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Message: <blockquote data-quote="JohnSnow" data-source="post: 3895776" data-attributes="member: 32164">Actually, yes, I have done that. But that's the act of picking out the cool items, not buying up the powers. There's no reason the list of magic items HAS to be richer than the list of class abilities. There's no functional (i.e. game) difference between "buying" a +3 strength bonus magic item with "gold pieces" and using "character points" to buy a +3 enhancement to your strength. The difference is that the latter is available to any character in the campaign world who has enough gold and the former is only available to characters with the appropriate resource (which may not have anything to do with gold).Except that this can represent extreme metagaming. If people in the campaign world believe that a fallen comrade should be interred with his gear and the gear of his defeated foes (similar to the way they laid Boromir to rest in The Lord of the Rings), then heroes (as most groups like to imagine they are) would never think to strip the corpse. Looting the dead is pretty dishonorable in most societies.I see what you're saying, but magic as a purchasable commodity changes societies in unbelievable ways. In most myths, the ability to use magic is bound up inherently in the character. Not everyone can use or benefit from magical gear in most settings. Supremely crafted gear is available to everyone, but magical gear can only be wielded by those who prove themselves worthy. Magic items don't have to be predictable and work the same way for everyone, because they're magic. To me, that could be represented by some spendable resource that was distinct from wealth. Alternatively, for a simpler solution, the access to powers can be tied directly to level. That's one reason I like the Midnight setting's "Covenant Items" (which are kinda like a cooler version of Legacy items). They're special, and the longer the character owns them (i.e. the higher level he is), the more "special" they get. To a weaker character who acquires them, they're just not as good. When combined with the Heroic Paths, a character in Midnight might be as powerful (or moreso) than his counterpart in a standard D&D game, but most of that power is tied in some way directly to his level. Giving his gear to a low-level nobody makes them a low-level nobody with some nice, but not horrifically-overpowered, gear. It's no more "overpowering" than Rand's father giving him a power-forged blade at the beginning of The Wheel of Time.That makes Covenant Items supremely valuable to heroic characters, but doesn't allow the king's idiot son (who's a low-level nonheroic) to become a great hero just 'cuz he's rich and can pull a +5 sword, +5 armor, and a +5 shield out of the royal armory.I think that last is the thing that bugs me the most about magic items being available for sale. It has some genre-breaking implications because, in a rational setting, there are NPCs who should be able to exceed the "wealth-by-level" guidelines.</blockquote>

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