Use inherent bonuses to make magic items feel special in your game.
Arthur earned Excalibur because he was great. He was not great because he wielded Excalibur.
Fantasy literature is rife with magical swords, amulets, cloaks, and many other enchanted items, but there is a unifying theme to most all of the magical objects in our favorite stories: they are special. Bilbo did not find his bravery fighting spiders with his +2 dagger of goblin slaying, he wielded Sting. Richard Cypher faces his foes with the Sword of Truth, not a Holy Avenger +5. Even the quasi-magical Valyrian steel blades from Game of Thrones bear unique names and storied histories.
Contrast this with the standard swords and sorcery fantasy game, where magic items are ubiquitous, mechanical tools for character progression. In both Pathfinder and Dungeons and Dragons 4e, magic items are a necessity for a character to “keep up” with the monsters and bad guys as he or she levels up. In many ways, a 15th level warrior without his or her +3 magic sword is really a 9th level warrior with a couple more feats and hit points. The equipment makes the hero.
This progression-based necessity of magic items makes them feel much less special. Monte Cook wrote a great Legends and Lore article about this very topic (and the inspiration for this article), which I strong recommend you check out.
Keeping Up with the Joneses Goblins
You can activate the inherent bonuses in the 4e Character Builder by clicking on the "Manage Character" tab and then the "Inherent Bonuses" check box. The check box is highlighted in this picture (click to enlarge).
By far, the best solution I have seen for this problem is through the use of inherent bonuses. Simply award your players with the proper bonuses to their attack rolls, defenses, and anything else necessary as part of the leveling-up process. For Dungeon Masters in 4e, this is an easy task. Pick up a copy of the Dungeon Master’s Guide 2 – the math is all in there. You can also check a box in the character builder that does this automatically.
This may not be news to experienced 4e Dungeon Masters, my experience on Twitter tells me that those who joined the fold via Essentials never learned about this great feature.
Inherent bonuses can be done in Pathfinder and 3e, but it may require a bit more finessing on the part of the game master. Since each class progresses differently with regards to expected defense and attack bonus levels, you would need to do some simple math to get your numbers to add up in a way that works for the system. It is worth the twenty minutes it might take you to figure this out for your party.
Why Do This?
Congratulations! With this simple change to your campaign, you are now free to do whatever you would like with magic items. Do you want to run a low-magic game? Now you can do so without worrying about the character power level falling too far behind the monsters. Do you want to reward to reward the party with a hugely powerful sword? You can now give a very “powerful” weapon to them without them going, “Yeah, it’s cool and all, but its bonus is only a +2.” This lets you focus on the fun aspects of magic items – the unique powers and special attributes. This solution even lets you get rid of the magic item shops that seem to be a requirement in every major city.
Besides allowing me to run my game in a low-magic setting, my favorite part of inherent bonuses is that they have allowed me to completely ignore the magic item lists when delivering loot to the heroes. If I want them to get a fun item, I can just design one that is interesting, rather than worrying about the mechanical bonuses of the object.
Give this a try and be open with your players about why you are using this approach. Be clear that they will still be just as “powerful” as before, but now you can focus on giving them items that are interesting and carry more flavor. I have not yet encountered a player who got upset that I gave them their bonuses automatically, rather than attached to an item that will be useless in a few levels. You can even consider allowing the players to earn magic items far above their current level, since the bonus is no longer a factor. No matter what, separating magic items from the numbers treadmill is a choice for your game you are not likely to regret.
Do you use inherent bonuses in your game? How could they impact the feel of your campaign? Do you use a different method of making magic items feel special again?
I do not use inherent bonuses. I hand out magic items by the “normal” 4E method, though without wish lists. I randomly hand out magic items and though some might be “useless” the players still like them.
I see magic items as commodities, and so do my players. If I were to give them a weapon like Sting, they would say “cool story bro, but what will it do for me?” I have noticed that players really don’t care about magic item backgrounds, they only care how it will affect their characters and make their character more powerful. Therefore I don’t really bother with item stories, except for artifacts. In a way, artifacts are the old style of magic item and the “normal” magic items are similar to a 10′ pole or caltrops.
Yes, you can take magic items off the number treadmill but you can’t take away what players really want from a magic item, and that is the ability to do something outside the normal character constraints. Magic items break the rules for a character. They give them perks. Gaining a +2 to damage is a perk outside their class limitations. Gaining the ability to heal themselves is a perk outside their class limitations.
Having a magic item makes a player feel special. That does not mean it takes a special magic item to make a player feel special. If a DM ran his game where every normal person on the street had a +2 longsword, then yes, magic items would be unspecial. However, if there is only one person in an entire city with a +2 longsword then it becomes special by virtue of being rare. Rare is a relative term. I think sometimes the mechanics of 4E magic item allocation creates the illusion that magic items are not scarce. There is a difference between rarity to the PCs and rarity to the world.
I suspect that even if I started making magic items rare (to the players), it would be the same. The major importance to the players is “what is the power?”. Sorta like the Realms…
Thank you for writing this. It has bugged me for a while that in D&D, equipment is an “untracked character statistic.” I once saw a comparison for 3.0 D&D that a 20th level fighter with all his equipment is equivalent to a 20th level fighter with no equipment…and Divine Rank 0 (That is the level above “mortal” but below “demigod,” for anyone who does not have Deities & Demigods).
I had wanted to do something like this for a while, and between Monte Cook’s column and this article, I am prepared to implement it in my campaign. I’ll let my players know tomorrow when they show up to game (unless they find about it here first, in which case, hi guys!)
I have a bunch of thoughts on this actually…
The first thing I’m going to say is that the level of magic NEEDS to be defined clearly in the campaign.
I was initially hesitant about Matt’s low magic world based off of my experiences in Dave’s campaign.
In Dave’s campaign the first story arc was going up against a baby dragon. As dragons are prone to do, it horded treasure. That meant we got virtually no magic items for the beginning of the campaign. In fact when the chance to finally get the treasure arose we lost, and we lost bad. My character was the only one to survive (he was a ranged striker). Everyone except for me rerolled and started with the standard magic item distribution while I had one weak item. It was incredibly frustrating because I was a level above them, yet they completely outclassed me. This experience made me very hesitant about the low magic birthright setting Matt runs…
Now, talking about the Birthright setting… We have no magic toys but our modifiers are just as good as if we did. There’s much less hoopy weirdness in fights allowing them to go more smoothly. And when I found a superior handcrossbow (+1 damage) I was psyched! In his setting works.
I am sorely tempted to comment with respect to Shadowrun (my primary game) as well, but that’s comparing apples and oranges…. Its not a sword and sorcery game
Even if I can’t compare Shadowrun, I CAN reference Earthdawn. I have never played, but I am familiar with how magic works there. (and I love it) I’m just going to copy wikipedia here… http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Earthdawn
“One of the most innovative ideas in Earthdawn is how magical items work. At first, most magical items work exactly like a mundane item of the same type. As a character searches for information about the item’s history, performs certain tasks relating to that history, and spends legend points to activate the item, he unlocks some of the magic in the item. As the character learns more about the item and its history, he can unlock more and more power within the item.
Each magical item, therefore, is unique by virtue of its history and the scope of its powers. For example, one magical broadsword may have only 4 magical ranks and only increases the damage of the blade. On the other hand the legendary sword Purifier, has 10 magical ranks and grants its wielder numerous powers.”
It makes the item something special, not another tool.
I am currently developing my own game system (shh, its a secret)… And I have yet to decide how I will implement magic items in it though. I am inclined to to compromise between the two… There will be plenty of magic around, but you won’t be running around with 7 brokenly powerful items… I’m aiming the balance at no more than 1 or 2 per character.
But I have babbled much too long for now!
First, let me say… ‘Amen, Brother!’ This is one of the things that bugs me the most about cookie-cutter, lowest-common-denominator gaming. So much of the beauty of a good story gets lost under a thick layer of tactics-driven math. I’ve always wanted magic items (especially magic weapons!) which were more about ‘being special’ and ‘having a story’ than giving my character the ability to ++ more… but I’m also addicted, as so many of us are, to playing a fierce and powerful character who whups buttock in all the ways I can’t. Anything that helps to cut us free of the “But I need more ++” treadmill, and play in a fantasy world for its’ own sake, is a wonderful thing!
Being able to distribute really *important* magical items to players – items that matter to the story, and to the characters’ outlook on the world – is quite possibly the most valuable tool a GM has to keep players engaged in their story. For myself, I can think of at least two occasions where one of my characters received a “plot” weapon, in both cases with little or no stat benefit… and in both cases it had a tremendous effect in getting me re-excited about a game I had been losing interest in.
…as a side note… I am so damn disappointed that one of those games fell apart before I could uncover more of the story and powers of my character’s artifact weapon!
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