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ShortQuests -- individual adventure modules! An all-new collection of digest-sized D&D adventures designed to plug in to your game.

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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Damon Griffin" data-source="post: 904737" data-attributes="member: 3568">An alternative to leveled itemsWe haven't used leveled items, but we've just started experimenting with "personal growth items" from Spells & Spellcraft (Fantasy Flight Games).  It's a simpler system than what's laid out in Dragon #289, but doesn't accomplish exactly the same thing.  While the "leveled item" system would allow a character to find (win, steal, whatever) a weapon or set of armor and invest XP to boost the enhancement bonus or add armor/weapon qualities, the "personal growth item" system requires that the item in question be created with the character in mind -- it's strictly a custom-tailor process whereby the item's creator establishes a mystical channel between item and owner.  The owner (who need not be a spellcaster of any sort) can then spend gold, or XP, or a combination of the two, to invest the item with added functionality, and the spellcaster/item creator doesn't have to be involved any further.There's pro and con to this system as compared to using leveled items:  personal growth items can be anything, not just armor or weapons, but they'll only work for their original owner -- the person for whom the mystical channel was established when the item was created.  So in *my* hands, Excalibur might be a +5 vorpal holy sword of mighty cleaving, but in *your* hands it's just going to be a +1 sword.  (This of course gives DMs a great opportunity to mess with players...yeah, the PCs can kill the bad guys and take their stuff, but the stuff isn't worth what you thought it was going to be.)Using the personal growth system, my character is about to begin putting together a longbow that, when finished, will be a Mighty (+4) Longbow of True Arrows, +3 merciful.  It's the equivalent of a +5 weapon overall, so in addition to the cost of crafting the masterwork mighty longbow, this will require 25,000gp -or- 2000 XP -or- an appropriate mix of the two, such as 12,500gp + 1000XP.</blockquote>

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