Inherent bonus rules

[Odysseus]

Has anybody used the Inherent bonus rules (DMG 2 page 138)?

I was looking at using for my next campaign(WotBS) My players are enthusiastic about having less magic items , and trying to make the ones they get more special.

Any thoughts?

 

[CubeKnight]

My current idea for houseruling this (warning: they have yet to be tested) is using the intherent bonuses, giving each PC roughly one magicl item per tier that scales automatically as their inherent bonus increases. For example, they get a "Flaming Longsword", instead of a "+X Flaming Longsword". Said Flaming Longsword has bonus crit damage as if it were a +X Flaming Longsword equal to the PC's inherent bonus to attack and damage rolls. And maybe add more powers to those weapons as they level up, kinda like artifacts.

Besides from that, I plan to use a healthy helping of Divine Gifts, Heroic Boons and Master Trainings (those are the names for the alternative rewards, right?)

 

[Destil]

The math behind them works as for not using the big 3 magic items. You may want to consider free Expertise feats and possibly free paragon/epic defense feats or lower the defenses of monsters by 1 per tier and possibly do something about their NAD attacks. And possibly allow some extra damage on criticals (1d6 per 5 levels). You also still need to hand out masterwork armor, or just let the players upgrade for free when they hit the right level.

The problem I have with the character builder is the 'Inherent Bouns' check mark is that it stacks with enhancement for any PC with a magic item. Which is a shame, since it would be nice to still be able to hand out rare magic items. They could really use an option to make it allow magic items with no pluses and just powers/properties/critical damage, like with non-magical masterwork.

 

[sigfile]

They don't stack. The CB still lists the inherent bonuses, but they are listed as the "Enhancement Bonus" type. The calculations only use the higher of the enhancement bonuses.

 

[Odysseus]

The math behind them works as for not using the big 3 magic items. You may want to consider free Expertise feats and possibly free paragon/epic defense feats or lower the defenses of monsters by 1 per tier and possibly do something about their NAD attacks. And possibly allow some extra damage on criticals (1d6 per 5 levels). You also still need to hand out masterwork armor, or just let the players upgrade for free when they hit the right level.

The extra damage for crits is a good point. Not sure about lowering monster defences.

 

[Destil]

The extra damage for crits is a good point. Not sure about lowering monster defences.

You don't need to lower defenses if:
A) You give free expertise feats
B) You don't buy into the idea that expertise feats are needed at all (and ban them, I suppose)
C) You don't buy into the idea that the expertise feat 'cost' is bad

I'll have to retry the magic + inherent, it looked wrong but I didn't double check. I'll be very happy if it's correct...