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<blockquote data-quote="Harold Mayo" data-source="post: 715260" data-attributes="member: 10361">I have to agree with you, Ace.&nbsp; That was my thought about ten years ago.&nbsp; I wanted the history of the PCs to matter and wanted their own skills and abilities to allow them to stand out.&nbsp; With a regular level of magic in a D&amp;D world (as seen in the published stuff), that is impossible.&nbsp; Anything you can do is just another modifier on top of your magic items.&nbsp; Your own abilities don't matter anywhere near as much as the magic items that you have.I remember a couple of very specific times in my own world that demonstrated this very well.&nbsp; One one occasion, the PCs were all taken hostage by a fickle demigod (this was in my high-magic days) and he would release them to do a task for him.&nbsp; The party leader got smart with him and kept pushing (we were all younger then).&nbsp; Instead of killing them all, I decided that the demigod would punish the leader by taking his magic items.&nbsp; He was a high level magic-user (16th at the time, I think) and had pretty much every spell of the levels that he could cast at his command.&nbsp; When he lost his bracers of defense, ring of wizardry, ring of regeneration, staff of power, and other items, he almost cried.&nbsp; The player was ready to quit because, all of a sudden, he didn't have QUITE the capabilities that he once had.&nbsp; Never mind the fact that the party had a hoard of lesser magic items to draw from and he could get more powerful ones later.&nbsp; After all, he got off pretty easy when you consider that he pissed off a demigod.&nbsp; The other time was when a fighter who had (sort of) been built around flail specialization and a rod of flailing that the party had ended up losing his rod of flailing to a Mordenkainen's Disjunction spell.&nbsp; He, too, was ready to quit because he didn't have the awesome damage potential that he once had, even though he was a high level fighter with other magical items and magical weapons.My current group ranges from 6th to 9th level and only recently acquired a couple of magical weapons.&nbsp; One guy has bracers of defense, too, and they all have a magical ring each.&nbsp; That's it...and ALL of it has come their way within the last year of game time (in a nine year long campaign).&nbsp; They are defined FAR more by what they have done in the campaign world and by what their own skills are than by what magic items they carry.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Harold Mayo, post: 715260, member: 10361"] I have to agree with you, Ace. That was my thought about ten years ago. I wanted the history of the PCs to matter and wanted their own skills and abilities to allow them to stand out. With a regular level of magic in a D&D world (as seen in the published stuff), that is impossible. Anything you can do is just another modifier on top of your magic items. Your own abilities don't matter anywhere near as much as the magic items that you have. I remember a couple of very specific times in my own world that demonstrated this very well. One one occasion, the PCs were all taken hostage by a fickle demigod (this was in my high-magic days) and he would release them to do a task for him. The party leader got smart with him and kept pushing (we were all younger then). Instead of killing them all, I decided that the demigod would punish the leader by taking his magic items. He was a high level magic-user (16th at the time, I think) and had pretty much every spell of the levels that he could cast at his command. When he lost his bracers of defense, ring of wizardry, ring of regeneration, staff of power, and other items, he almost cried. The player was ready to quit because, all of a sudden, he didn't have QUITE the capabilities that he once had. Never mind the fact that the party had a hoard of lesser magic items to draw from and he could get more powerful ones later. After all, he got off pretty easy when you consider that he pissed off a demigod. The other time was when a fighter who had (sort of) been built around flail specialization and a rod of flailing that the party had ended up losing his rod of flailing to a Mordenkainen's Disjunction spell. He, too, was ready to quit because he didn't have the awesome damage potential that he once had, even though he was a high level fighter with other magical items and magical weapons. My current group ranges from 6th to 9th level and only recently acquired a couple of magical weapons. One guy has bracers of defense, too, and they all have a magical ring each. That's it...and ALL of it has come their way within the last year of game time (in a nine year long campaign). They are defined FAR more by what they have done in the campaign world and by what their own skills are than by what magic items they carry. [/QUOTE]

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