MIC-Balancing by times per day

[Kestrel]

So I was reading the many many items in the Magic Item Compendium and I noticed that the vast majority of them are balanced via uses per day. Some of the items are extremely powerful for a low cost due to this. But does charges/uses per day really balance anything?

For my own game, we see about 1-3 combats per session at most. These are usually big affairs because with only 4 hours to play per two weeks, I have to get the bang out of the time available. Unfortunately, this destroys the balance of those items, since they can use them all and by next session, they are fully charged again.

Or am I just crazy and just reacting to a new book's changes?

 

[Ry]

Yeah, in the rare cases that I do more combats than that in one session, my players PCs all seem to get a peculiar kind of narcolepsy. Symptoms worsen in proportion to X/day abilities and items.

 

[MerricB]

Honestly, I don't think it matters that much. If you only have 1 encounter per day, then to balance that encounter, it needs to be more deadly than normal... and thus the items are less effective.

Cheers!

 

[Ry]

Right, but if your characters are having one encounter per day as a result of the mechanic... that's a different story.

 

[Kestrel]

Yeah, definitely something to keep an eye out for.

 

[Mercule]

...per session...

...by next session...

Maybe I'm missing something, but what does a session have to do with "per day"?

Even though I rail against slots and x/day mechanics for character class and race balance, I have no problem with it for magic items. Actually, I think it's quite appropriate for a magic item.

 

[Kestrel]

In general, the resource management part of DnD is thrown out for my game, considering I have relatively few encounters per day of in-game time. Merric's suggestion is a good one. I can throw more deadly challenges at them, since they will be at full resources during most fights.