Item Creation Rituals - several points

[Tale]

Just wanted to point out that small creatures use medium sized weaponry in 4e.

Halfling conspiracy.

 

[Storm-Bringer]

Vorpal is the reason there are no rules for resizing weapons.

Resizing a vorpal damage until it's so small that it's d2 means infinite damage on every hit.

No go, dangerous territory, etc for the corebook.

Houserules wise, just remember to keep a usuability limit for sanity.

That isn't a problem with re-sizing, that is a general problem with open ended rolls. While it usually evens out over the long run, you are still better off getting a smaller die if at all possible.

 

[Storm-Bringer]

Point the second:
Resizing magic armor - is one use of the ritual enough to change armor from one size category to any other? The book seems to imply that it is. That raises some economic questions about taking small armor of rare materials, enlarging it, and then smelting it down for the metal value. Like most economics in D&D, it's pretty silly, and I guess I can just turn a blind eye to that. I still am tempted to require a component cost for resizing armor, despite the book saying otherwise. Even making Tenser's floating disk costs you 10g in materials, and resizing a suit of armor seems a lot trickier than that.

I would rule that the only thing keeping it at that larger size is the magic, and if you throw it in the smelter, you will suddenly find yourself with the original, unsized amount of metal, and will be out one suit of magic armour.

 

[DLichen]

I would rule that the only thing keeping it at that larger size is the magic, and if you throw it in the smelter, you will suddenly find yourself with the original, unsized amount of metal, and will be out one suit of magic armour.

That's a pretty reasonable houserule, though I would like to see the economic model of a world where any resource is infinite so long as you can make armor out of it.

 

[silentounce]

That isn't a problem with re-sizing, that is a general problem with open ended rolls. While it usually evens out over the long run, you are still better off getting a smaller die if at all possible.

Not according to math. 1d12 is still better than 2d4 even with exploding dice. 2d6 is better than 2d4. Even a d6 is better than 2d2, on average.

 

[Tony Vargas]

I get the impression that 4e only goes down to d4s.

Weapons scale up from medium, but smaller creatures (OK, halflings) just use the smaller medium weapons.

 

[Zinovia]

For weapons, I think I will allow ritual magic to reshape them within the same weapon group. So you can turn a long sword +1 into a scimitar +1, but not an axe, or a dagger, or a halberd. Light blade into any other light blade, etc. That makes it slightly easier to make use of that nice +2 rapier you run across even if the party's rogue uses daggers.

I like the idea of enlarged armor shrinking down again if you break the magic by smelting it down. That solves the issue of making a tiny suit of magical mithral mail, growing it to be big enough for a hill giant, then smelting it. It theoretically means that you can save on materials by making it smaller than you need to begin with and enlarging it, so long as you keep it as an enchanted suit of armor, but what the heck. Maybe the materials are rare enough that everyone does it that way all the time.

Certainly magical armor has resized itself within the same rough size category in the past. I see no problem there since it's "magic" and has always worked that way. Changing size categories will require a ritual (and some cost as well).

 

[silentounce]

Vorpal is the reason there are no rules for resizing weapons.

Resizing a vorpal damage until it's so small that it's d2 means infinite damage on every hit.

No go, dangerous territory, etc for the corebook.

Houserules wise, just remember to keep a usuability limit for sanity.

I still don't get how d2 vorpal equals infinite damage.... Please explain.

 

[ForbidenMaster]

Point the first:
I'm not happy with the item creation ritual as presented in the PH. It seems too easy to just throw some money into generic ritual materials and make whatever the heck you have money (and levels) for. I realize it says you can enchant a normal item, and not just create something out of thin air. The quality or cost of the normal item is not specified however.

Well if you want a +3 greatsword the cost of the normal item is the cost of a greatsword. You cant just take any item and enchant it into whatever you want. You cant just break off a branch and call it a wand, and you cant just take a blanket and make it a cloak. A magical branch is still a branch, and a magical blanket is still a blanket. Now they might be usefull, but they wouldnt be an implament or a neck slot item, and therefor couldnt be enchanted as such.

Also, the very fact that you are going to be enchanting an item means that you are only going to be getting an item of your level or lower. Combine that with the lower emphesis on magic items and it doesnt matter. Whats really going to matter are the magic items that you get from adventuring. Anything beyond that is going to be flavor.

 

[Victim]

I still don't get how d2 vorpal equals infinite damage.... Please explain.

The Gauntlets of Destruction.