Question About Magic Items

[klofft]

If I understand correctly, the restriction on magic item daily uses described in PHB1 is no longer the rules.

1) Is this true?
2) When did this change and where was it announced? Was it solely a bit of errata?
3) Why wasn't it changed? I haven't used it, and it was a bit confusing to understand, but it seemed like an interesting exercise in resource management.
4) Does anyone still use the old rule? Why?

Thanks in advance.

 

[Will Doyle]

Daily item uses have been dropped, but I can't remember exactly when or how the change was announced. Quite a while ago now.

I think the resource management was considered a bit fiddly - just another thing to track. In my group, we certainly experienced some reluctance to use magic items in case better opportunities arose, or found we were always using our best items first, and rarely seeing the others get any playtime. Niche powers were sometimes never even seen.

Since the change, I think it's been a lot more enjoyable.

Elixirs are pretty powerful now though!

 

[MrMyth]

If I understand correctly, the restriction on magic item daily uses described in PHB1 is no longer the rules.

1) Is this true?
2) When did this change and where was it announced? Was it solely a bit of errata?
3) Why wasn't it changed? I haven't used it, and it was a bit confusing to understand, but it seemed like an interesting exercise in resource management.
4) Does anyone still use the old rule? Why?

Thanks in advance.

1) Yes.
2) I think shortly before Essentials. I think it was announced online - it wasn't explicitly called out in any books, we simply had books show up without the restriction being in them any more. It was changed to prevent people from feeling like that had a bunch of useless items they would never activate since they wanted to save their powers for their 'good' items. The new magic item rarity system would, in theory, keep the change from being abuseable.
4) Probably some do, either because they prefer it, or just don't want to deal with errata, or because they don't want to shift to the rarity system and so keeping the old system active is the easiest solution. All of my games have shifted smoothly to the new system - the only times it has ever been an issue are when figuring out starting items for higher level characters, and having to come up with answers to prevent abuse.

 

[Thanee]

In which book(s) is that new Rarity System explained?

Bye
Thanee

 

[Will Doyle]

In which book(s) is that new Rarity System explained?

It's the new Essentials way of doing things, so (if I remember correctly):

Heroes of the Forgotten Lands
Heroes of the Fallen Kingdoms
Dungeon Master's Book

It didn't really work until the recent release of Mordenkainen's Magnificent Emporium (which contains the new rules too).

 

[mneme]

Rules compendium.

It's also in the associated eratta.

The biggest hurdle to switching was that all pre-existing items that weren't reprinted became Uncommon. The right answer for most campaigns if for the GM to make a judgement about what rarity an item is -- if it provides a power or you hate it, it's Uncommon. If it's non-problematic in multiples and you're fine with players buying it, Common. If it's borderline broken and provides multiple powers that a player's going to be using (possibly multiple times in a fight) and everyone's going to want it, it's Rare. (really, the GM doesn't need to worry about what's Rare and what's Uncommon except in deciding how many of each item to give out).

That said, Mordenkainen'ts Magical Emporium provides a good selection of new and reprinted items with well-chosen rarities.

 

[Riastlin]

I still use the old daily item usage restrictions in my campaign. I do so primarily because it was just easier than trying to decide if the PCs gear was "too rare" or uncommon as a result of the switch over, plus it makes Enchant Item more useful since IIRC Enchant Item only works on Common items now (or am I thinking of some other restriction?) Plus, when the PCs are in a city and have down time, I can just tell them they are free to go shopping and don't have to worry about rarity, etc.

Of course, my party is also now in Paragon tier which also softens the blow a bit since they get the extra daily item usage.

That being said, if I were to start up a new campaign, I would likely use the new system, particulary now that MME is out.

 

[Infiniti2000]

4. Yes, because we had no effing clue about the rules change. What people have posted above is not clear either. Anyone have an idea on how I can find this new rule in the on-line compendium?

 

[Riastlin]

4. Yes, because we had no effing clue about the rules change. What people have posted above is not clear either. Anyone have an idea on how I can find this new rule in the on-line compendium?

Not sure if its in the online compendium or not (can't access at work), but the rule is now this:

1. A Daily item power can still only be used once per day.
2. A PC can use any number of daily item powers in a given day so long as they are different items. So a level 2 PC with armor and a sword that each have daily powers could use both of those powers in the first encounter, but can still only use each particular power once a day.

Hopefully that makes some more sense.

 

[klofft]

So help me understand how this new "system" works. I have all the books in question. My understanding is that treasure parcels have been replaced by random treasure. I personally like the parcels and am using them. (Funny - since parcels were meant to replace the random treasure of 3ed).

But I was unaware that there was actually a system involved with rarity. Or is it that informally you are allowed to buy common, buy uncommon with DM permission, and never buy rare? What more to it is there?

In my campaign, magic items can simply not be bought. Does that mean I am free to ignore the rarity system or is there something more to it?