I like posting as I read a thread this long because it piles my posts all at the end like I'm a jerk talking to myself. Isn't that great?
Okay, one more. I notice a lot of people arguing over possible explanations for what the article means when it talks about the magic item threshold and then gives the example of the ogres with +3 greatswords.
Reading the article again, I don't think there's anything wrong or mistyped with it. I wondered what was going on when I saw the discussion but didn't remember anything that caught my eye last night when I first read it. So, here's what I read and what I understood it all to mean:
Monsters are designed to have certain AC, to-hit, and damage bonuses based upon their level and role (type). This math, which the PCs don't usually witness directly but only after being filtered through a DM's d20 roll and result/action arbitration, has been very carefully tweaked to fall into a certain range. Remember, they're actively trying to maintain that "sweet spot".
Because of the above, monsters do not benefit from magical items (in the bonus department) that are equal to or less than the magical threshold for their level. The PC don't know this, but it minimizes the impact the items will have on the math for any given monster level.
The article then goes on to give an example:
. For example, those ogre savages in plate armor and wielding +3 greatswords have AC, attack rolls, and damage rolls three points higher than normal. That’s pretty close to what a monster three levels higher would have (+3 to all defenses, +3 to attack rolls, and +1 damage), so you might as well make those ogre savages into 11th-level monsters and give them the extra hit points to go along with their other benefits.
Now, this seems like a misprint because the article says the monsters have bonuses +3 higher than normal, contrary to their own threshold table. That's not a misprint, though. They are merely saying that if you want those ogres to HAVE +3 bonuses to AC, attack, and damage rolls than don't give them the swords, raise them to 11th level instead. Their magic threshold table was never factored in to that example. It's just an example to show that, instead of adding magical items to achieve a certain bonus for your monster, just raise its level instead so that he can get the other benefits that go along with that ... and the PCs can get the experience they deserve from facing the more difficult encounter. Their table never entered the picture, so the numbers aren't wrong.
In other words, consider making monsters tougher by adding a few levels instead of adding a few magic items.
Oh, and if you decide to give those ogres the +3 greatswords anyway then the bonuses would be +2 IF you use the magical item threshold table.
