Thoughts on Odd Number Bonus Stat Items

[eryndel]

It's been a while since I've posted here, but I'm kicking off a 3.5 game for my kids. My teenage son, a bright kid who spends a little too much time perusing the theorycrafting and char-op boards, is looking at playing an Artificer. Even though we're playing in the Realms, I'm cool with that within reason. There was once an ancient nation of artificers in Horreb (around Thar), so maybe he's in the search of some of that lost lore. Question came up about about odd number stat items. Even though every item in the DMG is even number, he asked if he could create one that was only +1. My first inclination is no, it's essentially trying to get the bonus of a +2 item "on the cheap," especially coming from a artificer, whose shtick is to custom make magic items. Of course, I'm fine with Rule-0'ing it, but I wanted to get the thoughts and input from the community. Have you let your PCs make these items, or would you? Does have that much of an effect on the game? I figure it'd be great for off-stats, to pull those odd ability scores to even, but probably not as cool for your main stat (which you'd be trying to improve through leveling and through Tomes if you can get them).

Thoughts?

 

[RUMBLETiGER]

Never heard of an item that works this way, totally within your right as DM to allow it or not.
Sounds useful to offset those stats that are already odd. Also, and improvement in Strength improves carrying capacity. This doesn't sound unreasonable in any way in my opinion.

You'd have to figure pricing for such an item, might be reasonable to say "It costs half as much as a +2 item of the same kind" to keep the math easy.

 

[Olgar Shiverstone]

I'd allow it, but at 75% cost rather than 50% ... to discourage min-maxxing "on the cheap."

 

[billd91]

Probably best to just avoid the issue and disallow it. They don't provide a consistent value. They lurch from overpriced to underpriced and the non-linear price progression makes it hard to estimate their objective values.

 

[delericho]

Question came up about about odd number stat items. Even though every item in the DMG is even number, he asked if he could create one that was only +1. My first inclination is no, it's essentially trying to get the bonus of a +2 item "on the cheap," especially coming from a artificer, whose shtick is to custom make magic items. Of course, I'm fine with Rule-0'ing it, but I wanted to get the thoughts and input from the community. Have you let your PCs make these items, or would you?

No. They don't really work with 3.5e as it stands - even-numbered stats are way more useful than the odd-numbered ones, which means that an item +1 is probably every bit as powerful to the character as the equivalent +2 item. So, don't allow it.

(Once upon a time, the intention was that feats and other things would always have odd-numbered stats as prerequisities, and that this would make the odd-numbered stats equally useful as the even-numbered ones. It never really worked.)

 

[Deset Gled]

(Once upon a time, the intention was that feats and other things would always have odd-numbered stats as prerequisities, and that this would make the odd-numbered stats equally useful as the even-numbered ones. It never really worked.)

I don't think the intent was ever to make the odd numbered stats equally powerful, it was just to make them less useless. IMNSHO, this design mechanic works just fine for prereqs that address secondary stats. For example, an archery feat with a minimum Str of 13. It's also worth noting that it's a much more important mechanic for games using point-buy instead of rolling for stats.

All that being said, I'd never allow a +1 stat item. As others have said, it's either equally valuable as a +2 item (and deserves no discount), or worthless (and deserves no creation).

 

[sheadunne]

We used them all the time in 3x and still use them in PF. I don't see any issues with it. Usually a +1 in a non-important stat (ie one you're not leveling up anyway) isn't going to make much of a difference, at least in the games I play/run, and if it's one you're leveling up anyway, you're only spreading out the bonus over time, rather than getting it all at once.

 

[Empirate]

Actually, magic items that provide odd-numbered ability score bonuses are already a part of the rules. Manual of Gainful Exercise etc. (the tomes) provide an inherent bonus of +1 to +5. So why not expand this to include enhancement bonuses? Sure, the item is only really useful to a part of the populace (those with an odd-numbered score), but so are Holy Avengers, Anarchic Longbows, Wild Hide Armor, Blessed Books... you get the idea.

As for game balance concerns, I don't see any. Sure, at first it's neat to increase your Str bonus from +3 to +4 using only Gauntlets of Ogre Power +1 on your Str 17 Barbarian. But then you either gain enough levels that increasing your base Str becomes possible, or enough money that you'd like to upgrade your Gauntlets. In the first case, your item suddenly becomes useless to you (unless you also upgrade that), or you need to invest much more money to actually get an upgrade you can feel.

So the odd ability score bonus items will make a bit of a bonus available earlier/cheaper if your character happens to have an odd score already (so not quite optimized out of the gate). But in the long run, it evens out.

 

[Jackinthegreen]

Boosting stats by an odd number isn't much of a problem. Artificers themselves are more of an issue depending on how you run things. I personally ban them because they're too much of a headache for me.

If you're going with the odd boosts, keep in mind the equation to get the price for it is (ability boost^2) x 1000. So a +1 would be 1000, +2 is 4000, +3 is 9000, and so on.