Do you like XP costs for magic item creation?
- Thread starter Aus_Snow
- Start date
I do not like XP costs for creating magic items. Imo, experience points should only be used to determine when a character levels and, therefore, XP costs for creating magic items (along with XP costs for spells and level drain) were a bad idea.
thedungeondelver
Adventurer
I do.
But, as I realised when posting in another thread just now (and as I wrote there) I think sometimes that I must be one of the only gamers in the world who does!
So. . . anyone else? And yeah, there's a poll - so vote!
No no a thousand times no. Let me tell you why...
If you check under the AD&D rules for magic-item creation, they effectively knock the magic-user out of the adventure for the duration of time it takes to create the item - they're already not getting XP for creating the item in the first place.
Moreover, if we look at XP as getting better at what you do, then losing your skills and abilities (or rather how well you can perform those skills and abilities) means, in a nutshell, "The more magic items I create, the dumber I get", which is ridiculous. It's like suggesting that the more computers I build, the more books I write, the more magazine columns I author, the less competent I get at it.
Nosir, don't like it, not one bit.
Darrin Drader
Explorer
Not a fan. There are better ways of balancing the ability to create magic items. The investment of time is a silly one, however, because its easy to do it between sessions, or better, time lapse the period and have nothing going on during that time anyway.
Ultimately, I like the Pathfinder method, which is where it just costs a bunch of gold. It is then up to the DM to keep the amount of gold in the campaign under control.
Ultimately, I like the Pathfinder method, which is where it just costs a bunch of gold. It is then up to the DM to keep the amount of gold in the campaign under control.
DarkKestral
First Post
Not a fan. I too think there are typically better ways of balancing items. I can at least occasionally see it in the case of things like Wish (where you're making something for 'free', so the idea of pulling out the essence of the caster in the form of XP or level drain of some sort makes sense) or in the case of artifacts and when the caster is specifically cursed, but for the everyday item, that shouldn't be the case, if it's made normally.
There need to be some mechanism that prohibits abuse of magic item manufacture. XP cost seems to be as good as any.
Time for magic item construction is really not a factor. The party mage/wizard/whatever just says "I take a month to make a magic X", while everyone else say "Oh great, I visit my dad in Belfordshire" or "I visit the gardens of Klerm to meditate on my recent adventures."
Gold really don't make a good mechanism either. If PCs don't have a lot of gold, they simply sell a couple of looted magic items. Bam. Lots of gold.
Time for magic item construction is really not a factor. The party mage/wizard/whatever just says "I take a month to make a magic X", while everyone else say "Oh great, I visit my dad in Belfordshire" or "I visit the gardens of Klerm to meditate on my recent adventures."
Gold really don't make a good mechanism either. If PCs don't have a lot of gold, they simply sell a couple of looted magic items. Bam. Lots of gold.
Treebore
First Post
I found time to be a great way to keep them from manufacturing items. They could only do so between adventures. Beyond that gold is also a good way to control it.
If I wanted more then I think doing it "old school" where they lose a point of CON is a good one. Say for each item made they lose a point of CON that cannot be restored or regained for a campaign year. The DM can rule that being a in game year, or a year of actual gaming time.
Another limitation is saying a character can only make 1+CON bonus items in a given year. IF they go beyond that they permanently lose 2 CON points, non restorable.
Much better ways than spending XP's.
Similar Threads
