..And it has 32 charges left!

[cmanos]

3x5 cards that you keep with your gaming stuff. When a PC uses an item, you might need to find the card, but then the player doesn't know how many charges are left, etc.

this is exactly what I was goimng to suggest. You can put what the item is, what it does, who owns it and how many charges it has left. If it has charges, put a number of boxes on it equal to the charges and mark them off whenever used.

 

[Voodoo]

Next time the party finds a hoard of treasure have it include a magical parchment that, once a day, identifies an item left undisturbed on it for 1 hour. When the parchment is found it will have identified itself, so they don't have to get it identified.

Then let the players keep track of charges

(This item could be made by someone with the Magic domain for 2,400gp if you go by the DMG formula (i think))

 

[diaglo]

another thing i've done when the player hasn't gone to the expense of using identify is just to say their are runes on the stick. and after each use part of the runes vanish. soon none exist. and no charges left either.

makes for a good, quick meter/gauge for the PCs.

this goes with a puzzle instead of playing cards... kiddie puzzles with 50 pieces/charges or less

along with the puzzle and to go back to the card idea.. as DM pick a particular card or piece and say if/when they hand you that piece... the charges are all gone. it makes the random nature of the charged item even more random... plus it keeps the player guessing.

 

[Piratecat]

If the wand has roughly 20 charges, I'll sometimes roll a d20 and declare it exhausted when I roll a "1". This means no bookkeeping whatsoever, but it doesn't jibe well with identify.

 

[leporidae]

I was even lazier, I ruled that a mage could detect how many charges were left in a standard magic item by handling it and concentrating. Then I let the players keep track of charges - to keep them on their toes I'd occasionally ask how many were left.

I also kept a 3x5 card with important information on each player, which I would use to keep track of charges for any unusually powerful items. But it's too much work to keep track of every wand of cure light wounds for each player, at least in a campaign where magic items are relatively common.

Do you track how many arrows each player uses during combat?

 

[shadowbloodmoon]

Here's one...

I use this same one for all ammunition too. For each ten rounds of ammo bought or each ten charges on an item, I give the player a d10. Whenever they shoot or use an item, they roll one of those d10s. If it comes up a one, they lose it, subtracting that d10 from their ammo/ charge pool. Once they are out of d10s, they are out of ammo/ charges. It seems to work okay and it covers the 50% recovery of ammo pretty well too, I think. Also, as far as charged items go, if it takes two or three charges to activate a power, then the threshold goes to 1-2 or 1-3 respectively.


Edit: Added bit about more charges.

 

[Psychic Warrior]

I use this same one for all ammunition too. For each ten rounds of ammo bought or each ten charges on an item, I give the player a d10. Whenever they shoot or use an item, they roll one of those d10s. If it comes up a one, they lose it, subtracting that d10 from their ammo/ charge pool. Once they are out of d10s, they are out of ammo/ charges. It seems to work okay and it covers the 50% recovery of ammo pretty well too, I think. Also, as far as charged items go, if it takes two or three charges to activate a power, then the threshold goes to 1-2 or 1-3 respectively.


Edit: Added bit about more charges.

AAAAHHH! You've managed to put dice pools into D&D! Bad DM! BAD!


I use the 3X5 index cards but usually just tell people how many charges are left in it. I collect character sheets after each session so if I don;t see those charges being used up (when I know the item is being used) then I might 'accidentally' erase 10 or 15 of them.

 

[Trainz]

Have the player roll a d6 and a d8 at the same time. If they both come up "1", the wand is exhausted.

There is a 1 in 48 chance of this happening. Close enough to 50.

 

[Klaus]

I would like advice on handling the nuber of remaining charges on magic items.

If a player has a Wand of Dundruff that she uses EVERY game session I can keep decent track. What I have trouble with is keeping track of items that are rarely used.

One of my players has a Brooch of MM Shielding that absorbs whatever number of damage from MMs(looted form a body of a long time rival). I have resorted to telling her how many HP it has left to absorb. This covers my problem of keeping track but I feel as if I have cheated the player by taking away any sense of mystery or surprise.

Has anyone come up with a good method? That removes the burden and surprise form the player for infrequently used items?

A printable sheet with magic item notes for DMs? This would be a huge boon for me as I am unorganized in a 'gamma ray exposed, genetically altered slob' way.

Knowledge (arcana) check. DC = 30 + item's caster level. Success indicates the character knows some bits about the item (after all, wizards study this all the time). If the character has the appropriate Item Creation feat, he gains a +5 bonus on checks to identify items he could create with that feat.

For instance, in the case of the brooch:

This is an ornament or brooch of sorts. It is has a cold steel frame holding a shield-shaped gem. There are tiny cracks on the gem.

(This is what the DM knows) Each crack is a spent charge, when the gem suffers its 99th crack, it shatters and the brooch is useless (but a new gem can be cut to fit and the brooch becomes a nonmagical ornament).

 

[Li Shenron]

Has anyone come up with a good method? That removes the burden and surprise form the player for infrequently used items?

If you want to keep the surprise, I'm afraid the only was is to keep a good secret sheet with all those charges left That usually isn't a great burden.

Otherwise the simplest random method is probably to roll a die equal to the number of (supposed) initial charges.

For example, let's say your party finds one magic wand, which has a maximum of 50 charges. You can suppose that on the average that wand would have 25 charges left when it is found. Everytime they use the wand you roll a d25: on a 2-25 the wand works normally, and on a "1" the wand still works but that will be the last charge; the average results (of a large number of similar wands) is that the wands function for 25 times and are empty at the 26th activation.

While the method works on the averages, it is not the same as keeping track exactly because it is possible that a wand would strike more than 50 charges. Not that I think this would be a problem, actually it's even more surprise if it happens