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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Dr_Ruminahui" data-source="post: 5570561" data-attributes="member: 81104">A +1 at first level is in no way reflective of the stardard parcel system (and indeed is far ahead), as normally a starting party has NO +1 items.Note, for the below, I'm assuming there are 3 "prime" slots that need to be filled (neck, armour, weapon/implement - I'm just going to call it "weapon") and that 1 out of 4 items will be for a "non-prime" slot.  I'm also assuming that it will always be the lowest magic item each level which goes in the non-prime slot.As well, when looking at a level, it is appropriate to look at the items recieved in previous levels, that the items that will be recieved in that level - to do otherwise is to count the parcel system as one level ahead of where it actually is.Even at the beginning of level 2 (so, end of lvl 1 magic wise), only 4 out of 5 characters will have a magic item, and its likely that only 3 will have a +1 item (say, one each of weapon, neck and armour in the party).Its not until the beginning of level 3 (so, end of level 2) that most (4) characters will have one +1 item, and 1 will have a +2 item as well.It not til the beginning of level 4 (so, end of level 3), that the party can be assumed to have a +1 item in the majority of their 3 prime slots... and not till the beginning of level 5 that they will have all the slots filled (though, by then, one of each slot should be +2 for each member)So, at the beginning levels, inherent bonuses give a party a 2 to 3 level advantage over the parcel system, at least in terms of bonuses to the prime slots.Now, however, looking at the higher levels - it shouldn't matter which, as the parcel system in "ingrained" by that point on (level 2 is wierd in that for lvl 2 to be the same the higher levels, the party would need to start with a magic items).So, lets look at 7, as it is closest to the numbers we were looking at, so I can use my old notes. <img src="http://www.enworld.org/forum/images/smilies/nervous.png"  class="smilie" loading="lazy" alt=":heh:" title="Nervous Laugh    :heh:" data-shortname=":heh:" />So, at level 7 (end of level 6), all of the party should have +2 items in 2 prime slots, and a +1 item in the last.  So, again, the inherent party is slightly ahead... as they are getting +2 in ALL prime slots, while a "parcel" party only has +2 in 10 of their 15 "prime" slots.If you consider that there are 4 prime slots (so, weapon, armour, neck, other weapon), things are even worse for the parcel party (10 out of 20 are +2s at lvl. 7, rather than 10/15).Personally I think the inherent bonuses are a nice trade off - you are getting bonuses more consistently, and sooner, but you are missing out on the other nifty magic properties unless the DM is ALSO using the parcel system (or otherwise giving out a lot of magic).  From a pure math perspective, the inherent bonuses should probably be at level 3 then every 5 levels after, rather than the 2 then +5 it is now.</blockquote>

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