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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Bishmon" data-source="post: 4016314" data-attributes="member: 56176">If the wand of fireball is effectively replacing a wizard's magic missile in his suite of powers, then absolutely that's not balanced in the encounter sense. You said as much.You said that secondary items won't affect encounter balance as long as they're not out of line with class powers for their level. So as long as a 5th level magic item is roughly equal to 5th level class powers, encounters won't be affected because the secondary items are adding options, not power.But the point I made was that an item's powers won't always, or probably even often, replace a class' powers of that level. Instead, they'll be used to replace powers of a lower level that the character is still using.For example, say a wizard has a 5th level power that lets him use a lightning bolt once per encounter. He also theoretically has a 1st level power that lets him use magic missile once per encounter. If he gets a 5th level item that lets him use fireball once per encounter, that's presumably balanced against his 5th level power. But he's not going to use that 5th level item to replace the 5th level power; he's going to use it to replace that 1st level power. Instead of his first two spells being lightning bolt and magic missile, they'll now be lightning bolt and fireball. Since that 5th level item is replacing a 1st level power, that absolutely effects encounter balance.So yeah, if a wand of fireballs is effectively replacing a wizard's magic missiles in terms of what he then uses in encounters, and presuming that fireballs are a higher level than magic missiles, that hits at exactly what you said, and certainly affects encounter balance.Possibly. Depends on what role the particular powers play.But that was just an example. Unless each class gets five new powers every level, they're going to in some way end up using lower level powers during encounters.</blockquote>

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