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<blockquote data-quote="Crazy Jerome" data-source="post: 6026493" data-attributes="member: 54877">Back last spring I introduced a topic calling for more mundane equipment. Have a bigger variety of mundane equipment that matters well into the middle power levels--and maybe even a few bits that matter into epic. Then you can have &quot;barely magical&quot; stuff that is still pretty nice. A basic grappling hook is good (+3 to climb checks). A hook treated in a dwarven forge is better (+5 to climb checks). A dwarven grappling hook +1 (+6 to climb checks) is something you won't throw away, but it's not the be all and end all of climbing gear. <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile&nbsp; &nbsp; :)"&nbsp; data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" />&nbsp;Part of the idea behind that is that if stuff is accounting for a certain amount of the &quot;leveling&quot; bonus so that ability scores and skills can account for less of it. But we could have our cake and eat it too. Make skills give a basic plus (+2 or +3), but have improved skills expand the range of gear that the character knows how to use. Anyone can pick a lock (Dex check) with a basic lock pick (+0). But to really get the full advantage out of master lockpicks (+5), you need some skill. &nbsp;Now &quot;skills&quot; become things that are important to describing what the character can do (and improvise, such as using a small knife to pick a crude lock), but it's that findable/losable gear that gets the bonus up there to go after the really tough challenges. Anyone can use a basic healing kit, but to use a &quot;complete healer's pack&quot; effectively, a character needs some training. Any old character can still use such an advanced pack as a mundane kit, because it's got bandages in it. They just end up saying, &quot;what's this?&quot; on 75% of the stuff in the kit, potentially wasting it.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Crazy Jerome, post: 6026493, member: 54877"] Back last spring I introduced a topic calling for more mundane equipment. Have a bigger variety of mundane equipment that matters well into the middle power levels--and maybe even a few bits that matter into epic. Then you can have "barely magical" stuff that is still pretty nice. A basic grappling hook is good (+3 to climb checks). A hook treated in a dwarven forge is better (+5 to climb checks). A dwarven grappling hook +1 (+6 to climb checks) is something you won't throw away, but it's not the be all and end all of climbing gear. :) Part of the idea behind that is that if stuff is accounting for a certain amount of the "leveling" bonus so that ability scores and skills can account for less of it. But we could have our cake and eat it too. Make skills give a basic plus (+2 or +3), but have improved skills expand the range of gear that the character knows how to use. Anyone can pick a lock (Dex check) with a basic lock pick (+0). But to really get the full advantage out of master lockpicks (+5), you need some skill. Now "skills" become things that are important to describing what the character can do (and improvise, such as using a small knife to pick a crude lock), but it's that findable/losable gear that gets the bonus up there to go after the really tough challenges. Anyone can use a basic healing kit, but to use a "complete healer's pack" effectively, a character needs some training. Any old character can still use such an advanced pack as a mundane kit, because it's got bandages in it. They just end up saying, "what's this?" on 75% of the stuff in the kit, potentially wasting it. [/QUOTE]

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