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Message: <blockquote data-quote="(Psi)SeveredHead" data-source="post: 5114858" data-attributes="member: 1165">A little from column A, a little from column B.In 3.x, magic items caused these problems, IMO:1) Made it difficult for the DM to give out treasure properly. IME, every single time I DM'ed, the players didn't get enough items. If you followed the encounter treasure guidelines to the letter, you found PCs were underequipped. (And usually I couldn't follow the guidelines properly; I found myself spending as much time statting out treasure as statting out NPCs. I hated that!)2) If you changed the rate of treasure granted for any reason, you had problems. Some DMs wanted to give out XP faster or slower; you now need to change the treasure output to compensate. Some DMs wanted to run low magic, and often underestimated how difficult this was in 3.x. (See point 4)3) It made NPCs weak. In order to keep from overloading PCs with treasure, you couldn't use NPCs too often (or maybe I wasn't using them often enough; do I really need the ruleset to hold my hand on that point?) and of course a 12th-level NPC can't have as much treasure as a 12th-level PC. Which means that some classes (eg fighters) got shafted when used as NPCs, while others (like wizards) weren't strongly affected.4) It encouraged "blood for blood" character design, which is to say characters who could dish it out but couldn't take it. PCs (and classed NPCs) could boost their offense (BAB, save DCs) through level-ups, but you boost AC and saves through magic items (rings, magic armor, maybe magic shield, ring of force shield, cloak of resistance). There were quite a few spells (like Protection from Spells) that sucked because, by the time you got them, your expected items were overlapping them. (For instance, if a 15th-level mage who wants to cast Protection from Spells has a +4 Cloak of Resistance, he's only really getting a +4 bonus from casting Protection from Spells. By contrast, a pit fiend or balor is almost guaranteed a large bonus from casting Unholy Aura, sine he has few items that are likely to overlap it.)One of the great things about d20 Modern and 4e, IMO, are that characters (beyond monks) can actually learn to parry and dodge!Because 4e is rules transparent, and because the offense and defensive value of magic items are balanced with each other, you could toss magic items completely out of the campaign, modify monster levels slightly, and play with minimal disruption. I'm thinking of running 4e Dark Sun, and I hope I can do something like that.5) There's only so many slots! Monks need to boost their Wisdom with a periapt of Wisdom. Monks also need Amulets of Mighty Fists. Guess which slots they take up? Oh, isn't that the same ones...And don't get me started on wildshaping druids and the sheer nuttiness of when exactly do you gain and lose bonus spells. Just don't <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    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" /></blockquote>

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