The well-known “Christmas tree” effect of magic items in the d20 system, discussed by Pedro earlier today, is a thorn in the side of many, players and Dungeon (or Game) Masters alike. The problem is wrapped up deeply within the fundamental math that lies behind the system, and so any number of attempts to rectify it can have far-reaching consequences that echo throughout the rules. But there’s some good news. Though it may not seem like it on the surface, Pathfinder has made a lot of subtle changes that, as a whole reduce character reliance on the staple Big Six magical items. These changes don’t solve the problem wholesale—Pathfinder’s adherence to backwards compatibility prevented the sort of sweeping changes necessary to the core of the game to really do so—but they do give players more flexibility in their magic item choice, and Dungeon Masters more flexibility in how they award treasure. The most important changes, as I see them, and why they’re important are as follows:
1. Increased Hit Points: Just about every Pathfinder character should end up with more hit points than she would have had if she were written up using the 3.0 or 3.5 rules. Four of the 11 core classes (Ranger, Rogue, Sorcerer, and Wizard) now have greater Hit Dice, granting them an extra hit point with each level. Most characters will also receive an additional hit point per level from Pathfinder’s favored class mechanics, and the Toughness feat received a welcome buff that can further boost hit points for those that feel need of it. These increases are, for most purposes, equivalent to giving each character +2 to her Constitution score (minus the increase to Fortitude saving throws), meaning that fewer characters will be in dire need of an item to boost that score. It’s also worth noting that many characters will gain a few effective hit points thanks to Pathfinder’s widening of the “near death” window from -10 to the negative of the character’s Constitution score, which again does something to lessen the need for a secondary Constitution item.
2. Increased Attack Bonuses and Damage: Most non-spellcasting, damage dealing characters hit more often and they hit harder when they do hit, thanks to a number of interlocking changes made in Pathfinder. Fighters receive the benefits of a +5 magical weapon over the course of 20 levels for free (from Weapon Training). Power Attack and Deadly Aim provide greater bonuses for softer penalties than they did in 3.0/3.5. While many monsters deal more damage than they may have in previous versions of the game (because they too benefit from these general changes), many of them have similar Armor Class and Hit Point values to those that they had before, allowing characters to hit with a +1 weapon where they would have only been able to hit with a +2 weapon before, and in many cases, they’ll be dealing more damage with that hit as well.
3. Extra Feats: A level 20 3.5 character typically had 7 (or 8 if human) feats, while a level 20 Pathfinder character has 10 (or 11). In the grand scheme of things, this makes many characters more able to take feats they might have otherwise skipped, such as Great Fortitude, Toughness, or Weapon Focus. Thus, the extra feats tie into items one and two above, allowing characters to have greater survivability and offensive capability than they would have otherwise had. Those characters that don’t take such feats will often gain flexibility, which though difficult to model, can’t be discounted either.
4. Encounter Recalibration: In the 3.5 encounter guidelines, characters were expected to take on encounters that were up to four levels higher than the average party level as “boss encounters.” Pathfinder defines the “Epic” encounter equivalent as equal to the party’s average level plus three. This has the benefit of lowering the target numbers slightly in the player’s favor, on average. This is further supported by Pathfinder’s much greater support for building encounters with numerous opponents of level lower than that of the player characters. Building such encounters was often a nightmare in the 3.5 system, and it was often pointless because monsters couldn’t do anything incredibly dangerous to begin with, but in Pathfinder, with their increased attack bonuses and damage, even monsters three or four levels below the party can be a notable threat when found in numbers or with some other advantage, be it terrain or otherwise.
Taken together, these changes greatly increase character power, but given that many of the “target numbers” for a given level remained the same or increased at a lesser rate than character power did, they also help to reduce, slightly, character dependence on magical supplementation. The difference is a subtle one, and I know from my own experience that the player drive to acquire magical items is as great as it ever was, so it’s not always noticeable at the table. I’ve seen a number of players, as well, attempt to blame their failures on a lack of magic items, when they were defeated just as much by poor tactical decisions.
All that being said, I think system could still use some work, and it’s my hope that an eventual 2nd Edition of Pathfinder will take further steps to reign in the Christmas Tree effect. There are a number of solutions one can use to address the situation for now, though, the most common of which is through automatic bonuses of some type. My preferred solution is to give every character enhancement bonuses to ability scores as they level up, eliminating the need for the staple ability score increasing items. You can mix and match these variants to taste, though I myself worry less about magical weapons and armor as they don’t take away slots from “cool” items the way others might.
I originally planned to dive into another topic today, but I felt it was worth giving my views on magic items, since Pedro really brought up a lot of the foibles of the system in that area. Within the next couple of days, I hope to have an article up on the topic of player avatars and player characters, what I mean by those terms, and the differences between them.
Tuesday, March 8, 2011
The Problem With Magical Items
When it comes to magical items, I have something of a reputation for being a stingy DM. I'm not proud of that description, but it's the truth. For whatever reason, when it comes to vanquished foes, they seem to lack the tons of gold or treasure chests of magical items that they're supposed to be carrying for the party to rummage through.
I know, I'm not being fair in my description. I know that items and gold can be fairly and realistically fed into campaigns. Gold can be given as rewards, and weapons and armor can be found in the enemy's armory. With some work and planning, it's not too crazy to follow the tables and keep everything running like it's supposed to.
And every campaign, I seem to toss all of that out the window.
Honestly, it really never affected our games, for the most part. During our time in 3.0 and 3.5, we rarely had magical items creep into our game. The one magical item of note in our old game was a flaming longbow, which made the group's jaws collectively drop when the ranger fired a few arrows and dealt a wizard's fireball in damage to his enemies. When the bow was sundered, the player almost quit the game forever, and his character was scarred for life, endlessly lamenting the supposed loss of his viability and worth in the group. Despite the lack of magical items, the group was able to handle whatever came their way, short of that time they ran away from an army and doomed two continents to an empirical takeover.
This all seemed to change as we got into Pathfinder, however. The farther we got in levels, the more we could feel the pressure to boost our numbers through magical items. Monsters were terrifyingly accurate, and the amount of damage they were dishing out made the whiffs and misses of our group all the more painful. It didn't take long before my old approach to sparse item distribution on items was really hurting the group. It wasn't long before I had to go back and reexamine my entire approach to the game. When Pathfinder cleaned up and polished 3.5, one of the results was that damage was more prominent. Not that you couldn't do the damage in 3.5 that you could do in Pathfinder, but Pathfinder did a much better job of ensuring that it was easier to build a good character. And in turn, they made their monsters able to return the damage as well.
The problem I have with magical items is that the game in completely balanced around the group having them. This isn't to say I don't think the system works. It obviously works, and works well. However, the dependency on magical items, especially The Big Six (magic weapon, magic armor, ring of protection, cloak of resistence, amulet of natural armor, and stat boosters), diminishes the fun of the game for me in a few ways.
First, I don't enjoy how most everyone in the group is seeking the same items, every time, in every game. If we start higher level, everyone's looking at what they can start with and going "*sigh*, let's get AC out of the way." If we come across magical equipment in the wild, the group immediately starts figuring out where they can sell it in order to get what they actually need/want. Of course, I could simply give them exactly what they expect, every time, in every game. That comes off as a bit bland, though.
Secondly, the combat in the mid and upper levels is so wrapped around the fact you are expected to possess certain bonuses that it really starts to feel like the magical items are wearing you. I've never been comfortable with the fact that a fighter outside of his gear is so much less a threat. At higher levels, the clothes make the man, not the other way around. If magical items were bling, your level 15 fighter would look like Mr. T.
So what's the solution? Well, for myself, I'm going to be experimenting with adding in the inherent bonus feature from D&D 4E's Dungeon Master's Guide II. This system basically grants an enhancement bonus of +1 every so many levels to both Base Attack and AC, in order to make up for a game that either lacks magical items or doesn't wish to incorporate a lot of items into their game.
What do the rest of you think? Is there a better way to keep the game from becoming dependent on magical items? Is it ok that the game is? Or do you think I'm completely wrong? Let me know in the comments!
I know, I'm not being fair in my description. I know that items and gold can be fairly and realistically fed into campaigns. Gold can be given as rewards, and weapons and armor can be found in the enemy's armory. With some work and planning, it's not too crazy to follow the tables and keep everything running like it's supposed to.
And every campaign, I seem to toss all of that out the window.
Honestly, it really never affected our games, for the most part. During our time in 3.0 and 3.5, we rarely had magical items creep into our game. The one magical item of note in our old game was a flaming longbow, which made the group's jaws collectively drop when the ranger fired a few arrows and dealt a wizard's fireball in damage to his enemies. When the bow was sundered, the player almost quit the game forever, and his character was scarred for life, endlessly lamenting the supposed loss of his viability and worth in the group. Despite the lack of magical items, the group was able to handle whatever came their way, short of that time they ran away from an army and doomed two continents to an empirical takeover.
This all seemed to change as we got into Pathfinder, however. The farther we got in levels, the more we could feel the pressure to boost our numbers through magical items. Monsters were terrifyingly accurate, and the amount of damage they were dishing out made the whiffs and misses of our group all the more painful. It didn't take long before my old approach to sparse item distribution on items was really hurting the group. It wasn't long before I had to go back and reexamine my entire approach to the game. When Pathfinder cleaned up and polished 3.5, one of the results was that damage was more prominent. Not that you couldn't do the damage in 3.5 that you could do in Pathfinder, but Pathfinder did a much better job of ensuring that it was easier to build a good character. And in turn, they made their monsters able to return the damage as well.
The problem I have with magical items is that the game in completely balanced around the group having them. This isn't to say I don't think the system works. It obviously works, and works well. However, the dependency on magical items, especially The Big Six (magic weapon, magic armor, ring of protection, cloak of resistence, amulet of natural armor, and stat boosters), diminishes the fun of the game for me in a few ways.
First, I don't enjoy how most everyone in the group is seeking the same items, every time, in every game. If we start higher level, everyone's looking at what they can start with and going "*sigh*, let's get AC out of the way." If we come across magical equipment in the wild, the group immediately starts figuring out where they can sell it in order to get what they actually need/want. Of course, I could simply give them exactly what they expect, every time, in every game. That comes off as a bit bland, though.
 |
| "I pity the foo that don't take Power Attack." |
So what's the solution? Well, for myself, I'm going to be experimenting with adding in the inherent bonus feature from D&D 4E's Dungeon Master's Guide II. This system basically grants an enhancement bonus of +1 every so many levels to both Base Attack and AC, in order to make up for a game that either lacks magical items or doesn't wish to incorporate a lot of items into their game.
What do the rest of you think? Is there a better way to keep the game from becoming dependent on magical items? Is it ok that the game is? Or do you think I'm completely wrong? Let me know in the comments!
Monday, March 7, 2011
Another Introduction
On the spot as I now am, I suppose my own introduction is in order.
As Pedro has so graciously noted, my name’s Kevin. I’ve been playing Dungeons and Dragons for about fifteen years. Before that, I was watching my father act as Dungeon Master for a number of his old friends, wishing I was “old enough” to join them. In between those gaming sessions, which were often separated by months of real time, I begged to stay up late to watch him play Pools of Darkness on the PC and Final Fantasy on the original Nintendo. At the age of ten, the recommended age according to the cover, I gained clearance for the Red Box Player’s Manual for the original basic Dungeons and Dragons game. My first character was a Thief whose name I can no longer remember because he soon gave way to greater things: the Player’s Handbook and Advanced Dungeons and Dragons.
My first real character was a human magic-user named Damon with a hoopak, ripped whole-heartedly from Dragonlance (like so many of my future first ventures into world-building would be) and a pseudodragon familiar, which I earned by rolling on the familiar table until I got the result I wanted. He was a slayer of goblin women and children, crushing them by the hundreds with a powerful fireball scroll, and when he died, his body was carried in a backpack full of all manner of maces, spears, and swords because we were adventurers unbound by petty rules of encumbrance. In time, I gained access to the secrets of Gygax’s original Dungeon Master’s Guide, and armed with a secondhand copy of the 2nd Edition Player’s Handbook, took my first stumbling steps into running my own games for my friends, which were a hodgepodge of rules from 1st Edition, 2nd Edition, and my Dad’s own house rules.
My passion for the game really took off, though, with the shift to 3rd Edition, by invitation to a game run by the creator of a graphical Multi-User Dungeon. After the unfortunate end of the game, he reached out to prominent members of its community to participate in a campaign set in that same universe, played online via IRC. Somehow, one of them thought to contact me (though it was my father with the prominence, rather than myself!), and soon I was spending large amounts of disposable income on this new edition of the game and playing sometimes as often as six days a week between three or four different campaigns.
Ten years later, I’ve since moved on to Paizo’s Pathfinder, which continues to carry the torch of the game’s traditions that I feel was set aside by 4th Edition. I can, at times, be something of an edition purist, and I’m far less wandered in my experiences than Pedro. Aside from Dungeons and Dragons, I’ve dabbled in a handful of other d20 games, and I’m a strong proponent of the Open Gaming License. Open content will be crucial for the continued survival of the RPG industry, and with that in mind I may occasionally contribute to it here. I’m fascinated by nearly all aspects of tabletop gaming, and you’ll probably see me writing about everything from design theory and mechanics to character development and world-building. From time to time, I may delve into console gaming, with an emphasis on role-playing games in general, to supplement topics in tabletop gaming that I find interesting.
As Pedro has so graciously noted, my name’s Kevin. I’ve been playing Dungeons and Dragons for about fifteen years. Before that, I was watching my father act as Dungeon Master for a number of his old friends, wishing I was “old enough” to join them. In between those gaming sessions, which were often separated by months of real time, I begged to stay up late to watch him play Pools of Darkness on the PC and Final Fantasy on the original Nintendo. At the age of ten, the recommended age according to the cover, I gained clearance for the Red Box Player’s Manual for the original basic Dungeons and Dragons game. My first character was a Thief whose name I can no longer remember because he soon gave way to greater things: the Player’s Handbook and Advanced Dungeons and Dragons.
My first real character was a human magic-user named Damon with a hoopak, ripped whole-heartedly from Dragonlance (like so many of my future first ventures into world-building would be) and a pseudodragon familiar, which I earned by rolling on the familiar table until I got the result I wanted. He was a slayer of goblin women and children, crushing them by the hundreds with a powerful fireball scroll, and when he died, his body was carried in a backpack full of all manner of maces, spears, and swords because we were adventurers unbound by petty rules of encumbrance. In time, I gained access to the secrets of Gygax’s original Dungeon Master’s Guide, and armed with a secondhand copy of the 2nd Edition Player’s Handbook, took my first stumbling steps into running my own games for my friends, which were a hodgepodge of rules from 1st Edition, 2nd Edition, and my Dad’s own house rules.
My passion for the game really took off, though, with the shift to 3rd Edition, by invitation to a game run by the creator of a graphical Multi-User Dungeon. After the unfortunate end of the game, he reached out to prominent members of its community to participate in a campaign set in that same universe, played online via IRC. Somehow, one of them thought to contact me (though it was my father with the prominence, rather than myself!), and soon I was spending large amounts of disposable income on this new edition of the game and playing sometimes as often as six days a week between three or four different campaigns.
Ten years later, I’ve since moved on to Paizo’s Pathfinder, which continues to carry the torch of the game’s traditions that I feel was set aside by 4th Edition. I can, at times, be something of an edition purist, and I’m far less wandered in my experiences than Pedro. Aside from Dungeons and Dragons, I’ve dabbled in a handful of other d20 games, and I’m a strong proponent of the Open Gaming License. Open content will be crucial for the continued survival of the RPG industry, and with that in mind I may occasionally contribute to it here. I’m fascinated by nearly all aspects of tabletop gaming, and you’ll probably see me writing about everything from design theory and mechanics to character development and world-building. From time to time, I may delve into console gaming, with an emphasis on role-playing games in general, to supplement topics in tabletop gaming that I find interesting.
Introduction
Welcome to Dreams and Dice!
This site is dedicated to the ramblings, rants, musings, stories and thoughts of two dedicated DMs/writers. We hope with this site you'll find topics to ponder, ideas to inspire you, or if nothing else, content to help you kill time at work!
A little about myself. My name is Pedro, and I've been running games for 14 years. I started with Advanced Dungeons & Dragons with a thief named Lobo and a set of six-sided dice. I was unaware of both the importance of a decent name and the existence of other shapes of dice. April 6th this year marks my 15th year of running games.
Yes, I actually know the date.
Since then I've run D&D 3.0, 3.5, Hunter: The Reckoning, Pathfinder, Mage: The Awakening, Hunter: The Vigil, and a variety of short-term games such as BESM, World of Warcraft D20, and the Final Fantasy RPG created by The Returners. I even ran the Dragon Ball Z RPG for a decent amount of time. While my preferred game at the moment is Pathfinder, I'm currently looking over the rules for D&D 4E and am open to most any game.
Except for Star Wars.
I'll leave Kevin to write up his own intro, if he decides to. Regardless of whether he cracks under the intense amount of pressure that I'm putting on him to do one, we hope you enjoy the site!
This site is dedicated to the ramblings, rants, musings, stories and thoughts of two dedicated DMs/writers. We hope with this site you'll find topics to ponder, ideas to inspire you, or if nothing else, content to help you kill time at work!
A little about myself. My name is Pedro, and I've been running games for 14 years. I started with Advanced Dungeons & Dragons with a thief named Lobo and a set of six-sided dice. I was unaware of both the importance of a decent name and the existence of other shapes of dice. April 6th this year marks my 15th year of running games.
Yes, I actually know the date.
Since then I've run D&D 3.0, 3.5, Hunter: The Reckoning, Pathfinder, Mage: The Awakening, Hunter: The Vigil, and a variety of short-term games such as BESM, World of Warcraft D20, and the Final Fantasy RPG created by The Returners. I even ran the Dragon Ball Z RPG for a decent amount of time. While my preferred game at the moment is Pathfinder, I'm currently looking over the rules for D&D 4E and am open to most any game.
Except for Star Wars.
I'll leave Kevin to write up his own intro, if he decides to. Regardless of whether he cracks under the intense amount of pressure that I'm putting on him to do one, we hope you enjoy the site!
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