D&D 4E 4E Essentials: Dungeon Masters's Kit in Hand

[Blustar]

So it looks like the Holy Avenger and the Vorpal Weapon didn't change at all. However they are still decent magic weapons.

They stepped away from treasure parcels and went back to the random roll. You Roll a d20 once for each line of the table for the party's level (Not level of the encounter) So Typically you will roll once for Coin, once for gems, once for art objects, and once for magic items.

Here's an example, the treasure table for 6th-level characters looks like this:

(11+) 8d8x10 gp
(14-19) 1d4 gems worth 100gp (20+) one gem worth 500gp
(18+) 1d3 art objects worth 250gp
(13+) one magic item of level 1d4+6

You add modifiers to each roll based on the number of members of the party. For every group that has above 5 players you add +2 per player to a roll, for every group with below 5 you give the roll -2 modifier, and a nat 20 always garners the best result.

After having read the Harkenwold Adventure. Its pretty damn cool. Has quite a few cool elements in it. Good fights, Some decent skill challenges, and a really need way to handle the players helping defend a town under a massive attack. Lots of town and npc info, and side bars how to role play most of the major NPCs. Plus its got a neat Epilouge.

But how do you know which rarity to use? Are they always uncommons unless you feel like giving out a rare item? Is there a random roll to determine rarity?

 

[Pickles JG]

The Gauntlets also give a +1 bonus to Athletics and all Strength checks at one level lower than the Iron Armbands, which have no such bonus. In addition, the Gauntlets are hands slot/power bonus items. That means you can use a shield with them (occupies arms slot) or stack Bracers/Armbands (arms slot, item bonus). The increased flexibility (can be used with pretty much any build that uses Strength), lower level, and bonus makes them strictly better than the Iron Armbands, and for most Essentials builds there's going to be zero difference between the Bracers of Mighty Striking and Iron Armbands anyway.

In fact I can see Knights preferring the Gauntlets, since one-handed weapon users tend to be a little short on the damage, and tend to wear heavier armour as well, so getting +1 to mitigate your armour penalties and +2 on damage when you really need it is pretty good for a low-level Knight IMO.

You can use a shield with Iron Armbands just not a magic shield. They also provide an Item bonus while the Gauntlets power bonus will not stack with various buff powers form some leaders.

Bracers of mighty striking are now just as OP for essentials builds as you intimate.

 

[Stalker0]

Yeah the Bracers of Mighty Striking will probably be an automatic item for several essential builds.

Just as a note you can use the Gauntlets of Ogre Power with them since one is arm and the other hand slot.

 

[UngeheuerLich]

You can use a shield with Iron Armbands just not a magic shield. They also provide an Item bonus while the Gauntlets power bonus will not stack with various buff powers form some leaders.

Bracers of mighty striking are now just as OP for essentials builds as you intimate.

but maybe they were accounted for in the damage output... and we are back to:
2 points of damge more or leass doesn´t make or break a build...

 

[Falstaff]

But how do you know which rarity to use? Are they always uncommons unless you feel like giving out a rare item? Is there a random roll to determine rarity?

Only a nat 20 gets you a rare item. Odd or even determines uncommon or common.

My question is if you go through an entire treasure list and not generate any items. Do you check that treasure off as a loss or do you reroll the entire list?

 

[Plane Sailing]

I don't understand why they would make this change. This is way more complicated and I thought they were trying to make things less complicated in the Essentials line. Was there a major uproar about fixed treasure parcels that I don't remember?

I can't speak for their actual reasons, but rolling on tables (or even choosing from tables) has a long and distinguished history, and is much easier to 'get' than the concept of treasure parcels IMO and IMX.

Maybe their market research has shown that this is true more generally too?

Cheers

 

[Marshall]

I can't speak for their actual reasons, but rolling on tables (or even choosing from tables) has a long and distinguished history, and is much easier to 'get' than the concept of treasure parcels IMO and IMX.

Maybe their market research has shown that this is true more generally too?

Cheers

Nope.

Mearls is worried about his job and thinks that "retro" is the way to make the company a quick buck.

Ditching random tables was one of the BEST things 4e did. They dont and, frankly, cant work in a game does anything more than pay lipservice to balance.

 

[UngeheuerLich]

Yes, not selling anything costs a lot of people´s jobs...

Going a bit "retro" whithin the new system is very very cool. I like random tables...

and i hate parcels picked by players... i would however have liked random tables to fill out the parcels... this would be my ideal random balanced system... i want tables to roll on for each level of items. With rarity taken into account...

 

[Emertinel]

Does the adventure booklets state for what level the adventure is for?

I'm going to repeat this question, it should take 2 seconds to answer.

 

[Truename]

I don't understand why they would make this change. This is way more complicated and I thought they were trying to make things less complicated in the Essentials line. Was there a major uproar about fixed treasure parcels that I don't remember?

I analyzed the new treasure parcel system in this thread here: http://www.enworld.org/forum/4e-discussion/294059-essentials-treasure-parcels-analyzed.html

Short version: It's the same system as before, just with dice rolling and more variety. Personally, I like the new version a lot better, but then again I like rolling dice.