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Enchanted Trinkets Complete--a hardcover book containing over 500 magic items for your D&D games!

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Message: <blockquote data-quote="kenjib" data-source="post: 740443" data-attributes="member: 530">Several limiting factors on magic item creation:1.  Some of these mechanics do not have GP cost.  There are guidelines for the amount of wealth both PCs and NPCs should have relative to their level.2.  Because only some characters can create items, and because of the not insubstantial feat investment required, it is unlikely that more than one person in the party will be doing this.  Therefore, if the party wizard (for example) makes lots of magic items he will be penalized by being lower level than his companions.  Average party level will remain higher than his current level, meaning that the wizard will not benefit from XP-feedback loop, since XP is still calculated based on the level he could have been had he not created the items.  Allowing everyone to do it allows everyone to stay the same level, making this drawback meaningless thanks to the CR guidelines and the XP-feedback loop will kick into full swing.3.  The fact that the magic item creator will be lower level than his compatriots also serves as a psychological limiter.  Peer pressure and competition pressure make it uncomfortable to always be lower level than everyone else.4.  The benefits are usually spread throughout the group, as the wizard would probably not make items only for himself.  Therefore he pays all of the cost, but gains only some of the benefits and often only through association.  This is important, and because of this I am also against house rules I have seen that allow other people to "donate" XP to a magic item creator.5.  The fact that the magic item creator will be lower level than his compatriots also means that he will be less effective against the foes his party faces since he will be facing CR's higher than his level instead of the equality that would happen if everyone had stayed a level behind.  Example:  He is 6th level, everyone else is 7th.  The average party level is 7th so they fight CR 7 monsters for a typical encounter.  Because of this, he will have fewer spells and lower level spells (no access to 4th level spells in this case) than he should to face such an encounter, and lack other benefits such as SR penetration, and all the other benefits of levelling.On a tangent -- I don't like the use of XP in currency for magic items either.  I think that, as well, is a kludge in the d20 system at best.  That's a different topic though, because while it does have some of these problems, they do not have the same potential for abuse due to the limitations listed above.</blockquote>

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