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Enchanted Trinkets Complete--a hardcover book containing over 500 magic items for your D&D games!

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Message: <blockquote data-quote="I'm A Banana" data-source="post: 4032458" data-attributes="member: 2067">Isn't that what 3e had a lot of? <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f609.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=";)" title="Wink    ;)"  data-smilie="2"data-shortname=";)" /> But yes, it's the nature of verisimilitude to break down at a certain point, though where that point is varies beteween groups, largely depending on how inquisitive your players are. I tend to have and encourage inquisitive players, because a large amount of the fun of D&D for me is creating a world with my friends, and if they don't ask questions, and I don't have answers, we don't get a whole lot of world created. The thing that leaps first to my mind is the 'useless' skills and feats from 3e. If I know how well a Centaur can do macreme (to use an absurd example), that means I can make macreme an important part of centaur life and personality, and that if the players don't want to kill them wholesale, they can perhaps challenge them to a macreme competition. Similarly, if the horrid abomination from beyond the stars has 5 ranks in Religion, I know this creature is a scholar of the metaphysical and so wouldn't be as out of place as it might seem answering the cleric's request for a planar ally. The questions I'm anticipating are along the lines of "How can this ogre do so much damage when the last one we faught couldn't!" or "Wow, why don't powerful fiends of temptation have any gold?" or "Hmm...this gnome seems very knowledgable. I approach him offering a position at the local wizard's college!"As a DM, I want tools to be able, on the fly, to allow these interesting questions, and to validate them with satisfying answers that aren't just hand-waved excuses to get the game back 'on track.' I want the players to be able to change the track. If the ogre does more damage, I want to be able to instantly create a whole tribe of drug-using ogres that use plants that enhance their strength, but make them reckless that the players can investigate (and even use the drug themselves!). If the devil doesn't have much treasure, I want the PC's to be able to follow the records to the devil's supported leaders in the local government, agents they thought they could trust. If the professor of Esoteric Studies wants to make the gnome his new Junior Chancellor of Illusion and Mischief at the local Wizardly University, I want to be able to allow that to spin into new plots. Removing some of this 'useless' detail means that I have less random hooks to hang bits of information from. I can understand and sympathize with the need to streamline, but I need to be able to put complexity back in on the fly, without preparing for it  beforehand. I might need to tinker with 4e's way of doing monsters and NPC's quite a bit to achieve the results I'm looking for.A lot of this boils down to stuff that's very powerful for one encounter, but isn't a problem if it's only present in one encounter. Though the 4e team went in a simpler direction, I don't believe finding a happy middle ground is entirely impossible. 3e was too heavily into the identical mechanics, but 4e might be too heavily into 'whatever works, however you make it work.' Then again, maybe the guidelines will be robust enough to handle it. <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" />Hey, I like my picky players. <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f609.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=";)" title="Wink    ;)"  data-smilie="2"data-shortname=";)" /> I'm not entirely satisfied with the results. Probably satisfied enough to be able to tweak the rules enough to meet my needs, but I do think they could find a better middle ground. Still, maybe some 3rd party will do it, or maybe I'll just publish some rules about it. And maybe I *will* be totally satisfied when I see everything in context, because it definately seems that the team is at least aware of players and DMs like myself, even if they are catering more to a more direct crowd. <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" />one more post, to break it up a bit...</blockquote>

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