The Magic Items that WotC cannot publish

[Mustrum_Ridcully]

I stated upthread that the power level of the magical items wasn't important.

Instead, magical items have to exist on their own merits, and do things that are cinematic for magical items to do.

When the magic item simply does a single discrete power, in the confines of being a daily/encounter power, and is disposable based on your character's level, there is little wonder left in the magical item.

When I read about this, I think of Eternal Chalk or Immovable Rods. They have a simple, well defined property that is not particularly strong. But it opens up new possibilities.

I think a weapon like Flaming Weapon might be another one, except that the rules don*t talk about the "side effects" of having a weapon that can turn into flames at will.

 

[Marshall]

The question might be what we are actually looking for?

Do we want unusual, funny, subtle stuff, like a Flaming Sword that can also start (small) fires at range by shooting small flames (with no combat application aside from the usual "creativity with stunts and DMG p 42").

This would be a start, but its just a quirk in the "glows" category of quirks.

Do we want The Sword of Elemental Fire that does all things fiery? Shoot Flames, grant fire resistances, surrounds you with fire, causes your enemies burn marks, commands elemental fires? (But that is still not a real artifact with its own goals. It's just good with fire)

This is probably too much for the 4e system to handle as it has powers that are in the turf of other slots.
OTOH, if the current crop of powers were correctly and consistently leveled I could see a melee weapon with a weak at-will ranged attack(Shoot Flames), an encounter EONT fire aura power and a daily 'command' power, something as simple as Daze for 1 round. It could even have a property that grants Cold or Fire resist 2 when drawn and you're still only in the +3 or +4 power range.

What makes that look unbalanced is that WotC has drastically overvalued the ability to shift damage type and then been inconsistent in applying that value.

What are we really looking for when we talk about "cool" magic items instead of boring
ones? Do we look for powerful effects? For more versatility? (Why can my Armor only be either Summed or Agile and not both?) For purely "narrative" effects (like lightening up candles and camp fires?)?

A mix of all of that?

The short answer is "yes". The long answer is that they need to have a usefully powerful and versatile effect beyond the +value and still have some narrative value or effect.

 

[DEFCON 1]

If I'm reading things correctly... it sounds as though there are actually two camps within the "need more magical magic items" group. The first group feels that the current magic items are boring and flavorless from a story and fluff point-of-view... the second from a single-power-per-item point of view. Some want advances on the first, some on the second, and some want both.

In this regard, I think it is safe to guess that we players will probably see rules for the latter in either an upcoming AV or DMG... because as been pointed out, balancing items with multiple functions is mainly all about calculating item levels. We received the Magic Item Compendium late in the 3.5 cycle which showed us how to do it... so it's not a stretch to assume we'll receive the same in 4E, once they've presented any other rules they want to give us first.

However, as far as the former... we probably won't see that except in corner cases in like Manual of the Planes or Open Grave (where an item or two has an elaborate fluffy background to go along with its abilities). Because as we all know... one of 4Es mantras is to remove a lot of fluff from the mechanics, because they are putting the onus onto the DM to fluff to suit his/her campaign.

And this is where I think much of the disappointment lies... whereas in the old editions even something as mundane as a potion of invisibility could have several paragraphs written about it to describe what it is, how it looks, and what happens when it's used... 4E basically assumes you know all that aready, and relies the DM to describe/invent all the special things about it when the players find it... rather than have them just read off the text by rote.

 

[Dausuul]

The question might be what we are actually looking for?

Do we want unusual, funny, subtle stuff, like a Flaming Sword that can also start (small) fires at range by shooting small flames (with no combat application aside from the usual "creativity with stunts and DMG p 42").

Do we want The Sword of Elemental Fire that does all things fiery? Shoot Flames, grant fire resistances, surrounds you with fire, causes your enemies burn marks, commands elemental fires? (But that is still not a real artifact with its own goals. It's just good with fire)

I like both of those ideas. I would like to see both those types of items in 4E.

The first one is really just a matter of tweaking existing items, adding a couple of small utility powers and flavor text to each. WotC could do this easily, and indeed should - it would work wonders to change the "bland statblock" nature of 4E magic items as they stand, without affecting game balance.

The second one is more in the line of items discussed in this thread - artifact-level power, but without the artifact's self-awareness or tendency to get up and walk away. Balancing it would require some type of Weapons of Legacy-style effect, where you give up a portion of your own abilities in exchange for being able to unlock the full power of the Sword of Elemental Fire.

 

[Garthanos]

So, after a "plot event" a character's old weapon is upgraded to have the enhancement bonus, crit bonus, powers and properties of a weapon of a new level while retaining still its old properties and powers.

There is an article from WOTC about doing exactly that... It was about alternate rewards and was presented along side Religious boons and legendary boons in a side bar... they are not talking about upgrading it to anything different than already in the magic item lists... but the premise is there with
"official support" for what its worth.

 

[Alex319]

I wrote up my idea for creating magic items with multiple properties here:

http://www.enworld.org/forum/4e-fan...creating-magic-items-multiple-properties.html

in case anyone is interested. That might take us in the direction of solving at least the second problem DEFCON 1 mentioned (magic items only having one power).

 

[Saeviomagy]

Actually, in medieval times ale and beer were important food sources, making up a substantial part of a peasant's diet.

Ah, well if we're going for historical ale, then you're talking about something that definately isn't a party drink and almost certainly doesn't cost 2sp per mug.

 

[Runestar]

WotC could do this easily, and indeed should - it would work wonders to change the "bland statblock" nature of 4E magic items as they stand, without affecting game balance.

I think their primary aim now is to scrap any properties which do not have a direct impact on combat.

Wotc could do that, but it may just end up cluttering the item's stat block with filler abilities which most players would never use (or find some way of abusing).

 

[vagabundo]

From an article on houserules:

Dungeons & Dragons Roleplaying Game Official Home Page - Article (House Rules for the Holidays)

I believe this may be one of those Items that Cannot Be Mentioned...

It doesn't have a level - it is an almost-artefact. And I really wish they would have a section in the next AV with a bunch of these items - just sort them by tier.

 

[Nebulous]

Hey, i like that sword pretty much. What i would ideally like to see is Goodman Games do something similar, an open call, like they did for the Ritual book and apply it to unique magic items.