Leveling Items

[Dragongrief]

In 3.x I had been toying around with items that leveled along with the character.
I like the concept for couple reasons: 1) it gives the characters something *special*, not just "Yay, a +2 Flameburst weapon"; and 2) it makes my job as a DM easier by not having to make sure everyone gets a new weapon/armor every X levels o stay up with the power curve.


So now it's 4e, and I've decided to take another stab at it. I pulled out some artifact level armors that I made in 2e (my world's version of the Ronin Warriors' armors). I based them on mythological creatures/locations.

Below is the one I've restatted with the (approximate) level each ability is gained at.

Armor of the Phoenix

Leather Armor (changes to masterwork versions at appropriate levels)
Properties: Resist Fire 5 (Increases to 10 at Lv.11 and 15 at Lv. 21)
Enhancement: +1 @ Lv.1, Lv.6, Lv.11, etc
Flames of Wrath [Daily, Minor * Fire] Level 7
Until the end of your next turn, any creature striking you in melee takes 1d10+Cha.Mod. fire damage.
Sustain Move.
Flames of Rebirth: [Daily] Level 22
Instead of making a Death Save; spend up to 3 healing surges. Gain a +2 Power bonus to all Defenses until the end of your next turn. If you spent no surges, you are stabilized at 0 hit points.

Thoughts, comments, questions?

Unfortunately I can only remember the concepts for five of the armors (3 "good", 2 "evil") - Phoenix, Leviathan, High Mountain, Darkwyrm and Basilisk.
If anyone would like, I can post the others once I've written them up. Feel free to give ideas on things to base them on as well.

 

[Mesh Hong]

Another way of approaching this could be to use the artifact rules, the concordance system is really very good. This would give you a way of increasing or decreasing the armour/weapons abilities not only through the PC levelling but also through RP actions.

Concordance can go up and down depending on a set of circumstances that are appropriate for the item/PC/campaign and can add a lot of flavour.

Also being artifacts they can leave at an appropriate time, usually the level after they reach maximum or minimum concordanace.

Here is an example of a suit of armour I am using in my campaign, please note that power levels in my game be significantly different than in your own and that this is an example only:

Grafters Armour

Worn looking leather armour, looks and feels thin and supple, dark brown with a few scrapes and worn edges. Looks like it has been restitched, mended and patched back together many many times.

Arcana check:
DC 15: Very strong magic, obviously a significant magical item.
DC 20: Strange magical weave, twisting flows of enchantment, transmutation and psionic magics. The magic has been layered so it is hard to determine what actual properties it has.
DC 25: The style, pattern and potency of the magic used makes you think it was made by Fey hands, this is probably an Avandran artefact.
DC 30: The armour seems to work around the Avandran principles of luck, travel and protection. It seems likely that it will increase all three aspects in the wearer. Fey items are tricky though, the armour may be easier to put on than take off.

Leather Armour
Properties:
- When worn armour sinks below the skin, making you look toned/muscled. Perception DC30 to spot something is wrong.
- Once worn it will only come off when it ‘moves on’ or when you drop to below zero HPs.
- +2 bonus to AC
- +1 item bonus to movement
- +2 item bonus to Endurance, Acrobatics, Nature skills
- Gain 2 resist (either: Fire/Cold/Lightning/Thunder/Acid) upon waking each day.
- Daily power – immediate interrupt – force target creature that made an attack against you to reroll the attack.

Concordance:
Starting 5

Gain a level +1d8
Roll a natural 20 on any d20 roll +1
Roll a natural 1 on any d20 roll -1
Achieve a victory that promotes or increases liberty +2
Support the Status Quo when changes could be made for the better -1
Defeat a Tyrant or Oppressor +2
Aid a Tyrant or Oppressor -1
Owner is a rogue +1 to initial concordance


Overjoyed (26 or higher)
“We are the tidal wave of the new world order, all men shall be equal, all men shall be free”.
- Item movement bonus increases to +2
- Psychic resist increases to 10

Pleased (19 – 25)
“We are a leaf on the wind, we are the open road, we are endless”.
- Encounter power: Fey step (move action), teleport up to 5 squares. Roll a d20 on an even result the power is not expended.
- Variable resistance increases to 5 (Fire/Cold/Lightning/Thunder/Acid)
- Expend a healing surge to switch the Variable resistance from one type to another as a minor action

Satisfied (12 – 18)
“Fortune favours the brave, there is still much for us to do”.
- Enhancement bonus increases to +3
- Gain a +2 bonus to save vs. Charm, Fear & immobilisation effects
- Gain resist 5 psychic

Normal (5 – 11)
“Tell me child, do you feel lucky today?”
-standard properties, see above.

Dissatisfied (1 – 4)
“You are sinking in a sea of obscurity and indulgence, change soon, and for the better”.
- Enhancement bonus reduces to +1
- Lose the resist 2 (variable) ability
- You can no longer use the Daily power

Angered (0 or lower)
“You are beyond hope, it is just a matter of time before natural selection takes its course”.
- Enhancement bonus reduces to -1
- Take a -2 penalty to all saves
- Whenever you gain HPs halve the amount

 

[AbdulAlhazred]

Adventurer's Vault also has a section at the end with some ideas on leveling items, item personality, etc. Sort of an 'artifact lite' kind of thing. The artifact rules are nice, but artifacts are certainly not your normal sorts of magic items. They are more like an NPC that happens to join the party. For less fantastical stuff I think the basic idea of just unlocking item powers as the PC levels up is fine. An item can also have some level of personality and might behave a bit like the way an artifact does, but less drastically. Maybe certain powers will fail or will unlock if the owner does certain things or furthers the goals of the item.

 

[Dragongrief]

Thank you both for the replies.

Mesh -
I had looked at the artifact rules but, while they are good, they didn't seem appropriate for what I was trying to accomplish. I wanted something that will stay with the character for their entire career (unless the player chooses otherwise). Artifacts, by their nature, always leave at some point (though severe metagamieness could delay it - per the written rules).

What level of power do you normally run games at? Mine tend to be somewhat above normal character-wise, but I don't always remember to give enough treasure.

Abdul -
I'll have to check out AV, I hadn't realized there was a part of it on leveling items. The actions idea I might end up using on some weapons.

 

[Mad Hamish]

A couple of places you might want to look at is Earthdawn
It has a system where items increase in power with characters as they learn more about the item and increase their linkage to it and Midnight which (iirc) has improving magic items.

 

[Mesh Hong]

Thank you both for the replies.

Mesh -
I had looked at the artifact rules but, while they are good, they didn't seem appropriate for what I was trying to accomplish. I wanted something that will stay with the character for their entire career (unless the player chooses otherwise). Artifacts, by their nature, always leave at some point (though severe metagamieness could delay it - per the written rules).

What level of power do you normally run games at? Mine tend to be somewhat above normal character-wise, but I don't always remember to give enough treasure.

To be honest after posting I realised that the artifact rules probably wern't appropriate as you want all or most of the PCs kit to level with them and the artifact rules would become very cumbersome if each character had more than one. I would still highly recommend using a couple though.

In my 6 PC group I currently have 2 artifacts and 1 "special" weapon.

As to the relative power of my group to others, to be honest I don't really know. I hand out treasure and items as I deem appropriate and don't really use the parcel system. I think my PCs probably have a lot less wealth than the guidelines but have about the right amount of items. The 3 special items (all story specific) are probably above level (or at least were when they recieved them during the heroic tier - they are early paragon now so their relative power level is dropping off sharply), especially a sword the paladin has which many people would probably think is "broken".

I think treasure has always got to be relative to other wealth in the world, and also relative to what you can actually spend it on. In a points of light campaign society may not be advanced enough to be able to spend thousands of gold in a realistic way.

Items depend on the threats that the PCs will face, most of the creatures my players face are of my own design so there is a two way balance between items and creature power.