[Savage Species] Additional magic item slots without feats

[Hashmalum]

I've recently acquired Savage Species, and I noticed that there is a feat, Extra Item Slot, allowing you to use additional heads or limbs (relative to the humanoid norm) to gain extra item "slots", such as being able to wear an additional necklace due to having an additional neck to support your additional head.

I strongly object to the idea of feats being able to add additional magical item "slots", since to my way of thinking, the restriction on the number of items a character can wear is a property of the items themselves rather than the character. (I disallow the epic feat Additional Magic Item Space from the Epic Level Handbook for the same reason, plus the fact that wearing two cloaks or whatever is just plain silly).

Furthermore, creatures with a non-humanoid form already receive the drawbacks of an unusual body shape in regard to losing item slots (a creature without hands can't wear rings, for example) without getting an extra feat for it, so why should they need a special feat to receive the benefits?

So, the house rule I am submitting for your feedback is that the Extra Item Slot feat is not necessary for a creature to receive extra item slots due to its body shape. First of all, is this a horribly bad idea to start with? How should I adjust the Level Adjustment for the races that will benefit from it, or is it a significant enough improvement to be worth the bother? Will players start polymorphing themselves into ettins, mariliths, and hydras to get extra slots, and should they be allowed to do so? I look forward to hearing from people who have more experience with the Savage Species rules than I do.

 

[CRGreathouse]

Actually, I think it's a great idea. If you have three arms, why shouldn't you be able to pay a feat to use a magic ring on the last one?

 

[Cyraneth]

(I disallow the epic feat Additional Magic Item Space from the Epic Level Handbook for the same reason, plus the fact that wearing two cloaks or whatever is just plain silly).

Sure, two cloaks is kinda silly (even though Artemis does that for some reason in the FRCS...), but ten rings would both look great and be rather powerful. At the expense of eight feats, of course.

- Cyraneth

 

[Robbert Raets]

I think it's silly. If you have two heads, you need two helmets. Why can't they both be magical.

Of course, I am also opposed to the list mentioned at the strat of the DMG magic items chapter; No way can you wear a robe, a cloack and armor without the magic interfering. Same goes for rings & gauntlets/gloves - nothing would fit!!

 

[Gez]

A marilith don't need 4 feats to use 6 magical weapons at the same time. I ruled the same way as you -- not to gloves, but one glove per hand, etc. It makes more sense IMHO. Why would a two-armed creature be able to use one ring on each hand, but a 4-armed one would be 50% less efficient ?

Balance, I know, but IMHO, additional item slot are already a part of the additional limb package.

 

[Hashmalum]

Sure, two cloaks is kinda silly (even though Artemis does that for some reason in the FRCS...), but ten rings would both look great and be rather powerful.

Zounds! Shades of the Mandarin.

At the expense of eight feats, of course.

The way I see things, the reason you can't wear more than one ring on a hand is because the rings interfere with each other's magic directly. I really don't see what sort of skill or attribute a character could possibly acquire as a feat to change the way magic works in his proximity. Turning a ring into a "shielded" ring, though, seems reasonable (assuming one pays enough that the cost of ring becomes at least double its base price, which is the recommended amount for a "slotless" magic item).

Another potential non-feat workaround is inspired by the Forgotten Realms Campaign Setting, in which the commander's ring and the purple dragon ring worn together still only take up a single ring slot. You could potentially craft rings that are meant to work together as a set--again, with some extra expense involved. A set of ten such rings would probably be an artifact, not unlike the rod of seven parts, or any of the other "Gotta catch 'em all!" artifacts.

 

[Hashmalum]

A marilith don't need 4 feats to use 6 magical weapons at the same time. I ruled the same way as you -- not to gloves, but one glove per hand, etc. It makes more sense IMHO. Why would a two-armed creature be able to use one ring on each hand, but a 4-armed one would be 50% less efficient ?

Balance, I know, but IMHO, additional item slot are already a part of the additional limb package.

Exactly.

So far, what has your experience been with the game balance impact? Do you allow players to play races that benefit from this rule change? Have any of them chosen to do so? Have they tried to use polymorph or alter self or similar magics to take advantage of the rule? Or do they not even have enough magic items of the same slot to attempt it?

 

[Hashmalum]

Monsters that Savage Species allows as characters that might benefit from my proposed rule change include:

Aranea
In spider form, these could potentially wear up to three additional pairs of boots--assuming the DM allows a human-size spider to wear boots at all, which seems rather unlikely.

On the other hand, their illustration shows them with many eyes, so they could potentially gain a number of eye lens slots--an old Dragon article about araneas in D&D (not AD&D) mention an aranea NPC with the nickname of "Eight Eyes" (while in humanoid form), presumably based on how many eyes his natural form has. So an extra three pairs of lenses seems reasonable, provided that if any of the lenses alters perception rather than providing a gaze effect, all other eyes must be closed or equipped with identical lenses (thus, an aranea could not mix eyes of the eagle with eyes of charming, for example). Magical masks (such as those presented in Magic of Faerun) would still take up all of the creature's lens slots.

Incidentally, the aranea's Alternate Form ability doesn't specify what happens to gear worn by the creature when it changes forms.

Athatch
The athatch would obviously benefit from an extra ring slot. The athatch's third arm would also allow any magical glove or gauntlet that could be used singly to be worn (such as the Gauntlet of Fury from Magic of Faerun).

Centaur
An unusually generous DM would allow a centaur to not only wear magic boots, but wear an extra pair of them as well. But the centaur should definitely have the unusual ability to equip magical horseshoes such as the horseshoes of speed. In AD&D, there were some magical saddles as well; I cannot think offhand of any such items in 3rd Edition, but an enterprising DM might create or convert magical saddles that could be of benefit to a centaur.

An even more exotic possibility presents itself, however, when we note that as a creature with two torsos--one human, and one horse--the centaur has room for not just an extra belt and an extra cloak slot ("the beast with two backs", indeed), but it can wear both normal armor and horse barding (presenting some nasty rules headaches for the DM).

Drider
Same extra leg considerations as the aranea.

Ettercap
The illustration of the ettercap shows it with eight eyes, like a spider--although the description notes only two. The ettercap could gain additional lens slots, subject to the same restrictions as the aranea's. The illustration, however, implies that the creature lacks true fingers and thuse would not be able to wear rings. Gloves and gauntlets don't look too likely either.

Ettin
The ettin's second head would logically allow it an extra helmet slot, a slot for an extra pair of leneses, and an additional necklace slot. Unlike the aranea, the ettin's extra lens slot would be completely independent (since the ettin's extra brain would allow it to process visual input from its extra pair of eyes that is greatly different than from what its "first" pair of eyes are seeing).

Gray Render
The gray render's six eyes would work much like the aranea's extra eyes, except that there would be slightly fewer of them.

Lamia
Same considerations as the centaur.

Sahuagin (4 arms)
One additional pair of gloves or gauntlets, but no magical rings due to the creature's webbed fingers.

Umber Hulk
An extra pair of eyes gives the umber hulk a slot for an extra pair of lenses--although the umber hulk's gaze power would seem to make further eye augmentation unnecessary.

 

[Hashmalum]

I noticed that I seem to have left out the multiheaded template creature from the previous post--obviously, it would get the same benefits as the ettin for each additional head. Additionally, the following creatures not considered suitable for PC use by Savage Species would benefit:

Marilith
Four additional ring slots and two additional pairs of gloves or gauntlets--no boots, though.

Ubue
Just kidding! I would never use the ubue.

Xill
As the 4-armed sahuagin.

Xorn
As the athatch. A xorn could also wear an additional magical boot, but since boots come in pairs, this ability is useless.

 

[Gez]

Well, MY player characters are not monstrous, and they don't have enough slotted items. Besides, they're not high level enough to cast polymorph yet. They do have used a scroll of polymorph other they found, but it was to turn their dwarf fighter into a troll. Wouldn't have enough punch against their ogre-mage foes after. Didn't have any dispel magic spell after the death of their cleric, so the dwarf troll wasn't much happy. Fortunately for him, the ogre-mage had enslaved a tribe of kobolds, and one among the mass was a sorcerer of enough power to cast it.