1/day is how often, exactly?

[Magic Rub]

This "8hr" wait idea is LAME!

 

[War Golem]

This "8hr" wait idea is LAME!

Magic Rub,

I fail to see how adding an 8hr minimum wait period is any "lamer" than your proposed scenario:
For a cleric who prays at 7 AM.... use the ability at 6:59, then again at 7:01, that's ok, but if the first use is at 7:01, then you have to wait a full 24 hours?

That ruling seems too "letter of the rule" to me, and not at all "spirit of the rule."

Care to clarify?

 

[The Souljourner]

You could easily say you have to wait 24 hours between activations... that seems more letter of the law than picking a random time for the day to start/end. A magic item doesn't know what time it is, it just only has so much power it can put out on a per-time basis. It's no stretch to think you need 24 hours to recharge.

So in actual fact, the 8 hour limit was a pretty lenient compromise.

-The Souljourner

 

[0-hr]

I agree that a "letter of the law" interpretation would say that a 1/day item simply cannot ever be used twice in the same 24-hour period.

Letting it be used after 8 hours if there happens to be a magic day-changing moment in between seems like a generous offer to me.

Letting it be used twice within the span of a single minute is just plain old uber-l33t, munchkin powergaming.

 

[Magic Rub]

Letting it be used twice within the span of a single minute is just plain old uber-l33t, munchkin powergaming.

"just plain old uber-l33t, munchkin powergaming"
It is most certainly not. If every single item in your game works by that mechanic, including the ones that the "bad guys" have. Then everyone is on the same playing field, with the same advantages & disadvantages. I agree with The Souljourner, & other's. If you really want to pick it apart, you can only use item-x 1 time every 24 hours starting from the time you use it. However that way, as I had stated, can be a little annoying. The way we play works for us, 1 charge everyday. the day starts at (pick mutually agreed upon time), end of story.
How often do you really think that PC' are going to get to use item-x 2 times nearly back to back, as per my obviously sarcastic & purely demonstrative example. The DM would have to be a total idiot to have an encounter (or misc. other situation) run over that "Magic moment" when item-x recharges. At the very least it's been like 2 or 3 hours between uses for 1 time per day items, in any session that I've seen use this mechanic. And such a situation is a rare one.
I feel that, in the case of my group, people are generally responsible players who aren't out to "Power game" (screw over the DM). That there are times when item-x could be used to help the PC's in a situation. Sometimes but not often that help is needed during, for example, a late night unexpected encounter... then again the next morning during travel (only a few hours later). Depending on the item, it can be a nice fall back when spell casters are run down, & the party could use some extra help. But on the other hand the item can't be used "BACK TO BACK" like this everyday, it (the "Back to back" use idea) only works when there's a minimum of a full day's lack of use.

Originally posted by The Souljourner
So in actual fact, the 8 hour limit was a pretty lenient compromise

I obviously don't see it as a compromise at all. To me & the group that I play with, this is nothing more then an unnecessary complexity. We've modified it so that it works well for us. However I must apologise, I shouldn't have call it lame.

 

[Thanee]

That 8h period is simply to prohibit spellcasters from unloading their full spell capacity and re-memorizing them 15 minutes later.

I would also be lenient and allow an 1/day item to be used once per 24h period at pretty much any time, as long as there are at least 8h between any two uses and at least 24h between the first and the third of any three uses.

Bye
Thanee

 

[Magic Rub]

I feel that, in the case of my group, people are generally responsible players who aren't out to "Power game" (screw over the DM). That there are times when item-x could be used to help the PC's in a situation. Sometimes but not often that help is needed during, for example, a late night unexpected encounter... then again the next morning during travel (only a few hours later). Depending on the item, it can be a nice fall back when spell casters are run down, & the party could use some extra help. But on the other hand the item can't be used "BACK TO BACK" like this everyday, it (the "Back to back" use idea) only works when there's a minimum of a full day's lack of use.

Just to clarify...

Wand of summon 28.3d30 dire chickens (Once per day)
"Regen" time is set at 00:00h (midnight)

...& it goes like this...

Monday
09:00 - Wand is used when party gets attacked by magic snoopy clones.

Tuesday
- Wand is not used (just because the PC's don't use it)

Wednesday
- Wand is not used (just because the PC's don't use it)

Thursday
23:30 - Wand is used when party gets attacked by stupid magic snoopy clones again.

Friday
02:30 - Wand is used when party gets attacked by stupid magic snoopy clones again. (only a few hours later, but still in a new "Day")

22:22 - Magic Snoopy clones Attack! But the PC's can't use the wand because they've used once for this 24hr period already

Saturday
01:03 - Wand is used, stupid magic snoopy clones keep coming. They like attacking at night for some reason?

22:22 - Magic Snoopy clones Attack! But the PC's can't use the wand because they've used once for this 24hr period already

Sunday
06:00 - Wand is used, The evil lord that creates the snoopy clones is killed by the Dire chickens summoned by the wand.


Ect. ect. ect.

 

[0-hr]

I guess the problem that I see is the old Scryport at 11:59:54 followed by back-to-back chicken mayhem.

If items magically recharge at midnight, then that's going to be a common ambush time no? Won't the orcs waiting outside of camp come in at 12:01 just to mess up the defender's items? In fact, the orc shammans would probably attack so that the surprise round was at 11:59 and the first real round of combat was at 12:00 (a "day" later). The orcs get back-to-back uses while the victims get only one use. Suddenly the clan time keeper is a rather important fellow

It's just goofy. Sure it's unrealistic to know when exactly the day is going to end. And sure, "my" players would never do such a munchkin thing. But just knowing it could be done is more than I could bear in my world.

Would be nice if there were an actual rule somewhere...

 

[Magic Rub]

I guess the problem that I see is the old Scryport at 11:59:54 followed by back-to-back chicken mayhem.

If items magically recharge at midnight, then that's going to be a common ambush time no? Won't the orcs waiting outside of camp come in at 12:01 just to mess up the defender's items? In fact, the orc shammans would probably attack so that the surprise round was at 11:59 and the first real round of combat was at 12:00 (a "day" later). The orcs get back-to-back uses while the victims get only one use. Suddenly the clan time keeper is a rather important fellow

Like I said it works for us, & has never been an issue. If I ever play with any one here from the Rules forum I would use the 24 hours between every use 'rule'.

It's just goofy. Sure it's unrealistic to know when exactly the day is going to end. And sure, "my" players would never do such a munchkin thing. But just knowing it could be done is more than I could bear in my world.

Would be nice if there were an actual rule somewhere...

Sorry to hear that your mind can bear so little.

And I thought there was a rule...

Originally posted by AuraSeer
IIRC, the rule is that the total uses rest 24 hours after the first use.

Example:
My helm of teleportation lets me teleport 3 times per day. I use it once at noon on Monday, then again at sunset, then once more at midnight. At noon on Tuesday (24 hrs after the first use), it resets, and I have 3 charges available.

I think I read this in Deities & Demigods, but I wouldn't swear to that.

 

[elrobey]

The house rule that I've used for more than 20 years, and which has served me and my players quite well, is that 1/day means 12 hours between uses.

We call this "fallow time". After the item has been used, it must be idle ('lie fallow') for 12 hours before it recovers its ability.

FWIW, we use this same system for spellcasters and for magical abilities like lay on hands. That is, spellcasters in my campaign don't recover spell capability using the 3E method; they recover spell capability after any 12-hour period in which they did not use spells.

In some ways this is more generous than 1/day, but in some ways it is more harsh. Players occasionally put themselves in a position where they must choose between casting another spell (thus re-setting the 12-hour clock) or continuing to wait out the existing 12-hour clock.

Each spellcaster has his own clock. Indeed, a character with both arcane and divine magical ability has two separate clocks, one for each.

Works for us.