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<blockquote data-quote="Mercurius" data-source="post: 5701967" data-attributes="member: 59082">One problem I have with this issue is that the emphasis on balance and &quot;how the math works&quot; moves the game further and further away from any sense of realism or immediacy. What I mean by &quot;immediacy&quot; is that the rules reflect what is actually happening in the game narrative; this relates to the criticism of the 4E mechanics being too abstracted from what is actually going on. Bonuses to items actually makes sense. A finely crafted weapon is easier to wield and does more damage than a shoddy one. But this may or may not have anything to do with magic, which is why I would suggest that bonuses be converted to masterwork qualities, perhaps with two or three tiers--perhaps a masterwork (+1), grandmasterwork (+2) and legendarywork (+3), all dependent on how good the crafter was (and what they rolled for their skill challenge in making the item). The cost to buy such items would go up exponentially, and they could also form the basis for items of different tiers. In other words, a Heroic tier magic item has the default assumption of being a masterwork item, a Paragon tier item, a grandmasterwork, and a Epic tier item a legendarywork. In some ways that goes against my insistence on the rules making sense, but it makes things simpler.To put it another way, I don't like the idea of taking out bonuses from items simply because of game balance issues, especially when they actually make sense. A finely forged katana is easier to hit with than a clumsy, orc-forged blade (think the swords made by the orcs in the LotR movies).</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Mercurius, post: 5701967, member: 59082"] One problem I have with this issue is that the emphasis on balance and "how the math works" moves the game further and further away from any sense of realism or immediacy. What I mean by "immediacy" is that the rules reflect what is actually happening in the game narrative; this relates to the criticism of the 4E mechanics being too abstracted from what is actually going on. Bonuses to items actually makes sense. A finely crafted weapon is easier to wield and does more damage than a shoddy one. But this may or may not have anything to do with magic, which is why I would suggest that bonuses be converted to masterwork qualities, perhaps with two or three tiers--perhaps a masterwork (+1), grandmasterwork (+2) and legendarywork (+3), all dependent on how good the crafter was (and what they rolled for their skill challenge in making the item). The cost to buy such items would go up exponentially, and they could also form the basis for items of different tiers. In other words, a Heroic tier magic item has the default assumption of being a masterwork item, a Paragon tier item, a grandmasterwork, and a Epic tier item a legendarywork. In some ways that goes against my insistence on the rules making sense, but it makes things simpler. To put it another way, I don't like the idea of taking out bonuses from items simply because of game balance issues, especially when they actually make sense. A finely forged katana is easier to hit with than a clumsy, orc-forged blade (think the swords made by the orcs in the LotR movies). [/QUOTE]

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