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<blockquote data-quote="Celebrim" data-source="post: 9617744" data-attributes="member: 4937">Well, that part of the system I didn't mind.&nbsp; First of all, it is necessary to balance magical item crafting.&nbsp; If all items are available to the player, there has to be a considerable cost to crafting the more desirable ones.&nbsp; And secondly, players in my experience love loot, and when dropping treasure = XP, the only loot that directly excites the player because of how it can improve their character sheet is magic items.&nbsp;&nbsp; Having slots you can feel with even quite weak items lets you give out a decent amount of loot.I experimented early in 3.X with more numinous magic using magic items having quirks, and it stopped working at quite low level because it was too much for me as a GM to track.&nbsp; I had to remember the interactions of a half-dozen items and their secrets.&nbsp; More than 4 or 5 was too much.&nbsp; So the compromise I ended up with was a relatively large number of straight forward items and a few more powerful complex items that I was very familiar with that were carrying the weight of &quot;magic is strange and dangerous&quot; for the setting.&nbsp; What I meant by the &quot;Christmas Tree is required&quot; problem was that certain things like Cloak of Resistance, Amulet of Health, Gloves of Dexterity and so forth were considered at many tables to be essential to maintaining game balance, primarily because they made up for the gap in defenses between what you would have without magic items and what the design of higher level monsters assumed was the sort of defenses a character would have.&nbsp; And because your wealth had to go to procuring these essential basic items with obvious and general utility, you couldn't have wacky weird magic items at all, as it was always better to sell these and procure the basic Christmas tree decorations.&nbsp; Furthermore, to keep the game balanced, you had to as a GM ensure the players were moving up the Christmas Tree ladder continually.&nbsp; I understand why that was a problem at some tables, I'm just saying that my play style and my house rules largely evaded that.&nbsp; It might have come into play at higher levels, but at the level I was playing (when the game went on hiatus from Covid they were about 10th level) it just wasn't an issue.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Celebrim, post: 9617744, member: 4937"] Well, that part of the system I didn't mind. First of all, it is necessary to balance magical item crafting. If all items are available to the player, there has to be a considerable cost to crafting the more desirable ones. And secondly, players in my experience love loot, and when dropping treasure = XP, the only loot that directly excites the player because of how it can improve their character sheet is magic items. Having slots you can feel with even quite weak items lets you give out a decent amount of loot. I experimented early in 3.X with more numinous magic using magic items having quirks, and it stopped working at quite low level because it was too much for me as a GM to track. I had to remember the interactions of a half-dozen items and their secrets. More than 4 or 5 was too much. So the compromise I ended up with was a relatively large number of straight forward items and a few more powerful complex items that I was very familiar with that were carrying the weight of "magic is strange and dangerous" for the setting. What I meant by the "Christmas Tree is required" problem was that certain things like Cloak of Resistance, Amulet of Health, Gloves of Dexterity and so forth were considered at many tables to be essential to maintaining game balance, primarily because they made up for the gap in defenses between what you would have without magic items and what the design of higher level monsters assumed was the sort of defenses a character would have. And because your wealth had to go to procuring these essential basic items with obvious and general utility, you couldn't have wacky weird magic items at all, as it was always better to sell these and procure the basic Christmas tree decorations. Furthermore, to keep the game balanced, you had to as a GM ensure the players were moving up the Christmas Tree ladder continually. I understand why that was a problem at some tables, I'm just saying that my play style and my house rules largely evaded that. It might have come into play at higher levels, but at the level I was playing (when the game went on hiatus from Covid they were about 10th level) it just wasn't an issue. [/QUOTE]

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