New article Design and Development Article on Magic Item Slots

[Rechan]

I find it kind of unfortunate that I have to tinker and house rule something that I thought was going to be a strength of 4E, but hey, thems the breaks.

Yeah.

Wait, I thought you weren't going with 4e?

 

[Andor]

The One Ring wasn't a special case, and Frodo wasn't 11th level. Feel free to follow the example of Nine-fingered Frodo and the Ring of Doom

Everybody has missed the most important point. There are now numbered pluses to Holy Symbols! I hearby declare the Holier Than Thou wars open!

 

[Dragonblade]

While I wish they went further, on the second read-through, an interesting thought occurred to me:

Now that armor and implement are stated as being slots on a character, it would be very interesting to see feat or talent trees that let you "trade in" these slots for level- or tier-dependent special abilities. In a way of thinking, this is precisely how to build a monk. Take your fighter, spend a talent to give up your armor slot which in return gives you a small bonus to AC and lets you add your Wisdom bonus to AC. And if you want to be an unarmed warrior, trade in that implement slot with another talent and you get monk-y fists of fury. Especially given that certain types of bonuses or abilities are now associated with certain slots, and this actually could be extended to the whole character to create a very interesting way to approach the good ol' Vow of Poverty...

Interesting idea, I like it. But I would expect nothing less from a fellow Dragon Avenue alumni.

 

[Bishmon]

Yeah.

Wait, I thought you weren't going with 4e?

Oh no, I'm excited about 4E. I've expressed disappointment about a few particular elements that I thought they dropped the ball on for 4E, like this magic item implementation, but overall I'm on board.

 

[ferratus]

I'm going to introduce this houserule for rings into my campaign. Instead of rings not working for anyone less than 11th level, I'm going to introduce the "Gollum, Fafnir, and Ringwraith effect". If a ring-bearer is unworthy, he instead befalls a series of powerful curses that are worse than the benefit gained by wearing it. Basically, I'm going to have them follow the rules for magical items in the "Iron Heroes" books, so that the players either vault it until they can handle it, toss it away, or use it to overcome a superior enemy that they couldn't otherwise fight in the short term.

 

[Remathilis]

A designer said "Christmas Shrub" and "Charlie Brown's Christmas Tree". That's not what I would call having 9 filled slots + misc items.

I knew that +x swords and armor would still be around. That's not the point.

Ummm... D&D is a game where you kill things and take their stuff.

Whats the point if you can't WEAR that stuff?

There are three item slots that directly affect the math. They raise your to hit/dmg, Armor Class, and Saves/Defenses respectively. That is all the "necessary" slots or the ones most commonly found. Weapons, Armor/Clothes, and amulets/cloaks. What adventurer DOESN'T get those item slots filled?

Beyond that there are six OPTIONAL item slots. An Arm slot for bracers and shields (which no longer stack to AC). Feet, Hands, Rings, Head, and Waist. None of these are necessary! They will be the items that add cool abilities (flight, fire resistance, swimming, temporary str boosts)

Compare that to 3.5: one or two weapons, armor or armor substitute (bracers, etc), a stat-boosting item (one of six slots), amulet of natural armor, ring of deflection, cloak of resistance, ring of energy resistance, boots of striding and springing, etc. All of these adding to some statistic or another, making a headache for anyone trying to create, update, or even run a character.

Heck, they even reduced the item slots slightly, from 11 to 9. Really, who wears and enchanted shirt?

So they did what they said. Three "necessary" or "common" slots, six optional ones. Compared to 11 slots which could all be "necessary", thats an improvement. Your never getting LotR level magic out of D&D without houserules, why should we start now?

 

[ThirdWizard]

The Christmas Tree, as I have always understood it, dealt with the number of magic items dangling from the character much like ornaments that dangle from a Christmas tree. 4E will apparently change almost nothing about that.

We read totally different articles. I see 3 slots figured into the math. Three.

What article did you read? Link?

And, at the same time, they're making the game fun for people like me who liked going above the wealth levels in the DMG, sometimes up to twice the listed values. So, you get what you want and I get what I want instead of only one of us. Isn't that better? In what world is that not better?

 

[Bishmon]

We read totally different articles. I see 3 slots figured into the math. Three.

What article did you read? Link?

First off, drop the snark. It's pointless and unnecessary.

Second, I read the same article you did. The one that showed an 11th-level character wearing eight magic items on his body, not including a number of other possible magic items that might also be in his possession.

While it may be true that only three slots factor into the hit/damage/AC/saves math, that doesn't address the fact that the character is still suiting up in magic items like they're sports equipment, which is my biggest issue.

 

[Merlin the Tuna]

I'm a fan of the general elimination of +X doodads, the addition of cloth "armor", and the de-lame-ification of shields. Part of me would like to see fewer slots in general, but looking over it again, I'm not sure what I'd dump. I don't see a huge need for magical vambraces or belts, I guess, but by and large this looks fine.

 

[Rechan]

Second, I read the same article you did. The one that showed an 11th-level character wearing eight magic items on his body, not including a number of other possible magic items that might also be in his possession.

While it may be true that only three slots factor into the hit/damage/AC/saves math, that doesn't address the fact that the character is still suiting up in magic items like they're sports equipment, which is my biggest issue.

This is also my issue, Remathilis. You can stop the argumentative tone, also.