I've seen a lot of discussion on players being all but required to stick to the Big Six magic items at high levels of play, unable to branch out into the more exotic array of items out there. In my experience, this has always been the case.
In case you don't know what I mean by Big Six:
Magic Weapons, Magic Armor, Ring of Protection, Amulet of Natural Armor, Stat-boost items, Bracers of Armor
Virtually all magic items looted that are not one of the Big Six, are immediately sold to fund the improvement or purchase of Big Six items. Lots of suggestions have been proffered, but the necessity is built right into the game.
I talked it over with my players and we've all agreed to try the following THREE house-rules in an effort to un-trivialize other magic items. I'll try and keep this brief so I don't lose people to boredom half-way through.
The following rules only apply to the Big Six, plus the Amulet of Mighty Fists, which is really just like a Weapon.
Rule 1: Static Cost vs. Power
There are no more +1 or +2 items, there are just magic items. Furthermore, the value is locked at the most basic version of each of the above items. For example, there are no +1 Longswords, there are only Magic Longswords. A Magic Longsword is worth 2315 gold, never more. The character using the item does get a plus to attack and damage, but it depends. This sounds weird, I know, but please read on.
Rule 2: Power is tied to Level
As a character's level increases, so do the powers of his Big Six items. If a 3rd level character wields a Magic Longsword, he'd get +1 to attack and damage. If he keeps using the same sword all the way to 20th, it would be a +5 to attack and damage.
Basically, there is a table for each of the Big Six items, giving a plus based on the character's level. I could list the tables I've worked up so far, but I figure most people might prefer to write their own. Essentially, the "plus" is loosely tied to what level Wizard would be required to create an item of that "plus" under the old rules, then modified as necessary.
Rule 3: Modularity
Each item above is modular in some fashion. This is the most complicated part to explain. All those weapon and armor abilities that are worth a "+1" or "+2", etc. are instead treated sort of like Augment Crystals. They don't have to be crystals, but the idea remains the same. A +1 ability like Flaming costs 6000 gold and is purchased separately from the weapon. If you loot a Flaming Dagger. You can remove the Flaming portion, add it to your weapon, then sell the magic dagger. You can add a total of 5 "plusses" worth of abilities to your weapon, or possibly you may want to rule that you can only add a number of "plusses" equal to your current weapon bonus. Armor works similarly to Weapons.
Rings of Protection can be stuck onto other rings. They are the one exception to the rule that says "Only 2 rings per character." Like weapons and armor, the bonus changes depending on character level.
Amulets of Natural Armor become Chains of Natural Armor. You can remove the amulet from it's chain and hang it onto this chain, instead.
The Cloak of Resistance becomes a Clasp of Resistance, any cloak can be held on with this clasp so you can have your Save bonuses and wear your Cloak of Arachnia, too.
Stat-boost items and Amulets of Mighty Fists are probably not modular except where the mix with other modular items. For example, you could hang either a Periapt of Wisdom OR your Amulet of Mighty Fists from your Chain of Natural Armor.
Similar to the Ring of Protection, the Armor Bonus could be enchanted onto other bracers, or added like an Augment crystal. Like the others, the bonus changes by level.
So what is this supposed to accomplish?
First of all, these rules remove the necessity to constantly pour resources into upgrading items. There is only so much upgrading you can do and it's less expensive than before. A character could acquire a set of Big Six items in the early levels, then possibly never bother to acquire anything else and still be able to keep up with rising Challenge Ratings.
Also, the modular nature of these items allow the players to actually use the items they come across, rather than sell them off because they don't want to give up bonuses to wear them.
Won't this just escalate power creep?
Only if the DM wants it too. Item power levels are tied to character level. The DM controls that table. It doesn't matter how much money or stuff the PC has, items can't have their bonuses upgraded any further. Things like AC bonuses can be directly controlled in a very fair way.
Won't this dramatically increase the amount of treasure the PCs have?
Not necessarily. Treasure is more useful and the PCs do spend less of it on upgrades. However, at the same time, items are worth less. If some villain is carrying a +5 Dagger, though that used to be worth 50302 gold, if the PCs loot it under these rules, it's only a Magic Dagger worth 2302 gold.
I'm running an AP and it calls for a monster with a +4 Vorpal Halberd. What's that mean in terms of all these rules?
Have the monster wield it like it's a +4 Vorpal Halberd. When the PCs loot it, it's just a Magic Halberd with a Vorpal Augment. That Vorpal Augment can be removed and added to one of their weapons (so long as they don't have any other abilities on the weapon, Vorpal is a +5), or sold (it's worth 70000 gold), then if no one wants a magic Halberd, they can sell it for whatever they can get for one. It's worth 2310 gold, regardless of the fact that it was +4 in the monster's claws.
I wrote way more than I thought I would. I'd like to hear thoughts on this, though it's probably too radical a change for most people.
Disclaimer: I'm posting this as a house-rule suggestion. It's probably too radical to consider as a genuine suggestion for Pathfinder RPG.
