Mobility in a Magic Item

[kreynolds]

Because it is so hard to determine how much a feat is worth.

True. But feats are not alone in this. If WotC hadn't made the Ring of Evasion, how would we know how much it should be worth? We'd figure it out eventually, but at first, it would seem rather daunting. My theory as to why it's a "bad idea" to allow magic items that grant feats is quite simple: People fear the uknown. Hell, when I first came onto these boards, I'd say about 90% of the members that frequented the D&D Rules thread were dead set against allowing custom magic items into their games. In the end, I learned that these people felt the way they did, not because they didn't understand how to build a magic item, but because they didn't understand how to balance a magic item. Why didn't they know? Because they had never given it any thought. Why not? Because they feared the uknown.

I'll step off my soap-box now.

 

[AGGEMAM]

I'll step off my soap-box now.

Thanx ... eh ... not for the comment but for stepping down ...

(You were starting to hurt my foot - you should really loose some weight)

;

 

[Artoomis]

Because they feared the uknown.

Yeah, I fear the uknown, too.

The unknown, now that I can deal with.

(Sorry - sometimes I just can't resist. It's especially bad since I am pretty much the king of typos myself. )

 

[Crothian]

If WotC hadn't made the Ring of Evasion, how would we know how much it should be worth?

Because they feared the unknown.

I do find it interesting that Wizards did do the Ring of evasion but not much with the feats. Feats are a bigger part of the game, to me it seems like a huge oversight that should have been seen to in the past 18 months.

I find it ironic that gamers fear the unknown, when that is what gaming is all about. We don't know whatis in the dungeon? We don't know what's through that gate? The characters embrace the unknown, yet the players do not, I wouldn't call it a soapbox though. I think that was an erie look into the gamer psyche.

So, how do wwe handle this? We flub it. We guess and try our darndest to come up with something that seems to work. We have no real guidelines. Sure, there are a half dozen items that give feats through out the books, but that's meaningless. Every try to break down some of the non DMG items for prices? I've seen numbers dance on a school chalk board, but not like must be happening at Wizards Central. So, we use these numbers that may or may not be acurrate and we flub away. Who's with me? As many great people have said:

"United we flub, divided we fall."

"Give me Flub, or give me death."

"I regret I have but one Flub to give foir my Country."

 

[FANGO]

Well, according to examples in the DMG, feat items usually cost about 4k, plus another 4k for each prerequisite that the feat has. This is true of the gloves of arrow snaring, at least, and I think there are some other examples of items that grant feats or feat-like abilities for similar costs. Of course, there are some items that do the same yet are more expensive (there's an item costing 20-something thousand in If Thoughts Could Kill that gives a metapsionic feat...but then, psionics isn't a good thing to balance other parts of the game on considering people seem to like to screw the psions whenever they can), but I think the general cost is somewhere around 4k. Of course, some feats you don't want to put into items, and of course it's not as good as actually having the feat, but that's the precedent.

 

[Heretic Apostate]

What about the metamagic rods from Tome & Blood? Those have feats in them. Admittedly, you can only use them a limited number of times per day, but....

 

[Magus_Jerel]

Is there any argument that those metamagic rods aren't as absolutely broken as all F!@#$%G hell?

Feats in magic item = bad idea.