Mechanic to increase use of Magical Item Dailies

[Jack99]

Thanks Jack99, Keterys. That seems to work well.

For what it is worth, I changed the rule in our game to what I suggested in this thread. The players were happy (no surprise) and I saw no real imbalance in the few encounters we had tonight. Let's compare notes in a month or so (if you switch to it as well).


Cheers

 

[Rechan]

For what it is worth, I changed the rule in our game to what I suggested in this thread. The players were happy (no surprise) and I saw no real imbalance in the few encounters we had tonight. Let's compare notes in a month or so (if you switch to it as well).


Cheers

What's interesting is that my players have yet to use a magical item power.

The group has: +1 Lifestealer, +1 Dwarven Plate, +1 Bloodcut, and +1 Cloak fo Res, and not one has got its' power mojo on.

 

[Shroomy]

We finally broke out our magic item daily powers last night for the first time (I believe 6 sessions into the campaign). I needed to use my bracers of defense to save my bacon, while our warlock used his cape of the mountebank to get out of the range of a mad wraith's aura (bleeping aura!).

 

[balard]

If the OP likes to give more magic items than normal, normally in his campaign there are less access to magic items shops and merchants. If this is the case, the problem of buying 10 bracers of ultimate defense isn't really a problem.

I have 2 suggestions. 1-Just ignore the limit. If the access to items is controlled, it wont be a problem. 2-Double the daily uses(2/4/6 with 2 per milestone).

Anyway, the option to limit the item use per slot per character is a nice one with both suggestions. If you used you shield power, you cant use until rested a bracer power.

Now you can flood than with items.

 

[amysrevenge]

Current situation:

You can use 1/2/3 magic item daily power(s) per day, add one use for each milestone

Proposed solution:

You can use 1/2/3 magic item daily power(s) per encounter, recharge one used daily per milestone

 

[Szatany]

As far as I can tell, the magical item usage rules are thus: You can use a magical item daily power once in the Heroic Tier, Twice in the Paragon, and Thrice in the Epic tier. You can get an extra use once you pass a milestone.

Meanwhile, I would like a way to let my players use magical items more frequently, because far too many are Dailies, and I actually like to hand out more magical items than are suggested. However, just letting them use the dailies with no ceiling is a little much.

So, what is a good alternative?

1+Int bonus uses at heroic tier.
2+Int at paragon.
3+Int at epic.

It even fits flavorwise. Wizards are best at manipulating magic and can squeeze the most from magic items.

 

[HighTemplar]

@OP

I've never used these rules.
They weren't there before. I would be lying if I said I fail to see their purpose, but they were meant just to prevent abusive players of looping through too much magic.

If there were magical objects produced magical effects, wouldn't you use it ?

aye aye sir.

Seems like WotC are trying to child up their DMs by making sure they don't have to take a stand and rule stuff, make choices, and so they don't have to control their games at all. Then when something unclear happens(it always happens) they have no idea what to do, instead of taking a wise decision for now and figuring it out later.

 

[Milambus]

Here's a house rule I'm probably switching to, which has the desired effect at low tier (while also preventing some cheesiness of using an item's daily then swapping in another type of item)

Daily Item Usage tracking
Replace the usual Daily power limitations on items with
'Using a daily item power prevents the use of any other magic item in that item slot until you take an extended rest.' and'Using an encounter item power prevents the use of any other magic item in that slot until you take a short rest.'

Example: A level 4 character with a Frost weapon, Dwarven Plate, and a Cloak of Resistance can usually use 1 of their dailies, plus an additional 1 at each milestone. Under these rules, they could use all 3 of them, but they could not acquire additional dwarven suits of armor to swap into for extra healing surges.

Why: Mostly for player sanity. Preventing someone from carrying a dozen suits of dwarven armor in a bag to get extra surges is good, but making people track the powers is somewhat annoying and can lead to players favoring passive equipment bonuses rather than more interesting power uses.

While I can see your wanting to restrict people from changing armor between each fight, but shouldn't a wizard be able to use more than one (two if you count each hand) wand a day?

To the OP: Just give out more milestones? This has the side benefit/detriment of giving more Action Points also.

 

[Danceofmasks]

Personally, I'd go with +1 use (2/3/4) right off the bat.
Then, give them 2 per milestone.
That way, the rhythm of a 4e day is maintained, whilst giving the characters lots more item usage.

 

[keterys]

While I can see your wanting to restrict people from changing armor between each fight, but shouldn't a wizard be able to use more than one (two if you count each hand) wand a day?

Why? Does it make any more sense than using three longswords in a day? Eh, once you've already decided that you can't use a wand 50 times, and that it's restricted to once per day, I see no reason it needs to work any differently than every other implement/weapon. If they've got an encounter wand, of course, they can go nuts.