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Message: <blockquote data-quote="mneme" data-source="post: 5580471" data-attributes="member: 59248">Bracers of Mighty Striking -should- be common.  Or should not exist at all, but if item bonuses to damage are in the game, they're fine.Iron Armbands of Power should also be common.  Same reasoning as BoMS -- they aren't problematic if you have a lot of them, and aren't problematic if everyone in the party who wants one has one.The issue with those items isn't one that rarity can solve -- it's that they're just better for most characters than most other items, because item bonuses to damage (particularly ones that scale with or near weapon bonus) are fairly hard to get (um.  there's Staff or Ruins, the Bracers/Armbands, Radiant Weapons, Subtle Weapons, and what?).The right answers aren't to make item bonuses to damage rare items, but instead some combination of:Provide item bonuses to damage rolls as common items in multiple slots.Provide higher level and uncommon/rare items with item bonuses to damage rolls that also have powers in slots that provide item bonuses to damage rolls.Provide real alternatives to static item bonuses to damage -- in the form of really conditional item bonuses (eg, not charging or combat advantage; bloodied and after you kill something are probably ok) to damage rolls that scale better than normal item bonuses to damage rolls.  If you have a +8 item bonus to damage rolls against bloodied enemies, that +4 item bonus to damage rolls is less tempting.Rarity for this kind of item (eg, one functionally providing a basic bonus beyond the Big Three) just lets the GM play favorites; it simply doesn't address the power disparity.To reiterate -- the problem uncommon rarity is intended to solve is that some items retain their value as their price drops to a negligable one, whereas other items become obselete once you can afford or find their next version.  Making the former category uncommon stops players from powering their characters up with large quantities of low level items n the first category.  The problem rare rarity is intending to solve is that the game is more fun with some over the top items, but giving out too many will distort the power curve of the game; marking an item "rare" is a sign that it is of this category.Neither rarity is best used to solve "this item is just better than other items in its category," particularly when the "just better" item is rather boring.</blockquote>

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