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<blockquote data-quote="Votan" data-source="post: 3865530" data-attributes="member: 18680">I was thinking about what would be my favorite improvement between 3rd edition and 4th edition D&amp;D.&nbsp; The more that I think about it, the answer is magic items.&nbsp; Now I do not object to magic items that are part of the ability set of a character.&nbsp; If a wizard's staff is part of his power than that is perfectly cool.&nbsp; 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.&nbsp; 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).&nbsp; 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).&nbsp; This made it possible for two well built 11th level characters to be wildly different in power based on the wealth composition of encounters. It was fine to say that it was the DMs job to make sure that wealth was &quot;level appropriate&quot; but this can be complex, player decisions complicate it enormously and the differences that things like crafting make are extreme.&nbsp; 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.&nbsp; So if I have a wish for the next edition, it is that this flaw is fixed.&nbsp; Less magic items or making them part of the character itself.&nbsp; &nbsp; That'd be my vote.&nbsp; Not that I have one, but it would be pleasant.&nbsp;&nbsp; <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile&nbsp; &nbsp; :)"&nbsp; data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" /></blockquote>

[QUOTE="Votan, post: 3865530, member: 18680"] I was thinking about what would be my favorite improvement between 3rd edition and 4th edition D&D. The more that I think about it, the answer is magic items. 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. 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. 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. 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. :) [/QUOTE]

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