New article Design and Development Article on Magic Item Slots

[Rechan]

Put me in the "Meh/Disappointed" crowd. From the way the designers talked, I lead to believe we were getting a major reduction of worn magical items period.

I think having all your slots full of magical items hurts the sense of wonder of having a magical item. You still have a whole gaggle of them. I'd much rather have a multi-purpose item (A sword +x sword that grants fire resistance and the ability to teleport through flames) than a Sword +x, a Belt of Fire Resistance and Shoes of Hotfoot.

I personally feel every adventurer ought to have only three magical items period at any one time, but those three items do the heavy lifting.

Meh. I suppose I can just do some jiggering so that I can fold several items into one.

 

[UngeheuerLich]

Being maxed-out with all slots optimally filled -- having that +10-15 AC at 11th level -- made CR-appropriate challenges a joke.

It wasn't that PCs were underpowered in 3.5 without the Christmas Tree; it's that they were overpowered with it.

doesn´t matter... the difference is still 10 - 15 armor... I usually didn´t allow my players to max everything out, but not giving any defensive items would have been outright murder.

those changes make me a very happy DM.

 

[Anthtriel]

We have yet to see how optional exactly secondary items will be, but other than the ring rule, I'm relatively happy with the changes, they are what I expected them to do.

 

[Flobby]

Given that 4e is still a d20 game, I fail to see how NOT having a +2 armor is going to be acceptable by the standard rules. +2 armor is the equivalent of a 10% miss chance in most level appropriate cases. What could they possibly do to the system to make that not so?

This means that a character is going to get hit 10% more often and take 10% more damage, etc.!

Hi, Rokes! First! Sorry to go off topic of a minute but I can't private message you... Where in Japan are you? I'm here too and have been looking for gamers forever that live in Shizuoka... I don't suppose you live around there... center_space@frughtlupes.com

Back to Topic! I think I was expecting a little more too.. I'm not too disappointed but this was one aspect of 4e I had a lot of expectations for. I would have liked even less dependancy on magic items but a suppose in order to do that they would have had to get rid of ALL save and attack mods... right?

 

[WhatGravitas]

As far as level-dependent items go... well, yes. No-one blinks at the idea of Wizards needing to be 5th level to cast fireball, so why should magic items be different? Last time I checked, there are plenty of pieces of equipment in the real world that need training to use, so it's not much of a leap (possibly less of one) to include level restrictions for some 4e magic items.

Cheers!

Because 3rd-level spells are something that you acquire and then use. But with rings: You acquire them and STILL cannot use them? And it takes the fun out of finding a magic ring.

A much more elegant solution would have been "scaling" rings. If you're a Heroic level guy, then rings only provide a small nifty function. On the Paragon level, you acquire new abilities and on the Epic tier, they go into full mode.

Powerwise, this would have a very similar effect, but you instantly get something from it.

Cheers, LT.

 

[Brother MacLaren]

doesn´t matter... the difference is still 10 - 15 armor...

It will matter if later additions to 4E DO allow such boosts. If they do not hold the line on what magic items can and cannot do, if they later allow supplements with bracers or shields that DO give an AC boost, then you're going to run into the same arms race that 3.5 had.

And because splatbooks that increase PC power will sell, they've have to weigh the long-term viability of their system against the short-term sales boost.

I like the solution. But they have to stick to it.

 

[Rechan]

Although I will say that the ring and amulet/cloak thing does not bother me whatsoever.

That, and it's nice to actually get a Development article this week.

 

[MerricB]

Because 3rd-level spells are something that you acquire and then use. But with rings: You acquire them and STILL cannot use them? And it takes the fun out of finding a magic ring.

Look, why is your DM giving you these *powerful* magic items when you can't use them? It's like giving a 1st level character a +3 vorpal sword! The term we normally use is Monty Haul.

Don't expect 4e rings to be weak items, either.

Cheers!

 

[Rokes]

also your math is wrong. you don´t get 10% less damage if AC goes up by +2...

consider AC 18 vs AB +0 you are hit 15% of the time, with +2 armor your AC is 20, and you are hit only in 5% of all cases, so your hp are effectively trippled...

How is my math wrong? If you're hit 10% less often, you are dealt 10% less damage over the course of your adventure. They are directly proportional.

Hi, Rokes! First! Sorry to go off topic of a minute but I can't private message you... Where in Japan are you? I'm here too and have been looking for gamers forever that live in Shizuoka... I don't suppose you live around there... center_space@frughtlupes.com

I'm in Nagoya (not too far!), but only for another 3 weeks. My wife will be here until next February though, and I did happen to get her into D&D this past summer. (We're hoping the D&D DI isn't a complete pile of crap, or else we'll just end up using Skype)

 

[UngeheuerLich]

It will matter if later additions to 4E DO allow such boosts. If they do not hold the line on what magic items can and cannot do, if they later allow supplements with bracers or shields that DO give an AC boost, then you're going to run into the same arms race that 3.5 had.

And because splatbooks that increase PC power will sell, they've have to weigh the long-term viability of their system against the short-term sales boost.

I like the solution. But they have to stick to it.

yes. agreed.

but at least in core the rules are set. If they hadn´t made any rules to restrict +x items I would have even more worries bout splatbooks.

And since we hopefully don´t need those splatbooks as fixes to holes in the rules, I can save money and easily disallow them as default. (At least, that is my hope for the first few games I run)