Andy Collins: "Most Magic Items in D&D Are Awful"

[I'm A Banana]

Partly this just shows to me just how narrow most DM's campaigns must be if the good stuff basically just means, "What helps me most often in a straight up pitched conflict" Where are the rings of featherfall? The water breathing items? The necklaces of adaptation? The items confering energy resistance? Where are the items that confer flight?

As it sits now, if you want someone to use a ring of feather falling instead of a +1 weapon, you have to have them being dealt falling damage at least as often as they are swinging a sword to hit.

THEN, it's worth it.

 

[Shroomy]

Most Wondrous Items (and the problem is mostly with Wondrous Items) that are not part of the Big Six just kind of suck (at least those in the DMG). They are too niche orientated, they often do not have interesting abilities, and they are way overpriced for the benefits received. Reducing the associated costs would make it easier for DMs to justify adding them to NPC equipment/treasure, it would reduce the amount of gold that PCs could generate by selling items, and would encourage PCs to create niche items when and if they are needed. Personally, I don't see a much of an issue here, but I will reserve judgement until I actually get a chance to see the Magic Item Compendium.

 

[Remathilis]

I'm surprised that the big six is missing bags of holding or other such devices.

They seem to be amid the top three in my local gaming.

Throw in a few more common items, such as the bag of holding, boots of striding and springing (though the “springing” part’s wasted on most folks), maybe a metamagic rod or two, a smattering of easily forgotten potions and scrolls, and of course the omnipresent wands of cure light wounds—and you’ve probably covered 80% or more of the average PC’s gear list.

Sadly that about sums me up. I mean, which would you rather have in MOST D&D situations?

* Cloak of Resistance or Cloak of Elvenkind?
* Boots of Striding & Springing or Boots of the North?
* Gloves of Dexterity or Glove of Storing?
* Amulet of Natural Armor or Amulet of Proof vs. Detection?
* Belt of Giant Str or Belt of Dwarvenkind?
* Ring of Protection or A Ring of Mind Shielding?

See? The First items are useful to JUST ABOUT everyone, the latter are much more specific to a particular situation or character and hence not a normally as useful.

 

[DungeonMaester]

I agree comletely - I find D&D's magic items to be dull, mechanical boosters,

I agree as well. This is why only:

Wands
Staves
Scrolls
Potions
Wonderous items (Flying carpets, bag of holding and such)
And like items

Are things one can buy in shops. Anything else (Such as +1 vorpal swords) have to be acquired in a complicated manner. They could be Legacy weapons of a Hero of a Church or a King, Forged by a Hermit in the mountains, or lost in a ancient battle field. Even then there are no items that that empower scores directly, (Such as bracelets of Ogre strength) but indirectly through flavor. (A Necklaces that contains the spirit of a dead barbarian which causes involuntary rage)

---Rusty

 

[Wulf Ratbane]

However, I don't like the scathingly negative tone that Andy is using. Hindsight is 20/20, but he's using it to denigrate the work done by himself, his co-workers, and his company. They did the best they could given the information they had at the time.

Wow, did I read the same article?

If new data has become available, that doesn't warrant publicly skewering them to promote sales of a new product.

New data, or the addition of Mike Mearls to the development team? I don't know how much Mearls absorbed from Monte during the creation of Iron Heroes, but the parallels between Andy's article and the products Mearls has already developed are obvious.

Personally, I wish that the game was balanced from the class side. If the Big Six are necessary to compete, then either increase the statistical progressions of the classes, or scale back the monsters.

Why not just have magic weapons/armor/gauntlets/cloaks scale with power automatically as the user's level increases? Then the statistical advantage of the item is an afterthought, and players can begin to appreciate magic items for their additional "quirky" powers and not have to discard them or trade them out as they level up.

Take, for example, the Sword of the Sirene... It's a +1 short sword, waterbreathing. At 6th level, its bonus increases to +2. It's part of the character's lore; he has a sword that allows him to breathe underwater!-- and he's not compelled to trade it in for the short sword +3 in another 4 levels or so.

 

[LightPhoenix]

My first thought, when I read the introduction was the (supposed) mantra for feat and prestige class balance - if you would always take it, it's probably near to, if not broken. Now, I don't necessarily think that the "big six" are broken, but if they are always being taken, that would seem to suggest that the problem isn't with the other magical items that suck, but with the "big six" that are too good.

I also didn't really like the tone of the article. There was, of course, the prevalent idea of the magic shop. I think the biggest mistake WotC made with 3E was assigning a GP value to items. I would have liked them to instead give a general guide as to what level an item might be appropriate to give out. Also, the article seemed to discount some of the more meta ideas. For one, that GMs are making up their own items and not using the ones in the book, for whatever reason. For another, that items are acquired (found or bought) as a character grows in level... so incidental items might mean more. For a third, maybe that the vast majority of items in the books are simply boring - either stat boosts or items that mimic spells or feats.

 

[Victim]

Partly, this just shows to me the problem inherent in making magic items comodities which can be freely sold or purchased at thier value.

Partly this just shows to me just how narrow most DM's campaigns must be if the good stuff basically just means, "What helps me most often in a straight up pitched conflict" Where are the rings of featherfall? The water breathing items? The necklaces of adaptation? The items confering energy resistance? Where are the items that confer flight?

Partly this is just hyberbole. The situation is not nearly so bad as he suggests for the purposes of the article, as I don't believe that lots of other classics are truly gone from the game nor do I believe that the list he presented truly represents a great departure from earlier editions of the game except to the extent that in earlier editions of the game you were much less likely to be able to fill up your slots they way you ideally wanted to. I can remember having 10th and 12th level characters with open slots and weapons not really more powerful than those possessed by 6th and 7th level characters in this edition.

Some needs can be met more efficiently through other means. Resist Energy lasts a pretty long time, scales with level, and is low level. At higher levels, it's easy to slap it on pretty much everyone. At even higher levels, Energy Immunity lasting 24 hours can be applied well in advance. But with items, you're paying 12k+ for weakest level of effect on resist energy. Why pay tons of money for stuff you can probably get for free - and customized for the situation at hand?

Moreover, if you have high saves, you already take less damage from most energy effects - not that resistance isn't helpful on top of saves. The main items tend to spill over into other areas. With a Con booster, you not only have more HP, but also a better chance of resisting the poison gas that a necklace of adaptation saves you from, and you can hold your breath for a longer period of time. Sure, it's not absolute like the specialized item, but the big items can often help in both overall combat and in narrow cases. That's why they're the main priorities after all.

Similarly, potions can handle quite a few situational needs. If breathing water doesn't come up that much, then keep a potion for emergencies. If the situation comes up, the potion can probably save your life, and if it doesn't, then you don't have a decent chunk of your assets locked up in something that doesn't help you.

I'd agree with those who suggest that some kind of X-D storage item is also part of the general loadout. There's usually some kind of bag or hole for big things (often as a group item), plus a few HHH scattered throughout the group to carry their personal gear without encumberance or access problems.

 

[GSHamster]

Restricting what items players can buy or sell is a band-aid solution at best.

Remember that characters can craft items. If you just give them the unusual stuff, they're going to craft the more useful stuff.

I once ran a campaign where I didn't give out a lot of magical items, so the party ended up making most of their gear. And the stuff they made was the Big Six items, for the most part.

Restricting bought items means nothing unless you restrict creating items. And honestly, preventing characters from crafting items seems kind of lame.

 

[Ed_Laprade]

I'm surprised that the big six is missing bags of holding or other such devices.

They seem to be amid the top three in my local gaming.

Absolutely. Most of the people I've played with grab a Heward's Handy Haversack as soon as possible. (Me too!)

 

[Wulf Ratbane]

Absolutely. Most of the people I've played with grab a Heward's Handy Haversack as soon as possible. (Me too!)

The average player doesn't take HHH because they play like this:
http://www.shamusyoung.com/twentysidedtale/?p=984