Considering scaling magic items

[Plane Sailing]

If there has been a thread on this in the last couple of years, please feel free to direct me to it!

Otherwise, here we go.

I've been wondering about allowing for scaling magic items. PCs get magic items whenever they do, but after that the magic items automatically scale with the PC gaining levels... once the PC reaches the next step for each of their magic items, it gets the next level of bonuses.

The main reason for doing this is to support a game where magic items themselves are relatively rare and special, but there is no need to find 'new' items to replace existing ones as you level up.

The magic items are assumed to hold their full 'potential' power from the word go, but lower level PCs can only access a fragment of that power

Think of the One Ring. In the hands of Bilbo or Frodo it could only turn them invisible. In the hands of someone with more power (Boromir, Aragorn) it could do so much more. In the hands of someone with real power (Galadriel, Gandalf, Saruman) it's potential is incredible.

Same kind of principle here.

For weapons which normally only come in at a higher level (like vorpal sword), that would behave as a plain +1, +2 etc sword until the level at which its power is revealed gets reached.

So, what do you think? Is that workable as-is, needs more thought, sounds appealing?

Cheers

 

[Alisair Longreach]

I do something like that in my campaign but instead of auto-boosting magic items every 5 levels I use my own houseruled version of the Inherent Level bonus from DMG2.

I like the concept of a Barbarian with only a loincloth and some mundane weapon taken from a defeated foe being just as badass as the Fighter of the same level decked out in magical bling-bling.

 

[Stalker0]

I think its a solid idea for a low magic game.

Or you could use it with the new item rarity rules (if you intend to use those) and say that rare items get this kind of scaling.

 

[BobTheNob]

I think thats a great idea. Our party has been going for a while and I have been handing out loot by the book (following the parcels precisely). It works, except we are now hitting the point where players have so much equipment, everyone is having trouble keeping track.

There is also the "I dont want to give up this" factor. For instance, the wizard in my party had +1 Robes of Contingency, and loved them. One day, +3 Robes of Displacement drop. He is happy, but was sad at having to give up the robes of contingency...he just loved the effect!

What you are propsing solves alot of problems.

Mind you, I am working on converting our game over to Dsun with no magical equipment (house rule tweaks) but inherent bonus's and boons. Simplified and trouble free.

 

[Kzach]

If there has been a thread on this in the last couple of years, please feel free to direct me to it!

Heh, I really need search.

I'm pretty sure I started a thread using this idea over a year or so ago. And again before that for 3e (under an, umm... different pseudonym ). But hey, it's not like threads don't get repeated all the time around here anyway.

This is most definitely a solid idea. It's relatively easy to maintain balance with it as well because you can simply use residuum as the currency that determines what new powers it gains.

A better method, however, is to subsume it's cost into levelling. In other words, you increase the power of the item and automatically reduce the treasure received by the amount it would normally take to increase the item. This isn't actually taking away gold or items or residuum from the PC, it's assuming they never got it in the first place, simply in order to balance the power gain without giving the PC's extra cash that they would otherwise spend on increasing their item's power.

This works great for storied items. But it can also work well for creating the story of an item.