Reduced Reliance on Magic Items?

[Cwheeler]

I'm looking on running a couple of games where the static bonuses provided by magic items are incorporated into character progression. Magic items will still provide powers, but not enhancement bonuses.

Has anyone tried implementing anything like this?

Any tips and advice would be appreciated.

 

[Kzach]

In the group I'm GM'ing for at the moment we're trying such a system. We're only at 1st-level though so can't really say how it's panned out but my hope is that the players start focusing more on character development rather than item acquisition.

The system I'm using gives all PC's a cumulative +1 bonus to attacks, damage and defences as well as a +1d6 critical strike damage bonus at 1st, 6th, 11th, 16th, 21st and 26th-levels.

All magical item bonuses to hit, damage and defences are removed entirely.

Items that increase the critical strike damage bonus still do so but only once per magical item plus. So if a character has a +1 vicious longsword and they're 6th-level, then they would get a bonus of +1d12 and +1d6 to the critical damage amount rather than +2d12.

I also go a step further and remove the need for the Expertise feats as I don't believe in having 'feat taxes'. To compensate for this I use Masterwork Weapons & Implements. These work by giving a bonus to hit for those who have the ability to take advantage of the property. The bonus can be up to +3 however each bonus is also tier-based. Up to 10th-level, a person can only ever benefit from +1 of a masterwork items bonus, up to 20th-level they can benefit from up to +2 and 21st and beyond can benefit from up to +3.

All magical items are masterwork however not all masterwork items are magical.

This also changes the dynamics of items in the game because you can give out masterwork swords galore to the PC's enemies and it doesn't create the '+1 longsword monty haul dilemma" because as prized as masterwork items would be, they're only as valuable as the person that wields them, which reduces your market significantly.

 

[Cwheeler]

Good to see that I'm not the only person thinking along these lines.

Your system looks simple and straight-forwards. I like it.

Interesting idea on the masterwork weapons. How are you pricing them?

 

[Stalker0]

I would use Kzach's method as a baseline.

The only alternation you may use is add a little bit of extra AC for heavy armors to account for masterwork armors (if you use AV).

 

[Cwheeler]

I think I'll just give a +1 to AC at 5, 10, 15, 20, 25, 30..

Also, rather than making masterwork weapons, I may just reduce monster defenses by 1/tier. (As was suggested by garthanos in this thread: http://www.enworld.org/forum/d-d-4th-edition-rules/259514-disarm-d-d-4th-edition-4.html )

 

[Alisair Longreach]

I give the PCs in my campaign a +1 level bonus at each and every level while removing all magic item bonuses and banning Expertise feats.

Critical damage is one die per five levels.

No level bonus to Initiative and skill checks.

PCs also get full level bonus to damage on all powers to speed up combat while monsters get 1/2 level bonus to damage for balance.

 

[Garthanos]

I never much pictured the weapons doing too much of your aiming for you so I have considered most of them only give an attack damage bonus at full on +1 to +6 enhancement.
A few exceptions may exist but those have there own skill level which you can swap out with yours for determining the attack rating. They become outdated on there own.

 

[Garthanos]

What if we sneaked in a tone down for the Ranger twin strike and other multi-attack actions... by making some of these bonuses we are re-arranging apply only to one attack per round?

 

[Cwheeler]

I think I've figured out how do reduce magic item dependency even further:

Every second level, choose a magic item of your level or lower. Play as if you are using that item.

You may only use one weapon, implement or armor enchantment at a time. You may switch between weapon or implement enchantments as a standard action, and may switch between armor enchantments during an shot rest.

The normal rules for item slots apply.

You may retrain which enchantments you have. You may not exceed the original level of an enchantment.

Why am I doing this? Several reasons:

Firstly, because I've already removed '+' based bonuses from items and incorporated them into character progression, which means that most of the pricing for magic weapons and armor is obsolete.

Secondly, the part of adventure design that I dislike the most is going through and peppering it with magic items. It seems like quite an arbitrary process, and sometimes runs counter to the story I'm trying to tell.

Thirdly, it means I can reduce the amount of monetary treasure that I need to hand out, making the game more realistic, and removing the feeling that the adventurers are walking around with the Gross Domestic Product of several small nations.

Fourthly, my players love choosing new things when they level up! Giving them this system to play with is going to be like a mini Christmas!

 

[Garthanos]

Thirdly, it means I can reduce the amount of monetary treasure that I need to hand out, making the game more realistic, and removing the feeling that the adventurers are walking around with the Gross Domestic Product of several small nations.

Changing the game economy from gold based to silver might get you part of the way this part is a perceptual, thing - other games I have seen had a coin called a bronze in between copper and silver. I have some problem with relative costs that the above wont fix but shrug.