Reply to thread

Message

<blockquote data-quote="Kinneus" data-source="post: 5928187" data-attributes="member: 48215">A big problem with the DM picking items for you is that, for the most part, DMs tend to pick lousy items because their attention is divided among five or six characters, and they're not always sure what a character's strategy is or what an individual player will find useful or cool. If I had a nickel for every time a DM, beaming with pride, handed over the &quot;sweet loot&quot; only to be met with shrugs and &quot;we sell it when we get into town,&quot; I'd be rich enough to buy a +6 Magic Weapon.&nbsp;For instance, in my SOW game which uses strict item rarity, I've been stuck with the Sword of Kas for like 3 or 4 levels now, and it's looking like I'm going to be lugging around that whiny piece of evil for the rest of the campaign. Which is a shame, because I'd much rather be using my old Sword of the Eldritch Knight, which fit my character concept a lot better and was 10 times more useful.&nbsp;The old &quot;DM picks everything, you'll take what you get and like it&quot; style worked in older editions because a) enhancement bonuses weren't figured into the math of the game (though inherent bonuses are a great patch for this) and b) magic items were awesome and powerful, so it was hard to be disappointed. But 4e is burdened with a large number of extremely lackluster magic items that only really get cool if used with some sort of feat or power synergy.&nbsp;Wishlists were supposed to alleviate this problem to an extent. The problem was that they seemed largely irrelevant when PCs could buy whatever they wanted. Item rarity plus wishlists seem to be the way to go these days, with perhaps inherent bonuses to patch up oversights.&nbsp;In your case, OP, I'd ask your DM to strongly consider using inherent bonuses.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Kinneus, post: 5928187, member: 48215"] A big problem with the DM picking items for you is that, for the most part, DMs tend to pick lousy items because their attention is divided among five or six characters, and they're not always sure what a character's strategy is or what an individual player will find useful or cool. If I had a nickel for every time a DM, beaming with pride, handed over the "sweet loot" only to be met with shrugs and "we sell it when we get into town," I'd be rich enough to buy a +6 Magic Weapon. For instance, in my SOW game which uses strict item rarity, I've been stuck with the Sword of Kas for like 3 or 4 levels now, and it's looking like I'm going to be lugging around that whiny piece of evil for the rest of the campaign. Which is a shame, because I'd much rather be using my old Sword of the Eldritch Knight, which fit my character concept a lot better and was 10 times more useful. The old "DM picks everything, you'll take what you get and like it" style worked in older editions because a) enhancement bonuses weren't figured into the math of the game (though inherent bonuses are a great patch for this) and b) magic items were awesome and powerful, so it was hard to be disappointed. But 4e is burdened with a large number of extremely lackluster magic items that only really get cool if used with some sort of feat or power synergy. Wishlists were supposed to alleviate this problem to an extent. The problem was that they seemed largely irrelevant when PCs could buy whatever they wanted. Item rarity plus wishlists seem to be the way to go these days, with perhaps inherent bonuses to patch up oversights. In your case, OP, I'd ask your DM to strongly consider using inherent bonuses. [/QUOTE]

Verification