Is the Christmas Tree really dead?

[WarlockLord]

One of the things about 4e was the insistence on getting rid of the Christmas tree of magic items that made high-level characters resemble rappers with bling. Most of this was due to stat-boosting items, etc, that soon became mandatory for defenses.

However, while there is a distinct lack of headbands of intellect, periapts of wisdom, and whatnot, characters do seem to rely a lot on magic items.

For instance, the new attack paradigm. The ideal character will now hit 50% of the time. One of the few ways to get an attack bonus is now through some kind of magic weapon, which they have issued to the spellcasters too. Then this is balanced out via magic armor, and, yes, there are items that raise the other defenses too. So now we have a garbageload of items that give offensive/defensive bonuses. Are as many needed? No, but the game mentions them all too often, and the PHB makes reference to martial characters needing magic weapons. So, my question is, do we need bling, or can I roll up an assassin rogue with a cheap dagger?

 

[Agamon]

It's not a christmas tree anymore is its just a weapon, armor and neck item, as opposed to every body slot needing a boost item.

 

[DandD]

Unfortunately, the magical bling-blings are still in game (booo). However, the game designers simply suggest you give the plus from what higher-level magical weapon and armour you would normally have in a standart-D&D-game simply to your character.

At least, it's spelled out from the beginning. A character from level 1-5 is expected to have at least a +1 bonus to hit and damage, while 11-15, one should have a +3 bonus on hitting and damaging, and so on. There is some kind of AC-formula too, but I'm too lazy to memorize it, so I can't remember it either.

It's the magical daily effects that you may miss on, however.

 

[Agamon]

Unfortunately, the magical bling-blings are still in game (booo). However, the game designers simply suggest you give the plus from what higher-level magical weapon and armour you would normally have in a standart-D&D-game simply to your character.

Yep, and that's what I'm doing IMC.

 

[Obryn]

It's much less pronounced, and (thank goodness) any bonuses apply directly to derived stats rather than primary stats.

You should get a +1 to all attacks, damage, and defenses at 3rd level and every 5 levels thereafter, in order for all the math to work out evenly. Past that, everything's just gravy.

-O

 

[Cadfan]

In 4e, you need a weapon, armor, and a neck item. Beyond that, more items give you more abilities, but the abilities are minor or else limited in use. And the ones that are limited in use are limited based on the "milestone" system. The milestone system means that a character with two magical items with daily powers who fights through 3 encounters will be able to use the same number of daily abilities as a character with 15 magical items with daily powers.

So there are still magic items in D&D, and its still nice to have them, but the system is way more elastic than it used to be in terms of how well characters with more or less than the expected number of items can function.

You can decide for yourself whether that's a "christmas tree" or not, but as far as I can tell, it works alright and doesn't fill the game with magical bling.

 

[Staffan]

It's not a Christmas tree as much as a Christmas bush.

 

[Doug McCrae]

So, my question is, do we need bling, or can I roll up an assassin rogue with a cheap dagger?

You still need three magic items - weapon, armor and neck slot. However it's very easy to houserule 4e to dispense with bling completely, just give the PCs +1 to attacks, damage and all defences at levels 3, 8, 13, 18, 23 and 28.

 

[WhatGravitas]

It's the magical daily effects that you may miss on, however.

On the other hand, you can only use one, plus one per milestone anyway. So you don't miss out very much.

I think that handing out the plusses and giving the PCs an action point OR a healing surge after each encounter (the PC's choice) should fix both things at once and helps with potions as well, i.e. doing that probably gets you pretty close to a D&D without any need for any items.

Cheers, LT.

 

[blargney the second]

It's not a Christmas tree as much as a Christmas bush.

A shrubbery!
-blarg