Heroes relationships to magic items and the power of re-atribution

[Garthanos]

One of the things I have liked about 4e is that well the hero is awesome himself and his magic items do not over shadow your hero well mostly and the use of inherent bonuses take that to the final level.

However that in the fiction the relationship varies from hero to hero and it is a function of character style.

• some are like Perseus with many pretty powerful items that are inherent to his story they are gifts of his heritage but kind of overshadow him not as bad as the Fated Wielder concept
• some are like Elric or Arthur though not necessarily overshadowed the are heavily defined by a single weapon. Arthurs weapon was a focus for his power of rulership a wondrous Warlord device whose sheath defended him and whose light blinded his foes and inspired his allies. An interesting part of this
• some are like Lancelot and their equipment while likely heirloom or mildly magic it is the sort nobody thinks of with regards to the character his raw ability completely overshadows them.

4e by way of open re-flavoring that I find incredibly valuable for making the above happen one could call it reflavoring but in this case call it re-attribution I use it for more than items Why do I have power X its not a racial heritage like the rules say its a personal Talent or maybe its my Heirloom magic item... or is them magical boots grand master training. Yes I like that there is some mechanical nod to it.

So why do i have the feat "Directing Inspiration" perhaps its because Excalibur has awakened further... why do i have that multi-class Paladin power it is my magic weapon doing it.

Perhaps my sword absorbs magic from the things I slay with it... and so it/I gain more abilities

At some level none of this is a big deal but the game 4E enabling player agency on the game can easily be made even more flexible and embrace tropes even further is kind of a big deal.

 

[Tony Vargas]

My second 4e character, Varinhall Mith'morenial, was on the one hand, an Eladrin Wizard McFighter on track for WotST. That'd be the mechanical choices hand. OTOH, he was a call back to the old elven fighter/magic-user (I was careful to pick classic spells as both powers and rituals, and I lampshaded edition changes - "this is a spell from my grandfather's book, originally penned by some forgotten mage named 'Tenser,' according to his notes, he'd sometimes prepare it, but I've never been able to, though reading it straight from the book seems to work fine...").

But, OTOOH, the relevant one, he was also the last in an an ancient lineage stretching back to before the elf/eladrin/drow split, and an 'inheritor of the mantle' a sleeping magical artifact, the Balefire Brand, a magic sword lit with the fire of creation. It wasn't any such thing, of course, but, via Eladrin Sword Wizardry I did go ahead and use it to cast a lot of my spells, so when I cast light, I'd wake the sword fitfully and ghostly green flames would dance around it. That kinda thing. I was also draining magic items for residuum on the theory that all the magic in the world came from the original Balefires, and I was just collecting some of it to restore the sword. I was also a Wand Wizard and said my Wand was a 'Wand of Fire,' thus the Scorching Bursts I was casting all the time. In 4e, some of that may have been pushing things a bit, but re-skinning powers was kosher enough. In 2e, I'd've needed 'Sense Shifting' and in 3.5 'spell thematics' to get away with most of it.

So, yeah, I think items being minor parts of a character, or engineered central part of the concept, are both nice ideas.

BTW, there's a 5e UA version of the hexblade that's meant to be an Elric-like character with his power mostly coming from his terrible magic sword.

 

[Garthanos]

Elric is always an interesting build challenge... here is a thread about it

http://www.enworld.org/forum/showthread.php?264148-Designing-Elric-of-Melnibone

 

[Garthanos]

An early character I envisioned had a cloak of shadow the powers the character discovered in it were really his reincarnated heritage and the cloak just a manifestation he could teleport from shadow to shadow but I do not recall many details except actually that relationship with the item, he was built as a ranger back when and it was the shadows of the forest that appealed to him. Not sure how I would build him now.

 

[Garthanos]

I had another thought with regards to this... In many games you get a cheaper cost for things which are not "integral" or "can" be lost.

I actually do not like this for several reasons one is it sort of demands that the item be lost as part of the story at some point to make up for the discount. (this is not too horrible as it does follow some tropes but it presumes the DM will keep on top of it and not over use which from my experience adds a layer of work to the DMs load and isnt reliable)

I think the opposite solution used by Fate might be better. If that aspect ie can be lost comes in to play because it inspires good story and the DM decides to go there then you get freebies in a manner like fate points (perhaps this might be karma points and/or action points that can try to make up for your situational impairment etc.)

NOTE: Even inherent powers "can" be lost in many genres so just because its built inherent doesnt mean its 100 percent off limits by story.