overpriced magic crap

[User3]

in the "Where would the money go?" thread K observed:

1151539284[/unixtime]]While I was going through the list of items, i noticed one thing: everything is either too expensive or merely adds a static bonus.

What can you do? Even items that are "kinda neat" but not good like a Ring of Elemental Command is so expensive that you can't afford it while dumb items that add to skill checks are affordable. Heck, if you get a Ring of Shooting Stars you sell it in the market rather than actually use the damn thing.

which made me think of some of the worst buys in magic items:

Ring of Regeneration (DMG p232) 90K
wow, I would trade this for a Dukar Hand Coral (Champions of Valor pg 63-64) 1,600 gp and a handfull of wands of CLW (or lesser vigor, or faith healing) in a heartbeat, even if I couldn't use the wands.

rings of elemental command 200k
uh, no clue why these cost so much, if you sell it for 100k you should be able to duplicate all the parts you care about and have lots left over for Ale & Wenches.

Chaos Diamond (DMG p252) 160K ?!? who makes these things? You spent 160 days doing WHAT?

what are some other terrible investments?

[Neeek]

Most of the non-metamagic rods from the DMG are in this category. The Rod of Lordly Might is really neat. It does a bunch of situationally useful tricks. It also costs so much that none would ever buy one.

About half the non one-use items in the DMG cost more than what a 10th level character is supposed to have total. Just seems like a waste of space to list so many things no one ever gets to use.

[RandomCasualty]

In my opinion, the greater cloak of displacement. Twice the price of the minor cloak, but it has an effect that takes a standard action to activate, which makes it basically useless.

Brazier of Commanding Fire elemntals: Like the rings mentioned above, this is ridiculously overpriced and crappy.

[dbb]

Let's see ...

Mirror of Life Trapping: 200k for a fancy death effect with a built-in Speak With Dead, all in a fragile, breakable package that pretty much can't be carried around with you? Uh, I'll pass, I think.

Cubic Gate: All I'm saying is, an Amulet of the Planes costs 44,000 gold less. And doesn't restrict you to five specific other planes.

Amulet of Mighty Fists: Yeah. Like that.

Well of Many Worlds: You know what? Any price is too high to pay for this garbage. If the sole purpose of an item in the game is to invoke "DM's fiat", then it needs to be free. This thing costs more than a 9th-level Pearl of Power. Er?

Although the original thread was specifically about eliminating +x items, I also feel I have to nominate "any weapon, armor or shield with a bonus higher than +1", too.

--d.

[Username17]

Ultimately, the money system for magic items is simply poorly constructed. the costs are construed as being quivalent to being the minimum level you could expect to have the item. That's... bullshit.

The sad fact of the matter is that if you set costs such that a character can afford an object at the level he can be assumed to have it... then he can only have one piece of level appropriate gear! Oops.

So all that crap like the 9 lives stealer is just that - crap. It costs 23k because having people of less than 8th level run around with one is jacked up. But the flip side is that there's no way in hell that having a 9 lives stealer is worth being equipped with nothing else at that level.

And that's the basic problem. The whole idea of "wealth-by-level" is just a failure. Characters need level appropriate gear. They don't need "one piece of level apropriate gear and some underpants". They need level appropriate gear all the way around. And since a Wizard only gives a crap about two pieces of equipment (his headband of intellect and his cloak of resistance), the Wizard notices this fundamental problem less than anyone else in 3rd edition D&D.

Noone is willing to spend 1,200 gp for a single application of Dust of Illusion. But that's how much it costs, because characters aren't supposed to have it before about 3rd level. And that's the core of the problem.

-Username17

[DP]

In previous editions they had certain items that were only able to beused by certain classes, I hated that. The thing is for 3rd edition I kind of like it. I've experimented with giving all the classes a class ability that allows them to unlock the magical powers of certain items. Fighter types are better able to unlock the magic of weapons, armors, and certain wonderous items than anyone else. Wizards are better able to use brooms of flying, wands, and robes, clerics are best at using rods and shields, rogues are great at everything but worse at the items that are clearly one of the other three archetypes schtick. At first I made these abilities skills but that was unweildy. Eventually what I decided was that weapons and armor and certain other warrior centric items would have a BAB requirement, mage items would have level appropriate ranks of spellcraft as a requirement priestly items would have knowledge (religion) ranks as a requirement. Items like staves, scrolls, and wands required appropriate spell lists. Use magic device could be used for anything, and some of the weirder items could only be used through UMD.

While it had some problems the system also had some really attractive consequences, warriors had the best armor and weapons because they could use better weapons than anyone else.

Second UMD became more colorful because it was less a power to be a wizard who turns money to magic (allthough a rogue could still do that) and more of a "We need someone to get this orb of rug of flying off the ground. Rogue your our only hope."