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Magic Items, and what it says about the editions
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<blockquote data-quote="Aenghus" data-source="post: 6896502" data-attributes="member: 2656"><p>AD&D tended to be extremely random when it came to magic items. While there was a preponderance of scrolls, potions and +1 swords when randomly generating treasure, there was always a small chance of rolling up a powerful item even at low level. Some DMs would just reroll to remove the outliers, others let them in. Given the sometimes primitive state of roleplaying in the 80's at many tables, a powerful magic item might be the most distinctive feature of a PC. <em>Gauntlets of Ogre Power</em> or a <em>Helm of Brilliance</em> for instance, definitely provide a power bump. </p><p></p><p>Now admittedly a lottery winning PC might be obliterated in the very next room by a death trap, but at the same time the odds of survival improved for PCs lucky enough to pick up something powerful and useful, and the lucky players possibly took less risks and more care about survival subsequently. Survival to higher level generally meant accumulating a list of magic items, and while many were very situational, some would be powerful unless the DM prevented them from being placed in the first place, or was running a low magic item game.</p><p></p><p>I found 2e increased PC power through increased options, and there were less powerful items available at lower level. Some of this might be due to more experienced DMs getting better at establishing a power curve for their games. Powerful magic items still existed in the books and might turn up, but expectations of roleplaying rose at many tables (IMO) and PCs were getting more distinct (sometimes snowflakey). Fantasy novels treated magic items as plot devices rather than tools, but RPGs allowed both options by default unless prevented, and players varied in their attitudes. It also produced the idea of PCs without magic items at all, though that was a very narrow niche confined to specific builds/kits of classes like monk and druid (possibly cleric and paladin as well, my memory fails me)</p><p></p><p>3e made magic items expected and the massive power boost from complex suites of particular magic items and class abilities rewarded such system mastery more than ever before. It made expectations much more transparent and reduced the variance between different game tables. While 3e increased PC numbers, it also bloated monster hit points, and made damage spells obsolete except for a few builds. Magic items changed a lot and were in general less powerful, though a bunch of powerful magic items were still in the rules almost unchanged. I found 3e the most individualistic edition, PCs could be designed to do practically everything themselves. Some liked this, others including myself didn't.</p><p></p><p>4e changed a vast amount of things, and made class power the most significant part of a PC by design. To do so they nerfed magic items hard, dropping or changing a bunch of the top tier items. While there were some magic item tricks to leverage individual PC power, the payoffs paled in comparison to 3e. Magic items continued to be a part of standard character generation past 1st level, with an expected number of magic items. IMO the most significant power bumps in 4e come from PC teamwork and synergy. </p><p></p><p>Because magic items are less important in 4e, they are easier to leave out without totally changing the game. magic item games. The total design of magic items in 4e was probably one of the misses, as they nerfed them too hard and made them boring in a number of cases. There were too many obvious placeholder entries in the lists that few players would ever want to get. Still, the reduction of resistances in monsters, particularly monsters resistant to normal weapons made low/no magic item games more viable. The idea of inherent bonuses to PCs replacing most magic items was introduced as an option in DMG2 (I think) and helped fix the math of low/no magic item games. It was possible to have a no magic all martial party with a warlord as a healer in 4e and run a conventional game without massive houseruling.</p><p></p><p>5e tries to make magic items optional, by reducing bonuses with bounded accuracy and not have an expected number of magic items by level. Some magic items will still grant a power boost to their bearers, meaning DMs will have to either accept such PCs have an easier time with encounters or tweak the opposition to raise back the difficulty. There are arguments for and against either opinion, different tables will come to different conclusions.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Aenghus, post: 6896502, member: 2656"] AD&D tended to be extremely random when it came to magic items. While there was a preponderance of scrolls, potions and +1 swords when randomly generating treasure, there was always a small chance of rolling up a powerful item even at low level. Some DMs would just reroll to remove the outliers, others let them in. Given the sometimes primitive state of roleplaying in the 80's at many tables, a powerful magic item might be the most distinctive feature of a PC. [I]Gauntlets of Ogre Power[/I] or a [I]Helm of Brilliance[/I] for instance, definitely provide a power bump. Now admittedly a lottery winning PC might be obliterated in the very next room by a death trap, but at the same time the odds of survival improved for PCs lucky enough to pick up something powerful and useful, and the lucky players possibly took less risks and more care about survival subsequently. Survival to higher level generally meant accumulating a list of magic items, and while many were very situational, some would be powerful unless the DM prevented them from being placed in the first place, or was running a low magic item game. I found 2e increased PC power through increased options, and there were less powerful items available at lower level. Some of this might be due to more experienced DMs getting better at establishing a power curve for their games. Powerful magic items still existed in the books and might turn up, but expectations of roleplaying rose at many tables (IMO) and PCs were getting more distinct (sometimes snowflakey). Fantasy novels treated magic items as plot devices rather than tools, but RPGs allowed both options by default unless prevented, and players varied in their attitudes. It also produced the idea of PCs without magic items at all, though that was a very narrow niche confined to specific builds/kits of classes like monk and druid (possibly cleric and paladin as well, my memory fails me) 3e made magic items expected and the massive power boost from complex suites of particular magic items and class abilities rewarded such system mastery more than ever before. It made expectations much more transparent and reduced the variance between different game tables. While 3e increased PC numbers, it also bloated monster hit points, and made damage spells obsolete except for a few builds. Magic items changed a lot and were in general less powerful, though a bunch of powerful magic items were still in the rules almost unchanged. I found 3e the most individualistic edition, PCs could be designed to do practically everything themselves. Some liked this, others including myself didn't. 4e changed a vast amount of things, and made class power the most significant part of a PC by design. To do so they nerfed magic items hard, dropping or changing a bunch of the top tier items. While there were some magic item tricks to leverage individual PC power, the payoffs paled in comparison to 3e. Magic items continued to be a part of standard character generation past 1st level, with an expected number of magic items. IMO the most significant power bumps in 4e come from PC teamwork and synergy. Because magic items are less important in 4e, they are easier to leave out without totally changing the game. magic item games. The total design of magic items in 4e was probably one of the misses, as they nerfed them too hard and made them boring in a number of cases. There were too many obvious placeholder entries in the lists that few players would ever want to get. Still, the reduction of resistances in monsters, particularly monsters resistant to normal weapons made low/no magic item games more viable. The idea of inherent bonuses to PCs replacing most magic items was introduced as an option in DMG2 (I think) and helped fix the math of low/no magic item games. It was possible to have a no magic all martial party with a warlord as a healer in 4e and run a conventional game without massive houseruling. 5e tries to make magic items optional, by reducing bonuses with bounded accuracy and not have an expected number of magic items by level. Some magic items will still grant a power boost to their bearers, meaning DMs will have to either accept such PCs have an easier time with encounters or tweak the opposition to raise back the difficulty. There are arguments for and against either opinion, different tables will come to different conclusions. [/QUOTE]
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