A "Rare Magic" Idea

[Kid Charlemagne]

I've been mulling over ideas to try and recapture a little bit more flavor in magic in D&D, and have a couple of ideas I'd like some feedback on.

I want to make magical items more mysterious, dangerous - as well as useful. It's a hassle to try and do that for every +1 sword. In essence, my solution is to define the problem away by making a large number of the minor magical items (under 20,000 gp in value, perhaps - I'm brainstorming here) non-magical, but still basically identical in game mechanics.

I was inspired by the old 1st edition idea that certain magical weapons of X power were made of Y metal - for example, +3 weapons being made of meteoric iron. So instead of a fighter having a +3 longsword, they might have a non-magical sword made of meteoric iron - that does +3 to hit and +3 to damage. Instead of potions being magical, they'd be alchemical mixtures. Instead of a cloak of elvenkind giving bonuses from being magical, it'd be because it's made by master elven craftsmen. And so on and on.

This is a very nebulous idea at the moment, and I'm posting it to start up discussion. My goal is to try to add flavor to the game wherever possible - without adding complication.

Along the same lines - has anyone done any work on a "advantages/disadvantages" type of magical item creation system? For example, if your +4 sword occasionally causes you to go berserk, that would tend to reduce its value, but not negate it entirely like an ordinary cursed sword -2 might.


Thoughts?

 

[Vorput]

Not a bad idea... I too sometimes find the proponderance of magic in D&d sort of irritating... but that doesn't stop me from using it, as low magic settings are sort of meh.

What I've found better (and what i hear Eberron does), is limit the amount of people who make magic items... i.e. there are very few wizards above 9-10th level in my campaign world, which makes certain magical items VERY hard, if not impossible, to get.

You simply set a standard limit on items PCs can buy (either by caster level, or gold piece limit), and then generate a few high level crafters across the world. It makes getting that item an adventure in itself, as there's a small chance the caster won't even see you, or will demmand some incredible service (i.e. not gold), or will just disintigrate you where you stand for interupting an experiemnt he was working on.

This make things a bit more believable, and while it requires looking at the random treasure tables a bit more closely, it also makes feats like craft X a lot more useful to PCs...

Now I'm not sure how hepful the above is- so as to the different types of materials sort of mimicking different magical items/effects, I think this might be a very workable solution. The PC who finds a +2 waraxe, which is +2 due to the rare metal it's formed out of tempered by a legendary smith of old is going to see it in a slightly different light than just a +2 melee weapon. It would be a lot of mechanics and such to work it all out, but could be worth it. You'll have to figure out things like damage reduction, and the gold cost of these materials too of course. Just my slightly more than two cents.

Oh, and the good being offset by bad thing... not the kind of thing I'd make super-commonplace, but the occasional now and then would be cool.

Vorp

 

[Kid Charlemagne]

Incidentally - this should actually be in House Rules. Mod! Help!

 

[Kid Charlemagne]

Never mind - just close it and I'll open a new one myself.

 

[Umbran]

Moderator: Closed at OP's request