supplements we have to pay for (think rules compendium) rather than free PDFs.

2. I was not, nor am not, nor have I implied that I was a "macroeconomics major". To my knowledge, that major does not exist. I believe you might be referring to an economics major, which does exist.

Which is kinda ironic, given that a few posts back, you certainly were giving us the impression that you were some sort of expert in economics, and were attempting to use that information to refute our points (however irrelevant it may be).

Now someone gives a very good analogy using cars to demonstrate what MIC is to DMG, and you suddenly make an about-face and go "Actually, I am not all that good, so it doesn't really matter that you are suddenly citing excellent examples that I cannot answer."

To which, I say: DnD is not a real-life economy anyways. It is simply an artificial one created for the sole purpose of allowing PCs to dump their useless gear and purchase the eq which they need/want.

So what if a higher demand ought to result in a higher supply of healing belts? The DM is ultimately in control of how plentiful or readily accessible they are in his campaign world. The desigers price the MIC items based on how useful they are, not on how they are supposed to interact on a supply-and-demand basis in a real-life economy.

 

[blacktie347]

whatever