(4e) Living Forgotten Realms Loot Question

[Coidzor]

So, I have story awards which I was unable to claim at the end of two sessions due to some scheduling issues, so I need to work out whether I'm taking anything from either of them or just going with the gold.

I was level 2 for them, btw. I'm a level 3 fighter now. Heavy Blade(scimitar) and Shield, onehanded weapon talent fighter.

1st

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Shield of Protection
Cloak of Resistance+1
boots of spider climbing
bracers of defence
shield of defiance

or the 75 extra gold

2nd

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gauntlets of ogre power
magic weapon+2
magic orb+2

or the 75 extra gp.

This adventure leveled me up to 3rd level.

I can't really decide. I'm probably only going to play one more session with this guy and then retire him to be a backup character.

A bit of rationale would be good too, as I'd say I'm mostly actually asking for future reference and any food for thought that can be offered here.

[Kurald Galain]

I'm probably only going to play one more session with this guy and then retire him to be a backup character.

In that case, why bother?

As a rule of thumb, take an armor or cloak/amulet only if it is two plusses better than you have now OR if it has a very good property. So yeah, go for the +2 weapon; since it's vanilla, you can still upgrade it later.

As another rule of thumb, the overwhelming majority of 4E items have some kind of ability that either triggers too rarely (e.g. "when an enemy crits you") or does too little (e.g. "+1 to some skill") to be worth keeping track of. I'm afraid this rules out all of your picks, with the possible exception of Spider Climbing (which isn't powerful, but kind of cool).

The extra gold isn't really relevant at this level, but saving your item slots for later is.

[Coidzor]

Well, as long as it's not just me who gets the reaction "why did they create so many crap and trap items if they were so dead set against them for this edition?"