Author Topic: Removing Barbie-Dressup Ubergear dependancy from game with a minor flavor change  (Read 4724 times)

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Iczer

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Look. One thing I always hated was not so much the existence of such a vast amount of magical items, but the game's insistence on using them.

I hate magic items with a passion, and I give them out so infrequently that my players suspect a trick when I do.

My thoughts have always been that if the barbarian so badly needs his +2 Battle axe (+4 vs bunnies) then he's not that good a barbarian.

Don't get me wrong, magic swords are pretty much a wa hoo moment in Gaming.  The waa hoo is sort of lost when *everybody* has what seems to be a massive collection of magical hardware that it makes your brain bleed.

I'm sparing with my magic. I tend to make magic items, rare, disposable or otherwise less prevalent than D&D would have them.  It does mean a lot more work on my behalf though.  The monsters of D&D are designed to stack up against appropriately armed individuals after all, and that does bring an encounter to a screeching halt when the party comes within a spiders breadth of death when the CR 3 critter turns half of them to chop suey in turn 2.

Batts


Sunic_Flames

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So if he's not that good a barbarian for needing them, but the whole party is risking a 2 round TPK from routine or easy encounters... doesn't that mean everyone is lacking critical things?
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[spoiler]
Sunic may be more abrasive than sandpaper coated in chainsaws (not that its a bad thing, he really does know what he's talking about), but just posting in this thread without warning and telling him he's an asshole which, if you knew his past experiences on WotC and Paizo is flat-out uncalled for. Never mind the insults (which are clearly 4Chan-level childish). You say people like Sunic are the bane of the internet? Try looking at your own post and telling me you are better than him.

Here's a fun fact: You aren't. By a few leagues.
[/spoiler]

TheChrisWaits

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So if he's not that good a barbarian for needing them, but the whole party is risking a 2 round TPK from routine or easy encounters... doesn't that mean everyone is lacking critical things?
Not every group has 2-round encounters. If the DM is being stingy with items, the encounters are likely easier as well. Otherwise everyone would have noticed a problem within a couple of sessions.

Sunic_Flames

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I've seen even weak groups manage 2 rounds a good deal of the time. We're talking rogue with 8 Con, ninja (CA), swashbuckler (past level 3), fighter/barb, dragonfire adept, telepath psion (not well used). D&D is rocket launcher tag. 3 rounds or less is about 95% of battles (typically 2 rounds) unless either optimized (then one becomes the norm) or there's a lot of filler (large battlefield where no one thought to bring ranged attacks, so some rounds get wasted on double moves) but the actual fight still qualifies.
Smiting Imbeciles since 1985.

If you hear this music, run.

And don't forget:


There is no greater contribution than Hi Welcome.

Huge amounts of people are fuckwits. That doesn't mean that fuckwit is a valid lifestyle.

IP proofing and avoiding being CAPed OR - how to make characters relevant in the long term.

Friends don't let friends be Short Bus Hobos.

[spoiler]
Sunic may be more abrasive than sandpaper coated in chainsaws (not that its a bad thing, he really does know what he's talking about), but just posting in this thread without warning and telling him he's an asshole which, if you knew his past experiences on WotC and Paizo is flat-out uncalled for. Never mind the insults (which are clearly 4Chan-level childish). You say people like Sunic are the bane of the internet? Try looking at your own post and telling me you are better than him.

Here's a fun fact: You aren't. By a few leagues.
[/spoiler]

fil kearney

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The monsters of D&D are designed to stack up against appropriately armed individuals after all, and that does bring an encounter to a screeching halt when the party comes within a spiders breadth of death when the CR 3 critter turns half of them to chop suey in turn 2.

This is a POOR arguement against magic items.  CR3 killing half the party? 
I'm going to assume you have 4 characters of 3rd level fighting this thing?

Ogre CR3 with 30 HP and a +8 to hit, 2d8+7 damage... averaging a hit against most 3rd level tanks on a roll of 9 doing 23 points of damage on average will kill the toughest on the team with 2 hits normally.  Maybe taking 3 or 4 attacks to do it.  The next squishiest may take 2 or 3 attacks to kill, and the bottom 2 take 1 or 2 hits to kill... that is anywhere from 2 (attacking the weakest 2 first, hitting both, with enough damage to kill them immeidately) - 7 (attacking the toughest 2 first, missing half the time, doing average damage) rounds.

what kind of role, exactly, do you expect a 3rd level character's gear to play in this encounter?  +1 sword and +1 chainmail?  maybe a magic wand?  a potion of spiderclimbing?
They don't have the gold resources to "pump up " with magic gear at 3rd level.

If your party is half dead in 2 rounds, something has gone severely wrong.
Does this happen to you often, Iczer?