Dead Christmas Trees!! Woot!!

[Howndawg]

I don't get it. Why all the hate for magic items in 3e?

They're a lot less important than in 1e, where the only difference (mechanically) between two characters of the same class was their magic items.

In 2e they weren't as important as 1e, but still more important than 3e.

Geoff.

I don't totally dislike magic items: they have their place. But I like my fighter to kick hiney because he is a kick hiney swordsman, not because he has a kick hiney sword. Although a kick hiney sword doesn't hurt. In other words, I want magic items to complement a character, not overshadow him.

Howndawg

 

[Howndawg]

Sweet! I'm liking this more and more.

Hopefully the phrase "wealth by level" will never, ever be uttered again. I must have traveled back in time, because I'm rocking like Marty McFly in 1985! Old school, baby.

I don't fetishize older editions of D&D (like Diaglo), but they did do some things right. Ring of the Ram, shizzam! Cloak of the Bat is where it's at!

Amen to the wealth by level bit. As a DM, it was hard to manage because I had one player who was always getting in trouble with the law and lost most of his money and some of his items to the town guards.

Howndawg

 

[Ogrork the Mighty]

I think they'll do something along the lines of magic item slots but for buff spells. Currently, there are simply too many spell types and they kept adding more and more to the point it got ridiculous.

I'd be happy with something like you can only have one spell per spell level active at any time. Or you can only have as many active spells on you as you have spell levels. Or something along those lines. Obviously it would have to take into account non-spellcasters as well.

 

[Aloïsius]

I think they'll do something along the lines of magic item slots but for buff spells. Currently, there are simply too many spell types and they kept adding more and more to the point it got ridiculous.

I'd be happy with something like you can only have one spell per spell level active at any time. Or you can only have as many active spells on you as you have spell levels. Or something along those lines. Obviously it would have to take into account non-spellcasters as well.

Humm... If spellcasters have "per encounter" blast or heal effects, then we can guess that they will have less traditional spells than before. Suppose a wizard has only one half of a 3.x wizard's daily spell slots, chances are great he wont waste them on buffs.

Especialy if Wotc remove some of the more boring and redundant buffs.

 

[Pbartender]

This just in...

Dungeons & Dragons 4th Edition rulebooks will be printed on paper made from dead Christmas trees.

Details at 11...

 

[Redbeardin84]

And have an AC higher than 12 so he's not in danger of being taken out by housecats.

I suspect that a lot of this will be done by simply removing many of the buff spell/item categories. Instead of everyone having cloaks of resistance, everyone just has naturally higher saving throw progressions. Instead of having rings of deflection and amulets of natural power, everyone just has a AC bonus that increases as they gain levels, like saving throws. Instead of stat buffs, characters just increase their stats more often.

Magic items would then still exist, but they wouldn't be neccessary for game balance. And since characters wouldn't need to spend their gold or body slots on neccessary-but-boring buffs, we'll have a lot more interesting items that give cool and strange new magical abilities.

I like where you're heading there. I hope this project happens to be moving in that direction as well, but time will tell.

 

[marune]

Since the "Christmas tree effect" is an important factor in my 3.x burnout, it's a very good news in my ears.

 

[Doug McCrae]

I agree that the gear being more important than the character was a problem. But how can it be fixed without making the items almost useless? I feel there is something very cool about magic items, especially weapons, such that they should stay in the game. Players love them. Getting the same bonuses from, say, Vow of Poverty just isn't as fun as a flametongue longsword.

In percentage terms, how much of a character's total power should come from magic items? 75%? 25%? 1%?

Or, instead of providing bonuses to combat stats, should items instead let you do things you couldn't do before, such as cast web, fly or read minds.

Or is the problem simply that characters have too many separate items? If the same amount of power was instead placed in a single item, would that be an improvement? The outstanding example from fantasy fiction is Elric. He's even more extreme than a D&D PC, being almost useless without Stormbringer or another external power source.

 

[EricNoah]

I love the idea that cloak of resistance, ring of protection, amulet of natural armor, and stat boosters might not be on every PC and NPC.

 

[Ogrork the Mighty]

I love the idea that cloak of resistance, ring of protection, amulet of natural armor, and stat boosters might not be on every PC and NPC.

Amen brother.