I've seen a lot of these while voting, and I've rarely been impressed with the result.
Somehow, it seems to me that there is often no apparent reason to create multiple version, and the items more often than not end up confusing and needlessly complicated.
Anyone else feel like this?
Yes.
Also the tacked-on-at-the-end "There are rumors of a Greater/Lesser version of this item that does X more/less."
I'm not a fan personally of it. I like the thought they put into making greater/lesser version's, I just don't like it when I think about reading it as an inclusion in a treasure I'm about to give my PC's. Kind of goes into the "Slows down the game for 15 minutes while the GM tries to figure stuff out" bucket.
It´s the kind of idea that works well with items that are fairly easy to understand, like Bags of Holding. Less well with more complex concepts.
I've seen the judges specifically recommend against this design type - it eats up wordcount without adding to the item.
I know I've been tempted - when you've got a cool idea, it's very tempting to kind of make sure everybody sees you can do all kinds of cool things with the cool idea. It's not just for Power Level X, dontcha see?
But yeah, a different power level should be a different magic item. I've learned to cool down, and to assume that if GMs really like my core idea - they'll figure out the obvious minor variations on their own.
I voted up a couple of them.
So have I when they were at least somewhat decent and paired with truly horrendous crap... I still haven't seen a greater/standard/lesser item that I looked at and thought... "This is awesome and I hope it makes the top 32".
Anyone else notice that gloves and boots are in fashion this year?
Anyone else notice that gloves and boots are in fashion this year?
Goggles, spectacles, eye-pieces EVERYWHERE!
I like magical gloves and boots...and cloaks.
I have noticed items that are not wondrous magic items such as rings, knives, etc.
I have noticed items that are not wondrous magic items such as rings, knives, etc.
Ooooh. I don't think those should have gotten through. If you see those again, you might report those for DQing.
I've seen a lot of these while voting, and I've rarely been impressed with the result.
Somehow, it seems to me that there is often no apparent reason to create multiple version, and the items more often than not end up confusing and needlessly complicated.
Anyone else feel like this?
I've seen a few of these items that were done competently. However, none of them stand out to me as "superstar." This is because it gives the item a "factory-produced" feel. Usually it's an item that gives a particular bonus or set of bonuses, which in and of itself is useful, but not particularly creative. Scaling up the bonuses for more money puts these types of items into the same category as things like amulets of natural armor, bracers of armor, cloaks of resistance, etc. They're useful staples, but they don't stand out.
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FWIW, last year's Superstar kicked things off with a lesser/medium/greater item. It's all in the execution.
There are always exceptions to the rule. :)
What gets me about these items is that there's a few of them that calculated their CL on the "lesser" item and so you have like a CL 3 that costs say.. 5,000 gp and then they have a "greater" version that costs like 150,000 gp. And it's not just price alone but the "greater" versions almost always have bonuses that could never be made by such a low CL.
