D&D 5E Ring of Cold Resistance vs Ring of Warmth

[EzekielRaiden]

Rarity is only secondarily related with price. The most common car models IRL are neither the cheapest nor the most expensive.

For something like cars, which are mass-produced and sold with a relatively fast turnover rate, you're absolutely right. The same can be said for food, for example. Magic items are like neither of these things, and are much more like tools (which is, in fact, exactly what they are--magical tools) in a pre-mass-production society. Crappy pots and pans are much more common, and much less expensive, than high-quality ones, which are more common and less expensive than fancy rare-material ones meant for professional chefs.

In addition, for a variety of reasons, inferior products are sometimes more expensive, like iphones and ipads...

Any such goods benefit from the brand-name effect and/or conspicuous consumption--neither of which meaningfully applies. Chefs don't care if their cookware has a designer's mark on it; they care if it will work as ideally as possible (light weight, ease of use, ease of cleaning, durability, etc.)

Nobody is ever forced to follow the rarity tags strictly.

By that standard, there's never anything wrong with any game ever, because nobody's forced to follow anything in the rulebook at all.

But if the book purports to be useful for play, it better doggone well BE useful, and the rarity categories often fail in that task. A modicum of effort could have fixed it, literally just a few hours' time spent by some random person on the internet. A little more, and it could have been a fantastically useful resource for people running any game, not just D&D, by specifically addressing how one can (or even "should") alter the economic and materiel assumptions of a campaign to help support one or more themes.

 

[Minigiant]

It's very simple really.

The ring of warmth's creation process is simpler or cheaper than a ring of resistance.
You have to create a ring of resistance before tuning it to an element and the process of creating the ring of resistance is harder or more expensive than a ring of warmth.

It's like making a red statue make of wood and one made of gold. They are both red statues, but one is cheaper and can be used as firewood.

 

[CapnZapp]

Am I missing something, or is the crafting and item value stuff in the DMG just pants on head stupid?

You are not missing anything.

 

[Ristamar]

I sometimes wonder if people that rage over this problem ever played a Diablo-like game where you find a super rare item that sucks when compared to the far more common yet nearly identical item you already owned for dozens of hours.

If so, I can only assume they sent some incredibly vitriolic emails to the developers, wrote scathing critiques on the respective forums, or burned a physical copy of the game in a blazing yet cathartic effigy.

I do agree that magic item rarity is occasionally strange at the surface level, but it ranks so low on my concerns about the game, I can't muster any bile to spew over it.

 

[schnee]

Forget all this hand-wavey BS trying to make it make sense.

It's a minor problem that slipped through the editorial process.

Make the Ring of Warmth the colloquial name for the ring of Cold Resistance. Then make up similar ones for the other rings.

 

[Stalker0]

Forget all this hand-wavey BS trying to make it make sense.

It's a minor problem that slipped through the editorial process.

Make the Ring of Warmth the colloquial name for the ring of Cold Resistance. Then make up similar ones for the other rings.

Got it in one. Its a mistake pure and simple. Accept it or change it, but its not really worth a strong discussion.


Now if you want to talk about underpriced magic items I've got a few. I think its crazy that the items that give you a 19 in a stat are just uncommon. Those are crazy powerful in certain player hands.

 

[GeminiDragon]

Got it in one. Its a mistake pure and simple. Accept it or change it, but its not really worth a strong discussion.


Now if you want to talk about underpriced magic items I've got a few. I think its crazy that the items that give you a 19 in a stat are just uncommon. Those are crazy powerful in certain player hands.

First, only two items exist that are Uncommon AND Grant a 19 in an ability score, neither is gamebreakingly powerful, neither grants a primary save, and both are better suited toward greatly boosting a dump stat of character whose class the item wouldn't directly benefit.

Wizards & Artificers should already be packing 18-20 Int at Lvl 5 (When Uncommons are generally supposed to be being granted), so ideally the Headband of Intellect would go to a Ranger, Bard, or Rogue to boost those extra brainy skills, or to a Barbarian to drag that Dump Stat out of the garbage bin.

Meanwhile, maybe a Cleric, Paladin, Fighter, or Ranger who invested elsewhere might benefit from trading Range for Melee by boosting their Strength to a 19 (also great way to upgrade to Heavy Armor), but a Barbarian should be already at Str 18-20, which means the Gauntlets of Ogre Power are really benefitting a Rogue's Jumping & Athletics or helping those squishy Spellcasters escape grapples, resist shoves, or maybe putting on some Heavy Armor (with a feat adding to a racial or subclass benefit that granted them up to medium armor already).

The only other items that are similar are all at least rare. The Amulet of Health is the only one that is nearly universally beneficial, as a 19 in Constitution grants a decent amount to one of the primary saves and nearly everyone can benefit from the boost to Hit Points... again, Barbarians should really already be 16+ Constitution, meaning the Amulet would be giving little to no benefit, but while Constitution is nearly never a Dump Stat, many people will weigh other options as higher priority for every other class. The Amulet of Health is Rare.

Belts of Giant Strength are Rare for Strength 21 (Again, Barbarian should have 20 already, so 21 not much different), Very Rare for 23 or 25, Legendary for 27 or 29 (Only Legendary benefit everyone, even lvl 20 Barbarian could use that extra bit of Strength).

Second, while in older editions, there were items for Charisma (debatable if it should be Uncommon or Rare, slightly higher than Strength & Intelligence for Saves, most of the real benefit is Social Skills, making it comparable to the Headband for usefulness), Dexterity (absolutely needs to be Rare if not possibly Very Rare, one of the top Saves, AC benefits to many, Initiative benefits to nearly everyone, helps with ranged weapon attacks for most, top Tier Skill in Stealth which helps everyone), and Wisdom (Top Save, Perception, Medicine, Survival, Insight, like Dexterity this is absolutely a Rare if not Very Rare), but while those should be Homebrewed or added, they're not currently in the 5e Canon Item Lists (maybe technically due to OGL & Creative Commons, but only because they were around in older editions and could easily be updated based on the ones we currently have).

Frankly, I think there should be similar items for Constitution & Intelligence as the Belts of Giant Strength grant for Strength, and the other stats as well should get Uncommon/Rare 19 ones as well as 21/23/25/27/29 ones added in a future book.