New Design: Wizards...

[Sun Knight]

Sorry, but I am of the old school that magic items, even the most minor ones, should be special, have a history, and do something that makes them a useful tool more than just a bonus to a die roll.

 

[Wulf Ratbane]

Because I am desperately trying to find something... ANYTHING... about 4e that I can like.

It's provided you with an excuse to grace us with your presence?

We'll all look back fondly on August 2007.

 

[Grog]

I love it, but I'd prefer some tweaks. Haven't read the whole thread yet, but the biggest problem I see with this is the surreptitious caster.

You're forgetting two things:

1. Wizards can still cast spells without using the items, they'll just be slightly less effective.

2. Sorcerors will probably work very differently from wizards, and my guess is that they won't use items for their spellcasting.

I like this change from a flavor point of view, but I'm going to reserve judgment until I see the mechanics. I think the idea of +X wands could get very problematic, and at high levels, those items could end up being just as essential as the wizard's spellbook is now.

 

[AffableVagrant]

!

I suspect that metamagic will move from the characters into the items. Think a "+1 lesser empowering orb" or something similar.

I suspect you are right on the money with this. Can't say if I approve or disaprove as of yet. I do hope this will mean the death of spell components!

 

[Grog]

Sorry, but I am of the old school that magic items, even the most minor ones, should be special, have a history, and do something that makes them a useful tool more than just a bonus to a die roll.

You must really hate 3E, then. It has more +X items than any edition so far.

 

[Zebediah Magus]

It is where spells are penned down by the wizard. It shouldn't give any more insight in casting magic than what the wizard already knows! I am really trying to wrap my head around this but as much as I try to put it in terms what Dungeons and Dragons is I just cannot do it. Spellbooks are where wizards pen down their spells to reference them when they need to rememorize their spells, to replenish their power. They don't have any modfiers to them. They just are.

As others have pointed out, these tomes we're talking about may not be our usual 3.5 spellbooks, and I hope they are not.

Also, a scroll your wizard wrote himself didn't contain any knowledge beyond those of the spell he already knew. Even so, reading it triggered the spell. The 4e tomes may work in that exact way.

On the modifiers, they may come from class abilities, again as others have pointed out before.

 

[F4NBOY]

Sorry, but I am of the old school that magic items, even the most minor ones, should be special, have a history, and do something that makes them a useful tool more than just a bonus to a die roll.

So you not only dislike everything in 4E so far but you also seems to dislike 3E too.
Are you sure you are in the right site?

 

[Wormwood]

Sorry, but I am of the old school that magic items, even the most minor ones, should be special, have a history, and do something that makes them a useful tool more than just a bonus to a die roll.

Your old school never existed in any iteration of D&D, I'm afraid.

From the original OD&D pamphlets to the 1e DMG to the Keep on the Borderland, a significant majority of minor magical items are without any history or game effect beyond +5% increments to hit (or -5% chances to be hit, in the case of armor).

I maintain that you simply continue applying the same House Rules to 4e than you seem to have been applying to OD&D, 1e, 2e and 3e.

 

[Lurks-no-More]

Sorry, but I am of the old school that magic items, even the most minor ones, should be special, have a history, and do something that makes them a useful tool more than just a bonus to a die roll.

Great. Then, just as if you would do with a +1 sword in the treasure, you'll take the +1 tome (or whatever), give it a name and a history, and link it to something in the campaign setting. Sure, that tome you're carrying around is just a minor grimoire... but it was the book the dread archmage Malygris used as an apprentice, and there are all sorts of interesting scribbles in the margins. So... do you want to try and decipher some of those rune words? Or maybe sell it to that stranger who's looking for all kinds of things that are connected to Malygris...

Making magic items special and meaningful is a job for the GM and the players, not for the rulebooks.

 

[Sun Knight]

You must really hate 3E, then. It has more +X items than any edition so far.

It does give you the option to have magic items beyond just +x in case you didn't notice.