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<blockquote data-quote="delericho" data-source="post: 3921432" data-attributes="member: 22424">The only real way to remove the Christmas Tree Effect is to remove the items in question outright. Otherwise, players are going to have their characters seek out the most powerful iterations of these utility items that they can find. It looks like WotC may have gone some way in that direction with the new edition; I must confess to being torn about whether that is a good thing or not. (In general, I favour characters having fewer more powerful items, but there is a lot of precedent of D&amp;D characters, and particularly Salvatore's drow, having a lot of magical items of various sorts.)Now, for the article itself... assigning each item a level is probably a good thing. Stating that all items of a given level have the same cost is certainly an unnecessary step, and probably a bad idea. Given the choice, virtually no character will take a Rope of Climbing in preference to a +2 Lightning Sword (or whatever the comparison was).Instead, what is needed is for magic items to be grouped into roles, in exactly the same way that classes and monsters have been. You then ditch the Wealth by Level guidelines, and instead suggest that characters can have any number of items appropriate to their level (or below), but no more than one item for each role. A 9th level Fighter can have a +2 Lightning Sword and a Rope of Climbing without being significantly more powerful than a 9th level Fighter with a +2 lightning sword alone... the problem comes in when he can trade in the rope for some other item more focussed to his role.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="delericho, post: 3921432, member: 22424"] The only real way to remove the Christmas Tree Effect is to remove the items in question outright. Otherwise, players are going to have their characters seek out the most powerful iterations of these utility items that they can find. It looks like WotC may have gone some way in that direction with the new edition; I must confess to being torn about whether that is a good thing or not. (In general, I favour characters having fewer more powerful items, but there is a lot of precedent of D&D characters, and particularly Salvatore's drow, having a lot of magical items of various sorts.) Now, for the article itself... assigning each item a level is probably a good thing. Stating that all items of a given level have the same cost is certainly an unnecessary step, and probably a bad idea. Given the choice, virtually no character will take a Rope of Climbing in preference to a +2 Lightning Sword (or whatever the comparison was). Instead, what is needed is for magic items to be grouped into roles, in exactly the same way that classes and monsters have been. You then ditch the Wealth by Level guidelines, and instead suggest that characters can have any number of items appropriate to their level (or below), [i]but no more than one item for each role[/i]. A 9th level Fighter can have a +2 Lightning Sword [i]and[/i] a Rope of Climbing without being significantly more powerful than a 9th level Fighter with a +2 lightning sword alone... the problem comes in when he can trade in the rope for some other item more focussed to his role. [/QUOTE]

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