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Nils_Lindeberg · 07-24-2020, 01:54 PM

Why have prices on magic items at all if people are not supposed to buy and sell them? Why have rules for creating magic items if they are not supposed to be created without too much power imbalances and so forth.

You can always ignore rules, but it is much harder to make up a comprehensive set that are neither underpowered nor over powered. And if those rules have holes in them, they should be plugged. Not brushed aside as if they are not important.

What if it was pole weapons that were too powerful, so powerful that many Gms didn't allow them. Would you consider changing the rules or just say, it is not important and no GM worth his salt would ever allow pole weapons anyways. Or combat works best with out Pole weapons, so the strange rules doesn't bother us, or any other inane excuse? Nah. Identify the holes and fix them. It is only if the whole system is so borked that it can't be fixed that you should throw it away. And then once you have a working system, can you decide if you like the now balanced magic items or don't want them in your campaign.

Claiming that players can buy and bargain and find items in game, or that they are rare, talk about market value, etc. Is just a lot of other words for GM decides. And it is basically the same as saying we don't need rules for this or that because we have a GM that can decide what happens. An answer that can replace any rules.

And Pole arms where just an example. They used to be a little bit OP, now they are quite balanced. But one could have said they were just hard to get hold off, or that they were forbidden or what ever. I think it is better that they were fixed.

Personally I like a magic system that actually work. It would be even better if it turned out that XP and gold had a fictive ratio of 1:1. That could help with a lot of balancing issues, be it in between adventure XP gain, training costs, return on investment for people creating magic for a market, time spent building your own castle or any other time/gold/resource/Xp transaction, etc.

TFT is far from such a comprehensive system, but it was a very early and a big step in the right direction when it was published.

07-24-2020, 01:54 PM	#17
Nils_Lindeberg Join Date: Jul 2018	Re: Blur Ring costs less than a Blur Spell Why have prices on magic items at all if people are not supposed to buy and sell them? Why have rules for creating magic items if they are not supposed to be created without too much power imbalances and so forth. You can always ignore rules, but it is much harder to make up a comprehensive set that are neither underpowered nor over powered. And if those rules have holes in them, they should be plugged. Not brushed aside as if they are not important. What if it was pole weapons that were too powerful, so powerful that many Gms didn't allow them. Would you consider changing the rules or just say, it is not important and no GM worth his salt would ever allow pole weapons anyways. Or combat works best with out Pole weapons, so the strange rules doesn't bother us, or any other inane excuse? Nah. Identify the holes and fix them. It is only if the whole system is so borked that it can't be fixed that you should throw it away. And then once you have a working system, can you decide if you like the now balanced magic items or don't want them in your campaign. Claiming that players can buy and bargain and find items in game, or that they are rare, talk about market value, etc. Is just a lot of other words for GM decides. And it is basically the same as saying we don't need rules for this or that because we have a GM that can decide what happens. An answer that can replace any rules. And Pole arms where just an example. They used to be a little bit OP, now they are quite balanced. But one could have said they were just hard to get hold off, or that they were forbidden or what ever. I think it is better that they were fixed. Personally I like a magic system that actually work. It would be even better if it turned out that XP and gold had a fictive ratio of 1:1. That could help with a lot of balancing issues, be it in between adventure XP gain, training costs, return on investment for people creating magic for a market, time spent building your own castle or any other time/gold/resource/Xp transaction, etc. TFT is far from such a comprehensive system, but it was a very early and a big step in the right direction when it was published.