What would happen if magic item chart turned upside down for 1st level PC's?

[Emirikol]

Any thoughts on what would happen if magical items (not artifiacts) were handed out BEGINNING with +4 items instead of +1 at first level?

I'm thinking of doing this in our upcoming Norse-Conan D&D game. Of course, I'm not talking about rings of wishes or +10 armor, just damage dealing stuff.

Any of you ever try this? Any theories on what would happen?

jh

 

[Crothian]

They would keep the +4 stuff and sell the +1 stuff they got later? So it would be like they had +4 stuff for the whole campaign.

 

[Piratecat]

It boosts them up the power curve. PCs can hit easier and do more damage, but they're just still as fragile as normal. To compensate and provide a challenge, I'd use normal CR monsters but increase their hit points.

 

[Nifft]

Monsters and more experienced adventurers would hunt them for their stuff?

Cheers, -- N

 

[S'mon]

You can definitely run a game where low level PCs have +4 weapons, it makes surprisingly little difference. Protective gear is a different matter.

 

[Emirikol]

THat's kind of what I figured. In a campaign where there aren't magic shops (anywhere) and there's no resale value to any items, it might be interesting.

Imagine the following party:
Aesir Fighter-1 with a +5 vorpal sword
Vanir Barbarian -1 with boots of striding and springing and a hammer of thunderbolts
Hyperborean wizard-1 with an IRON FLASK and Chaos Diamond
Cimmerian Barbarian -1 with two javelins of lightning and a vorpal dagger +5
Kozaki Rogue -1 with HELM OF BRILLIANCE

Might make for some interesting combats against fey in the forest (such as elves and Loki's giants).

Without armor, do you think they'd get into trouble pretty quickly?

jh

 

[Sejs]

So... what, they go adventuring to get robbed over and over again, losing their older and more powerful items in exchange for smaller ones?

There'd be two main effects:

1) It wouldn't make much sense. At all.

2) It would homogenize gameplay to a certain extent. At low levels, you're equivalent to a mid level character. At high levels, you're equivalent to ... a mid level character. Whee.

 

[Sejs]

and there's no resale value to any items, it might be interesting.

Other than by DM Fiat, saying that nobody but you wants these objects of mystical magical marvelousness ... how would there be no resale value on an item that makes you better at doing something?

Not even talking about Merry Melf's Magic Mart, talking about selling or trading things to other people.

Without armor, do you think they'd get into trouble pretty quickly?

I think they'd die pretty quickly. It's great that they've got weapons that give 'em +5 to hit and damage, and lop off heads on a natural 20, but they're still running around with 10 or so hit points average.

Those giants and fey would eat them for breakfast. Giants don't miss and could knock them out of the park without even trying. All the vorpalness in the world won't save a nude fighter from a handful of skirmishers with bows.

 

[kenobi65]

It reminds me a little bit of a campaign we occasionally play, in which all of the PCs are metallic half-dragons.

We started that campaign with the PCs at 1st level (though, the ECL was 4). The DM had a helluva time getting the challenge level right. If we got the drop on anything, we'd just annihilate stuff -- with the Str boost, and good natural weapons, even the non-fighters were able to dish out considerable damage in melee, and, with two rogues in the group, sneak attacks with claw/claw/bite could get absurd. (That's why we nicknamed the campaign "the Velociraptors".)

We did have some "defensive" advantages (+2 Con, natural armor), but we still had a serious case of "glass jaws" at the low levels, and anything that could stand up to our attacks would likely be able to wipe the floor with us when it went on the offensive.

 

[brehobit]

THat's kind of what I figured. In a campaign where there aren't magic shops (anywhere) and there's no resale value to any items, it might be interesting.

Imagine the following party:
Aesir Fighter-1 with a +5 vorpal sword
Vanir Barbarian -1 with boots of striding and springing and a hammer of thunderbolts
Hyperborean wizard-1 with an IRON FLASK and Chaos Diamond
Cimmerian Barbarian -1 with two javelins of lightning and a vorpal dagger +5
Kozaki Rogue -1 with HELM OF BRILLIANCE

Might make for some interesting combats against fey in the forest (such as elves and Loki's giants).

Without armor, do you think they'd get into trouble pretty quickly?

jh

It's the D&D cartoon!

Seriously, this can work. The items may have no value because they only work for the PCs, their families or something. I've done this (though not quite _that_ powerful and I did include the occasional defensive item). It works. If you run a game that doesn't go past 4th or 5th level (so very slow EXP) it works quite well. You really shouldn't use standard EXP rules in any case.

Mark