Just say NO to buff items, the crack of D&D.

[Terath Ninir]

How often has your party monk come to blows with the rogue over a set of gloves of dexterity +2? How many times have you seen the sad, sad sight of the party paladin gutting the sorcerer for a cloak of charisma +4? And then there's the party's halfling wizard, who just wants the girdle of giant strength +4 so he can be strong enough to carry his own spellbook. Alas, the party barbarian goes into a rage and dumps the poor halfling's body outside of town...

This scene was bad enough in 3.0, but then you had a choice: the buff spells. You weren't so dependant. Yes, the buff items were there, but you never *had* to have them. Now you do. The buff item pushers who revised the system for 3.5 have made it so that you *have* to get their buff items to get you enhancement bonus. It's their way or no way.

It's terrible when terrorists like this get such power. But we can strike back! We can take back our enhancement bonuses and stop this vile tyranny. After all, if you went by the tables in the books, only a very, very small percentage of magic items would be buff items. Far less than 1% -- maybe as little as 0.1%. But what high-level character doesn't have at least two, and maybe more, buff items?

No! We cannot allow this! We must strike back! We must take back the power! After all, if the high-level monsters can have ability scores that *average* to 25 across the six stats, why can we not have a buff spell that lasts all day?

Even more, whatever happened to variety in magic items? Why must the "glove slot" be reserved for a Dexterity boost? Whatever happened to swimming and climbing? Or gloves of storing? No! This blandness must end!

The first strike, I think, should be restoring the buff spells to their former glory. Yes, they make the buff items superfluous. This is a good thing, however! Bring back the 1d4+1! Bring back the 1 hour/level duration! Throw down that headband of intellect, and embrace your fox's cunning!

The second strike is to change the stat bonuses. Instead of gaining a point every four levels, increase it to 1 every 2 levels! How else (other than cheesy DM fiat) would the characters of the Forgotten Realms have such high stats? Especially if they used point buy to create them? For the sake of more interesting characters, no more than half of the points could be put into any one stat. That's another part of the buff item addiction: characters with one unreasonably high stat while all the rest are low.

So, who will join me in my crusade? Who will help me strike down this foul addiction to buff items?

 

[Plane Sailing]

It is... interesting... that one of the stated aims of the 3.5e revision was to make it more about the characters and less about the items - and then (as you point out) make certain spells reduce in power so much that there is no choice other than to obtain the items...

If they were worried about multi-empowered buff spells they could have sorted that out either by making Empower non-stackable or by making the buff give a flat bonus (can't think why they did both!)

Perhaps a good alternative would be to have the buff spells give +4 but still lasting for 1 hour per level - although caster classes would still want the buff items for the extra spell slots which they don't get from buff spells.

 

[FireLance]

I wouldn't allow 1 hour/level +4 buffs as a second-level spell.

Maybe +2 buffs at 10 mins/level as a 2nd-level spell, +4 buffs at 10 mins/level as a 4th-level spell and +6 buffs at 10 mins/level as a 6th-level spell.

May still need to work out the balance issues, though.

 

[JRRNeiklot]

My solution is to ban all attribute enhancing spells, except for bull's strength, and just rename it "strength" ala 1e. I absolutely hate to see characters running around with attributes in the 30s. Next, I may put a max of 25 for humans/demihumans stats, as well. The game is about heroes, not freaks who can bench press 18 wheelers. If your character is stronger than the fire giant, what's the point? I can beat up a 3 year old, but I (usually) don't bother.

 

[Sir Whiskers]

A house rule someone posted a while back would eliminate buffing items completely - no such items exist in his campaign and they can't be researched/created. IIRC, his alternative was as follows:

Whenever a character gains a level, it gains 10 "attribute points".
Attribute points can be spent immediately, or saved up for later use.
Raising a stat costs a number of attribute points equal to the new stat's value, e.g., raising Str from 18 to 19 costs 19 attribute points.
Stats must be raised one points at a time, e.g., raising Str from 18 to 20 costs 19 + 20 attribute points (increase to 19, then increase to 20).

If you start with a 1st-level character, by the time he is 20th level, he'll have 190 attribute points. That sounds like a lot, but once stats get in the 20's, they'll go quickly. Basically means the character can have a lot of good stats, or one really, really good stat. This makes the concept self-balancing.

If (for some reason) you want higher stat increases, have the characters gain 10 + level attribute points each time they level. If you want lower stat increases, just change the 10 points gained each level to a smaller number - 9, 8, etc.

Note: characters do not also gain a free stat increase at every 4 levels with this system.

 

[Bagpuss]

Sorry, I'm still playing 3.0 so I've yet to encounter any problems with Buff spells or items that requires any 'fix'. Otherwise I would be happy to join you on your crusade.

 

[Sir Whiskers]

My solution is to ban all attribute enhancing spells, except for bull's strength, and just rename it "strength" ala 1e.

Another option is to create one universal buffing spell. It can buff one stat, caster's choice at time of casting. The caveat? Only one such spell can be active on a creature at any one time. A second casting on the same creature automatically dispels the previous casting.

 

[Plane Sailing]

The Conan game takes the interesting stand of giving additional attribute points at certain levels. You get the normal +1 attribute point at every 4th level, but in addition at every 6th level you get +1 to *every* attribute.

This is a nice way of providing improvement in a buff-free environment, and could easily be used to replace buff spells and items in D&D.

 

[Cheiromancer]

I don't have the Conan game, but I had heard that it was at level 6, 10, 14 and 18 that you got a +1 to every attribute.

 

[scholz]

Dump Buffs period.

I see no real benefit to buff spells or buff items.
Typically all these do is raise the bar for all characters and create unnecessary tension (paladins and sorcerers fighting over buffs). DMs have to account for the increased threat level of the character with higher CRs. Nothing really is gained. It is very much like the Spinal Tap amp that goes to eleven. If everyone has it what is the point? And it is not cost free. As CZ asks, what about other items for gloves, and headbands? Also, if you try to balance the gold for their level, so much of that gold must be spent on buffing items just to keep up with the joneses.

So.. I recommend keep 3.5 minutes of buff spells (if you must have them, they give some usefulness for rare cases). Or better yet have specific non-combat versions of the spells that last longer (a dex buff that enhances all of your dex based skill rolls would be very cool).

Do not allow any buff items, except for rare artifacts or relics (an ancient suit of armor that increases your strength, or similar things).

If your PCs are getting whooped by equal CR monsters you have at least two options. 1. Lower the CRs of your encounters (this is a great idea because if increases the scale of big threats, a CR 20 monster would be an incredible threat even to high level characters). 2. Give other sorts of items with bonuses for specific tasks. You want to carry your heavy spell book, make a magic 'light' spell book (or talking staff that can convey the same information). You need to do more damage? Well, how about a dancing axe that fights along side you. Need a better defense? How about armor that gives you DR as well as AC bonuses? Or a headband that gives you an insight bonus to AC?

There are so many options. I cringe whenever I see headbands of intellect, or gloves of dexterity. Those things ruin the flavor of magic. The game becomes a pen and paper video game, instead of being a story telling game.

So there!