Iron Heroes - I have it in my hands!

[Macbeth]

I guess what I'm wondering is, if I give a 10th level character a +1 sword, will he be horribly overpowered? I see magic can penetrate DR, which is the major function of armor, so it has me worried.

As mentioned in my other posts, I see this blending well with Midnight, which has magic items as VERY rare, but not unheard of.

Disclaimer: I don't have the book, so this is some speculation.

Just a +1 Sword? No, not really. If you start to give him potions, magic armor, magic whatsits, etc., then he becomes too powerful. When it comes down to it, a +1 is just doing 1 point of damage more then a masterwork sword (assuming masterwork swords are still +1 attack). Even over a long combat, at 10th level, that's going to be maybe 15 extra points of damage. Not too bad. Something like flaming I'd be more worried about.

So, I'm guessing that just a single, fairly minor magic item, wouldn't hurt. But start decking him out like a 10th level D&D character, and he'll overpower anybody and everybody. Think of a D&D charafcter with double the standard wealth... Since the classes basically compensate for lack of magic items, a Iron Heros character with full gear would be like a character with double items.

 

[BryonD]

Well, in IH's 'implied setting', the human bad guys, the First, are supposed to be better than normal people, up and including magical augmentation. It's not that ridiculous to expect a First to have magic gear attuned to his person, or even the 'magical foot tattoos' suggested. I think it's possible to work around this...but I'll still want to put IH though its paces via a module first.

Right, but the First aren't part of the question that was asked.

The point was specifically about using existing D&D material with IH. The First does not offer any help if I'm running a module with an orc warlord with a +2 Amulet of Natural Armor, a +2 Great Axe and various other items.

I don't see the slightest problem with building all kinds of augmented villians that would work perfectly within the IH framework. I was not challenging that possibility. But a lot of the D&D assumptions don't fit smoothly into this mold.

That isn't a real problem to me. But I do think it is a very clear condition and an accurate response to the question asked.

 

[BryonD]

Disclaimer: I don't have the book, so this is some speculation.

Just a +1 Sword? No, not really. If you start to give him potions, magic armor, magic whatsits, etc., then he becomes too powerful. When it comes down to it, a +1 is just doing 1 point of damage more then a masterwork sword (assuming masterwork swords are still +1 attack). Even over a long combat, at 10th level, that's going to be maybe 15 extra points of damage. Not too bad. Something like flaming I'd be more worried about.

So, I'm guessing that just a single, fairly minor magic item, wouldn't hurt. But start decking him out like a 10th level D&D character, and he'll overpower anybody and everybody. Think of a D&D charafcter with double the standard wealth... Since the classes basically compensate for lack of magic items, a Iron Heros character with full gear would be like a character with double items.

Yeah, other than the whole bypassing Armor DR thing, I agree with this.

The IH chars have the loss of magic items built in. So at the level a fighter "should" (YMMV on when "should" occurs) have a +3 sword, IH already has it. So if you gave the IH char a +1 sword it would be largely equivalent to giving a +4 sword to the guy who is expected to have the +3. Which is to say, not that big a deal.

But Armor with DR 1dX/magic is an important thing to keep in mind....

 

[EricNoah]

I would imagine that if it's anywhere, rules for IH magic items will be in the "Mastering Iron Heroes" book. I'm hoping there are wealth guidelines there, too (although ... with little to spend your wealth on there's no reason to worry about giving too much cash away...)

 

[A'koss]

I would imagine that if it's anywhere, rules for IH magic items will be in the "Mastering Iron Heroes" book. I'm hoping there are wealth guidelines there, too (although ... with little to spend your wealth on there's no reason to worry about giving too much cash away...)

Apparantly there are magic item rules in Mastering IH. Mike once said they are similar in some respects to CoC's (read: possibly dangerous to use). Mike also mentioned that the book will address what to do with all they cash you have on hand...

 

[BryonD]

wealth guidelines

Table A:
Ales of the Known World

Table B:
Whores of the Known World

Table C:
Bribing made easy

 

[EricNoah]

I think what Wulf might be asking is ... if you were trying to do a D&D creature's spellcasting the IH way, are there conversion notes for that? And the answer is no. I would hope to see some guidelines like that maybe in the monster book. But the "solution" as presented is to just use the monsters as-is (with their D&D spells) because the IH characters can handle it.

What I would do, personally, is try to match the D&D monster's caster level with the appropriate mastery level for his primary method, and then just assume he has that level of mastery over all effects you want to create. Build some spells, figure out channeling DCs, but don't worry about the mana and just let the creature cast them a couple of times per encounter.

 

[Matrix Sorcica]

I don't see where Mastery level stacks in multiclassing? Do you know if it does?

Say I've got a 5th Level Berserker/1st level Weapon Master (Power as primary) would his Master for power still only be 3 (because its higher from Berskerer) or would be it be 5 (the two added together).

Thanks

This is from memory, but somewhere it talks about an exception to the normal rules of Mastery stacking when multiclassing. Can't recall what it's about. Unless someone else with the book chimes in, the answer will have to wait approx. nine hours....

 

[monboesen]

All in all the Iron heroes way of dealing with npc and monster powers is pretty much what I do already in my standard D&D game. I'm sure I'm not the only Dm with this approach.

You simply decide that strict rules are for the players exclusively(to keep them somewhat on par with each other). Npc's and monsters are simply able to do what you want/need to do, even if this is stuff that the pc's will never be able to do. As long as their succes at something involving the players is not automatic (requires a hit, save, skil roll etc.) this works fine in my experience and cuts down on prep time immensely.

As for magic, I actually like that the players use of magic could be different (and obviously worse) than other creatures/races. I my setting for example, Dragons will keep casting spells as Sorcereres as they are simply better at magic than humans. Period.

 

[Dalamar]

The point was specifically about using existing D&D material with IH. The First does not offer any help if I'm running a module with an orc warlord with a +2 Amulet of Natural Armor, a +2 Great Axe and various other items.

Well, unless the character has consumable magic items, the players never have to know that the orc warlord they're fighting has magic items. And even then, it could be described as stoking itself (potion of Bull's Strength), or many other things. That's how I'm going to handle things like that.