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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Ainamacar" data-source="post: 5557992" data-attributes="member: 70709">Ha, so it would seem!  In my campaign, and across the various PCs I played in 3.5, my observation was that most PCs found it worthwhile to use items to boost two ability scores, one primary and one secondary.  Additional bonuses would be gravy, but not expected or particularly pursued.  By way of comparison, you give +30 worth of ability boosts over 20 levels, while I give +15, and RAW gives +5 (but obviously keeps stat-boosting items).  I don't care for the flavor of giving bonuses that are as large as yours, nor that they remain enhancement bonuses even though they are treated as inherent to the character.  Of course, since you treated your ability score boosts as enhancement bonuses, with buffs the levels of the highest ability scores in your game and mine are very similar across the various levels.Part of this may be that I dislike the expectation of getting tomes or using Wish to increase ability scores, and really don't treat that as an assumed part of the game.  (My opinion is that the game's math does not either, certainly not to the extent of Belts of Strength, etc.)  This preference of mine is true independent of the other changes we're discussing.  Thus, in any campaign I'd run tomes would pretty much only be found very rarely as treasure or as part of a quest, but certainly not be purchasable or craftable.  Similarly with Wish, a Ring of Three Wishes or Deck of Many Things could boost ability scores, but a high level Wizard could not on its own.  For some players of Wizards that might be contentious point.As for the rest of your bonuses, they seem mostly reasonable to me.  The resistance bonus is fine.  I think the save progression as a whole should have been done differently in 3.5, and I might want to do that as part of removing items that grant a resistance bonus, but that's certainly more complicated.  I'd also want to think about the prices for armor, shields, and weapons (and certainly limit their special abilities to +5)  because the numerical bonus is only part of their typical utility.The only other major change I would make to your system is that I'd grant a deflection bonus but not a natural armor bonus, although I might leave some items for that purpose in the game, and priced accordingly.  My basic rationale is that a character can not have an Amulet of Health and an Amulet of Natural Armor.  Even though every character could clearly benefit from both, I feel both are secondary bonuses to any given character.  Deflection bonuses, however, come from all over the place, and the most typical source leaves an identical body slot open so most players didn't have to worry about it.  The other major item conflict, Cloak of Resistance vs. Cloak of Charisma, I treat as satisfactorily resolved in standard 3.5 with the Vest of Resistance.  The difference compared to the first conflict is that a resistance bonus is definitely critical to everyone, and for a good many characters Charisma is their primary ability score.In any case, it was a very interesting to see what you did.  As tinkering with other people's tinkerings is a time-honored tradition in D&D, I have plenty to think about.  There are some parts of 3.5 I really miss.</blockquote>

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