Item level: a valid mechanic?

[Cicciograna]

I just finished reading Magic Item Compendium, and apart from the sheer sweetness of the many new magic items, I've been enticed by "Item level" as a quick (but apparently efficient) method to assign magic items to NPCs and PCs alike.

What I'm asking here is, is this mechanic a sound one? Does it work? Has anybody of you ever tried it? And the table to assign an item level to objects from other sources according to their price, is it correctly composed?

Thank you for the feedback.

[Jude_H]

I've used it a couple times. It ends up giving a character a broader assortment of cheaper items than usually go into a game, and fewer of the more expensive and useful things.

As a player starting above level 5 or so, I like it for the convenience in filling out a character's equipment slots relatively quickly. I don't like using it when I'm specifically trying to optimize, because in those cases, I'm generally looking for synergy between a few specific build features, and item levels spread resources too thin.

As a DM, I'm not such a fan either, because it rejects the paradigm of 'few, powerful magic items' that I want to apply to fantasy games. That's true of D&D 3e in general, but I prefer to fudge the rules and do things like stack a bunch of abilities like +strength, +con, +resistance, flight, haste and freedom of movement onto a plot-relevant sword, just to cut down on the sheer number of magic items the characters are schlepping around.

[ffone]

I've used it a couple times. It ends up giving a character a broader assortment of cheaper items than usually go into a game, and fewer of the more expensive and useful things.

As a player starting above level 5 or so, I like it for the convenience in filling out a character's equipment slots relatively quickly. I don't like using it when I'm specifically trying to optimize, because in those cases, I'm generally looking for synergy between a few specific build features, and item levels spread resources too thin.

As a DM, I'm not such a fan either, because it rejects the paradigm of 'few, powerful magic items' that I want to apply to fantasy games. That's true of D&D 3e in general, but I prefer to fudge the rules and do things like stack a bunch of abilities like +strength, +con, +resistance, flight, haste and freedom of movement onto a plot-relevant sword, just to cut down on the sheer number of magic items the characters are schlepping around.

I do the same thing - NPCs tend to have all their body-slot items combined into a small number of multi-ability items (and with the MIC rules, the more common ones like ability score enhancement never suffer or induce 1.5x price increases anyway). It's easier bookkeeping and I agree that it better plays to fantasy archetypes - in novels, movies, etc., magic items are usually rare, and despite the conventional wisdom that DnD is much more high-power than a typical fantasy setting (which overall is probably true), movie/novel magic items have a tendency to be more 'uber' in some ways (an enchantment item might 'always' seem to work i.e. not allow a save, invisibility functions like DnD greater invisibility, and most movie/novel magic item have no uses/day limit).