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General Tabletop Discussion
*TTRPGs General
About the myth or fact (?) of needing magical items
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<blockquote data-quote="delericho" data-source="post: 2503242" data-attributes="member: 22424"><p>One other thing about this: they have to be the <em>right</em> weapons. If the fighter is specialised in the use of the spiked chain, then supplying him with a magic longsword is of little use - he has to choose between using a non-magic weapon or not using some of his most powerful feats. This in turn requires the DM to either place a magic spiked chain in the treasure where he probably would not have done so otherwise (possibly stretching versimilitude), allow the fighter to buy such an item, but not others (likewise), or prevent the fighter from getting a magical version of his weapon of choice (and thus penalising the fighter relative to the wizard). If the latter approach is taken, the player of the fighter is essentially forced to guess which weapons are going to have magical versions available, and must do so early in the game (since Exotic Weapon Proficiency is one of the best feats to take at 1st level, and Weapon Focus is a feat he'll want to take early as well).</p><p></p><p>By contrast, the wizard has the ability to make whatever magic items he wants. Even if the DM disallows the choice of many of the magic item creation feats, they must exist in some form for the items to exist at all. If they're available, the wizard has control over just what items he makes, which is always preferable to the hit-and-miss approach of getting what you find*. It is true that the wizard could make items for the fighter to use. However, that is at the whim of the wizard's player, which in turn makes his character more powerful.</p><p></p><p>* Compare with the difference between 4d6 drop lowest and 25-point buy for stat generation. 4d6 is likely to result in higher stats over all, but with less control. By contrast, point buy leads to slightly lower stats, but more control, which tends to lead to more power overall, as it allows the designation of a 'dump stat' where 4d6 might not.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="delericho, post: 2503242, member: 22424"] One other thing about this: they have to be the [I]right[/I] weapons. If the fighter is specialised in the use of the spiked chain, then supplying him with a magic longsword is of little use - he has to choose between using a non-magic weapon or not using some of his most powerful feats. This in turn requires the DM to either place a magic spiked chain in the treasure where he probably would not have done so otherwise (possibly stretching versimilitude), allow the fighter to buy such an item, but not others (likewise), or prevent the fighter from getting a magical version of his weapon of choice (and thus penalising the fighter relative to the wizard). If the latter approach is taken, the player of the fighter is essentially forced to guess which weapons are going to have magical versions available, and must do so early in the game (since Exotic Weapon Proficiency is one of the best feats to take at 1st level, and Weapon Focus is a feat he'll want to take early as well). By contrast, the wizard has the ability to make whatever magic items he wants. Even if the DM disallows the choice of many of the magic item creation feats, they must exist in some form for the items to exist at all. If they're available, the wizard has control over just what items he makes, which is always preferable to the hit-and-miss approach of getting what you find*. It is true that the wizard could make items for the fighter to use. However, that is at the whim of the wizard's player, which in turn makes his character more powerful. * Compare with the difference between 4d6 drop lowest and 25-point buy for stat generation. 4d6 is likely to result in higher stats over all, but with less control. By contrast, point buy leads to slightly lower stats, but more control, which tends to lead to more power overall, as it allows the designation of a 'dump stat' where 4d6 might not. [/QUOTE]
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