D&D 3.x [3.5] Boots of springing and striding.

[reapersaurus]

oh... gads!!
I can't believe they STILL have this problem in 3.5E?!

By following their rules, a person would quite simply make Boots of Expeditious Retreat for 4K, and get a much better benefit than their pre-made Boots of S&S?

Please... someone... tell me they didn't do it again.

What I'm specifically referring to is the cop-out that "Just because it looks like you should be able to make Boots of Exp.Retreat for 4,000, that doesn't mean you actually can make them.... since 'the benefit far outweighs the cost'."

That is really the biggest load of BS, to have to pull a Jedi Mind Trick with their own rules ("These aren't the magic items you're looking for - these ones are much too cheap to have been made by the rules...").
I think we have all gotten so used to it, we forget that these items are not caused be people trying to be munchkin, or power-gaming... Heck, why CAN'T someone make a Ring of Shield for low cost, big-benefit?

Is there anything to stop this in the rules for 3.5E, or did they not think that was something they needed to clean up, despite their statement that they were going to clean up magic item creation?

 

[James McMurray]

Can you create a system that works to uniformly generate magic item costs in a fair manner for all spells and effects of all levels? I know I sure can't. Until some genius comes along and does it, we'll have to rely on DM intervention to ensure that the system doesn't get abused.

From what I've heard though, the item pricing guidelines are definitely stricter, as they include spell duration as a factor now, making 1 round per level spells harder to make permanent than 1 hour per level spells.

 

[drnuncheon]

oh... gads!!
I can't believe they STILL have this problem in 3.5E?!

By following their rules, a person would quite simply make Boots of Expeditious Retreat for 4K, and get a much better benefit than their pre-made Boots of S&S?

Please... someone... tell me they didn't do it again.

The question is, is this a problem with the magic item creation system, or the relative balance of expeditious retreat and longstrider?

J

 

[KenM]

What really gets me is if you go with what it says in the 3rd ed DMG, and the 3.5 DMG, the 3.5 boots are alot less powerful, and cost twice as much.

 

[James McMurray]

Which is just as it should be. The original boots were way overpowered for their price.

 

[drnuncheon]

Which is just as it should be. The original boots were way overpowered for their price.

Agreed, even at the 6000 gp eratta'ed price.

J

 

[KenM]

Which is just as it should be. The original boots were way overpowered for their price.

Yes, but the new ones are too expensive for what they do.

 

[James McMurray]

I disagree. I think +10 speed is well worth it for an already slow character. The difference between 20' per round and 30' per round could be 2 rounds worth of moving to get into melee.

 

[drnuncheon]

Yes, but the new ones are too expensive for what they do.

Only because you're used to the old, too-good version, I think. Really, 5500 is not that much. It's still solidly in the arena of minor magic items. Look at the other ones around that level - wind fan? Murlynd's spoon? I think the boots beat those out rather soundly. The bag of holding's good though.

J

 

[reapersaurus]

Oh, come on now - stop that.

you're actually comparing it to WIND FAN ??!

You guys have truly lost objectivity if you're comparing it to Wind Fan for justifying its current price.
That alone shows how terribly underpowered it sounds now.
I won't render my personal opinion, since I don't have the books, and therefore an incomplete understanding of the skills/magic item thing in 3.5E.

As a guideline, though, I wholeheartedly advocate decreasing the power of magic items - they were too dominating in 3E.
It became not so much what you can do, but what you possess.