Stanlee
2011-02-07, 10:18 PM
Here is an e-mail I got from one of my players:
Another issue I keep on running into is that most magic items besides armor, amulets, and weapons do not scale. Do you have any ideas on how you would price combining multiple enchantments? Back in 3.5, you just increased the price of the lesser enchantment by 50%. With 4ed's obsession with levels, it seems less intuitive. I would really like to eventually get the effect of Battlestrider greaves (lvl13, +1 speed in heavy armor) on top of those Rushing Cleats, or instance. If you can't combine enchantments, you get up either have really low-level boots and tons of cash, or you constantly throw away interesting magic items for completely different properties.
One thing I noticed is some items are clear combinations of lesser ones. +1 lvl4 Blackiron armor is 840gp (resist 5 fire/necrotic), and has the properties of two 520gp +1 lvl2 Armors of Resistance (resist 5 to one element). Of course, they both share the same AC bonus, so you are just adding another flavor of elemental resistance.
Specifically, I would want to combine my current Dwarven armor (+1 lvl2, +2 lvl7, etc) with Bloodiron (minimum lvl8 +2, 3400gp). I think it would be worth a lvl10 item (5000gp) to have both special abilities together. Your answer would determine if I upgraded my armor during the level jump, or just junked it for Bloodiron when I could afford it.
I was unable to find an answer in the DM to this question. We are all new to 4e, comming from 3.5e, and are still rough on the mechanics of the new system. I see me approaching this two ways, and please let me know if there is another way
1) Don't allow stacking item properties and only allow the true form of the item. I am leanind towards this but I would like to give them the opportunity to try things so would prefer not to.
2) Allow them to combine item properties but making is very expensive. It seems like the authors has gone through a great deal of trouble trying to balance items by allowing certain things at certain levels. And by stacking items in my oppinion the item is really twice as better, if not more so, therefor should be as expensive as that.
Using the example he found +1 fire resistance is a lvl2 item and so is +1 nectrotic resistance. He found a lvl 4 item that is a +1 and has necrotic and fire resistance. Using this logic I would say that if he wanted to combine a +2 Dwarven armour (lvl7, 2600gp), and a +2 Blooriron (lvl8, 3400gp), he would get a +2 Dwarven/Bloodiron items that is a lvl15 and costs 25,000gp. Now if I did it this way, only allowing to go to the next +1 if you pay for the cost of both then you would hit the lvl cap of armor. The best you could possibly get is a +3 Dwarven/Bloodiron Armor, lvl25, 30,000gp. Someting does not jive here. Ideas?
Another issue I keep on running into is that most magic items besides armor, amulets, and weapons do not scale. Do you have any ideas on how you would price combining multiple enchantments? Back in 3.5, you just increased the price of the lesser enchantment by 50%. With 4ed's obsession with levels, it seems less intuitive. I would really like to eventually get the effect of Battlestrider greaves (lvl13, +1 speed in heavy armor) on top of those Rushing Cleats, or instance. If you can't combine enchantments, you get up either have really low-level boots and tons of cash, or you constantly throw away interesting magic items for completely different properties.
One thing I noticed is some items are clear combinations of lesser ones. +1 lvl4 Blackiron armor is 840gp (resist 5 fire/necrotic), and has the properties of two 520gp +1 lvl2 Armors of Resistance (resist 5 to one element). Of course, they both share the same AC bonus, so you are just adding another flavor of elemental resistance.
Specifically, I would want to combine my current Dwarven armor (+1 lvl2, +2 lvl7, etc) with Bloodiron (minimum lvl8 +2, 3400gp). I think it would be worth a lvl10 item (5000gp) to have both special abilities together. Your answer would determine if I upgraded my armor during the level jump, or just junked it for Bloodiron when I could afford it.
I was unable to find an answer in the DM to this question. We are all new to 4e, comming from 3.5e, and are still rough on the mechanics of the new system. I see me approaching this two ways, and please let me know if there is another way
1) Don't allow stacking item properties and only allow the true form of the item. I am leanind towards this but I would like to give them the opportunity to try things so would prefer not to.
2) Allow them to combine item properties but making is very expensive. It seems like the authors has gone through a great deal of trouble trying to balance items by allowing certain things at certain levels. And by stacking items in my oppinion the item is really twice as better, if not more so, therefor should be as expensive as that.
Using the example he found +1 fire resistance is a lvl2 item and so is +1 nectrotic resistance. He found a lvl 4 item that is a +1 and has necrotic and fire resistance. Using this logic I would say that if he wanted to combine a +2 Dwarven armour (lvl7, 2600gp), and a +2 Blooriron (lvl8, 3400gp), he would get a +2 Dwarven/Bloodiron items that is a lvl15 and costs 25,000gp. Now if I did it this way, only allowing to go to the next +1 if you pay for the cost of both then you would hit the lvl cap of armor. The best you could possibly get is a +3 Dwarven/Bloodiron Armor, lvl25, 30,000gp. Someting does not jive here. Ideas?