Is it possible to alter magic items?

[Mercurius]

The title says it all. We're adopting a house rule that allows PCs to pay for "enhancements" of their magic items, say from a +2 to +3 weapon, but also adding specific powers, like changing a +2 frost battleaxe into a +2 vicious frost battleaxe. Is there a way to alter the magic item card in Character Builder or on the PDF of the character sheet, either the "Classic" or new version? Or do we (gasp!) have to change them the old fashioned way, by hand?

 

[Riastlin]

On the old CB you could alter the text on the magic item card, but I can't recall if it would print with the altered text or not. Not sure about the online CB though. For my group, I've generally just done it the old fashioned way as it was easiest for everyone.

/shrug

 

[Feetz]

I don't believe you can alter magic items in the CB yet. You could try Power2ool. It allows you to import from the compendium and edit items, monsters, and powers. You can then print them out.

 

[Nemesis Destiny]

If you're handy with XML, have a lot of patience, or both, you can do whatever you want in the old builder with magic items.

Other than that, I endorse Feetz suggestion to use Power2ool, because it's amazingly versatile like that, free, and super easy to use. In addition, it allows you to make items, powers, and monsters from scratch.

 

[Mercurius]

Thanks - I'll check out Power2ool.

 

[S'mon]

The standard rules for doing so are in AV.

For the CB, if you need to work out the cash, you just sell the old item AT FULL PRICE, then buy the 'new' (upgraded) item likewise. Or swap them out & calculate new cash manually.

 

[Geffor]

Lack of houserule support within the online character builder is a definite problem for us and tends to result in characters being imported into "Classic" for final tweaks if not built entirely offline. We also get prettier (to us) character sheets with power cards that incorporate the modified item stats.

Fortunately I can muddle my way through XML so most things are possible. The only issue with a Vicious Frost Battleaxe would be assessing what level item the end result should be.

 

[Nemesis Destiny]

Quick and dirty method would be to take the higher of the two enchantments and add the difference in level between the lower level enchantment and a base item of its plus. This would be a rough ballpark estimate at best.

The exact level of an item really only matters if the DM cares.

 

[Mercurius]

Quick and dirty method would be to take the higher of the two enchantments and add the difference in level between the lower level enchantment and a base item of its plus. This would be a rough ballpark estimate at best.

The exact level of an item really only matters if the DM cares.

That's pretty much what we're doing. We take the bonus as the base level: 1, 6, 11, 16, 21, 26, then all item powers are converted as a number over that base (e.g. vicious is 1, frost 2, etc); thus a vicious frost weapon +2 would be 9th level.

One could argue that simply by virtue of combining them another level should be added - and we're toying with that notion (so the above weapon would be 10th level). This makes some sense when you consider that certain combined items effects impact each other.

The reason we're doing this is that we're creating a house rule for "build your own magic items." When I get the basics worked out I'm post something.

 

[Nemesis Destiny]

That's pretty much what we're doing. We take the bonus as the base level: 1, 6, 11, 16, 21, 26, then all item powers are converted as a number over that base (e.g. vicious is 1, frost 2, etc); thus a vicious frost weapon +2 would be 9th level.

One could argue that simply by virtue of combining them another level should be added - and we're toying with that notion (so the above weapon would be 10th level). This makes some sense when you consider that certain combined items effects impact each other.

The reason we're doing this is that we're creating a house rule for "build your own magic items." When I get the basics worked out I'm post something.

I look forward to seeing it.

I like doing up items like this too, but I just eyeball level and value (I don't have much of a magic item economy in my campaign in the first place).