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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Rampant" data-source="post: 5792756" data-attributes="member: 52859">Some ideas:1. Magic items as character progression. - Now I don't mean the + system from 3 and 4 e where you had to get an armor enchant this high to play in the sand box with the rest of the party (i'm aware that + items were available before 3e, but not having played those I can't say much about them). I'm thinking that magic items could actually be improved by characters taking certain talent trees or whatever.  For example a fighter finds a flaming sword that adds +x fire damage on each hit, and +y additional fire damage on a crit. This is your basic fire sword and probably the template for several weapon enchants (cold, acid, yadda yadda).However next level the fighter decides to spend one of his talents or feats or whatever to kick it up a notch. By spending this talent for the Improved flame weapon ability he gets to unlock the next level in the item's description. This might increase the damage generated by the weapon, allow him to pierce or remove resistance/immunity, burn foes for lingering damage/effects, give a fire based magical ability, or any of a number of things. If so desired the fighter can keep doing this until he is the undisputed master of flame weapons, but he sacrifices progress in other areas, on the plus side lots and lots of fire.This works best if items either auto-level with their users, or no longer posses scaling power based on item level i.e. magic items are simply their enchantment, naturally occurring greater or lesser versions of the flame sword do not exist, all flaming weapons are flaming weapons and do not come in +2 flaming burst and +5 lesser flaming variations.This makes crafting the basic weapon the important part, not constantly churning out the next higher +, and the difficulty/time involved can be scaled to match the DM and party interest since the character is paying for their fancier magic item powers out of their own character generation pool it makes it harder for items to throw the curve out of whack via being over or under abundant.Furthermore this allows the character who is actually using the item to pay the cost rather than the crafter. This provides more excitement for the player and encourages them to stick with an item rather than heading down to the local Mordenkainen Mart. Also it means crafters don't get shafted, and the economy can make sense since making magic items doesn't always have to be a massive quest thing.2. Auto leveling items. - I.e. the weapon becomes its more powerful variations based on whether the user leveled up. So the +1 flaming sword becomes the +2 flaming sword when the user reaches the appropriate level. This works best with 4e type items where the higher level versions scale the abilities as well as the basic +s.This means that a player cannot somehow filch the BBEG's fancy magic sword o darkness and expect to get all the same benefits since the odds are the BBEG has a few levels on the PC, especially early in the game. Furthermore it means that once more you don't have to obsessively keep up +4 everything since that's taken care of. Less items have to be crafted, so a lot of the wal-mart feel is taken out.Intelligent items might be able to grant access to higher power levels without taking the talents/having the levels on a temporary basis, but most likely only if the situation is related to the weapon's primary goals, or at cost to the user. However if the item doesn't like you it might reduce your access despite your talents/levels.</blockquote>

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