Prestige, Favors and Magic Items

[al_fredo]

Between Mission 1 & 2, I let the party acquire any gear they could afford, if it still fell in the boundaries of top favor (basically no Rare items).

They have now hit level 3 in Skyeer, and are finding that Common items are boring! What I find cumbersome is that only 1 favor can be in the works at a time. If one party member wants a decent upgrade to a weapon, and if they need to wait a day (or more) they lock out the rest of the party.

Plus, the base favor for an Uncommon item is 3. For a level 4 item, assuming they already have an uncommon item (like a Cloak of resistance, really?!??!)...it's a rating of 5. At which point with their Prestige of 2 with Risur, they can get the item in a month (or a week, if roll a DC 30!) And no one else can ask for anything. (This was revised from favor rating per group...now it's one favor per day for the whole group...and no concurrent favors).

How have you guys been handling this? Does everyone just have "Common magical equipment? How has the group decided who gets their request - especially when leveling up mid-mission?

Thanks!

 

[RangerWickett]

According to page 16 of the Player's Guide - http://www.enworld.org/ap/zg00a_players_guide_4e_r1.pdf - the party can request one favor per day, not one at a time. So if you have downtime between adventures, the party has time to request multiple items, and should probably get them all. But if you're trying to get something during an adventure, there's a chance it won't be available quickly enough.

 

[al_fredo]

I see I missed that you can have concurrent requests. But...man, there are not a lot of viable 'Common' items! Guess they have to wait for the end of this adventure.

 

[RangerWickett]

Common items are just boring things in 4e, yeah. That said, I was kind of hoping PCs would be encouraged to keep the interesting items we seed throughout the adventures.

 

[al_fredo]

Perhaps they will. At this point, the only item I see is Asrabey's boots of Spider Climbing, which were given to the RHC. I guess that one pair could be treated as 'Common'...since they are in the requisition locker. Maybe the Golden Icons?

 

[Tukka]

Yeah, I also feel that the rules as presented are a bit too stifling. A party with a Yerasol Veteran that requests a level 3 Uncommon magic item on day 1 of the Dying Skyseer won't get it until the adventure is nearly over. It's fine for gearing up between adventures (and might work for Digging for Lies, since there is some travel time worked in there, and the party should have more Prestige by then), but I think it's a bit of a downer for the players to not be able to spend their money on anything interesting until 2-3 levels after they get their stipend, unless the seeded adventure-specific items happen to appeal to them.

I haven't formalized an alternate set of rules for my party yet, but I may go with something like this:

Favor 0 Requisition any number of Common magic items of the party's tier or lower. (In case the party doesn't want to spend time shopping, or the shops are closed.)
Favor 2 Requisition two Uncommon magic items of the party's level or lower. You may substitute one of the Uncommon magic items for up to three consumable items of the party's tier or lower. You may substitute both magic items for one Uncommon magic item up to 4 levels above the party's level. Increase the favor rating by 1 for every 5 non-consumable Uncommon or Rare magic item in the party's possession.

Rare items are only available by special dispensation. Special dispensation will usually be granted if the party was responsible for acquiring the item in the first place.

I'd probably also let the players "requisition" items from the Family under pretty much the same rules. The Family doesn't buy back items at 100% value, of course, and the RHC will want to know where they got any Uncommon items that they didn't officially requisition or report as evidence.

Edit: Here are the rules I'm going with the time being, which is slightly less generous than what I've outlined above. Basically, I've reduced the favor level of requisitioning Uncommon items by 1, but increased the favor level of requisitioning paragon tier items by 2, since by then parties should have a goodly amount of Prestige.

Basing the system off of Rarity at all may be prove controversial in some circles, but I don't think it's that bad since they updated the rarity of most items. The logic still seems a little inconsistent -- it's not clear whether it's meant to limit powerful access items or complex ones. Iron Armbands of Power are super simple, but powerful... so they're Uncommon?