Rodney Thompson on Magic Items

[TarionzCousin]

English teachers don't care when it's a URL. It's the network administrators you have to watch out for.

No gold star for you. Bad doctor!

Personally, I wish that they would alter the terminology somewhat. Naming two different things the exact same thing breaks Design 101 Rule #1.

Example: "My 29th level wizard casts a 23rd level spell."

 

[Treebore]

At first I was bothered by the not needing magic items at high level, etc...

If the way several of you describe how its going to effect the game I am going to like that aspect. Assuming it doesn't mean the PC's become walking magical beings. Until level 20+.

 

[Arashi Ravenblade]

I would be really dissapointed if they where just re-leveled version of the spells we already know. If they are true 25th level spells I might pick up the PHB just for that and convert them to 3.5 so i can finally run the game Ive been wanting to in Faerun about a possbile return of true 10th level+ magic.

 

[Glyfair]

I would be really dissapointed if they where just re-leveled version of the spells we already know. If they are true 25th level spells I might pick up the PHB just for that and convert them to 3.5 so i can finally run the game Ive been wanting to in Faerun about a possbile return of true 10th level+ magic.

As I said in my thread covering the WotC blogs, I suspect this might tie into something Monte Cook said they were considering for 3E, but didn't have enough time to develop it.

They were going to have spell levels match character levels. Everyone knows that magic missile is a very powerful first level spell. With this set up it would become a 2nd level spell, which wizards would get at 2nd level. The low-power old 2nd level spells would become 3rd level spells, and the high-power 2nd level spells 4th level, etc.

 

[Aloïsius]

I would be really dissapointed if they where just re-leveled version of the spells we already know. If they are true 25th level spells I might pick up the PHB just for that and convert them to 3.5 so i can finally run the game Ive been wanting to in Faerun about a possbile return of true 10th level+ magic.

I guess they did both : spells from 1-18 >> old 1-9 spells, with spells 19-25 >> epic level. Or something like that.

I wonder if "wish" will be an epic spell rather than a high level one.

 

[rounser]

Well, we haave to consider the range of possibilities. In 2nd Edition, in the Forgotten Realm Netheril Supplement spells above 9th level could do many things, such as create an effect that would encompass a city, or a geographic region to alter climate. (The highest level spell was 13th level and was cast by the wizard Karsus to steal the power of Mystryl, goddess of magic. This worked briefly, as Karsus was unable to contain the power, and Netheril came to an end.)

I suspect that levels 21-30 will be epic in content, but very different from the Epic Level Handbook. Possibly, the spells at those levels might be reminiscent of either what is in Netheril or in Monte Cook's Arcana Evolved, which has 10th level spells. One of the weaknesses of 3rd Edition play was support for Epic Level characters.

I very much doubt that "more power" is the primary meaning of this. It should just allow for a greater granularity of levels to slot the spells into. They were considering doing it for 3E IIRC...e.g. magic missile is more powerful than a lot of other 1st level spells, and you could represent this with a system that spread them over a greater range than just 9.

 

[BryonD]

I very much doubt that "more power" is the primary meaning of this. It should just allow for a greater granularity of levels to slot the spells into. They were considering doing it for 3E IIRC...e.g. magic missile is more powerful than a lot of other 1st level spells, and you could represent this with a system that spread them over a greater range than just 9.

I think you are partly right. I think that the 25 levels includes both more granularity and higher power to go with the now integrated epic levels.

I'd also bet that rather than just saying that there are 25 (or 30?) descrete levels of spells and every spell falls into one, that there is a system where most spells can be cast over a range of levels for varying degrees of effect.

 

[Someone]

I suppose this means save DCs are a bit different.

 

[wedgeski]

I guess what this means is that, as others have hinted, passive magical effects are going to be excised from the game. I can't really imagine any other way a character without magic items is equivalent in power to a character with magic items... unless using magical item use depletes the same 'power pool' that using special abilities does (which would be interesting in itself).

I won't miss passive effects. In those campaigns I have DM'd where magic is open and readily available, the first few thousand GP per character are all pointed in the same direction: "Right, so that's an Amulet of Natural Armor, Ring of Protection, Cloak of Resistance blah blah..." The idea that magical items give you options instead of buffs is very appealing indeed.

I guess we're going to be waving goodbye to a lot of old friends though. Can't have it both ways I suppose.

 

[William Ronald]

I guess they did both : spells from 1-18 >> old 1-9 spells, with spells 19-25 >> epic level. Or something like that.

I wonder if "wish" will be an epic spell rather than a high level one.

Hard to say. We all may be partly correct. However, I suspect that at least part of levels 21-30 for player characters will include some of what is now considered epic level content. There may be an effort, as rounser and others indicated, to balance spells out a bit more so no spell becomes a "must have" spell. The same may well apply to magic items.

I would hope that epic level content is included in the core rules at the beginning, rather than tacked on. Any abilities comparable to the Netheril setting might have to wait for an expansion. (As I recall, some of the Netheril mages in 2nd Edition terms were 40th level or higher.)


Wedgeski, possibly some of the old friends might have limited duration for effects. So, maybe a girdle of giant strength might increase the wearer's strength for a limited duration in each encounter. We still have a lot to find out, and I hope that WotC will listen to us and the playtesters.