Stock magic items are not special

[Saeviomagy]

I'm mostly peeved when it happens with templated monsters... a fiendish ogre still looks like an ogre, even though it's got weird skin or horns or whatnot. It's not a hulking brute that the PCs have never seen, it's a variation on something they've seen many times. I firmly fall into the camp that knowledge equals power, and it's not fair to take knowledge away from characters by making the player knowledge supercede character knowledge.

Well, it's fairly obvious from the description that this is NOT a magic missile. Unless the wizard has seen and scribed the spell before, it's a different spell.

Now, given the spellcraft mechanic, you could describe the spell to him, but it's not going to be a lot of help:

"The spell allows a slash of a weapon to unerringly hit a target and cause him damage through any protection he wears. You think that perhaps a magical shield of force could cause the spell to fail, and you believe that a properly directed magic missile might be able to disrupt the chain of force that the spell operates through"

ie - shield blocks it, magic missile counters it, it causes ranged damage without a save or to hit.

THAT's what the spellcraft check gets you. "The wizard casts magic missile" is shorthand for all that.

 

[francisca]

I mean, to any experienced D&D Player, a +2 sword is not special. A cloak of elvenkind is not amazing. A girdle/belt of giant strength is not awesome.

Nope. Not amazing to the Player at all. However, your *character* should be duly impressed.

Are your characters also ho-hum about a medusa to a dragon, just because you as a player have seen them so many times?

 

[Faraer]

All players have to do to solve this problem is to join in the process of imagination rather than grudgingly imagining only what they're absolutely forced to! In this case, see magic items as magic items with natures and histories, with their rules properties secondary -- which should not be a problem if they've ever read fantasy fiction -- rather than rules-artefacts with their nature and history demoted to 'flavor text'. This is much more fun and much easier than the alternative. If, on the other hand, they don't like imagining stuff, either they need a different DM or a different pastime.

 

[Darkness]

Nope. Not amazing to the Player at all. However, your *character* should be duly impressed.

Are your characters also ho-hum about a medusa to a dragon, just because you as a player have seen them so many times?

I'm not sure +2 sword vs. medusa or dragon is a helpful comparison.

What's more impressive:

a) +2 to hit and damage and the ability to overcome DR/magic.
b) Make a Fortitude save or be turned to stone permanently.

IMO, a medusa is more comparable to a lifestealer and a +2 sword is more like a bugbear or maybe an ogre in impressiveness. (Note: Very roughly.)