Magic Items that lost their magic

[Rechan]

Oh, I assure you before the days of the internet, there were flame wars and complaining about systems and the like.

I can recall quite a few heated arguments that went the span of several months in the Dragon letter sections.

 

[Fanaelialae]

I generally would agree that the D&D world should try to simulate its own economy rather than a medieval one. I think that if the planes are going to interact with the mortal world at all, and have creatures that can be interacted with and killed, they should be probably be traded with. Sigil would be a good way to do it, or the City of Brass (which I like better than Sigil myself). Now a good question would be what the material world could offer these far more wealthy and cosmopolitan places. Certainly not raw materials (more abundant in the elemental chaos), heck perhaps they wouldn't even desire gold. Really, the only thing that I can think extra-planar creatures would want is human (and other mortal) slaves. Otherwise possibly they might want wood and other organic materials. Still, not a very profitible relationship.

However, it is largely beside the point. The price of D&D magical items is not based on what gives you personal power in the mundane world (which is full of dirt farmers) but what helps you hit the defenses of dragons and extra-planar monsters. It is for weaker creatures to kill stronger creatures, which are impervious to creatures weaker than you. Millions of common soliders are useless against Orcus. Which is generally why, in my opinion, magical blades should be found in dungeons with a prophecy to kill Orcus, rather than bought for huge sums of money.

I think human slaves are possible but not especially likely (human slaves would be far less durable than their planar counterparts). I think it more probable that planar entities would trade for things not commonly traded in the mortal world (like souls) or services (a powerful imprisoned devil might reward the BBEG, who is working towards the devil's freedom, with a mighty blade or whatnot).

The DMG (pg 155) has suggestions if you want to run a world where magic items can't be bought or sold. Even with a magic item economy in place, it doesn't necessarily mean the PCs can always find what they want or walk around a corner in Sigil and find an umbrella stand filled with +6 swords of Orcus slaying on sale. Tracking down the one priest in all of Sigil reputed to have the skills to forge a blade capable of killing Orcus (+6 Holy Avenger or whatever) could be an adventure in and of itself.

I realize that the baseline assumption is that the players can find the items they want, but I think it's an acceptable starting point. Not every DM (particularly newbies) can make tracking down "Ye Olde Magic Item Vending Machine Guy" that interesting, and some DMs would rather just skip to the "interesting part" (hunting down and slaying Orcus).

Finding the sword in a dungeon with a prophecy attached is good too, and due to the way the parcel system works the PCs should find that sword quite a few levels before they can actually afford to buy it.

 

[Teflon Billy]

Taking the Ring of Invisibility as an example, I'll say I'm SO happy WotC went this way. Magic like that devaules the skills of characters who specailize in Stealth. For too long utility magic has marginalized character skills. You want to sneak in somewhere...hire a sneak!

Agreed 100%

One of the few things that held my interest in the lead up to 4E's release was that the new design would make characters more important than their gear (which hadn't been the case for in 3E since it's inception).

The "problems" that the OP lists are, to me, features.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

I mean, 3 million gold for a sword? Seriously? When the average laborer earns, what, 1 sp or 1 gp a day? Something there is just not right.

What would you be willing to pay for an item that could potentially help you defeat anyone in the world?

Personally, I'd love to purchase a MIRV with some nukes, but my check would bounce.

 

[Stoat]

There is no magic item economy. There's a point buy system for magic items that uses gold pieces instead of something more abstract. It's been that way since 3E.

Magic items aren't valued according to any relative or perceived worth, as they would be in a functioning economy. They're valued so that a character can't generally afford them until the game expects it.

 

[GenghisDon]

I find magic items to be among the weakest things about 4e, they are pretty lame for the majority of them. I still like the game overall however. I won't use it as suggested, I'll pick & choose what items are about/available & improve some.

I have also been considering a low frequency magic item campain, by just adding the expected bonuses in automatically. Artifacts/Relics being the "magic items", but rare of course. A swords & sorcery style D&D like the Conan stories or the Grey Mouser & Fafherd. Magic tends to be very strong, but also very rare &/or dangerous to the user. Anyone try this sort of thing out?

 

[jmucchiello]

For the folks lamenting giving up a signature +1 weapon for a shiny new +3 weapon, can't you just say the signature weapon is always of the proper plus? 4e tells you a specific magic item is +1 at level 2 and goes up every 5 levels. So just create a ritual where the character bonds to a signature weapon/implement/whatever. Now the item automatically increases with his level. Now the only reason he has to discard the item is if he finds an item with better properties/powers. Make the cost of the ritual equal to the item's current cost (based on his level). So when the fighter with the cool +1 sword finds the boring +3 sword he use the +3 item to pay for the ritual to bond with the +1 sword (elevating it to +3 if he is of sufficient level, +2 otherwise).

Example, the +1 sword is a 4/9/14/19/24/29 item. He find the +3 item at 12th level. So he does the ritual destroying the +3 sword and bonding him to his current sword which rises to +2 because he is 12th level. At 14th level, the sword will automatically become +3 for him and him alone. (For the rest of the world it is still a +2 sword.)