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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: 3025427" data-attributes="member: 2067">I like the CONCEPT of the product, but not so sure I like the specific implementation.The thing about a product like this is that it absolutely needs to be balanced with the core assumptions in mind. You can't have your CR4 villain have any more tricks up his sleeve than a standard fourth level wizard would have, for instance. Secondly, a "boss encounter" in standard D&D is simply a CR of the average party level +2-3. That way, you can fight a mind flayer at level 6 (when he's orchestrating the goblin raids), and then fight an army of them by the time you're level 10 (and uncovering their secret lairs). You aren't meant to keep the same individual villain for very long, and if you want to, he has to obey the same methods for escaping that the PC's do.It is also important to make sure he obeys the same rules as the PC's. For a bad guy to make a save just becaue the DM wants him to live is pretty lame. D&D wants a DM to be flexible enough to roll with one dead villain. If a villain gets bad guy points, heroes should get hero points. If a bad guy can use his bad guy powers to try and escape, the heroes should be able to use their heroic power to stop him from escaping.This is reminding me a lot of 7th Sea, and the rules for Drama Dice. Basically, you get a bonus when doing something you think it important to your character, but whenever you do, the DM gets a bonus when doing something important for the villain. This <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=":)" /><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=":)" /><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=":)" />-for-tat formula gives both the heroes and the villains bonuses.Now, a dramatic system like this could earn my support -- FFZ is using something similar called Cutscene Moments where your character is assured automatic success...and then the moment is paid to the DM, who can assure his own automatic success. And vice-versa -- whenever the DM assures his automatic success, the PC's gain a use (and, like many rescources in FFZ, it's a party-based rescource, meaning your PARTY gets it, not your character). This is very apt for FFZ's cinematic style.</blockquote>

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