delericho said:The unspoken assumption I was making was that this would be paired with a House Rule saying "the Big Six items (and similar spells) do not exist. You can't buy them, you can't make them, and you won't find them." With that rule in place, this power creep does not occur (assuming also that you get the maths right).
The idea, as I saw it, was to remove the 'Big Six' item types so that the game will see a lot more use of more offbeat and little-used items. It's not really about correcting a problem so much as seeking a different flavour. (That's also why there's no need to go for the 'every class is a spellcaster' cheat from "Iron Heroes" that you described - characters still have magic items, just items of a different type.)
If I really wanted to remove all magic items from the game, I would simply shift to "Iron Heroes" (or a non-d20 system) entirely, because the rewrites would, as you say, be massive. If, however, all I want to do is remove the boring static bonuses from the game, then I require a rather smaller set of changes, in line with the ones I described.
Emirikol said:Lower magic game..ahem..
JohnSnow said:1) Increase the Saving Throw progressions. More specifically, make it so that the PCs don't NEED those save boosting items to be good. High Level PCs are, and should be, awesome because of WHO they are, not what they carry.
Klaus said:Okay, how about, instead of giving power to the characters, reducing the need for said power?
For instance:
Reduce the ACs of all creatures, like, say, -1 AC for CR 4-7, -3 for CR 8-11, -5 AC for CR 12-15, -8 AC for CR 16-19 and -10 AC for CR 20. Can be accomplished by reducing Dex or natural armor. This accounts for magic weapons and Str- and Dex- increasing items.
Reduce Con by twice the AC ammount given above (so -2, -4, -6, -8 and finally -10 at CR 20). This accounts for the bonus to damage by said items.
Reduce the DR, since characters will have more difficulty in bypassing them (5 becomes 2, 10 become 5 and 15 becomes 10). This accounts for special materials and properties.
Reduce the attack bonus by the ammounts given above, by lowering the Strength scores (or Dex scores for the Finesse monsters). This accounts for magic armor, shields, rings and amulets that increase AC.
Reduce the save DC for special attacks by the same ammount given for AC.