NOW LIVE! Today's the day you meet your new best friend. You don’t have to leave Wolfy behind... In 'Pets & Sidekicks' your companions level up with you!

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Message: <blockquote data-quote="AbdulAlhazred" data-source="post: 7820895" data-attributes="member: 82106">This is a way of looking at it, but from the PC's standpoint making items is not usually a big option, since treasure parcels give out relatively little gold as a fraction of value. As I pointed out earlier, this could be subverted to whatever degree by a GM so that enchanting is a bigger deal, but even at best at-level items are weaker than standard parcels normally hand out.I don't think items in general are 'weak' at all. Some are really very powerful! It is just that they aren't radically more powerful than a character's inherent abilities. This is the sense in which 4e removes items as the backbone of characters. In AD&D a level 9 fighter with Gauntlets of Ogre Power and Girdle of Hill Giant Strength is literally 2x or even 3x more powerful than one without those items. Even with casters having a Wand of Fireballs vastly increases the character's ability to use his spell list effectively. The way items provide entirely unique and often game-changing functions means they really dominate the game (or else you have to play a MUCH different sort of game without them). 4e items simply don't stand out THAT much.4e provided Artifacts as its answer, they ARE game-changing! They also don't last and require the PC to insure concordance, and act as a sort of NPC. The upshot being that AD&D artifacts are just stupendously powerful versions of magic items and work the same as other items, fundamentally. 4e artifacts OTOH don't, they add a dimension to the story, one which doesn't permanently dominate play and is more story directed vs just being a 'power up'.</blockquote>

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