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4th edition magic items
This is going to be the last part of the Player's Guide that I review (unless someone requests more info or a review on something specific.) I'm probably going to move on to the Monster Manual next.
With that being said... wait, what's that? An LJ-Cut?
Okay, here's how magic items work in 4th edition.
First, there are not umpteen different feats for making magic items. Instead, there are two Rituals. Now, I mentioned Rituals in an earlier review, but I'm going to go into a bit of detail and re-evaluation.
First, only two classes start with the ability to cast Rituals: Clerics and Wizards. Anyone else who wants to cast Rituals has to pick up the Ritual Caster feat, which requires that you have skill training in either Religion or Arcana. Therefore, Paladins and Warlocks can pick the study of Rituals fairly easier as Religion is an automatically known skill for Paladins, and Religion and Arcana are both class skills for Warlocks. Any other classes (Fighters, Rangers, Rogues, and Warlords) have to spend a feat on getting training in one of the two skills and then another feat on Ritual Caster.
Second, you can only know and master Rituals of your character level or lower. You have to be 4th level before you can even learn the Enchant Magic Item Ritual, and 5th level to learn Brew Potion. There is also a Disenchant Magic Item Ritual (6th level), which can be used to turn a magic item into a substance called residuum, which can then be used as a component to make other magic items. Alas, the value of the residuum is 1/5th of the value of the magic item that was disenchanted.
Third, those are the only two item creation Rituals. For Brew Potion, there are only a few potions listed, and they are all healing potions. The Enchant Magic Item covers all other magic items.... weapons, armor, rings, rods, staves, wands, orbs, holy symbols, etc.
Fourth, there are limitations on creating magic items with that Ritual. You must be at least the same level as the magic item you want to create. Yes, that means that magic items have levels. A 4th level Wizard cannot create a Staff of Power, because the least potent Staff of Power is 19th level. You also must have magical components equal in value to the cost of the magic item. (While creating magic items no longer costs experience, they do cost full value in components, AND you can only sell magic items for 1/5th their value, according to the PG. Apparently, there are some very silly economics going on here.) The only exception to the required cost is using the Enchant Magic Item ritual to resize armor - that costs nothing. (Yes, that means that magic armor doesn't automatically resize any more.)
Now, as for the magic items themselves, here's the breakdown. Each magic item has its own little block of information. The first thing in the block is the name of the item, and its level. As I said, magic items have a level now. The level is not a restriction on using it. A 1st level fighter, if he found one, could use a Lifedrinker weapon, the least powerful version of which is 5th level. The level is used to indicate the minimum requirement to make it with the Ritual as mentioned above AND a general indication of when PCs should be able to buy/find this kind of item. (If there is a + sign after the level, that means that there are a few different versions of this item, and it's anywhere from the listed level or higher.)
The next thing in the info block is some flavor text, and then the mechanics. It will list the basic bonuses (aka pluses) of the item, and the cost. If there's more then one version, it will list all of them, with their indicated level. Some weapons are armors do not start at +1. They might start at +2 or +3 or +4. There are a couple that only have +5 or +6 versions. This is because the items are inherently powerful enough that you're not going to see them until around 25th level, and giving you a +1 at that point is a bit silly.
After that, it will list what I call the limiters. Some types of magic items are only found on certain types of armor, or certain types of weapons. For example, Battleforged Armor is only ever going to be plate armor. You're not going to find Battleforged cloth armor, or Battlefored scale armor. Only plate. Likewise, Berserker Weapons are only going to be heavy blades or axes. You're not going to find a Berserker Rapier, because a rapier is not a heavy blade or an axe.
After the limiter is the enhancement. This is what you apply the bonuses to. Bonuses (the pluses) generally apply to AC for magic armor, attack and damage rolls for magic weapons when you attack with that weapon, attack and damage rolls for implements when you cast spells, and so forth. Most of what we would call miscellaneous magic items have such a wide range of possible enhancement modifiers, that it's just easier to say "most everything else". Contrary to what I said in an earlier review, it does not appear that any magic items listed in the Player's Guide modify any of your six basic stats.
If it's a magic weapon or implement, there is also a section on criticals. If you score a critical hit, then you add the bonus damage listed. Bonus damage is a number of dice based on the bonus number of the weapon. (If it's a +4 weapon, the bonus damage is +4d6.) Most bonus damage dice are d6s.
If the magic item has any special properties or at-will, encounter, or daily abilities, it is mentioned last.
Now, a few other things have changed about magic items as well. One of them is price. Any magic items of the same level, regardless of what they do, cost the same amount. +3 Dwarven Armor is 12th level. It costs 13,000 gold. A +3 Resounding Weapon is 12th level. It's 13,000 gold. Keoghtom's Ointment? 12th level, and therefore 13,000 gold. (And yes, that last one is worth it, considering it can be used to end a disease or poison effect, or return a healing surge, once per day and it never runs out of the once/day uses.) Now, for these prices... well, I'm still stuck in 3rd edition mode... it seems like it's going to be easier for lower level characters to get magic weapons and armor a little earlier, and the high end stuff is extremely expensive. As in 3+ million gold for one 30th level item.
Another thing that has changed is location slots. The only location slots you can equip magic items to (besides basic weapons and armor) are arms, hands, feet, head, neck, rings (2), and waist. There is no robe/vestments location (mostly, I suspect, because cloth armor is an actual armor type), no separate slots for cloaks and amulets (they're both considered neck items) and there is no separate slots for stuff on your eyes (goggles/lenses) and stuff on your head (hats/helms/diadems). Also, all the Wondrous items would fit on two pages if it weren't for the artwork of the guy on the Flying Carpet. (So therefore, it's spread across three pages. And yes, Flying Carpets are still hella expensive.)
The big thing is that there are a lot less magic items. A lot less. As in amount of content cut in half, easily. Hardest hit is the miscelleaneous magic items/wondrous items. The other big change is that you're not going to have the magic weapons or armor with multiple enchantments on it. No more flaming bane ghost weapon swords or thing like that. In fact, a few of the old types of enhancements are gone. I don't see bane weapons in here at all. (There is still a Dragonslayer weapon, though.)
All in all, I think that's going to make magic items in treasure a lot more generic. But I also suspect that as WotC releases more books (including the one where monks are reintroduced), they'll include more magic items. It is a lot easier to read and understand how to make magic items though, and a lot more straightforward. The biggest noticeable flaw is that apparently no-one at WotC has the slightest clue about the economics of what should be rare items.
With that being said... wait, what's that? An LJ-Cut?
Okay, here's how magic items work in 4th edition.
First, there are not umpteen different feats for making magic items. Instead, there are two Rituals. Now, I mentioned Rituals in an earlier review, but I'm going to go into a bit of detail and re-evaluation.
First, only two classes start with the ability to cast Rituals: Clerics and Wizards. Anyone else who wants to cast Rituals has to pick up the Ritual Caster feat, which requires that you have skill training in either Religion or Arcana. Therefore, Paladins and Warlocks can pick the study of Rituals fairly easier as Religion is an automatically known skill for Paladins, and Religion and Arcana are both class skills for Warlocks. Any other classes (Fighters, Rangers, Rogues, and Warlords) have to spend a feat on getting training in one of the two skills and then another feat on Ritual Caster.
Second, you can only know and master Rituals of your character level or lower. You have to be 4th level before you can even learn the Enchant Magic Item Ritual, and 5th level to learn Brew Potion. There is also a Disenchant Magic Item Ritual (6th level), which can be used to turn a magic item into a substance called residuum, which can then be used as a component to make other magic items. Alas, the value of the residuum is 1/5th of the value of the magic item that was disenchanted.
Third, those are the only two item creation Rituals. For Brew Potion, there are only a few potions listed, and they are all healing potions. The Enchant Magic Item covers all other magic items.... weapons, armor, rings, rods, staves, wands, orbs, holy symbols, etc.
Fourth, there are limitations on creating magic items with that Ritual. You must be at least the same level as the magic item you want to create. Yes, that means that magic items have levels. A 4th level Wizard cannot create a Staff of Power, because the least potent Staff of Power is 19th level. You also must have magical components equal in value to the cost of the magic item. (While creating magic items no longer costs experience, they do cost full value in components, AND you can only sell magic items for 1/5th their value, according to the PG. Apparently, there are some very silly economics going on here.) The only exception to the required cost is using the Enchant Magic Item ritual to resize armor - that costs nothing. (Yes, that means that magic armor doesn't automatically resize any more.)
Now, as for the magic items themselves, here's the breakdown. Each magic item has its own little block of information. The first thing in the block is the name of the item, and its level. As I said, magic items have a level now. The level is not a restriction on using it. A 1st level fighter, if he found one, could use a Lifedrinker weapon, the least powerful version of which is 5th level. The level is used to indicate the minimum requirement to make it with the Ritual as mentioned above AND a general indication of when PCs should be able to buy/find this kind of item. (If there is a + sign after the level, that means that there are a few different versions of this item, and it's anywhere from the listed level or higher.)
The next thing in the info block is some flavor text, and then the mechanics. It will list the basic bonuses (aka pluses) of the item, and the cost. If there's more then one version, it will list all of them, with their indicated level. Some weapons are armors do not start at +1. They might start at +2 or +3 or +4. There are a couple that only have +5 or +6 versions. This is because the items are inherently powerful enough that you're not going to see them until around 25th level, and giving you a +1 at that point is a bit silly.
After that, it will list what I call the limiters. Some types of magic items are only found on certain types of armor, or certain types of weapons. For example, Battleforged Armor is only ever going to be plate armor. You're not going to find Battleforged cloth armor, or Battlefored scale armor. Only plate. Likewise, Berserker Weapons are only going to be heavy blades or axes. You're not going to find a Berserker Rapier, because a rapier is not a heavy blade or an axe.
After the limiter is the enhancement. This is what you apply the bonuses to. Bonuses (the pluses) generally apply to AC for magic armor, attack and damage rolls for magic weapons when you attack with that weapon, attack and damage rolls for implements when you cast spells, and so forth. Most of what we would call miscellaneous magic items have such a wide range of possible enhancement modifiers, that it's just easier to say "most everything else". Contrary to what I said in an earlier review, it does not appear that any magic items listed in the Player's Guide modify any of your six basic stats.
If it's a magic weapon or implement, there is also a section on criticals. If you score a critical hit, then you add the bonus damage listed. Bonus damage is a number of dice based on the bonus number of the weapon. (If it's a +4 weapon, the bonus damage is +4d6.) Most bonus damage dice are d6s.
If the magic item has any special properties or at-will, encounter, or daily abilities, it is mentioned last.
Now, a few other things have changed about magic items as well. One of them is price. Any magic items of the same level, regardless of what they do, cost the same amount. +3 Dwarven Armor is 12th level. It costs 13,000 gold. A +3 Resounding Weapon is 12th level. It's 13,000 gold. Keoghtom's Ointment? 12th level, and therefore 13,000 gold. (And yes, that last one is worth it, considering it can be used to end a disease or poison effect, or return a healing surge, once per day and it never runs out of the once/day uses.) Now, for these prices... well, I'm still stuck in 3rd edition mode... it seems like it's going to be easier for lower level characters to get magic weapons and armor a little earlier, and the high end stuff is extremely expensive. As in 3+ million gold for one 30th level item.
Another thing that has changed is location slots. The only location slots you can equip magic items to (besides basic weapons and armor) are arms, hands, feet, head, neck, rings (2), and waist. There is no robe/vestments location (mostly, I suspect, because cloth armor is an actual armor type), no separate slots for cloaks and amulets (they're both considered neck items) and there is no separate slots for stuff on your eyes (goggles/lenses) and stuff on your head (hats/helms/diadems). Also, all the Wondrous items would fit on two pages if it weren't for the artwork of the guy on the Flying Carpet. (So therefore, it's spread across three pages. And yes, Flying Carpets are still hella expensive.)
The big thing is that there are a lot less magic items. A lot less. As in amount of content cut in half, easily. Hardest hit is the miscelleaneous magic items/wondrous items. The other big change is that you're not going to have the magic weapons or armor with multiple enchantments on it. No more flaming bane ghost weapon swords or thing like that. In fact, a few of the old types of enhancements are gone. I don't see bane weapons in here at all. (There is still a Dragonslayer weapon, though.)
All in all, I think that's going to make magic items in treasure a lot more generic. But I also suspect that as WotC releases more books (including the one where monks are reintroduced), they'll include more magic items. It is a lot easier to read and understand how to make magic items though, and a lot more straightforward. The biggest noticeable flaw is that apparently no-one at WotC has the slightest clue about the economics of what should be rare items.