I’ve looked at the Magic Item Compendium for D&D 3.5 and was not fascinated. When I saw some other posts on the subject (Where Has All the Magic Gone, The Disenchantment of the World) I realized what I didn’t like about it.
The Disenchantment of the World
The game has many rules. Some of them can put players at a disadvantage: Falling prone, difficult terrain, that kind of thing. What I’m seeing a lot is specific items that negate these rules. Wearing the right kind of shoes people will always fall on their feet, or they can move at normal speed through difficult terrain. I can’t even picture it!
Similarly, the number of healing spells per day is limited. Clerics would love to use some of the other cool spells they have at their disposal. Thus is a new magic item born that promises lots of free daily healing.
Instead of fixing the rules that nobody likes, there’s an “exception system” at work that negates the rules one by one using magic items.
That’s not very enchanting, is it?
#RPG #Old School
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I look at that matter completely different. I love the MIC because it helps the non-casters do things only the casters can do.
And why do people like to advance in level? Because you get better and you are not afraid of a kobold anymore. The MIC does the same thing. Getting rid of the restrictions you have at level 1 is, for some people, an important part of the game. Not everybody is a 100% storyteller.
– Sektat 2008-12-23 07:22 UTC
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Instead of fixing the rules that nobody likes, there’s
an “exception system”
Thats really not the point here. If you have a restriction in your character and play for 5 month, and then suddenly you are free from that restriction thx to such an item, then you are “having fun”. If you didn’t have the restriction from the beginning, then you never have that sensation, then you have, ahem, M20 😃
– Sektat 2008-12-23 08:08 UTC
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Hurray! :D :D
– Alex Schroeder 2008-12-23 10:37 UTC
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But more to the point: I’d rather have a magic item with strange effects, or at least magic items that have spell-like effects, instead of simply providing exceptions to the rules of the game.
Winged boots, boots of feather falling, seven mile boots – these are sort of ok, because I can at least *picture* how they would work. But how would boots work, that will always let you land on your feet, or boots that allow you to ignore difficult terrain? These boots not only lack any narrative elements, they also lack visualization. They are nothing but a piece of rule. They move the game in the direction of chess.
– Alex Schroeder 2008-12-23 10:44 UTC
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I think I stand on both sides of the fence a bit (fortunately it’s a low fence). The MIC contains a LOT of really useful items which are, in my opinion, comparatively cheap considering how useful they are. (The healing belt, for example. 700gp?) These items can ’patch’ over the holes in a character, regardless how flawed he or she is. (Take Kubo San, for example with his bracers of greatreach, vest of defense, belt of healing, 3rd eye freedom, mindarmor, etc. etc...)
The problem I see with the MIC is that it leaves the doors wide open for power gaming, which creates a power imbalance with players who aren’t power gamers. You have to spend considerable time studying the MIC to know what is useful. Of course, the power gamers can ’help’ the non-power gamers, but this changes the whole dynamic of the game. The DM begins to lose control of the group since they slaughter anything level equivalent. The DMG warns DMs of losing control of their groups...
It’s a bit of a right turn, but what I quite like are ’flexible’ magic systems. Take changeling for example (bear with me here). You have various schools of magic, and you have various spheres of things you can use them on. If you want to harden a door from being broken, you need a certain level of ’primal’ magic, and a certain level of ’prop’. If you want to make yourself run faster, you need ’wayfarer’ magic and ’actor’. (The names aren’t accurate, but it’s irrelivant.) The idea is that the schools and targets are loosely defined, and the DM drops categorises the usage on the fly.
I wonder whether it would be possible to define something similar for, say, movement in DnD. Rather than items which give you a specific bonus, wouldn’t it be cool to have items which give vague bonuses. “Boots of the Wilderness” which let you walk unrestricted in any natural terrain. “Gloves of gripping” which help you hold onto things. “Rope of Swinging” which works like a portable Tarzan vine. I think, Alex, the answer to your problem could lie in creating magic items but leaving the descriptions vague. Could that be an idea?
– Marco 2008-12-23 11:04 UTC