D&D General Weapons should break left and right

[Lanefan]

At no point would players ever choose something like this:


The Helm of the Headless.

Of course they wouldn't; and neither would I, given that a simple Dispel Magic at the wrong moment would kill me outright.

The Saddlebag has some good and cool magic items but that, I'm afraid, is not one of them.

 

[Hussar]

Of course they wouldn't; and neither would I, given that a simple Dispel Magic at the wrong moment would kill me outright.

The Saddlebag has some good and cool magic items but that, I'm afraid, is not one of them.

Wrong edition im afraid. 5e dispel magic has no effect on items.

 

[GrimCo]

The bolded is, to me, rather shocking.

Next to invisibility, always-available flight is the best individual ability a character can have! So useful in so many situations, even including combat.

And yet, it was never that useful. Caster would usually have it prepared just in case, but we never used it that much. In combat it was particularly useless. Very few combats were in open fields where it would be major advantage.

 

[AlViking]

So, why are you arguing with me then? I prefaced EVERYTHING I posted with what I was going to do in my game. At no point did I ever talk about anyone else's game. If you don't see the problem, fair enough. I DO see a problem. So, what are you trying to convince me of? That I'm mistaken, and that the problem doesn't exist? How is that not telling me how to run my game? The very thing you've repeatedly complained about.

If you're not actually engaging with anything I've brought up, what's the point?

So you aren't the one posting thing like this?

Gee, you don't say. Never? Could it possibly be that your players know that purchasing something like a Broom of Flying isn't worth it because you're going to add in a bunch of extra restrictions, and instead simply choose something else? Gee, shock.

I mean, think about it this way. No one ever says, "Oh, those new rules look really interesting and fun. I want to try those!" All they do is shrug and choose the thing that you're not going to nerf.

But, the whole point of this was never about the power levels of the items. That's not the point. The point is that the players will ALWAYS choose the most practical item. In your game, that means Boots of Flying because Brooms are restricted by additional rules. But, at no point around your players choosing lots of other flying items that might be less effective than brooms or boots, but are more interesting.

Which is the point I've been making all the way along.

Because that sure as heck sounds like you aren't talking about just your game, you're telling someone else they're being a bad no-good DM because they put limits on what the characters can do. Meanwhile you're just not going to have brooms of flying at all because every item will be something you make. But you still claim you're only talking about your game? Choose a lane.

 

[AlViking]

The bolded is, to me, rather shocking.

Next to invisibility, always-available flight is the best individual ability a character can have! So useful in so many situations, even including combat.

I see people using dust of disappearance on a pretty regular basis to make the party invisible, we just used it in yesterday's game to free some captives and bypass an expected combat. The limitation with invisibility is that if you attack or cast a spell you become visible and just because you can't be seen it doesn't mean you can't be heard.

And yet, it was never that useful. Caster would usually have it prepared just in case, but we never used it that much. In combat it was particularly useless. Very few combats were in open fields where it would be major advantage.

I don't do dungeon crawls, combats happen in all sorts of places depending on the scenario. Occasionally they happen in buildings, abandoned or otherwise, other times city streets open fields or forests. Just depends on what makes sense for the scenario. It's pretty rare that they happen in 10 ft corridors, but even then being able to fly would grant advantages occasionally like avoiding difficult or treacherous terrain. If there were no penalties or limitations I see no reason not to fly constantly.

 

[Hussar]

Yeah, that's not going to go anywhere. So, where were we? Oh, yes.

IMO, D&D is better served by excluding the DMG magic item section simply because players will always choose the safest, best bang for their buck. What that happens to be will vary by table, but, at the end of the day, that's what they will almost always choose. To prevent this, I recommend excluding the DMG magic item section. There are far too many, far more interesting options out there that will make the game, again, in my purely subjective opinion, better.

 

[Remathilis]

It went along with their whole resistance to magic piece. Dwarves and Hobbits couldn't be arcane casters, and got save bonuses vs magic.

The Gnome being on that list, however, doesn't make sense.

The original monster gnomes were just shorter dwarves. I guess somewhere between then and AD&D gnomes kept the magical resistance common to the short races but also gained illusion magic because illusions were not really magic, idk. D&D and inconsistent lore have been together since the very beginning. I'm pretty sure illusion magic was given to gnomes just to give them a unique niche against dwarves and halflings, which is why gnomes have lost a unique hook ever since illusionist stopped being a full class and any race could cast magic.

 

[James Gasik]

Heh. Went and dug up the DMG. I was wrong. My bad. One rule that I don't think ever came up was that rings failed 20% of the time for gnomes, dwarves and halflings. Was there any justification ever given for that?

Because they had racial bonuses to save vs. magic, Gary decided they were "magic-resistant" to some degree (but not MR magic resistant, which Elves were, but could use Enchantment/Charm items just fine? lol, way to be consistent). Basically there were set items each of those races could use without question (like Illusion items never fail for Gnomes) and every other time you equipped the item or activated it, there was a failure chance. Amusingly, this feature could save you from a cursed item's effect, so upside? I guess.

 

[James Gasik]

Huh. I must have nerfed the remote-action piece without even realizing it, as I've never let brooms do anything without a rider on board.

That said, I see I wasn't misremembering about there being a weight limit, namely 182 + (14 x 30) or 602 lbs. after which it has a move rate of 0. I guess you can argue with your DM over whether it can still levitate but not move if loaded with more than 602 lbs.; if I'm the DM, no it can't.

What I find interesting is that the Broom somehow knows who it's owner is!

 

[Lanefan]

And yet, it was never that useful. Caster would usually have it prepared just in case, but we never used it that much. In combat it was particularly useless. Very few combats were in open fields where it would be major advantage.

Being able to fly over the front line in a tight passage in order to get to the back-line casters is huge. Also, if a foe is otherwise surrounded you can attack it from above unless there's no room between the foe's head and the ceiling. And best of all, terrain becomes a non-factor.

The other main use for flight in combat is as an escape mechanism if you're overmatched, or get cut off from the party, by an opponent that can't itself fly.