So you hire someone with a higher ritual caster level.
Finding magic items (primarily for DMs)
So you hire someone with a higher ritual caster level.
Balesir
Adventurer
Oh, sure - or just hand out gold or negotiables as treasure and allow items to be bought, it amounts to the same thing. I was just making the point that there was some point to magic items in treasure in "original" 4E.
wedgeski
Adventurer
IMO player wishes are very important for keeping them engaged and excited about their PC's, but as a DM I can't bring myself to allow wish-lists to completely define magic item allocation in my campaign.
This isn't because I somehow can't reconcile game vs. simulation, because I can: I simply see wish-lists as an expression of the same good luck and untapped potential that makes the PC's heroes in the first place. Rather, I've played the game for a long time, and to me random magic is part of the the fun of D&D. (I also have a problem with getting players to generate wish-lists in the first place!)
So the rules I currently play by are:-
* Some treasure parcels will be random magic. If they find it useful, brilliant; if they don't, well, that's life in the dungeon. May have impact on character wealth... but that's my problem to solve not theirs.
* Players are more than welcome to submit wish-lists at any time, and I will fold those requests into the campaign. They may, or may not, find wish-list items.
* Players are *required* to submit a few words on the general thrust of their intended character progression. So, the Fighter might tell me he intends to follow in the path of his infamous uncle and become a two-handed charge specialist favouring attack over defense; the Wizard might tell me she prefers control over damage and never wants to have to worry about her allies getting caught in the crossfire; the rogue might tell me battlefield mobility should be his signature, flitting in and out of melee leaving no throat un-slit in his wake. There's no limit to the amount of detail they can provide and it allows me to do some of the work for them and tailor their rewards to their goals without relying too heavily on specific items.
* I often place NPC's or locations in the campaign that allow them to enchant, enhance, or simply conjure magic items out of thin air. That way they can turn that heirloom longsword into a +2 weapon without replacing it, or pull items from their own wish-lists without breaking immersion.
This combination seems to be working well so far.
This isn't because I somehow can't reconcile game vs. simulation, because I can: I simply see wish-lists as an expression of the same good luck and untapped potential that makes the PC's heroes in the first place. Rather, I've played the game for a long time, and to me random magic is part of the the fun of D&D. (I also have a problem with getting players to generate wish-lists in the first place!)
So the rules I currently play by are:-
* Some treasure parcels will be random magic. If they find it useful, brilliant; if they don't, well, that's life in the dungeon. May have impact on character wealth... but that's my problem to solve not theirs.
* Players are more than welcome to submit wish-lists at any time, and I will fold those requests into the campaign. They may, or may not, find wish-list items.
* Players are *required* to submit a few words on the general thrust of their intended character progression. So, the Fighter might tell me he intends to follow in the path of his infamous uncle and become a two-handed charge specialist favouring attack over defense; the Wizard might tell me she prefers control over damage and never wants to have to worry about her allies getting caught in the crossfire; the rogue might tell me battlefield mobility should be his signature, flitting in and out of melee leaving no throat un-slit in his wake. There's no limit to the amount of detail they can provide and it allows me to do some of the work for them and tailor their rewards to their goals without relying too heavily on specific items.
* I often place NPC's or locations in the campaign that allow them to enchant, enhance, or simply conjure magic items out of thin air. That way they can turn that heirloom longsword into a +2 weapon without replacing it, or pull items from their own wish-lists without breaking immersion.
This combination seems to be working well so far.
Evilhalfling
Adventurer
I spent way too much of my prep time placing magic items and even used a spreadsheet to track the value each character was carrying.
I asked the PCs for wish lists, but if they asked for 5 items chances are they got 1.
lots of item upgrading, usually I looked at the parcel levels and then upgraded an item to match those levels.
Dwarven throwing great axe,
Dwarven throwing war axe (made by his father)
vicious war axe (made by father)
staff of defense (spikes added by a druid, +crystals from a fey crystalline castle)
healers brooch
Dwarven scalemail (made by an uncle)
cloak of the winterwolf (melting ice from the winter king)
Scepter of the winterking (absorbed the scepter of the ratking)
were all upgrade 1-2 times over levels 2-14.
I asked the PCs for wish lists, but if they asked for 5 items chances are they got 1.
lots of item upgrading, usually I looked at the parcel levels and then upgraded an item to match those levels.
Dwarven throwing great axe,
Dwarven throwing war axe (made by his father)
vicious war axe (made by father)
staff of defense (spikes added by a druid, +crystals from a fey crystalline castle)
healers brooch
Dwarven scalemail (made by an uncle)
cloak of the winterwolf (melting ice from the winter king)
Scepter of the winterking (absorbed the scepter of the ratking)
were all upgrade 1-2 times over levels 2-14.
I do it this way:
I asked the players for a wish list from level 1 through 30. They recieve the items on that list. At least 2 items (covering the areas armor, weapon/implement and neck) increase automatically (+1 to +2, +2 to +3 etc.). These items fill the appropriate slots on the list according to their level (lvl. 1, 6, 11, etc.).
Most of the time, the opponents will use the items before the PCs get them. So I tend to build their opponents in a way that these opponents can use the PC's items as well.
My players are supposed to roleplay the significance of the item for their characters somehow, which they most often do, because they find that to be a lot of fun. Healing potions and such are excluded from that.
I am of the opinion that 4E is almost all about the ease of preparation for the GM and more power to the players. So I let them make the decision what item they think their characters might find useful. I see no reason why I should spend my time picking out items for them.
I would do it if I wanted to flavor a NPC in some way and that certain flavor could only be obtained by a very specific item.
But since the PCs and their choices of items are very different from one another and very colourful, that problem has not yet come up.
I asked the players for a wish list from level 1 through 30. They recieve the items on that list. At least 2 items (covering the areas armor, weapon/implement and neck) increase automatically (+1 to +2, +2 to +3 etc.). These items fill the appropriate slots on the list according to their level (lvl. 1, 6, 11, etc.).
Most of the time, the opponents will use the items before the PCs get them. So I tend to build their opponents in a way that these opponents can use the PC's items as well.
My players are supposed to roleplay the significance of the item for their characters somehow, which they most often do, because they find that to be a lot of fun. Healing potions and such are excluded from that.
I am of the opinion that 4E is almost all about the ease of preparation for the GM and more power to the players. So I let them make the decision what item they think their characters might find useful. I see no reason why I should spend my time picking out items for them.
I would do it if I wanted to flavor a NPC in some way and that certain flavor could only be obtained by a very specific item.
But since the PCs and their choices of items are very different from one another and very colourful, that problem has not yet come up.
I don't like the wish-lists idea and neither do my players, so we don't use it.
I used Quartermaster for a while but it hasn't been updated since AV2 came out and keeps throwing up a lot of errors (or maybe that's just me and my Opera browser).
I recently made the decision to stick to the three major printed magic items books I possess - Player's Handbook 1, Adventurer's Vault 1 and Mordenkainen's Magnificent Emporium. After polling my players and ascertaining that we all prefer (primarily-)randomly-generated magic items, I then actually drew up random magic item tables that can apply to each book. So now I roll the dice and see what comes up. If it's too outlandish or not much use to my PCs, then I roll again.
Having said that though, I will admit that I never thought to consult the CharOp boards for magic items. I am thinking that I should do that and then incorporate those items into my random system. I dunno, something banal like each item I generate has a 1 in 3 chance of being from the CharOp tables.
I used Quartermaster for a while but it hasn't been updated since AV2 came out and keeps throwing up a lot of errors (or maybe that's just me and my Opera browser).
I recently made the decision to stick to the three major printed magic items books I possess - Player's Handbook 1, Adventurer's Vault 1 and Mordenkainen's Magnificent Emporium. After polling my players and ascertaining that we all prefer (primarily-)randomly-generated magic items, I then actually drew up random magic item tables that can apply to each book. So now I roll the dice and see what comes up. If it's too outlandish or not much use to my PCs, then I roll again.
Having said that though, I will admit that I never thought to consult the CharOp boards for magic items. I am thinking that I should do that and then incorporate those items into my random system. I dunno, something banal like each item I generate has a 1 in 3 chance of being from the CharOp tables.
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