Lost Homeland OOC

[Aereas]

Personaly I prefer the idea of craft points over xp. If you have to use your xp to create an item its almost like your being punished for crafting items (thus why applied learning came around). Sure you gain a few items for a cheaper price but then you begin falling behind in levels. In most cases that trade off isn't worth it.

Same really goes for the death. If you die you lose a level..yet you still have the same foes at the same level who killed you the first time only now your weaker. Unless your on a mission that has no time limit your gonna have to keep going at it but now the challenge is much greater than before.

 

[Dog Moon]

Well, I think using the XP was the main way to balance item creation. Personally, I think losing a single level to have effectively twice the amount of magical items as everyone else is completely fair. LA for templates and stuff are not as buff as that, especially considering the variety of usefulness of items. [And unless yer creating a ginormous mass of items, you shouldn't fall more than like 1 level behind].

However, I am of the mind that I dislike requiring XP for virtually anything. I had my reasons before, but I don't entirely remember them anymore.

 

[Charberus]

I hate the whole "Lose XP" thing. I agree that the craft points are a better idea. What would be cool is to have feats that give ya extra craft points (like feats do for making items cheaper).

Also, noncaster players would get crafting points, but alot less. This way, they can donate their crafting points into items they want (so crafting is more 'group' friendly).

 

[Dog Moon]

I hate the whole "Lose XP" thing. I agree that the craft points are a better idea. What would be cool is to have feats that give ya extra craft points (like feats do for making items cheaper).

Honestly, I was thinking it would be cool to have a Feat that granted additional Craft Points, but then I realized that you could do the same by taking a different Item Creation Feat where you would also gain more Craft Points, so I decided that I wasn't going to have a feat like that.

Also, noncaster players would get crafting points, but alot less. This way, they can donate their crafting points into items they want (so crafting is more 'group' friendly).

Maybe, but I think I'm going to discuss this under a different HR that I've been pondering for some time.

 

[Dog Moon]

Okay, next, the last of the magic item creation HRs:

When creating magical items, a caster has a 20% chance to lose 1 hp/100 XP which would normally be spent. If the XP is less than 200, then no roll is made. If the item costs 800XP normally, the caster has a 20% chance to suffer the permanent loss of 8hp. This represents a cost in creating magical items [Instead of XP]. Lesser magical items are fairly common while more powerful items are less common because of the chance to permanently weaken the caster. Note: These hp are permanent and cannot be restored through any means. Increasing Con and gaining a level affect hp normally, though those lost through item creation are gone for good.

I have several reasons for creating this:

1. The first, and the smallest reason, is that I felt that I needed some way to counteract the free Craft Points. Using our old system, we simply had a feat that essentially granted us enough bonus XP to use for items. Now, however, you gain these Points [Craft instead of Experience] for free, so I thought maybe something should balance it out.

2. The second is that I wanted lesser items to be more common and greater items to be a little more rare. Thinking of a reason as to why this might be, I thought of why they might also drain XP. My reasoning was because they could be dangerous. They used a part of the caster's life to power them. I thought hp was a good way to do this without using XP. This way, low power items do not inflict hp [cause they use less than 100XP] while the more powerful items have a chance to hurt greatly, a scary thought which is why higher power items are created less frequently.

3. I wanted some flavor.

I'm not sure, however, that I like the set number, or that it is a good number. I think that higher power items should have a greater chance and lesser power items while at the same time, casters with more experience should have a lower chance of this occurring than those without much experience.

 

[Charberus]

Losing pernament HP is really bad idea. Wizards/Sorcs already have a weak enough hp already, why would you want them to pernamently lose hp because of it? It is hard enough having to spend a feat just to get extra hp, and even then it isn't alot.

From the last couple of post, you have already added alot of flavor to making items. You have both positive and negative to it. Now, you want even more flavor by penalizing the maker with hp. That is just taking it abit far.

I have always been a fan of 'getting special material' or 'capture event' that gets magic items their unique properties when making it. This not only gives the weapon a more personal touch, but also gives the character more 'ties' to the item. Plus, also gives DM a campaign idea.

As for pernament hp, I seriously don't like that rule. Its like kicking the wizard in the crotch with a Melfs Acidic Boot for creating powerful items.

 

[Dog Moon]

At the moment, I don't really see any other negatives to creating magical items. Correct me if I'm wrong. [And flawed, despite the name, isn't really flawed, so I wouldn't count that at all.]

Personally, I've been a big fan of themed campaigns and constantly having the group separate from that to go searching for some special material or something just interrupts that. 'Hrm, the Orc army is on the verge of attacking? Well, I would like a sword +1 flaming, so we need to spend a week finding a rare ore in a volcano and then spend the few days to enchant it.'

I want casters to fear creating higher power items. They should be much more rare than they previously were. Losing hp is what I thought of rules-wise to reflect that. It SHOULD terrify casters. If you have any other suggestions, however, I'll certainly listen to them.

 

[Charberus]

If I was a caster and I was to fear creating magical powerful magical items, then make it something truely worthy of being feared

For a really powerful item, the item should take alot of the caster's time and magical abilites. Because of that, perhaps the sword becomes intelligent or there could be a magical backlash that strikes the mind and/or body of the wizard. Nothing is more terrifying to a wizard then having problems casting spells, casting the wrong spells, or losing control of one's own sanity (although I think Alienist are an exception to this).

 

[Aereas]

The idea I get from this is to hinder a caster for making such a powerful item but not screw them over (as affecting thier spellcasting would do). While a casters hp is often the lowest its also one of the least valuable things to them as most casters take great deals of effort to avoid that first hit and merely need the hp to survive it when it does occur. I don't like the idea of my already dhort on hp wizard losing more hp either, but I would much prefer to lose a few hp that stat points (although with the way stats are done in this game it might not be too bad).

As for the percentages I agree that the weaker items should have a lower percent and the more powerful ones should be higher. Perhaps have a rate something like total number of spell levels required plus 10%. Then you take that total and subtract thier caster level from it. That gets to be alot of math though, so perhaps instead maybe set a range of percentages based on the cost of the item. Perhaps allowing a 1% reduction per caster level or a 3-5% reduction for every item creation feat possesed (afterall, it would make sense that the more you know about crafting the more likely you are to be able to avoid the harmful side of it)

 

[Dog Moon]

If I was a caster and I was to fear creating magical powerful magical items, then make it something truely worthy of being feared

For a really powerful item, the item should take alot of the caster's time and magical abilites. Because of that, perhaps the sword becomes intelligent or there could be a magical backlash that strikes the mind and/or body of the wizard. Nothing is more terrifying to a wizard then having problems casting spells, casting the wrong spells, or losing control of one's own sanity (although I think Alienist are an exception to this).

Hrm. To me, this seems to be a LOT worse than losing a few hps. Problems casting spells? Depending on the severity, this could cripple the Wizard whereas the hps, okay, at next level when you gain points for stats, make sure they go into Con. Depending on the hp loss it may not completely make up for it, but at least you're not completely crippled...