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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Ahnehnois" data-source="post: 6322103" data-attributes="member: 17106">Yes, this is a rather enormous problem. The Christmas Tree effect, and the sense of treating magic items as an assumed part of character abilities.It's also a problem with regards to the distribution of magic items. One of the first assumptions I made (and I think I'm not the only one) is that if the things that are now called the "big six" are core to the character, they should progress from minimum to maximum over twenty levels. That is to say, a level 20 fighter should have a +10 sword and armor and shield, +6 ability enhancements to all abilities, and maxed deflection, natural armor, and resistance. As a basic starting point. Then you'd have consumables and fill the other available slots and have some spare change (plus an accounting for all the losses you incurred by selling things on the market over the years). And then take that a prorate it over the previous 19 levels.Which does not comport with what they call "expected wealth by level", not by a long shot. So the problem is a contradiction in guidelines.It would certainly be nice.However, that is a big ask. The 4e solution was, as I understand it, to make magic items not particularly useful and to create this weird kind of fudging with the inherent bonuses.You go back to the old school conception of a belt of giant strength, it gave you the strength of the specified giant, regardless of where you started. This had enormous balance implications; it created a huge swing in character power and an incentive for certain types of min/maxing cheese. In 3e, you move to +X ability items. This nerfs them to some extent and makes the character's base stats more relevant, but they're still fundamentally useful. A fighter with a belt of strength is simply better than one without such an item. On some level, the solution must be to either make that statement false or remove the availability of that bonuses altogether. Given how much D&D players enjoy accumulating genuinely powerful magic items, that's a tall order.</blockquote>

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