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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Crazy Jerome" data-source="post: 5918899" data-attributes="member: 54877">The problem with magic items in the DDI is misplaced priorities on how flexible it all needs to be. To wit, le'ts suppose instead of the current 4E setup, you have a DDI that works like this:<ul> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">You've got a character builder. When it comes to things like spells, equipment, etc. (things outside the character itself), you can pick such things, but the stats are not inherently calculated. Instead, you get a line in the proper place with blanks to put in the appropriate stats. For example, if your fighter uses a longsword, you don't pick a particular mundane or magic longsword--you just say longsword.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Then you've also got an adventure builder. No need to go into details for this post, but you can guess.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Then you've got a separate app/section for "magic item manager", "monster manager", "spell manager", etc. You put in the main stats for the respective things, with some room for some free text.</li> </ul>You can print from all of these. This means that right up front, you can got into the "magic item manager" and make a list of equipment (canned or custom), save it, and print it. Then when the party find something, you hand them the print--or if you don't want them to identify everything right away, some kind of code that links to it, while you keep it. The character leveling doesn't change that relationship.  Now, later, once all that is working, then go back and enhance it to make it easier to relate. Let the DM link into the various managers from the "adventure builder" so that he can embed the information in one document if he wants. Let the character builder include a second line under equipment specifying which feats, abilities, etc provide the raw numbers that should go into those blank lines. But keep the blank lines, and expect people to adjust as magic items change. You only need to reprint the character sheet (which doesn't include a huge list of spells or equipment as that is separate) when you level--and can probably get away without doing that on most levels.  After a few levels, the sheet gets all scratched up and needs reprinting anyway. It's the classic example of software trying to "do everything for you" and thus getting in the way, when it could do "a lot for you" and leave a tiny bit for you to do yourself, and thus be far more flexible and useful. Not incidently, this would also cause using the software to teach the game instead of obscuring it. <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f609.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=";)" title="Wink    ;)"  data-smilie="2"data-shortname=";)" /></blockquote>

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