Augment Crystals - A Terrible Idea?

[MerricB]

So this problem with augment crystals will never come in my games. My players won't even know about since I will have Magic Item Compendium and only I will know about these crystals and I will randomly place them when I see fit and when it serves a ROLE-PLAYING purpose and not a ROLL-PLAYING purpose.

If you're randomly placing them, isn't that ROLL-PLAYING?

In my campaigns, you can rarely buy off-the-shelf magic items (with the exception of wands of clw, +1 weapons/armour and common potions & scrolls), but commissioning wizards/clerics to make items for you serves a similar purpose. Same cost, but there's a time delay.

Cheers!

 

[hong]

Well, maybe I didn't explain it very well, but my point is not necessarily about fighters specifically, but more generally about how to evaluate accessories. If you are comparing an accessory to the latest accessory, a very small incremental power increase is possibly unnoticed, and likely accepted. Over time, these small increases add up, so that if you were to compare the latest accessory to the core, you would find that the core seems pretty woefully underpowered. On the other hand, if each accessory is evaluated against the core, you've maintained a stable basis of comparison and maintained the viability of the core options.

You are assuming, with no justification, that the core is balanced to start with.

The fighter at high levels, with only the options in the PHB, is weak. There is no other way of putting it. Even compared against other core classes and only using core options, it's weak. In 7 years I've never seen anyone play a fighter to 20th level or even 10th level: generally it's 4 levels to get a bunch of feats and Weapon Spec, and then switch to barb, ranger, PrC, or something else. At least now that PHB2 is out, taking more fighter levels is looking like an attractive option.

What next, are you going to complain that Complete Adventurer gave a whole swag of ways to power up the bard?

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

One thing that you could do to make crystals less utilitarian in flavour, is to make attaching them to a weapon permanent. Once it's on, it's there forever... unless you break the weapon, or go through an expensive ritual sacrificing gp and XP to remove it.

This turns crystals from floating powerups into a more flexible form of weapon enchantment (you don't need to throw away an old weapon when you find a new one, or spend months upgrading).

I'm probably going to do this with the strongest of the augments, and have the lower level ones be fetishes that can be attached or removed.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

You can find earlier examples in print, but Ed was certainly one of the main pioneers of that approach in the 1980s, with his many "Bazaar of the Bizarre" and "Pages from the Mages" articles.

No, he was a freelance writer doing what a number of writers were already doing.

You're not a pioneer if you're walking on a well-trod trail.

There are many things Greenwood can rightly be credited for, but this isn't one of them.

 

[hong]

I don't think it's agreed. Core "pure" fighters are weak past level 4. But as a class, Fighters are pretty good. Every warrior-type I've played has ended up with 1-4 levels of fighter.

This doesn't mean fighters are "good". It means they're front-loaded.

 

[MerricB]

At least now that PHB2 is out, taking more fighter levels is looking like an attractive option.

There's a Fighter 19 in my AoW campaign, and the PHB2 options make him *very* effective.

Cheers!

 

[Faraer]

You're not a pioneer if you're walking on a well-trod trail.

I don't believe it was well trod in 1980; treating magic items foremost in terms of lore was not mainstream then, but it was in 1990, and I don't know why you wouldn't partly credit Ed for that.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

I don't believe it was well trod in 1980; treating magic items foremost in terms of lore was not mainstream then, but it was in 1990, and I don't know why you wouldn't partly credit Ed for that.

Because your assertion was that he "pioneered" it.

Magic items with more lore than stats appeared in OD&D supplements, and then there was a nice long section of the Advanced Dungeons & Dragons Dungeon Masters Guide concerning artifacts that was mostly lore, with some fill in the blank abilities for DMs to do on their own. The 1E DMG hit the streets in 1979.

Greenwood's got plenty of accomplishments under his belt, arguably including creating a model for campaign worlds that's stood the test of time and spread out throughout the entire RPG industry, as well as being able to turn a home campaign world into the biggest (and longest-lasting) brand of its kind.

Even if he's where you first became familiar with the idea of magic items having a story to them, it still doesn't make him a pioneer on this one thing.

 

[cignus_pfaccari]

Actually, what you saw were a bunch of weapon enhancements that were never used. I see keen greatswords all the time. Ghost touch greatswords? Don't think I've seen one. People chose the enhancements that were consistently useful, not the ones that worked once per ten combats.

It's similar for armor, too. There's almost nothing now to compete with Fortification for armor enhancement bonus slots.

But if I were to go back and compare the weapons that my group had, and their enhancement add-ons, you'd see a boatload of Keen, Maiming (usually together), some Bane, and occasional Holy. Almost nothing else, ever. Edit: I did put Ghost Touch on a few of my weapons, treating it as another form of DR to get past, and was fond of putting the Sunblade property onto weapons, but mostly because it looked cool.

Brad

 

[brehobit]

It's similar for armor, too. There's almost nothing now to compete with Fortification for armor enhancement bonus slots.

But if I were to go back and compare the weapons that my group had, and their enhancement add-ons, you'd see a boatload of Keen, Maiming (usually together), some Bane, and occasional Holy. Almost nothing else, ever. Edit: I did put Ghost Touch on a few of my weapons, treating it as another form of DR to get past, and was fond of putting the Sunblade property onto weapons, but mostly because it looked cool.

Brad

Current party has:
Ghost touch dagger, holy long sword, and a goblin-bane long sword has been commissioned. The ghost-touch dagger doesn't come out often, but the swordsage does really well with it (with only one attack you really don't want to miss...)