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Message: <blockquote data-quote="billd91" data-source="post: 5189602" data-attributes="member: 3400">I think 3e went a little bit farther than just making the rules more clear and uniform. The ability to make scrolls went from, I believe, 7th level to 1st level and the ability to make permanent magic items went from 11th level to 3rd in most cases. Both changes, standard rules and lower level requirements, can significantly increase the ability of PCs to determine the nature of their own magic items. They take obtaining the Big 6 (as people like to talk about) from being a pipe dream to most players to being a reasonable strategy. That's, I think, pretty big.Of course, play style preferences for both sets of editions (pre/post 3e) could change that. There were plenty of DMs giving PCs whatever they wanted back in 1e/2e and there were plenty of DMs being tighter-fisted with magic in 3e.I would like to say that the game's default assumptions have a significant impact on player and DM expectations, particularly when not experienced with an alternative. Coming from 1e, I didn't see anything particularly wrong with allowing PCs to commission or sell magic items. The 1e DMG had prices for all of the items so clearly some economy in the items was assumed. Making the shift to 3e wasn't too hard. Contrast that with someone coming out of 2e with its default assumption that magic items were too valuable to be available for sale or purchase (the DMG had no money values on the items). They might have had a little more trouble... or they might have had a lot more pent up demand for it leading to a 3e magic item binge. Then 3e comes along and not only do magic items have a monetary value again, but that value is used to determine how difficult is it to make and is used as a gauge to pace a character's treasure acquisition over his career. It's really no wonder that some people see the wealth by level and magic items as a rudimentary point-buy system for power-ups akin to spending points on powers in Mutants and Masterminds or Champions.That's an attitude that can flow from the rules that wasn't present in 1e or 2e (though it's not our only possible attitude). And it is different.</blockquote>

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