Bishmon said:
It's typically a bad idea to come at someone when you don't understand what they're saying. Politely asking for clarification would have been a good idea, and it would have made you look so much better.
Ah. Passive-aggressive condescension. I must be on ENWorld.
To clarify, I think there's a huge gap between 'current D&D' and what I think of as 'low-magic D&D'. I want to be somewhere in the middle. I want magic to be a real, known, utilized aspect of the world, but I don't want it so common that every hero is weighed down with 10 magic items.
As I've already mentioned, it creates encounter balance problems. If encounters are balanced with characters wearing a half-dozen secondary items, a character that only has one secondary item is going to be behind the curve. Maybe not in terms of attack/damage/AC/saves (or maybe he will, if he's missing out on a temporary buffing item), but he could certainly be missing out on movement modes, attack options, defensive options, etc., situational things that could make all the difference depending on the specifics of the encounter. I've already mentioned the obvious power differences between a fighter with a carpet of flying and a fighter without a carpet of flying depending on the specific encounter.
Well, yeah, but what's the alternative? Not having carpets of flying in the game at all? I'm fairly certain that's not the right direction. And I think you're overinflating the problem. Of course higher level games are going to assume that you have access to certain movement types and protections, but the game won't care where those come from, since I imagine spells will be able to provide things like flight as well. Not every movement type or protectoin is going to be assumed for every encounter, so you'll be fine in the encounters that don't need them, and then you get creative in the encounters that do.
And furthermore it only solves my problem if I give out so few secondary items that they're nearly non-existent because otherwise characters will still fill all their slots eventually. I don't want to run a game where a 20th level character is relieved to find slippers of spider climbing. But I don't want to have that 20th level character wearing 10 magic items, either. I imagine there's gotta be a functional middle ground in there somewhere.
But you don't give out the slippers of climbing at 20th level. You give them out at 8th level, and then they become part of a PC's schtick. That character is still wearing the same boots at 20th level, and is pretty freaking stoked because he found Bracers of Perfect Awesomeness at 20th level because it's the first arm item he's come across that really fits him.
Seriously, why are you coming at me with this tone? It's absurdly disrespectful and completely unwarranted.
Eh. It's partly to do with your post being the straw that broke the camel's back, and partly because it was 4am and I had just watched the Fox News attack on Mass Effect, so I was pretty irritated already. And honestly, that wasn't all that disrespectful as far as things go. If you want to see REAL snark, you should come to RPGnet sometime.
And yes, there is something Wizards could have done. It's something I thought they were going to do based on their comments about 4E. As I've already mentioned, I would have liked to have seen them limit the number of secondary accessory slots. Maybe three accessory slots. Characters would have the expected magic implement/armor/neck stuff that factors into the attack/damage/AC/saves math, and they'd be able to equip up to three other accessories that could do any of the wide range of secondary things 4E accessories look like they're going to do.
That's the middle ground I was hoping for, and the middle ground I was expecting with their 'Christmas shrub' comments.
Fair enough. I can see where you're coming from there, even though I would have rather disliked that option. I'd hate to see a character give up a favorite item because he just picked up his fourth accessory and had to choose between them.
And hey, at least every item a character has will be interesting now. Stuff like Shadowfell Gloves sound much more interesting than Gloves of Dexterity +4. And while I don't advocate getting rid of +1 swords and armor, at least it sounds like the vast majority of the items you find will have other extra stuff on it. I mean, just reading the item names makes me stoked for all the cool stuff my players will find.
