Are +skill items overpowered?

[BBrendolfus]

Oh for sure Coredump I do use some house rules, mainly skewing stat and hit point generation to a more generous average , yes it's true...

In regard to your second paragraph, the exotic materials is a good idea to control magic item creation. IMC, magic items for sale are always done through private channels, buyer beware .

Rather than X gold+xp, I'll require an appropriately bothersome to find item. To date I am guilty of just saying "cross off time/resource". My players don't do things much if it seems a hassle, e.g. they view teleport with much suspicion after 2 flukey stuff-ups, even with the party wizard assurances.

 

[Shard O'Glase]

i just make sure that there is an apprpriate spell dor the items, invis for +hide items etc. If no appropriate spell they have to research a spell, and sometimes there class may be incapable of creating a spell that would apply. Heck I might be so anal that for a +use magic device item the only people capable of inventing the apprpriate spell are cleics with the magic domain.

The cost in researching a new spell and the time involved is enough of a limiter for me.

 

[Al]

The ones that got me were the Charisma based skills. Ring of Jumping? No problem. Cloak of Elvenkind? Sure. But Potion of Glibness? No way!

The fact is, that for a skill like Bluff, where you are opposing someone of roughly equal level, a +30 is just plain silly. You can do the whole lamassu and halfling jazz and still have a +10 left over at the end. If you've got Skill Mastery, take 10 and an opponent with an equivalent base bonus will need to roll a natural 20 to not believe the lamassu/halfling thing.

Diplomacy is just as bad: sauntering round turning everybody into your best friend, even hardened bad guys, is a DM's nightmare. I rule that certain NPCs can't be smooth-talked (for whatever reason), but still...

Oh, and the infamous UMD is in there too.

So, really, it depends on the skill. Most of them I see no problem with, but social buffing items I tend to place a higher priority on: I don't mind +4 or so, but a +20 I'd deem coming on for Minor Artifact status.

 

[Mordeth]

OK. You're a jerk. Relax, dude. You're takin' this too seriously.

ACK! Please dont speak to him so! Last time he got berated, we had to fight hasted illusioned rust monsters that looked like trolls!

Seriously, I can see the problem with +30 in certain skills at low levels.

I dont see a problem where someone with equal ranks in skill and item uses it though...

 

[kreynolds]

ACK! Please dont speak to him so! Last time he got berated, we had to fight hasted illusioned rust monsters that looked like trolls!

Huh?

Seriously, I can see the problem with +30 in certain skills at low levels.

I can too. I don't mind high bonuses on Spot. I don't mind really high bonuses on Jump. Having a really high bonus on a Knowledge skill is great (it's like carrying around Encyclopedia Brittanica on CD-ROM).

 

[Archer]

The skills that have large bonuses are ones that are duplicated by low level spells. Jump is superceded by fly, Hide by invisibility, Move Silently by silence.

Most skill items would work fine as single use item like the shards from the Psionics Handbook. How often do you need a +10 to diplomacy? For 400 gold its worth it for a one shot. Want a +3 or +4, only 40 or 60 gold respectively.

The price for a +30 item seems pretty high already. You could have +3 armor and a +3 shield for +6 AC bonus. One seems about 20x more useful than the other. I can't even see someone thinking about that very long +6 AC or +30 to one skill. One will cut the damage I take by probably more than half, the other I might use occassionally to automatically succeed when I would otherwise automatically fail but which I probably don't need to succeed at if I have +6 AC.

 

[Victim]

The thing is that most encounters expect a cahracter to have some decent AC. Trying to fight without magical AC boosts at higher levels is asking to get creamed.

However, skills, with the exceptions of the DCs in the epic book, don't seem to work that way. A +30 item will make most listed DCs really easy, and will allow you to blow away most people on opposed rolls. At level 10, +6 AC is A) expected, and B) will only protect you some of the time. Many enemies will still be able to do reasonable damage, and others have attack bonuses high enough to laugh at that AC. +30 to a skill will let you waltz through situations where you'd normally take 20. It will probably exceed your skill bonus at that level, even with lots of effort put into the skill. So a guy with similar ranks and stats but no item has no chance against you in an opposed roll. 100% versus 0. Investing the same amount in magical weaponry or armor doesn't produce that kind of distinction.

 

[Archer]

Beating someone in an opposed skill roll doesn't usually involve any death where as someone with +3 armor, +3 shield and +3 weapon will annihilate someone with only two +30 skill items UNLESS that person is in optimal situation where those items allow them to avoid that person, but against a standard group those skill items will avail them not.

Optimal situations include: dense forest with +30 hide, narrow ledges with +30 balance etc

Area attacks defeat hide, flying negates balance etc

What skill is so amazing that +30 provides a benefit out of all proportion to what 18k (or much less) would get you with an alternate route?

 

[Crothian]

What skill is so amazing that +30 provides a benefit out of all proportion to what 18k (or much less) would get you with an alternate route?

You can attack with a ranged wepaon and hide at -20 in the same round. The target would have no idea where the attack came from and with a +30 item, you still net +10 on the roll.

 

[kreynolds]

You can attack with a ranged wepaon and hide at -20 in the same round. The target would have no idea where the attack came from and with a +30 item, you still net +10 on the roll.

That's not so bad though. You'd only get one attack anyways.