Personal views on e6 and magic item crafting.

[Amechra]

Hello everyone. I found out about e6 a couple fo months ago, and I instantly loved the idea. Sadly, no one in my gaming circle wants to play it with me .

Anyway, I've been thinking about e6, and this great idea came to me:

Only allow single use/ single use use activated items

You may look at this, and wonder why I would think this is a cool idea, and then maybe wonder if I was nuts, but I actually have a legitimate reason for this. The main reason is that, in my mind, it adds a little pizazz to charged/unlimited items. In fact, lets go ahead and make all multiple use items artifacts; in the case of charged items, maybe knowledgeable spellcasters know how to recharge them, but not how to make them.

Also, if you disallow the crafting of multiple use items, players would have to be a little more tactical; they would think twice activating a masterwork sword's one use of Magic Weapon, versus charging towards the enemy with a +2 sword.

Also, it would allow players more freedom when deciding on spell effects; you might still want a word with that rogue with the one use Truestrike short-sword, but it would be more of a nice bonus, just to make sure that sneak attack connects, rather than being a cheap way of giving your weapon +20 to hit all of the time, like its unlimited use version.

And, you can give the players less money, and they won't mind terribly, because magic items are cheaper by a ton.


Some abuses might occur, such as using the good old "pay twice the cost of the most expensive spell added to add as many other spell effects as long as none of those are more expensive than the originally most expensive spell efect" trick to make items with as many 'charges', so to speak, as they want. I suggest putting a limit of 1 magical effect attached to anything; any more than that, and the spells interfere with each other and stop working. An exception to this rule could be masterwork weapons, which can hold two spell effects.


If you ask me, a stone that creates burning hands effect once has a more gritty feeling than a stone that allows the wielder to do this at will. (Note: I have nothing against multiple use magical items. However, a wizard making a stick that fire Magic Missiles at will will actually bring back the whole "casters=overpowered" thing, because you are going to be gaining money, one way or another, and casters will be able to make an item that adds another 3rd level (which is epic level) spell slot for 900 gp, by making it usable once per day (which is how many times you could use it anyway) and making it have 50 charges. In other words, there would be casters running around with 2~3 3rd level spells. Against 6th level threats/characters.

So, that's my two cp. Anyone have any feedback?

[Eardatch]

E6 rocks. I've been homebrewing a system around it for some time now and aim to eliminate all magic items with static bonuses. Staffs and wands, as they are now, are basically like having 50 single use items compacted into 1, so to make them more distinct I plan to make them rechargeable and have only 5 charges. Of course this seems a step up in power for casters, and a decidedly ungritty option, especially when I choose to balance them by limiting how many a caster can "attune" at a time.

Sticking to single use items I think is a great start, at least scrolls and potions/oils. Things like stones of burning hands are basically extensions of the potion (if it is as I assume, use activated) to spells other than self or single willing creature targeting, though you'd have to justify the particular use to activate the item. I could see a stone of enfeeblement, producing the effects of a ray of enfeeblement on the first object it's thrown violently against (succeed on ranged ranged touch attack as you throw the pebble at the target). For burning hands, perhaps a paper fan that flares into a 15 foot cone of fire when lit, perhaps with a torch. Each of these has their own particular use-activation quirks that could hinder activation or present opportunities for creative uses, like an archer reading to shoot a flaming arrow at the fire-fan that had been laid at corner of an intersection to roast some orcs coming down the hall.

Not so sure about the sword with a lv.8 grt. magic weapon, single use enchantment on it since that sort of thing can be covered by simple oils of magic weapon (greater magic weapon's only a 3rd level spell after all). Real magical weapons, I think, ought to be intelligent masterwork items, with special powers other than just straight enhancement bonuses, balanced by the fact that one needs to work with the item's own ego, requiring one to "get on the sword's good side" before it'll warn you of the approaching enemy it senses with it's blindsense, or be able to activate that Cure moderate wounds ability.

[Amechra]

Great to see that I'm not crazy.

Now, what I meant for the permanent items being artifacts, I also meant to include, along with the limitation on enhancement bonuses, abilities (like keen vicious, anarchic, bane, and the like) that are bought as enhancements should also be limited to artifacts.

Some single use items I'd love to see:
Cudgel of Shillelagh
Stone of Magic Stone
Top Hat of Prestidigitation (of course)
Chalk of Circle of Protection against Evil.
Bottle of Purify Water
And so on.

There are so many more items you can give your players with good conscience if you make them one use.

[veekie]

The single use magic sword can be interesting, like a sword with runes that trigger when you trigger it, but burns out after the enchantment runs out. Best done with weapons that have more than mere +s though.
A +1 holy longsword that triggers when it strikes a creature with the evil subtype would be really cool.

[Amechra]

I only gave masterwork an extra spell effect because I thought that a better crafted sword would probably be able to hold magic a little better.

A sword of that casts Detect Magic if you say "Sword of X, give me sight beyond sight" would be awesome.

Seriously, you could let players run amok with this, and as long as you have some kind of limit on how many effects can be put onto something, it shouldn't be too bad.