Confirmed: Magic items and summoned monster stats in PHB

[Wolfspider]

Great sig, and it needed an adequate, always-on response.

Hey, Raven Crowking. I hate to ask you this in a public post, but I couldn't send you a private message.

How did you put the show/hide button in your signature?

Thanks!

 

[Raven Crowking]

Hey, Raven Crowking. I hate to ask you this in a public post, but I couldn't send you a private message.

How did you put the show/hide button in your signature?

Thanks!

First off, you ought to be able to send me an email. If you ever have trouble doing this, use either ravencrowking at hotmail dot com or dbishop at danieljbishop dot ca.

The text you need to use is (sblock=Whatever You Want to Call It) and (/sblock), changing the parenthesis () for brackets [].

RC

 

[Wolfspider]

Thanks!

 

[I'm A Banana]

So this makes me think a Summon Monster I, Summon Monster II, etc. setup is going to be gone, replaced with narrower spells, like Summon Fire Elemental, for instance.

I'm surprised no one called this out yet.

The spells won't be called Summon Fire Elemental or Summon Angel or Summon Fiendish Asp.

They'll be called "Evoke the Curtain of Red Pixie Warblood" or "Meluciber's Seventh Secret Warrior" or "Toothed Silver Warhedgehog Technique."

"Summon Fire Elemental?!" That's way too straightforward and....boring...it needs at least two more "wars," some fantasy animal, and an arbitrary color. GO!

 

[hong]

I've always liked the idea of being able to upgrade your items. Rather than selling your +1 sword and buying a +2 sword, why not seek out a smith who knows the secret of enchanting weapons and get him to upgrade your weapon? The cost is the same but you get the added benefit of being able to keep your sword (maybe it was your family's heirloom weapon that started out as a masterwork item and you had it enchanted with the original +1 in the first place) and you get a possible quest (find the smith) and make a contact/interact with the game world (whereas you might otherwise just do an OOC sale/purchase thing).

Despite the fact that upgrades have always been an option (and the 3.5 Magic Item Compendium has a table that makes them even easier), none of my players have ever done it and I've never seen anyone on the boards talk about it.

1

 

[pukunui]

1

Um ... ok? Are you sad cos I said I've never seen anyone take advantage of the 3.5 upgrade mechanics? Or some other reason? And what's the 1 for? I'm confused ...

 

[AllisterH]

Worlds & Monsters talk about this a little.

Some of the fantastic (magic items) is being made for the PHB since they weren't really that fantastic to begin with or that the book always hinted at but never explain.

For the former, they mention healing potions versus full plate (paraphrasing, why is it that full plate which costs 1500 gp is considered "ok" to buy, yet a potion of cure light wounds, at a cost of 50gp is "restricted" from the PCs , even though many more people will want the latter? Admittedly, this has been true across ALL editions IMO)

As for the latter, that's where the hippogriff comes in. The Hippogriff MM in 2e/3e mentions that hippogriffs can be trained as flying mounts, however, there's no hippogriff costs in the PHB.

 

[cignus_pfaccari]

I should say that I do allow the characters to purchase magic items. It makes no sense that characters can sell magic items, but not buy them. However, I keep track of what items are available and where, changing it a little from visit to visit to reflect NPC purchases.

That's one of the small problems with the "players shouldn't buy magic items!" view; if nobody's able to buy a magic item, you're not going to be able to sell one, either.

As for identifying an item, I prefer the characters figure it out from the description, its name, or by doing alittle bit of research. I have always hated the identify spell.

It's one of those annoying necessities. "Hrm, now, what does *this* do?" You can figure out what a plus is on a weapon given a log and sufficient time, but incidental abilities like Keen, Holy, Flaming, etc aren't necessarily going to be obvious, and hard to test for without magic.

OTOH, research only works if there is either (A) a known number of magic items in the world, or (B) a series of universal aesthetics that are used in item creation. "Hrm, that's four stars on the blade, with a squiggle, and it's a Roman shortsword...per the book, that's a +4 Elemental Bane short sword." While (B) is my preferred style if I run a game, that runs across the whole "not enough skill points" thing.

Brad

 

[Voss]

More to the point, I don't think ALL the magical items will be in the PH, just the "basic ones". By that, I mean those that are low-powered (everburning torches), practical (handy haversacks, journeybread) one shot (potions) and extremely commonplace (+X swords). All OTHER magical stuff will probably be in the DMG, like gloves of titan-strength, armbands of elusive action, ring of the fire archon, or boots of the mountain king.
.

Unfortunately I think you're partially right. But the non-basic items are going to be in the separate and in the $30(?) magic item book in the fall. I'm starting to see why the DMG page count is so low, and why there is only room for 8 classes in the PH...

 

[Rechan]

Surely, though, "and I like the idea of unique spells (and other secrets) that can be given as treasure" answered your question?

Not to if the spells in the PHB take away the wonder or if that encrouches on the DM.