Player Customization (Magic Weapons)

[CrazyKhajiit]

Hello, I was thinking a bit about the future of the PC's I am currently DMing, and was wondering how I could make it more personal. I decided on magic items.

So, Is there a way I can create magic items/weapons for a 4e game that won't be too over-powered/under-powered? Are there guideline or tips that you know about that might help?

If there is anything you can do too help, or if I'm completely missing something obvious, please reply.

Also, If you have any favourite homebrew item of your own, I would be happy to hear about it.

[p.d0t]

I'd say check out Boons (IIRC they're in the DMG2 and possibly some in Dark Sun, since the setting lacks magic items) and other non-slot magic items like tattoos.

The benefit is that they can't be looted from corpses; they're gained through actually interacting with the campaign.

[Kamai]

To me, wands set the baseline of the power of actives on an item. Basically, an item should not have an encounter active that's better than a good at-will, nor should it have a Daily that's better than a good encounter. Given this was put forth in PHB 1, this might result in something that's a little on the weak end, though.