D&D 4E Magics Items in 4E

[Jhulae]

One idea that is kind of cool would be letting a player advance an item as part of their progression. It'd have to be slightly better than no item but would tend to focus players on a special item rather than the "Christmas tree effect". Glamdring might be a +1 sword that could have been more powerful if Gandalf had focused on it . . .

Maybe "Weapons of Legacy" was one book that was a '4th Edition' playtest book, like Bo9S and such...

 

[Mistwell]

I think the Magic Item Compendium went a long way to solving the Christmas Tree problem.

Reduce the number of constant-on items drastically, while increasing the number of "charges per day" items, and items that help with a specific situation you might run into, but which isn't universally helpful in any type of challenge.

That would mean no "+1 to all saves, all the time" items, no "+2 to Str, all the time" items. But instead "+4 vs Poison and disease, 3 charges a day" or "+2 to attacks, +4 damage to charge attacks, 2 charges a day" type items. Things which players will have fun with, but which cannot really be the basis for the character to depend on for all encounters.

 

[howandwhy99]

Now I do not object to magic items that are part of the ability set of a character. If a wizard's staff is part of his power than that is perfectly cool. But if a wizard can collect a set of magic items making them much more powerful than another wizard (as other than a type of advancement) then this can be a problem.

FYI, there are multiple types of advancement in in D&D:
Combat Level - or your character level essentially
Items - or gold, equipment, magic items, etc.
Etc. - Contacts, followers, property, reputation, authority, time, magic, speed...

As long ago as 1st edition, the issue was noted that if you put two parties of adventurers into a battle, the winners would double their wealth (and be much more powerful as a result). The lower level of magic items in 1st edition and the focus on expendable items helped reduce this issue of magic item based power boost a lot.

But in 3rd edition they balanced the game around a lot of gear and made some types of previously very powerful gear very cheap (ability score boosters). This made it possible for two well built 11th level characters to be wildly different in power based on the wealth composition of encounters.

Yeah, the creators pretty much balanced everything based on combats without regarding much else. I fear they are doing the same this time around.

It was fine to say that it was the DMs job to make sure that wealth was "level appropriate" but this can be complex, player decisions complicate it enormously and the differences that things like crafting make are extreme. It also made generating higher level characters forced because the items purchased with start-up funds were too good and it made losing your gear a bigger penalty than death.

IMO, it is absolutely wrong to say it is the DM's job to ensure PC wealth levels. Why the hell are they adventuring anyways? When did Gold stop being the reason to go kill things? As I mentioned above, it is very possible to have 1st level characters with dozens of artifacts and 20th level PC beggars. Neither is likely to stay that way long, but it should be possible without the "hand of God" taking away your hard won loot (or forcing it upon you).

(by wrong I mean "unfun".)

So if I have a wish for the next edition, it is that this flaw is fixed. Less magic items or making them part of the character itself.

That'd be my vote. Not that I have one, but it would be pleasant.

Making magic fundamentally part of a character narrows the playing field for D&D. All of a sudden the ONLY thing that matters isn't gold, friends, or authority, or... The only thing that matters is XP to gain in combat levels. This isn't just the hand of God guaranteeing you get your level-appropriate Wealth magic items. This is the hand of the Designers guaranteeing it.