Essentials: Item rarity and character creation

[eriktheguy]

Uncommon items cannot be purchased under the essentials rules. I think this is great because it forces players to choose something other than 'standard, mandatory, optimized equipment sets'.
But what about creating higher level characters? You get three magic items (level, level -1, level +1). You don't have to purchase these. Does this mean you can choose uncommon items?

I'm tempted to houserule that no more than 2 of these can be uncommon. This preserve the 'about 1/2 common' idea that Wizards was aiming for (since players will also buy 1 or 2 common items with their starting money).

 

[the Jester]

As the dm, I usually assign most of a higher-than-1st-level starting character's magic items. I'll ask whether they want armor, a neck item, a weapon, etc but I almost always pick the specific item.

 

[Tony Vargas]

But what about creating higher level characters? You get three magic items (level, level -1, level +1). You don't have to purchase these. Does this mean you can choose uncommon items?

Yes. Rare, too, for that matter. It would be sensible to house rule that a newly created higher level character could have no more than one rare per tier, though.

The remaining cash a higher level character gets at chargen, of course, can only be used to buy commons and non-magical gear.


I don't know if they're considering changing it, but it's a thorny issue. Items are no longer balanced, so letting players choose items could be problematic. OTOH, a PC with only common items would be at a disadvantage (and pretty blah, even compared to one with 'mandatory optimal items'). Also, rares are supposed to be 'character defining' and defining player characters is something players understandibly expect to do.

 

[OnlineDM]

I just started a campaign with characters at fifth-level. I told them they they could have a 4th, 5th and 6th level magic item, though I restricted all of their character choices to the books (nothing from Dragon Magazine). I also told them they could have whatever mundane gear they wanted (within reason - I didn't need to veto anything, but I would have if need be) and then 100gp in their pockets on top of the gear. It's worked out fine.

 

[eriktheguy]

Technically they would get 840 gp, the value of a level 4 magic item (starting equip is item of -1, equal and +1 level, unlimited mundane equipment, and gp value of item -1 level).
just what the book says

 

[Mika]

I am inclined to go with this approach: The three initial items (level +1, level, and level -1) may be common or uncommon -- no rare items should be handed out before play. If you take an uncommon item, you may only take one of it -- no duplications. Starting money may only be spent on common items.

That probably comes close to making the common and uncommon items even, and also addresses the current situation where there are not enough generally usable common items to fill every level. A side effect of my approach is that you cannot stock up on uncommon consumables -- in fact, it would be very wasteful to use any of your initial item slots to pick up an uncommon consumable.

 

[the Jester]

All I know is, I'm sad that I'm running canned stuff for the next several games (Garden of Graves and then King of the Trollhaunt Warrens), because I want to roll some random treasure!

I think I may just re-generate all the treasure via the new random methods.

 

[Shin Okada]

Well, Item rarity rule is still incomplete. WotC has shown the first "Those are commons, others are uncommons" list. Then introduced Holy Avenger as an example of Rare items. So we did not even know which item will become common, uncommon or rare, for sure.

Also, WotC is still not show details about how rituals and starting at higher level guideline interact with new rarity rules.

Until those factors are clearly, shown, as a DM I don't introduce Item rarity rule.

 

[Majoru Oakheart]

Well, Item rarity rule is still incomplete. WotC has shown the first "Those are commons, others are uncommons" list. Then introduced Holy Avenger as an example of Rare items. So we did not even know which item will become common, uncommon or rare, for sure.

Also, WotC is still not show details about how rituals and starting at higher level guideline interact with new rarity rules.

They posted a list in their Essentials Changes article. All items in that list are common, every other previously published item that hasn't been replaced by a new item with the same name in an Essentials book is Uncommon.

However, you are correct, there is no rule about how rarity affects starting at higher levels. At the moment, it looks like WOTC is just relying on DMs to decide which rarity they are allowing in their own games.

Keep in mind, that the general guideline is that at any given level 50% of the items a character has should be Common, 40% Uncommon and 10% Rare(approximately). Also, part of the reason for item rarities was to allow DMs to hand out items as treasure that were distinctly better than whatever the PCs started with.

This is why, in my games, all items must be Common at character creation.