Easy magic vs unique magic poll

Merlion · Apr 15, 2003

Ohh yes I see you were speaking more of the PCs selling the stuff. Yes it could be very interesting. especialy for a wizard since battling magical creatures is also a good way to gain greater understanding of magic in various forms.

Shard O'Glase · Apr 15, 2003

If anything I almsot want magic to be more common, well at elast in a way. i like item creation, I just wish utility, public good/massive works were more feasible. I want to enter a metropolis with imposible high thin towers suported by amgic, giant floating gardens, hover carts, etc. On the other hand I find t disturbing that on the individual level a PCs CR is so wrapped up in your equipment. For me the fix would be that Pcs at higher levels could pull off more supernatual levels of abilities so their +3 sword looks less cool in comparison. IOW you get much more umph out of your class abilites so the difference between a fihgter loaded with amgic gear of level 15,a nd ne with only mundane equipment is much less signifigane, cause the fighter can leap so high flight means crap, he can hit so hard a +4, flaming sword adds little to the damage etc.

But hey earthdawn is one of my favorite systems.

maddman75 · Apr 15, 2003

I like it myself. I like putting the power of what items they carry in the hands of the players, to see what they come up with. And if I want to add in a special item with its own history and properties, I can certainly do that. I feel it adds a lot to the game.

blackshirt5 · Apr 15, 2003

agreed, players can think of uses for items that never cross my mind. The party got ahold of a set of 7 Earrings of Telling, and they used one of the spares to eavesdrop on a conversation after they left the room by discreetly dropping it on the table as they were leaving.

Angcuru · Apr 15, 2003

blackshirt5 said:
agreed, players can think of uses for items that never cross my mind. The party got ahold of a set of 7 Earrings of Telling, and they used one of the spares to eavesdrop on a conversation after they left the room by discreetly dropping it on the table as they were leaving.

Now YOU TOO can can Phone Tap in D&D!

Kurichan · Apr 16, 2003

yosh!

Well I'm happy to see I'm not alone in my enjoyment of unique magic. My players are composed of half magic addicts and half worshipers of coolness. The point about magic as a service and the fact that its easy is very true though. The realms really wouldn't be the way they are with all this magic around. I can't blame WotC though. To go and apply logic to the world would call for more labor then the devil would assign. Thats why I designed my world super young and magic is very new. Otherwise I'd go nuts trying to figure out all the magical wackiness. I mean jeez, the population growth due to clerics alone is insane! And the people wouldn't even deplete the resources like real man has because there are druids to replace crops and clerics to just plain create food! Thats why I'm a big fan of low magic. Because realistically, classic fantasy couldn't exist with the magic given in the phb. The world would be magic coated and alien.

Irda Ranger · Apr 16, 2003

Re: yosh!

Kurichan said:
I mean jeez, the population growth due to clerics alone is insane! And the people wouldn't even deplete the resources like real man has because there are druids to replace crops and clerics to just plain create food! Thats why I'm a big fan of low magic. Because realistically, classic fantasy couldn't exist with the magic given in the phb. The world would be magic coated and alien.

No kidding. It would be Star Trek like, just with Magic instead of science. Dragonstar really didn't have to bend the rules to create an interstellar empire, just extrapolate on them.

You're right about low-magic, its the better way to go. I can't convince my players to take a 1 XP/spell level to cast a spell though. I don't think its that expensive, but it would limit the flagrant casting of "Hey, I got free spell slots, lets use 'em."

I have changed the way that magical items are made, and introduced that they degrade over time. Realistically the old Empires of the Elves, plus ones like Netheril in the Realms would have left thousands of magical items lying around that still work perfectly today. This would make magical items way more common than I want.

My players know to watch out for magical items of an unknown age. It might be a dud, work Ok, or do something like a 2e Wildmage. There's no way to tell until you try to use it or divine it somehow.