Bracers of Mighty Striking: Near Useless?

[Mirtek]

While not utterly useless, since they provide a numeric benefit of some sort, I can't see ever wanting this item when any other arm slot item is available

The problem is that there only one other arm slot item for the no-shield guy and that's just as almost useless. I guess we need to wait for Tome of Treasure before no-shield guys get anything worthwhile

I think granting additional power to a fighter's basic melee attack using a weapon would be a kind of power inflation. I hope we don't see these.

Compare Warforged in MM to Warforged in Dragon Magazine, the power inflation has already started.

 

[Victim]

+1 Dwarven Armor is also a level 2 item. The Shield of Protection is level 3. Since the new paradigm seems to be that the players make a list of items they want for the DM, why would I ever want to put that item on my list and risk getting it instead of the Dwarven Armor? Yes, there are some specific class/power combos that involve multiple characters to pull off that can achieve some use out of the item. That doesn't make them non-crappy or even worth their gold piece value.

Shield of Protection and non-crappy together? Bracers of Mighty Striking don't suck up your standard action.

 

[GoodKingJayIII]

Compare Warforged in MM to Warforged in Dragon Magazine, the power inflation has already started.

The MM entry is mainly for creating NPCs (though one could use it for players). The Dragon article represents a more complete racial writeup for PCs. It's not really an example of power inflation... more like making the race on par with the others.

 

[Maximillian]

It's not really an example of power inflation... more like making the race on par with the others.

This. You have to compare it to the Dragonborn if you want a baseline for a race suited to melee classes.

Now, I'm *sure* we'll see power creep, but I'm not convinced it'll be as glaring as all that.

 

[krakenstar]

Someone corrected me on the at-will vs. basic attack mixed up.. thanks. It was late and I wasn't thinking straight.

I still think it'd be good in a fighter's hands where it would make his OA attacks a bit more powerful. But I'd say none of the magic items were as deadly as the older versions of D&D..

 

[Victoly]

The problem is that there only one other arm slot item for the no-shield guy and that's just as almost useless.

This was the main reason I started the thread, actually. It's all well and good to say that "some items are just not good for some classes; a fighter will never use a wand," but that neglects the fact that the wand takes up an item slot that has a lot of very good options for the fighter (namely magic weapons) whereas the options for the arm slot are extremely limited unless you use a shield. I think the Bracers of Defense are a decent item, but it seems boring for so many classes to want a pair of those in the longrun (that is assuming that characters eventually fill up most or all of their item slots over the course of a campaign).

Thanks to this thread I have started to see some of the benefits this item presents, especially considering its low cost, but I still think some more options for the arm slot would have been nice.

 

[Terramotus]

I must strongly disagree that this item is anything resembling useless. For my fighter I will happily take this over a magic shield at least at low level. By boosting the power of my AoOs, this items lets me do my job way better then some daily magic item use that's a standard action and competes with all my other daily magic item uses. My attacks only hit for 8.5 on average, getting a 25% damage boost is huge.

You can't pin anything down with Combat Superiority or soak up any attacks when you're unconscious. A Defender isn't a Striker. Sure, the Fighter can do decent damage, but he's at his best when he's pinning down the toughest enemies so the Controllers can nuke the minions and the Strikers can eviscerate the big guys.

Certainly that calculus changes if you're not facing encounters challenging enough to risk dropping a Fighter, or if you've got no Strikers or a superabundance of Defenders. But none of those cases are normal. And the issue of having limited action points or only one Daily magical item use only happens if you're playing the 15 minute workday game. If you've got two items with Daily uses, you'll get to use them both if you've got a third encounter of the day. You'll probably also have an action point available to activate it by the third encounter, since you'll have a second one by that point on the Heroic tier.

And since when do players make a list of items they want to their DM? Just because it happens at your table doesn't make it the new paradigm, I've never even heard of that before.

Since 4th Edition. It happens to be the only method for determining which magical items to award given in the DMG. Just because something different happens at your table doesn't mean it's not printed in the books.

The trickiest part of awarding treasure is determining what magic items to give out. Tailor these items to your party of characters. Remember that these are supposed to be items that excite the characters, items they want to use rather than sell or disenchant. If none of the characters in your 6th-level party uses a longbow, don’t put a 10th-level longbow in your dungeon as treasure.

A great way to make sure you give players magic items they’ll be excited about is to ask them for wish lists. At the start of each level, have each player write down a list of three to five items that they are intrigued by that are no more than four levels above their own level. You can choose treasure from those lists (making sure to place an item from a different character’s list each time), crossing the items off as the characters find them. If characters don’t find things on their lists, they can purchase or enchant them when they reach sufficient level.

 

[Terramotus]

Shield of Protection and non-crappy together? Bracers of Mighty Striking don't suck up your standard action.

Dude, last night when we were fighting a solo encounter 3 levels above us as our third encounter of the day, and I had already used up the ability from my Dwarven Armor, I was wishing I had another magical item with a Daily power to use the one I had gained from the milestone we hit.

I would have gladly spent a standard action on a Shield of Protection, had I had one, in another encounter where I, as a Fighter, was trying to hold the line in an encounter 4 levels above the party level against 3 critters that were beating the tar out of me. I think I went down below 0 HP 3 times in that encounter, even with Boundless Endurance going.

The extra, what, 6 to 8 points of damage I would have done with the Bracers, spread out among multiple creatures? Not so much.

 

[FadedC]

You can't pin anything down with Combat Superiority or soak up any attacks when you're unconscious. A Defender isn't a Striker. Sure, the Fighter can do decent damage, but he's at his best when he's pinning down the toughest enemies so the Controllers can nuke the minions and the Strikers can eviscerate the big guys.

You also can't pin anyone down if your attacks are too weak for your enemies to care about an AoO. Keep in mind that it's almost impossible to keep an enemy from charging one of your allies or beating on the melee striker if he's willing to suck up the attack (you can only stop his first move attempt). And none of the magic shields at low level really dramatically boost your survivability. I'm not saying your strategy is wrong, just that it's far from the only way to go. And it's very easy to have more then 2 items with daily uses.

Since 4th Edition. It happens to be the only method for determining which magical items to award given in the DMG. Just because something different happens at your table doesn't mean it's not printed in the books.

No it's not the only method, it's just an optional suggestion mentioned for DMs who don't want to figure out their own treasure. Calling it the "new paradigm" is a bit extreme.

 

[Ganders]

"A fighter will make far, far, far more melee basic attacks in their career than a wizard AND a warlock put together."

Maybe not. A fighter does get quite a few basic attacks against enemies he's marked, I admit. But he'll use at-wills whenever possible, instead of basic attacks. A warlock has no at-will melee, so might use his basic attack fairly often.

My level 14 dwarven warlock with 20 str and 22 con in scale armor with a +3 warhammer will do 2d6+6 on a miss, and d10+2d6+5+2+3 on a hit against a cursed foe, thanks to Hammer Rhythm (+4 more with these bracers). I expect he'll be making a LOT of basic attacks, instead of at-wills -- that's just plain better than Eldritch Blast. The warlord might even give extra attacks to him instead of the fighter.

"warlocks with high str/con" may be a narrow niche, but it is a niche.