Replacing Stat Boosting Items [Game Design]

[Pierson_Lowgal]

Stephen “Shoe” Schubert, Developer
It’s You, Not Your Gear: Treasure is reduced 10-15% and permanent ability score boosting items are banned. Instead, characters get a stat increase at every even level (instead of every four levels) and a feat at every odd level.

http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/dd/20051216a

A while back this appeared in a wizards.com design & development article. Is Schubert's stat-increase-at-every-even-level suffcient to replace headbands of intellect and the like? Is it sufficient to replace the stat-boosting-wondrous-wearable-items and the tomes that give stat increases? If not, how would you give out stat increases?

 

[el-remmen]

Sliding this over to house rules. . .

 

[Destil]

I think by 20th level I'd expect most PCs to have the following in enhancement bonuses:
One +6 item, possibly 2 (paladin, monk).
At least two +4 items.
Any number of other misc +2 items (ioun stones).

So, by the end of the game I'd expect most PCs to have a total of a +14 in enhancement bonuses, possibly all the way up to +24ish (monks and paladins would focus on these items more).

I'd grant an ability increase every level, but max the bonuses. +2 max until 5th, +4 max until 10th, +6 max until 15th and after 15th you may raise one stat by up to +8.

Doing so I would enforce a strict 25 point buy guilt free (25 feels underpowered to me, even though I know it's fair).

I'd let players spend their XP to grant enhancement bonuses to ability scores at high (17th + level), as if casting wish themselves. The cost is fairly massive until you get into epic levels.

However, if you really want that sort of feel Iron Heros is the way to go....

 

[Aus_Snow]

A while back this appeared in a wizards.com design & development article. Is Schubert's stat-increase-at-every-even-level suffcient to replace headbands of intellect and the like?

Gosh, that looks familiar (i.e., I was using those exact rules a while before that article was even posted).

Anyway, no it's not sufficient. You'd be looking at a slightly different feel, and a differently balanced game.

 

[molonel]

Next time I run a longterm campaign instead of a pickup game or a short 3- or 4-session burst, I'm going to run lower magic with this sort of rules set. A friend of mine is running a campaign with these rules right now, and his players really like it.

I like it better, after years of playing 3rd Edition (both 3.0 and 3.5) than having every single character look like Batman, and light up like a Christmas tree under a Detect Magic spell.

 

[hanniball]

Edit: Nevermind. Drinking + Posting = Bad

 

[Darklone]

That guy stole my first 3.0 houserule

It works fine till level 8. From then on, you need at least +2 items.

If you ban the statbooster items, you need more stat increases and some rules that avoid that PCs boost only one attribute.

 

[starwed]

Keep in mind that the various stat-boosting spells still work, so it's still possible to get an enhancement bonus to your stats, in addition to the extra points from leveling.

 

[Quartz]

It works fine till level 8. From then on, you need at least +2 items.

Did you mean CR 8? If you're playing a more restricted game, then CRs need to be re-evaluated. Just because it's more work for the GM doesn't mean it can't be done.

 

[Pierson_Lowgal]

Below is my result.

Level	Total 	+Enh at	Level 	Inherent 
	Enhance	Level	Bonus	Bonus
	Bonus			
1				
2				
3				
4			1	
5				
6				
7	1	1		
8	2	1	1	
9	3	1		
10	4	1		
11	5	1		
12	6	1	1	
13	6			
14	7	1		
15	8	1		1
16	9	1	1	1
17	11	2		1
18	13	2		1
19	?	?		1
20	?	?	1

Max Enhancement on a single attribute of '+3' through 11th
Max Enhancement on a single attribute of '+4' from 12th to 13th
Max Enhancement on a single attribute of '+5' from 14th to 14th
Max Enhancement on a single attribute of '+6' from 15th - 20th

So, at 7th level the characters get their first enhancment point. Also, they get inherint points at 4,8,12... as normal and to represent the tomes/manuals, give out another inherint point at 15,16,17,18 and 19th level.

Rationale: I used the Bastion of Broken Souls WoTC module and my own experience with PC's up to 12th level as a starting point. I gave the majority of consideration to the no-magic-item-greater than 25% of wealth standard. I left 19 and 20 blank because I didn't know what to do and no campaign I play will ever get that high.

Is there a better way to do a table? Gosh that's ugly? Thank you to those who replied here and to those who replied on other message boards.