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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Blue" data-source="post: 8079860" data-attributes="member: 20564">So, I am interested in changing the flavor of charged magic items for a campaign to be a less dependable and more likely to be expended, and also slow down the pace of recharge some to match specific campaign needs.  (Don't worry, I do know that this will have an effect on the value of charged items, assume this will be balanced out in treasure acquisition - I plan on being able to give out more and at earlier levels.)I was thinking that I would remove the number of charges, and replace it with a die (the size roughly dependent on the number of charges of the item). When charges are used, a number of dice equal to the number of charges are rolled. If a 1 comes up, the item is Enervated. If two or more 1s come up, the item is depleted and fails (as running out of charges and rolling a 1 on the d20). Max charges used for items with variable usage like the Wand of Magic Missiles is the original charge limit (often 7).If an item is Enervated, it may only spend 1 charge at a time, and rolls a d4 for it.  On another result of a 1, the item is depleted and fails.An item recovers from Enervated state in various ways that will match the campaign theme, often via an active thematic task as opposed to just passage of time, but less often than the every day that charges regenerate at.Example with a heavy charge item: Wand of Magic MissileUsing 7 of 7 charges from a fully charged Wand of Magic Missile in a single action was maximum damage output, once every couple of days, with a 5% chance of destruction.  6 of 7 charges was a way to maximize damage without chance of destruction.With this, using 6 charges gives a 1/3 chance of no 1s, which means it can be used again just as hard the next round.  It has a ~40% chance of being Enervated, be the equivalent of that 1 charge left, and a 27% chance of just failing.So while the chance of failure is much higher, the chance that it's fine to use again the next round exceeds it, something the original doesn't have.Example with a light charge item: Staff of CharmingThe Staff of Charming has 10 charges, and nothing uses more than 1. Giving it a d8 instead of a d6 would mean that there is no chance to go from fine to failure, and we would expect a lot of uses before it gets Enervated.Example with low charges: Ring of the Ram.Has 3 charges normally, so only 2 uses before chance of failure with the normal item.  Has two uses, each which uses 1-3 charges.  With this system, using all 3 gives a 27/64 chance of being perfectly fine, an equal chance of being Enervated, and a 10/64 chance of failing.Using only two charges gives a 9/16th that it's fine, 6/16 that it's Enervated, and a time 1/16 chance it fails.  So, normally that wouldn't be a chance of failure, but also it's got a better than half chance it's just fine and can be used again.Hmm, the more I look at my examples, I worry that this is actually making the items more powerful by allowing more potential for high usage in short timeframe - if you are pulling out consumable items, odds are being able to use them at full strength multiple actions in a row would be a significant boon.Thoughts?  Improvements?  Pitfalls?  (Please try to focus on the mechanic, not about the campaign thematic to be less reliable.)</blockquote>

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