Magic Items that lost their magic

[ferratus]

Me, if I were to take the numerical bonuses off of items and put them on characters, I'd probably put them at 3/8, 13/18 & 23/28, to spread the boosts out a bit. I might do that on my next campaign, even.

The character builder will get in the way of that, because the power attack cards will assume that your magical items will have a +x on them. The workaround would be to not assign your weapon to the weapon slot, but then you wouldn't have the information on how the power and the weapon work together.

 

[Stormtalon]

The character builder will get in the way of that, because the power attack cards will assume that your magical items will have a +x on them. The workaround would be to not assign your weapon to the weapon slot, but then you wouldn't have the information on how the power and the weapon work together.

Nah, in the CB, the easiest workaround is simply to assign each character an appropriate + weapon at each required level (with the understanding among the players that that plus isn't actually attached to the weapon per se, but actually inherent to the characters).

They still won't find +X weapons in the world, but for purposes of making the CB work right (until such time as houserule plugins can be used), pseudo-plus weapons can be used as a shorthand.

 

[zoroaster100]

While I think some magic items are indeed a bit too weak to be worth taking up a slot, I think that one of the best things 4e did was to get rid of stat boosts, so I for one am very glad the Gauntlets of Ogre Power and similar items DO NOT grant a stat boost.

 

[gizmo33]

It is especially frustrating if your DM hands out a +3 sword when you have a +1 sword with a daily power. That pretty much means you stick the +1 cool sword into your pack and use the +3 sword most of the time, even though you'd rather use the cooler sword.

It adds nothing to the game but a bookkeeping annoyance.

But wait. You've spent this whole time playing the game with the bookkeeping annoyance of having to keep track of the +1 from the Sword of Coolness. And you haven't quit yet. So I don't think you've have that much of a problem keeping track of the +3.

If this is really your preference, then I say sell the +3 sword (and don't screw over the player with the "1/5 rule"), then spend the money on upgrading your Sword of Coolness +1 to it's +2 version. Then take the remaining money and buy some potions, magic whetstones, or combine with other people's money to get them an upgrade. The guidelines in the Adventurer's Vault book actually give specifics on upgrades, but it's pretty easy to figure out how it should work.

 

[Ariosto]

So far from obviating skill at sneaking, invisibility actually makes it more often relevant. "Ssh! I'm being vewwy sneaky!" doesn't matter when one is in plain sight of Wascawwy Wabbit. Being invisible is only slightly more useful if one is making a racket ... but potentially very helpful if one can be stealthy to boot.

I wonder: why does the ring not permit sustaining the effect as does the wizard spell?

I was nonplussed by the feeble qualitative difference made by the 4E boots of spider climbing, finding the effect of wavestrider boots more satisfying.

 

[billd91]

It isn't, that's the problem. It is just adding +1 for the sake of adding +1, not because it adds anything to how cool the character is. A fiery blade, a keen blade, a blade that teleports people into another dimension are all a lot cooler than "I can hit slightly more often for slightly more damage". It is especially frustrating if your DM hands out a +3 sword when you have a +1 sword with a daily power. That pretty much means you stick the +1 cool sword into your pack and use the +3 sword most of the time, even though you'd rather use the cooler sword.

It adds nothing to the game but a bookkeeping annoyance.

It's not much of a bookkeeping annoyance. And if the daily is actually cool, why would you drop the +1 w/daily in favor of the +3? That's mainly because 4e has a conceptual flaw with respect to magic weapons. They based too much tightly controlled math around it. Now you virtually need the bonus to keep up with the monster's attacks and defenses (not to mention the extra crit damage). The magic bonus to hit should be a freebie not counterbalanced in the monster's defenses. They should make the difference between a typical (level appropriate) fight and an eaiser fight, not between a too-hard fight and a typical fight.

So if they included +x weapons as a sacred cow, they got foolish and mutated the cow into a real problem like some kind of mad scientist.

 

[billd91]

So far from obviating skill at sneaking, invisibility actually makes it more often relevant. "Ssh! I'm being vewwy sneaky!" doesn't matter when one is in plain sight of Wascawwy Wabbit. Being invisible is only slightly more useful if one is making a racket ... but potentially very helpful if one can be stealthy to boot.

In most earlier edition games I played, who got the ring of invisibility? Usually the thief/rogue. Why? He was the one being stealthy anyway, now he would be able to get by with only 1 die roll for moving silently rather than 2 for moving silently AND hiding in shadows.

 

[Nebulous]

I could go on... but in their effort to make magic items not matter too much, it feels to me like WotC made items not matter at all.

I agree. I like 4e a lot, but magic items are pretty much a dull bunch. I can't say they don't matter at all, and some are rather cool (like the Horn of Summons, i just handed that out in our last adventure). For what it's worth, i've been adding my own magic items into 4e to supplement stuff in the PHB and AV. Ideally though, i hope that AV2 shakes it up and tries to "break" the rules as a magic item should, rather than adhering strictly to the combat condition tree and replicating all the crap that class powers do already.

 

[avin]

For me, it's adding items that have cool non-combat effects. For instance, you could have a ring that turns you invisible, but it fades before you attack -- so no combat advantage. A revised gauntlets of ogre power might not help in combat, but allow you to lift vast weights when you draw on their power. That sort of thing.

I really like quirky, odd objects. Designing them is one of the fun parts of being a DM.

My favorite kind of items too.

The +X items, in my opinion, are lame powergaming excuses (hyperbole FTW!).

I love to get unusual out of combat magic items.

 

[avin]

PS. I like my characters being powerful, not their items.