Magic Item Levels

[Andrew D. Gable]

Is there really any reason I need to worry about these? Since 4e came out, I haven't really dug the whole enforced level of magic items (and generally the 4e treasure system in general, really). Would eliminating the level of items and giving things out by tier (I'm still thinking of doing this, not giving out +6 swords at level 2 or any such thing) instead inherently break anything with the 4e system?

 

[Piratecat]

Really? Probably not. You'll get a little more swinginess when the players get a particularly good item, but if you're keping the +1s and the +2s to the appropriate levels, I wouldn't worry too much about it if you find the item levels a pain.

 

[UngeheuerLich]

without that swinginess magic items make no sense at all...

the whole purpose of magic items is going a bit ahead of the curve and maybe fall back again...

 

[renau1g]

Well in 4e the purpose of magic items is to ensure that you can keep hitting the scaling defenses of the monsters

If you dont use magic items DMG2 has rules for inherent bonuses lest you fall behind.

 

[Saeviomagy]

Is there really any reason I need to worry about these? Since 4e came out, I haven't really dug the whole enforced level of magic items (and generally the 4e treasure system in general, really). Would eliminating the level of items and giving things out by tier (I'm still thinking of doing this, not giving out +6 swords at level 2 or any such thing) instead inherently break anything with the 4e system?

What do you mean by tier? You mean heroic/paragon/epic? If you do that, you're just eliminating cases where characters have some paragon stuff at the upper end of heroic etc.

In general, don't worry about them. It should be plain to you during combats if your players are hitting/being hit too little or too much, and outside of that, just hand out what looks like fun.

 

[DracoSuave]

What do you mean by tier? You mean heroic/paragon/epic? If you do that, you're just eliminating cases where characters have some paragon stuff at the upper end of heroic etc.

In general, don't worry about them. It should be plain to you during combats if your players are hitting/being hit too little or too much, and outside of that, just hand out what looks like fun.

Truth.

Giving things out 'by tier' is just giving things out by levels under a different and less granular name. Instead of 30, you're using three.

Same thing really, except your players might be upset when they get a +3 sword of supercool instead of a +4.

And that +1 difference is a HUGE difference when you're dealing with armor.

Of course, to remedy that, you could give out items based on half-tiers...

.....

.....

of course if you look at the treasure tables, they practically do that anyways.

 

[DarkLord Of DForce]

As a general rule of thumb, I tried to convice my DM(s) that scaling up by level should look something like this:

Level 01 - 05 --> +1
Level 06 - 10 --> +2
Level 11 - 15 --> +3
Level 16 - 20 --> +4
Level 21 - 25 --> +5
Level 26 - 30 --> +6

They disagreed - saying (as usual) those are just guidelines, you don't have to follow them. I said, yes, but if you don't - then you'll have to do some adjusting with what we're facing or our party is gonna be behind and probably have increasing numbers of encounters where we can't hit, and the monsters rarely miss.

They said they couldn't or wouldn't guarantee that we will have +3's by epic.

 

[Saeviomagy]

They disagreed - saying (as usual) those are just guidelines, you don't have to follow them. I said, yes, but if you don't - then you'll have to do some adjusting with what we're facing or our party is gonna be behind and probably have increasing numbers of encounters where we can't hit, and the monsters rarely miss.

They said they couldn't or wouldn't guarantee that we will have +3's by epic.

Is there a reason you can't just make your own?

 

[DarkLord Of DForce]

Is there a reason you can't just make your own?

Yes - our DMs are very restrictive, saying that Magic (and magic items) are rarites. So we can't create anything, but we can transfer via our spellcasters doing rituals.

So if we find a +3 weapon, we can transfer it to one of the party members weapons, and they will get the +3 mod. We rarely get things anymore though. I guess because we mentioned the lack of treasure and "good" stuff.

Here is an example - this last Saturdays session. We faced 6 lev13 soldiers, 6 lev14 wizards (artillery) and 2 lev19 Elite Brutes with our lev11 party of 7 people. It was rough, but we did live, but only because the DM had the 2 elite brutes fade out after 5 rounds (said they were summoned).

At th end of that encounter we got:

1000 gold (total, not each)
and experience.

NO items at all.

 

[MrBeens]

Yes - our DMs are very restrictive, saying that Magic (and magic items) are rarites. So we can't create anything, but we can transfer via our spellcasters doing rituals.

So if we find a +3 weapon, we can transfer it to one of the party members weapons, and they will get the +3 mod. We rarely get things anymore though. I guess because we mentioned the lack of treasure and "good" stuff.

Here is an example - this last Saturdays session. We faced 6 lev13 soldiers, 6 lev14 wizards (artillery) and 2 lev19 Elite Brutes with our lev11 party of 7 people. It was rough, but we did live, but only because the DM had the 2 elite brutes fade out after 5 rounds (said they were summoned).

At th end of that encounter we got:

1000 gold (total, not each)
and experience.

NO items at all.

You need a new DM