How important are item dailies, and item powers in general?

[Lizard]

Most magic item dailies suck. A few are great. If your DM allows you to select your own magic items, you can usually find some which synergize very well. Also, look for items with Encounter powers, or good Properties.

As an example, compare a Battlecrazed weapon to, say, a Flaming one. Which would you rather have?

+1d6 on every single attack you make with the weapon while bloodied. This really adds up if you get multiple attacks with the same weapon in a single power.

+1d6 on one attack, once a day.

"No brainer" doesn't even begin to cover it. All you need to do is assume you'll be bloodied for more than one round in a given day, and you're golden.

(My two dailies are Couters of Second Chances and Cloak of the Montebank, both of which have been life savers.)

 

[mlangsdorf]

There's a lot of weapon and implement Daily powers that could safely be made into Encounter powers without significantly upsetting the balance of play. It would make some of those items actually worthwhile for their special abilities.

As a general rule, any item that either adds static or ongoing damage (ie, Flaming, Frost, Thundeburst or Fireburst) as a Daily could be converted to be an Encounter item. Items that add good status conditions like Dazed or Stunned (ie, Resounding items) are likely powerful enough as they are.

 

[LightPhoenix]

There's a lot of weapon and implement Daily powers that could safely be made into Encounter powers without significantly upsetting the balance of play. It would make some of those items actually worthwhile for their special abilities.

I have the same feelings.

Magical item abilities essentially add more options to a character. For an Item Daily, this is essentially adding extra Daily powers. The "cost" is taken into account in the magic item daily uses. Yet, they're significantly weaker than Daily powers. One option is to make them Encounter powers, and the other is to increase their power to a sub-Daily but super-Encounter power. In reality each item would probably have to be judged individually on how to handle them.

I would say that I consider the vast majority of item dailies pretty lame.

When I'm selecting gear I almost always go for something with a solid property, with the daily being just a bonus.

I do the same, and this leads me into my next point.

It's not just that the item powers are weak, but they're not terribly interesting either. I've gotten way more use out of my MW of Thunderwave than any other item, because of the burst conversion. The item power is nigh worthless. My DM let me inject a little flavor into it as well, so it's not simply numbers to me. (My DM is awesome! ) In the attempt to make everything generic, they swung too far and made things a little too dull. Basically, the onus of flavor is now on the player, versus on the designer.

Basically, I think that in the effort to reduce the Christmas Tree effect, they went for overkill. Almost every magic item that doesn't carry a combat bonus is vastly overpriced for the level it is at. The stupid thing is, it was (mostly) never these items that were truly the problem. They're the flavor, they're the cool stuff. It was the absurd stacking of bonuses that was the problem.

 

[Jhaelen]

Which would approximately make them as powerful as an encounter power...

Why, yes, that's exactly my impression. Now do you feel that's too weak? I think it's perfect, otherwise your item powers might overshine your class powers.

 

[Mustrum_Ridcully]

Why, yes, that's exactly my impression. Now do you feel that's too weak? I think it's perfect, otherwise your item powers might overshine your class powers.

I try to avoid a value judgement regarding too weak or too strong, though I think they are fine, since they don't overshadow class/character powers.
But my primary goal is to give an idea what an item power is "worth" if you want to replace them with a different mechanic (or at least give some idea how to quantify their loss.)

 

[Obryn]

As an example, compare a Battlecrazed weapon to, say, a Flaming one. Which would you rather have?

Yup.

My party's Barbarian has this one.

He also has the Helm which adds 1d6 damage on a charge, and the boots which let him shift 1 immediately after a charge as a free action. Both of which are intensely powerful Properties.

I agree; item dailies more or less suck. Properties are where the fun is.

-O

 

[webrunner]

There's this one item daily that's available on hammers.. it allows you to do a melee basic attack against each target in a close blast 3. Considering this lets a fighter mark that 3x3 group it's not bad.

 

[pauljathome]

There's this one item daily that's available on hammers.. it allows you to do a melee basic attack against each target in a close blast 3. Considering this lets a fighter mark that 3x3 group it's not bad.

There are a reasonable number of items that are quite useful to have
as a backup. Only a small percentage but still, in total, a fair number.

As a wizard, Mnemonic staff is wonderful. As are the new books from Arcane
Power.

I'm seeing the Christmas Tree effect a lot more in 4th than I ever did in
3rd.