Essentials: Magic items for characters starting above L1?

[Klaus]

The item rarity rules are in place just to limit the kind of items a character can create. I'd say characters should have their pick of 3 common or uncommon items (L+1, L and L-1) plus enough gold for a L-1 common or uncommon item. This reflects the current rules well enough.

 

[Mika]

An update -- Veteran's Armor can be any type of armor, so we are good for levels 1-3. Boots of Striding are good for anyone at level 9. That means that our remaining heroic tier gaps are levels 4, 5, and 10. With two of the level gaps still being consecutive, the most restrictive rule that would currently work would be to specify that at least one of the initial 3 items must be a common item, with the rest allowed to be uncommon. Stricter rules become possible once we get more common items.

 

[Pyrex]

The more I look at it I think I'm going to allow my players to have a total of 3 U items; which could at their option be all three of L-1/L/L+1. Any remaining items would need to be common.

That way, even though the obvious choice might be for your Top3 to be U Weapon(implement)/Armor/Neck, if you want any of the spiffy items in other slots you'll need to take C items for the Big 3.

 

[Tony Vargas]

With the rules in a state of transition, equipping a character above first level should go something like this:

Unchanged:

You pick one item each of level, l+1 & l-1, you recieve gold equal to the value of a level-1 item with which to buy other gear.

Changed: You may not buy Rare and Uncommon magic items.

Putting it together: You choose three items that may be uncommon or rare. Everything you buy must be common items or ordinary gear.


A ruling that'd probably be a good idea:

You can choose at most 1 rare item per tier.

 

[Squire James]

My opinion is that the 3 "added" items can be common or uncommon, and any "bought" item has to be common. I would allow one of the items to be rare if the character is paragon tier, or up to two of them if the character is epic tier.

In other words, if the PC's actually play through a portion of a tier, I want to leave the "rare slot" for that tier to be filled during play (in the case of level 10 or 20 characters, all three might be filled at once!).

 

[igniz13]

I swear people are over complicating things. People starting at levels above 1 are assumed to have adventured normally to acquire those levels, i.e. they may have found their items on their travels be those rare, uncommon or whatever.

There's no need to decide how many items of a type you should have at a level because you're only allocating suitable degree's of items by expected item gain of a character. I.e. a level x character doesn't end up with an infinite array of level x+1 items because that may prove imbalanced. There's no need to say a fresh level x character has too many rare items or whatever.

In any case I'm just glad I favour itemless rules.

 

[wilcoxon]

Based on the preliminary LFR CCG v2 rules, I think the official rules will be that the DMG given items for characters starting over level 1 will be common or uncommon at the player's option.

• Instead of a listed Treasure [Bundle], you always have the option to find a Common or Uncommon item of your choice, within certain level limits. If you don't want any of the available Treasures, you may instead choose to find any Common or Uncommon magic item from any player resource. However, there are limits on what you can find when you pick your own item. You are limited to any Common magic item of your character level + 2 or less, or any Uncommon magic item of your character level or less. You can't choose consumables or ammunition when exercising this option.

 

[the Jester]

I assign pcs' new starting equipment (at least the magic stuff), rather than letting them choose. This lets me ignore the rarity issue and choose three items that I think are cool and appropriate (or sometimes one that is cool but weird for the character).

 

[Jhaelen]

Based on the preliminary LFR CCG v2 rules, [...]

Umm, what's that? CCG = Collecting Card Game?!

 

[the Jester]

Hey, is there any kind of list anywhere of existing items' rarities? Without having my books in front of me, I'm guessing the list above is just from Essentials?