I honestly have no idea. I know that a mage is going to be of limited utility in public for this town. Sorin is moderately worried that if he casts anything, the townspeople are going to be after him.
Other than that, you didn't mention any places of learning...I assume that there are some in the town?
"Well then. I think that I will leave the gathering of rumors to those who are better suited to such actions. I believe that my time can be better spent in the libraries and bookstores researching possible paths and seeing what I can discern of our final destination. I imagine that many travellers unburden themselves of books and documents when they reach these shores. I imagine that we can find much information from those documents." Sorin mulls, as he finishes off his meal.
No strong feelings here. Keeps us replenished.
Sure. New blood keeps things mixed up a bit. It would be nice to have a social/skillmonkey in the party.
So I am traveling to Okinawa for 1 day. So I will be off the internet for the next four days as I lose time with all the travel.
Yay.
Well, that took a bit longer than I thought. So happy holidays/Christmas to all!
That explains things.
You want to keep in mind one key thing: the players are involved in the game as well. They want to customize their characters. They want to see their character advance in power. They are natural min-maxers with rare exception. For example, I've had players wear +1 armor with heavy fortification for 15 levels because a crit is worse than a regular hit.
The guy spent all of his wealth saving up for this single enhancement.
He really wanted this enhancement and went without a lot of items to obtain it. It was an example of how a player set a magic item goal and obtained it. Many players do this. It is part of the enjoyment of the game for them. I grew tired of fighting it.
Recently, I had to order one of my players to use a scimitar as their starting weapon. They were planning to buy Dervish Dance at 3rd level, but had Weapon Finesse at 1st level to set up for it. We house-ruled Weapon Finesse is useable for any weapon. So he used a longsword to gain one extra point of damage on average even though he knew he was intending to take the scimitar at third level. That is ofter player psychology at work.
The thing is they enjoy doing it. I don't like it as a DM. The player enjoyed it. He was more into his character when he was allowed to customize his character to the nth degree. Plan his feats, plan his theme, plan his spell or weapon strategy. That's why Paizo makes so much more money on books for players than on books for DMs. Players on the whole love researching their character. Love increasing their power whether a boosted stat, a new feat, a new magic item, or the like.
Though this isn't like the fantasy novels or stories many of us DMs love, it gets the players into the game. So you have to walk the fine line of trying to achieve a certain aesthetic feel for the campaign with the desire for players to increase their power. It took alot of years for me to accept this reality, but I did accept it.
That is why if you make modifications, I would not as you are doing make them hard-coded modifications. You will eliminate some of the enjoyment players have when they invest in building a character.
That is why I encourage you to play with a system that uses wealth by level as points a player can spend as they wish. If they want to focus on saving throws aka a cloak of resistance equivalent magic item, then let them do so. Get the feel that their character is very resitant or at least make them make the hard choice of foregoing a save to gain a few points on intelligence. That's what wealth by level does: it makes players make choices. Buy the enhancement item for intel or the save item?
If you use a system where wealth by level acts as points that the player can distribute to different types of enhancements, you don't have to worry about tracking it. It's already taken into account. It even creates a system whereby you can custom create NPCs.
Thus it removes from the game the magic item tree, while not disrupting the underlying mechanical balance of the game. It also allows players to customize their characters, which is an important element often overlooked in these discussions.
I wouldn't mind assisting in the development of the system. It would be an interesting exercise to determine how well wealth by level works. Working in a system whereby the DM allots a certain number of points as discretionary points for them to hand out indivdiualized magic items like a special ring or weapon. I'll work on some ideas tonight and toss them out to show a framework for what I'm thinking.
Thanks Raith, those are good points. I must say that customization is indeed a great aspect of the game, but too many options can be the same as little options, in a way only.
I find the game can have too many options for customization, which in turn can become paralyzing. It certainly feels that way for me often enough, and it gets worse with every book. Removing magic items does reduce options, but what of most players who "need their Big Six or they can't contribute"?
I am not disagreeing with you, but I wonder if we are in the zone where expanding options is still a good thing, or whether we've crossed to the other side. I know that when I have to create a new character, I get the feeling we crossed over...
Anyhow, replacing all the magic items and the myriad options they offer for another set of options bought with WBL points sounds good, but I'm worried of its complexity...
Perhaps I should just let go and have fancy magic stores for the rich and adventurous?
I wouldn't mind working up another system for fun. I might even try it in my own game. Like you I never enjoyed the magic item Christmas Tree, but I found every game has something that causes problems. I tried GURPS and it starts falling apart once the players obtain a skill level where parrying and dodging is far too easy. Then there is the utter lack of adventure support that makes Pathfinder/D&D so attractive. Most games leave you to make everything on your own and that becomes tedious and time consuming after a while. You have that time in your youth, but not as an adult.
I did the last statement. I just gave in. Seems like that is how the game is designed and I just went with it. Decided I would work in the magic item mercantile system as a feature of the setting rather than try to fight it to obtain the aesthetic I enjoyed from fantasy novels. I think for us DMs the story telling and feel of the world is what we seek in the game, whereas many players enjoy the power including the magic items. I think they feel a sense of accomplishment developing a character from a weak to strong.
Look at Kingmaker as an example. Here is a module designed by Paizo and they made magic item shops the largest portion of a kingdom's economy. Not mines or a logging industry or a blacksmith shop, but magic item shops. My players put them all over the place because they were the highest number of resource point returns. I was going to take the time to refine the system. It was a bunch of extra work that my players wouldn't appreciate it. If I didn't make the mines and industry give them as many resource points as the magic item shops, they would keep buying the magic item shops. To them the kingdom building was another aspect of the game to gain power. At least the players that cared, a couple of the players could have cared less about the math of kingdom building.
That's the rub for a DM. That mix of players. You find a few that are very story centric. Quite a few power gamers. Some that play for the social interaction. You have to provide an interesting and enjoyable experience for all of them to keep them invested in the game. Hard to do and often thankless. I figure most of DMs do it because we enjoy building a story using RPGs as our medium. That's where I focus my energies at this point in time.
Had to head to work. I'm there now. I wanted to address the options part.
The only way you'll limit options is to do it yourself. The game company will never do so on their own. Providing books filled with player options is how they make their money. That will never change.
******
At the start of this campaign, I figured you were going to limit magic items and handle things during encounter design. So far the encounters haven't been beyond our capabilities and we aren't stacked with magic. I didn't realize you felt we had to have The Big Six. I was planning to trust you not to kill us and I didn't much care if we obtained The Big Six. You don't need them as long as you the DM make sure to design the encounters so we don't need them. Your like the Wizard of Oz and can do all the magic behind the scenes to make things happen as you want them.
I think that Theoden is on his own for this "infiltration"...which actually is cool since he is the only local that we have.
(yells from opposite side of the street) Don't die Theoden!
Lol!
Hopefully this doesn't become another rescue the cavalier operation.
Just noting that I'm still around- letting everyone else have the spotlight for a while.
I hope this doesn't end with Theoden and Garand's heads being sent to us in boxes.
Delightful.
Whoop!
Pathos and drama! Love it. I look forward to the next event.
Holy frijoles! 2 feats and 3rd level spells...5th is swwweeeeet!
Yay. 5th level. New feat is probably going to be Crane Wing.
Hit points:
I get Steal Ki now. I like it.
That's right. You changed it a while back.
My character upgrades:
High Jump
Steal Ki
Crane Wing Feat
Boosted Stealth, Perception, Sense Motive, Knowledge Local, Climb, Acrobatics.
Good to go.
Speak w/Familiar
Arcane Builder
Craft Wand
Dispel Magic
Haste (woop!)
Protective Ward now +2 AC bonus
Hp: +7 (5 class, +2 con)
BAB: +5
2nd Favored Enemy: Human (+4 bonus)
8 skill points: Climb, Handle Animal, Intimidate, Knowledge- Nature, Perception, Ride, Stealth, Survival
Still weighing my options of feats.
Level of Paladin
Lay on hands
Divine Grace
Feat: Huntmaster
2 skill points to Perception, 1 to Diplomacy