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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Lanefan" data-source="post: 3925463" data-attributes="member: 29398">A number of thoughts on reading all this...in no particular order:1. Weapons whose to-hit bonus is different than their damage bonus e.g. +2/+0 or +1/+5 are something I've had in my games for years and years.  I once had someone claim a sword out of treasury that, while not cursed, was +1/-1...used it for quite some time until he finally realized it wasn't quite laying the smackdown he thought it was. <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=":)" />2. Items that boost stats are *far* too common in 3e.  That, and the iconic items that do boost stats e.g. Girdle of Giant Strength should boost the stat to a set number e.g. 30 (in 3e terms) rather than just modify the wearer's original stat by a '+'.  Needless to say, such items should also be rare and-or extremely costly.3. I'm not at all sure I'm sold on the idea of weapons or items that get better as a character advances in level.  For one thing, if a character is carrying a few such things the J-curve on their total abilities as they advance just got a lot steeper.  Another issue is that items don't always stay with the same owner...a sword that gives +3-flaming to the 10th-level foe using it against the party but only gives +1 to the 4th-level PC that loots the corpse would really suck!  I have no problem at all, however, with items useable only by certain classes, races, or alignments.4. Players like finding new stuff.  The trick is to somehow cycle through the old stuff so it doesn't just accumulate...the answer here, I think, lies in making magic items easier to break or destroy; kind of an easy come, easy go philosophy. (says he, whose 3rd-level party just lost half its total magic last session from a wild magic surge...)5. Tying powers to a weapon's '+' is not the way to go.  I'd far rather allow even a +0 weapon to have some spectacular power and also allow a +5 weapon to do nothing else at all, than only allow the +5's to get the spectacular powers.  Hell, +5 *is* spectacular, where I come from! <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=":)" />6. 3e added lots of new mechanics to combat but really missed the boat on designing items to take advantage of those.  Examples: "Painbringer", a sword +0 that bypasses any and all DR; or "Opportunist", an axe +1 that will never miss when swung as an attack of opportunity; or "Flankenstein", a shield +0 that emits odd sounds in battle such that any opponent of its wielder is considered flanked even when such is not the case or is otherwise illegal.  Stuff like that.  Let's hope 4e takes advantage of its own mechanics with its magic. <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=":)" />Lanefan</blockquote>

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