Magic Item Wish List????

[Doctor Proctor]

If you pay attention to your PC's builds, you shouldn't need a wishlist. It's pretty easy to figure out the type of magic items they will want/need by observing their class, feat selection, etc.

Yes and no. For some things, yes you can guess, but there's plenty that you can't. As a Dragonborn Fighter going STR/CON I have a LOT of surges (12) compared to the other party members. As such, I'm a good candidate for the Healer's Sash since I have the surges to spare. However, I'm also trained in Intimidate and have a low CHA, so I'm personally interested in the Cincture of the Dragon Spirit in order to boost up my Intimidate. That's something that the DM won't necessarily guess right off the bat, since it's not really a classic "Fighter" type item.

Or for another example, would the DM know that I want a Throwing Shield right off the bat? Personally, I think it's a great item as it gives me a solid At-Will ranged attack without the need to change weapons.

 

[AngryPurpleCyclops]

This is one of the things I like least about 4e. Since monster attacks and defenses are going up about 1 every level and pc's are going up about 4-5 every 8 levels, there's almost a necessity to give the players magic weapons and armor to compensate or expect them to lag behind the bad guys in ability to do/avoid damage over time. This is particularly difficult in the style of play my group uses is what we call a more "gritty" dnd, low magic, high danger, no dm fudging to save the party, pay attention to danger signals and understand when you're over matched. Running away is definitely something we have to consider in our campaigns because the party is simply not more powerful than every encounter we might run into. Personally I find it adds a lot of tension and excitement to the game if there is a chance we might get killed. I certainly don't want to get killed and I try to do my best to keep the party and it's members alive but we occasionally lose a pc (almost invariably to a tactical error) and even got TPK'd once when we failed to retreat from the "throne room" after reinforcements started arriving. We made a valiant stand in a side chamber for a while by controlling the doorway but a combined force of gnolls, orcs and an evil spell caster overwhelmed us and cut us down. We likely could have gotten away more than once, and even after my warlock was down there were two people who probably could have escaped but they tried to take the body of another fallen player with them as they retreated and they died also.

Back on topic, the wish list seems like a semi necessary evil given the specificity of magic items in 4e. I think our DM prefers to try and figure out what we need and supply us with a smattering of class specific items and given the nature of our campaign (low magic) I like that better and he seems to be handling the decisons pretty well (we can alternatively work on trying to purchase or manufacture our own items but party wealth vs magic item costs so far precludes any significant gains.

I do wonder if we'll be totally over matched as we move up levels because our campaign style doesn't match the games intended magic distribution. On the other hand we use a house rule that allows 1 + 1 per tier use of daily items per day as opposed to 1/tier so we have a slight magical item usage advantage over the norm. I don't think anyone has used two dailies in a day as of yet since a lot of our stuff is situational but it will eventually happen.

time will tell

 

[Doctor Proctor]

Well, the main thing with balance is not the item powers, but the bonuses. PC's need the bonuses to hit, AC and NAD's mainly, everything else is just extra stuff.

If you're in a low magic campaign your DM can keep you relatively balanced by just handing out generic +X items, which are the most basic versions. If he feels that eliminates the "low magic" feel, then he can either reflavor those items as merely "superior" quality mundane items, or give the PC's the bonuses for free every 5 levels, and then only use magic items to grant powers and properties.

 

[DanmarLOK]

Off topic but I believe, and someone correct me if I'm wrong, if you hand out a +1 to hit, damage, defenses 'heroic bonus' every 5 levels (starting around 2-3'ish I would guess) rather than magic items you can run a very low magic campaign without serious issue. Yes you'll be lacking in the extras that magic items grant over and above the flat numbers but it won't be too bad and you could always add another +1 when you hit a tier to help balance that out.

 

[abyssaldeath]

Off topic but I believe, and someone correct me if I'm wrong, if you hand out a +1 to hit, damage, defenses 'heroic bonus' every 5 levels (starting around 2-3'ish I would guess) rather than magic items you can run a very low magic campaign without serious issue. Yes you'll be lacking in the extras that magic items grant over and above the flat numbers but it won't be too bad and you could always add another +1 when you hit a tier to help balance that out.

There was a thread about this when 4e came out. What you said sounds about right. You would still need masterwork armor though. Just make the cost of those masterwork armor the same as the cost of magic armor = to the cost of the minimum enhancement bonus. You just don't give the armor the enhancement bonus.

Ex. Godplate has a minimum +6 requirement. Plain old +6 Magic Armor is a 26th lvl item. A 26th lvl item costs 1,125,000gp. So in a campain with no magic items Godplate would cost 1,125,000gp.

 

[Grabuto138]

This is one of the things I like least about 4e. l

I don't know. It seems to me that of all editions, magic items represent the smallest portion of the character's overall power in 4e. 3e was a little over the top but even in 1e the ability score bonuses were less and Vorprol Swords and Staves of the Magi were a big deal.

Basically, this is one of the things I like best in 4e.

 

[Alabast]

If you're an astute DM, you shouldn't even need a wish list from your players. Just look at the PCs builds, and their choice of weapons, feats, and powers, and talk to your players about what they think is "cool" about their characters (most players will be more than happy to do so without provocation). That should give you a pretty good idea about the type of magic items to give them.

 

[nittanytbone]

You are supposed to follow a certain, very narrow, power curve in 4E. This power curve is designed to keep things as close as possible to a status quo, while giving an illusion of progress. Not giving your players the appropriate amount of level-appropriate loot, makes them fall behind on the curve, and disturbs that status quo.

However, to properly give them the things that fits the power curve, you have to give them things they can use. That means it has to be approprate to their roles, their classes, their races, the feats they've picked, and what loot they've already acquired. Meanwhile, the effects of 4E items are, as I wrote above, very narrow. In 3.5E things like rings of protection, amulets of +Con, etc were usable by all. 4E things are more like "usable by a one-legged dragonborn paladin that uses a greatclub" (Ok, not quite, but almost... )

Thus the necessity for the wish list.

Fully agreed. If you have five players, trying to select good magic items for all of them -- ones that keep their "big three" (weapon/implement, armor, neck slot) up to snuff as well as complement their desired tactics is pretty time consuming. Fobbing this work off on the players makes your life easier.

I do dislike it though as it makes the game pretty anti-climactic! I'd prefer for a player to be questing for a potent specific item once every 2-3 levels at the most, not every single level.

 

[Regicide]

You are supposed to follow a certain, very narrow, power curve in 4E.

Every splat book has made that curve less attainable by a DM for their players. Characters are now easily a good 2 levels more powerful with splat books than without. A headache when your characters aren't challenged at all by a module that they're supposedly on the low end for. Not handing them optimized magic items form a wish list isn't going to sink them below the curve.

 

[msherman]

Wish lists are vital. My players keep forgetting to give me one. As a result, stuff happens like last game, when I gave them a Flamedrinker shield (a pretty impressive item for a party that just hit level 3). Only problem -- the only shield user in the party is a tiefling. Hopefully this will encourage at least that one player to keep a wishlist updated.