Mercurius
Legend
Two things, really:
1) 4ed Magic Items Suck: I've come to the same conclusion that a disproportionately large number of DMs seem to come to, that 4ed magic items suck. I'm not exactly sure why--I think it is a combination of factors, the gestalt of which is not good. On one hand I don't have the problem with being able to buy a +2 sword or, as a player, not worrying that the DM will provide an appropriate high level version of your exotic weapon of choice at the appropriate time (e.g. a fullblade), that you can just spend cash and level it up yourself. On the other hand, it takes some of the fun out of things--the surprise of a new magic item. Now when a magic item is found, the party that I run immediately figures out whether anyone can use it and, if not, it is thrown in the "to sell" part of the party Portable Hole. Then of course there is the items themselves, which seem very underwhelming: like paragon level magic items that let you do one thing per day. What's the point of that?
2) A Lack of Randomness: In particular, I miss random magic item tables and the old Treasure Types A-Z! There is something fun about rolling up treasure right after the encounter; I know, you're supposed to pre-plan treasure parcels so everything is balanced and makes "verisimilitudinous" sense, but rolling treasure is fun, at least for me as the DM because it is both nice to find surprises as the DM, and a bit of randomness inspires creativity, again, at least for me.
So the larger question is, how to bring the magic back to treasure? Anyone else having this problem?
1) 4ed Magic Items Suck: I've come to the same conclusion that a disproportionately large number of DMs seem to come to, that 4ed magic items suck. I'm not exactly sure why--I think it is a combination of factors, the gestalt of which is not good. On one hand I don't have the problem with being able to buy a +2 sword or, as a player, not worrying that the DM will provide an appropriate high level version of your exotic weapon of choice at the appropriate time (e.g. a fullblade), that you can just spend cash and level it up yourself. On the other hand, it takes some of the fun out of things--the surprise of a new magic item. Now when a magic item is found, the party that I run immediately figures out whether anyone can use it and, if not, it is thrown in the "to sell" part of the party Portable Hole. Then of course there is the items themselves, which seem very underwhelming: like paragon level magic items that let you do one thing per day. What's the point of that?
2) A Lack of Randomness: In particular, I miss random magic item tables and the old Treasure Types A-Z! There is something fun about rolling up treasure right after the encounter; I know, you're supposed to pre-plan treasure parcels so everything is balanced and makes "verisimilitudinous" sense, but rolling treasure is fun, at least for me as the DM because it is both nice to find surprises as the DM, and a bit of randomness inspires creativity, again, at least for me.
So the larger question is, how to bring the magic back to treasure? Anyone else having this problem?