D&D 5E What is balance to you, and why do you care (or don't)?

[GMforPowergamers]

And in 5e, why wouldn't the Fighter just be able to use the wand? It's an item that bypasses the casting of a spell and just confers the effects like a potion. All you need to know is the command word. Unlike a spell scroll, no casting is involved.

i thought you had to have the spell on your list? am I wrong?

 

[Maxperson]

becuse rogues lost that 10-15 years ago

5e DMG page 141

A magic item, such as certain staffs, may require you to use your own spellcasting ability when you cast a spell from the item. If you have more than one spellcasting ability, you choose which one to use with the item. If you don't have a spellcasting ability-perhaps you're a rogue with the Use Magic Device feature-your spellcasting ability modifier is +O for the item, and your proficiency bonus does apply."

 

[GMforPowergamers]

If we're taking that into consideration, the Fighter is going to get the most use out of the magic sword. He gets more attacks and swinging weapons is pretty much his only thing. So the sword would go to the Fighter over the Cleric or Hexblade, both of which use things other than weapons.

if you play below 11th level the figter has 2 attacks the hexblad war cleric both get 2 attacks

 

[GMforPowergamers]

where is the Use Magic Device feature?

 

[Maxperson]

i thought you had to have the spell on your list? am I wrong?

I think that's for items that allow you to cast the spell. For items that bypass spellcasting, like potions and wands, you don't.

 

[Maxperson]

if you play below 11th level the figter has 2 attacks the hexblad war cleric both get 2 attacks

And the Cleric and Hexblade are still casting spells and using other features, so they are not always swinging. The Fighter is, so he is still going to be using the sword more, plus he gets Action Surge which = even more sword use.

 

[Lanefan]

me as a DM... I don't. with less then a handful of exceptions (including the above ring that ended a campaign, and a holy avenger I out right told the rogue he couldn't sell instead of letting the paladin have it) always let the players decid. that is the issue though. the players normally take "who can get the most out of it" more then "how can we balance the game" even if they complain about the balance.

in the boots of flying example the idea of a wizard getting flight and still having a concentration spell up will almost ALWAYS take it over a fighter getting to fly... even if for months the fighter has complained about too many flying advaceries...

WORST of all is if an argument breaks out "I need flight to keep up" "I can be invisable in the air dropping fireballs and that is WAY better then you closeing with some wyvern knights" and then people take sides and we loose a night of RP to arguments that bleed in and out of game as people take sides.

Oddly enough that almost never happens here; and this with what can otherwise be a pretty argumentative crew sometimes.

Reason: everything in the treasury (including magic items!) is evaluated and priced on returning to town, each PC gets a value share of the total; and players-as-PCs then claim items from the treasury up to what they can afford through that share and-or other previously-held resources. Conflicting claims are settled by a roll-off.

So in this case, if both the Wiz and the Fighter claimed the flight device they'd just roll off to see who got it; with the loser getting more cash to compensate - e.g. if each character's share is 10000 and the device is worth 7500, the winner would get the device + 2500 while the loser would get 10000.

99.9% of the time... that is why you can't balance a class by putting an item in unless the item ONLY WORKS for the class you need to buff "AKA Boots of flying only a fighter can attune to"

1e baked this in; there's quite a few items, even down to potions, that can only be used by a subset of classes and Do Nothing for anyone else.

 

[Maxperson]

where is the Use Magic Device feature?

I'm no longer home to look for it and haven't played or seen a rogue played in a game that I have run, so I'm not as familiar with that class as the others. It's the only one I haven't seen played. I've even seen Monks and Rangers!

I assume the ability exists because the DMG quotes it. It would be pretty bad to be quoting an ability that you didn't put into the game.

 

[Lanefan]

I have never played 1e more then a throw away game (and even then 15ish years ago)

You might want to give it a much longer look sometime, as once you dig through some extraneous complexity (e.g. weapon speed, wpn. vs armour type, its crazy initiative system) it in fact has baked-in solutions for at least some of the problems you're been raising here.

 

[Zubatcarteira]

Use Magic Device is the 13th level feature of the Rogue's Thief subclass.