Advanced essentials starting characters & magic items

[Dr_Ruminahui]

For the life of me, I can't find this.

Where are the rules in essentials for equipment for a character starting at, say, level 6?

Yes, I know that it follows the same n-1/n/n+1 as set out previously - really what I want to check is whether there is any limitation based on item rarity.

Thanks in advance.

 

[godfear]

I haven't seen anything to limit this, but since the current system is supposed to simulate items the characters have acquired, I see no reason not to allow them to start with uncommon items. Rare items should probably remain within the purview of the DM.

 

[Dausuul]

For the life of me, I can't find this.

Where are the rules in essentials for equipment for a character starting at, say, level 6?

Yes, I know that it follows the same n-1/n/n+1 as set out previously - really what I want to check is whether there is any limitation based on item rarity.

Thanks in advance.

I'll have to look into this when I get home, but I would assume you're limited to common items unless your DM specifies otherwise. The whole point of uncommon and rare items is that you only get them when the DM says so.

 

[OnlineDM]

When I started my party at 5th level I didn't put any restrictions on common versus uncommon items (no rares of course). If I had it to do over again, I would probably say they get the three starting items, no more than two of which can be uncommon. If they use their extra gold to buy lower-level magic items, those would be restricted to commons.

That's just my own house rule, though.

 

[Ahrimon]

Well, 4e is an exception based system. The rules were three items (L+1/L/L-1) that you can select from any item and cash equal to an item (L-1) that you can spend however you want. No restrictions. With the recent changes, the default campaign has the restriction of no purchasing or creating uncommon or rare items.

So, unless I've missed another change, it leaves you with three items (L+1/L/L-1) that you can select from any item and cash equal to an item (L-1) that you can use to purchase common items only.

Anything else is reading too much into it in my oppinion.

Edit: Note I said default campaign. When they talked about these changes they specifically said that this was the default magic level for the PoL setting. But higher magic levels where you could create/buy uncommons or rares was fully a DM choice. I'm not sure if they've actually put any of this into the books or if it all remains just some articles from the designers, but you'll notice that even with all of the errata/changes lately they still haven't changed the create item ritual to restrict uncommons/rares. To me, this re-enforces that it is a game style choice the DM makes.

 

[Dausuul]

Well, 4e is an exception based system. The rules were three items (L+1/L/L-1) that you can select from any item and cash equal to an item (L-1) that you can spend however you want. No restrictions. With the recent changes, the default campaign has the restriction of no purchasing or creating uncommon or rare items.

So, unless I've missed another change, it leaves you with three items (L+1/L/L-1) that you can select from any item and cash equal to an item (L-1) that you can use to purchase common items only.

Anything else is reading too much into it in my oppinion.

Rare items were specifically designed to be "too good for normal gear"--in other words, they break the game if handed out freely. IIRC, the guideline was one per PC per tier. It would totally defeat the point if you started the game with 3 of them in Heroic tier.

Uncommons are subject to debate.

 

[Dr_Ruminahui]

Hmm... can anybody point me to a page in the essentials stuff where it reiterates the n-1/n/n+1($=n-1) rule? I know its in there somewhere, but I couldn't find it when I was digging for it last weekend.

 

[Ahrimon]

Rare items were specifically designed to be "too good for normal gear"--in other words, they break the game if handed out freely. IIRC, the guideline was one per PC per tier. It would totally defeat the point if you started the game with 3 of them in Heroic tier.

Uncommons are subject to debate.

They didn't break the game before. Why do they now? Is it because characters can use more than one daily item? They're still limited to three non purchased items. Not exactly what I would call game breaking. Right now the "rare" items are the same gear any character could buy at their leisure by the old way.

About the only abuse I can think of is a player grabbing three rares, selling them once play starts and buying a crap ton of commons. If I had a player do that, they'd be robbed blind at the first opportunity. Assuming I didn't just smack them upside the head for for trying to play the system and not the game.

[MENTION=81104]Dr_Ruminahui[/MENTION] -
I don't recall any rules for making a character above lvl 1 in any essentials products. As far as I'm aware, we have the rules in the DMG and web articles to update rarity, daily item use, and sort out differant campaign options. Everything else has been people putting things together and going with it.

 

[Aspeon]

They didn't break the game before. Why do they now? Is it because characters can use more than one daily item? They're still limited to three non purchased items. Not exactly what I would call game breaking. Right now the "rare" items are the same gear any character could buy at their leisure by the old way.

For the items that already existed and just had the Rare label applied to them with no changes (Holy Avenger, I'm looking at you), I totally agree. I'm hoping Wizards will be coming out with more Rare items that are interesting enough to be worth making Rare- someone posted the Staff of the Magi from the DM's Kit, which was pretty nice. (Arcana bonus, Encounter power to Dispel Magic with automatic success, and Daily to recover an expended power, I think.)

 

[Dausuul]

They didn't break the game before. Why do they now?

They didn't exist before. My understanding is that rares are all-new items, stuff that WotC had previously wanted to publish but felt constrained not to because of the consequences of PCs being able to buy them freely.

For the items that already existed and just had the Rare label applied to them with no changes (Holy Avenger, I'm looking at you), I totally agree.

I just looked up Holy Avenger in the Compendium. It says "Level 30 Uncommon."