Removing the enhancement bonuses from items

[keterys]

Amen to that.

 

[FireLance]

Or, alternately, you could lower the attack and defenses of opponents by a like amount.

Yeah, but that would mean more work for the DM. In terms of effort, it's probably easier for each of the players to make the changes to his own character than for the DM to tweak the values for each of the monsters he's using.

 

[Magus Coeruleus]

Reducing or eliminating magic items can be a goal for many reasons. One might be to focus on characters and legacy rather than phat l00t. One idea I've been thinking about is partially replacing the bonus expected from items with a level-based one, but not the whole thing. This could be done by slowing the progression of the level-based bonuses so that you assume bonuses from some magic items as well but not as many or as powerful as in a "standard" campaign where the full bonus comes from items. In other words, if we know the expected bonus at a given level we can distribute it as we please between magic items and inherent level benefits; doesn't have to be all one or the other.

Further, I'm thinking that some items, rather than being truly "magic" as in radiating supernatural power that anyone can potentially detect and exploit, will be objectively mundane items that provide morale bonuses to a specific wielder or wielders for a good reason. For instance, your father's sword may have a + for you because it instills you with pride and a sense of duty when you wield it. Or a weapon that was wielded by a famous hero of your clan (or feared and respected adversary) would grant a morale bonus to someone wielding it, while those who don't know or don't generally care about its significance would gain nothing because it's all in the belief.

 

[Irda Ranger]

I was planning on removeing +s from magic items altogether anyway.

This is going to be my first house rule, even before banning halflings.*

There is nothing more boring than having 2 magical items with the only mechanical difference between them being a generic +1 bonus. I think magic items should be more unique and flavorful than that.

And for this reason! It's both annoying as a PC to have to choose between "cool secondary ability" or "static extra +1" and as a DM to feel obligated to hand out "upgrades" at appropriate times. My philosophy is "You get the magic sword when you pull it out of the goram stone with your own two hands!"



*j/k, j/k

 

[theskyfullofdust]

I've been thinking about this too. I want my next (4ed) campaign to be less 'magic items are everywhere' and more 'magic items are found in tombs etc', with an emphasis on the history of the item (i.e the legendary magical sword of a dead king, that sort of thing).

I want to make items more awe-inspiring, but this could easily be done with more descriptive prose of the item, keeping the actual mechanics of the 'pluses' well into the background.

If you eliminate +'s completely, do you really need to give the PCs an extra boost. Couldn't you just keep them and the monsters as they are, make it more deadly and grittier at higher levels? Would certainly make encounters more memorable?

I think I'll have to play the game properly when the new edition comes out before I make an informed decision.

Has anyone tried this method with other editions?

 

[Doug McCrae]

I guess I just don't get what the point of removing bonuses from items is if you're going to just add them right back in to the characters.

Because you want a low magic game. Maybe you're trying to simulate Conan, where the hero doesn't carry any magic items.

The system assumes PCs will have X bonus to hit by level Y. But it assumes part of X is the magic item plus. For balance reasons you need the PCs to have a bonus of X but you want all of X to be non-magical.

It's much, much easier to do this than to change all the monster stats.

 

[Dausuul]

You'd want vorpal, if at all, at the really high end of the chain. Likely, I'm betting vorpal is toast, because it's basically a save or die effect.

Actually, I'll be very surprised if "vorpal" goes away. It's such a classic. I think the mechanics will be totally revamped--maybe it only triggers on a bloodied opponent, or something--but the power itself will stay.

 

[Li Shenron]

No more +1 swords, +1 armor, +1 amulet, +1 implement etc.

Instead you might have simply a magic sword, ghost touch sword, flaming sword, dancing sword, vorpal sword...

The bonuses are removed. How does this play out? If you remove the enhancement bonus how do you equalize the character? What about costs of items? What about magic item slots? How does it affect monsters? How does it affect role-playing? Thoughts on this?

I think there is no big problem in removing +X items. If you remove both weapons and armors/shields, it should even out. Some monsters may be slightly more deadly, since their bonuses are "embedded", but in exchange for not having those +s, the characters will buy other types of magic items.

 

[Sadrik]

Based on all the previews I have seen the assumption seems to be +1/4 levels. Just grant that bonus to Att, Dmg, AC and Defenses as a level bonus. Done.

Agreed +1/2 level for skills,
+3/4 level for defenses, attacks and damage.

I am a little concerned about how the crits and stuff interact with this idea from this article.
http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/drdd/20080104

So your 1d10+4 power deals 14 damage.

PCs also have some extra tricks up their sleeves to make their criticals better. Magic weapons (and implements for magical attacks) add extra damage on crits. So your +1 frost warhammer deals an extra 1d6 damage on a critical hit (so your crit's now up to 14+1d6 damage in the example above). Monsters don't get this benefit, so PC crits outclass monster crits most of the time.

 

[Delta]

You'd want vorpal, if at all, at the really high end of the chain. Likely, I'm betting vorpal is toast, because it's basically a save or die effect.

It looks like the modus operandi is to take the name and write a new mechanic from scratch for it. "Vorpal" could just be extra damage or an extra attack when someone is down or something.