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<blockquote data-quote="Greenfield" data-source="post: 6163311" data-attributes="member: 6669384">Rewriting existing items has two problems, from the author's point of view:1) You now have two different, official write ups of an item.2) You can't sell your book of nifty new items.In the 3.0 to 3.5 change over, they re-pricied more than a few items.&nbsp; Upward.We used to call Boots of Striding and Springing &quot;Boots of standard equipment&quot;.&nbsp; They were so cheap for what they did there was no reason for any character past 5th level not to own a pair.Cloak of Displacement changed at some point as well, requiring an action to activate and having a 15 round limit per day.Wings of Flying jumped from 10k to about 50k.Now under 3.5 there is essentially no reason for anyone to ever make magical arrows.&nbsp; You can enchant them on the fly with Greater Magic Weapon, if you need to, and in any case they don't stack with magic weapons.&nbsp; A +5 magical bow costs pretty much the same as fifty +5 magical arrows, and gives the same bonus to far more than fifty shots.In short, they rewrote a lot of items, but they could do that because it was an edition change.&nbsp; That sort of retro-fit within an edition wasn't going to work and they knew it.More to the point, the rewrite was the opposite of power creep.Then they came out with the new book and pretty much tossed out any guidelines for pricing magic.&nbsp; And the &quot;base it on usefulness/power&quot; standard is far too unstable.&nbsp; Things like an Ever full Mug, or a Decanter of Endless Water are of minor value/usefulness in most setting, but are priceless in desert campaigns.&nbsp; Even the &quot;big six&quot; come into question:&nbsp; What is a +5 Longsword worth in an underwater campaign?&nbsp; What price magical full plate there, when it's armor check penalties are doubled?So, should either of these be any easier or harder to enchant just because there's more or less sand or water?What they intended was to make miscellaneous magic so cheap and powerful that it competed with the life-or-death stuff like armor, saves and hit points.&nbsp; They said as much in those articles.&nbsp; And, like it or not, more power at lower cost/level is power creep.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Greenfield, post: 6163311, member: 6669384"] Rewriting existing items has two problems, from the author's point of view: 1) You now have two different, official write ups of an item. 2) You can't sell your book of nifty new items. In the 3.0 to 3.5 change over, they re-pricied more than a few items. Upward. We used to call Boots of Striding and Springing "Boots of standard equipment". They were so cheap for what they did there was no reason for any character past 5th level not to own a pair. Cloak of Displacement changed at some point as well, requiring an action to activate and having a 15 round limit per day. Wings of Flying jumped from 10k to about 50k. Now under 3.5 there is essentially no reason for anyone to ever make magical arrows. You can enchant them on the fly with [I]Greater Magic Weapon[/I], if you need to, and in any case they don't stack with magic weapons. A +5 magical bow costs pretty much the same as fifty +5 magical arrows, and gives the same bonus to far more than fifty shots. In short, they rewrote a lot of items, but they could do that because it was an edition change. That sort of retro-fit within an edition wasn't going to work and they knew it. More to the point, the rewrite was the opposite of power creep. Then they came out with the new book and pretty much tossed out any guidelines for pricing magic. And the "base it on usefulness/power" standard is far too unstable. Things like an Ever full Mug, or a Decanter of Endless Water are of minor value/usefulness in most setting, but are priceless in desert campaigns. Even the "big six" come into question: What is a +5 Longsword worth in an underwater campaign? What price magical full plate there, when it's armor check penalties are doubled? So, should either of these be any easier or harder to enchant just because there's more or less sand or water? What they intended was to make miscellaneous magic so cheap and powerful that it competed with the life-or-death stuff like armor, saves and hit points. They said as much in those articles. And, like it or not, more power at lower cost/level is power creep. [/QUOTE]

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