Excerpt: Economies [merged]

[Simplicity]

Ok, that's interesting. I wonder why that doesn't read "30 [price] gp gems". Are astral diamonds some new special 4e component or something that has somehow snuck past me?

Either way, thanks for the info.

That's because astral diamonds are a new denomination of currency. Apparently only accepted at your local Epicmart.

 

[rjdafoe]

To the Pro-4E Magic Item System Crowd:

Can you list an example of a real world good where:
It sells for 5 times as much as the vendor buys it for
The vendor adds no value to the good (either by changing it, or moving it from point A to point B)

I can't. And it's messing with my chi. Spare me the chorus of "Can you name a real world good that SHOOTS FIREBALLS!", too. =)

To the Anti-4E Magic Item System Crowd:

The 20% is a pure disincentive to swap magic items. That's it. There is no other reason for it to exist. My question is, is there a better system out there that creates similar disincentives without such a clumsy mechanic? Aside from the "I tell my players that if they swap too many things, they will get less" types?

-Cross

Console Video Games
DVDs
Cars to a Car Dealer

 

[Voss]

So on other topic...

Characters gain new attack powers at odd-numbered levels, and they gain new feats, ability score increases, and global adjustments to all their attacks and defenses at even-numbered levels

Ability score increases every 2 levels? How come this hasn't come up before?
I guess it doesn't matter for the KotS characters because it would put most of the scores that matter at odd numbers, but... wow.

 

[Dragonblade]

So on other topic...


Ability score increases every 2 levels? How come this hasn't come up before?
I guess it doesn't matter for the KotS characters because it would put most of the scores that matter at odd numbers, but... wow.

The statement is misleading. IRC, ability score increases only come at levels 4,8,11,14,18,21,24,28.

 

[keterys]

astral diamonds are 10,000g each.
platinum pieces are 100g each.

 

[Bandreus]

also your universal modifier (+ 1/2 lvl) actually go up by 1 every even-numbered lvl

 

[Voss]

The statement is misleading. IRC, ability score increases only come at levels 4,8,11,14,18,21,24,28.

And yet both feats and 'global adjustments' come every 2 levels. Why would it be the second of three statements if it wasn't relevant to conclusion of the fragment, or even the context of the entire sentence?

The sentence is structure as 'you gain this at odd levels, and these at even'.

 

[Thasmodious]

So on other topic...


Ability score increases every 2 levels? How come this hasn't come up before?
I guess it doesn't matter for the KotS characters because it would put most of the scores that matter at odd numbers, but... wow.

Note it doesn't say at every even numbered level. It could just as easily, and likely is, every 4 levels, the old 4/8/12/16/20 model, or every 6 to fit the 30 level scale with 5 stat increases. The statement talks about how new powers are gained at odd levels and others things are gained at even levels, so as to keep leveling fun as a reward, and not have "empty" levels. It doesn't state when exactly you get these rewards, just that when you do, it will be at an even or an odd level.

 

[WhatGravitas]

Console Video Games
DVDs
Cars to a Car Dealer

Not only that - Consider collectibles, like trading carts. Shops by the big booster boxes with a price tag of around 100$ (though as shop, they get them even cheaper). In the MtG case, one card is then 100$ / (36 * 15) = 0.18$ worth. Yet they sell singles (of rares) for 2+ $ - that's an increase of a factor of ten!

Why do they do this? To regain their expenses - the non-rares are much cheaper and are really worth next to nothing and don't sell.

Now you could say "that doesn't apply to Magic Items" - but it does: A merchant may buy five items - an axe, a staff, a sword, a shield, and a cloak - all of them magic. But now, he sees one adventurer group per town (and that's perhaps generous in a PoL setting). Good chances that none of these items are what the adventures really want (they usually want something specific, as random things are rarely useful to them - they have found random stuff all the time).

So let's say one of four of five adventurer groups buys one item. How does he recoup the loss, because the other items weren't sold on this trip? By making the price for the single sold item astronomically high.

Basically, they buy items without demand, hoping to find demand. Since they know that a good deal of the stuff will only be sold in some years (when a group finds one particular item exceptionally useful) or never, they have to sell the ones they do sell for higher prices - because they would be pretty poor otherwise.

Really, our modern economy cannot compared to that, because in a fantasy world as D&D, there is no real market (except in the market on a market place sense) - not without better travel. If you have to compare, compare it to the black market for weapons - because only a specific clientèle wants these things and the outlets for buying and selling things are similar.

Cheers, LT.

 

[DaveMage]

The awfully convenient merchants also brought a wince,

Pokemerchants!

Sword-buyer - I choose you!


OOTS will have a field day with this one.