Fighting Styles: Which option to choose?

[Crothian]

Okay, so some people don't like the buying of abilities with XP. Is that just the fighting stlyes or does that also include the prestige race abilities in Dragon 304 and similiar things?

 

[I'm A Banana]

It translates into all things that extend the mechanic beyond what it is already for me....no spendy XP! BAD!

 

[Crothian]

It translates into all things that extend the mechanic beyond what it is already for me....no spendy XP! BAD!

So, how is spending xp for magical items okay, when all other uses bad?

 

[I'm A Banana]

Mostly because it's limited. It's effects aren't out of whack, permanent, or unique...it doesn't increase the quality (the power!) but does increase the quantity (more power!), meaning a DM who is prepared doesn't have to accomidate for anything new when magic items or spells are invloved...it's all the same thing....all spells, with the usual thwartings involved.

Those are the main reasons that spells and magic items are okay...and I'm still not *entirely* comfy with it, but I'll deal.

 

[2WS-Steve]

So, how is spending xp for magical items okay, when all other uses bad?

Spending xp for magic items does not eliminate the gold cost, it just halves it. Moreover, it costs a character a feat to do this and I assume the designers intended the crafting ability to be one of the special powers of a wizard. Effectively, spellcasters have the special ability to trade off experience points and one or more feats in order to have double their normal gold allotment in magic items for their level.

It gets a bit more wanky with spells like permanency; that's a straight trade of XP for special powers. Again, wizards normally benefit the most from this but they also have a limited list of spells to permanency.

If you think wizards are overpowered compared to other classes you might want to give other classes similar options. I'd prefer some sort of cost to get access to those options, such as a feat expenditure for a fighter, since wizards have to spend a feat.

Keeping the gold cost or some kind of surrogate in place helps control how much gets spent this way and reinforces the point that the character is trading off magic items for the special abilities they acquire. I'd also try to keep tight control of the bonus types provided by the special abilities so that they don't stack with those granted by magic items; or at least when they do stack they cost a lot.

All that being said; I'd spend every last gold piece crafting my own items if I were a wizard, maybe slowing down around 20th level when the gold rewards get ridiculous. Crafting is a pretty good deal.