Should rings be able to function for low level characters?

[Stone Dog]

Like Ben Franklin said: Always expect the worst. That way, if it happens, you are prepared, and if it doesn't, you are pleasantly surprised.

Franklin also thought he could get clean by walking around naked. Called them "Air baths."

Hope and optimism don't rot your brain or equate to some kind of brain damage. Personally, I'll look for the best options 4e gives me and not waste a speck of time being frustrated about the rest. Expect, work and hope for the best so that it is more likely to happen, but plan for the worst just in case. "Always expect the worst." What a depressing way to go through life.

The best case I can think at the moment is that rings are very potent to the point where they resonate at a certain degree of power. They are all at least slightly aware of themselves and their users. Hopefully, characters have a certain potency of spirit that can be gaged as an aura and a ring will (mostly) stubbornly shut down or rebel when it is faced with an aura that doesn't at least match its own.

Beware a ring that can seemingly be used by anybody. It most likely has an agenda and you may well find that eventually it may be wielding you. That is the One Ring scenario. Bilbo wasn't able to make use of an invisibility ring, the One Ring was waiting for a ride out of the Misty Mountains and hitched one on a hobbit. Sure, it took a while to get around that way, but a chunk of metal is probably more patient than an ent.

There are plenty of ways this can go. Rings might not accept a simple hero, but instead have enough Ego to ignore the wishes of anything less than a paragon. Rings might also be jealous of their territory and not tolerate another ring, but an epic character might have the right aura to overwhelm that compulsion. A ring might even acknowledge the potential of a character with Action Points, allowing itself to be used with the expenditure of one, even by a mere hero.

Until the full picture is realized, I'll continue to hope that the full reasons behind the change are ones I can get behind. If they aren't? I'll not be anymore disappointed than if I discovered water-chestnuts in my food. It is, after all, just a game.

Fun reading though.

 

[Raith5]

...
There are plenty of ways this can go. Rings might not accept a simple hero, but instead have enough Ego to ignore the wishes of anything less than a paragon. Rings might also be jealous of their territory and not tolerate another ring, but an epic character might have the right aura to overwhelm that compulsion. A ring might even acknowledge the potential of a character with Action Points, allowing itself to be used with the expenditure of one, even by a mere hero.

Cool explanation! But why cant we have swords like this.

Until the full picture is realized, I'll continue to hope that the full reasons behind the change are ones I can get behind. If they aren't? I'll not be anymore disappointed than if I discovered water-chestnuts in my food. It is, after all, just a game.

Fun reading though.

True

 

[Stone Dog]

Cool explanation! But why cant we have swords like this.

We can. That is what the intelligent item rules are for. All I'm really suggesting is that perhaps in 4e all rings are at least a little intelligent while merely a certain percentage of swords and other items are.

I'm just looking at clouds like everybody else right now. I just think that the cloud that looks kinda like a rabbit might actually kinda look like a rabbit instead of being "Fluffy Bunny, harbinger of doom and volcanic eruptions" or whatever the joke was on Avatar.

Thanks, by the way.