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Okay, so right now I'm working on a way to try and remove the following items from my game.
+x Stat items (Belt of Strength, Headband of Intellect)
+x Cloak of Resistance
+x Weapons
+x Armor
I recognize the large amount of balance that I'm throwing out of whack while doing this, so right now I'm trying to figure out the best way of doing scaling bonuses to keep things from going crazy. So far, my idea is to add bonuses where these items would apply, thus removing the need for them.
In a way, they'd be non magical, so they'd be slightly better than their magical counterparts, but I'm not sure that I see this as too big an issue. Moreso the issue is making sure that these items won't be missed, so that when I do give a magical weapon (Flaming, Dancing, etc) or armor, it won't be "Oh, just the new upgrade." I'm looking to remove wonder to the game in magical items by getting the chance to use some of the more exotic ones.
With this in mind, I'd like to find a good ratio to dole out these bonuses in game without having to worry about throwing balance too far out of whack. With this in mind, I'm proposing the following bonuses, although I'd like some more eyes on this to see if anyone can think of a better system of doing this. Note that for this, the +1 to a stat can't be of the same category as the previous one (If at 2nd level you chose +1 to Strength, you couldn't pick a +1 to Str/Dex/Con at 6th level), as well as the two different bonuses at 4th, 8th, 12th, and 16th must be to different categories of stat.
1st +1 AC
2nd +1 Saves, +1 to one Stat
3rd +1 Att/Dmg
4th +2 AC, +1 to two Stats
5th +2 Saves
6th +2 Att/Dmg, +1 to one Stat
7th +3 AC
8th +3 Saves, +1 Stat to two Stats
9th +3 Att/Dmg
10th +4 AC, +1 to one Stat
11th +4 Saves
12th +4 Att/Dmg, +1 to two Stats
13th +5 AC
14th +5 Saves, +1 to one Stat
15th +5 Att/Dmg
16th +6 AC, +1 to two Stats
17th +6 Saves
18th +6 Att/Dmg, +1 to one Stat
19th +1 Stats
20th +1 to all Stats
The end result would be
+6 AC, Att/Dmg, Saves
+15 to phys/mental stats
I could honestly see cutting it off at 15th level for Saves, AC, and Att/Dmg, but I'd like more of a smooth progression. I could also see the +1 to two stats being +1 to all stats, making generally a better character, although that seems a bit much for me. With this formula, it gives more on level ups, as well as removing dependence on magical gear to an extent.
I do recognize that this could lead to higher stats for some characters (normally it'd be +5 for leveling, and +6 for magic items, making +11 instead of +15 in this system), but it would also stop people from getting +2/2/2 items, +4/4/4 items, or +6/6/6 items, which would instead be a far larger increase in the other direction to total stats. It's a hard trade off, but I think it's for the best.
In concerns of DR, these wouldn't be considered magical bonuses, making magical weapons still useful in cutting through DR, including different types of weapons for specific DR (Silver, Cold Iron, etc).
I could see slowing the progression to get to the golden +5 capstone to each of these more easily, although I'm not sure how would be best. Still, I think I may implement this to help remove everyone having magical weapons to start the game with at 3rd level and such, as well as making them more mystical. I welcome any advice to make a more balanced scaling of these bonuses.
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I've gone into this before, this is what I came up with.
It removes the offending items with minimal change to the actual "rhythm" of WBL acquisition.
You can also find an extensive thread on the subject here: Anti-Christmas Tree Effect.
I use one of the methods found in the thread.
Give everyone the 3.5 Vow of Poverty for free, without the drawbacks
